Aluminum MacBook and MacBook Pros Spotted?

[lamar777]

That is a little too far out of line, I think. While Apple may be game changers, it isn't always because their products are amazing. Yes, the iPod was a game changer for the MP3 player industry (as well as the iTunes store), but it wasn't because of the device itself. The iPod is pretty much a screen and a hard drive, okay? Nothing revolutionary there. What is revolutionary is how they were able to market and sell the device, and now, just 7 years later, 160 million sales under their belt. The same goes for the iPhone (though it is by far a more revolutionary device than mobile phones before it). As for the above picture with the dual screen setup notebook/tablet hybrid, come on. That is way too confusing for me even, and I know how to work things better than most people. I do have to say, the idea about the multi-touch trackpad changing into controls for iTunes, etc. is quite cool, and may even in fact be a feature.

You say I am out of line then agree that the ipod (with its corresponding philosophy) was a game changer and that the iPhone was revolutionary so I think we are on the same page.

I am certainly in agreement that much more went into the changing of the game than the product itself. I have no clue what "the above picture" is so no comment. My position was that Apple was going to replace the consumer line of laptops with a tablet essentially in the same form factor as the iphone but bigger and that idea being hard to believe doesn't exclude its possibility. It is very possible, and based on history quite believable for Apple to introduce a new product (tablet) along with a new philosophy (marketing, apps, etc.) about its uses and abilities into an existing market (Consumer laptop) and change the way everyone has looked at that particular market up to that time.

Oh you were talking about just a screen you carry around? No way, way too many people love the laptop form factor (screen on verticle axis, keyboard lays flat) Id hate to always be holding onto just the screen (it only works small scale)

I guess its a matter of opinion... I would love to lay it on a table and draw/paint in photoshop just as I would on a pad of art paper or have it on my desk in class jotting down notes just as do with a spiral notebook. Playing Monkey Ball on the damn thing while holding it with two hands would be very fun. An easy to imagine dock that allowed tilt, charge, and port connection would satisfy any time I ever needed to use it as a traditional laptop.

 

[NT1440]

I guess its a matter of opinion... I would love to lay it on a table and draw/paint in photoshop just as I would on a pad of art paper or have it on my desk in class jotting down notes just as do with a spiral notebook. Playing Monkey Ball on the damn thing while holding it with two hands would be very fun. An easy to imagine dock that allowed tilt, charge, and port connection would satisfy any time I ever needed to use it as a traditional laptop.

yes for games/ not getting any work done itd probably be fine, photoshop being the exception.

But I cannot see people being willing to crane their necks all the time.

 

[lamar777]

yes for games/ not getting any work done itd probably be fine, photoshop being the exception.

But I cannot see people being willing to crane their necks all the time.

Thats why you'll have the option to get the 13", 15" or 17" MacBook Pro.

Im not talking about eliminating laptops period. Those that purchase Macbooks are in large part students and 20-35 year olds who do not spend a majority of their time typing. Only geeks like us type while browsing the internet As I see it the MacBook and the MacBook Pro duplicate functionality and that specific functionality is needed less and less by the current consumer base of the MacBook re: potential customer base of this new device. Like I said any time I can think of where it would just be better to be using it in a traditional manner (like writing this) I could most certainly dock it. Those types of activities are maybe 20% of what I use my current laptop for. Therefore 80% of the time I could do without a keyboard (assuming I had a multi touch device).

 

[kabunaru]

So would you rather look at the logo or the screen of your laptop? I personally don't care what color the logo is. Interior>Exterior.

Why do you assume this? Of course I look at the screen of my laptop. I just think a black logo would be better than white.

 

[iEdd]

Materials

There are a few misunderstandings/misconceptions going around here so I will clear a few things up:

Carbon Fibre has an extremely high strength to weight ratio, but because a thermosetting resin is used to hold the fibres together, it cannot be recycled, as someone said earlier.

Titanium - while it has a high strength to weight ratio, it is denser than aluminium and more expensive per gram. It is also harder, making it more prone to cracking. This is why Apple switched to aluminium.

Copper: As pretty as it would be to have a copper laptop, it would be heavier than aluminium, and unlike aluminium which forms a passivating layer (an oxide that prevents further corrosion), copper will eventually corrode under your palms, forming verdigris. (That horrible green stuff.) This means Apple would need to lacquer the laptop - which is just another thing making it impractical as it is already as heavy as steel!

Aluminium is therefore about the most perfect metal to use. It won't corrode, it's lightweight, relatively strong and ductile enough not to crack with stresses. It is also very safe, and there is no conclusive evidence that it causes Alzheimer's! (See wiki/google) Not to mention that you won't be consuming aluminium from your laptop, cookware or foil unless you take a file to it and eat the dust.

 

[puffnstuff]

There are a few misunderstandings/misconceptions going around here so I will clear a few things up:

Carbon Fibre has an extremely high strength to weight ratio, but because a thermosetting resin is used to hold the fibres together, it cannot be recycled, as someone said earlier.

Titanium - while it has a high strength to weight ratio, it is denser than aluminium and more expensive per gram. It is also harder, making it more prone to cracking. This is why Apple switched to aluminium.

Copper: As pretty as it would be to have a copper laptop, it would be heavier than aluminium, and unlike aluminium which forms a passivating layer (an oxide that prevents further corrosion), copper will eventually corrode under your palms, forming verdigris. (That horrible green stuff.) This means Apple would need to lacquer the laptop - which is just another thing making it impractical as it is already as heavy as steel!

Aluminium is therefore about the most perfect metal to use. It won't corrode, it's lightweight, relatively strong and ductile enough not to crack with stresses. It is also very safe, and there is no conclusive evidence that it causes Alzheimer's! (See wiki/google) Not to mention that you won't be consuming aluminium from your laptop, cookware or foil unless you take a file to it and eat the dust.

Thank you.

 

[NewMacbookPlz]

If i have recently bought a new mbp and the new 1 comes out within a month, am i entitled to an exchanged or money back, as £1300 is a lot of money for an old machine, please msg back! pcambo86@blueyonder.co.uk

You're entitled to enjoy the one you purchased....

You bought it, therefore the one you HAVE is yours. Apple, or any other company for that matter, has no responsibility to treat the last of the outgoing models as loaners till the newer ones come out.

 

[Hands Sandon]

There are a few misunderstandings/misconceptions going around here so I will clear a few things up:

Carbon Fibre has an extremely high strength to weight ratio, but because a thermosetting resin is used to hold the fibres together, it cannot be recycled, as someone said earlier.

Titanium - while it has a high strength to weight ratio, it is denser than aluminium and more expensive per gram. It is also harder, making it more prone to cracking. This is why Apple switched to aluminium.

Copper: As pretty as it would be to have a copper laptop, it would be heavier than aluminium, and unlike aluminium which forms a passivating layer (an oxide that prevents further corrosion), copper will eventually corrode under your palms, forming verdigris. (That horrible green stuff.) This means Apple would need to lacquer the laptop - which is just another thing making it impractical as it is already as heavy as steel!

Aluminium is therefore about the most perfect metal to use. It won't corrode, it's lightweight, relatively strong and ductile enough not to crack with stresses. It is also very safe, and there is no conclusive evidence that it causes Alzheimer's! (See wiki/google) Not to mention that you won't be consuming aluminium from your laptop, cookware or foil unless you take a file to it and eat the dust.

So what's your take on a glass laptop.
There is scientific evidence that people with bad kidney's can't stop the aluminium from entering their system and hence brain,causing dimentia.
Copper is obviously too heavy for a laptop,I agree.

 

[NT1440]

So what's your take on a glass laptop.
There is scientific evidence that people with bad kidney's can't stop the aluminium from entering their system and hence brain,causing dimentia.
Copper is obviously too heavy for a laptop,I agree.

How does the aluminum from a laptop somehow get into their system in the first place?

 

[Hands Sandon]

How does the aluminum from a laptop somehow get into their system in the first place?

My guess is when people use them to fry their breakfast!
Just like lead,it can be absorbed through the skin.

 

[kabunaru]

There are a few misunderstandings/misconceptions going around here so I will clear a few things up:

Carbon Fibre has an extremely high strength to weight ratio, but because a thermosetting resin is used to hold the fibres together, it cannot be recycled, as someone said earlier.

Titanium - while it has a high strength to weight ratio, it is denser than aluminium and more expensive per gram. It is also harder, making it more prone to cracking. This is why Apple switched to aluminium.

Copper: As pretty as it would be to have a copper laptop, it would be heavier than aluminium, and unlike aluminium which forms a passivating layer (an oxide that prevents further corrosion), copper will eventually corrode under your palms, forming verdigris. (That horrible green stuff.) This means Apple would need to lacquer the laptop - which is just another thing making it impractical as it is already as heavy as steel!

Aluminium is therefore about the most perfect metal to use. It won't corrode, it's lightweight, relatively strong and ductile enough not to crack with stresses. It is also very safe, and there is no conclusive evidence that it causes Alzheimer's! (See wiki/google) Not to mention that you won't be consuming aluminium from your laptop, cookware or foil unless you take a file to it and eat the dust.

I still like my Titanium.
I still believe it is safer than Aluminium though.
Read a couple posts above for more explanation. ^

 

[jojo13]

for me, it's not important if the new macs are made of aluminium o titanium or carbon fiber or wathever, cause i know that Apple will choose the good material and that it wont be cheap

for me whats important,ITS APPLE TO RELEASE THOSE FREAKIN NOTEBOOKS

peace

 

[iEdd]

So what's your take on a glass laptop.

An entirely glass laptop? Too heavy and lacks the tensile strength to be dropped from any great distance. Even laminated safety glass will crack or shatter. Glass trackpads, screens, even keyboard keys? I like the idea of that for unsurpassable scratch resistance and clarity. Notice I said keyboard keys (on a proper keyboard), not a touch-sensitive glass pad.

There is scientific evidence that people with bad kidney's can't stop the aluminium from entering their system and hence brain,causing dimentia.

Have you got a source? You will find with most scientific trials on this, too many assumptions are made to suggest that being near aluminium is hazardous - though inhaling or ingesting it may be. I'd rather not hijack the thread to debate this, so PM me if you want to talk further, but I think if you do some googling you will find that we are pretty safe.

 

[Tosser]

I still like my Titanium.
I still believe it is safer than Aluminium though.
Read a couple posts above for more explanation. ^

Yup, and he's partly wrong about titanium. It solely depends on how it is alloyed. The TiBook wasn't alloyed at all, but were from what was back then known as "commercial grade Ti", which (again, at that time) was 99.999(9?) percent pure titanium – not an alloy at all. Pure titanium such as that is very, very flexible, so in bikes anchors and the like one uses Ti alloys, and they are certainly not prone to cracking. Pure ti has a much better form memory (it will spring back from a far more extreme bend, and it will not crack. However, you don't wan't something that flexible to protect electronics. They tried counter this extreme flexing by using a carbon frame (the white (painted) frame around the circumference), but not even that was enough to not make the thing flex like crap – I hated that flexing.

Ed's notion that Ti cracks easily is just plain wrong, and thus his reasoning that that was the reason they switched to Alu is equally wrong.

However, it is more expensive than alu, it is not even close to being as recyclable, and it doesn't anodize (and certainly not as cheap as the cheapo anodizing used on the MBPs), hence the TiBook was painted (all over).

Have you got a source? You will find with most scientific trials on this, too many assumptions are made to suggest that being near aluminium is hazardous - though inhaling or ingesting it may be. I'd rather not hijack the thread to debate this, so PM me if you want to talk further, but I think if you do some googling you will find that we are pretty safe.

Don't worry, unless you have one of the many MBPs which seems to pit quite a lot, you will only be in contact with anodizing, no raw aluminum. Just don't use aluminium as cookware

 

[Loge]

Not to mention that you won't be consuming aluminium from your laptop, cookware or foil unless you take a file to it and eat the dust.

Didn't Steve Jobs once say (about OS X) that it looks so good, you'll want to lick it?

 

[mathcolo]

for me, it's not important if the new macs are made of aluminium o titanium or carbon fiber or wathever, cause i know that Apple will choose the good material and that it wont be cheap

for me whats important,ITS APPLE TO RELEASE THOSE FREAKIN NOTEBOOKS

peace

+1. Screw the aluminum! I want notebook revisions!

 

[iEdd]

Ed's notion that Ti cracks easily is just plain wrong, and thus his reasoning that that was the reason they switched to Alu is equally wrong.

I just inferred that because it was harder, it may be more prone to cracking than aluminium, not that it is necessarily easily cracked*. Of course, this will change depending on the alloy and the processes used (work hardening/cold rolling/extrusion). I edited that in later - what I meant to say was that is was a combination of issues, primarily cost. Thanks for clearing that up though - how things sound in my head isn't always how they read.

*I haven't actually seen cracking on a TiBook, maybe you know more about it than I do or why it cracks?

Don't worry, unless you have one of the many MBPs which seems to pit quite a lot, you will only be in contact with anodizing, no raw aluminum. Just don't use aluminium as cookware

Remembering that anodising is deliberately thickening and/or colouring the oxide layer that already forms on aluminium. Hence why if you sand or scratch pure aluminium, it will go dull again in a short period of time. Given that this oxide layer melts at 2054 °C, you would have to first melt the pure Al core in the cookware (MP 660 °C) before you'd even begin to cause the oxide to melt into your food = big mess of molten metal on the stove.

 

[jojo13]

+1. Screw the aluminum! I want notebook revisions!

for all this time waiting, we DESERVE new revisions

 

[puffnstuff]

for me, it's not important if the new macs are made of aluminium o titanium or carbon fiber or wathever, cause i know that Apple will choose the good material and that it wont be cheap

for me whats important,ITS APPLE TO RELEASE THOSE FREAKIN NOTEBOOKS

peace

Choose good material? As I type this I am looking at my discolored palm rest and a laptop that has to be constantly cleaned because I decided not to shell out an extra $x for a blackbook that hides dirt.

Bring on the aluminum!

 

[Tosser]

I just inferred that because it was harder, it may be more prone to cracking than aluminium, not that it is necessarily easily cracked. Of course, this will change depending on the alloy and the processes used (work hardening/cold rolling/extrusion). I edited that in later - what I meant to say was that is was a combination of issues, primarily cost. Thanks for clearing that up though - how things sound in my head isn't always how they read.

yes, well, pure Ti is more flexible than alu, it is harder, so it's not as malleable as raw aluminium (which, frankly, is soft as baby feces, lol), and noone in their right mind would make a brittle (i.e. "prone to cracking" Ti alloy). Alu is cheaper, and because it's so malleable, it's much easier to stomp it out of a sheet.

Ti used for oil rigs, race engines, superlight bikes, superstrong (rigid) Ti alloys are used for shackles everywhere, and ti is also used for an array of backcountry gear – hell, the Soviet Union even made some subs and ships from titanium.
In the context of Ti vs. Alu - disregarding price and recycleablity, titanium (alloy) wins hands down.

Remembering that anodising is deliberately thickening and/or colouring the oxide layer that already forms on aluminium. Hence why if you sand or scratch pure aluminium, it will go dull again in a short period of time. Given that this oxide layer melts at 2054 °C, you would have to first melt the pure Al core in the cookware (MP 660 °C) before you'd even begin to cause the oxide to melt into your food.

Yes, but not all anodosing is as thick as the next "job" – also, far from every alu pots/kettles are anodised.
Anodising is indeed an oxydation formed by use of an anode (hence the name), and as such it shouldn't give away the alu. But take a look at a boat mast – I would hate to use that thin pseudo layer which is put on the MBPs on a mast. It would be gone in an hour. To be honest, I'm not even sure the "top" (i.e. where the keyboard, touch pad etc. are) on my MBP are even anodised: If I look really close, it sure doesn't look like raw aluminum where the palm rests have pitted – it looks more like a grey primer and as if they used the same grey spray paint as they used on the "silver" keys.

 

[Rtb1]

Choose good material? As I type this I am looking at my discolored palm rest and a laptop that has to be constantly cleaned because I decided not to shell out an extra $x for a blackbook that hides dirt.

Bring on the aluminum!

time to step up the hygeine my friend.


but seriously, mr clean magic eraser for the macbook

 

[peepboon]

hm... i was just seeing the shipping times on the macbooks on the UK/Canada/US/Australia Apple site, I can get to the 'Buy Now' page on all except for Australia, can someone from Australia confirm its working? :S - I cant seem to access it in the UK, strange how I can enter the US/Canada ones :S

Thanks

EDIT: Once I click on the 'Buy Now' option, it takes me straight back to the 'Apple Store' page :S

 

[kabunaru]

Don't worry, unless you have one of the many MBPs which seems to pit quite a lot, you will only be in contact with anodizing, no raw aluminum. Just don't use aluminium as cookware

So, what are the chances of a person getting sick/health problems from Aluminium?
Thanks to this thread, I am starting to second guess the choice of Aluminium that Apple is using.

 

[puffnstuff]

Oh look at that I nice lovely hairline crack on the bottom of my macbook. I suppose this is hygiene issue as well?

Is there anyway I can trade mines in for the new one when it comes out even though I go it months ago? Its under warranty.

 

[kabunaru]

And the current polycarbonate plastics that the current MacBooks use have no health problems at all, right?

Most safest of all Macs to use (from a health perspective) are the current MacBooks?