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Apple Finishing Up Work on an Ultra-Thin 15" Notebook
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I thought that's just for transferring to a new PC? how do I use that to upgrade an existing machine?
Yeah it is supposed to be used for transferring to new PC's but you have the option of transferring to disks and usb's so you could use it for the same PC. To be fair, there are some things it would rather you not transfer but there are normally workarounds.
so you'd have to use it to transfer to a different bootable disk and then swap?
Could do, but its more likely to transfer all data to a CD, DVD or USB drive, install the new OS and re-upload the data from the CD, DVD or USB drive to the new OS; thus duplicating your files, preferences and many applications to the updated OS.
I don't think you can do an upgrade install from XP to Windows 7, you must do a clean install of Windows 7, so you would have to reinstall everything from scratch again. That would be a major PITA for most businesses, not to mention that the older XP hardware wouldn't work too well or at all with Windows 7. So it is easy to see that it would be an expensive and time consuming update, especially for big businesses. I wonder how many computers and terminals Bank of America has? GM, Ford, etc? Thousands upon thousands I would imagine.
How many Windows machines would Apple have to update in Cupertino?
I don't think you can do an upgrade install from XP to Windows 7, you must do a clean install of Windows 7, so you would have to reinstall everything from scratch again. That would be a major PITA for most businesses, not to mention that the older XP hardware wouldn't work too well or at all with Windows 7. So it is easy to see that it would be an expensive and time consuming update, especially for big businesses. I wonder how many computers and terminals Bank of America has? GM, Ford, etc? Thousands upon thousands I would imagine.
How many Windows machines would Apple have to update in Cupertino?
I think it's worse for consumers than for businesses - most business machines are probably run off a single "image" that is created by the IT dept. and simply propagated to all the machines.
For consumers, who may have lost original installation disks, or lost 16-digit long hexadecimal key strings, it's probably much more of an issue. In my case I can't even remember all the stuff I have installed on my XP machine (which still runs as a server because I haven't had time to switch everything over to a lion server on my old MBP yet, and because I'm nostalgic - built that machine from scratch with an opteron AMD gave me as a reward for designing the processor
I would like that too, to replace my coal-fired '06 MacBook. Seems to me that a combination of the iPad and a 15" MBA would work well for me since my needs are modest - browsing and content consumption, which the iPad handles, and Aperture/Photoshop which the MacBook grinds through. The caveat is that I would not purchase it unless it had a reasonable discrete GPU option.
Regarding your questions: I would expect that a 15" Air would be introduced around the same time as the MBP would be updated, both to Ivy Bridge. I would further think that the existing MBA would have a little wait for its turn, having just gotten some SB goodness.
I'm definitely interested in a 15" MBA or MacBook Air Pro whatever they call it. Losing the optical drive is long overdue. I rarely use it on my Win or Linux machines. I do my installs from a thumb drive much, much faster.
A lot of the newer, smaller notebooks from different mfg have also dropped the optical drive so it's not just an Apple thing. If you need one you can get an ASUS external drive for $20 to $30.
A lot of the newer, smaller notebooks from different mfg have also dropped the optical drive so it's not just an Apple thing. If you need one you can get an ASUS external drive for $20 to $30.
There is on Windows Vista; you can upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7, it gives you the option of keeping all files and applications intact, without the need to use the media from Windows Easy Transfer.
Guys, can we cut the Windows stuff? Please make your own thread on MacRumors, call it "Why Windows sucks/doesn't suck." Because personally, I don't give a flying *******.
Back to the 15" MacBook Air please
And what scintillating commentary do you offer about the 15" Macbook air other than just mentioning its name?
It's unlikely.
MacBook air thin laptop with a Quad core i7 CPU at 45W and a 35W ATI GPU. Maybe it'll come with an asbestos cushion for your legs?
Umm... how about the 3 other posts I made on this very thread?!
I've been waiting for a MBA 15 for a while now... and it's not gonna have a dedicated GPU, folks. The battery/heat trade-off is simply too big.
Oh c'mon, I was simply asking for someone's prediction, wasn't asking for any speculated release date nor rumoured release date; now calm down.
That's what I'm saying though. What can you say? What's the use when somebody can say, November and another say January? There's no basis for a good estimate. It's just guessing.
Smart people would assume sometime before the holiday so Apple can make money... then others might assume somewhere around Ivy Bridge... OR you could look at the update cycle and go from that.
Lol I guess I could have just stated that ^ instead of my original post, however it isn't like I'm a grumpy old man, I'm 19 in fact, but I just get tired of SO MANY threads about the 15 inch MBA, the 2012 MBP, the iPhone 5, and the iPad 3. Nobody knows. There isn't any reason to talk about it.
I mean it's good once in a while; talk about it with your friends, but when blogs and news sites post pointless topics that say literally nothing aside form (it might be in the works), people start flooding boards about it.
Going back to the MBA launch, practically everyone thought it would come out at the end of July, nowhere near the actual date; it came out earlier than everyone thought it did. AND the MB disappeared. Nobody thought that would happen either.
Not saying it isn't good to speculate and/or guess, but I guess for the people who come to this site (and others) to help people daily, it just gets old.
But yea, it would probably be around those three dates I stated way up there.
Okay fair enough, I understand where your coming from, its just when I'm eager to buy one and it costs the price it does; I'd like to know as much as I can even if it is just predictions and guessing. Anyway I've noticed its usually released every 8 to 11 months so possibly by Christmas time depending if they'd rather wait for the Ivy Bridge processors or not. Anyway I was just curious what other people thought thats all; back to the original thread...
I completely understand what you're saying man; to continue:
If they do make it some sort of Air design, you have to take into account the performance hit you're going to receive. Because it's so thin, it's obviously going to have to have a SSD drive. That's great if you have an external or something.
On the other hand, they probably won't be able to put descrete graphics in the machine. That means you'll be paying more for a 15 inch laptop that will be somewhat on par with the MBP.
I'm going to assume that it would be quad core, albeit with a lower clock for each core, to give you power between the 13 and 15 inch MBP.
For many people using graphic intensive applications (rendering, photoshop, etc.), the GPU is the bottleneck, not the CPU (that's why the 2010 MBAs ran games so good, it had the Nvidia 320 card in there.
With all of that said, it isn't going to be as good as the current 15 inch unless they can fit the discrete graphics in there. If they can, it will be awesome. If they can't, people will complain and a lot of people won't but it.
That's one of the main selling points of the 15 and up MBPs: Discrete graphics cards for people who do real graphical work on their MBPs.
I agree that currently, everyone who needs a dedicated GPU is going to get the MBP. Obviously.
But I am willing to bet the vast majority of current MBP customers doesn't need the GPU. You don't need it unless you are a gfx professional, or a gamer. If you are a gamer, chances are you have a gaming PC laptop as there's way more games and way more hardware options.
Lots of stuff in OS X is hardware accelerated with OpenGL - but for that, the integrated graphics are plenty fast, even if they suck as much as the Intel ones.
So for all these people that don't need a GPU, Apple currently doesn't offer a machine larger than 13". It makes sense to have a 15" option. I know Apple likes to keep their lines clean but I am hoping they will offer both a MBA 15 and a MBP 15 to please everyone.
I'll opt for the Air, most likely. The GPU is no help for my work, and it wastes battery and produces heat. It's turned off on my current MBP, and I would turn it off were I to get a new MBP too (I don't trust automated switching, particularly when I really don't have a need for the GPU at all).
PS: Is the GPU really that useful for Photoshop? Does it actually take advantage of a faster GPU vs the integrated graphics? I don't know as I only use PS occasionally and not for anything requiring any CPU horsepower.