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Apple Investigating Thinner Notebook Enclosures

This sounds like something they would use in the ultraportable or in the Tablet.

Sounds like only hard disk and memory will be upgradable, the rest maybe impossible to get to without breaking the case.

That metal ink also sounds cool
 
Not the best choice

I think there fine the way they are they should get better hardware and use there money on something else.
 
Forget about the lighter and thinner -- just produce one that doesn't burn my legs while I'm using this thing on my lap.
 
Everybody seems to be thinking of "thinner" as in notebook thickness. They may mean material thickness instead, which would conflict with rigidity. This would allow more space inside for the same outside dimensions. I think perhaps this is what is being referred to here.
 
Yeah, they should spend time on inventing some material which is really hard and light. Too make dents nearly impossible. That would be lovely. All for the 15" MBP of course.
 
I would rather have the same size or thicker with faster processors to deal with heat than have them thinner and less powerful b/c of heat issues.
 
Not bothered about thinner...

...but please do get rid of the razor-sharp front edge on the MacBook. It hurts my hands to rest on. I'd like is a non-slip bottom panel - the little feet are hopeless as far as staying put on a soft surface (like my lap) goes. And make the trackpad surface a bit rougher - as it wears smooth with use it gets progressively tackier and more difficult to use. I don't really want to sandpaper it... The trackpad button is not great either - it's quite easy to find points on it where clicks don't register very well.

On the flip side: DON'T change the keyboard - it's great - so much better than my Microsoft ergo-thingy (on which the letters started wearing off after 2 weeks of use!).
 
I'm thinking about a logic board that's kinda one piece with the case. No screws, no distance between them all, no wiggleing. How cool would it be to have the electronics and all the ports incorporated into the case of a macbook. Change logic board? Just change the bottom case. You could make everything way thinner by doing that.

Laptops are all about not being user upgradable. Why not have 1 piece of all in one hardware, plus RAM, plus HDD? You could even have the whole mainboard/case have little pipes going through the whole thing for liquid cooling, just like on a combustion engine. That saves the heat pipes and fans. The heat could be dissipated over the full surface on the screen lid.

Laptops are still parts thrown together and thrown into a case. Apple already does better than other companies at putting it all together in a nice, clean looking box. But there needs to be more effort in putting things together.

The ultimate laptop is an impossibly thin screen that's highly durable and has everthing in it. Screens are getting thinner with LED backlighting and OLED (or similar) technology. Hard Drives can be substituted with flash memory if size matters etc...


some liquid
 
MrCrowbar said:
I'm thinking about a logic board that's kinda one piece with the case. No screws, no distance between them all, no wiggleing. How cool would it be to have the electronics and all the ports incorporated into the case of a macbook. Change logic board? Just change the bottom case. You could make everything way thinner by doing that.

Laptops are all about not being user upgradable. Why not have 1 piece of all in one hardware, plus RAM, plus HDD? You could even have the whole mainboard/case have little pipes going through the whole thing for liquid cooling, just like on a combustion engine. That saves the heat pipes and fans. The heat could be dissipated over the full surface on the screen lid.

Laptops are still parts thrown together and thrown into a case. Apple already does better than other companies at putting it all together in a nice, clean looking box. But there needs to be more effort in putting things together.

The ultimate laptop is an impossibly thin screen that's highly durable and has everthing in it. Screens are getting thinner with LED backlighting and OLED (or similar) technology. Hard Drives can be substituted with flash memory if size matters etc...


some liquid
Click to expand...

Im with you, just hd and mem, all other non-repairable / extendable.

Very interesting way of packing everything in the least amount of space. Sounds like mainly for weight reduction and some space reduction. The metalic ink is a very inovative idea.

I say this is for the Tablet but can also be used in many other devices like iPod, and Phone.
 
babyjenniferLB said:
isnt there a limit due to the size of usb, firewire, headphone jacks and display sizes, also the keyboard. If you make the 15 inch macbook pro say half a inch thick were do all the ports go?
Click to expand...

Yes, but we're not their yet.

Also (radical) what if they leave out the ports and create dock with a single high speed interface that also charges the battery.

Any peripheral could slot into this dock.
 
Ugh.

How about more durable? Waterproof? Longer battery life? Redundant drives? You know, useful stuff? I want to buy tools, not toys.
 
If they make a tablet mac super thin - but give it a dock that's basically just the bottom half of a laptop - that would be pretty nice. Could choose the leave the keyboard half at home... Best of both worlds..

Maybe they could make a keyboardless dock of the same dimensions so you can pile them up and make a cluster thing.. Haha.

Never going to happen, but funny to think about..

I dont really see how making things out of a single piece of metal is going to make them any smaller anyway.. Things like sony's UX series are handheld and incredibly thin, it's not necessary from a size angle, but it might make for prettier machines.
 
This sounds great; I don't plan on owning one, but the perspective of an apple innovation is always exciting! (hope it becomes an innovation).

If you make the laptop smaller (say a 10 inches display) it will appear bulkier, so to keep the elegance you need to make it thinner, without making it weaker, because: since it is supposed to be an ultraportable it needs durability.

Have you heard of the organic "lcd" displays that can be bend? that would be really cool: you drop the computer and the display remains intact. I don't think this will be implemented, but for laptops in general, it would be useful.

I don't think the ultraportable is coming anytime soon; I guess it will have solid state memory, and no optical-drive. For these two things to be accomplish apple will probably wait for the memory prices to come down, and the optical-format-market to diminish. And besides you wouldn't need an optical drive, because with leopard we will be able to share them over a wireless network! :p

I wouldn't expect the ultraportable mac (if it ever comes out) until next year

(disclaimer: everything is just speculation)
 
thikness is the bottom of my R&D list

Like others have already said,
I think they are thin enough (they're already as thin or thinner than my 'paper notebooks')
* Making them tougher, and more durable is always welcome.
* Lighter is always welcome, but honestly I don't mind the current weight either.

I'd be much more interested in how to pack more 'power' arrrr arrr(mental flash backs of Tim Allen in Home Improvement LOL)
anyhow, packing more power and useful features into the size they already have.

Just as a wild-and-crazy example, I'd rather have them figure out getting a more powerful GPU, BlueRay Burner.... etc etc in the current form factor.

On old PowerBooks (back when ports were on the back) there used to be a 'flap' that would cover the ports when they weren't in use. It would be nice on the current models if they could find a simple, reliable, and aesthetically pleasing way to cover ports on current models when they are not in use.

Well I could go on. But in short, making the portables thinner is about on the bottom of my list of important things that they could do to improve the portable computers.
 
Dustman said:
they'd probably do it like the current nano. the illusion of one piece of material, but actually composed of multiple "sides". maybe slide out the motherboard for upgrades like the nano?
Click to expand...
zactly what I was thinking. iPod mini was made that way as well wasn't it?
 
Ok, so my PS skills are terrible, but I think this ad would work with Apple's chic style and the whole "thin" concept.

:D
 

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opposite

personally, I think there should be sort of a thin client sort of thing, where the computing and jacks are on a little box. Then the display, mouse and keyboard are WIRELESS, CHEAP AND LIGHT. carrying my laptop arround wouldn't phase me if it was twice as heavy.


that way you could replace either you could replace your "physical interface" and upgrade your hardware.
 
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