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Apple Investigating Thinner Notebook Enclosures

Hahah, but seriously look how thin they are now. I even heard the iMac is suppose to be thinned out? I'm on my 24" iMac right now and I can't image in any thinner or nicer looking. Its simply stunning and when people walk in the room they say "where is the rest of your computer?" I'm like: "your looking at it" ... "the whole thing."
 
3CCD said:
Hahah, but seriously look how thin they are now. I even heard the iMac is suppose to be thinned out? I'm on my 24" iMac right now and I can't image in any thinner or nicer looking. Its simply stunning and when people walk in the room they say "where is the rest of your computer?" I'm like: "your looking at it" ... "the whole thing."
Click to expand...

Nah. It could be thinner. SO thin it'd be hard to see the profile.

Reminds me of a SNL or MadTV skit where some crazy lady kept asking the guy at the deli to slice her ham thinner and thinner until he split an atom and caused an atomic explosion.

Anyhoo, I'm all for thinner, but agree with most that I'd rather see R&D go into better components more so than just looks.
 
I would love a thin notebook that could also drive a 30" display at full resolution. Then I'd have a nice big screen at home and a nice small computer to take elsewhere, both in one computer.

Who's with me?
 
Just remove the optical drive (include external one) and switch the HDD to flash memory. Reduce the ram down to one stick (up to 2GB), and use a santa rosa chip with a x3100. LED backlit 10in screen.

Can anyone think of any other obvious and reasonable reductions?
 
How thin?

Well I'd like to see an ultra mobile form apple about th thickness of a good sized PDA. Something that slips into the brief case and actually leaves room for the other resources that go in there.

I'm also hoping for something very power stingy. It would be nice if it could operate off solar power. While they are at it support of mesh networking should be high on the list.

Personally I'm not a big fan of thick bulky portables. I'd love something just slightly bigger than a PDA that ran a true OS. That is an OS that one can get software for without going through all sorts of gyrations.

dave
 
This article sounds less like :apple: is thinking of an new "ultraportable" per se, and more like they are looking to update the enclosures on ALL their laptops. That would be sweet.
 
Did anyone own/see the Dell 300m a few years ago? I thought it was the perfect portable and a good model for an optical media free computer. Very light and durable.
 
grappler said:
I would love a thin notebook that could also drive a 30" display at full resolution. Then I'd have a nice big screen at home and a nice small computer to take elsewhere, both in one computer.

Who's with me?
Click to expand...

I am, that would be sweet.
 
I like it how the patent desc. sais "Aesthetically more pleasent than current products ..." I wonder if it includes current Apple products 😎
 
Mmmmmmm, a single structure with no joins sounds pretty sexy to me, regardless of practical concerns 😀

Bond away!
 
I'm a writer, as are many of my friends. We'd all love to see an ultraportable mac. I love my MBP, but it would be nice to have something very compact and frankly less valuable to work with when out. Many times I'm reluctant to take my MBP to coffee shops and such when in reality I shouldn't leave home without it. Give me another option and they'll sell me yet another mac.
 
Sounds interesting -- it's this sort of stuff that Apple seem to have a real interest in, over and beyond other manufacturers.

I'd appreciate a more rigid design on the Pro laptops. My 15" MBP's currently in for repairs for the second time in 13 months. The first time (about 6 months ago), the bottom RAM slot failed and the underside of the case had started to warp. The AppleStore genius said he'd seen it happen to quite a few machines and kindly advised me to try to always move the machine around by picking it up at both sides, not just grabbing it at one edge and picking it up. He said the case has quite a bit of give in it which can cause the logic board to bend slightly -- not much, but enough over time to do damage. I freely admitted that I might've done that numerous times and vowed not to do it again.

It's in the shop again with another logic board problem (screen corruption) and the new case underside is showing signs of beginning to warp again. I've treated it like a baby since the first repair, so perhaps it's a different cause this time!
 
Macrumors said:


A December 2006 patent application from Apple indicates they are working on thinner / stronger enclosures for their laptops.

Instead, Apple describes an improved enclosure where the parts are "structurally bonded together" to form a singular composite structure. .
Click to expand...


Having everything structurally bonded together , does this mean user access to HD's, RAM etc is going to be impossible or very hard?

Not sure I'd like this idea.... It may look very cool though...
 
With the ultra portable, current ideas about what a laptop is need to be thrown out the window.
Think of it as basically an iPhone with a keyboard or better still a 2 screen clamshell. 1 screen behaves as you would expect. The lower screen becomes a configurable User input device, sometimes a keyboard, sometimes a track pad, sometimes a control wheel. The resolution of the lower screen can be much less that the upper screen just make it big enough to display a keyboard.

HDD: no way, Flash all the way.
Battery: build it in no chance to change it
Optical: not needed in an ultra portable
Ports: no thanks, they just add bulk
Wireless: every possible combination
Power: Ok I conceed that some power connection may be required.
Upgradability: not needed.
Lightness: you bet
Strength: as strong as possible. Carrying one of those bulky computer bags is not my idea of fun.
Speed: Who cares. No video editing here just internet, e-mail and all those other boring business apps.

I am constantly travelling the world for my work and my current work laptop goes everywhere with me. Even though it is one of the smallest on the market (IBM X40) 12" display, it still too heavy and too bulky. I try and avoid taking more than hand luggage with me so every bit of space that is saved the better.
 
Battery Life!

As a newbie to the Mac way of life -

(Recently bought a 24" iMac and loving it. Spent ages lurking here trying to decide whether to wait or buy. Eventually agreed with the sentiment that you can wait for ever and there will always be something better coming)

- I am also thinking about getting a laptop to replace my aging windows one. While I am after something light and portable (almost a very large PDA - definitely dont need a power machine more one to do presentations on, check email, bit of websurfing maybe a movie or itunes) I want long+++ battery life. I am useless at charging things. My smartphone is constantly out of charge (Missing Sync great - Pocket Mac Lite pile of pants) so is my old phone. However my Blackberry seems to go on and on and on.

I would rather sacrifice some weight for extended battery life.
 
electrowb said:
How about more durable? Waterproof? Longer battery life? Redundant drives? You know, useful stuff? I want to buy tools, not toys.
Click to expand...

Apple products need to make money.

This product seems to have very little appeal apart from Mi6agents.
 
k2k koos said:
Having everything structurally bonded together , does this mean user access to HD's, RAM etc is going to be impossible or very hard?

Not sure I'd like this idea.... It may look very cool though...
Click to expand...

It wouldn't matter how it was built - somebody would crack one open in the first 15 minutes after receiving it. Guaranteed. Within an hour there'd be posts all over the internet on how to open it up, and replace the hard drive or graphics card.

But I somehow doubt Apple would want to have to replace an entire machine if a hard-drive stopped spinning. My guess is that structural bonding part of it would not prevent someone from opening the machine for maintenance.

style said:
i woud prefer weight over thickness
Click to expand...

I thought the choices were "length" or "thickness"... 😀
 
When I read this, heat issues were my exact first concerns, like some others up the pages. Remember, a cooler running laptop is a happier one.
 
dartzorichalcos said:
How much thinner can they get? The current Apple notebooks look thin enough. I can't imagine anything thinner than that.
Click to expand...

That depends on what features Apple is willing to give up to make them thinner. Seeing as they gave up a normal notebook optical drive in favor of a slower ultraportable drive the 15" models, one could argue they might have made them a hair too thin already.
 
dernhelm said:
It wouldn't matter how it was built - somebody would crack one open in the first 15 minutes after receiving it. Guaranteed. Within an hour there'd be posts all over the internet on how to open it up, and replace the hard drive or graphics card.

But I somehow doubt Apple would want to have to replace an entire machine if a hard-drive stopped spinning. My guess is that structural bonding part of it would not prevent someone from opening the machine for maintenance.



I thought the choices were "length" or "thickness"... 😀
Click to expand...

I agree, it would be how things went when the Mac Mini was first introduced.
And although I succesfully opened up my own G4 Mini to swap the RAM, I do think it is not for everyone. Having some kind of easy access will let a whole lot more people do it themselves.
Especially here in the UK, where there is no Apple store in every decent mall (yet), support and service is harder to come by, so DIY is a good option for many.
But before someone says "Dixons or PC world", let's forget about that type of store, On average I have been very dissapointed with the so called 'service' they provided, no matter if it was a washing machine, or a computer. These are 'sales' people. not 'service' people.

give me a specialist any day over one of these stores... Okay, sorry, a rant that was a little beside the point here, sure feels good to get it of my chest though 🙂 :apple:
 
The real way to thin things out is to make the motherboard a structural element. PCBs are made out of fiberglass. Reinforcing ridges can be added on top of the traces and then the metal case glued to it. Optical drives are a big source of thickness and there are a number of ports which are close to being a limiting factor.

Some sort of docking connector with a port squid perhaps.
 
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