Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Planning 'MacBook Ultra' With Touchscreen and Higher Price

Bubble99 said:
So what is going to happen to iPadOS?
Click to expand...
Why should anything happen to it? It’s the OS for handheld tablets that are able to be operated exclusively by touch. The MacBook won’t be that.

Nothing happened to macOS either when Apple released a keyboard and trackpad support for the iPad.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Tagbert
Tagbert said:
Yes, when we are so used to touch devices, our reflexes cause us to reach out and touch other screens before realizing that they aren’t touch active. It kind of makes that non-touch device seem broken.

I use an iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard a lot and of course touch is part of that. It does get fingerprints but you only see them when the screen is off or you look from the side. A little wiping with a microfiber cloth cleans things up. It’s really not been a problem.
Click to expand...
I think it’s the different computing contexts. My iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard has never made me try touch my MBP’s screen, but my work laptop did.
Tagbert said:
If Apple brings touch to Mac OS, I don’t expect it to be the primary interface. It won’t require a major redesign and will be used for those times when we just expect to be able to touch something on the screen.
Click to expand...
If Apple does that, I think the entire OS will be touch friendly even if most people don’t use touch for everything.
 
This makes sense. Rather than force touchscreens and anger people who buy the new M5 Pro and M5 Max notebooks with a significant update less than a year later, release a higher end notebook with those features while keeping the "regular" Pros around.
 
SvenLorenz1975 said:
That would actually be a good compromise. Keep the MacBook Pros the way they are and introduce this as a MacBook Ultra. And it will make it easier to make it disappear again when Apple realizes that nobody needs OLED, a touchscreen or a thinner and lighter design for over $3000 starting price.
Click to expand...
There...fixed the end of your post. If it's same current MBP base model specs with an OLED touchscreen and some thinner lighter design, that's NOT worth close to $1000 more.
 
I would be interested to see what implications of this are down the line.

This seems to suggest the current Macbook Pros won't get OLED diplays which in turn suggests the Air probably isn't getting an update in display tech anytime soon either.

I think the Air display in particular is in need of an update. It's starting to become what the standard iPhone was before the 17 launched, it's not wowing anybody given the price point.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: Matt713
Detnator said:
What “tactics”? Why are we bashing Cook for improving and adding to the product line?

The entire current laptop line is better than ever. They moved on from all the issues of a few years ago - faulty butterfly keyboards, limited ports, overheating because too thin, that idiotic Touch Bar, etc. and the chips are insane(ly good) compared with anything in the PC market.

Apple do make some dumb decisions, but I really can’t see the issues here. The Neo is incredible bang for buck despite the “compromises” - it’s perfect for my wife at almost half the price of the previous entry level option. Meanwhile something even better at the high end will be welcome by me. I don’t need touch, but I can never have enough performance for some of what I do, while still wanting to be mobile, so more is better.

What “tactics” is Cook employing, other than providing more genuinely good options?
Click to expand...
Because people misinterpret a single Steve Jobs speech in 1998 dividing the Mac market into 4 quadrants (Consumer Laptop, Consumer Desktop, Pro Laptop, Pro Desktop) as the be-all-end-all strategy when in reality it was an effective strategy for a cash-strapped Apple to cull its product line to focus on the core devices that would turn around its fortunes. Steve Jobs himself deviated from that quadrant approach when he added the Mac mini and MacBook Air.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kitKAC, kltmom, Falco McGregor and 3 others
Mac Fly (film) said:
Apple’s reason is to market it to get more money, but user wise, what’s the benefit? Maybe drop this TV Show business and get back to focusing on hardware for user benefit.
Click to expand...
yeah, I'm sure all those hardware engineers are super bummed that they now have to work on TV shows instead of being able to just focus on making hardware for user benefit... /s
 
  • Like
Reactions: kitKAC and Detnator
Horrible if true. macOS user interface should be optimised for keyboard and trackpad with a lot of information density.
Touchscreen is the opposite of that.
 
What would the power draw be for an ultra chip in a Macbook pro? not to think of the battery life, the heat, the fans and any throttling that may occur. The M3 Ultra Mac Studio has a maximum power draw of 270W to 300W approximately to under full, sustained, or stress-test workloads where as the M4 max in a Macbook pro 16" usually drew 160W and 212W under heavy, sustained workloads according to reports. Will this be overkill?..there needs to be some innovation in battery life science and making sure whatever new chassis for the new model handles all that power dissipation and heat. I can't imagine the ram in these, but guessing 512gb or 1tb! would be insane but prob cost north of $10k.
 
Will be fun to watch how they will advertise an ultra cpu, say it is 15X tiems faster, 30x more graphically capable...and shide that it will still have no Siri Ai and will come with that stupid useless dumb assistant and all those AI amazing cores done in 2nm technology will be useless for next 5 years until they eventually release MacOS 32.5 wth Ai Siri 💁🏿
 
… three Ultras, more new ‘26 Macs, HomePad w/wall magnet, Neo 2 w/TS, MBP Ultra OLED w/TS … that is a lot of rumor articles for a Sunday and the day is not over yet …
 
Would be totally absurd to call it Ultra and not have the Ultra SoC, which sounds way improbable for a Notebook. Ultra als doesn’t sound lighter/thinner but more rugged.
I for one would like some kind of touch for some UX-Elements.
 
Veinticinco said:
It’s gotten to the point now where I just don’t expect Apple to release a product that’s neither functionally or financially compromised. Incremental gains are now described as “evolutionary”.

At least the Neo fills a hole in the market. Where do you position an Ultra (or whatever stupid unoriginal name they come up with)?

This is just what the MBA should have become after the M1 generation, ultraportable, options like nano-texture display, minimal bezels. But Cook refused to do that as long as he had to conform to the magic $1000 threshold.

Jobs’ Apple used to lead the way, skate to the where the puck is going to be. How times have changed.
Click to expand...

If Steve reincarnates, we only need to wait for a few more years for him to take Apple back on track.

The current guy knows that there are always people who call themselves "Ultra Power users" and they have the money to max out the configurations. So he is creating a new line of ultra expensive laptops.
 
vegetassj4 said:
Ultra Smultra, studio is where it's at!

View attachment 2611221
Click to expand...
More like this, given how hot the photocopiers have been running…
1772994524162.jpeg
 
All those hoping for touchscreen functionality: you know those hideously gigantic "floating" controls in the macOS Tahoe finder? Those are probably your fault.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back