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Apple Prepping 11.6'' MacBook Air and New iPod Touch with 3MP Camera

Netbook???

Didn't Mr. Jobs say at the iPad event that netbooks were "good for nothing," so why would he allow Apple to release a product that even partially fell into the netbook category. On top of this, when the Air was released, Jobs made a huge deal about how great the full-size keyboard!
 
bent2013 said:
Didn't Mr. Jobs say at the iPad event that netbooks were "good for nothing," so why would he allow Apple to release a product that even partially falls into the netbook catigory. On top of this, when the Air was released, Jobs made a huge deal about how great the full-size keyboard!
Click to expand...

Jobs has said a lot of things, and then turned around and done just what he disparaged.

... who wants to watch video on an Ipod?
... we won't do a phone
...

He'll say anything that will sell his latest gadget -- even when it's a bald-faced lie and Apple is working on something he's claiming that Apple will never do.
 
bent2013 said:
Didn't Mr. Jobs say at the iPad event that netbooks were "good for nothing," so why would he allow Apple to release a product that even partially falls into the netbook catigory. On top of this, when the Air was released, Jobs made a huge deal about how great the full-size keyboard!
Click to expand...

There are a lot of things that make up a netbook. Just because the next MBA may be 11.6", it's far from being a netbook since it would be using an i3 processor. I'd stick it in the category of ultra portables

Eidorian said:
The 1218 is drool worthy but I want to avoid Atom. Have they even released it yet, still?
Click to expand...

Not yet. The 1215N is supposed to be coming out in August, so hopefully we'll see the 1218 some time after that. Rumor is end of the year.
 
fuzzielitlpanda said:
There are a lot of things that make up a netbook. Just because the next MBA may be 11.6", it's far from being a netbook since it would be using an i3 processor. I'd stick it in the category of ultra portables
Click to expand...
Core i3 UM is enough if the machine is small enough with some nVidia love along for the ride too.

fuzzielitlpanda said:
Not yet. The 1215N is supposed to be coming out in August, so hopefully we'll see the 1218 some time after that. Rumor is end of the year.
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I remember the 1218 was due last month or in late May. Asus regularly tempts me with their notebooks.

I had a chance to play with this yesterday.
 
it'd be awesome if it had i3 + optimus + 4gb ram. performance wise, it'd be close to (if not better) than the current 13" MBP
 
What I find most interesting ...

is the line: "...the technologies used for the design and concept are expected to be broadly used in the company's other product lines to boost their competitiveness."

If this is true, three things are probable:
(1) there is a significant hardware change coming, both in the chassis and in internal components, whether it is a move to AMD/ATI or Intel integrated graphics only.
(2) the next MBA is the guinea pig for the next round of updates. Hence, I would not want to purchase this upcoming (Rev A) machine.
(3) predicting the next round of updates will be easier after the next MBA is released.

commander.data said:
...Hopefully, Apple isn't moving to 16:9 aspect ratio screens, and a low-end discrete GPU is included as implied by the use of Core i processors instead of a Core 2 Duo/nVidia 320M combination.
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Scottsdale said:
...What does Apple do about C2D and Core i-series CPUs? What does Apple do about the GPU problem? Does Apple go IPS for the displays? Does Apple really get rid of the 13.3" MBA just to go with an 11.6" MBA? I have a lot of questions... and this raises a heck of a lot more positive ideas in my head for the MBA.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I am going to assume that Apple is done waiting on NVidia and will move to Core ixxx processors with nasty Intel integrated graphics. I can only hope Apple would instead choose to go with low-end discrete graphics instead of Intel integrated graphics, but I doubt it.

I do hope this signals a decision by Apple to move to SSDs, but this is probably still a ways off.

[Edit: Also, IPS screens for all?]
 
bent2013 said:
Didn't Mr. Jobs say at the iPad event that netbooks were "good for nothing," so why would he allow Apple to release a product that even partially falls into the netbook catigory.
Click to expand...

Perhaps because the iPad really doesn't fall into the category of a netbook.

The iPad exclusively utilizes a Multi-Touch interface, is exponentially more responsive with, and streamlined for, what it is designed to do, runs a memory efficient iOS, is in many ways more portable, more accessible, starts-up faster, sports a high-res screen, is extremely efficient in terms of battery life, and is blazingly fast.

bent2013 said:
On top of this, when the Air was released, Jobs made a huge deal about how great the full-size keyboard!
Click to expand...

At that time, the full-sized keyboard on the "thinnest" laptop made, was noteworthy.

In a similar manner, at the time Jobs mentioned: ...who wants to watch video on an iPod?, he was correct, in that the iPod screens, back in the Spring of 2004, were hardly worthy of watching quality video on.

Placing his remarks in the context of the time in which he made them, makes sense here.
 
Digital Skunk said:
Well, those specs are nice, but when's the last time you've seen Apple put current top of the line tech into a new machine? Sure we've has some minor instances, but it's very rare.



NO, it's really not. When you take a really good look at the 12" Powerbook G4 or have used it for an extended length of time you will realize that an 11.6" book with no optical, FW, dual USBs, ethernet, dedicated gfx, and user replaceable RAM is NOT a 12" Powerbook G4 replacement.

That'd be the 13" Macbook Pro that already exists.
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The 13.3" macbook pro is NOT a replacement for the 12" powerbook. The MBP is almost TWO inches wider than the Powerbook, which drastically changes portability. If Apple hadn't discontinued the G4, I would have definitely gotten that over the MBP. I'm happy with my MBP 13.3", but as a home machine - I absolutely hate to travel with it and avoid carrying it around whenever possible.

I've been craving an updated Powerbook that is a pound lighter than before. An 11.6" MBA (or 12.1", the size of the full-keyboard powerbook) would be great! But Apple should hurry, because I'm fed up with the lack of a truly portable notebook, and am planning to buy a netbook very soon - a thin pretty aluminum one was just released. I would pay double for an 11.6" MBA, no questions asked, but am afraid the price will be more like triple.

I know lots of people who feel the same, who loved the Powerbook and want a better replacement than the wider 13.3" MBP or MBA. The size would make all the difference, especially for women like me who travel a lot and work on their computers daily. It's been disappointment after disappointment recently... please give us a Macbook Air Mini! (I hope that they continue the 13.3" MBA too.)
 
Is 11.6 really a netbook? Netbooks have iPad sized screens, or smaller!
And with an i3! That won't be a netbook! It'll be the best ultra portable on the market. Hopefully they find space for a decent battery.
 
theappleguy said:
Do you need more though? With pretty much everything being wireless now (keyboards, mice, printers, scanners, music via AirTunes etc), other than an external hard drive (which could actually be wireless if you're just using it for backups etc), a digital camera or an iPod/iPhone, I can't think of anything else I'd actually want to plug into my MacBook Air. In fact, I'd rather see an SD card slot than a second USB port (as I pretty much never use the one I have and would rather just plug in a USB hub instead of wasting time plugging in multiple cables). Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see USB3 and would hate to loose the one port we have, but I certainly don't see the need for more. :)
Click to expand...

I can think of more than a few situations where a second USB port would be called for. What if you are out on the road and you want to copy something from one thumb drive to another. Do you really want to have someone snickering at you while you copy the file on to your hard drive, and then back on to the other thumb drive, especially with how slowly and clumsily OS X deals with thumb drives? What If you wanted to use a wired keyboard and mouse that don't have apple logos on them. Sure, you could use a powered hub if you have it.

Besides, would it really have been impossible to put a second USB port on the MBA? The very slim and small 10.1 inch HP netbooks manage to cram in three of them, an ethernet port, a SD reader, and a VGA port on a $300 machine. Yes, I realize that said netbook has a slow processor, and isn't carved out of a single block of unobtainium, but that doesn't change my point, especially considering how much bigger and more expensive the MBA is.
 
afireintonto said:
Is 11.6 really a netbook? Netbooks have iPad sized screens, or smaller!
And with an i3! That won't be a netbook! It'll be the best ultra portable on the market. Hopefully they find space for a decent battery.
Click to expand...

Many netbooks have 11.6 inch screens, and processor does not define the class.
 
theappleguy said:
It wouldn't be comfortable to use for extended periods of time though - everything would be so much smaller on the screen (you could make do if you just use your MacBook Air for an hour or so a day, but my guess is that most people would be around the 5+ hours per day mark).
Click to expand...

An 11.6" 1366x768 screen is 135 pixels per inch. A MacBook Pro 17" is 133 ppi for comparison. The HD 15" are around the same ppi too.
 
fuzzielitlpanda said:
then what does? screen size? this is a great netbook if so:

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/alienware-m11x-optimus.aspx
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More of an overall size & weight thing. The current MBA is good in the weight department, and is obviously thin enough, but is just a bit too big in the other two dimensions. I suppose there really isn't any technical definition of what a netbook is, but common definitions include:

12.1 inch or smaller screen
Under 3.5 pounds
1.5 inches thick or thinner

The Lenovo S12 is seen as a good example of the upper limit of a netbook by some, and some call it a small ultraportable.

That Alienware beast is too heavy and feels too thick to qualify as a netbook. Besides, have you seen that thing in real life? The front chin of that thing looks like it came off the original Batmobile, and the keyboard has the appearance of a cast off from the original Tron sets. It is really cheesy looking, an abortion of shiny plastic and pointless over the top accents.
 
I can't wait for a new Macbook Air, so looking forward to having a light weight computer again. The iPad is great but it's just a reader, I need something that can create.
 
thebez said:
Many netbooks have 11.6 inch screens, and processor does not define the class.
Click to expand...

So if this product is real, it'll be an apple netbook by your terms, but it'll be more powerful than the current 13" mbp. Assuming they give it some ram this time around. I'm guessing a max of 4 gigs.

Small screen or not that would be a much more attractive machine than the mbp.
It would make the pro look like a joke.
 
Small screen?

I don't remember folks complaining about a small screen on the old 12" powerbook and that had an almost full size keyboard.

Being thin at one end made the MBA look thin but at the expence of power, form over function.

That was realised with the iPhone and they went from a round back to a flat back thus increasing the interior volume.

Apply the same logic to a rumoured update for an 11.6" MBA. A uniformly thin case like the iPad and like someone mentioned before ports at the back. Usb ports could be the same size as on a camera. So no excuses for at least a 2nd one and an SD slot for expanding memory as on the Acer Aspire One ;)

That would knock folks socks off and I would buy one in a jiffy.
 
abriwin said:
I don't remember folks complaining about a small screen on the old 12" powerbook and that had an almost full size keyboard.
Click to expand...

Yes, but the 12inch PowerBook wasn't widescreen!

I just don't understand why everyone wants widescreen. I do watch movies on my computer - but only for a small proportion of the time. Most of the time I'm reading the web (portrait orientation pages are best) or productivity stuff (portrait format is best for word processing) or photo editing (half my photos are portrait orientation).

Widescreen just cuts down the number of pixels for a given screen size and forces you to work in a small letter-box format. The smaller the screen you have, the more it sucks. Thank goodness Apple didn't use wide-screen on the iPad.
 
thebez said:
Do you really want to have someone snickering at you while you copy the file on to your hard drive, and then back on to the other thumb drive, especially with how slowly and clumsily OS X deals with thumb drives?
Click to expand...

True, although I see people doing this despite having multiple USB ports all the time. :D
 
What nonsense to call this a netbook. With an i3 and full blown OS X it's simply a smaller MBA! Also an 11.6" screen would be bigger than what is considered a netbook screen (that stops at 10.1" or so...)
Although the form factor seems (remotely) similar, a netbook is a LOT less capable than the suggest MBA in this rumour. So please stop calling it a netbook or even comparing it to a netbook.
 
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