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

I have an iPad and like it less and less all the time. It's fine for listening to music and recorded books or watching video, such as Netflix streaming, but is crippled in most other ways. Although the MBA has its weaknesses, too, it at least can access Flash enabled sites, multitask, and use a broad variety of apps. In stark contrast, the iPad can use only those apps, which Apple deigns to make available for us at the App Store. The bottom line is that the MBA is a real computer but the iPad is not.

I realize it's not a "real" computer. However with the ability to answer e-mails, surf the web, and most importantly (in terms of my job) remote into servers via SSH, RDP, VNC, and telnet, it's powerful enough for me that I can travel to remote offices and work on servers without needing to tote a laptop. For leisure, I can record music on it, work out compositions, score stuff in sheet music, etc. Not bad for what it is, in a 1.5 pound device.

It feels like most of the MBA "haters" in this thread haven't really used one. The 12" PB was my fav apple computer ever. But my MBA is a close second. I have used a 13" MBP as well, but I find little/no need for the optical drive many of you are crowing about.

Literallly the only thing wrong with my MBA RevB right now is that it only has 2gb of ram. I'm a mobile freelance professional, so the light weight, full OSX, full keyboard etc... All does it for me.

Plus I always get cool looks and questions about it in Starbucks. ;)

I've used one, and the 2GB RAM cap is huge, as is the slower processor and lack of larger drives, lack of connectivity (especially FW800 and gigabit ethernet).
 
The new touch sounds about right, I doubt it will get a 5MP cam, but I think it will get a FaceTime front VGA cam and rear 3.2MP cam, and a slight redesign. But it can't have a ton of the features and design as the iPhone 4.
 
It's fast when compared to it's sibling the iPod.

Since the iPod already runs circles around a netbook in terms of speed and responsiveness, this only affirms its speed advantage more strongly.

Also, 1024x768 is not high resolution.

1024x768 may not be considered high resolution on a 60" display, but on a 9/7" display, it certainly is.

Perhaps you were referring to High Definition.
 
11.6" is a screen size already in products...

... I see on the web products incorportating 11.6" screens, BOTH touch screens and non-touch.

Is it technically possible for Apple to use that 11.6" touchscreen that another company recently started using... or does Apple need a new version if they want to go with "touch" ?

Or, does Apple always get custom screens made?

Bottom line.... can the info bit -- of that dimension of 11.6" -- be mined, as a clue about the DigiTimes report's veracity, or to sharpen the rather foggy details?
 
That is super tempting. Stop it!



It would be nice, but then what about the Macbook? This $800 Air would have to be spec'd significantly lower or nobody would buy a Macbook. Though it's life might be limited.

My (maybe somewhat realistic by the time I want to buy a new Mac in Summer 2011) dream 'book would be:

- 12", Air like weight and thinness
- At least 1440 x 900, IPS display, capacitive touch enabled
- Intel Sandy Bridge chipset - 4 cores
- 16gb ram
- 512mb decent graphics
- 512gb SSD with TRIM support in OS X
- At least two USB, HDMI+Audio out
- 12 hour battery life
- iOS 5 installed for quick mode
- Integrated 4g/3g card

BOOM Summer 2011. Please, Apple?

how much are you planning on spending on this???
512GB SSD?! 16gb RAM!!!!!!! this will be like $8000, if it somehow existed
 
i just sold my macbook air rev b 1,6 ssd cto
my experience with a macbook air it was
good
- very light
-must have ssd to be fast
-perfect in the lap

bad
-1 usb (horrible option ) bye bye usb hubs
- bad ventilation, fans allways kicking
- battery only 3 to 4 hours
-performance with 2gb
-apple superdrive sucks a lot

i had the air for almost 18 months , allways trying to make life easier to use, but the air is full of limitacions , bought acessories , superdrives, cables , adapters , a experience i dont want to repeat.

know i have a real mac mbp 13 2,53 refurbishead, great machine , great performance, great battery life , macbook airs with 1 usb ( NEVER AGAIN IT WAS A WASTE OF MONEY)

if apple is really going to built an 11.6 air , if it comes with 1 USB DONT BUY IT , only 2GB RAM DONT BUY IT, NO SSD DONT BUY IT.

that's a shame - so long, it's been good to know you :D

seriously tho I think you were expecting far more from your Air than it was made for.

1 usb is more than adequate since most things the Air was designed for are to be done wirelessly.
I forewent the Apple superdrive and opted for a LaCie Lightscribe Drive (slim Sam Hecht version) which is fantastic and fast and ideal for the obvious burning functions as well as reinstalling OSX etc.

only other additions I have are the mini-display to VGA adapter and of course an Apple remote.

the fans kick in when they need to as they will on a MB and MB Pro.
I use many apps on my Air, even Aperture, but I bear in mind its design paradigms.
the fans, IMHO, do not labor excessively.

for a writer/journalist/presenter/traveller it is the ideal lightweight + powerful machine.
(and it's not a wimpy netbook)

2gb of memory is heaps for me.

for heavier lifting - in more ways than one! - the MB Pro is definitely the go.
as it obviously is for you …

trust you have a great run with your new machine :apple:
 
I'm ready to give Steve Jobs my hard-earned money for an 11.6" MBA with 4GB RAM, 256GB SSD and a decent CPU+GPU combi.
 
Rampant speculation matrix

This spun filament of rumor across the inter-lubes has frenzified my speculatory organ into producing the following output:

p.s. apologies in advance for the mega-post!

11.6 Macbook Air
It's real - 80%
It's fake - 20%
* Makes a lot of sense to me. And I want one.

Weight
3.0 pounds - 10%
2.8 pounds - 60%
2.6 pounds - 30%
* Almost certain to be lighter than 13" model, unless it's packed dense with features or with a heavy focus on battery (yes, a pun there was)

Battery life
5-6 hrs - 30%
7-8 hrs - 40%
10 hrs - 10%
* Tradeoff between weight, battery, size... 2.8 pounds & ~7hrs most likely, but... maybe keep current Air weight, 3 pounds, and give weight savings to extra battery.
* The slim form factor will male a big increase in battery life very difficult.

Shape
Squared - 90%
Tapered - 10%
* Squared off shape with slightly rounded corners seems a near certain bet to me (or sharper lines aka iPhone 4)

Storage type
SSD only - 90%
Hard drive or optional SSD - 10%
* Goodbye, and good riddance to slow 4200rpm mechanical drives.

Storage size
120 GB - 40%
160-200 GB - 30%
250 GB - 10%
Optional 120/250 GB - 20%
* More storage please... Intel 160 GB is possible but unlikely as Apple have expressed no interest in Intel SSD's so far, 194 GB of Samsung is possible.
* Has a huge bearing on cost so 120 GB, at least as an option, is likely
* Having optional sizes unlikely due to fusing direct to motherboard

Screen type
Glossy - 95%
Matte or matte option - 5%
* That's just the way it is. Sorry.

Screen bezel
Yes, a bezel/border - 90%
No, screen to edge - 10%
* Too small for decent keyboard without at least some bezel.

Resolution
1366x768 (16:9) - 70%
1280x800 (16:10) - 20%
High retina style resolution - 5%
Something crazy like 1600x720 - 5%
4:3 ratio screen - 0%
* Pixel doubling on Apple laptops within 2 years likely... not quite ready for prime time yet
* 16:9 fits a full/near-full sized keyboard better

Ports
1 USB + power + mini-DP - 70%
2 USB + power + mini-DP + maybe SD reader + audio - 25%
Ethernet & other 'fat' ports - 0%
One Light Peak to rule them all (LP + power only) - 5%
* Squared off shape would allow many 'slim' ports to be included, but even so Apple favors clean lines & minimalism in design
* A single Light Peak port could drive display & USB etc via adapters/cables.

Port types
USB 3 - 40%
USB 2 only - 50%
Light Peak - 10%
* Hoping for USB 3 at least
* Apple may have decided to go straight to Light Peak & skip USB 3 ports entirely (would support USB 2/3 protocols but with Light Peak connector)
* Light Peak likely not quite ready for market

Dedicated switchable graphics
Yes - 85%
No - 15%
* Apple has made a big move towards better graphics, to the point of holding back the Macbook 13 line from having Core-i series processors
* Lack of optical drive allows more internal space that 13" Macbooks to fit a dedicated card to the motherboard.

Graphics card & vendor
nVidia GT 320m, or similar - 60%
nVidia GT 330m, or similar - 30%
ATI - 10%
* Likely a lower end dedicated graphics card, due to thermal design issues with the small form factor

Memory
4 GB - 60%
2 GB - 30%
2 GB or 4 GB options - 10%
More than 4 GB - 0%
* Desperately needs more memory than 2 GB, and memory configuration options are unlikely due chips living to directly on motherboard

Touchscreen
Touch me baby - 20%
Don't touch what you can't afford - 80%
* Touch to arrive on OS/X eventually, but probably not so soon after iPad

Operating system
OS/X - 95%
OS/X with iOS 'quick-boot' option - 5%
iOS - 0%
* A jumbo iPad with a keyboard? Not a chance.

Keyboard
Full size, to edge - 60%
Near-full, same layout - 30% ?
Near-full, different layout - 10% ?
* Slim but squared-off shape allows keyboard to extend to the edge, unlike the current Air
* There is a big preference from Apple, I believe, to keep current full-size kb... but is it possible at 11.6"? Probably yes with edge kb and enough screen bezel.

Touchpad
Medium-large glass - 75%
Smaller - 20%
New, different, crazy - 5%
* Will a largish trackpad fit? If so... we have a winner.

Processor, for base model
Core-i7 640UM 1200 MHz + turbo - 40%
Core-i7 660UM 1333 MHz + turbo - 10%
Core-i5 540UM 1200 MHz + turbo - 40%
Core-i5/i7 1067 MHz + turbo - 5%
Core-i3 without turbo - 5%
* Cost favors i5 540UM, but i7's have faster turbo speeds
* Non-turbo highly unlikely due to poor performance

Processor options offered?
Yes, faster &/or i5-i7 options - 20%
No, take your Jobs medicine and like it - 80%

Thickness
0.76" (1.94cm) (current Air) - 0%
0.7" (1.78cm) - 5%
0.6" (1.52cm) - 70%
0.5" (1.27cm) - 20%
0.4" (1cm) - 5%
* What exactly is possible here, with component sizes, unibody infrastructure, thermal requirements etc? 1/2" would be great for marketing but is iPad territory. 0.4" is flirting with the unknown... and unlikely/impossible.

Dual 11.6" and 13.3" models?
Yes, large and small to fit the whole family - 30%
No, 11.6" is the one true path - 70%
* I have a feeling they will retain a single MacAir model to avoid fracturing the product line for a flagship/pin-up product.

Design surprises
Something completely new/cool/revolutionary - 10%
Mildly new/cool - 40%
Nada, except as listed here (super slim etc) - 50%
* I don't think there will be too much on the design side apart from the super-slimness. That's enough of an achievement in itself.
* But... what about new materials (glass backing to screen), semi-transparent glass screen, touchpad on underside/outside of case, touchpad build in to keys (touch surface on keys, no dedicated pad), convertible tablet screen (unlikely to Apple as too mechanically complicated), some other cray pointer control to allow removal of touchpad (as form factor may limit size/effectiveness of traditional touchpad - and removal would allow wider than expected form)... and on and on and on :)
* Ohhh, I have it... the glass display panel is touch enabled and "reversible", such that the screen can operate whilst open (with keyboard) or closed in tablet mode (touch screen only). Wow that could be the super-coolest option yet. There have been tech demos of transparant panels which could enable this. And the 'on-screen' kb in touch mode could be the real keyboard underneath with the key areas made semi-transparent whilst in kb mode (so still a soft kb, but co-located with the 'real' keys underneath). < 1%

Price
$999 - 10%
$1199 - 40%
$1499 - 45%
$1500+ - 5%
* Depends on exact feature set, but with dedicated graphics & SSD it's almost certain that hitting $1k will be impossible given Apple quality & design.
* Somewhere between $1200 and $1500 seems likely.
* Over $1500 for an 11.6" machine? Not on my watch. (But on Apples...?)

Would I buy one?
Yes, in a second - 95%
No way man - 5%
* Provided the features & price are similar to what I have listed here, I would buy one in an instant for my wife.

--

Please feel free to invert the speculatory matrix and render your judgement upon the component parts at will... i.e. comment.

So to finish with my personal story:
I currently have a new Macbook Pro 15", and I love it. My wife currently has a Lenovo U110 that she loves... 11.1" 1366x768 and 2.9 pounds with usable battery (2.4 with near useless slim battery). I would prefer to get her a new Mac for her next upgrade, but she won't go for it unless there is a small form factor portable available. It will hopefully be this new, rumored, MacAir... but if not the Lenovo U160 is looking a good bet (similar hardware to this speculation, and around $1200 - without SSD or dedicated graphics). I have been hoping for something like this to come along for a long time now...
 
Good post, but it wreaks of the same optimism that I, and many others shared when we wanted Blu-Ray macs by 2007.

Port types
USB 3 - 0.01%
USB 2 only - 99.99%
Light Peak - 0%

TFTFY ;)

Edit: Also, storage would be in bytes, not bits.
 
Interesting post. What I find odd is thinking Apple would use Core iX in the 11" notebook when they (supposedly) couldn't fit three chips in the 13" system like they do on the 15" versions.

Agreed it's very interesting. This is a factor of the following:
  1. Squared off shape - tick vs current Macbook Air
  2. Lack of optical drive - tick vs current Macbook 13" (White & Pro), as mentioned in mega-post :)

The fact that the motherboard could go wall-to-wall inside the enclosure, and take up all the room otherwise used by an optical drive, means that there would actually be more space for additional chips/components!

There is probably some optimism creeping in on some of the features I'd really like to see... but for the same reason as above, there may be space on the motherboard for a 3rd party USB 3.0 controller. Maybe Light Peak should drop a little. But it really is the perfect Apple/MacAir port... it can handle simultaneous fast data transfer over different protocols in a single port, depending on the implementation. Just think of running an external display plus fast USB 3 speed transfers at the same time.

But yes, I'm sure some things are a little optimistic... especially as it was was around 2 in the morning when I made the post, and with my excitement about the potential of this product :cool:
 
Light Peak FYI...

Maybe there's more of a chance here than people think... I wouldn't put it past Apple & Intel to launch this together with a new flagship MacAir. Intel say on target for late 2010, fancy new pin-up Apple product maybe launching late 2010... perfect synergy and remember the initial Air with it's custom processor packaging to make it possible. I also think Intel are delaying USB 3 support in their chipsets in a large part in order to boost Light Peak. They would welcome the publicity surge for this technology that an exclusive initial launch with Apple would bring.

From Intel:
Intel is working with the optical component manufacturers to make Light Peak components ready to ship in 2010, and will work with the industry to determine the best way to make this new technology a standard to accelerate its adoption on a plethora of devices including PCs, handheld devices, workstations, consumer electronic devices and more. Light Peak is complementary to existing I/O technologies, as it enables them to run together on a single cable at higher speeds. The Light Peak initiative builds on Intel’s commitment in working with the industry on existing I/O standards, and provides a path to continued progress into the future.
 
I really want that gorgeous new camera on the iPhone 4 in a new iPod touch. I'm willing to pay for that privilege if Apple will let me - say like only putting it in the high end touch.
 
Let's see...

Here is a very thin 11.6 inch netbook with 3 USB ports, HDMI, VGA, ethernet, and a SD card reader. Unless Apple makes another completely retarded design decision it shouldn't be much of an issue. Of course Apples recent track record of form over sanity isn't giving me much hope.

Well, the Acer does have a few ports, but it is almost 50% thicker than the current MBA (1.1 inches vs .76 inches). The new MBA is said to be slimmer, so that might make fitting ports a little difficult.
 
being in the market for a new laptop to replace my aging pre-order macbook air myself, i've thought a lot about an 11.6" model and why i don't want one. however, i remember that one of the mba's most touted features when it was revealed was it's full sized keyboard on a thin and small laptop. i highly doubt jobs & co would be willing to give that up, and there's no way they could fit a full keyboard on model with an 11.6" screen, so i have a some credible doubt that there's truth in this rumor.

anyone with me?
 
I'm ready to give Steve Jobs my hard-earned money for an 11.6" MBA with 4GB RAM, 256GB SSD and a decent CPU+GPU combi.

I hate to tell you but you can keep on waiting. I doubt Apple will ever put a decent CPU in any of their laptop models that aren't the 15" and 17" MBP. With luck, you'll get an updated Core2Duo.

Well, the Acer does have a few ports, but it is almost 50% thicker than the current MBA (1.1 inches vs .76 inches). The new MBA is said to be slimmer, so that might make fitting ports a little difficult.

If you mean the yet to be announced Air, the one that we are talking about in this rumor, then sure speculate on about it being slimmer. I'd hate to see an already pretty darn thin machine get any thinner, and not be able to handle the heat a Core processor can put out.

anyone with me?

I am, you are right, and I don't see Apple redesigning a new keyboard given that Apple has most likely saved millions by using the same keys in every key toting Apple product. Unless of course Apple finds a way to use the same keys in a smaller space.

Or, Apple does redesign the keyboard for an 11.6" Air and charges us for it in the end.
 
Erm, of course you can fit a full-sized keyboard on an 11.6". The 12" PB was 4:3 and had a full-sized keyboard, so you can certainly fit one on an 11.6" 16:10.
 
check your data - keyboard may have had all the keys, but wasn't full sized as far as spacing between the keys is concerned.
 
11.6in MBA - its product positioning!.

To Apple, creating a new segment is going to be exciting. Its main purpose is to provide the "next level" product to iPad users. Actually, those who use iPad as the main or only computer.

So positioning would be inside the MB Pro 13 space and below the MBA. It will have a compelling feature. Fully compatibility to iPad apps via emulation. This emulation will likely to be "locked" to this platform.

Brief specs:
11.6in IPS display 1440X900 (do retina ...)
iCore-3 clocked low at 1.2Ghz,
Integrated graphics (no space or power issues with discrete graphics)
2GB RAM wit 1 slot for DDR3 SoDIMM (6GB max).
Twin camera coming from iPhone 4.
USB3 and mini DP only.
64GB SSD/ or 120GB HDD or 128GB SSD (1.8in)
8 hour battery.
2.6lb weight.

Possibility of a "Docking STation" optional accessory (4 hour boost) which will have a battery inside plus USB ports and DP/VGA/DVI/HDMI ports.

Priced at 1199.

So in effect, this is a hybrid Mac/iPad machine.
 
Erm, of course you can fit a full-sized keyboard on an 11.6". The 12" PB was 4:3 and had a full-sized keyboard, so you can certainly fit one on an 11.6" 16:10.

Well, not certainly a full-sized keyboard, but a keyboard yes. And not the keyboard we are talking about, which is the keyboard keys and layout that Apple has in all of it's keyboard toting products.

check your data - keyboard may have had all the keys, but wasn't full sized as far as spacing between the keys is concerned.

You did beat me too it I see.

Brief specs:
11.6in IPS display 1440X900 (do retina ...)
iCore-3 clocked low at 1.2Ghz,
Integrated graphics (no space or power issues with discrete graphics)
2GB RAM wit 1 slot for DDR3 SoDIMM (6GB max).
Twin camera coming from iPhone 4.
USB3 and mini DP only.
64GB SSD/ or 120GB HDD or 128GB SSD (1.8in)
8 hour battery.
2.6lb weight.

Sadly, the one thing that still pains me about rumored specs from many sites is that it mixes technologies from other Apple products that don't mix, and technologies that Apple doesn't control.

I don't see USB3.0 going in the new machine, and I don't see Retina Display making an appearance unless the display maker has the tech.
 
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