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

[fyrefly]

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?

Wow, are you dreaming? Not even a $3000+ 17" MBP has those specs (16 GB of RAM?) no way siree.

I love how people are slamming this 11.6" MBA as a "netbook" and "crap" and when the 13" MBA first came out everyone was slamming it 'cause it was "too big" and wondering "where's my 12" PB replacement?!".

Well, here it is folks. Let's at least TRY to be realistic. The 11.6" MBA in Q4 2010 would have the following specs (at most):

- i5-540UM or *maybe* i7-660UM
- 4GB RAM (that's a given - even the MacBook Plastic has this now)
- Probably still the 120GB HDD or 128GB SSD (maybe a 256GB BTO option)
- HOPEFULLY some kind of graphics card - other than Intel HD Graphics, but not sure if there's room for it on the board...
- Same ports (1xUSB, 1xMini DP, Audio)

At 11.6" 1366x768 the screen would actually hold MORE info than the 12" PB:

 

[trip1ex]

Touch should have the better 5mp camera and even 3g. And it seems like a no-brainer to offer a 3g option. The iPad has that option.

Does ATT not want 3g in the Touch so customers are have to buy voice minutes? Is it part of the exclusive contract? OR does Apple not want to cannibalize iPhone sales?

Maybe it would make the Touch too expensive still.

But it seems like they save money in the production lines by making the same device as the iPhone just without the phone innards.

 

[cult hero]

Seriously, who wants to run PS on an < 13" screen for REAL WORK (working for several hours on a project)?!?

Who wants to run PS on a 13" or even 15" screen? There's a reason my laptop spends a good part of its life connected to an external monitor.

 

[eleven59]

smaller screen. thats a fail for me. mbp here i come

 

[AppleRules]

If it'S only available with Core 2 Duo CPU's then forget it.

 

[cvaldes]

Yea, exactly! Why can't Apple make the iPod Touch be an iPhone 4 without the cellphone???

I want GPS, Gyro, 5MP camera, etc, but I REFUSE to pay a cellphone company to have it. I guess I'll just have to buy an iPhone 4 and jailbreak it.

Jobs is such a GREEDY CONTROL FREAK!

While I agree that such a proposed iPod touch would be a very desirable addition to Apple's product lineup, I will point out that as an AAPL shareholder, I'm quite pleased with Apple's management team's ability to increased shareholder value.

Besides, Apple is only paying Steve $1 a year. What do you do for a dollar salary?

If you really want to complain, you should go to the current CEO of every other Fortune 500 company and ask them why they don't perform like Apple. Then ask those CEOs why they are getting paid so much.

 

[CashDude]

I'm a huge fan of the netbook. I own two 10.1 inch HPs and I will NEVER go back to a mid or full size laptop. I don't find the screen to be too small at all. I've heard great things about the MacBooks, so I'm VERY excited to hear about Apple aiming for the netbook crowd. If they can launch it at $999, I'll be all over it.

 

[NT1440]

Why is everyone saying this is a netbook?

Isn't it essentially the remake of the old 12" g4?? (was that the name?)

 

[ten-oak-druid]

The way I see it, as flash memory and SSD come down in price as affordable alternatives to large hard drives, the macbook should become the macbook air.

Picture an air with a couple of slots holding class 10 (or higher in the future) SD cards to boot from with sizes of 1TB or more. One holding MacOS and another holding a bootcamp partition. Throw in a third for holding media or as a time capsule.

When that arrangement is available for the price of today's macbook pro, then then today's air will seem heavy and there would be no need for a macbook that isn't an "air".

The air seems to be a taste of tomorrow's computer for a price. If it suits your needs today then great. But if you need more storage then the air isn't ready for you yet.

I can also imagine a day when the Apple laptop has a detachable screen that becomes an ipad.

 

[CashDude]

It's certainly not going to be a true netbook, but the smaller size may attract netbook fans who love the small size, but are willing to pay more for a more capable and reliable machine. At $298, my current netbooks are pretty much disposable. I would glady pay $1000 for a true Mac experience crammed into a netbook sized body.

 

[Drag'nGT]

I'll have to see it before I can say if I like it or not. If the price drops to under $1000 then it will probably be a nice change. I don't see why they can't keep making the 13", update it and drop the price.

In the mean time I'll continue to love my 13" Air.

 

[ojaysimsanson]

smarty pants

Apple has set themselves up with the iPad. The only bad thing about the iPad, is that it's a media player. It had apps, and apps only.
With this 11" MBA they'll get the customers that wanted a computer out of the ipad, the ones that want liberty on their device. iPad restricts you to what Apple allows you to use.
Also, anyone know if the new iPod touch will have multi-tasking ?

 

[eleven59]

i dont want a smaller screen...and i know im not alone...

though id be fine with two models for people to choose.... in reality id love a 15" that was 3lb, or hell just an updated 13" with the specs everyone knows it needs...

 

[NT1440]

I call BS on the 11.6" screen. It would be too close to the iPad in screen size, making it harder to differentiate the MBA from the iPad. And the MBA would be at least twice the price of the iPad.

You're joking, right?

 

[Marx55]

Imagine it without physical keyboard. A true light and small Mac tablet. FANTASTIC.

 

[Digital Skunk]

...

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.

Why is everyone saying this is a netbook?

Isn't it essentially the remake of the old 12" g4?? (was that the name?)

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.

 

[ojaysimsanson]

Imagine it without physical keyboard. A true light and small Mac tablet. FANTASTIC.

That would be the key product. I'm not sure about the MBA because of how thin it is, you sacrifice your specs, hard drive becomes smaller, Ram decreases, graphics too, as well as overheating goes up. I would rather sacrifice its "thinness" for a decent Mac Tablet!

 

[NT1440]

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.

Didn't realize that you had gotten a hold of one of these new Airs. I personally think Apple learned that people still do value certain types of connectivity with the current air.

I also fully expect SSD's for speed and size. There will be no price drop.

 

[Digital Skunk]

Didn't realize that you had gotten a hold of one of these new Airs. I personally think Apple learned that people still do value certain types of connectivity with the current air.

When you can grip onto 2 lbs of vapor give me a call.

People do value certain types of connectivity in their machine, but Air owners give up that connectivity for thinness. A 11.6" Air won't have any more ports on it than the current one, making it a lot less than a 12" Powerbook.

Any diehard 12" PB user would understand how those ports come in handy at any given time, and being able to stuff you machine and use your machine in tight places comes in handy as well.

 

[aegisdesign]

A 'premium' netbook makes a lot more sense than the 13.3" Air IMHO.

I was quite keen on the Air until you realise it's exactly the same size as a MacBook Pro. Sure, it's thinner but who cares?

Sony and Nokia and a few others have done premium netbooks in the past with decent small screens and non-cheesy plastic cases so there's no reason Apple couldn't. The biggest problem with most netbooks is that they run Windows on a 1024x600 screen which is the worst combination for screen usage.

The premium netbook manufacturers realised that and fit screens like the Nokia Booklet 3G's 1280x720 10.1" screen. But then they still saddled it with an Atom and Windows so it wasn't really any faster than a $400 Asus.

An Air with a small 11.6" 1280x800 or so screen and non-Atom CPU would do pretty well even at Apple's prices.

 

[Digital Skunk]

A 'premium' netbook makes a lot more sense than the 13.3" Air IMHO.

I was quite keen on the Air until you realise it's exactly the same size as a MacBook Pro. Sure, it's thinner but who cares?

Sony and Nokia and a few others have done premium netbooks in the past with decent small screens and non-cheesy plastic cases so there's no reason Apple couldn't. The biggest problem with most netbooks is that they run Windows on a 1024x600 screen which is the worst combination for screen usage.

The premium netbook manufacturers realised that and fit screens like the Nokia Booklet 3G's 1280x720 10.1" screen. But then they still saddled it with an Atom and Windows so it wasn't really any faster than a $400 Asus.

An Air with a small 11.6" 1280x800 or so screen and non-Atom CPU would do pretty well even at Apple's prices.

I think the bigger issue is going to be design. A lot of those premium netbooks are wedge in shape, or are thicker than an inch. I don't know if Apple will be willing to take on a thicker than 1" laptop for the benefits of a small market that is somewhat served by the iPad and MBA.

 

[deconstruct60]

The major downside to this (assuming the Core-i rumor is correct) will be that it will almost certainly have poorer Intel graphics compared to the MBA's current Nvidia 9400m. A 11.6" chassis surely can't contain discrete graphics.

A two core sandy bridge era CPU/GPU package should bring it into approximate parity with 9400m and hit the right thermal envelope. The questions is whether Apple is going to continue this track of spinning that the MBA has gaming as a top 5 marketing priority point or just want to bundle "good enough" graphics. On a smaller screen (fewer pixels), a 9400m class GPU that can play video in low power mode and do simple screen animations is sufficient.

People may criticise specifications and what it's like on paper till the cows come home but for me the proof of the pudding is that I have not seen a more satisfied group of notebook owners than the MBA group.

That is in part that they are a significant number of folks in that group who are caught up in style/status over substance. Even long past when it wasn't the thinnest or lightest notebook.


It wouldn't be surprising to see the MBP 13" to loose the optical drive in next iteration (to gain a discrete graphics ability) and for the MBA to loose 2" in screen ( to gain product differentiation and substantive battery time) and give up on competing with the MBP 13" in graphics performance.

 

[JTVPRO]

Why not a touch screen for the key board similar to the iPad?

Dual Screens like an iPad sandwich or clam? Just thinking different. Call it the iClam or iWich.

 

[Longey Nowze]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

I don't understand why people hate the MBA, My sister and both own one and we love it! It's perfect for web mobile browsing, the keyboard is perfect for editing documents, spread sheets and presnetations.

I don't own another computer, but my sister does And we both like it! I think peope want to use it for stuff it wasn't designed for, which I believe is an ultra portable computer for use when you canlt get to your main PC.

The MBA was apples first unibody laptop it had the integrated battery too, I believe apple was using it to test the technology and manufacturing process.

Would I buy an 11.6" MBA? I'd have to see and use it to be honest, I really hate those netbooks they're useless to me. I'm thinking of buying an iMac just waiting for new ones to be released to compare to the current ones, I'd either buy the new models or get current ones with a discount.

 

[deconstruct60]

At 11.6" 1366x768 the screen would actually hold MORE info than the 12" PB:

That is a deceptive diagram. The 11" screen would be smaller than that. The pixels are going to be denser than they were on the 12" screen so it won't got out so much to the right. It is also going to be a bit shorter. Effectively, everything is going to be smaller on the screen than it was on the 12".

The diagonal from the upper left to lower right can't be longer for the ' 11 inch' display going to the lower right than it is for the '12 inch' lower right of red box and still represent. 12 inches is longer than 11 inches no matter what the number of pixels in the display is.