Apple Sub Notebook Hints: External Optical Drive, MultiTouch Trackpad?

[diamond.g]

What you are getting stuck on is Marketing. 1080p/i are the SAME resolution. There is still 1080 lines of information. Could you please show me a retail HD DVD disc that is not a 1080p disc, because I am having the hardest time finding one.

The newer movies have support for 1080p as its using a 30GB disk, the older 15GB were not true 1080p.



True 1080p not 1080i which is not "true HD."

Then again the industry throws the term HD very easily, 480p/720p/1080i are also coined HD while 1080p is "true HD."

No wonder consumers are confused what HD really is.

Bill: I have an HD TV.

Jim: Is it 1080p.

Bill: Not sure, however it is a HD TV.

Jim: What is the resolution of the HD TV?

Bill: I think its 1080.

Jim: 1080 i or p?

Bill: What is the difference, its an HD TV.

Jim: Let me see, its says it a 1080i HD TV.

Bill: That is HD TV right.

Jim: It is, however you want a 1080p HDTV, which is "true HD."

Bill: Why is this so complicated, all I wanted was a HDTV, and now you are telling me this is not "true HD."

Jim: Sorry Bill, it really is quite simple.

Bill: F#&K...

In regards to the subnotebook, okay Apple removes the optical drive. That only saves a few grams of weight, so where is the other 2-3 pounds going to come from?

I like the Sony prototype, it looks quite cool. But in true Sony fashion if it ever came out, it would be $3K easily.

 

[blackcrayon]

What you are getting stuck on is Marketing. 1080p/i are the SAME resolution. There is still 1080 lines of information. Could you please show me a retail HD DVD disc that is not a 1080p disc, because I am having the hardest time finding one.

I disagree that they are the same resolution- you only have half of the vertical lines on the screen at any given moment in 1080i vs. 1080p. That said, it's hard to tell the difference when watching full motion video. However looking at "still" images like a computer desktop, it's pretty easy to see (some video cards, at least in Windows, allow you to set the resolution to 1080i and 1080p if your display supports it- and you can see a big difference).

 

[Macmanus]

Damn it, I just got a Macbook 4 days ago -_-

I thought it would be a MBP only update

Wow, it looks like some people just don't want to listen...

 

[blackcrayon]

This whole HD-DVD versus Blu-Ray is stupid consider that one is 1080i and the other is 1080p. Most of the TV sets only support up to 1080i and for a 1080p you need to spend the extra. Then we have broadcast stations that only support max 1080i at present (if lucky).

So you are paying a premium for a 1080p TV, Blu-Ray player (or PS3) and Blu-Ray content. just to watch TV in 1080i. This HD revolution is blindly robbing consumers of their well earn money.

Are you sure "most" TV sets only support up to 1080i? All LCD sets (for example) can technically only display progressive signals, although *some* only support a 1080i *input*. But most of the ones I see on the market now support both 1080p input and display. If you go to newegg or something and check the 1080 TVs.. Most all of them these days will fully support 1080p (even the "cheap" ones).

The only sets that really aren't "HD" are those older plasmas with 1024 x 768 panels with rectangular pixels... Now *those* were robbing customers of their money (at least if they thought they were getting an actual "HD" display...)

 

[diamond.g]

I disagree that they are the same resolution- you only have half of the vertical lines on the screen at any given moment in 1080i vs. 1080p. That said, it's hard to tell the difference when watching full motion video. However looking at "still" images like a computer desktop, it's pretty easy to see (some video cards, at least in Windows, allow you to set the resolution to 1080i and 1080p if your display supports it- and you can see a big difference).

A quote from Home Theater Mag:

So Don't Worry (Or Only Worry a Little)
Without question, it would be better if all TVs accepted a 1080p input. (Read that again before you start sending your e-mails.) What I hope this article points out is that, if you have a 1080p TV that only accepts 1080i, you're not missing any resolution from the Blu-ray or HD DVD source. If a TV doesn't correctly deinterlace 1080i, on the other hand. . .well, that's a different article (which is conveniently located on page 64).

Like I said before it is mainly marketing. Italics mine.

 

[I WAS the one]

Apple is acting as a desperate company. I see Apple as a Record Industry and as a Record Industry it has some hits, and some bad results. One big hit was the Apple ][ ... it was a big hit, a great one. The Lisa was a bad record, everuone loves the music but no one understand the lyrics... bad timing, the time pass by and One nice record born: Macintosh..people was dancing again!... then the iMac... BOOM! then the g3 was great also nice track, the g4 was ok and then nobody liked the G4 Cube Mix... bad singers bad music... the G5 was a no no... the intel was an ugly re-mix of somethig aleady done and people love the beat so, it plays great also... the new iMac aluminum was the same music with a different cover... and right now the only hit on streets is the iPod. no matter the iPhone or the iTouch it is the iPod the only Hit this Apple Records has. they desperate to bring a new tunes and they aren't get it it. Apple TV didn't work. Some new kids group called NANOs have on air time but thats it.. the iPod it's the Hit maker... Apple records it's going down and they need a Hit. Do you think the iTablet with Multitouch technology will be the next big hit? I don't think so. (the music is just an analogy)

 

[AidenShaw]

OH MY GOD!

This is a consumer event. When was the last time the Mac Pro/PowerMac line was updated at MWSF, excluding minor bumps?

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/4482266/

Originally Posted by AidenShaw
http://support.apple.com/specs/

MWSF 2006 - MacBook Pro announced
MWSF 2004 - Xserve G5 and Xserve RAID (SFP) announced
MWSF 2003 - PowerBook G4 announced
MWSF 2001 - PowerMac G4 and PowerBook G4 announced
MWSF 1999 - PowerMac G3 announced

It looks like the pattern is every other year for a Pro announcement - so MWSF 2008 is due!

Used to be that MacWorld (jan and late summer) were for all Macs, and WWDC was a little show for developers.

Then Jobs had the big hissy fit with IDG, and pulled out of the east coast MacWorld, saying "it's not necessary".

Of course, Apple's found out that it *is* needed, and has been morphing WWDC into the summer MacWorld.

Anyway, when Apple has something to announce around January, it happens at MWSF - whether it's pro or consumer.

 

[blackcrayon]

A quote from Home Theater Mag:

Like I said before it is mainly marketing. Italics mine.

You're right in the context of blu-ray and hd-dvd since the content is only showing 24 fps... And I realize that was the subject at hand- However if you use your set for other types of content with a higher frame rate, then of course you would be losing out with a 1080i only input (or output for that matter). I was only trying to address the claim by itself that 1080i and 1080p were the "same resolution."

 

[slicecom]

If these rumors turn out to be true, this is the first viable replacement option for my 12" Powerbook IMO.

 

[sushi]

I was just emailed this Spy Photo from Apple HQ.....

Nice to see the PowerBook 2400c being referenced. My friend had one. It was really nice at the time. BTW, the external device is a floppy drive.

These appear to be Sony laptop mockups.

Nice slim design. Would be cool if Apple introduced something slim like this.

And I bought a 32 GB flash drive for $235 @ dealram.com. Would've gone w/ the 64 GB one, but too rich for my blood ($5,000+).

Of course these are retail prices. Wholesale prices are much less.

Hey guys,

I was bored so i've posted a picture of my PowerBook's guts, to give you an idea of how much space is taken up by each component.

Top left = fan, speaker, light sensor, PC card slot
Top right = fan, speaker
Bottom left>Bottom right = battery, Hard Drive, Optical Drive & PRam battery.

Enjoy

And for a Ultra-portable laptop, that is why the optical drive has to go, along with the 2.5 inch HD, and the battery needs to be thinner.

The ultra-portable will have integrated graphics. This is not a game machine.

Agree with you. The ultra-portable will use on board graphics due to size/weight and heat limitations.

Not really. The optical drive isn't that expensive to begin with and it doesn't add that much weight either. When looking at other ultra portable machines you will find that they all have their optical drives internal and they are still light, durable, have superior battery life, and full features.

And not everyone lives without the optical drive.

If they want to take it out, they should at least make it an option to leave it in.

Obviously you do not understand the concept of the ultra-portable.

If you believe me to be wrong, please show me an ultra-portable with a built-in optical drive.

I think I seen that before without the apple logos. Looks sturdy. One thing I do want in a laptop, no matter what size is a batter that lasts for more than 2 hrs as a standard. My Toshiba I bought in 2000, that I just gave to my Pastor (he has really only word processing needs) had a battery that lasted 5 hrs before I had to plug it in. Because my wife can't fly - we take the train a lot. The newer trains are good, as they have a plug. But if you get stuck on the older ones, so much for using my laptop after the first 2 hrs.

See my quote above. It is a PowerBook 2400c which was introduced in 1997. It had a 10.4 inch screen. It was made for Apple by IBM.

Why are people even considering this to be real?!

They aren't. It's just someone's idea of what it might look like. And they are critiquing the concept.

If Apple could give me a laptop the same size as my PB15 with a thickness of about 0.4 to 0.5 inches, weigh around 3 pounds max, with 32GB flash memory HD, or a combination 1.8 inch HD and flash memory, I would be there in a heartbeat.

 

[MacBoySeattle]

LOL I thought you Apple message board nuts were a smarter bunch, but I wouldn't expect anything more from people who know more about design than technology.

To clear up the record, HD DVD is 1080p just like BluRay, always has been. All HD-DVD discs are encoded in 1080p. Of the current batch of HD DVD players, only one model, the lowest end one, outputs 1080i only, all the rest output 1080p. Why don't you apple simpletons visit AVS Forums and get some real knowledge of industries other than your design driven toy products.

 

[diamond.g]

Nice to see the PowerBook 2400c being referenced. My friend had one. It was really nice at the time. BTW, the external device is a floppy drive.


These appear to be Sony laptop mockups.

Nice slim design. Would be cool if Apple introduced something slim like this.


Of course these are retail prices. Wholesale prices are much less.


And for a Ultra-portable laptop, that is why the optical drive has to go, along with the 2.5 inch HD, and the battery needs to be thinner.


Agree with you. The ultra-portable will use on board graphics due to size/weight and heat limitations.


Obviously you do not understand the concept of the ultra-portable.

If you believe me to be wrong, please show me an ultra-portable with a built-in optical drive.

Sony VIAO TZ Series somewhat captures your request for an ultra portable with a builtin dvd writer.

See my quote above. It is a PowerBook 2400c which was introduced in 1997. It had a 10.4 inch screen. It was made for Apple by IBM.


They aren't. It's just someone's idea of what it might look like. And they are critiquing the concept.

If Apple could give me a laptop the same size as my PB15 with a thickness of about 0.4 to 0.5 inches, weigh around 3 pounds max, with 32GB flash memory HD, or a combination 1.8 inch HD and flash memory, I would be there in a heartbeat.

I think it would be pretty difficult to have any sort of power with a case that is only .5 inches thick. How would you cool the thing?

 

[Grimace]

LOL I thought you Apple message board nuts were a smarter bunch, but I wouldn't expect anything more from people who know more about design than technology.

To clear up the record, HD DVD is 1080p just like BluRay, always has been. All HD-DVD discs are encoded in 1080p. Of the current batch of HD DVD players, only one model, the lowest end one, outputs 1080i only, all the rest output 1080p. Why don't you apple simpletons visit AVS Forums and get some real knowledge of industries other than your design driven toy products.

Ease up partner. The misinformation of one or two users doesn't mean that thousands of other users are misinformed.

 

[gangzoom]

To clear up the record, HD DVD is 1080p just like BluRay, always has been. All HD-DVD discs are encoded in 1080p. Of the current batch of HD DVD players, only one model, the lowest end one, outputs 1080i only, all the rest output 1080p. Why don't you apple simpletons visit AVS Forums and get some real knowledge of industries other than your design driven toy products.

I went to the sony shop last weekend ready to part with some cash and be "blown away by the life like colors of Bule-ray DVDs on an £2K full HD Bravia screen"...walked out 5 minutes latter pretty diassapointed...my 4 years old apple cinema display has better reproduction, and the step up in picture quality over standard DVDs wasn't impressive at all (that could be because my eyes have such a poor native resolution).... I think ill wait for the "Super Ture High Definition 9999P format"...hope by that time HDMI version 1.438 will support the THX approved 15.2 "Better Than Real Life Ture Sound" format


On the other hand i now have a wedge of cash spare, maybe Apple has finally made another laptop as good as my current G3 Pismo (8th birthday in 10 days )

 

[ojwk]

Just with reference to and earlier poster, I really wouldn't recommend buying a new Mac between Christmas and Macworld. I really can't see the point in taking such a large gamble that they won't replace your current model with a much more desirable latest innovation. Especially with something like a MBP which is possibly scheduled for a renovation about now.

 

[blackcrayon]

Ease up partner. The misinformation of one or two users doesn't mean that thousands of other users are misinformed.

When most of someone's posts consist of "LOL" and "you apple fanboys" or some slight variation, they start to lose credibility after a while

Anyway, slightly on-topic, I wonder if Apple will really include an HDMI output on the subnotebook instead of DVI, would certainly save space over the big DVI connector...

Oh yeah, just remembered "mini-dvi", good luck finding that dongle when you need it though (since only Apple seems to use it).

 

[bigandy]

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/4482266/

Thanks for answering my question: 2001.

 

[DisturbedLen]

You must be one of those with Cellular Wireless. Most laptop's have wireless (Wifi), blue tooth, etc built in. I really do not see much use for those. A card reader for the little storage cards that go in camera's ok. But I do not pop my card out of the camera. Most manufactures agree that the connectors wearing out and risk of static when sliding those cards in and out is not work taking them in and out.

I have a wireless cellular card in my MBP. Wifi is not available in most places, so I depend on the cellular card for access. I would like to get another laptop, maybe a Macbook (since it is cheaper), but the lack of an express card makes my cellular card useless.

 

[AidenShaw]

MWSF is an Apple show, not a "consumer" show...

Thanks for answering my question: 2001.

Don't forget the Xserve and Xserve RAID in 2004 - those certainly aren't consumer machines. The MBP in 2006 also qualifies as a "pro" machine according to Apple's naming convention.

MWSF is not a "consumer-only" show, which is the point of my post.

(and not only is the Mac Pro (and its graphics options) rather dated - but Intel announced new CPUs and chipsets way back in early November. It's time....)

 

[jhamerphoto]

I can't be bothered to read the 13 pages of discussion on this topic, but I thought I'd throw in my two cents.

I don't see how special the multi-touch trackpad can be. It's still a tackpad, and I'd much rather use my mighty mouse as opposed to a small sensitive pad on the body of my laptop. Sure it's great if you don't have room to use a mouse like on an airplane, but even still, how much more productive would it really make you?

As for the external optical drive, I can't see apple making you actually plug something in just to burn a CD. (Although, maybe all drives would be standard, a nice feature considering my opt. drive in my MBP wouldn't read the Leopard DVD) It still seems too inconvenient for Apple. They strive for all-in-one design, and now they're suddenly going to stray from that?

Last note on the touch-screen capability of the MBP:
Touch-screens are sloppy. I work with them all the time at work, and they're just not something apple should invest in for their more serious computers. Maybe in the Macbook, where speed, precision etc. isn't important, but certainly not in the MBP. The only time touch-screen is actually worth-while is in a mobile device like the iPhone where a mouse or key-based navigation system isn't practical. Touch screens don't last as long, their colour accuracy dies quickly, and they're just useless 90% of the time, seeing as your fingers are 5x the size of the close button of every window. (And with Apple's love for glossy screens, why would they incorporate a feature which requires cleaning every 10 seconds?)

 

[AidenShaw]

I have a wireless cellular card in my MBP. Wifi is not available in most places, so I depend on the cellular card for access. I would like to get another laptop, maybe a Macbook (since it is cheaper), but the lack of an express card makes my cellular card useless.

There are USB cellular dongles available that work in the MacBook.

I realize that you probably want to use the one cellular card in both machines, rather than buy another piece of hardware.

 

[DisturbedLen]

There are USB cellular dongles available that work in the MacBook.

I realize that you probably want to use the one cellular card in both machines, rather than buy another piece of hardware.

I know. But if they could just allow tethering via the iPhone, this would be a non-issue. I already pay $20 extra per month for a "crippled" iPhone data plan... It's crippled because they purposely do not have flash... Without flash, the AT&T network seriously limits its ability to "stream". The lack of Flash (in my opinion) is because of AT&T, and not due to Adobe not porting it or Apple's push for Quicktime.

 

[Digital Skunk]

I know. But if they could just allow tethering via the iPhone, this would be a non-issue. I already pay $20 extra per month for a "crippled" iPhone data plan... It's crippled because they purposely do not have flash... Without flash, the AT&T network seriously limits its ability to "stream". The lack of Flash (in my opinion) is because of AT&T, and not due to Adobe not porting it or Apple's push for Quicktime.

I think it's both. AT&T doesn't support it along with many other advanced cell phone features like ... insurance and Apple isn't pushing AT&T to make their product stand out amongst the rest of the competition.

 

[mbonamassa]

The trackpad on current Gen. MB & MBP's is already multi-touch...

I get the idea that the rumor of the MultiTouch trackpad are to be more aligned with gestures and such Ala iPhone but the current trackpad technology already supports the ability to separately identify multiple touch points. That is how you can drag two fingers down the pad to scroll (like a wheel). So is there just new software in the OS/X interface for leveraging MultiTouch or is there really new technology?

 

[CWallace]

I like that idea. I think the back of the LCD could be another LCD, or like that clear LCD one. That way you don't have to turn the monitor around to get a tablet, just close the lid.

I know IBM used to offer a Thinkpad with a clear LCD that you overlaid on an overhead projector to display images on a screen or wall.

And one of the Korean LCD manufacturers showed off a dual-sided LCD recently.

Clearly this device would be called the MacBook Nano. 10 inch screen, 16GBs onboard flash HD, 1gb or 2 of ram, one of those nice new intel cpus, no optical drive (obviously) and loads of wireless connectivity.

16GB would like be enough storage for usability apps like Office 2008 or iWorks 2008. You could also keep a small music or video playlist on it. Such a machine would not be meant to run any Adobe apps (other then Flash and Acrobat) ir games, so you could use an integrated GPU like the Intel 3x000 and a ULV CPU.

Last note on the touch-screen capability of the MBP: Touch-screens are sloppy. I work with them all the time at work, and they're just not something apple should invest in for their more serious computers...Touch screens don't last as long, their colour accuracy dies quickly, and they're just useless 90% of the time, seeing as your fingers are 5x the size of the close button of every window.

I have to respectfully disagree. I support a few hundred Panasonic Toughbooks and I really like the touchscreen LCDs on them. In fact, I sometimes poke my MacBook to try and launch applications or move icons.