Apple to Announce New MacBook, MacBook Pro, and Possibly MacBook Air at WWDC

[psicoloco]

My university and my friend's university (A Cal State and UC - both state schools in California) are having a sale on MacBookcbook pros. This usually happens before an update. I'm starting to believe this is going to be true mostly. I'm not so sure about that macbook air rumor. It wouldn't make sense to have the macbook air and macbook. I'd rather them do the 14" macbook with an upgraded cpu.

I'm putting my horse in this race. I bet, they'll announce the siri speaker and macbook upgrades at WWDC. Makes sense, WWDC is where you'd expect pros to be. Then they'll introduce the new iPad pros later when they announce the phone. They don't want to take away attention from the small bezel so presenting them together (or phone first then iPad) makes sense to me.

 

[BGBUXA]

I dropped a Samsung Evo SSD in my 2011 Macbook Pro and I got lots of new life from the machine. Now I have the "Service Battery" warning and now I'm starting to think it is time to retire my 2011. I am looking forward to seeing what they announce.

 

[kyykesko]

The Macbook Air is dead. Its not coming back, there is no reason with the 12" Macbook and the 13" Macbook Pro both being smaller than it.

You forget two big reasons for Macbook Air: It has a battery that actually lasts most of the workday unlike the other two mentioned. The other one is of course the keyboard. It beats the living daylights out of the horrible ultrathin keyboards those two have. That is, of course, unless Apple decides to have the battery size on Air, too and install that useless keyboard.

Then again, if they do that what reason would they have to refresh it?

Edit: 3rd reason: It actually has a port or two that actually work with current hardware instead of something that may come in a year or five. Not including adapters, of course.
[doublepost=1495135348][/doublepost]

It would take courage to do a CPU speed bump only upgrade, so I'm wary as courage seems to be all that apple has anymore.

They need a reasonably priced 32gb option with a decent gpu. Base models also need to have at least as good battery life as the 2013/2015 models. If they miss those, they might as well pack up their market share and go home. A price cut across the board and non touch bar models (for those that dont need an expensive gimmick) at all performance levels would be nice.

I still think they should release the 2015 form factor with Kaby lake, 32gb, MagSafe, a big honkin battery and a top end mobile gpu. Call it the MacBook power user edition .

A better - much better - keyboard, a battery as big as you can slap on one of those and give me the damned Esc key back. Slap the touch bar above the function keys. Even though I still hate the 4 USB-C -only both from the adapter hell perspective and also from the that's-not-enough-ports-for-real-use perspective I might consider living with it if the biggest issues were fixed. I doubt Apple has courage to do that though. They just slap in some power saving features, decide that the computer can now idle on Apple.com startup screen for 16 hours so it must be more than enough for everyone. Too bad the battery drains in moments if you actually tax the computer.

 

[jblagden]

Let's just pull the band-aid off now, gents.

Mag safe isn't' coming back. Neither are USB-A ports. It hurts. But there it is.

If that’s true, then it’s time to say: “Goodbye Apple. It’s been a great 40 years, but it’s time I take my leave for greener pastures with more ports and expandability”.

Alright, I haven’t actually been buying Macs for 40 years. I’ve actually only bought one Mac, my current one, back in 2011. But I’m tired of Apple removing functionality these past 4+ years. I want to be able to add storage and RAM. I also want to be able to plug something in without always needing an adapter.


Goodbye Mac OS X, and hello Linux!

 

[d4cl00]

Not buying a new Apple laptop because:
- New keyboard stinks. It's horrible.
- MagSafe was super useful. I miss it.
- Specs too low.
- Miss basic connections, e.g. SD card reader.

 

[keifer.street]

I just brought a MBP last week.

Return it. You are still within the window.

 

[GeneralChang]

If that’s true, then it’s time to say: “Goodbye Apple. It’s been a great 40 years, but it’s time I take my leave for greener pastures with more ports and expandability”.

Alright, I haven’t actually been buying Macs for 40 years. I’ve actually only bought one Mac, my current one, back in 2011. But I’m tired of Apple removing functionality these past 4+ years. I want to be able to add storage and RAM. I also want to be able to plug something in without always needing an adapter.


Goodbye Mac OS X, and hello Linux!

Uh... Yeah. Maybe if you had been with Apple for 40 years, you'd know this sort of thing is par for the course. Apple loves to be the ones that make the controversial feature decisions. Getting rid of optical drives, for instance.

 

[richinaus]

Not buying a new Apple laptop because:
- New keyboard stinks. It's horrible.
- MagSafe was super useful. I miss it.
- Specs too low.
- Miss basic connections, e.g. SD card reader.

I will buy one because :
- New keyboard great - no wobbly keys
- Love USB C - don't miss mag safe
- Specs are fine for most tasks
- TB3 / USB C is perfect for the size. buy a faster card reader.

 

[Works4Me]

My biggest issue with the latest apple offering has to do with price - the increase wasn't worth it to me. I'm afraid I have little confidence in Apple to produce a machine that I want without jacking up the price....

 

[kiranmk2]

The main reason for the Air to stick around is the cost - if the Air was discontinued the the lowest priced portable Mac would be the $1300 rMB. Even a $200 price cut for the rMB would still leave the entry level portable Mac >$1000 which is a big psychological barrier. IT wouldn't surprise me if the MBA is still outselling the MBPs now the early upgrade wave has passed.

Apple may be feeling the heat on the MBP sales. All we know is that Mac revenue is up but no more than that. If you remember back to October 2016, there were a lot of people who had held off upgrading for over a year and can probably imagine that a subset of this group were going to buy the 2016 MBP no matter what, a further subset opted for the 2015 model. This big upgrade wave combined with the increased pricing to pretty much guarentee a rise in Mac revenue. The concern for Apple is what happens now the upgrade wave has broken. They have to appeal to the people for who the new Macs are too expensive, or who see no need to upgrade from 2013 or 2014 models. The new models took a lot of flack in the media (by Apple's standards) so I would guess that they are looking to fix the issues more quickly than usually to regain the the high reviews - look for the introduction of terraced batteries to improve MBP battery life, either a 3rd gen keyboard, or a silent fix to prevent stuck keys and quieten them down, a nonTB 15" model, 32 GB option and a slight price cut. Oh, and Kaby Lake of course! I'd like to see 16 GB standard on the 13"TB models too, but I can't see that happening.

 

[smirking]

Spec bumps, Yeah!!!

I would like to actually have a spec bump down. If they could just make this gigantic touchpad the size it was before, the new machine would be perfect to me... expensive, but perfect.

 

[bigjnyc]

I really hope they release the new MacBook, I was expecting it in April but was dissapointed....

For me I don't need much computing power, I do the occasional light video editing, light personal photoshopping, other than that it's safari, iTunes, photos, etc...

And I can't remember the last time I plugged anything in to my laptop, don't remember using a USB drive, cable or SD card in ages. And I guess therein lies the problem, Apple is going after casual users like myself but ignoring the power users and the pros.

 

[snrlbski]

Fingers crossed for a 17" MBP.

As small as they are getting it could be close to the size of an older 15" MBP. And the extra width can give space for extra power.

 

[freezelighter]

Make MacBook Great Again!

 

[SteveW928]

Wow, if this turns out to be true, it really will be a big admission of how badly they screwed up... because this is not like Apple at all. I hope they do it, though, as even though we just bought a MacBook Air, it would tell me they've realized their mistake and are *really* doing something to course correct.

 

[bigjnyc]

Fingers crossed for a 17" MBP.

As small as they are getting it could be close to the size of an older 15" MBP. And the extra width can give space for extra power.

I could see them doing this in the fall to coincide with Kuo's prediction of a true pro macbook with 32gb of ram, but I wouldn't hold my breath for WWDC

 

[flat five]

Thanks for that input. I was all against Apple back in the G4 days, so I didn't know.

since you've been a member here, the hardware announced at WWDC has been:

2009 -- new 13" MBP, 15 & 17" updates.. iPhone 3Gs
2010 -- iPhone 4
2012 -- MBA, MBP, and new retina MBP
2013 -- Mac Pro, Time Capsule, Airport Extreme, and MacBook Air

fwiw

 

[cinder]

Anyone know if Kaby Lake could bring an increase in maximum RAM?

 

[Investor27]

I will buy one because :
- New keyboard great - no wobbly keys
- Love USB C - don't miss mag safe
- Specs are fine for most tasks
- TB3 / USB C is perfect for the size. buy a faster card reader.

Is that you, Tim? Stop posting nonsense, and just give the consumers what they want already.

 

[Feenician]

Is that you, Tim? Stop posting nonsense, and just give the consumers what they want already.

What is it, that "the consumers" want?

 

[Investor27]

Anyone know if Kaby Lake could bring an increase in maximum RAM?

They current Macs could do max RAM right now, but at a cost of the battery reserve.

 

[hiddenmarkov]

And I can't remember the last time I plugged anything in to my laptop, don't remember using a USB drive, cable or SD card in ages. And I guess therein lies the problem, Apple is going after casual users like myself but ignoring the power users and the pros.

Thats half the issue. the other issue is they aren't making a nice midline laptop for your and others like you needs. Same as other vendors do. They have the low level stuff, midline, and the beasts.

Apple kind of corrals most into the MBP with the vanilla option not that great. Apple is really low end and the MBP. Low end Not that bad but given cost of purchase and such...you may as well go big. Which would be fine except it gimps the high end.

Use high end to hopefully avoid the fun flames that fire up if I used pro. Other vendors make their high end just that. Loaded with fun goodies.

well I don't need that some would say. that's cool...get what you need and can afford. It jsut be nice in an ideal world of 3 lines (with current 16 MBP a kind of model of midline) we'd have this option. This midline is where the I don't need that but the low end models lacking could go.

Would it be a massive money maker? Probably not. It make quite a few dollars for sure though. A bullet Dell and others have bitten I imagine. In dell's death by powerpoint slides for higher ups I am sure bar graphs show among their "enemies" are dell themselves for xps sales. More people buy the low and mid lines I'd gather...someone has stats to confirm or deny I would revise my statement.

Which I imagine to dell is okay. Its not going to sell out in millions. Its niche product. they knew this going in. But..its how they acquire niche users. Or at least tempt us to switch. And it is tempting. Saving the estalking at this time my only apple os only apps are bbedit and FCP at this time. I can go back to Ultraedit/Studio for a text editor. And while missed...FCP can be replace as well. Rest a return back to windows-ville real easy. No file transfers by and large...I run and work off a NAS. Install applications that beside the 2 mentioned have windows versions that work exactly the same. Map to NAS and it is SSDD.

 

[General_Luftwaffle]

I still think they should release the 2015 form factor with Kaby lake, 32gb, MagSafe, a big honkin battery and a top end mobile gpu. Call it the MacBook power user edition .

I would order one instantly.

APPLE, are you listening?

 

[SarcasticJoe]

You buy one of the adapters from a good manufacturer it'll come with a warranty. And depending on what you get you might be able to have a system that allows you to use the same charger for your phone, tablet, laptop, etc. I'll take that over another proprietary charging plug any day.

The reason why I said I'd prefer it to be a pack-in is that if it fails and takes with it more than itself, I'm not so sure this small company will even be able to repair or replace my laptop, specially if it's because of a widespread manufacturing defect. If Apple ships a defective charger that breaks laptops, you can be damn sure they're going to replace those laptops as well.

 

[GeneralChang]

The reason why I said I'd prefer it to be a pack-in is that if it fails and takes with it more than itself, I'm not so sure this small company will even be able to repair or replace my laptop, specially if it's because of a widespread manufacturing defect. If Apple ships a defective charger that breaks laptops, you can be damn sure they're going to replace those laptops as well.

Get one that's certified by Apple and there's no worries. If it somehow fries your laptop, Apple will be on the hook the with the manufacturer to make sure everything gets worked out. Besides, I would be astounded if any USB-C accessory like that could break a laptop. Over-voltage or anything like that would likely fry the charger or the plug first, assuming they are certified by Apple. The only possible failure point I can see would be the physical pin assembly inside the port, which is at risk for any USB-C plug and would probably also be covered under Apple's warranty if it breaks.