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I for one hope that it isn't 11.6 inch or if it is that there is a 13 inch model too.

I travel a lot for my research degree and a 11.6 would simple be to small for me to comfortably work on.

However I can understand the 11.6 and the use that a lot of people will get out of it so at least some people will be happy.

With any luck in the future the 13inch mb will lose its optical drive and so that will be a bit lighter so I would look at that.

All will be revealed with any luck on Wednesday:)
 
It is? Bugger! How can you tell?

It says so in the Engadget article.

Also, it's apparently running the same Core 2 Duo SL9400 processor of the current generation MacBook Air -- possibly further proof that this is a very early prototype (our source says the model dates back to at least April)
 
Hey that things is reported to be a 13 incher! :D
Meanwhile someone took the time to measure the size of the components on the Engadget picture. It fits the rumoured 11,6" so no evidence of an upcoming new 13".
 
Hey that things is reported to be a 13 incher! :D
Meanwhile someone took the time to measure the size of the components on the Engadget picture. It fits the rumoured 11,6" so no evidence of an upcoming new 13".

I wouldn't trust the screenshot as the About this Mac information is pulled from a config file, not from the actual hardware. It's pretty easy to put in whatever you like. Being a prototype, it could very well be that they did a copy/paste of the original Air config and only updated the hw revision.
 
Apple needs to make the Macbook air something people want and need . The Macbook Air is a novelty product and is an overprice netbook. 1499 is a ridicules price 800 dollars and lower is the best way to go
 
Meanwhile someone took the time to measure the size of the components on the Engadget picture. It fits the rumoured 11,6" so no evidence of an upcoming new 13".

I wouldn't trust the screenshot as the About this Mac information is pulled from a config file, not from the actual hardware. It's pretty easy to put in whatever you like. Being a prototype, it could very well be that they did a copy/paste of the original Air config and only updated the hw revision.

According to the article on macrumours main page its 13 inch
 
Meanwhile someone took the time to measure the size of the components on the Engadget picture. It fits the rumoured 11,6" so no evidence of an upcoming new 13".

If you measure the power plug socket and extrapolate it comes to the width of a 13" machine. This is not the 11.6".
 
On the top left there is something that looks like the SSD daugther board. It shows the 4 flash chips and the controller. Its impossible to read however by comparing the layout of whats printed on the chip, it looks like its a Toshiba T6UG1XBG as used in the Kingston SSDNow V+ G2.

This has a performance of 230MBps read, 180MBps write with TRIM support. See http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=393&Itemid=60

(and yes, I'm aware that TRIM is not supported by OSX...)
 
On the top left there is something that looks like the SSD daugther board. It shows the 4 flash chips and the controller. Its impossible to read however by comparing the layout of whats printed on the chip, it looks like its a Toshiba T6UG1XBG as used in the Kingston SSDNow V+ G2.

This has a performance of 230MBps read, 180MBps write with TRIM support. See http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=393&Itemid=60

(and yes, I'm aware that TRIM is not supported by OSX...)

That would make sense: flash + controller = SSD. It might have those performance specs but if they use half the number of flash chips they would have half the bandwidth and could half those numbers. The link shows a drive with 8 flash chips, the daughter board shows 4 but may have more on the reverse.
 
If you measure the power plug socket and extrapolate it comes to the width of a 13" machine. This is not the 11.6".
Guess that depends on what you assume is the power plug? If you take the small plug on the top left, than you're probably right. If you take the larger thing on the top right (same position as on original Air), than everything becomes a bit smaller.

Taking the USB port on the left as reference (12mm), I'm getting a width of 230mm or 9" which is even too small for a 11'6" screen. A 10.1" screen would however be a perfect fit. In that case we might end-up with a netbook sized Air after all :rolleyes:

35lvxpe.jpg
 
Guess that depends on what you assume is the power plug? If you take the small plug on the top left, than you're probably right. If you take the larger thing on the top right (same position as on original Air), than everything becomes a bit smaller.

Taking the USB port on the left as reference (12mm), I'm getting a width of 230mm or 9" which is even too small for a 11'6" screen. A 10.1" screen would however be a perfect fit. In that case we might end-up with a netbook sized Air after all :rolleyes:

vddf5v.jpg

I measured the plug on the top right of the picture in pixels, then I measured the width of the machine in pixels. Pixel for pixel its almost exactly 320mm. I think the mistake you made is calling the USB port 12mm. The opening might be 12mm but you have to add a mm each side for the case. Given that assumption you get 0.4375mm per pixel and a width of about 320mm.

There's a few other things I think you're off on. The display port is not going to be full sized so the thing you mark as display port is probably a usb (or maybe even ethernet) and the possible audio is the right size for mini displayport. Audio would have to be deeper to accommodate the plug.

The thing you mark as graphics is more likely the IO chip (north/south bridge) I very much doubt they would have discrete graphics because of heat issues.
 
I measured the plug on the top right of the picture in pixels, then I measured the width of the machine in pixels. Pixel for pixel its almost exactly 320mm. I think your maths is off.
It's not the math but the selection of the reference plug we don't seem to agree on. You choose the connector on the top left, I choose the larger connector on the right and assumed it is an USB port with 12mm. Based on your math that port would be about 17mm, which is a bit large for a USB.

The display port is not going to be full sized so the thing you mark as display port is probably a usb (or maybe even ethernet) and the possible audio is the right size for mini displayport. Audio would have to be deeper to accommodate the plug.
Agree. Initially I though the upper left was DisplayPort. Than I realized that Apple typically locates power and video in immediate proximity for docking. Either the top left or the bottom right is Displayport. As the bottom port on the right differs from the one on the left, I don't think both are USB. The left I'm pretty sure its USB.

The thing you mark as graphics is more likely the IO chip (north/south bridge) I very much doubt they would have discrete graphics because of heat issues.
The lack of GPU in the original Air caused much more heat problems. I doubt that the new air won't come with discrete graphics, especially since a GPU was added to the 2nd gen.
 
I'd wait until more details come out on this - for instance, I don't want another unpleasant netbook experience where I find that, say, an Atom processor cannot run PowerPoint. My guess is whatever chip Apple ends up putting in these teeny Airs will be sufficient for (hopefully) any and all Apple application, and therefore we'll have a really small MacBook Air that might be a bit slow at times, but otherwise unspeakably convenient.

I see my dad getting one of these on a whim, is all...:rolleyes:
 
It's not the math but the selection of the reference plug we don't seem to agree on. You choose the connector on the top left, I choose the larger connector on the right and assumed it is an USB port with 12mm. Based on your math that port would be about 17mm, which is a bit large for a USB.


Agree. Initially I though the upper left was DisplayPort. Than I realized that Apple typically locates power and video in immediate proximity for docking. Either the top left or the bottom right is Displayport. As the bottom port on the right differs from the one on the left, I don't think both are USB. The left I'm pretty sure its USB.


The lack of GPU in the original Air caused much more heat problems. I doubt that the new air won't come with discrete graphics, especially since a GPU was added to the 2nd gen.

I went by the picture markings and the usb port you marked and measured to be 12mm. I measured the opening on my MBP and it is 12mm. I added 2mm for the casing and it comes to 14mm. I have no idea where you got 17mm from. I measured the pixels on the picture for that port and calculated the actual size of the pixels then multiplied by the number of pixels across the case.

The bottom right cannot be display port. Are you saying, after having mini displayport on all their laptops that apple are suddenly going to use a full sized displayport?

All MBAs come with a gpu that is integrated into the IO chip. The assertion that there were heat problems because of a lack of one doesn't make any sense at all. If there was a separate gpu then it would need to have a large heatsink or fan, neither of which appear on this prototype.
 
The assertion that there were heat problems because of a lack of one doesn't make any sense at all.
My 1st gen Air gets very, very hot when playing video and doing other graphic intensive stuff as it lacks a discrete GPU (unless you count an Intel X3100 as discrete GPU). The 2nd generation has a NVIDIA 9400M with full hardware acceleration, keeping the CPU substantially cooler.

The bottom right cannot be display port. Are you saying, after having mini displayport on all their laptops that apple are suddenly going to use a full sized displayport?
No, that would obviously be stupid :cool:
 
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