Apple to Release Thinner MacBook Pro at WWDC

[Konrad]

And this is a mainstream requirement? More so than lighter and thinner?

I am sorry, you are correct. I keep forgetting that it is only in the name and the whole line is going mainstream. Perhaps the will even call it an iPro?

In any case, if the release is in June it is a done deal and they are stockpiling it already in warehouses, so some of us will most likely get royally screwed, the others will be gaga happy with the latest and greatest, some will migrate to a PC, yet others will certainly help unload the current inventory and few will now travel with an imbecile fanny pack full of adapters. Happy 2012 to all.

On the other hand apple will actually save money in manufacturing while increasing per unit profit. Overall saving in material, tooling time, etc will decrease in sizable figures, while per container/pallet units will increase.

 

[CountSessine]

Are you saying that the "Pro" moniker is meaningless? "Pro" means not mainstream.

I use my computer for work. Professional. "Pro". And my work would be better served by a laptop with a fast CPU (ie not what comes with an MBA), and better portability. There you go.

 

[kustardking]

I use my computer for work. Professional. "Pro". And my work would be better served by a laptop with a fast CPU (ie not what comes with an MBA), and better portability. There you go.

Sorry, I thought he was talking about the Macbook Pro.

 

[CountSessine]

I am sorry, you are correct. I keep forgetting that it is only in the name and the whole line is going mainstream. Perhaps the will even call it an iPro?

Please. This is about as interesting as a bunch of hack artists in a lousy bar accusing each other of "going commercial". We all benefit from apple's economies of scale. Buying a thousand CNC milling machines from Fanuc isn't cheap. Apple splits their product line at their peril.

And just like all those guys who bellyached about losing SCSI ports, ADB, and the rest, this is all going to sound pretty silly in a couple of year's time.

In any case, if the release is in June it is a done deal and they are stockpiling it already in warehouses, so some of us will most likely get royally screwed, the others will be gaga happy with the latest and greatest, some will migrate to a PC, yet others will certainly help unload the current inventory and few will now travel with an imbecile fanny pack full of adapters. Happy 2012 to all.

Well, i hate to say this, but better you carry your imbecile pack than I carry an extra pound of laptop to satisfy your niche requirement. But if you really want bigger, heavier, plastic, and Windows, you know where to get it.

 

[cire1244]

I'm still not convinced that this isn't just a rumor of a super 15" MacBook Air. Then Apple keeps/revamps/updates the MacBook Pro line, keeping ODD, Ethernet etc.

This just makes the most sense to me.

 

[roadbloc]

You honestly believe that people won't buy the brand new Apple Macbook Pro with a retina display thinner design and flash memory because it doesn't carry an ethernet port?

No, but do bare in mind that the Macbook Pro is supposedly intended for the pro market. Obviously this has been expected for a long time though as Apple have done nothing but shift away from that market for the past four years.

 

[tobyw7]

It's not gigabit.

Was just about to say the same thing. Surely Apple could develop a Gigabit ThunderBolt Ethernet Adapter?

 

[JFRENCH35]

Good News!

I've been hoping to upgrade eventually, this may be a good opportunity.

The SuperDrive will become a battery in lieu of the thinner design. If not, it will be an additional hard drive (solid state storing commonly accessed material, whereas hard disk will store thing).

Also I've gotta say, the MBA isn't an overpriced $150 netbook. Those things are pretty junky. If anything, it's an overpriced $500 netbook, and charging twice what competitors do is nothing new for Apple. Because of the price you get hardware that was actually DESIGNED and thereby possesses aesthetic quality. You also get a real, legitimate, warranty (not really offered by competitors if we're honest). You also get software with fewer bugs and greater functionality. I'll just say that my WAY overpriced laptop is 7 years old and it works great, its fast, and still beats the hell out of brand new PCs my friends have purchased. Overpriced? Maybe... Maybe not... Rant concluded.

 

[justperry]

Actually if you lug your laptop around all day in a backpack or shoulder bag, then scuttle around from meeting to meeting with it all work day, then, yes, it is indeed a bulky laptop.

Cyclists spend an extra $1000 to shave a few pounds off the frame. If you're a freelancer in the city and run around everywhere with your laptop you'd do the same. Every pound taken off is a relief.

I so badly want to make my Air my primary computer, but it's not powerful enough. This news is music to my ears.

Why has nobody asked the question: when will we redesign the ethernet connector? It's huge and has been around since the 1970's. A redesign of that big $0.02 piece of plastic is long overdue.

I agree with your first point, lugging around a whole day is a bit of a chore.

Second point.
Those that do have that behaviour are complete morons except for those professionals who make serious money with racing.
The two most important improvements on a bicycle are tires and wind resistance, the narrower and more smooth the tire are the faster you are, wind resistance is a factor which you can't do much about, different frame and different clothes/helmet will safe just a bit.
I've been cycling all my life, travelled around the world on a bike (5 years) with 30-35Kg of weight and believe me 1 extra Kg doesn't make a hell of a lot of difference.

And lastly.
The problem is that the ethernet port is used widely in IT/Industrial Automation and so forth and those are very conservative changing accepted standards.
But I agree, it should have changed a decade ago or longer.

 

[twist16]

No Ethernet? I don't see this going down well. Thunderbolt hasn't been adopted enough for it to replace Ethernet.... yet. Will it do in the future, I'm not too convinced about that either. So far, to me, Thunderbolt has been FireWire 3.

Sonnet make a gigabit ethernet adapter for thunderbolt. if you really need ethernet still you can just attach one of those adapters to the end of your cable. Alternatively presuming most people still using ethernet would be using it at a desk the thunderbolt display and soon to launch belkin thunderbolt dock provide excellent connectivity for a workstation and both utilise gigabit ethernet!


My real concern is with the loss of the superdrive and therefore optibay, will I be still be able to use two internal drives? e.g. an ssd and a standard hdd. Going back to a laptop with only one drive will seriously cripple me. I'm hoping Apple will stick two 2.5" SATA bays in there although I'm not sure they will. At the very least I'm hoping they might install a MBA style SSD and leave a SATA bay intact. Although this isn't ideal as Apple's SSD's in the MBA have been in the past much slower than other ssd's on the market, it would still be less of a blow than going back to only one storage medium.

 

[Konrad]

Please. This is about as interesting as a bunch of hack artists in a lousy bar accusing each other of "going commercial". We all benefit from apple's economies of scale. Buying a thousand CNC milling machines from Fanuc isn't cheap. Apple splits their product line at their peril.

And just like all those guys who bellyached about losing SCSI ports, ADB, and the rest, this is all going to sound pretty silly in a couple of year's time.

Well, i hate to say this, but better you carry your imbecile pack than I carry an extra pound of laptop to satisfy your niche requirement. But if you really want bigger, heavier, plastic, and Windows, you know where to get it.

What "all"? You carry the extra funny pack and the extra pound. Who cares what happens in a couple of years, this is here and now.

Ok, once again, how does one connect a 30 inch cinema display to it? Or a digital projector? WTF, the gaga trendy skinny no muscle boys with pierced nipples and no women, too frail and afraid of the extra pound will no longer be able to make that earth shattering presentation on their new nose jewelry line at the corporate ******** office in buttville anymore without the VGA hookup. Give us men a portable, configurable workstation you bunch of ....girls!

 

[KnightWRX]

Can someone here please define "professional" ?

Seriously.

I fully expect 10 different definitions.

I've been asking for this for quite a while. Everytime these threads come up and broad generalizations are made about "real pros" limited to a sub-set of a niche of certain "pros".

It's annoying really.

A Pro is someone who has a profession. End of story. That's what a professional is. His tools are the tools of a professional which he uses in his profession.

Built-in Ethernet ? I know many professionals who don't give a flying crap about it, an adapter is fine. I'm one of many professionals who prefers the MacBook Air over the MacBook "Pro". I don't need a 3 letter acronym on my laptop's bezel to remind me of my "status".

With USB 3.0 coming, we'll finally see USB->Ethernet adapters that can do gigabit speeds. Thunderbolt is a non-solution for Ethernet, ridiculously overpriced (because of active cabling and controllers).

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I work in IT support and the lack of an ethernet port would cause problems for a lot of people which in turn would mean a lot of lost sales. Some companies don't have wifi, some have older (i.e. slower) wifi routers and others block wifi access to their internal network.

I work in systems administration. My company has no wifi. I use my Macbook Air to work with, it being a Unix workstation, my servers being Unix.

Listening to some of you, there's no way I can get any work done because of lack of built-in Ethernet. That can't be more far from the truth. Ethernet is still there, it's just not "built-in". Who gives a crap, the adapter works like a charm.

Reminds me of all the "But without an external COM port, how will I ever configure my IOS routers!" crying when those disappeared from laptops (non-Macs). Funny, I was still configuring PIXes without a built-in COM port just fine. It's a wonder some people get any work done with that attitude.

 

[BK.]

And this is a mainstream requirement? More so than lighter and thinner?

I'm guessing it is, because if someone cared THAT much about thinner and lighter, well, they'd be purchasing the Air in the first place.

Pretty easy to understand when you think about it...

Also... guys, we need to stop arguing about who is a Pro and who isn't. At the end of the day, no1curr. We're all sat on a forum about Mac rumors; we're all as pathetic as each other. No need to try and convince people we're all super pros.

After all, if we were that good, we probably wouldn't be spending so much time on here.

(And no, I'm not a pro and nor do I profess or aspire to be. I'm a university student and I'm fine with that).

 

[Skystalker]

How long...

...does it usually take for new products to hit stores after Apple's introduction? Will be in the US until June 30 and would love to grab one on the way...

 

[Abazigal]

I'm guessing it is, because if someone cared THAT much about thinner and lighter, well, they'd be purchasing the Air in the first place.

Pretty easy to understand when you think about it...

Also... guys, we need to stop arguing about who is a Pro and who isn't. At the end of the day, no1curr. We're all sat on a forum about Mac rumors; we're all as pathetic as each other. No need to try and convince people we're all super pros.

After all, if we were that good, we probably wouldn't be spending so much time on here.

(And no, I'm not a pro and nor do I profess or aspire to be. I'm a university student and I'm fine with that).

It's not always all or nothing. I can be looking for a variety of factors in a laptop, and smaller/slimmer/lighter can be just one aspect, but still enough of a draw to influence my purchasing decisions.

I don't think it is a bad move. At a time where every other company is apparently going all out to ape the MacBook air with their ultra books, now can be a good time to do an about face by releasing a whole new slew of laptop options and focusing on the pro.

 

[KnightWRX]

After all, if we were that good, we probably wouldn't be spending so much time on here.

It's because I'm that good that I can spend this much time on here actually. I don't need to spend 3 hours on a problem, I can fix it rather quickly and post on here in the downtime.

 

[the-wanderer]

Im going into graduate school next year and am curious why you stick to Macs if you have all these concerns (similar to my concerns).

maybe because OSX is a decent version of Unix that supports latest hardware and software technologies unlike BSD, FreeBSD or craptastic Linux

 

[Josh M]

What "all"? You carry the extra funny pack and the extra pound. Who cares what happens in a couple of years, this is here and now.

Ok, once again, how does one connect a 30 inch cinema display to it? Or a digital projector? WTF, the gaga trendy skinny no muscle boys with pierced nipples and no women, too frail and afraid of the extra pound will no longer be able to make that earth shattering presentation on their new nose jewelry line at the corporate ******** office in buttville anymore without the VGA hookup. Give us men a portable, configurable workstation you bunch of ....girls!

I've never seen someone so blatantly insecure about their masculinity.

 

[fredoviola]

The incessant whining is amusing. I wasn't around in those days, but I know those drums were beating even back in 2004 on these forums. Don't people get tired of it?

Folks are upset because their workflow is being mangled.

I have not used a thunderbolt adapter and wonder if it there will be any loss of speed by adding an adapter into the mix. So you see, that bit of a question-mark just creates stress if you have come to rely on your workflow. I'm pretty relieved to hear that there is a fw to thunderbolt adapter, but what about cd/dvd drive? I suppose this means I'll have to shell out for an external drive, which means the loss of a usb port. Do you see why this could be upsetting?

BTW, I think folks are "whining" because they would like their view known publicly in the hopes that Apple could be listening. Glad it amuses you.

 

[KnightWRX]

maybe because OSX is a decent version of Unix that supports latest hardware and software technologies unlike BSD, FreeBSD or craptastic Linux

OS X is also quite behind "craptastic" Linux in many hardware and software technologies. The Linux kernel is quite a bit more advanced in terms of enterprise support than OS X is.

Volume management is one glaring flaw in OS X's kernel. Linux' LVM support and 3rd party support for solutions like VxVM, it makes it much easier to administer storage.

 

[theSeb]

Folks are upset because their workflow is being mangled.

I have not used a thunderbolt adapter and wonder if it there will be any loss of speed by adding an adapter into the mix. So you see, that bit of a question-mark just creates stress if you have come to rely on your workflow. I'm pretty relieved to hear that there is a fw to thunderbolt adapter, but what about cd/dvd drive? I suppose this means I'll have to shell out for an external drive, which means the loss of a usb port. Do you see why this could be upsetting?

BTW, I think folks are "whining" because they would like their view known publicly in the hopes that Apple could be listening. Glad it amuses you.

If your workflow can be easily restored with an addition of a simple adaptor and an external drive, then I think being upset is a waste of time and amusing. Sorry.

 

[KnightWRX]

Folks are upset because their workflow is being mangled.

Pluging in an Ethernet cable or an external ODD is now part of a "workflow" ? Geez. Here I thought workflow meant the steps required to get work done, not for pluging in your equipment.

If I had such an inflexible workflow, I'd probably just change jobs. I can get my work done no matter what ports my laptop has or don't have built-in. Adapters are there, work fine, and get the job done. I'm not about to compromise on the real specs of my laptop because of lack of a single built-in port or drive, not with external hardware being so cheap nowadays and available.

 

[fredoviola]

If your workflow can be easily restored with an addition of a simple adaptor and an external drive, then I think being upset is a waste of time and amusing. Sorry.

TB is supposedly much faster than FW800. Wouldn't adding a FW800 to the chain bring down the speed of the TB? If it's a pro device it should have a separate in for FW and TB. And, btw, I have a real problem with my present laptops only having a single FW800 in to begin with. The machine can really only support 2 devices on a chain before it begins to sporadically drop drives. It's happened to me so many times and there is nothing PRO about it.

----------

Pluging in an Ethernet cable or an external ODD is now part of a "workflow" ? Geez. Here I thought workflow meant the steps required to get work done, not for pluging in your equipment.

If I had such an inflexible workflow, I'd probably just change jobs. I can get my work done no matter what ports my laptop has or don't have built-in. Adapters are there, work fine, and get the job done. I'm not about to compromise on the real specs of my laptop because of lack of a single built-in port or drive, not with external hardware being so cheap nowadays and available.

yeah, sorry, I know workflow is probably not the right word. I'm not very good with words. I think you get my point though. Maybe I should have said "workflow setup"?

 

[theSeb]

TB is supposedly much faster than FW800. Wouldn't adding a FW800 to the chain bring down the speed of the TB? If it's a pro device it should have a separate in for FW and TB. And, btw, I have a real problem with my present laptops only having a single FW800 in to begin with. The machine can really only support 2 devices on a chain before it begins to sporadically drop drives. It's happened to me so many times and there is nothing PRO about it.

That's not how it works mate. TB is faster, but you need to think about the available bandwidth. Just because there is a slower interface in the middle of the chain, it does not mean that it impacts the speed of the rest of the chain. The whole thing still runs at max speed, but the FW device will get data at the top speed that FW can achieve and pass through the other data without impacting the speed. I hope I explained that clearly.

I actually have the same problem with my Firewire chains. I have a number of external drivers that I connect via FW. It works fine with 2 drives, but it gets extremely flaky if I add a third hard drive to the chain or it simply just does not recognise it.

 

[KnightWRX]

yeah, sorry, I know workflow is probably not the right word. I'm not very good with words. I think you get my point though. Maybe I should have said "workflow setup"?

No, as someone who uses an Ethernet Adapter to plug into the corporate network here that doesn't have any WiFi, I really don't get your point.