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Apple Ultra-Portable MacBook Rumor Roundup

Slightly off topic

What's happened to 9to5mac.com? I would have thought they'd be covering the rumor roundup and wind up to the MWSF, but the site seems awful quiet.
 
champ said:
What I hear you saying is that you don't really want an ultraportable. That's fine. You should be prefectly happy with the current macbook and macbook pro line. But don't tell us that do want an ultraportable that it should be bulked up.

For the Porche analogy. Maybe we should say that some people might want to remove some items that others find "essential" so we can teak weight, and power... things like removing the Air Conditioning, radio, leather, and other things that might make some less comfortable, but will reduce weight and reduce power drains. For some (like you) removing the A/C might be unacceptable, but that's why there are options. If you want all the bells & whistles, there are products on the market (current macbooks) that meet those needs. If others are willing to sacrifice the optical in order to get it super-duper thin, then we should all have that OPTION; that option being an ultraportable macbook.

The rumors I've heard say that Apple couldn't make an optical drive as thin as they wanted the ultraportable macbook to be. For me, and many others, we want Apple to go to the extreme and make this thing as thin and light as possible. You say you want it only kinda thin and light, because you want it to have an optical drive, and to you I say, buy a macbook.
Click to expand...

For all that we are saying we may have to define ultraportable. By UPMac I am talking about a Sony TZ competitor, and that model has an optical drive and is under 3 lbs. and has up to 5 good hours of battery life, they say 7.5 but we will say 5. None of the current Apple laptops get that but they aren't UPMacs.

Now, you may be talking about the computers that have an even smaller screen, like 7 inches or smaller and weigh less than 2 lbs. Of course they can' have an optical drive so I do agree with you there. Sony makes a version like that and i can see where touch would play a key role as well as the lack of an optical drive. For the user than wants the smallest possible notebook computer the Sony TZ "like" computer will be the best bet. That would be the model that replaces the 12" PowerBook that go left out of the lineup when Apple moved to Intel. It should and better come with an internal optical drive because it has already been done.

If it doesn't, there are plenty of Sony TZs out there to choose from, too bad they are running Vista.
 
Digital Skunk said:
For all that we are saying we may have to define ultraportable. By UPMac I am talking about a Sony TZ competitor, and that model has an optical drive and is under 3 lbs. and has up to 5 good hours of battery life, they say 7.5 but we will say 5. None of the current Apple laptops get that but they aren't UPMacs.

Now, you may be talking about the computers that have an even smaller screen, like 7 inches or smaller and weigh less than 2 lbs. Of course they can' have an optical drive so I do agree with you there. Sony makes a version like that and i can see where touch would play a key role as well as the lack of an optical drive. For the user than wants the smallest possible notebook computer the Sony TZ "like" computer will be the best bet. That would be the model that replaces the 12" PowerBook that go left out of the lineup when Apple moved to Intel. It should and better come with an internal optical drive because it has already been done.

If it doesn't, there are plenty of Sony TZs out there to choose from, too bad they are running Vista.
Click to expand...

Honestly I think the problem with the TZ is that it just makes too many compromises to get that size, weight and battery life. I follow the Sony Vaio forums regularly on a few notebook sites, and the reality seems to be that the TZ just doesn't have the horsepower to really handle anything beyond the most basic of tasks.... and with the screen size and small keyboard, it really isn't suitable for more than that anyway, but the things that should be strengths - things like word processing, etc. - become weaknesses because of the tiny screen and keyboard. Arguably the TZ is probably at the bare minimum of usability for these kinds of devices; but I think something like the 12" Sony G series is probably closer (and is actually even lighter than the TZ, being entirely made of carbon fiber).

Personally I'd be happier with just something that was 13.3" but remarkably thin; these machines still offer a good amount of portability, but have the potential for more power (the Sony Vaio SZ series and XPS M1330 are the best examples of this). Granted, neither of these machines are as tiny as the TZ, but they are more versatile as well.

I think a TZ-like ultraportable Mac could be nifty, and I suspect that Apple would make a more useable device than Sony has, but in the end, I'd probably hope for something a bit larger that hit the power/portability ratio a bit better.
 
macbook air all the way

i want a macbook which is thin cuz im plannin on gettin one

the name is k

but sounds nice but if i were to nme it i would name it
macbook lite (which copied from ds)
wut is an external optical drive???????:confused::confused::confused:

please reply
 
External Optical Drive

omgimindian said:
i want a macbook which is thin cuz im plannin on gettin one

the name is k

but sounds nice but if i were to nme it i would name it
macbook lite (which copied from ds)
wut is an external optical drive???????:confused::confused::confused:

please reply
Click to expand...

an external optical drive is an external DVD/CD player/burner. The thin will probably sport an external one due to the fact that like floppies and Zips, DVDs will soon be obsolete, especially with the new high-speed download services on the horizon.
 
guys im thinking here.

If apple leave out the DVD Drive, then surely they have the space to fit a dedicated gpu?
 
DMann said:
Without a doubt - a dedicated graphics card would be sorely missed.
Click to expand...

Oh no here we go..... as the iPhone was introduced last year I viewed the posts on this forum... wow and amazing were some of the initial responces which then grew into a barage of "why doesn't carry more than 8GB", "why can't you edit Word documents ?" etc etc etc. - I can see the same thing occurring here if a AirBook is released....... it will never be enough for everyone because they expect everything on a portable unit......... "Why cant we have an iPod touch with 160GB ? Apple has lets its followers down. They don't care about the people who bought their products to put them where they are today....."......... oh please......
 
t0mat0 said:
What's happened to 9to5mac.com? I would have thought they'd be covering the rumor roundup and wind up to the MWSF, but the site seems awful quiet.
Click to expand...


because there are 74 threads on this forum discussing a product that probably doesn't exist !
 
Zadillo said:
Honestly I think the problem with the TZ is that it just makes too many compromises to get that size, weight and battery life. I follow the Sony Vaio forums regularly on a few notebook sites, and the reality seems to be that the TZ just doesn't have the horsepower to really handle anything beyond the most basic of tasks.... and with the screen size and small keyboard, it really isn't suitable for more than that anyway, but the things that should be strengths - things like word processing, etc. - become weaknesses because of the tiny screen and keyboard. Arguably the TZ is probably at the bare minimum of usability for these kinds of devices; but I think something like the 12" Sony G series is probably closer (and is actually even lighter than the TZ, being entirely made of carbon fiber).

Personally I'd be happier with just something that was 13.3" but remarkably thin; these machines still offer a good amount of portability, but have the potential for more power (the Sony Vaio SZ series and XPS M1330 are the best examples of this). Granted, neither of these machines are as tiny as the TZ, but they are more versatile as well.

I think a TZ-like ultraportable Mac could be nifty, and I suspect that Apple would make a more useable device than Sony has, but in the end, I'd probably hope for something a bit larger that hit the power/portability ratio a bit better.
Click to expand...

I agree. When I did test the TZ it seemed to do two things very poorly that i thought it should excel at. Running the resource hogs of the universe: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Internet Explorer. And running Vista. The slow speeds may have been due to Vista, the poor WiFi in the CompUSA I was in, and other outside sources. It may have been a poor chip inside the TZ as well. If I were in the market for a TZ or new MacBook AIR :rolleyes: (God I hope they don't name it that!) then I would most likely stick the fastest chip inside of it that I can. I may lose battery life but I would gain speed.

I would rather see a 13.3" ultra light MacBook with dedicated graphics replace the 12" PowerBook, a Mac M1330 to be exact, where users could choose their GFX card, Processor, SSD or HDD, optical drive, etc. That would be a slightly better choice for many users, keeping to that "one size fits all" mentality that Apple has been making money off of.

Heck... i would pick one up if it could run Aperture and CS3 apps as good as my 2.13 GHz MacBook Pro.
 
Pics of Apple's new tablet running Leopard. Despite rumors it is actually a 15" unit. Very thin and light, it uses a Solid State Disk (SSD) and feature's the iPhone's multi-touch interface.

Sorry for the crappy quality. I took them with the iSight in my iMac while the Apple rep was out of the room for a moment. (I mosaic-ed my face out to avoid being recognized.)

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg223/user_mcuser/Mac_Tablet1.jpg
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg223/user_mcuser/Mac_Tablet2.jpg
 
User McUser said:
Pics of Apple's new tablet running Leopard. Despite rumors it is actually a 15" unit. Very thin and light, it uses a Solid State Disk (SSD) and feature's the iPhone's multi-touch interface.

Sorry for the crappy quality. I took them with the iSight in my iMac while the Apple rep was out of the room for a moment. (I mosaic-ed my face out to avoid being recognized.)

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg223/user_mcuser/Mac_Tablet1.jpg
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg223/user_mcuser/Mac_Tablet2.jpg
Click to expand...

So, can we all assume then that you are violating a NDA by posting those pics, and this post?

My first reaction is that it is fake, but that's just because most pics like this that show up online are fake.
 
Fake

Looks like a photograph of a leopard desktop creatively spray mounted to a display from a 15" Aluminum PowerBook. If you look closely, you can see the PowerBook lettering on the bezel. Also...too thin for a relatively high capacity SSD drive, and where are the ports? No way apple would put out a tablet that didn't even have a USB port for so much as a printer or key drive.

There's also no way an Apple rep would be toting around a yet to be announced groundbreaking product like this. They rarely find out about such products before the morning of the keynote address.
 
Graphics Card

fiftydollarshoe said:
Oh no here we go..... as the iPhone was introduced last year I viewed the posts on this forum... wow and amazing were some of the initial responces which then grew into a barage of "why doesn't carry more than 8GB", "why can't you edit Word documents ?" etc etc etc. - I can see the same thing occurring here if a AirBook is released....... it will never be enough for everyone because they expect everything on a portable unit......... "Why cant we have an iPod touch with 160GB ? Apple has lets its followers down. They don't care about the people who bought their products to put them where they are today....."......... oh please......
Click to expand...

Not expecting a backlit keyboard, a 15" screen, quad core processors, a motion sensor, or more than one USB ports. However, if this is indeed a pro machine, and unless the GMA integrated graphics from Intel has advanced enough to render 3D animation, then a graphics card would be sorely missed. Also, the capability of running Leopard would be a real bonus.
 
champ said:
My primary work computer is a Dell D420. It has no optical drive in the unit, but is only 3 pounds. The screen is a 12.1 inch wide screen. I love this laptop! One problem is that its running Windows, but at least its not Vista!

Anyway, here's my thoughts on this new macbook mini/nano, or whatever its going to be called. First, Its not for everybody. If you don't like small screens, smaller flash-based hard drives, lack of an optical drive, etc, DON'T BUY IT! There are plenty of regular laptops on the market just for you, buy one of those.

Some of us like small, light laptops. Take the EEE, my only gripe on the Asus EEE PC is that there's plenty of room for a larger screen, but the didn't utilize the real estate. I'd pay more for a screen that filled the laptop lid!

Any computer over 3 pounds is not an ultraportable. If Apple wants my money, here's what I'd like to see:
1. 12 inch wide screen @ 1280x800 with LED back light. (probably gunna be 13)
2. an ultra low power Core Duo for long battery life. That probably means the 1.2Ghz U2500 (or U7600 for 64 bit)
3. 32GB SSD standard, with a 64 & 128GB upgrade at build time.
4. NO internal optical drive. Leave it out so it can stay thin & light. I'll take the external optical for the handful of times when I use optical.
5. Absolute max weight of 3 lbs.
6. Please, an SD card reader built in. I love that my Dell D420 has this.
7. Ok, on Price. realistically, I think its going to be $2,000.

Remember, engineering all that miniaturization costs $$! Now, if I could get something at $1,500 or less, I'd be thrilled, but don't expect Apple to continue the price model where cost follows physical size. When you get really small electronics, expect to pay more.
Click to expand...

I'm going to critique myself on my roundup here.
1. While I was wishing for smaller, I was right with: "probably gunna be a 13" [inch screen]
2. Wrong. Wrong CPU. I haven't seen any numbers on the power consumption, but it was much higher than 1.2Ghz.
3. Well, I'll give myself 50%. SSD is an option. slow 4200rpm drive for us poor folk.
4. 100% right.
5. 100% right. Its 3 pounds.
6. Wrong, but in my defense, this was a long shot anyway.
7. Pretty darn close! I was within 10%! I'm going to take credit on that one!

4 1/2 out of 7. Not too shabby.
 
champ said:
I'm going to critique myself on my roundup here.
1. While I was wishing for smaller, I was right with: "probably gunna be a 13" [inch screen]
2. Wrong. Wrong CPU. I haven't seen any numbers on the power consumption, but it was much higher than 1.2Ghz.
3. Well, I'll give myself 50%. SSD is an option. slow 4200rpm drive for us poor folk.
4. 100% right.
5. 100% right. Its 3 pounds.
6. Wrong, but in my defense, this was a long shot anyway.
7. Pretty darn close! I was within 10%! I'm going to take credit on that one!

4 1/2 out of 7. Not too shabby.
Click to expand...

Kudos!
 
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