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April's almost over dude... Weather any type of refresh would actually happen soon is questionable.. I wouldn't put it past Best Buy they may have pulled them for the wrong reasons. or at least too early.

I guess you aren't familiar with the Apple refresh routine: stockouts of a product at the larger retailers, plus the mention of an "early 2016 Macbook" in the OS X server code, are historically very good indicators that a refresh is immanent.
 
Good sign. It is still long way to see skylake mac minis to show up on refurbished sale though.
 
Yes, a quiet spec bump. The real upgrade comes after September of this year, assuming the next iPhone removes the 3.5mm headphone jack. Then we'll get a mid-cycle product refresh like the iPad 4 which replaced the 30-pin dock connector with a Lightning port. Only this time, the rMB will have the 3.5mm jack replaced by the Lightning port.



The extra port will come after Apple releases the next iPhone without a 3.5mm jack, and they replace it on the rMB with a Lightning 2 port. It will still require an adapter for use with most things, but then so does USB-C currently.

My personal theory is that Lightning will become the standard charging port on all of Apple's mobile devices, leaving the more delicate USB-C port free for standard data interface peripherals.
That would be interesting, but it would be nice if we could plug in two things at once. I could see them doing that, maybe on the other side if they replace headphone ports with Lightning ports for audio. The further along we get into the future, the less I find myself needing to plug things into my Mac. Flash drives are pretty obsolete for me and I carried one on me at all times from 2003 until a little over a year ago, going from 128MB to 32GB. Now I just use Dropbox and iCloud. SSDs have gotten big enough that I don't use portable external drives as much—mainly just for my large Lightroom library. But still, fitting two little USB-C ports on that machine shouldn't be that difficult.

Do you know if it's possible to power the MacBook with a powered USB hub?
 
I would hardly call the core M processor crappy.I was amazed at how well it works. Try one out, then post how crappy they are, NOT.

I tried it out - it couldn't keep up with web, Spotify, Pages, Word, and e-mail open at the same time.

I do keep dozens of tabs open at once, and I do usually have half a dozen each of Pages/Word, but throwing PDFs/other apps into the mix just killed it off. Useless machinery for somebody who wants productivity.

Admittedly, my 2.6GHz i5 has to think after a couple of years working hard.
 
The new Macbook was a sexy but weak *****. Not suitable for anyone who actually uses computers for proper work.
Does this mean the new refresh wil be the same? Or are we getting a Macbook line that is both powerfull and sexy, like the Macbook air? Just sexier?
 
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Earnings report on April 25. They usually introduce something before the report.

are you sure? show me?

I did... It was a nightmare. My 2011 MBP was much snappier.
Well sure, but 2011 MBP uses 45W of power! opposed to Core M 4.5W. even if your 2011 MBP was twice as "snappy" that still makes Core M 5x faster per power consumption


Core M?

/walks away
Core M is more than fast enough for 90%+ of the people I know who use computers.....
And I work in the Computer Science Field.


Hummm... I always thought product announcements came after earning announcements?

Anyway... I'm anxious to hear what's next with the MacBooks. The pressure is on to make them really good.

This is what i thought as well

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/computi...ay/pcmcat372100050005.c?id=pcmcat372100050005

FOund this link talking about new macbook and the link goes no where. Possible leak?

That's just the original rMB page

I wouldnt be surprise if tomorrow on apples website we see the new macbook " now come in 2 sizes " and the bigger one will have another usb-c gen 2 and 12 hours battery
Would be awesome! but, seems the leaks in OS X did not show any sign of that.


I tried it out - it couldn't keep up with web, Spotify, Pages, Word, and e-mail open at the same time.

I do keep dozens of tabs open at once, and I do usually have half a dozen each of Pages/Word, but throwing PDFs/other apps into the mix just killed it off. Useless machinery for somebody who wants productivity.

Admittedly, my 2.6GHz i5 has to think after a couple of years working hard.

Core M can totally keep up with web, spotify, Pages, Word, email all at once. Especially skylake Core-M
 
That's the formula it needs for success, but not really gonna happen in the next revision.
The word is, it's going to be using yet another inferior Core M processor (just the next generation of it which has faster graphics capabilities by about 40% but not really noticeably more raw CPU speed).

Pricing? I guess we don't have any facts until Apple makes it official on that... but I can't possibly see it coming down in price to a point I'd call attractive for what you get?

Great, now put a quality processor in there and drop the price to a reasonable level.
 
hopefully they give it at least one more USB C port and at best an old style USB port

Of course it's not going to have an "old style" UBS port.. As Type-A port is physically larger that the side of rMB.

The new Macbook was a sexy but weak *****. Not suitable for anyone who actually uses computers for proper work.

That's funny, as I have been using my rMB for work every day for nearly a year now. I guess my work must not be "proper". Do share what it is you don that you consider "proper work" - rendering Star Wars special effects in 4K?
 
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As someone using a "new Macbook" right now to reply to this message? The power usage is pretty irrelevant for most people. What matters is the end result. For this new Macbook, the 4.5 watt power draw simply means Apple was able to get rid of any cooling fans inside. Yes, a nice "plus" -- but not worth the downside of the performance trade-off.

(Battery life is still more than adequately good on a machine like a Macbook Air with a CPU using a lot more power.)

Determining what's "fast enough" for people is a big gray area. I sure won't declare this machine's performance "fast enough for 90% of the people I know who use computers"!

Truth is? A lot of things impact its performance negatively, and it's not always what you'd think of immediately. Have you tried using one of these with FileVault drive encryption enabled, for example? I did, and found I could really feel it dragging on the system. Boot up times were lengthy and disk performance just generally lagged.

It was definitely under-powered when I wanted to use VMWare Fusion to run a Windows 7 desktop on top of OS X. (I hit the thermal "warning" on multiple occasions while working in the Win 7 VM, where the whole machine had to throttle down to sluggish speeds to cool off enough to continue safely.)

Sure, it'll run Microsoft Outlook reasonably well, or your pick of popular web browser. But so would a lot of older hardware that's long since been out of production. This is a computer released in 2015! Word 2016 has some LONG pauses trying to open RTF documents made in previous versions of Word or other applications. I blame that mostly on poor coding in Word, but it's made more painful on this new Macbook.


Well sure, but 2011 MBP uses 45W of power! opposed to Core M 4.5W. even if your 2011 MBP was twice as "snappy" that still makes Core M 5x faster per power consumption

Core M is more than fast enough for 90%+ of the people I know who use computers.....
And I work in the Computer Science Field.
 
It was definitely under-powered when I wanted to use VMWare Fusion to run a Windows 7 desktop on top of OS X. (I hit the thermal "warning" on multiple occasions while working in the Win 7 VM, where the whole machine had to throttle down to sluggish speeds to cool off enough to continue safely.)

Sure, it'll run Microsoft Outlook reasonably well, or your pick of popular web browser. But so would a lot of older hardware that's long since been out of production. This is a computer released in 2015! Word 2016 has some LONG pauses trying to open RTF documents made in previous versions of Word or other applications. I blame that mostly on poor coding in Word, but it's made more painful on this new Macbook.

I've never gotten the thermal warning running Windows 10 within Parallels Desktop. Granted, the main program I use Windows for these days is Quicken. The MacBook is no speed demon, but I've had no issues running Word 2016, Outlook 2016, Quicken 2016 for Windows, TurboTax, etc. and I have FileVault enabled.

Anyway, Skylake-M improves the CPU only by about 10-20% (barely at the threshold of noticeability), as Intel's focus was on the GPU and power management. So running 6 apps at once still won't be recommended.
 
In defense of Dell's XPS 13? It might be 30% heavier, but that's still 30% of what's already a really lightweight computer. It's just not going to be a deal-breaking consideration for almost anyone I can imagine?

Meanwhile, I was recently able to buy a new XPS 13 from CostCo's online warehouse, brand new (not refurbished) for around $1500 for the model with 16GB of RAM, a Core i7 Skylake CPU in it, and a 512GB SSD built in. And yes, it has the high-resolution touch-screen capable display (which has more pixels than the Retina display on the new Macbook).

Fact is with Dell, the retail prices on their machines mean a lot less than Apple's do. They're very commonly put on sale for hundreds less by retailers, and Dell themselves often run specials too with gift cards or sale pricing.

Don't get me wrong... I love most Apple products and personally hate the Windows OS. But I actually bought a new Macbook 12" (the higher-spec model with 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD) and I really feel like I was overcharged. Any way you slice it, it's too much money for a machine with an under-powered "Core M" CPU in it and only one USB-C port to interact with pretty much any and all peripherals. Dell's XPS 13 stomps all over this thing in multiple ways.


Well, I was making my comparison with the Surface Pro 4. Add $130 for the keyboard cover and price becomes comparable, if not worse. The only machine I've seen that looks competitive that's cheaper is the Razer Stealth, which I already mentioned. XPS 13 weighs 30% heavier, and it's $1150 for an 8GB 256GB with a 1080p display, $1500 to get hi resolution display. As I said, I'm not saying the it couldn't use a price drop but I honestly don't think the price is as bad as people make it out to be.
 
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In defense of Dell's XPS 13? It might be 30% heavier, but that's still 30% of what's already a really lightweight computer. It's just not going to be a deal-breaking consideration for almost anyone I can imagine?

Don't get me wrong... I love most Apple products and personally hate the Windows OS. But I actually bought a new Macbook 12" (the higher-spec model with 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD) and I really feel like I was overcharged. Any way you slice it, it's too much money for a machine with an under-powered "Core M" CPU in it and only one USB-C port to interact with pretty much any and all peripherals. Dell's XPS 13 stomps all over this thing in multiple ways.

The Dell XPS 13 is nice, but it's more like a MacBook Air as far as weight and size are concerned. With the touchscreen I believe the difference is almost 40%, or greater than the iPad mini and nearly as much as the iPad Pro 9.7".

As for USB, the whole idea is that more and more devices are wireless. My network is wireless. So are my printer and scanner. I have the adapter but don't really use it that often.
 
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A silent update with Skylake & an additional USB-C port would be nice.

No room for it on the current model.

Good. I really enjoyed everything about the first Gen Macbook except the single USB-C port and the lack of power when editing photos and video. It's a perfect system though if all you are doing is word processing, creating spread sheets or power points etc though. Add a couple more USB ports and bump up the processor, and this thing will sell like hotcakes.

No room for one, much less two. Unless of course they remove the 3.5mm audio jack, in which case it will likely be replaced by a Lightning port.

That would be interesting, but it would be nice if we could plug in two things at once. I could see them doing that, maybe on the other side if they replace headphone ports with Lightning ports for audio. The further along we get into the future, the less I find myself needing to plug things into my Mac. Flash drives are pretty obsolete for me and I carried one on me at all times from 2003 until a little over a year ago, going from 128MB to 32GB. Now I just use Dropbox and iCloud. SSDs have gotten big enough that I don't use portable external drives as much—mainly just for my large Lightroom library. But still, fitting two little USB-C ports on that machine shouldn't be that difficult.

Do you know if it's possible to power the MacBook with a powered USB hub?

I can't imagine it wouldn't be, since USB-C power is regulated DC voltage just like USB. If it's a USB-C hub, I would imagine it'd also be able to supply the maximum power permitted by USB-C to support whatever device you plug into it. That's the whole reason for a powered hub in the first place. Of course, different hubs might be rated for different purposes, so that's probably something a customer would need to verify when shopping for one.
 
I guess we are supposed to be overjoyed that this laptop comes standard with a keyboard? :p

The thing about the price is that this product doesn't existist in a vacuum. There are better machines out there that are just as portable, have more ports and better keyboards, and cost less to boot (although they run a crappy operating system ;)).
I don't about better keyboards. Apple new butterfly spring buttons are pretty cool.
 
Not with these fashionista at the helm...

Who cares at long as it looks good! Function follows form, because it generates better margins and people are gullible enough!

Glassed Silver:mac

The current MacBook doesn't meet my needs either, but why must you characterize those with different requirements as "gullible"? Couldn't it be that the "fashionistas" know exactly what they want and are willing to pay to get it? Differing priorities doesn't make one gullible.
 
It was also horrible with ports. It was a "trap door" mechanism that barely had anything - similar to the rMB.
Original MBA: One USB + one micro-DVI + headphone jack.
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I didn't really like those 12-inch MacBooks. And now they're already overdue for a refresh.
You have a very strict definition of 'overdue'. Apparently any computer refresh that takes even one day longer than the legally mandated 365 days is considered overdue by you. I'd say if one expects a yearly refresh that 12 months after the release it is 'due' for an update and maybe 14 months after the release it is overdue. Note the original MacBook One shipped on April 10, 2015.
 
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