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'Brick' Refers to the MacBook Manufacturing Process

GradientMac said:
I don't get the remote part, but the iPhone has a plastic back for a reason, it improved reception and looks better to a lot of people. It also made it lighter and more unified. Missing a dock doesn't make it lower quality, that happens with like every Apple product, early adopters get something special.
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I disagree.

Ever since the first generation of MacBook/MacBook Pro, apple has included a Front Row remote. Nevermind whether it is useful or not to you. But in the current generation, they're charging $20 for it in order to keep the price of the machine down.

Apple will obviously tell you the plastic back is better for reception. And it probably is. But I don't care what anybody says - plastic is cheaper than aluminum.

And yes, missing a dock does not mean lower quality, I agree, but back in the day, the third generation iPod came with a case, remote, and dock. Nowadays, you get none of that. It's all to keep the price down.
 
Hopefully apple doen't make the new macbooks like the ipod nano.
I'm imagining the whole base is one piece of aluminum. Everything would be slided in (including the battery) from the sides where each side is covered with plastic and holes for the ports (Just like the plastic caps on the ipod nano), so it looks like a screwless design. It might look neat, but this makes the battery non-user replaceable, which I feel they might do.

Just gotta wait till they come out.
 
BRLawyer said:
Thanks a lot for all the compliments; do you think I can still get some federal funding for a campaign?

What about receiving the official endorsement of both Chuck Baldwin and Sarah Palin? :rolleyes:
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Don't mind them, they feel if your opinion is different from theirs, they have the right to call you a "fanboy". :rolleyes:
 
This sounds awesome!!! Also, it may not mean that the other brick rumors aren't true... what if they do a brick-triple play thing? Now THAT would be awesome.
 
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quagmire said:
Adidas Addict said:
Really can't see them manufacturing in the USA. It wouldn't make any sense, they would save money with the new process and then spend more on manufacture.

The chinese are much better at making stuff than americans anyway. Are there actually any products (apart from american cars, and they are not exactly a good advert for quality) made from scratch in the USA?
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planes, cars(wake up call GM and Ford at least improved their quality and other manufactures build cars in the US), and military equipment.
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Don't forget buses and school buses. They are still made in the US.
 
oidjfgjoi

Wow, where did rationality go ? I think 9 to 5 has this rumours allllll wrong

I really don't get it, most of you are saying that apple is going to cast aluminium bricks (or ingots) to laser/water sculpt a macbook shell ? Then taking all the scraps to make new 'bricks'.

Let's look at the cost of this.
Buying a brick
Jetting the brick into a macbook (high energy demand + lots of time)
Melting the scraps into bricks (high energy demand)

And compare it to what they are probably using right now.
Melting a close but ruff form of the macbook
Jet milimeters off of it to get the final macbook
Melt the scraps into new ruff forms

There's no way in hell that casting the aluminium into ruff form and do finishing touches to it costs less more casting a big 'brick' and than sculpting it.
 
People on 9to5mac are highly skeptical. There's even an industrial designer that calls it B.S. :

Sun, 10/05/2008 - 18:17 — computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui.

This whole article sounds like it was written by someone without any knowledge, or even a basic conceptual understanding, of anything to do with manufacturing. It makes no sense for the contention that a "3D Laser" and water jet, carving a part out of a solid chunk of aluminium would cost less than using a traditional tool to press aluminium. Even cold forging would be cheaper than this. The cycle times involved would be absolutely astronomical for a the "3d laser and water jet" (I'm guessing a very conservative 5-10 minutes) compared to normal pressing (about 3-5 seconds). And besides, carving out of a solid chunk of aluminium would only form a cavity, which is NEVER seen by the user of the product (the cavity is where the electronics sit).
What I suspect is that there could potentially be a new process being used by Apple, though I don't believe the assertion that they "invented" it themselves, or it was what the author fumbled his way through trying to explain.
The link to the 3D laser milling process given by another poster(http://www.manufacturelink.com.au/processes/laser-machining-3d-laser-mil...) has nothing to do with making mass produced products - it is only used to make CAVITIES for tools, NOT THE FINAL PRODUCT.

Now, to demolish all of the "Advantages" listed:
*Carving out of aluminum eliminates the need to bend the metal and create weak spots or microfolds and rifts.
>Casting does the same thing, and is much cheaper, faster, and will result in BETTER finish, and it doesnt "bend" the metal either. Pressing can also be used, and makes a good surface quality; used in car body panels. And to repeat, laser milling would only be practical to create a CAVITY, not the exterior.
*There are no seams in the final product, so it is smooth.
>This one is pure mac user logic. Any product that is made of aluminium, with electronics inside HAS TO HAVE at least one part line (what the author ignorantly calls "seams"). You can employ visual tricks to hide them, and make them all but invisible in some cases, but they still exist. You need at least two parts to form a cavity that can be assembled with the electronics inside, therefore there must be a part line.
*Screws aren’t needed to tie the products together.
>Nothing new here. The most commonly used manufacturing process for plastic parts, among others, injection moulding, can produce products with a massive variety of snap fit options where screws are not needed.
*The shell is one piece of metal so it is super light, super strong and super cheap.
>One piece of metal will not make the product any cheaper or lighter. It may make slightly tougher, as there is no part line, but I'm no engineer so I can't be %100 sure - FEA testing would be needed to verify your claim.
*You can be a whole lot more creative with the design if you don't have to machine it.
>As in industrial designer I can assure you that current processes allow for a massive range of styling options - this new method you have tried to explain doesn't really tell me enough to assess what its potential shaping benefits are.



Sorry for the long text! :eek:
 
MAde in the US? Totally Possible

Made in the USA? Believe it. There are several contract manafuacturers (aka assemblers) in the Bay Area near Cupertino. They put together PCs, Servers and other stuff for all kinds of vendors. Apple could easily partner with any one of those locally on a joint project. Toyota has a really high volume plant, Nummi, in Fremont, about 15 miles from Cupertino.

Keep in mind, the Bay Area is at the forefront of "buying local" for food. And cities are trying to find a way to bring back more high-wage blue collar jobs to the reion, with clean tech, green technologies and more. There is a tipping point when fuel costs will add too much cost to the finished goods. Other bay area companies could be following suit.

Anyway I am excited to check out possible redesigns.
 
kabunaru said:
Me too! :)

What do you think you will see at the keynote besides the updated MacBook and possibly updated MacBook Pro?
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updated Air. and maaaaaybe a shoutout to that one thing.... that uhhhh... what's it called? You know: that thing that like.... it's like a Mac, but not so cool, but.... I mean! it is a Mac, but not an iMac and it's nice, but not super nice. You know like.... uhhhh. The Mini!
 
There's a chance that both this article and the one on nvidia are faulty, and that the guy who said it won't be october is right.

so we'll see?
 
iPaf said:
People on 9to5mac are highly skeptical. There's even an industrial designer that calls it B.S. :

Sun, 10/05/2008 - 18:17 — computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui.

This whole article sounds like it was written by someone without any knowledge, or even a basic conceptual understanding, of anything to do with manufacturing. It makes no sense for the contention that a "3D Laser" and water jet, carving a part out of a solid chunk of aluminium would cost less than using a traditional tool to press aluminium. Even cold forging would be cheaper than this. The cycle times involved would be absolutely astronomical for a the "3d laser and water jet" (I'm guessing a very conservative 5-10 minutes) compared to normal pressing (about 3-5 seconds).
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those of us in manufacturing have been trying to say this, but for some reason people just think *poof* a laser just made a case. any company that would think it's better to machine a case rather than just press it is doomed to failure.

and yes it does sound like that article was written by someone with no clue on how a manufacturing process works.
 
pavelbure said:
those of us in manufacturing have been trying to say this, but for some reason people just think *poof* a laser just made a case. any company that would think it's better to machine a case rather than just press it is doomed to failure.

and yes it does sound like that article was written by someone with no clue on how a manufacturing process works.
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Making the housing out of solid using a combination of waterjet, cold extrusion, machining and lasers might actually make sense, but I can't see the breakthrough in any of this.

As for the machining, you would be surprised how fast you could do something like a laptop housing, using state of the art machine tools and tooling.

tom
 
bobertoq said:
Exactly! How can we run out of it? It's not like it disappears. I was always told the earth has the same amount of water it had millions of years ago.

Anyways banyways, I bet they will recycle the water. It'd be much cheaper. I wonder if they would recycle the light :confused:
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We are drinking dinosaur piss, just an molecule here and there, but still...!
 
And.

The "brick" would be a casting that was 95% complete. The water jets would just kind of finish it off. Hardly any waste and all re-useable.

How much labor goes into a computer now? A few minutes at most. With even more automation and some local tax and loan incentives it could be done here.

The water is mixed with abrasive material and is recycled.

It would be really good if the plant used solar energy. A green company, made in USA and almost 100% recyclable. All that would be a huge sales advantage, in addition to the cost, quality and design features.

The case could be made to be very durable, stiff and very attractive in ways stamped metal could not be.

Or is it aluminum? Aircraft and race car stuff has been made out of carbon materials that are water jetted.

Apple could show the manufacturing process in their ads. People like those "How they make it" shows.

Fans and hard drives could be quieter because the case would dampen any vibrations.

The new case could dissipate heat better because heat sinks and cooling channels and slots could be carved into the case for perfect heat transfer.

The energy cost of producing aluminum is pretty high. Scrap aluminum is cheaper. Apple has huge warehouses filled with cans. They may reek of old beer and artificial fruit flavors, but it is the smell of money and scrooge McJobs loves to dive into the huge piles on his way back from the All You Can Eat Meatloaf Palace every night.
 
carlgo said:
The energy cost of producing aluminum is pretty high. Scrap aluminum is cheaper. Apple has huge warehouses filled with cans. They may reek of old beer and artificial fruit flavors, but it is the smell of money and scrooge McJobs loves to dive into the huge piles on his way back from the All You Can Eat Meatloaf Palace every night.
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:confused: source for apple having warehouses of aluminum/??
 
plumbingandtech said:
Macs (some of them) used to be made in Ireland. Cork I believe, so they would be going back if this is true.
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If they needs water & lasers, we has lots and lots of water!! (Lasers.. not so much.. we sorts that problem later!) :p

I don't know if there's any truth to this (haven't read every post) - but Ireland does have one of the lowest rates of corporate tax in the world. Since this sounds like a highly automated process, the relatively high wages here wouldn't be much of an impediment.

They already have a large presence here in Cork too (and quite a bit of unused space there too) so it could be the path of least resistance.
 
Guys, hadn't you ought to take the political/economic discussion to the proper forum, or else to PM's?

As for the aluminum rumors, I really don't care too much one way or the other. I just want the new Macbook to be thicker, by about 0.3". :(
 
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