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'Brick' Refers to the MacBook Manufacturing Process

I'm not a materials or manufacturing expert, but what I've read from those who are suggests that this rumor isn't credible.

It's as if we in the Mac community are so eager for major announcements that some people have to invent ever more fantastic rumors to keep up with demand. Of course, that just sets us up for disappointment when the day comes and Apple announces something more mundane.
 
euhm highly improbable

I don't see how this could be feasible for apple when they could just use the same technique they probably use right now (Al industry standard).

They could just cast a ruff aluminium form of the macbook instead of a brick and have much less material to remove. Less material loss (important when recycled, it means less aluminium to melt), less time 'sculpting' the macbook, smaller investment in machinery (if they are to buy robots that can sculpt these in a reasonable amount of time, they would cost a **** load).

Bottom line, there's no way such a technique would be used by apple. The reason why custom car rims are built like that is because they require much higher strength tolerance and because they are custom. They don't have in-house capability to cast such a big piece and probably can't get just a few cast elsewhere due to their small production.

I'm pretty sure 9to5 is off on this one. I'd hit my head on the wall if apple really start with a brick. If they do have a new manufacturing scheme, it probably doesn't involve sculpting macbooks from bricks (not ingots !)
 
Beric said:
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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Why thicker?

I would love to see them keep the boxy shape and reduce the bezel as much as possible, making the footprint smaller. Sort of the opposite of what they did with the MBA.
 
Ping Guo said:
Why thicker?

I would love to see them keep the boxy shape and reduce the bezel as much as possible, making the footprint smaller. Sort of the opposite of what they did with the MBA.
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Better control with heat - let more air circulate rather than making it as thin as possible.
 
Top-side access?

Would be cool if battery, HD and Ram could be easily accessed after removing the keyboard. Naturally, they'd have to design it so that the keyboard would still be solid for typing.

Even keeping doubt at bay, I wonder about the lead time between Steve's announcement on the 14th and when the machines will be shipped from the Apple Store.
 
Have to chime in...

I have to chime in on this one and say the wild speculation going on is highly unlikely.

Even if "brick" refers to carving out a laptop from a single piece of aluminum, that probably means starting with something that's cast close to the final form. It's quite possible that the original idea from Jobs or Ives was to carve it from a brick, but AFAIK the actual implementation would likely not be done this way when you can cast something close to what you want and then finish it using water cutting and laser finishing.

Also, the idea that Apple will build a computer factory in the US when nearly all the parts are coming from China with cheap assembly labor also seems unlikely. If anything, it's more likely that they would have a factory here that makes the "brick" cases, and then ships those to China for final assembly. That would allow them to keep better wraps on the proprietary details of the manufacturing process.

Will be cool if they really are building cases out of a single piece of aluminum, though. I would imagine this would also allow them to dissipate heat quite effectively.
 
Tensakun said:
Would be cool if battery, HD and Ram could be easily accessed after removing the keyboard. Naturally, they'd have to design it so that the keyboard would still be solid for typing.
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You mean like the epic system they used on the PowerBook G3, iBook G3, and iBook G4, and Titanium PowerBook G4?

Doesn't really seem like we're going back to that.
 
I want someone to explain how this is truly newsworthy? Even if true, and it lowers manufacturing costs, does this really merit so much attention and wild specualtion? If Apple decided to build motherboards out of composted manure would it be just as earth shattering?
 
It is not true!

Think about the process that they are saying apple will use. ... it will be much thicker and weigh a ton. it just doesn't seem to fit in the "it has to be lighter" and "make it cheaper" mentality that we have now days.

the process that they use now (stamping and pressing) gives you an end product that is lighter and cheaper to make than computer aided milling of aluminum. Let alone the huge amounts of waste that milling creates, even after re-melting.
 
dstrauss said:
I want someone to explain how this is truly newsworthy? Even if true, and it lowers manufacturing costs, does this really merit so much attention and wild specualtion? If Apple decided to build motherboards out of composted manure would it be just as earth shattering?
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It is newsworthy. Why you ask? Because there has been rumors floating around for months now that the allegedly new Macbooks are to have an aluminum case. I believe that an article that confirms a rumor is news worthy, in my opinion. Also, this is an Mac rumors website, is it not? Of course this is going to be news on a site like this. Don't be ridiculous.
 
Dybbuk said:
the logic boards in your irish computer were built in china
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The motherboards used to be made in Cork too - certainly the Classic may have been built there. IIRC, the Apple's PCB operation in Cork was shut in '98, so the PowerMac G4's motherboard would probably have been built in Taiwan/China & assembled in Ireland.
 
I wanted to get the forum's take on this. I was talking to one of the developers of the Lemur, a multitouch LCD display for Mac that is mainly used to control music and audio software. He told me that Apple's next laptops will have multitouch screens. I then said, "You mean Multitouch trackpads". He said, "No, Multitouch screens." I told him that I hadn't heard anything like this in any of the rumor sites. He was adamant. He was a little depressed because according to him his company will now become a software only company because the functionality of the $3000 Lemur will now be included in the Mac for much less $. He said this is coming in the next revision of mac laptops.

What do you guys think?
 
!MacComposer said:
I wanted to get the forum's take on this. I was talking to one of the developers of the Lemur, a multitouch LCD display for Mac that is mainly used to control music and audio software. He told me that Apple's next laptops will have multitouch screens. I then said, "You mean Multitouch trackpads". He said, "No, Multitouch screens." I told him that I hadn't heard anything like this in any of the rumor sites. He was adamant. He was a little depressed because according to him his company will now become a software only company because the functionality of the $3000 Lemur will now be included in the Mac for much less $. He said this is coming in the next revision of mac laptops.

What do you guys think?
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Really don't see that happening.
 
This thread is still going then I see.

Any rational thinking come about yet? or is everyone still sniffing glue and chucking socio-political lego blocks? (or should that be bricks?)

Steve's Uber Factory Workers sing...

Oompa, Loompa, doom-pa-dee-do
I have a perfect puzzle for you
Oompa, Loompa, doom-pa-dee-dee
If you are wise, you'll listen to me

What do you get when you listen to bull?
Head in the clouds sounding terribly dull?
What are you at talking blithering crap?
What do you think will come of that?

I don't like the look of it

Oompa, Loompa, doom-pa-dee-da
If you're not gullible, you will go far
You will live in happiness too
Like the Oompa Loompa doom-pa-dee-do

Oompa, Loompa, doom-pa-dee-do
I have another puzzle for you
Oompa, Loompa, doom-pa-da-dee
If you are wise, you'll listen to me


Sorry. Long day, couldn't stop myself.
 
This sounds really cool...leave it to Apple to develop an efficient and environmentally friendly way to produce its products.
 
intel in america?

vpr said:
I've been living in China since 2006 and I can tell you that many people are impressed when they see me wearing Levis Jeans. Chinese people have told me they're really expensive here and are of great quality, so many people want them. So I'd wager to say that Levis is a good product. There used to be a Levis factory in my hometown in Texas (near the Mexican border lol) but it closed down awhile ago. A few Google searches showed they were made in the USA, but beyond that I didn't do anymore research to prove otherwise, so maybe they're not.

Also Intel appears to make it's chips in the USA - I'd say those are of good quality too.

For your argument that the Chinese are "good" at making things, I'd have to disagree. They sacrifice quality (and safety) to try to keep the price down, mostly because the people in China (not all, but a lot) are pretty poor or picky when it comes to spending. I once saw a girl with an ipod shuffle when asked how much it was she said 300RMB and all the other people around her were like OOOooo that's so expensive. At today's exchange rate that's only about $44 give or take. So manufacturing must be cheap and because of this you have quality issues, little to no warranty, and people that often die while manufacturing. I bought a Chinese brand video card here and it died w/ very little use not even in a year. When I took it back to get it exchanged I was told it only had a 6 month warranty and I had to buy a new one.

Also, if you buy any of the game consoles here, they're sold to you pre-modded. I bought a psp and before I left the store it was modded w/ custom firmware and they have computers in the back of the shop that have games on them that anyone can go to hook up their psp (or NDS) and copy games over for free. Buying Xbox/Playstation/Wii games here are like 5RMB for a fake copy. DVDs of movies are also like 6RMB.

So the Chinese do things because their people aren't going to spend a lot of money on "novelty" things. They still use brooms made of hay, and barrels to cook food in w/ soot covered ceramics for heat.

[/rant]
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I was under the impression that a lot of Intel's chips are made in Israel... Part of their "booming" tech industry. Ok, bad pun that I just realized as I was typing it. Meant to point out that it isn't really that big of a tech industry... ::facepalm::
 
akoblentz said:
I was under the impression that a lot of Intel's chips are made in Israel...
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Intel has a design facility in Israel whom developed the original Pentium M ("Banias") and have no doubt had a hand in all the Core and Core 2 CPUs.

There is also a new 45nm fab being built, but it's running about six months behind schedule. It was supposed to be up by now, but likely won't be at full capacity until early 2009.
 
Incase this hasn't been said already, the new manufacturing process could be done in the USA for not much more than in China, if it was mainly automated like NeXT's plant, which only needed 100 workers (many with Ph.D's).

I do miss the days when my computer said "Designed and Assembled by Apple in California"...
 
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