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'Brick' Refers to the MacBook Manufacturing Process
- Thread starter imapfsr
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I know they've used similar techniques for carving out metal stuff before, but frig me I want an Apple laptop that's been etched out by lasers and water.
The only thing that could go wrong is if they stick with a terribly low-end graphics card. Yea - don't give us something on par with the MBP. Just a better card. Everything else is perfect in that machine.
And this news post made my PowerBook cry. My first Mac is going to be replaced
The only thing that could go wrong is if they stick with a terribly low-end graphics card. Yea - don't give us something on par with the MBP. Just a better card. Everything else is perfect in that machine.
And this news post made my PowerBook cry. My first Mac is going to be replaced
You do realize that nothing is 'made from scratch' in China, or any other country these days. You should also realize that the US manufacturing remains significantly larger in output than China, typically focussed on high-value complex products. End of last year it remained over 2.5 x more output than China and probably remains there. for example The major difference is the US consumes most of its output because it has the GDP to do so - China exports.
I sell US products in china and the 'Made in US' remains very valuable for these types of high-end complex products which really can't be produced in China today. We manufacture one ourselves in the US.
Stereotypes are not good things.
All toyota tundras are built in San Antonio, TX.....a lot of fords used to be made in Mexico, dont know if they still are. Harely Davidson's are made in the US, uhh a lot of things are made here.
Since there's apparently going to be no screws and just solid pieces of aluminum, does that mean we won't be able to replace the hard drive, add more memory, change the battery?
I could see Apple making it very hard for us to get to the internals and therefore force more people to pay the ridiculous prices to upgrade memory when initially purchasing a macbook.
I think this new process sounds pretty cool but I hope it doesn't mean taking some of this control away from the end user.
I could see Apple making it very hard for us to get to the internals and therefore force more people to pay the ridiculous prices to upgrade memory when initially purchasing a macbook.
I think this new process sounds pretty cool but I hope it doesn't mean taking some of this control away from the end user.
My wife's VW Jetta TDI was assembled in Mexico. My Chrylser 3000 has parts made all over with my engine from Germany. My work mate bought an old (2000) Chrevolet Impala from an American. It was assembled in Canada. We are now in a global economy these days, and it is up to individual companies too balance reduced costs with maximized quality regardless if UK, USA, France, Germany, etc.
Apple give us the best product at best price.
And, sell some cappuccino in your Regent Street store, so I never have to leave.
Question for the engineers:
So all the excess material, the "shavings" could then be collected, re-melted (re-smelted?) allowing for an 0% waste, 100% Green environmentally friendly process no?
WOW!
I've worked in manufacturing for almost 30 years.
Recycling waste materials has always been a common practise in manufacturing. Until recently it had nothing to do with the environment, it was purely for economic reasons because scrap materials are valuable.
Now companies can be seen to jump on the environmental bandwagon without having to make any changes.
I seriously doubt that this means the MacBooks will be made in the USA. That would mean apple would have to manufacture the case, send it to china to have the guts stuffed in by Quanta or Asus or whoever, and then shipped right back to America. Not the model of effeciency... especially with fuel prices what they are nowdays.
Also, the boost in quality control would only occur with the most superficial aspect of the laptop.... the case. Everything else (ie the important stuff like the internal components) would still be made by a third party.... unless apple plans on carving the motherboard, LCD, ram, hd's, etc. out of aluminum as well.
Also, the boost in quality control would only occur with the most superficial aspect of the laptop.... the case. Everything else (ie the important stuff like the internal components) would still be made by a third party.... unless apple plans on carving the motherboard, LCD, ram, hd's, etc. out of aluminum as well.
Excellent point. And very true. I don't have enough information to say for certain, but it is not impossible that it might make more sense for Apple to manufacture in the US, especially since the bulk of their sales are in the US. Far lower shipping costs compared to their competitors might make up for the increase in manufacturing costs, particularly if this new process drives down cost enough. If they can really do this, the PR would be incredible.
They'll get this too i'd imagine, but will have higher specs. Not sure of other differentiators between MacBook and MBPs come October though.
Heck, why stop there - would be a nice feature for the Mac Mini!!
More important then the case, what about blu-ray. This is a feature that I should have on a $2000+ laptop, actually even a $1000+ laptop. I need blu-ray its something that apple needs to put into their products. I am not buying a pc for this. The technology has been out for a few years, apple needs to give their users a fair share of new tech.
Carved out of one piece of aluminum? no screws to hold it together? Flush edges!?
That sounds beautiful!
On a less happy note that also sounds like it will have a non-user replaceable battery, no user replaceable hard drive and no user upgradeable RAM.
CARP!
That sounds beautiful!
On a less happy note that also sounds like it will have a non-user replaceable battery, no user replaceable hard drive and no user upgradeable RAM.
CARP!
I was thinking the same thing. That would be huge.
Keeping my fingers crossed.
That would be great if this was true for the Macbook Pro as well. I'd liek to see that plastic edge go away.
Its gotta be true for the MBPs. I dont think apple would build the MBs in such a cool way and neglect the MBPs.
1. A lot of people would be not happy
2. If Apple does that then they better give the highest possible options as standard (ex: 4GB RAM standard, etc.).
How about letting Quanta do the PCBs and assemble the case with the PCBs in the US?
Carved out of one piece of aluminum? no screws to hold it together? Flush edges!?
That sounds beautiful!
On a less happy note that also sounds like it will have a non-user replaceable battery, no user replaceable hard drive and no user upgradeable RAM.
CARP!
I think it will have user replaceable stuff and is it even possible to build it without any screws as one piece? What bout the images we saw a couple months ago?
I've worked in manufacturing for almost 30 years.
Recycling waste materials has always been a common practise in manufacturing. Until recently it had nothing to do with the environment, it was purely for economic reasons because scrap materials are valuable.
Now companies can be seen to jump on the environmental bandwagon without having to make any changes.
Shavings from plastic don't have the same environmental benefits.
We are talking here about aluminum shavings being 100% reused. The same can not be said for many of the materials in the current notebook supply chain.
They could just as easily carve a chunk out of the bottom à la the current MB/P's.