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Kuo: Folding All-Screen MacBook Delayed Until Late 2027 At the Earliest
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I’m sure people would’ve said the same thing if you had told them you wanted to make a touch screen phone that didn’t come with a stylus prior to the iPhone being announced…
They need a $1,000 Vision without the locked down nonsense.
If I’m buying a computer, make it actually work like a computer.
Also, a VR headset without VR game controllers? One of the main reasons people get a VR headset is for games, or other tasks that require more accuracy than what hand tracking can provide
Why can't Apple engineer all its buttons on its keyboard to be individual mini screens that one can press down like a regular keyboard? That way they can show an image if need be or chance the keys to be whatever key you need in that particular program? We still need a track pad, we still need keys, we don't need a giant touch screen on a Mac. They can turn the touch pad into a giant screen touch screen if need be. Have you seen how grimy old Mac laptops can be? Now you want to make them as delicate as an iPhone? We already get keyboard marks on laptop screens, now every crumb is going to leave a scratch on the touch this thing. If they want a touch screen on a Mac just make iOS Mac OS. Then slap an iPad on a MacBook bottom case and call it a day. When its docked it gets the extra power and GPU of the case, when its undocked its an iPad Pro running Mac OS. Its like the most obvious upgrade that they spend a lot of money trying to avoid doing.
After ~25 years of following Apple rumors I can't believe I'm saying this, but, this is absolutely the dumbest most obviously ridiculously wrong/false/unbelievable rumor ever. Period.
Believing this for even 1 second requires you to throw away 100% of all logic and knowledge of the Mac and its market responses for the last 5-10 years and basically everything about how Apple produces products. There will never be a Mac notebook without a hardware keyboard. Apple has had well over a decade to prove onscreen keyboards can be good and they have not managed it. They took away the hardware *escape key* and that caused a near exodus from power users.
And increasingly power users are the *only* users of macs.
This is the stupidest rumor of all Apple history.
A foldable iPad? Maybe. A foldable Mac? Lol. If you buy that dumb 💩 I have a bridge to sell you.
The source of this rumor is purely supply chain based speculation and it has generated very bad rumors many times. A past rumor that aligns with this one could be the entire explanation. Fact: Apple already uses foldable displays in iPhones! And there were rumors leading up to their adoption and everyone was thinking "oooh it's gonna fold in half or in this way or that" and guess what? The entirety of the application of folding displays in iPhones is to allow the controller to be placed behind the display instead of below it. It "folds" out of view under the chassis!
This exact same use of folding display tech could be relevant to Mac notebook design, something totally invisible to users and only relevant to building the machine, maybe making it slightly smaller in one dimension or something.
Another possible reason for using this tech in Macs that is more visible could be a display equivalent of the old IBM ThinkPad butterfly keyboard (not to be confused with the catastrophically bad Mac butterfly keyboards, the response to which is further evidence that the idea of an "all screen" Mac is stupid). That is, imagine a notebook that upon opening had its display automatically fold out to a larger size than the footprint of the folded device. That wouldn't replace the keyboard or do any stupid things that will not happen (e.g. touch screen mac) but would be a cool way to begin to move to 21:9 display adoption, evidence of which is beginning to appear in Apple TV.
Of course rumors are making nonsensical claims like 21:9 support is added because "most projectors use it" which is hilariously and trivially disprovable, most projects are natively 16:9. But ultrawide displays are very popular on desktop. I suspect Apple plans to move to this display format for iMac (the rumored "large" iMac) and possibly other displays so beginning to bake in knowledge of this ratio into the software in general would align with that.
So what if they want to standardize the notebook displays on 21:9 too? A fold-out/roll-out display would be a very cool way to make that happen!
But bottom line: an all-display Mac is not happening, and it's the most trivial level of knowledge of this product and this company to know this. Every such rumor is purely a disrespectful waste of everyone's time.
Believing this for even 1 second requires you to throw away 100% of all logic and knowledge of the Mac and its market responses for the last 5-10 years and basically everything about how Apple produces products. There will never be a Mac notebook without a hardware keyboard. Apple has had well over a decade to prove onscreen keyboards can be good and they have not managed it. They took away the hardware *escape key* and that caused a near exodus from power users.
And increasingly power users are the *only* users of macs.
This is the stupidest rumor of all Apple history.
A foldable iPad? Maybe. A foldable Mac? Lol. If you buy that dumb 💩 I have a bridge to sell you.
The source of this rumor is purely supply chain based speculation and it has generated very bad rumors many times. A past rumor that aligns with this one could be the entire explanation. Fact: Apple already uses foldable displays in iPhones! And there were rumors leading up to their adoption and everyone was thinking "oooh it's gonna fold in half or in this way or that" and guess what? The entirety of the application of folding displays in iPhones is to allow the controller to be placed behind the display instead of below it. It "folds" out of view under the chassis!
This exact same use of folding display tech could be relevant to Mac notebook design, something totally invisible to users and only relevant to building the machine, maybe making it slightly smaller in one dimension or something.
Another possible reason for using this tech in Macs that is more visible could be a display equivalent of the old IBM ThinkPad butterfly keyboard (not to be confused with the catastrophically bad Mac butterfly keyboards, the response to which is further evidence that the idea of an "all screen" Mac is stupid). That is, imagine a notebook that upon opening had its display automatically fold out to a larger size than the footprint of the folded device. That wouldn't replace the keyboard or do any stupid things that will not happen (e.g. touch screen mac) but would be a cool way to begin to move to 21:9 display adoption, evidence of which is beginning to appear in Apple TV.
Of course rumors are making nonsensical claims like 21:9 support is added because "most projectors use it" which is hilariously and trivially disprovable, most projects are natively 16:9. But ultrawide displays are very popular on desktop. I suspect Apple plans to move to this display format for iMac (the rumored "large" iMac) and possibly other displays so beginning to bake in knowledge of this ratio into the software in general would align with that.
So what if they want to standardize the notebook displays on 21:9 too? A fold-out/roll-out display would be a very cool way to make that happen!
But bottom line: an all-display Mac is not happening, and it's the most trivial level of knowledge of this product and this company to know this. Every such rumor is purely a disrespectful waste of everyone's time.
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Hope it includes a mode that allows it to be used just as a display. Don’t need another large format iMac, With a beautiful display, that becomes useless when the processor becomes outdated.
They will keep delaying it until it will be canceled. Not gonna happen at Apple. A touchscreen keyboard is already bad on tablets. Nobody using still a physical keyboard will switch to a touchscreen at this point. Actually I see a return to physical keyboards away from the digital versions happening in the next years.
Because there is the unfolded mode where you are able to use both screens as a single 24" or 26" monitor. If they were two screens there would be a line of dead space down the center of the screen
Because the MacBook with TouchBar was so hugely popular and successful, they’re opting to give folks even more of what they already rejected?
Typing on this thing will be uncomfortable as hell without some decent haptic responses and a tonne of lag reduction. I can already see now the accessory market for physical keyboards and stands 🤣.
Just give us Apple Pencil support on a bigger track pad (hell, even make the track pad touch screen if you want) and start there.
Typing on this thing will be uncomfortable as hell without some decent haptic responses and a tonne of lag reduction. I can already see now the accessory market for physical keyboards and stands 🤣.
Just give us Apple Pencil support on a bigger track pad (hell, even make the track pad touch screen if you want) and start there.
No integrated keyboard is what interests me. Laptop are ergonomic nightmare, a modern day torture device. A folding, battery powered iMac (assuming it's a 20" folding MB) is what I see. I can get a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Keyboard at the right level, monitor at the right level; ergonomic nirvana.
It would be a nightmare. In between typing, fingers rest on the keyboard and even when typing there's slight pressure on the keys you're not using in addition to edge of your hand rests below the keyboard. they'd need to dial back the sensitivity of the screen because of that. And try typing all day on a screen that has no give. Your fingers slapping on glass all day long.. ouch. No thank you. I'll stick with my keyboard.
The problem with an iPad with a keyboard case is iPadOS. It's like getting a lifted truck with tiny wheels.
It kind of makes sense to me as well. It might just answer a question rattling around in my brain right now...I've got an original Retina 2017 iMac with outdated OS, and an old MacBook pro. Neither are used for work, so budget is an issue and I'm kind of thinking Mac Mini with an external monitor. The price is right, but obviously I can't take it with me when traveling like I can the MBPro. If this thing is significantly cheaper than a MacBook, then maybe it's an option.
They're probably delaying development until there's a reason to think somebody might actually want one.
I'm trying to wrap my head around this product, and I can't imagine a good laptop experience with a virtual keyboard. But maybe...the real innovation here will be in the software. MAYBE...the plan is to lean in on AI interface assistance in a way that makes the keyboard less relevant.
Same
Absolutely nothing will replace the nice tactile response you get from typing on a physical keyboard so I am not a fan of this at all
If anything, something that I think the MacBooks need that I'm shocked is still missing is Face ID
They already redesigned the screen to make it have a notch just like iPhones pre-Dynamic Island, so why can't they find a way to squeese the Face ID stuff into that?
Breaking: Scientists are getting close to finding the problem that a folding screen solves