Let's talk 2012 MacBook Air - what would you like to see?

Ptdr said:
What is with you guys and USB3?? i thought apple isn't going to do it, they are more trying to push the thunderbolt to become a standard...
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What's up with the Steve Jobs fantasy? He has said himself that they want the others to not follow his legacy, but go in their own ways. Many things Steve has done well, but now he's not CEO it's not hard to imagine some things will change.

Now, it isn't true that because the next Mac is based on Ivy Bridge, it would automatically feature USB3. Apple was first to use Z68 but none of the Macs featured the SSD caching feature(called Smart Response Technology). So USB3 still might be excluded, we don't know.
 
Ptdr said:
What is with you guys and USB3?? i thought apple isn't going to do it, they are more trying to push the thunderbolt to become a standard...
Remember what Steve Jobs said about it...(RIP)
Ivybridge support USB3 it's true but Ivybrigde is also for PC, intel made a ship compatible with thunderbolt and USB3, it's a practical choise, doesn't mean that apple will use the feature..
I haven't been on the forum for a month, did i miss a apple/USB3 rumor?
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I think at this point most people assume Apple will go to USB 3.0 just because it is the standard now. How many high end laptops come out from any manufacturer without at leas one USB 3 port these days? Apple has made indications that they plan on staying with USB 2.0 and Thunderbolt but I think this will start to become a drawback really quick since there are no accessories that work with Thunderbolt.
 
DavidC1 said:
What's up with the Steve Jobs fantasy? He has said himself that they want the others to not follow his legacy, but go in their own ways. Many things Steve has done well, but now he's not CEO it's not hard to imagine some things will change.
Click to expand...

I know!!!! i'm not against USB3, would love to see it in a mac but i thought it was clear that apple don't want it...
Many people on this thread is thinking the next MBA will come with USB3, is it just a fantasy or did i miss something????

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filmbuff said:
I think at this point most people assume Apple will go to USB 3.0 just because it is the standard now. How many high end laptops come out from any manufacturer without at leas one USB 3 port these days? Apple has made indications that they plan on staying with USB 2.0 and Thunderbolt but I think this will start to become a drawback really quick since there are no accessories that work with Thunderbolt.
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Fair enough, we'll see...
I think apple want to kill USB3 with the thunderbolt, and won't give up, even if they are wrong... i've seen this before...
 
Ptdr said:
I know!!!! i'm not against USB3, would love to see it in a mac but i thought it was clear that apple don't want it...
Many people on this thread is thinking the next MBA will come with USB3, is it just a fantasy or did i miss something????
Click to expand...

USB3 is natively supported by Ivy Bridge, so there's really absolutely no good reason to leave it off assuming the next Air comes with an Ivy Bridge CPU (it will), and it's entirely backwards compatible with 2.0 devices.

Space is generally at quite a premium in Apple's notebooks, so adding a seperate USB3 controller (which has been necessary until Ivy Bridge's introduction) on the motherboard would probably have been more hassle than it was worth.

Again, I really doubt it's that Apple have anything against it, it's more likely just too much of a pain in the arse to make it work at the moment.
 
Zudeo said:
With SSD's as expensive as they were last year, I doubt we'll see 512GB SSD options. 8 GB's ram is more feasible. I think the FaceTime camera on the Air looks atrocious. At least it's low-light performance is; I've never used it in the daylight. :p

The MBP's Battery Indicator is damn sexy. I'll one up you by saying a black glossy bezel like the MBP's would be the most beautiful thing ever.

I've never had a problem with the mic at the side, I kinda like it out of the way but I see your point.

(System-wide spell/grammar check is gorgeous. I <3 my :apple:)
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I would prefer the 8 GB to the 512 GB so that wouldn't be too bad.

I do like the balck bezel, but sometimes it is WAY too glossy. Although the option would be awesome. The Air iSight cam is atrocious.
 
I am not an air user, but i am curious to see if they do release a 15" and how it compares as far as upgrades to the rest of the line. I have been thinking about buying an air recently just as a smaller, lighter, throw in the bag and go notebook. I am pretty cautious with my 15" MBP because i use it for my dual TBD's. At first I hated the airs, now I kind of want one, but with the new chip coming out I will wait.

I'd like to see:
-USB 3.0 ON ALL Apple's products sometime in the future.
-Upgraded (or Upgradeable) RAM
-More Storage (up to 500GB) - why not? It's an easy task and one I realt expect to see in the MBA's
-Only if they release a 15" will there probably be discrete graphics. Not something I would need in an AIR anyways, being a MBP user.

​

None really matters to me too much. I am easy to please and I'm sure which ever way they go it will have it's advantages and it's flaws as well.

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Ptdr said:
I think apple want to kill USB3 with the thunderbolt, and won't give up, even if they are wrong... i've seen this before...
Click to expand...

well it's not working. Thunderbolt has been out for how long now and still companies are not producing more ways to take advantage of it? USB3 is just an upgraded version of USB2. It's only a matter of time and would be a waste not to use it. No one IMO can justify why to not use USB3 and only use thunderbolt.
 
As a 2011 Air owner, I'll be incredibly jealous if the 2012 Air has a significantly improved battery life. Not that I'm not hoping for it, just saying.

If it approaches anywhere near 10 hours, I think I may sell mine and upgrade. That would be a huge boost. I'm not so much interested in much of anything else, except maybe a higher resolution screen, and more SSD space.
 
onthecouchagain said:
As a 2011 Air owner, I'll be incredibly jealous if the 2012 Air has a significantly improved battery life. Not that I'm not hoping for it, just saying.

If it approaches anywhere near 10 hours, I think I may sell mine and upgrade. That would be a huge boost. I'm not so much interested in much of anything else, except maybe a higher resolution screen, and more SSD space.
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heh 2011 owner here also. To be honest I will wait at least 2 years until either discrete graphics or 512gb ssd's are where 128gb's are now. Maybe I'm being optimistic lol.

My concern right now is a nice wireless HD/NAS which can be accessed by ios + TV for a reasonable price. I've been holding out for the thunderbolt my duo but somehow i'm guessing it will be at least $200 more than the existing models ($470 newegg 6tb)
 
As a 2010 13 Air owner, I get close to 10 hours with Coolbook, I'll upgrade if the 2012 gets 12+ hours of battery life.
 
I just googled Coolbook. Sounds interesting, but quite a steep price.

Is CoolBook safe? Is it safe to underclock in order to have a longer battery life? Any drawbacks to this?

Also, has anyone tested it on their 2011 Airs or on Lion in general? EDIT: Oh, their website says it's not ready for 10.7 yet.
 
onthecouchagain said:
I just googled Coolbook. Sounds interesting, but quite a steep price.

Is CoolBook safe? Is it safe to underclock in order to have a longer battery life? Any drawbacks to this?

Also, has anyone tested it on their 2011 Airs or on Lion in general? EDIT: Oh, their website says it's not ready for 10.7 yet.
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I don't believe you can use Coolbook with a Sandy Bridge CPU, since it does not support undervolting.
 
Ptdr said:
I know!!!! i'm not against USB3, would love to see it in a mac but i thought it was clear that apple don't want it...
Many people on this thread is thinking the next MBA will come with USB3, is it just a fantasy or did i miss something????

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Click to expand...


Interesting, so if Apple doens't want it, we shouldn't either? This thread is entitled "what would you like to see?"

Apple isn't buying the laptop for us, so if consumers want USB3 they should most certainly speak up about it.
 
Masterfox72 said:
I would prefer the 8 GB to the 512 GB.
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Me too.

I have an external disk for my hard-core storage needs (videos, music, photos, etc). For applications, OSX, etc, 256gb is plenty, whereas sometimes 4gb is limited when you run a few applications at once.
 
KohPhiPhi said:
Me too.

I have an external disk for my hard-core storage needs (videos, music, photos, etc). For applications, OSX, etc, 256gb is plenty, whereas sometimes 4gb is limited when you run a few applications at once.
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I am all about using external drives, for my MBP when not too mobile. But for the air I would probably never use one. I'd rather buy a 13" MBP instead of relying on external storage for a MBA who's sole purpose is mobility. every thing is so portable anyways, now days it has to be the size of a penny and put out enough gigawatts to power the time machine delorean.
 
Having tried an Air for travel and preferring the MBP, I'd suggest 4 things that have all already been mentioned.

First, 8 GB of RAM. Even with SSD, 4 GB of RAM is slower than 8.

Second, better battery life. I get noticeably longer battery life in my 13" MBP, and for something that is supposed to be an "ultra-portable" a longer-lasting battery seems like a must.

Third, more storage even though I understand storage capacities are driven in large part by the cost of the SSDs used by Apple. Someone earlier suggested doubling them and I'd say that would be the right ballpark.

Fourth, I'd like to see better color gamut, accuracy, and viewing angles. Perhaps I'm more sensitive to such things, but the gray and washed-out screen quality of the Air is a serious turn-off for me.

I've left off USB3 because I think that will happen anyway with Ivy Bridge, as well as more ports, because that starts to defeat the point of the Air in the first place. Similarly, the CPU is fine.

And while it would be nice if it could be made to feel more solid, I understand that probably can't be done without making it bigger or heavier, which again starts to defeat the point of it (even if I am one of those who finds the claim that there is a substantial difference in portability between the 13" Air and 13" MBP to be absurd).
 
only 8GB RAM would make me want to upgrade :rolleyes:
Retina display would be nice too :D
on the other hand not so sure about Lion :mad:
 
I would love an air I like the smallness of it but I won't buy one with 4gb of ram and not able to upgrade it to 8gb. I'd love to see the glass screen like the MBP, going to upgrade my computer when the wifi ac is out hopefully by then the MBA will have a increase in ram.
 
Can someone explain why the next MBA won't have 3G? Increasing convergence between OSX and iOS devices, already have the architecture with the pre-paid micro sims, all they need to do is put the thing in the side of it?
 
keating said:
Can someone explain why the next MBA won't have 3G? Increasing convergence between OSX and iOS devices, already have the architecture with the pre-paid micro sims, all they need to do is put the thing in the side of it?
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Because no computer haas a 3G card yet, and Apple doesn't innovate anymore.

It will just be a regular update has exposed in previous comments
 
Must play Diablo 3 smoothly. Only requirement haha. Seriously. All hardware upgrades must be geared towards that goal haha.
 
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