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Light Peak on the MBA in June?
- Thread starter iRun26.2
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Assuming tomorrow's Pro gets Light Peak (and Intel's coordinated announcement seems to confirm it), the port will make its way to the rest of the line relatively quickly. It would be a nice addition to the MacBook Air, and something that could lead me to replace the Rev D (I otherwise am planning to wait for the Rev F version).
Core 2 Duo/NVIDIA 320m combo to Sandy Bridge will be a slight upward move (faster CPU, slower graphics). That alone wouldn't be enough to push me to upgrade, particularly if the MacBook Air gets the Core i3 instead of the i5.
A Thunderbolt/Light Peak port, OTOH, would mean that people would no longer need to worry about the Air's lack of storage. External drives would be as fast as the internal drive. I could repackage my Crucial SSD from its current USB 2.0 enclosure to a Light Peak enclosure and get read and write speeds like my internal drive, and speed up backup operations to about 5 minutes from 15.
June might be a bit early. iPhone 5 is more likely for that month. July or August would be in time for the back to school rush.
Core 2 Duo/NVIDIA 320m combo to Sandy Bridge will be a slight upward move (faster CPU, slower graphics). That alone wouldn't be enough to push me to upgrade, particularly if the MacBook Air gets the Core i3 instead of the i5.
A Thunderbolt/Light Peak port, OTOH, would mean that people would no longer need to worry about the Air's lack of storage. External drives would be as fast as the internal drive. I could repackage my Crucial SSD from its current USB 2.0 enclosure to a Light Peak enclosure and get read and write speeds like my internal drive, and speed up backup operations to about 5 minutes from 15.
June might be a bit early. iPhone 5 is more likely for that month. July or August would be in time for the back to school rush.
I'd be sold on Light peak (or Thunderbolt...), it would be extremely useful for me. Other than that I agree that nothing would make me consider upgrading this year. That said, what's the resale value going to be like on a basically new Rev D 13" Air come refresh time?
hummmm
I'm not sure if Apple will put such high tech in Airs.... it will be "dangerous" for the MBP line (especially the 13").... but it is possible.... not sure...
I'm not sure if Apple will put such high tech in Airs.... it will be "dangerous" for the MBP line (especially the 13").... but it is possible.... not sure...
Note that the Air will cost more than the Pro at a similar performance level, so it's entirely possible that it will get Light Peak/Thunderbolt. $1799 will buy a much more powerful MacBook Pro than Air, even if the latter does get Thunderbolt this summer.
Light peak is fast, but no one knows if it will be industry standard. Fire port is not an industry standard.
MBP has intel graphic card and I am not jumping in until MBA gets better GPU. Apple should just let MBA stay the way it is. Last time, it took them over a year to upgrade MBA.
When you are buying MBA, you are not buying it for a performance. You are paying for a so thin form factor.
MBP has intel graphic card and I am not jumping in until MBA gets better GPU. Apple should just let MBA stay the way it is. Last time, it took them over a year to upgrade MBA.
When you are buying MBA, you are not buying it for a performance. You are paying for a so thin form factor.
Not until at least Oct 2011
MBA most likely will not be updated until at least Oct 2011. Unlike the Macbook and Pro lines, The airs don't get updated as frequently. You have to understand Apples selling logic. Currently the Airs are selling like hotcakes as is. Why screw up a good thing. Just like all things apple they usually update during their predictable cycles (ie. iPhones every June-July).
Even when they do update, we can't speculate if they will get "light peak or thunderbolt". We currently don't even know if all of the purported updated Macbooks will be getting them. Updates like this would usually go to the higher end model like the 15'' or 17''. This new tech is similiar to Firewire or minidisplayport in which no one is really on board yet. Just my five cents lol..........
MBA most likely will not be updated until at least Oct 2011. Unlike the Macbook and Pro lines, The airs don't get updated as frequently. You have to understand Apples selling logic. Currently the Airs are selling like hotcakes as is. Why screw up a good thing. Just like all things apple they usually update during their predictable cycles (ie. iPhones every June-July).
Even when they do update, we can't speculate if they will get "light peak or thunderbolt". We currently don't even know if all of the purported updated Macbooks will be getting them. Updates like this would usually go to the higher end model like the 15'' or 17''. This new tech is similiar to Firewire or minidisplayport in which no one is really on board yet. Just my five cents lol..........
Light Peak is wonderful (in theory).
In practice where are the 3rd party Light Peak / Thunderbolt hardware to support it ? Common sense would dictate that it's going to take a while before there is an amount of third party hardware supporting it (heck it took ages for firewire 800 to show up on devices and that is still limited compared to USB2/3) so for me at the moment its a bragging right, the we have'done it first' port that is simply there to show off rather than utilise for specific light peak peripherals.
I'm assuming it's backwards compatible to the current mini display port (as light peak can carry video and it explains the same port) standard so at least the MBP's can have 1 first party piece of hardware that supports the port in the Cinema Display.
In practice where are the 3rd party Light Peak / Thunderbolt hardware to support it ? Common sense would dictate that it's going to take a while before there is an amount of third party hardware supporting it (heck it took ages for firewire 800 to show up on devices and that is still limited compared to USB2/3) so for me at the moment its a bragging right, the we have'done it first' port that is simply there to show off rather than utilise for specific light peak peripherals.
I'm assuming it's backwards compatible to the current mini display port (as light peak can carry video and it explains the same port) standard so at least the MBP's can have 1 first party piece of hardware that supports the port in the Cinema Display.
True, it also doesn't have FireWire, or ethernet. It depends if Apple sees this as a high-value 'Pro' feature or something that they want to push everywhere.
We may not see Light Peak / Thunderbolt in the air until it's so mainstream that the peripherals are everywhere.
If it gets a 2.3GHz Core i5, I'd hardly consider it "marginally faster." That would be a significant upgrade from the 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo.
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Slower GPU, Faster CPU... I guess it depends on what is important to you.
But I don't see a single shipping Light Peak device... I'm a little surprised that Apple would jump on this brand spanking new technology so quickly... I think I'll let it bake a bit, especially for external storage.
all rumors
As of right now nothing is confirmed............. Remember this is MACRUMORS lol.
As of right now nothing is confirmed............. Remember this is MACRUMORS lol.
If the two 'heavyweights', Intel and Apple, start selling Light Peak (or whatever they decide to call it) tomorrow, I think it will take off. Intel has a big influence and most everybody else will want to follow Apple's lead.
I think there ought to be plenty of stuff out by June. You give me the ability to connect to an external hard drive at SSD speeds...I'll be buying it!
But is it really going to be called 'Thunderbolt'? That just sounds silly to me (and it would strike me as being odd for Apple to use such a 'hyped'-up type of name like that)