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M2 MacBook Air Said to Be Among Most Likely WWDC Hardware Announcements, Apple AR/VR Headset Unlikely

JippaLippa said:
I tested a macbook pro 16" for a few days and with very little use, the keyboard was already a little dirty with normal finger oils.
I think it's pretty much impossible to keep a keyboard clean.
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Depends on the design and materials.

I have two white Apple desktop keyboards, and I use them daily for two Macs that sit side-by-side on my desk. One is an older wired white A1243, the one with built-in USB ports. While it has a bit of dirt on it right now, it's relatively easy to clean, and the printing on the keys is still intact. The other is a newer white wireless Bluetooth A1843 and it tends to collect the dirt more easily, and the printing on several keys has worn off. Furthermore, the frame is not as robust.

I'm disappointed in the decreased build quality of the newer model. The older model has a firmer feel and I believe deeper travel too.
 
aeternitas said:
No notch please. We are finally moving away from it on the iPhone, don't add it to new Macs.
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Two down votes on this comment already boggles my mind. Hey I get it if these notches don't bother people all good, but people out there wanting to keep the notch design seems so odd to me. Guessing for some folks it's status thing? Notch = Apple = expensive and different = status. Maybe I'm weird for caring more about function. If you could have a camera/face id function just as well without a chunk of display missing why the heck wouldn't you rather have that?

Saw the macbooks with the notches for first time this weekend and can't understand why people would want that if it could be avoided.
 
CrazyForCashews said:
It’s going to be really disappointing if the redesigned MacBook Air ships with only white bezels and a white keyboard.

Options are good, and I hope Apple isn’t too dumb not to offer black bezels and keyboard with the new Air. But then again this is Apple we’re talking about and they like to do dumb stuff.
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A matte black MacBook would be awesome. (I think the designation of “Air” should be dropped.)
 
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New hardware is great but as one waiting on 2021 16” MBP, I’d rather they focus on fixing the the supply chain issues that is causing insane delivery dates for base 14” / 16” MBP.
 
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JGIGS said:
Two down votes on this comment already boggles my mind. Hey I get it if these notches don't bother people all good, but people out there wanting to keep the notch design seems so odd to me. Guessing for some folks it's status thing? Notch = Apple = expensive and different = status. Maybe I'm weird for caring more about function. If you could have a camera/face id function just as well without a chunk of display missing why the heck wouldn't you rather have that?

Saw the macbooks with the notches for first time this weekend and can't understand why people would want that if it could be avoided.
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It’s not about wanting the notches, but about feeling that the benefits outweigh the downsides. On the MBPs the notch allows the menubar to be move up and out of the content area giving you more space than before. The content area under the notch is a clean 16:10 area just as the whole screen was on the previous models.

This is all about function. You seem to be worrying about appearance of the notch, but that is something that is very easy to get used to and start ignoring after a very short adjustment period.

The iPhone notch was a similar effort to increase content area while allowing for camera and sensors. It is clear that Apple is working on reducing the size of those components and will eventually get to a place where the camera and sensors are under the screen, but that is a tricky thing to pull of and has taken a while.
 
Dave245 said:
Isn’t Wwdc about developers, so why would they announce the new Air? I can understand pro level devices like the Mac Pro, MacBook Pro’s and so on. Isn’t the MacBook Air aimed at students and consumer level?

That’s being said, I would love to see a MacBook Air with similar colours of the new iMac.
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And another one. Developers use the Air. It is always been popular due to portability, the retna Pro made people move to the Pro for a while, but right now there is little benefit to the Pro for a developer.

The Pro adds a lot of GPU grunt that outside of some niche fields, developers do not need. More CPU cores is nice, especially if you're going to be running VMs or a cluster locally, but single core performance is very important for compilation. 32GB is also very nice to have, but 16GB will more than suffice and well, we all know about Apple's pricing on that upgrade!

So, for many developers, the Pro is a case of spending a lot more money for something that gives little in return.

===

I wouldn't be surprised if this was the new "MacBook", in whatever size. A redesign, new chip, etc means they could quite easily price this in-between the Air and the Pro. Apple could then keep the current Air around as a budget option.
 
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EugW said:
Depends on the design and materials.

I have two white Apple desktop keyboards, and I use them daily for two Macs that sit side-by-side on my desk. One is an older wired white A1243, the one with built-in USB ports. While it has a bit of dirt on it right now, it's relatively easy to clean, and the printing on the keys is still intact. The other is a newer white wireless Bluetooth A1843 and it tends to collect the dirt more easily, and the printing on several keys has worn off. Furthermore, the frame is not as robust.

I'm disappointed in the decreased build quality of the newer model. The older model has a firmer feel and I believe deeper travel too.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I remember the old USB keyboard; so satisfying to type on.
Unfortunately mine broke after 8 years of use and I had to change it for the magic keyboard in 2018.
That keyboard stopped working (the left shift key is not very responsive) after only 4 years...
I'll soon get the one with the touch ID, but it doesn't seem to be any sturdier
 
I kind of believe that we are going to see some hardware this year at WWDC. Some people actually are going to the Apple Park, and it will be a little weird that they just gonna watch some keynote there. I do think there will be some hardware devices for them.
But who knows. That's Apple, and literally they can do whatever they want to do.
 
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deevey said:
Too true, look how many G3/G4 variants there was.

Mac's were historically defined by Generation, Year or Nickname, not by the processor. Maybe they'll go back to that with M2 being reserved for the next significant jump in speed.
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I actually love the idea of a return to device releases that are determined by the general purpose and usefulness of the device itself rather than the specs. Let the spec bumps be understated changes happening in the background. I had a 2003 12" G4 Powerbook with 8xx MHz well into the release of the Core2Duo machines and never felt left behind. It did everything I needed it to do for writing (and it came with all the dongles needed to connect it to a computer screen and TV). When the hard drive failed, I replaced it (which wasn’t as easy as on later Intel machines, but still totally doable). When the battery lost capacity, I swapped it.

I miss the simplicity of the pre-iPhone era product catalogue and I resent Tim Cook for having exploded Apple’s line up for quick profits and niche-optimized device categories.

I briefly got that feeling back when I recently traded my 2017 13" MBP with Touchbar (probably my most hated Mac ever, not because of the Touchbar though but because of the keyboard and the several repairs it needed) for a used M1 Air with 16gigs and 1TB SSD (the 7 core model at around 1100USD). It feels like the definitive computer, easily holds all my data and runs all of my software and games without any problems. It feels reliable and zippy in a way that I didn’t remember from any Mac I had in a long time.

So, yes, keep the M1 for a while and let the M2 be a truly next level chip (G3 to G4 to G5). There’s no game of catch up going on, just make usable, long-lasting computers.
 
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JGIGS said:
Two down votes on this comment already boggles my mind. Hey I get it if these notches don't bother people all good, but people out there wanting to keep the notch design seems so odd to me. Guessing for some folks it's status thing? Notch = Apple = expensive and different = status. Maybe I'm weird for caring more about function. If you could have a camera/face id function just as well without a chunk of display missing why the heck wouldn't you rather have that?

Saw the macbooks with the notches for first time this weekend and can't understand why people would want that if it could be avoided.
Click to expand...
It’s more a “I think the notch complaints are funny” thing.
Oh yeah and the benefits to useable display area, that too.
If the 12 inch MacBook ever were to come back and Apple were able to stuff a 13 inch+ Display in that design and the only trade-off was a notch i’d take it
 
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If they introduce a new Air, I’ll buy, M1 or M2. I miss a laptop, especially in the summer, and think an Air could be a great supplement to my M1 Mac Mini.
 
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Tagbert said:
It’s not about wanting the notches, but about feeling that the benefits outweigh the downsides. On the MBPs the notch allows the menubar to be move up and out of the content area giving you more space than before. The content area under the notch is a clean 16:10 area just as the whole screen was on the previous models.

This is all about function. You seem to be worrying about appearance of the notch, but that is something that is very easy to get used to and start ignoring after a very short adjustment period.

The iPhone notch was a similar effort to increase content area while allowing for camera and sensors. It is clear that Apple is working on reducing the size of those components and will eventually get to a place where the camera and sensors are under the screen, but that is a tricky thing to pull of and has taken a while.
Click to expand...

My point was why down vote someone wanting the next model to not have a notch if possible? Like if new components make it possible. You repeated what I said in my comment as well. I said I get it if doesn't bother people but there is still no reason to want to have a notch. If they wanted that functionality you're referring to they could still build in a notch option to the software if people really like that and I have know idea why they would rather have a notch just for a menu bar.
 
TheYayAreaLiving 🎗 said:
So we might get a sneak peek at MacBook Air and availability will be this Fall?

I don't like the fact, that Gurman used the word “most likely”. I see what he did there... playing it safe ?
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No chance. This would kill sales of current MBA. And no need to do this….what would a preview buy Apple?

My money is on Mac Pro, and maybe updated XDR display. Apple literally said Mac Pro was up next at close of last event.
 
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