'MacBook Air' Design Considerations

dongmin said:
I really do hope that all this emphasis on SLEEK, LIGHT (as "air"), and PORTABLE form factor means that it's a tablet of some sort. If it's meant to be handled and carried around all the time, it must be a tablet, right? (I hope.) Why else would you go into so much trouble?
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The problem that I foresee is that the iPhone form factor is the biggest that you would comfortably carry in a pocket or a handbag. No matter if this thing is only twice the size of an iPhone you will need a rucksack or similar to carry it around. I can carry my laptop in a rucksack, so the only saving can be a bit of space in my bag and a bit of weight. Are there that many people that will see the advantage. I am starting to feel cautious, but hope that I am wrong. More practical would be to build more word processing, etc. functionality into the iPhone and iPod Touch, along with an ebook reader. That sort of portable DVD player size object just isn't cool enough to be trendy and probably isn't powerful enough to be practical.
 
iBlue said:
Indeed, but since when do they care? MACBOOK is a stupid name. It's been a couple years and while I've gotten used to it, I still can't understand the choice.
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MacBook is a horrible name. MacBook Pro is even worse. I don't get why they did it either. The old names were awesome and certainly didn't need to change.
 
miketcool said:
Seriously! Nintendo has raided the business world by storm with their exclusion of an ethernet port. Why heck, whenever I have a business presentation to do with my Wii and COD 4...

Oh right, the Wii is a console for gaming, not a platform for business presentations and a mobile office.
Ethernet is not obsolete, but possibly unnecessary on a sub-notebook.
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Just like the Wii, just hook up an external ethernet on USB (hopefully, the sub-note will at least have a couple of USB ports).

Also, that's what notebook docks are for...
 
Digital Skunk said:
Sounds like this machine is going to be another POS like the iPhone. Hyped up teenagers with a lot of money on their hands will love it. Sensible users that know and remember the type of machines Apple once made in the past that truly competed with other manufacturers will be laughing uncontrollably.
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Why post something as miserable and negative and totally incorrect as this?

Try to cheer up - Macworld will be fun. Really.

OH. Troll. Of course. Windows mobile, etc.

Must not feed the troll.
 
Air

New meaning to the word vaporware:)

I remember when the cheese grater form factor was floating around all the rumor sites just before it was released for the G5s. Everyone hated it and said there was no way it culd come from Apple. Which in hind sight would be a pretty good indicator. Anyone trying to spoof Apple would try to make it look like it came from Apple.

In the end, I've learned to enjoy the speculation but wait for the keynote before locking into a position. As Mark Twain said, " it's better to keep your mouth shut and look like a fool than to open it and remove all doubt".

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. (I just realized I look forward to keynotes more than Christmas. And they come twice a year! Yippee)
 
Hopefully Apple sees this and changes the almost 5 year old design of the MacBook Pro and puts some real hardware in it for the pros, and not the "every man, average Joe" market.
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What sort of hardware improvements are you talking about? Is the MacBook Pro so horrible in terms of hardware for pro's as you suggest? They seem to have comparable clock speeds to PC laptops out on the market, and the graphics cards are fairly decent, provided you're not planing on playing intense games (but we are talking about pro's here, so that shouldn't be a problem). I guess for certain animation sort of capers, better graphics cards would be a help, but i would have thought a fully decked out Mac Pro would be better for that sort of stuff. Hard drive speeds aren't bad, and the superdrive is good enough.

So what sort of Pro work are you thinking of, and what sort of specs would you like to see in a refreshed MBP?
 
takao said:
on collapsable ports ... i wouldn't be so sure about that .. seems to be more of a hassle mechanically and more prone to break to be really worth it.. put the ethernet jack on a usb dongle and as said you might achieve the same result in heigth reduction
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Apple's style is always to drop old technologies rather than shoehorn them in. Remember how the imac didn't have a floppy drive? At the time, it seemed kind of crazy, but they realized that floppies were already obsolete given email, external storage, etc. and so they made the floppy drive an external accessory.

I can't imagine they do anything otherwise with the ethernet port. Wireless is the future for most people. It's plenty fast for most tasks, especially if you're an on-the-go laptop user -- you're probably not sharing megahuge files or anything.
 
-No Ethernet port on the device, a USB-Ethernet adapter is sold separately for $30 or so.
-SSD is used, 1.8" HDDs arent fast enough. They may be good for your iPod but not your laptop. Though I definitely expect a lawsuit when people realize SSDs are only going to last for 3 years because the MLC flash memory only has 10,000 erase/write cycles.
-No crazy low voltage processors, just 2.1Ghz Penryns.
 
mixotic said:
MacBook Air Tablet with Dock
A 12.1" tablet computer with touch interface (iPod Touch on steroids). Dock creates a more traditional setup, with the docked machine sitting upright, screen exposed, directly in front of the user (very similar to a docked iPod/iPhone, but larger and horizontal?). Dock allows for peripheral device connection (USB, Firewire, Ethernet Ports, Monitor/HDTV) as well as wireless connectivity to devices connected to the dock when the tablet is being used undocked.

050510_tablet_patent.gif


Apple TV 2
Now includes an (ultra?) Blu-ray/DVD/CD drive, can be used as an optical drive for other Macs in the house via the network. Also features iTunes rental service (duh).
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The tablet looks pretty cool and I like the idea of the docking station. Maybe the docking station can also have a hard drive, optical drive & memory card reader. I've been thinking of maybe it having a built in keyboard & track pad, too. Don't know.

As for the Apple TV2, sounds cool. Built in DVD/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD player and DVR functionality would be a really good idea, IMO. Maybe also combine the AppleTV, Airport base station and maybe Mac Mini, and that'll be great.

One thing I really wish Apple would introduce is a headless Mac that's somewhere in between a Mac Mini & Pro. Minitower case, 2 optical drives, 2 hard drives, single CPU and SLI/Crossfire graphics. A true gamer's rig.

Only thing is, I don't think there will ever be a single product that pleases everyone. Each person wants something different.
 
Bah - if apple do release a "slim" laptop kind of device with multitouch etc, they're not going to faff around sticking Ethernet ports on it.

Both my last PowerBook and my current MacBook Pro have *never* had an ethernet cable plugged into them.

DVI? Bollocks that - this is meant to be slimline. If you want a damned external monitor go buy a MBP, that's what it's for.

I'd be very tempted to say no to usb too... what are you going to plug into it that fits into the slim notebook tablet vision? I'm not running Aperture on this thing, so I don't need to plug my camera in. A mouse is obsolete in multitouch land.. keyboard? Hmm this isnt' meant to be a desktop device right? Hell, if you really want that, use bluetooth.

I say a power plug is the only physical plug.
 
Palliser said:
I'm in... just got a Macbook last August and plan to go PC free in my home and will get the new "Macbook Air" or whatever it ends up being at the store this weekend. The new one is perfect as I travel a lot and want an ultra portable, although the Macbook is quite nice as well!
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This weekend?! You'll be lucky to get one by March if you preorder it immediately after the keynote, if history is any indication...



MacinJosh said:
Yeah. But maybe Apple can pull off a good deal from a manufacturer. And it doesn't have to be 300GB... 20-60GB is fine.
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20GB would leave you with about 10GB free after formatting and standard OS configuration. Granted, this might be usable for a small sub-notebook, but I'm guessing it's less than ideal for most people (even if it's their second machine).



eastcoastsurfer said:
IT security people with a clue know the problems with wireless security (ie. it doesn't exist!). I have friends who go to all of the conferences on IT security and they have watched people give presentations and hack any wireless connection in minutes. This is why the gov. still doesn't allow much in the way of wireless anywhere near their labs. Wireless connections are still too vulnerable to attacks.
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PDubNYC said:
Ya, most offices aren't wireless because the IT doesn't have a clue... I am sure it has nothing to do with the need to move massive graphics files around, and wireless is just far too slow. Glad it works for your company. It is not feasible for my company at this point, and many others, I am sure.
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These are spot on.

Large companies with fully implemented wireless networks are the exception, not the rule.

I can't think of a single office with 500+ employees I've visited in the past year (and there's been several) that had an open wireless network. Half had no wireless whatsoever and the other half had small networks for specific visitor or conference uses.

As someone pointed out, the solution to this might be wireless for the device itself and ethernet on the dock. You leave the dock on your desk in the office to connect to the network and use wireless when you're traveling.
 
Video Card

Ok guys.

Everyone is talking about the design, the optical drive, the hard drive, the wirelss charge, but hey... seams like one question is remaining... :D

What about the video card? The answer to this question will place the Macbook Air near from the Macbook class or from the Pro class...

Is there any rumor that Macbook Air will have a video card? Or will it have just a x3100 like the Macbooks?

Thanks for your answers. :)
 
hephem said:
Is there any rumor that Macbook Air will have a video card? Or will it have just a x3100 like the Macbooks?
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I'd hazard a guess at an new small machine having an integrated graphics card. Why would you need anything else in a power-frugal ultraportable device?
 
With all this hype, I'm getting anxious. Also, I wonder whether an Apple sub-notebook would be a niche product. If it is, nothing wrong w/ that. Some niches are very important like hospitals/medical facilities. I think we can all agree that hospitals are VERY important and use products that no other profession uses.
 
emotion said:
I'd hazard a guess at an new small machine having an integrated graphics card. Why would you need anything else in a power-frugal ultraportable device?
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Because actualy, the first rumors said that it willbe a Ultra-thin Macbook Pro.

And if it doesn't have a video card, then it will be nothing more than a Macbook (same screen size, same specs). :cool:
 
whlteXbread said:
3. iPhone already has more (browser)share, and had more sales than Windows Mobile since it came out, enit?
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http://www.news.com/Google-sees-surge-in-iPhone-traffic/2100-1039_3-6225931.html

the iPhone, an Apple product, accounts for just 2 percent of smartphones worldwide, according to IDC, a market research firm.

Phones powered by Symbian make up 63 percent of the worldwide smartphone market, while those powered by Microsoft's Windows Mobile have 11 percent and those running the BlackBerry system have 10 percent.
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iPhone traffic to Google fell below that of devices powered by the Nokia-backed Symbian operating system
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