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I must say... I'm way more interested in hearing when the new MacBooks are coming out and their specs than I am for the iPhone 7. I'm really eager for a new personal laptop and it seems like the wait has been forever.
 
The thing is - the MacBook retina, right now, cannot replace the Air. Less ports, less power and price are all things that the retina suffers from. Everywhere you go, you see MBAs. They are Apple's most popular MacBook. Why? Because they provide the perfect balance. The retina does not. Apple would be mad to discontinue the Air.


Then again, the same thing happened with the white MacBook. So I guess Apple is crazy enough.
 
They should drop the MacBook Air when they finally come up with an iPad/laptop hybrid, and call it the ibook. The lineup is kinda muddled now.
 
because we never have to buy new adapters when new tech comes out.
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People here are really out of touch! They think in terms of their home systems and are not aware of the rest of the computing community. I work industrial automation and frankly we still use RS232 on a daily basis. Frankly there are adapters for all sorts of specialized networks and communications interfaces.

The nice thing in the personal computer world is that you don't have to worry about old interfaces as new ones quickly take over. Out in the real world production lines can and do run for decades on the same hardware. It isn't uncommon to walk up to a piece of equipment in a manufacturing plant and find a 20 year old PC connected to hardware you can't even buy anymore.

Adapters are just a way to keep thing from the past alive.
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I know what you mean. My machine has 6GiB that's always "used" (a lot of it for cache, etc) no matter what. But in my experience with my brother's 32GiB RAM Mac Pro running El Capitan, it still leaves at least 10GiB free under normal usage*. And, from my tests, Chrome uses a lot more RAM than other browsers, which is fine if you have 24GiB of RAM but can slow down my 6GiB machine.

*It's strange. I'd expect OS X to use almost all of it up for disk cache, as Linux does.

How much memory gets used depends upon how much RAM an app requests and how much I/O the OS is caching. Even using the same apps on both systems wouldn't guarantee the same RAM usage. As for I/O caching by the operating system that is OS dependent upon the specific algorithms used. Since the OS's are completely different I would not expect the same caching behavior.
 
The difference is when USB came out, they didn't immediately take out all ports and replace them with USB. They kept them as long as they were useful.
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... and when Thunderbolt first came out. Problem is nobody is adopting USB-C like Apple is. It's at risk of being another one of those ports that really only Apple uses even though it's open (see: FW400). Regardless, USB is what people use today. It's fine if Apple adds USB-C ports. It's not fine if they replace the currently most widely used port with it.

I think you need a refresher -- Apple did exactly that with the iMac. They took away every legacy port and offered USB. Nobody used USB at the time. And an 8MB thumb drive cost $40!! And to share it with any other computer they needed adapters and driver support. There were exactly two peripherals available at launch, and only one was available. The other was buggy. You needed adapter to use any legacy equipment.

Apple did the same thing to the FireWire powerBook, replacing SCSI with FireWire before anybody was using it.

So no. Apple routinely removes whatever they think is the past and the customer generally pays for early adoption.
 
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I must disagree on this point as they could have upgraded to the FCLGA2011-3 socket. The Xeon E5-2679 is an absolute screamer.
A CPU is not a chipset. It would be absolutely silly to upgrade the Mac Pro and not provide for all the new port technology and hopefully enough PCI Express lanes to add another socket for a story we device.
However I'm not sure what the new Mac Pro's PSU is rated for (or even the old one, for that matter)... The max TDP for that Xeon I mentioned is 200W.

If you aren't sure why bother mentioning the processor then? This is the major problem with these sorts of threads people point out a single Intel processor that has no possibility of going into the current design and then say "see I told you". Of course they end up looking like total idiots because their idea of an upgrade doesn't jive with most people's ideas.

I still maintain at the Mac Pro will get updated when there is a set of hardware to do so. This means the entire machine not just a trivial processor upgrade that by itself won't drive sales.
 
I want this very much.

I see what I think most people would see happening - the Macbook and Macbook Air becoming one product.

I have a Macbook Retina - the first of the two models, upgraded as much as you can - It's a fantastic ultraportable with an amazing screen, crazy long battery life, a great keyboard once you get used to it and it's the perfect size.

All it (badly) needs is:
  • A much faster CPU & integrated GPU (or non-integrated I guess but that probably wouldn't make sense).
  • 16GB of RAM as a minimum & maybe a 32GB option.
  • A NVMe SSD option somewhere between 512GB-2.5TB.
  • A second (thunderbolt enabled) USB-C port.
And then it'd be hands down the perfect laptop for me & at least 3 other people I know would immediately spec it out and buy it right away.
So what you really want is an rMBP. The CPU is decent for its usecase. 16 GB Mmin and preferably a 32GB is completely unnecessary for its usecase. SSD at that size? Don't make me laugh. The second port I'll agree with though. What you're really looking for is an rMBP at rMB dimensions. Good luck with that
 
The keyboard and single port are limitations to a lot of people. The MBA is ultraportable itself (and more powerful). Force Touch isn't necessary and neither is retina, but it would be a nice upgrade. So the "value" is, as always, subjective. I guess these are "great things" these days.

Uh...yeah. They are. They are beyond great. They take the product to a whole new level. They make them a JOY to use.

Far more important than iterative CPU and storage bumps.
 
I'm saying that because IT IS a convoluted mess RIGHT NOW. And the rumours aren't positive about that, I can confirm. In fact, not a single rumour we've heard so far has been positive really.
How? The MBAir is still sold because the current rMB has a different usecase. It will probably be dropped or the two products will be merged, but right now they can't be. And then there's the rMBP. What exactly is convoluted about the Mac lineup as it stands currently?
 
Said not one single owner of a current Mac.

LOL. Which planet are you living on? I currently have a need to a workstation-class laptop for a mobile VM lab and my current choices are either a Dell 7510 or a Lenovo P50. Was thinking of the Dell 5510, but I need more than 32GB RAM. I just sold my 2013 rMBP as it had a 16GB limit and guess what, the 2016 rMBP has a 16GB limit - the same as when the rMBP was released in 2012. Apple have made no significant improvements to the rMBP in over 4 years! I'm waiting for Apple to get their act together to release a skylake laptop that will get around the memory limitation - something HP, Lenovo, Dell, Toshiba and MSI did over a year ago. Dell and Lenovo even had 32GB models with their previous generation laptops. If no solution is forthcoming by September/October then I'll be forced to buy a Windows laptop. I've held off for long enough - I could do with this right now, but really don't want to move to Windows.

Then there's the Mac Pro. I push the limit of 6 cores, but the 12 core machine won't be 2 x faster, but it is 2 x more expensive and it's easily outperformed by an x99 platform i7, let alone the latest Xeons at a much lower price. And to be honest I would prefer internal storage rather than Thunderbolt. Again, if there is no significant upgrade later this year I'll be forced to sell the Mac Pro as I ditch Apple as a platform and I'll probably just do a motherboard/CPU/RAM upgrade to my existing PC.

The only thing Apple have going for them is their OS software (iOS, MacOS), iCloud and the integration between these platforms. Their hardware apart from being out of date isn't that reliable either - I've had issues with 2 Macbook Pro's - GPU issues that Apple refused to acknowledge, but later changed it's mind.

There are plenty of people unhappy with Mac hardware who don't want to make the jump to Windows. To put it another way if MacOS would run on any hardware I'd drop all the Apple hardware yesterday! In fact, I would have never have bought it in the first place.
 
The difference is when USB came out, they didn't immediately take out all ports and replace them with USB. They kept them as long as they were useful.
Apple didn't.
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... and when Thunderbolt first came out. Problem is nobody is adopting USB-C like Apple is.
Baloney. Beyond that Apple wasn't even first here.
It's at risk of being another one of those ports that really only Apple uses even though it's open (see: FW400). Regardless, USB is what people use today. It's fine if Apple adds USB-C ports. It's not fine if they replace the currently most widely used port with it.
I suppose you would also demand SATA ports in all of Apples machines. Maybe a 9 pin RS232 port.

I look at it this way, I don't care as long as Apple offers plenty of ports and avoids the stupidity of the Mac Book.
 
???
The MacBook Air is the low end laptop. It only exists today to serve a price point. The MacBook is where all the innovation and upgrade has occurred. Unless you missed that somehow?

Yes I'm sure you want all of those upgrades in the cheapest package for your cheap self, but thats not how the world works, and thats not "stagnation".
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You must have missed the introduction of the MacBook then. That's the product you're looking for.

The MacBook Air gets called stale by anyone who wants a MacBook but is too cheap to pay for it.

Actually, I would love to buy a new macbook, except I think it's lame and a step backwards! Doesn't the Macbook air beat the new macbook in bench mark scores too??? I'm pretty sure it does with that tiny processor!!!!

So there you go.. Apple putting out another premium product that sucks. Also, Apple won't force me into another doggle conundrum because of one stupid USB-C! One port!

If that is apple's new idea of innovation, they can shove it!
 
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500 days since the last update and you really don't think the line up is stagnant? Do you think the screen on the macbook air is par with the the norm? Are the benzels too small for you too?

The macbook air needs a form factor update (by that I mean screen), and I don't mind USB-C as long as I have another regular USB. However, I will miss the magsafe 2 :S

Tim doesn't care about Macs, but OSX is the one decent product he has yet to destroy. Can't wait till he resigns or the board fires him. And yes, many analysis and many in the tech industry have been questioning Apple about the lack of innovation, or more specifically Tim's lack of leadership in pushing innovation.
Stagnant? Yes. Is the Air outdated? Yes. Can that be said for the rest of the line? No. The rMB is new and while the rMBP could be updated to new CPUs, the more recent ones were not significantly better, and more importantly suffered from severe delays where Apple could not tightly control its sourcing (see the random delivery times made by every other manufacturer). I do hope that Apple updates the Macs this year and all the rumors suggest that they are.
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Cheap MB is overpriced, underspec'd and underpowered
MBA is more powerful and capable but crippled by lo-fi screen
MBP was outdated a year ago already.
Still no option for a professional tablet

Profits down 2nd Q in a row
iphone iphone iphone
Great.


Maybe with your trillions you could start a radical new subsidiary that makes computers again, that are more than just accessories to charge and backup iphones.
The original MBA was overpriced, underspec'ed and underpowered.
MBA's screen is due to a terrible battery life if they were to just put in a better screen
MBP is probably getting updated this Fall
iPad Pro is a professional tablet. Tons of professionals use it. Don't like it? Get a Surface Pro.

Ok.
Ok.
Ok.

Their computers are pretty great. To be sure, they could get better specs, but what more do you want from it? I know that I can't really think of anything else tbh.
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Say for a 16GB w/ 2TB NVMe SSD, i7 or high end i5 or similar - I'd say around the $2100 USD mark
You haven't been paying attention then.
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So iDevices go with that same port instead of Lightning?
iDevices got the Lightning port due to size and speed
 
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MBA's screen is due to a terrible battery life if they were to just put in a better screen
MBP is probably getting updated this Fall
iPad Pro is a professional tablet. Tons of professionals use it. Don't like it? Get a Surface Pro.

Ok.
Ok.
Ok.

...

iDevices got the Lightning port due to size and speed

What on EARTH are you babbling on about?

The MacBook Air has a larger footprint that the Retina MacBook. Provided the latter's internal layout was used for the Air - which includes the new 'terraced' battery set-up and even smaller logic board - the it would have a greater battery capacity, which could be used to compensate for the higher resolution screen.

The iPad Pro is a "professional tablet" by brand only; the OS is identical to the so-called consumer variant. And tons of professionals use it? Source please. Thank you.
 
What is needed is new skylake MBPs !!
A bit thinner
Only USB-C
Smaller bezels
Whatever
But to be released soon !

So f.ck..n tired of waiting ..
 
Another 'Thinner Macbook Air with USB-C and a retina display' rumor. Why not stop reader confusion and just say larger MacBooks because that is obviously what they are.

Larger models could have more TB3/USB-C ports as well as a more powerful processor, therefore replacing the Air. The MacBook wasn't intended for Air lovers but my guess is that the larger models will be.
 
OMG! A Mac Rumor posted on Mac Rumors?!?! Something must have froze over!
 
???
The MacBook Air is the low end laptop. It only exists today to serve a price point. The MacBook is where all the innovation and upgrade has occurred. Unless you missed that somehow?

Yes I'm sure you want all of those upgrades in the cheapest package for your cheap self, but thats not how the world works, and thats not "stagnation".
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You must have missed the introduction of the MacBook then. That's the product you're looking for.

The MacBook Air gets called stale by anyone who wants a MacBook but is too cheap to pay for it.

So completely wrong. With the Macbook, you pay more yes, but the issue is not in that, it is in function. It is about having no desire to buy the Macbook at all. Need the extra battery life, prefer more ports, prefer a more capable faster machine. The machine I want, and many want, doesn't exist right now. Hence this article. Basically, a 13" Macbook Air, that is updated to the form of the Macbook, that beats the current Air in speed, battery, screen, etc. In short, the company is lagging, severely. I do like the form of the Macbook, but the function aspect is a joke, I have no desire to purchase that computer, at any price. If a 2016 model, 12+ inch computer, with several USB C ports, retina display, battery and performance that beat the current air, were released, it would be what is desired by so many. What on earth am I supposed to do with a tiny dinky little computer that you can't even simultaneously plug into an outlet and plug in an iPhone, that is slower than a 2012 Macbook Air. No.
 
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I want this very much.

I see what I think most people would see happening - the Macbook and Macbook Air becoming one product.

I have a Macbook Retina - the first of the two models, upgraded as much as you can - It's a fantastic ultraportable with an amazing screen, crazy long battery life, a great keyboard once you get used to it and it's the perfect size.

All it (badly) needs is:
  • A much faster CPU & integrated GPU (or non-integrated I guess but that probably wouldn't make sense).
  • 16GB of RAM as a minimum & maybe a 32GB option.
  • A NVMe SSD option somewhere between 512GB-2.5TB.
  • A second (thunderbolt enabled) USB-C port.
And then it'd be hands down the perfect laptop for me & at least 3 other people I know would immediately spec it out and buy it right away.

You'll get that in either a larger (14"?) MacBook, or redesigned MacBook Pro. There's no way those specs would be met by a machine that has the chassis of the current 12" MacBook while retaining a battery large enough to keep it running for the same amount of time as it does now.
 
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