my rant
regarding the display argument
1. from a design perspective, the 16:10 "golden, divine, etc." ratio is much more visually appealing than other aspect ratios. and considering apple's pioneering of the 16:10 display in portable computers (ie, macintosh portable), i would be
shocked if apple decided to abandon the format now.
2. from a functional standpoint, 16:9 offers considerably less vertical real estate for document viewing and graphic/photo work. and if the argument is that 16:9 is a "true" widescreen, delivering a better movie-watching experience, then we should probably keep in mind that the majority of film has all but abandoned 16:9 in favor of 2.39:1.
regarding the actual photo itself
1. i'm pleased to see the laser-drilled speaker holes. i'm still amazed at how small the microphone holes are on my imac.
2. the "seam" in the picture that people are seeing,
i believe is the edge of the protective plastic sheet covering the top. you can't tell from the small macrumors photo, but from the larger photo on 9to5.
3. i'm disappointed to see the bottom missing from the chassis. i had really hoped the entire case would be bored out of a single block of aluminum. i'm not sure why people are questioning the feasibility of this, since apple has been boring aluminum blocks with relatively high tolerances since the ipod mini. and if i recall, steve himself claimed the imac to be the largest consumer electronic device machined from a block of aluminum so large. size certainly wouldn't be an issue, then.
4. and finally, i don't understand the backlash against the "chiclet" keyboard. it's certainly not perfect, but it
is a superior keyboard if for no other reason than the significantly increased structural rigidity. i'll concede, the choice of white keys is a little goofy, but as far as functionality, i think they're at least as good as those on the current macbook pro. hopefully, (though i'm highly doubtful) apple will
at least keep the aluminum color of the current MBP keys. and i'd love it if they filleted the top edge of the keys slightly, as they did to differentiate the ibook and aluminum powerbooks.
that's all.
