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MacBook to See Design Refresh in Near Future?

Good news even if it isn't my cup of tea.

Actually Mac Book Bamboo isn't a bad idea. It makes for a natural platform.


As to what I'd like to see, it is simple get rid of the optical drive, include a small SSD for boot and software installation and provide a slot/bay for a user configured storage solution. As long as the SSD is high performance and large enough for normal software installations it would make for cheap but high performance hardware.

Getting rid of the optical bay frees up space for more rational PC board usage. A well designed PC board makes for room for a big battery. It also means more space for I/O ports.

Most importantly though Apple can't go backwards with respect to CPU & GPU performance. Apples low end is barely adequate as it is and software is becoming more demanding. The current test here is Safari with Flash running.

Yes I know flash is crap but it does load the system significantly.


Dave
 
I could totally see Apple doing this by incorporating all the 'Mini' ports:

1. Mini Firewire [i.e. iLink]
2. Mini USB
3. Mini Display Port


They probably could even shrink the MagSafe port.
 
Experience

gmcalpin said:
I've never understood why people assume(d) that — books open and close. Tablets do not.
Click to expand...

My school has tablet pc's as a requirement and I can tell you one thing, convertible laptops break all the time. In my opinion, there is no way to manufacture a tablet with a rotating screen that can last without a $1500+ price tag. Apple probably experimented with convertible laptops at first (maybe the beginning part of 3 years this rumor has been going around), but I bet it ditched the idea once their iPhone technology kicked off. It only makes sense that they would continue on that huge success.
 
you know, to those who say thinner = weaker or that it leads to problems, you've apparently never used any of Apple's unibody notebooks... in all of my experience prior to buying my MacBook (or trying out Apple's current Pro notebook lineup), I've never used a more durable, solid-feeling notebook. even as thin as it is, my MacBook's screen enclosure is rock-solid, and the same can be said for the hinge and other parts that normally present problems in a thinner form factor.

as for a refreshed MacBook design, I'm sure Apple won't disappoint, but I'd only be interested if they brought an all-black notebook back to their lineup (particularly if it was anodized aluminum, like the current iPod nanos *drool*)... otherwise, it's just eye-candy :).
 
Colours and quality, please!

My very first Apple portable was a white MacBook. I really liked it, but it cracked several times. If staying with plastic, Apple must get that sorted. Also, I can imagine that it costs Apple a fortune to repair them within warranty. Who knows, whether the extra income from repairing out-of-warranty units covers the cost. Anyway, it wouldn't be a very good strategy to rely on future repairs as a cash cow.

I think, the best would be to introduce funky colours to the range - not just to reach younger generations, but to bring some life into the range. One processor speed will be enough. The RAM and HDD are user-replaceable, so they can be easily modified, if required.

Red, yellow, green, blue, black, white - some rubberised elements for durability, and off you go to primary schoolchildren's desks. Adults can have the more serious looking unibody range. I think it makes a lot of sense.
 
Excellent news! My Late 06 MB is plenty for my needs but is starting to show its age. It would be ideal if a new, lower-priced MB was announced. Netbooks are too small, 13 MBP is too expensive. 2.26GHz C2D + 9400m along with a little metal here and there at the weak spots.
 
How annoying (for me personally), I was just about to get a 13" MBP.

Can I ask opinions:

- Does anyone think the likely outcome is that they update both 13" macbooks (plastic and unibody)

- Are we talking weeks or more like Jan 2010?

Obviously I realise no one knows for sure but Id be interested in any thoughts people might have. I was really looking forward to getting my 13" MBP

Thanks
 
Macbook will become tablet

clearly......

the new "macbook" will BE the rumored "tablet".
the rumored "tablet" will BE the new "macbook".

Jobs set this one up from his hospital bed guys. As soon as he decided to name the entire lineup of full-featured laptops mbp's, it was obvious. A non-full-featured tablet will replace the macbook, forever. Mark my words.
 
One of the things likely to come out of this are the use of older Core 2 Duo processors (or really, current gen) when the mobile Nehalem chips hit early next year. The Pro series get the nehalem chips, and Intel cuts prices on current gen C2D chips.

Hopefully Intel will have a 32nm arrandale chip without the IGP on the same package, so they can still use Nvidia's graphics/IO hub. The new 5-series graphics are still lagging the 9400M, by about 30%, and Nvidia is supposed to have a refreshed version of the 9400M out in 1Q10 that is 2x as powerful as the current 9400M for the same power consumption (40nm vs 55/65nm, doubling the number of stream processors) so it would be a significant graphics downgrade (30-65%) if Apple went with the on-package stuff.

Also, I would expect all of this in 1Q10 - new MacBook, Tablet, MBP upgrades, etc.
 
Didn't Steve promise that Apple would ditch plastic enclosures completely in favour of aluminum during one of his "A greener Apple" keynote segments?
 
sishaw said:
Of course, that also means that the statement "Nothing here is the truth" is also not true, which means that, in fact, everything here is true.
Click to expand...

Meaning the statement itself was not true, meaning that the meaning of the statement was false, meaning that there is truth here, meaning that the statement was true, meaning that *Kernel Panic*
 
I hope Apple does not change to unibody for the macbook. To do so means they would have to really cheapen the internals. Let me explain why.

Plastic parts are much cheaper to manufacture then the way Apple makes the unibody. Lets say that the tooling to make the case for the (plastic)macbook costs $1,000,000 and uses $1 in materials and $1 in labor. If I make one part it would cost $1,000,002 but if I make a million parts then it costs $3 (simplified for the sake of discussion). That is the upside of mass producing parts this way. The down side though can be seen in problems that are not obvious when first produced such as the cracks in the palm rest and bezel that only show up after extended use.

With the unibody case they do not have to buy expensive injection molds and cnc machines (machines that cut the aluminum) are not necessarily more expensive then injection mold machines (machines that hold the tool and inject the plastic). It may cost $10,000 to $50,000 dollars to program the case design but overall the startup costs are much cheaper. Where the costs really differ is in time and materials. No matter how many of these that you make you will still have fixed costs of the aluminum, the time it takes each machine to do its machining, etc. After production is optimized these costs can not be significantly reduced no matter how many you make. This is a far more expensive process then injection molding. The upside is that you can get stellar quality repeatedly.

So I say again if they do use a unibody for the macbook they would have to either eat it in the margins or cheapen it elsewhere.

As to coloring the aluminum it is not that hard to do and does not cost a lot of money per part. But when anodized aluminum is scratched you can not easily repair it (buff it) like you could do with mild scratches on plain aluminum. I would bet that if you had a colored unibody it would look pretty craptastic after several months of use. Imho.
 
z4n3 said:
There are NO new 13 inch MacBook's for sale on the Apple store in Spain!!! only the 13 inch White MacBook!!!!!! I think there will be no new MacBook's and we will only be left with the MacBook Pro! with cheaper models! and old chips :p

Apple Store Spain

:apple:
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There is only the one MacBook, which is the white plastic. It's that way everywhere. There's no indication there of any update.

jW
 
I can't wait for this!! I guess i'll just wait for this..
but if it doesn't come up to my required needs... then I'll just go with the PRO aluminums...
 
jaztherot said:
clearly......

the new "macbook" will BE the rumored "tablet".
the rumored "tablet" will BE the new "macbook".

Jobs set this one up from his hospital bed guys. As soon as he decided to name the entire lineup of full-featured laptops mbp's, it was obvious. A non-full-featured tablet will replace the macbook, forever. Mark my words.
Click to expand...

"Clearly"

How did you arrive at that? Because to me, it's sounds purely speculative.
 
zedsdead said:
Considering it was almost 2 years between updates last time around, many people on here thought a redesign was coming with that update but it didn't happen.

Maybe next time, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Click to expand...

I am sure they will update them both soon. The white Macbook and Mac mini look very out of place with the current Leopard UI. Maybe it worked with Tiger but it doesn't seem to go that well with Leopard.
 
Presumably true, and if so then...

1.) Apple will obviously be looking to compete at the netbook price point with more than just the upcoming tablet, which some people thought might replace the low-end MacBook completely.

2.) The upcoming tablet will not be named a "MacBook" as some predicted.

3.) What implications does this make for where the upcoming tablet will be placed in the product lineup? The tablet may be ultra-cool, but if it's positioned too closely to the iPhone below it or the MacBook above it, its sales could conceiveably suffer. (Case in point: the not-clearly-positioned Cube.)
 
They should make it thinner, add a black option, and do away with the optical drive and make room for 2 hard drives. What would be really cool if they had 2 hard drives and then a small flash drive for the operating system.
 
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