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The Asus ZenBook Fold does a great job of having this form factor while retaining a physical keyboard. The less severe fold due to accommodating the removable keyboard likely helps with the crease issue as well.

 
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I realize that is a concept, but I see that as a foldable iPad versus a foldable MacBook. Any amount of serious typing would be painful on that. No thanks either way.
Maybe? I’m curious to see what the experience is if this does see the light of day. I could see haptics as a clever way of simulating a tactile keyboard.
 
iPad sales have been down after the first year where they didnt update a single ipad, in a market where China is heavily pushing folks to products from domestic companies, and after a year of massive inflation? shocker :rolleyes:. Also even down they're not far from the same general average they've been hovering at over the past decade, and chances are they'll jump this year with the new updates. As much as I would love a beefier OS on iPads that's not the reason they're down, lack of updates, the economy, China, and the fact that it's a maturing market where the products last longer (same with cell phones) and people update less frequently are why
iPad had a big fall in revenue from 2014-2017. It went up from yearly revenue of 18B in 2018 to 31B post Covid WFH. Last year was a 3% drop compared to 2022, without releasing an updated iPad.
The fact is contrary to narrative here, iPad revenue has gone up in past 5 years compared to 2017 or 2018.
 
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Is the M5 chip a few years away? Seems they'd want to release M5 sooner since the Snapdragon Elite has 40-45 trillion op/s compared the M4s 38 top/s.

Either way, sign me up for one.
Don’t forget there will be a M4 pro and more with way more Neural Engine power.
 
It would be cool that if I use it with a keyboard and some kind of stand (for 999 dollars), I can use it as a widescreen display.

That would actually be cool if they market it as a display, not as a book/pad.

So it’s basically a foldable iMac.
 
Yes and for good reason. Talk about a niche product when we need some stability to the stuff they are already making. Oh…and a real OS for the iPad. Apple has seriously lost its way.

The problem is that they don't seem worried about making the best products for customers anymore
 
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Less than two hours after Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said a MacBook with either an 18.8-inch or 20.2-inch foldable screen would launch in 2026, display industry expert Ross Young has said the device will indeed feature around an 18.8-inch screen.


Foldable-Screen-MacBook-Concept-Astropad.jpg


A foldable-screen MacBook concept by Astropad

In a post on social media platform X, limited to his paying subscribers, Young said he expects the device to be equipped with an 18.76-inch display instead of a 20.25-inch display for "cost reasons." In a folded position, Kuo said an 18.8-inch MacBook would be similar in size to a traditional 13-inch or 14-inch MacBook.

It is expected that a MacBook with a foldable screen would feature an all-screen design with a virtual keyboard, but exact design details have yet to be rumored.

Kuo said Apple is aiming to make the foldable screen "as crease-free as possible," and he said this could result in the device being nearly as expensive as Apple's Vision Pro headset, which starts at $3,499. He also said the foldable-screen MacBook will be equipped with Apple's next-generation M5 chip, which has yet to be announced.

It seems like a foldable-screen MacBook is still a few years away, and Apple will firm up its plans for the device as its launch gets closer.

Article Link: MacBook With Foldable Display Will Actually Have 18.8-Inch Screen, Analyst Says

Really hope this is in addition to updates to the 14" and 16" MBPs, because I have zero interest in folding screens that will fail faster than a traditional laptop screen and no physical KB. I'd be taking a break from upgrading until they replaced it (like I and many of my clients did during the butterfly KB years)

This should be the next iPad Pro, but with a better file system or the option to run MacOS.
 
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Ugh, Virtual Keyboard, gross experience, difficult to touch type.

With no simulated key travel, it's going to be tough on the hands and fingers.
With no keyboard tilt.

It's going to be an ergonomic horror!
 
In the Windows world I used a Surface tablet for quite a while - alongside numerous other machines. And I ended up hating touch for that sort of use.

Not so much that touch doesn't work but switching between touch and non-touch was a very unpleasant experience. I'd find myself trying to use touch on machines that didn't have it. And forgetting to use touch on the Surface tablet. Being not much of a touchpad user either, I'd always have a mouse as well and would catch myself moving my hand between the mouse and the screen - all too often inappropriately. And a few times I have used a big screen with touch, I found it quite tiring reaching all over it. Seems great for a few minutes but a few hours and it is very unpleasant.

Part of the problem seems to be using the same OS with and without touch. I had no problem switching back and forth between an iPad or other tablet and a Windows machine without touch.

Of course, it could just be the wiring of my brain!
 
We need a touch screen Mac, at all?

Seriously you don't just make a Mac with a touch screen. Apple has doubled down on this repeatedly, as recently as this month.

The last time Apple set out to make a touch screen Mac, what they made was iPadOS. Because iPadOS is more than just the neutered, baby operating system that old heads think it is. It's an operating system that was designed for TOUCH from the start. Whether some people want to accept it or not, that's how different it is. That's how different designing for Touch is. Touch is not something that gets bolted on to macOS.

And Apple has showed how the iPad's OS and "professional" apps just language due to that choice.

You're right that Apple has made those choices. Apple could change its mind and make different choices at any time.

Infinite Time Scale, either:

1) macOS gets touch

2) macOS gets replaced with a new OS that has touch

... one/both will happen, it is just a matter of when.
 
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Macbook Pro without keyboard? yeah, right. Nope.
With crappy sound, because device is too thin? Nope.
What is the point that it folds? To have bigger screen? And pay for it to have thicker device? Nope.

I guess not much leaked yet from upcoming WWDC. So any 'news' will do.
 
iPad had a big fall in revenue from 2014-2017. It went up from yearly revenue of 18B in 2018 to 31B post Covid WFH. Last year was a 3% drop compared to 2022, without releasing an updated iPad.
The fact is contrary to narrative here, iPad revenue has gone up in past 5 years compared to 2017 or 2018.
good points
 
I was doing some quick maths in my head on the drive home just now - I reckon 18.8 inches is pretty much exactly what you'd expect if you take the current 13" iPad Pro dimensions and make it foldable (i.e. putting 2 iPad Pro's side by side) - you go from a 13 inch 4:3 screen when folded up, to an 18.8 inch 3:2 screen when unfolded. I really hope this runs the iPadOS UI when folded (with touch) and then switches to the MacOS UI unfolded. Would be amazing...
Imagine that the display is inside when folded. I guess it could look like the back of an iPad when it's closed.
 
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Less than two hours after Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said a MacBook with either an 18.8-inch or 20.2-inch foldable screen would launch in 2026, display industry expert Ross Young has said the device will indeed feature around an 18.8-inch screen.


Foldable-Screen-MacBook-Concept-Astropad.jpg


A foldable-screen MacBook concept by Astropad

In a post on social media platform X, limited to his paying subscribers, Young said he expects the device to be equipped with an 18.76-inch display instead of a 20.25-inch display for "cost reasons." In a folded position, Kuo said an 18.8-inch MacBook would be similar in size to a traditional 13-inch or 14-inch MacBook.

It is expected that a MacBook with a foldable screen would feature an all-screen design with a virtual keyboard, but exact design details have yet to be rumored.

Kuo said Apple is aiming to make the foldable screen "as crease-free as possible," and he said this could result in the device being nearly as expensive as Apple's Vision Pro headset, which starts at $3,499. He also said the foldable-screen MacBook will be equipped with Apple's next-generation M5 chip, which has yet to be announced.

It seems like a foldable-screen MacBook is still a few years away, and Apple will firm up its plans for the device as its launch gets closer.

Article Link: MacBook With Foldable Display Will Actually Have 18.8-Inch Screen, Analyst Says
They can make anything up they want. I pronounce myself an Apple analyst now and I proclaim that in 2027 Apple will release the Mac Classic M7 Pro, which will feature the first CRT monitor manufactured since 2011, according to supply chains.
 
Agree. I can see the ad now for the "more magical Magic Keyboard" that will go with this beast!
I wonder if you may have accidentally hit on what they're planning - maybe a folding macbook pro where the device is foldable + can dock in a magic keyboard a la the ones for the ipad airs and pros (and similar to the zenbook someone else in the thread mentioned). Might explain the size, that's big enough that such a keyboard would be full size and have a much bigger trackpad.
 
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