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Merging MBA and iPAD?

gri

gri

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 17, 2004
847
187
New York City, aka Big Apple
A thought occurred to my on one of those rare occasion I actually had time to catch up reading MacWorld...
The MBA is oooold. Ipad more or less just came out. MBA needs an update. There are rumors that iOS is ported over to Macs. Could it be that Apple is delaying the MBA because they are working on a merger of the MBA and the iPad? Everybody is complaining (well, not everybody but the prosumer ones) that the iPad is not a production device but for consumption. The MBA is the former. So why not merging the success of the iPad with the MBA to get a new device (allegedly Apple has more in store for us yet to come) which has, say, a novel keyboard (think along Lebedev keyboard), better battery than the MBA, better screen and keyboard than the iPad, storage device and outputs... etc.
Any thoughts (after all this is MacRUMORS)...?
 
Corndog5595 said:
Not happening.
Click to expand...

More than agreed. In addition, we're not going to get an MBA with a touchscreen. The thought is crazy... who wants to touch their display and get fingerprints all over it? The iPad is bad enough at that, why limit a computer that has full-sized keyboard and large multi-touch trackpad capabilities.

What I do see happening in the future is iOS running in a shell, and also some sort of operation where we see an LCD trackpad with the whole screen displayed on it to have touch capabilities at our fingertips without touching our display.
 
Scottsdale said:
More than agreed. In addition, we're not going to get an MBA with a touchscreen. The thought is crazy... who wants to touch their display and get fingerprints all over it? The iPad is bad enough at that, why limit a computer that has full-sized keyboard and large multi-touch trackpad capabilities.

What I do see happening in the future is iOS running in a shell, and also some sort of operation where we see an LCD trackpad with the whole screen displayed on it to have touch capabilities at our fingertips without touching our display.
Click to expand...

Not the screen - the keyboard. You can change the keys and see it...
 
gri said:
Not the screen - the keyboard. You can change the keys and see it...
Click to expand...

I don't want that in lieu of a real keyboard. I am typing on the POS iPad vKeyboard right now. It SUCKS! I need real productivity on my MBA. The Lenovo Thinkpad would become my permanent notebook if Apple ruins the MBA!
 
Actually a touchscreen would be useful for those of use who use the Air wilst flopping on the lounge. It makes navigation even easier.

I for one would like to see it.
 
Sfdoddsy said:
Actually a touchscreen would be useful for those of use who use the Air wilst flopping on the lounge. It makes navigation even easier.

I for one would like to see it.
Click to expand...

Your arms would get tired fairly quickly and the screen would be absolutely covered.
 
Scottsdale said:
I don't want that in lieu of a real keyboard. I am typing on the POS iPad vKeyboard right now. It SUCKS! I need real productivity on my MBA. The Lenovo Thinkpad would become my permanent notebook if Apple ruins the MBA!
Click to expand...

Point taken, I am just doing some wild speculation here. How about as a touchpad?
 
There was an article on 9to5 Mac tonight (Aug 21) about Apple patenting a touchscreen notebook (leading them to speculate that it may be for an updated MacBook Air).

Can somebody explain the point of this device to me, because for the life of me I cannot find a practical reason for its existence (other than as a laughable exercise in technology for technology’s sake).

Touchscreens make sense when all there is is screen.

I’ve been waiting for an updated Air for more than a year, and if some 11.6 inch contraption with a gimmicky touchscreen is indeed what ends up taking its place, well, at least I won’t have to worry about standing in line to get one.
 
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Patents especially for big companies, may not suggest any intent to build something. Or, no intent to build it as shown on the patent. For example, Buckminster Fuller's original 1951 geodesic dome patent shows a huge dome with cast metal hubs.

That particular design was built eiher once (if the Union Tank Car Co. dome used those details; I'm not sure) or not at all. But the patent served to patent the geometry, in any manifestation. This patent was perceived by the Patent Office to be so well written and illustrated, that for years they had it on display in a glass case in their waiting room. Amazingly, Bucky had withheld from the patent the formulas for determining the lengths of the pieces; so you really had to go to him for that. (See "Bucky" by Hugh Kenner.)

So a patent may be mostly about one seemingly little part of what's shown.

Also, tech companies these days seem to patent almost everything they come up with, just because they've put time/$ into it. And from what I've read -- because they may get into a patent dispute someday with somebody, and then some of those unused patents that they don't intend to use, may be swapped in a settlement. You let me use 2 your big patents, and I'll let you use 5 of my not so big patents.

Perhaps the older idea of -- don't patent something until you're ready to make it, because patenting = disclosure -- has fallen by the wayside where computer-related patents are concerned? But ... reading patents for intent, is slippery.
 
Thanks thinkdesign, you make a good point and I do hope this particular patent (touchscreen notebook) doesn't portend an actual release of this seemingly pointless machine.
 
Rather than MBA and iPad merging. I think the new MBA could take on the look of the new iPhone 4.

The Air could loose it's rounded/contoured shape and take on the iPhone's squared look allowing for more (needed) room inside.
 
entatlrg said:
Rather than MBA and iPad merging. I think the new MBA could take on the look of the new iPhone 4.

The Air could loose it's rounded/contoured shape and take on the iPhone's squared look allowing for more (needed) room inside.
Click to expand...

Though its tapered shape makes it one of the most comfortable to type on...
 
Agreed, really comfortable to type on, easy to handle or have on your lap too.

Square/sharp edges will give it a totally different look for sure. They may have no choice but to redesign it at least a little if they want to fit more power under the hood and improve cooling.

Man, I'm so anxious to see where the MBA ends up, sure hope September tells the tale, could be October, worse yet next year ... but to keep it the same price and or do nothing until next year, that can't be smart business...
 
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For a hinged open laptop to have a touchscreen, is a little hard to beleive. +nless it has one of those interesting double-acting hinges like the PC tablets, so the screen can be on top and the it's "all screen".

If the Air more or less as-is, had a touchscreen added, touching it would overturn the whole device. To touch it with your right hand, your left hand would have to be holding the keyboard area down. Of course this would also add stress to those not-ready-for-prime-time hinges, too.

My guess: The patent isn't for anything planned. But the use would be for a bigger-screen mor capable iPad Plus. For uses at home or in an office (not roaming outdoors) where battery life is unimportant, but a larger screen is desirable.

But knowing Apple's penchant for iconic slickness, the bigger device still won't have any sort of handles or grips. Customers without vise-grip hands, will have to buy these bigger all-screen devices from some other maker.
 
Yeah, I can see the Jobs quote now: " If you see one of those swivel/hinge things, they blew it."


If the MBA was conceived as a “halo” product for the high-end niche segment of the market (and as an example of Apple’s superior design/engineering prowess), it came so tantalizingly close on the first try that it really doesn’t need a ground-up redesign. It simply needs to improve on and refine what is already there.

As others have noted, it is bliss to type on, easy to carry, and in general a joy to behold as well as having an “air” of exclusivity to it––which, let’s be honest, matters in that segment of the market.

I don’t see a need for it to (and hope it doesn’t) incorporate any of these far-flung features like touchscreens and iOS layers etc. Hell, I’d be happy with a hinge with more integrity and a screen with less bezel.

But that may just betray a failure of imagination on my part.
 
Well, they could make something like a touchscreen on the MBA, but still have it be clean too. You guys know those screens that you can draw on with a pen? What about having one of those incorporated into the MBA? That could definitely be cool. Especially if you could swivel the screen around and fold down so it rests on top of the keyboard, and acted like the iPad. I for one, would think that to be a flipping cool device haha
 
Well I hope they don't go crazy with it. I have an iPad, but I also need a laptop. And I need it to run Winblows. Update the CPU, add a second USB port, and I am on it. With one USB port I would need to test it and see if I can run a USB licence key and a USB to serial adapter or Ethernet dingle.
 
MrWillie said:
Well I hope they don't go crazy with it. I have an iPad, but I also need a laptop. And I need it to run Winblows. Update the CPU, add a second USB port, and I am on it. With one USB port I would need to test it and see if I can run a USB licence key and a USB to serial adapter or Ethernet dingle.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I'd be thrilled with just a new glass trackpad and edge to edge screen, with an Intel i3 processor sandwiched in. I like the smooth contours of the MBA already, and I still cling to the belief that there's a decent sized market for the MBA somewhere out there.

I hate when people classify it as a net book. It's got a 13" screen. All it really needs is another USB port and some more oomph.
 
Scottsdale said:
The thought is crazy... who wants to touch their display and get fingerprints all over it? The iPad is bad enough at that, why limit a computer that has full-sized keyboard and large multi-touch trackpad capabilities.

What I do see happening in the future is iOS running in a shell, and also some sort of operation where we see an LCD trackpad with the whole screen displayed on it to have touch capabilities at our fingertips without touching our display.
Click to expand...

Adding fuel to the speculation, doesn't seem to be that crazy...

https://www.macrumors.com/2010/08/2...ing-between-mouse-based-and-touch-interfaces/
 
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