Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Metallic MacBooks Spotted on Apple Campus

blu ray

Sound Evolution said:
Optical drives are far from dead. And if Blue Ray finally becomes a standard (a big "if") then optical drives will be alive more then ever.

Strange enough. I don't even see one post about the possibility of Blue Ray into Apples new super laptop.

With kind regards,
Bas
Click to expand...

Blue Rays aren't cheap enough, bulky and they do not consume less power than most DVD writers out there. But most of all, for apple, it's probably because there aren't any slot-loading blu ray writers.

I'm starting to wonder, would there be a possibility that apple would launch both the ultraportable and the macbooks?
 
if you ever owned a company....

gifford said:
What is to stop Adobe from supplying CS3 on memory stick? 8GB has gotta be sufficient or nearly sufficient. They may have to hike the price up by 20$ to absorb but thats not really a problem.
Same goes for the OS. Apple could pre-instal or supply USB memory stick.
This really is no different a scenario than with the floppy drive, in-fact this time there are many more options available.
And for those that have difficulty keeping up with the times, you could always buy an external optical drive!

Vast majority of software is already downloaded. Broadband penetration around the 75% mark. And many phones are 3G.

I personally regularly download/upload files of up to 1gb. The way i see it, if i am going to buy a CD/DVD with software on it, Im either going to have to get in my car drive to town and find a company that has what i want in stock, OR wait a day or so for it to arrive by post. Neither of the two options is appealing for me, so within a similar timeframe i can have 1gb downloaded and not have to leave the house.

I believe Apples first step towards its removal will come from a new device that will hook up to your existing computer.

IMO the only reason apple have not ALREADY taken steps to remove it is due to the iPod, many people have vast collections of CD's on shelves which still need to be transfered onto their iPod or future iPod. Though it could drive online sales, only Apple have the information at hand to make that decision.

What does the consumer/apple get out of this? Smaller, less noisy, battery efficient , more reliable computers @ lower prices (or same price, but improved technology elsewhere).

Forgot to mention in my earlier post: There is one other way to download software, now and more so in the future.... 3G/4G and not just for mobile phones.
In-fact Apple's very first optical drive free computer is already here... its called the iPhone.
Click to expand...

2 DVDs (9.4GB) - 20 cents each, 60 cents to manufacture.

1 memory stick (8GB) - $30 OEM

$30 vs. 60 cents.

which would you prefer?
 
not having an optical drive --> not a big deal

i can name a few laptops that don't have an optical drive, but have had a tremendous success. and some were introduced before the dawn of iTunes so downloading instead of installing from CDs was not considered an option.

Thinkpad X series - Still continues to be the favorite among business travlers. It reduced the size without any compromise of power. (what i am hoping for mac ult. to be)
Sony Vaio R505
Toshiba Portege R100, R200

Seriously, i don't think the absence of an optical drive is a big deal. you can carry an external drive if you really need to install something on the go.
And I'm guessing the software market would have a similar trend as the music market. People will buy CDs/DVDs if they want to keep a hard copy and not have to worry about computers crashing, formatting, hard drive failure, etc.

Instead, i really hope the new mac will have usb 3.0, wireless usb (although i doubt these two), bluetooth, full powered cpu (not ULV or ULEV), isight, fingerprint reader (i hope this is the weird thing about the touch pad)and SATA SSD or HDD.

USB 3.0 is supposed to come out in the first half of 2008 with power of ten times faster than the existing usb 2.0, but i don't think macs will be the first to offer it... (goto www.usb.org for more info.)

One more thing, i think people give apple way too much credit. apple did not invent most of the things on its laptop except for the magsafe port.
everything else was taken from other manufacturers. The concept of the iSight camera was invented by Sony with the introduction of Motion Eye, which became very popular in asia. The concept of illuminated apple logo on the back of macbooks was invented by Samsung. They were the first to feature backlight illumination on the other side of the display. (it soon disappeared due to light penetration from the other side and the dark spot.)

I got a little carried away, but i'm happy i ranted out everything i want.
 
Rumors of a sub-notebook laptop have been building as we approach Macworld San Francisco.
Click to expand...
For the last time, 13.3" is NOT subnotebook! 12" & 13.3" screens fall under the 'ultraportable' heading, not the 'subnotebook' heading. A subnotebook is something that usually has a screen of about 10.4" or less.
 
I really hope it's new MacBook or a small MacBook Pro. I want a small laptop from apple, but I'm not satisfied with the current ones. Current MacBook has too broad frame around the screen and keyboard. It could be made much smaller while still having 13,3" display.
 
MacRumors said:


Appleinsider claims that "dark grey" or "gunmetal" colored slim notebooks have been spotted at Apple campus.


The report is reminiscent of a 9to5mac report that indicated that new MacBook enclosures made of black and silver aluminum had previously been spotted by their sources.

Rumors of a sub-notebook laptop have been building as we approach Macworld San Francisco. Our rumor roundup summarizes the predictions to date.

Article Link
Click to expand...

Sounds like Apple already has prototypes of their ultraslim macbook. Although even if it does become reality it still won't be a viable purchase choice for me unless they somehow manage to get the flash storage to be even somewhat close to the storage provided by today's standard hard drives and can at least provide a external optical drive as a option when purchasing one of these macs...
 
I really hope they don't release a metallic macbook. There's a certain law of physics that happily explains why the mac book pro has terrible wifi reception and why the current mac books don't suffer from it.

Please stick with plastic apple....not that you can hear me of course!
 
really, it is only a few weeks away, are you all really that impatient?
but i do agree, it probaly didnt happen without pictures, i am sure they had their camera phone (or iphone) to take a picture of it. whenever i see something like that i always have my phone to take a picture of it.
and rember, flash storage is not that small, fyi the flash storage in the 160 gb ipod classic, they can just take the storage out of it and put it in the new macbook.
 
jman2003 said:
well even if it has a hard drive look how small it is. just putinto the new macbook (or make it smaller)
Click to expand...

1.8" drives are a bit slow for this application. However 32GB of flash (whichis fast) and a 1.8" drive might be a compact, energy efficient and cost effective combination.

Particularly if ZFS used. Multiple 'drives' are handled more elegantly with this filesystem and there's now limited support in OSX.
 
swisspolo said:
I really hope they don't release a metallic macbook. There's a certain law of physics that happily explains why the mac book pro has terrible wifi reception and why the current mac books don't suffer from it.
Click to expand...

My powerbook g4 never had a bad reception and it was clearly better then my current Macbook. The wireless antenna unit is not underneath the aluminum but a plastic strip on the screen hinge (with the MBP). In theory it should work just as good as the antenna underneath the plastic of the Macbook. Law of physics tells us that current seek the way of the lowest resistance (Ohm's law) In general and theory it doesn't have to say that aluminum have poor reception. If not connected to ground it can even a great antenna itself.

However I stick to the fact the the Macbook pro have an antenna strip on the display hinge that should work good. My Powerbook G4 (last rev.) had a better reception then my current Macbook.

With kind regards,
Bas
 
Laws of common sense tell us that Apple probably would have tested these circumstances before burying a Wi-Fi antenna inside a $2400+ aluminum laptop.

They're not stupid you know lol :)
 
TurboSC said:
Laws of common sense tell us that Apple probably would have tested these circumstances before burying a Wi-Fi antenna inside a $2400+ aluminum laptop.

They're not stupid you know lol :)
Click to expand...

Exactly. A lot of things I read here are just things people "assume" Since I had both a Macbook and a powerbook I can tell the difference and that is that the powerbook with alu case was better in wifi reception :D

And again an cage of faraday (like people assume the MBP case is) will only limit wifi reception if apple simple put a antenna inside the sealed enclosure. This is NOT the case so it is a wrong assume. In reality there are more electrical characteristics* to consider and lke you said, they're not stupid;) Electronics and laws are not that simple as people might think. But hey we are all "experts" here! :D

With kind regards,
Bas
 
DHagan4755 said:
The antenna on the aluminum MacBook Pros is located under the dark gray rubber section on the hinge.
Click to expand...

And I'm sure they spent more on research to figure out that was the best location for said antenna... I don't have MBP myself ( not yet at least ) is there a secondary antenna? or just the one mentioned?
 
Routers everybody...

I think people often forget that Apple Laptops don't play well with certain routers. So here is your friendly local macrumors reminder: Reception depends mostly on the compatibility of your (type of) router!
 
swisspolo said:
I really hope they don't release a metallic macbook. There's a certain law of physics that happily explains why the mac book pro has terrible wifi reception and why the current mac books don't suffer from it.

Please stick with plastic apple....not that you can hear me of course!
Click to expand...

There will always be certain advantages to using certain materials over others. If it were up to electronics manufacturers, all wiring and casing would be made out of gold because it conducts electricity and dissipates heat like no other. The downside is that people would rather wear gold around their neck.

I welcome the use of aluminum, even if I do have to trade in a little reception.
 
FF_productions said:
The reception sucks on the MacBook Pro, it's the one thing I can't stand.

I'm 2 feet away from a router and I won't even have full bars.
Click to expand...

I think it depends on your router. I use airport express on my office and my neighbor three stages above my office (in a concrete building!) still have airport reception with his MBP! In the same situation the Macbook don't have any reception anymore. That is why my conclusion is, the MBP with alu case have a better reception then the MB.

With kind regards,
Bas
 
Very true that apple will have done their research but in my experience alu notepads have seemed pretty terible with wifi. Didn't realise it could be a router problem so i'll take back my comment.

I think some of us need to brush up on our knowlegde of Maxwells equaton and Lenzes law to see my point but in hindsightIi didn't twig that the antenna would be outside the case.

Anyways, we're all experts here so I'll pipe down from here on in on this one :)

Cheers

Simon
 
FF_productions said:
The reception sucks on the MacBook Pro, it's the one thing I can't stand.

I'm 2 feet away from a router and I won't even have full bars.
Click to expand...

This is not normal. You have a fault either with the router or the MBP.

Maybe you're antenna in the MBP is not connected to the motherboard. Something like that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back