It’s a shame that the Mac/ipad line up will become as confusing as the ones for dell and HP were 15 years ago.
I am hoping for 16GB ram because many meaningful on-device ai use cases whether it’s for productivity or gaming, require 16GB RAM.
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New 12.9-Inch MacBook Could Launch This Year Starting at $599
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I am hoping for 16GB ram because many meaningful on-device ai use cases whether it’s for productivity or gaming, require 16GB RAM.
I don’t think the cellular aspect is being weighed heavily enough here:
These are “cheap enough” devices that could be sold through a data plan. iPhones are Apple’s top seller, mostly through carriers. Upselling to bundle a MacBook with the plan makes the carriers and Apple more money per customer without cannibalizing iPhone sales.
It doesn’t even need it’s own cellular hardware, but I don’t see why Apple wouldn’t include their own chip they put so much work into developing.
These are “cheap enough” devices that could be sold through a data plan. iPhones are Apple’s top seller, mostly through carriers. Upselling to bundle a MacBook with the plan makes the carriers and Apple more money per customer without cannibalizing iPhone sales.
It doesn’t even need it’s own cellular hardware, but I don’t see why Apple wouldn’t include their own chip they put so much work into developing.
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The ability to prevent "sideloading" may be a big selling point for the education market. The choice to allow/disallow installation of software will almost certainly be left to the customer, noting that students using school supplied computers are users and not customers. Apple has a good (but not perfect) infrastructure to track stolen devices which would also be a good selling point for the education market.
The converse of selling to the education market is that the customers will have a bit more clout on software features, which may prod Apple into putting more effort in developing Pages, Numbers and Keynote.
The converse of selling to the education market is that the customers will have a bit more clout on software features, which may prod Apple into putting more effort in developing Pages, Numbers and Keynote.
Excellent point. $599 makes it more affordable for the education sector and non-creative” industries.
More and more apps are increasingly cloud based anyways. Therefor storage won’t be deal breaking. Furthermore Apple probably orders to make $60-100/year from iCloud subscriptions than selling you double storage for just $200 more.
If the iPad Pro/Air were 4 ounces (1/4-lb.) lighter, the Magic Keyboard could lose a similar amount of weight, making the full package 2.2-2.3 lbs. or 1 kg, which I figure is the real target Apple might reach over several years.
AFAIK it's mirroring only on display out, so no.
The only crippling I want to see on these machines is the omission of Apple Intelligence.🥳🥳🥳 The lack of genmoji isn't a deal breaker for me.😋 I'd love for it to come with just the OS installed, no Stocks, no Home, no TV, no bloat. Having used Linux for a while has made me appreciated a svelte OS more and more. Let us choose which app we want installed.
Think students, office drones, etc. People that need the flexibility of a desktop OS but not all that much power. Even then this thing would probably run circles around my office-issued desktop.
This is an interesting angle. I'd imagine that with cellular chips, the majority of the cost is in the R&D and paying the fair use patents, and that the silicon itself is relatively cheap.
Since the R&D is already baked into Apple's homegrown chip, and they were able to avoid at least some of the fair use patents, adding cellular to the Macs would allow them to sell them through T Mobile, AT&T & Verizon, similar to how they sell the iPads. That could make the upfront prices really attractive.
I work for one of the biggest cellular companies and yes talk to Apple. Never gonna happen.
What if this is the rebirth of the MacBook - same chassis, 12" (+/-) single USB-C, three SKUS - 8gb/128gb, 8gb/256gb, 16gb/512gb
Why insist on a smaller screen? If they can squeeze a 12.9” screen in that old MacBook chassis with much smaller bezels that would be a sweet package.
On Phones, they only do screen mirroring. We don’t really know if that is a hardware limitation or just iOS and an iPhone feature set. The iPhone has not yet had the kind of window management that would be needed to have an independent external screen. An A18 device running Mac OS might be able to.
Having an A18 would not limit the software or drivers. This is the same architecture as the M1-4 chips, just with different core configurations. The single core performance is significantly faster than the M1 and the multi core performance is about the same. The software would be running on Mac OS so you would be able to run the same MS Office on this new device as on any other Air.
For an individual customer, a new device will likely be supported longer after purchase than a "fully capable recent years MacBook". For a school system looking to make a large purchase, the "recent year MacBooks" may not be available in the quantity desired. Having just one configuration with make support easier and the length of support is critical.
For some people, buying a recent year MacBook would make more sense than an A18 powered MacBook.
I miss the days when ultralight laptops were a premium segment instead of low-end component leftovers, and Apple previewed its next mass-market move while showing off its abilities. Shave down the bezel and lid thickness with a tandem OLED, hide Face ID in the hinge, low-volume-test a partially carbon fiber shell, put a MagSafe receptor on the top surface and remove all other ports, price it at $2,999. The tech press would go into a tizzy, we 12” MacBook adherents would complain bitterly about the shortcomings from the preorder queues, and the spirit of Jobs would be smiling.
Assuming this comes with usb-c rather than thunderbolt will that hurt the external display capacity? I assume it would be capable of driving one 4k/60hz display. But what about a 5k display like the apple studio? Does usb c have enough bandwidth to drive that?
I recall the MB air only recently got dual external display support so I would assume this lower cost Mac would not support that. Correct?
I recall the MB air only recently got dual external display support so I would assume this lower cost Mac would not support that. Correct?
Apple have a long way to go before they get anywhere near the dumpster fire that is HPDelnovo in terms of a confusing range of models!
There's been a bit of a mess with Apple not being able to decide whether "Air" is "entry level" or "premium ultra slim" but if this rumored laptop gets released as a "MacBook" we'll have a straightforward entry: MacBook/iPad, mid-range: MacBook Air/iPad Air, higher-end: MacBook Pro/iPad Pro.
What's the confusion?
MacOS has had the option al ability to prevent "sideloading" - by setting GateKeeper to "App Store only" mode - for a decade or so. If Apple wanted "lock down" MacOS they could have done so at any time by flipping a bit. It's not some bit of magic tech that needs an "iPhone processor" to implement. Making it the default might even make sense (I can't honestly remember if it is on by default) and Windows already does this ('S' mode in Win11 Home) as long as it is possible to disable this.
Apple may decide to force lock-down at some time - but when they're facing pressure to unlock iOS I'm not sure its likely.
Why would you buy any new Mac when you can usually find a sale/refurb price on last-year's next model up that might actually be better specced for your use? Yet, somehow, people do...
If this new MacBook turns out to be real, it too will feature in special offers and - after a few months - turn up in used/refurb stores.
Actually, one reason for releasing it could be to counter "sticker shock" by having a Mac on display in the Apple Store that didn't cost $1000-minus-change, even if the customer could then be persuaded to spend more. ISTR this was one of the factirs in the launch of the original PPC Mac Mini (back when desktops were still the mainstream choice).
Well, yeah, at best its only going to support one external display per port, and it probably won't have more than one or two ports. I don't think anybody knows whether the external display limitations of the iPhone are down to the SoC or the limitations of iOS.
There seems to be a lot of "OMG you mean this $599 MacBook will be less capable all-round than a $999 MacBook Air!? Inconceivable!" in this thread...
I have been hoping for a revived MacBook ever since the M1 appeared. For me the current MacBook Air shrunk down to the sub 1kg weight (25% less than the current air) of the 2015 MacBook would be amazing. And I would be prepared to pay more than MacBook Pro pricing for it. But I think everyone would think me crazy for that so I cannot see apple making such a product. I just hope that if this low cost smaller macbook comes along it doesn’t make too many compromises.