New Macbook Air design coming soon?

[elppa]

Why? The iPhone, iPod touch and iPad all have (in essence) glass trackpads and they are quite thin.

None of those products have mechanical click mechanisms. The front of the air is the thinnest part. It may be more of an engineering challenge than just shoving one in. The current button is as far as I recall slightly raised, whereas the glass trackpads are slightly recessed.

Personally I think the Air's design is aesthetically almost perfect, it could just do with being a bit lighter.

Carbon Fibre would help here. If Apple have environmental concerns, then mix it with a natural fibre, like flax.

 

[BlizzardBomb]

A slightly smaller footprint with 4GBs of standard RAM and the trackpad from the MBP seems like the right direction for it.

2 USB ports as well would be nice.

 

[Scottsdale]

If the mba got a glass trackpad and screen it would be too big. Apple would have to redesign the whole laptop. And then what's the point? It would be the same size as an mbp, more expensive, and without an otical drive. Oh yeah and not to mention less powerfull.

That's only if Apple tried to use the same trackpad as it uses in the MBPs in the MBA. Don't you think Apple can figure out how to create the same experience in a thinner space required by the MBA? I read this all over these threads. People want to measure the MBA's space versus what the glass trackpad requires in the MBP. They are two different products. What is made for the MBP has to meet the space available in the MBP, and just because there's more space in the MBP doesn't mean Apple cannot make a glass trackpad that takes up less space like that which is available in the MBA.

I am sure if Apple wants to give the MBA a glass trackpad, that feels just like the glass in the MBP's trackpad, it can do so without using the same exact trackpad as is used in the MBP. Apple is the King at making miniaturizing components or making them thin or smaller to fit within each product's requirements. I am confident that Apple could give the MBA a trackpad that is made of glass and feels exactly like the MBP's glass trackpad and works just like the MBP's glass trackpad only thin enough to fit in the MBA.

Maybe it's different but the end user will not notice the difference. Maybe the glass is thinner. Maybe the space under the trackpad is made thinner, and the user would never notice the difference because all the user feels is the glass. Maybe the design can be altered to give the user a similar feel using glass but no button is used giving tap-to-click functionality. It's also possible the glass could be used as the trackpad for that feel but a button is used just as it is now. That would give the feel of glass in the trackpad while limiting space needed for buttonless capability.

But what I really believe is that Apple will use a piece of glass in the next MBA trackpad that uses a buttonless design where the whole trackpad is the button itself, and function is exactly like the glass in the MBP. Everyone will say wow, and iFixIt.com will take it apart and say it works exactly like it works in the MBP and looks exactly the same but it's a full 50% thinner as a whole.

People need to think differently when considering Apple products. The tolerance and space requirements to do things are not the same across products, but Apple is king at giving us an incredible experience that feels the same across most product lines. Don't count Apple out just because the MBP's implementation of a trackpad might include more space than is available in the MBA.

 

[gmcd2200]

Well as I am an owner of a Mac book Air. (by the way the mac-air runs like crap with a normal hard drive.. they run Super fast using an SSD). (buy one with an SSD .. correction any computer with an SSD you will be smiling as much as myself).

The Mac-air computer has it's niche use. As a traveler, this computer
fills this role perfectly. No computer on the market competes with the mac air for this role.

MY Guess ( probably wrong .. but.. I can guess )
The mac air will most likely be one of the newest computers sporting a new liquid-metal case from Apple. This is a very new era for Apple, and a new era for the computing industry. Liquid-metal will change the computing industry for sure.
So there is CPU's and basic internals.. all the same .. but the case and lightness and potability, of the next gen computers will be the HUGE mark for the notebook / net-book / Pad word of computing.

I wait with bated breath to see some of this new computing gear to be pumped out from Apple.

Also .. my further note. I think that running windows programs on an emulator is fine. but running it under XP is by far better. no point running windows 7. As there is 100% no need. windows 7 is slow compared to XP and is a memory, CPU resource PIG.

 

[0008652]

[delete]

 

[PsyD4Me]

I think the Macbook Air is going to replace the simple Macbook, as the components used in upcoming versions will render the Air much cheaper and therefore place it as an entry level notebook. No optical drive, just one usb port, cheap mobile cpus, gpu maybe integrated with the cpu or some cheap shared one ...enough to differentiate from the "pro" line. That's what I think, could be wrong.

I don't think so, you are always going to pay a premium for the MBA....the MB will be around, there is a good demand for it

 

[tigres]

I think  will remove the superdrives from upcoming portable products to bring them closer in line with the MBA form factor.

I can't remember the last time I even needed the external drive I bought with mine.

 

[Tazmaniac]

I think it's possible that the Polycarb MacBook will go and so we'll end up with an Air type range and the Pro range. I'm pretty sure all this talk of a cheap Air is WAY OFF MARK...

My thinking is that replacing the Air gives Apple an excuse to drop the bottom end from its laptop range and increase profit margin by creating a BIGGER gap between the iOS and it's OSX products. A range of lightweight laptops with the power and storage to be someone's only computer, with the style and cu-dose of the iPad/iPhone, AND to get people paying over the top like they do for those.

If people want the big screen iPods, they'll buy them. What Apple need to do is get people away from the idea that the iPad is a viable alternative to the Air and bring the lust back to the ultra-laptops, and I'm sure they'll do it in a way that'll maximise the dollars coming in.

The MBP's will be spec'd up, priced up and positioned like the Pro workstations.

They know they don't need an entry range any more, that's why the price of the MB and Mini have gone up when revisions have come through, especially after the iPad came out. THAT'S Apples entry device...

 

[hattrick123]

Has the order of MBA's on the store page (2.13 left, 1.86 right) been flipped or am I mixing things up?

Link

 

[RonYosafi]

Black Macbooks

Apple used to have black macbooks, but then they got rid of them by selling them cheap. Maybe they sell them online

 

[noire anqa]

I think  will remove the superdrives from upcoming portable products to bring them closer in line with the MBA form factor.

I can't remember the last time I even needed the external drive I bought with mine.

I don't think so, taking out the superdrive would make them a little slimmer sure, but that ethernet port is also a real kicker .. we can't really push thinner than that .. i don't think there's much point removing the superdrive just for that tiny gain.

To make the battery larger and/or give us a second HDD is another matter all together ..

 

[noire anqa]

I don't think so, you are always going to pay a premium for the MBA....the MB will be around, there is a good demand for it

I'm with you on this, the MBA would have to drop to the price of the MB for it to be a viable replacement. I don't see that happening.

 

[noire anqa]

Hard to make that statement when I'm running my MacBook Air like a heavy use computer. Folding@home, Multiple VMs at once (Usually 2x Windows Server 2008 + Windows XP on top of OS X), Handbrake converting. Runs like a charm, requires reboot every 2 days to clear the swap file from getting too big but no problems at all.

Are you serious? all in 2GB of RAM? how much are you giving your VMs?! 256?!

 

[Scottsdale]

Just wondering why all of the sudden we're working on an old thread from January's speculation for the MBA... sorta sad that we're still waiting. I honestly believed it would be October 2009 when the update would hit... sad sad sad.