New MacBook Pros to Carry Larger Trackpads, Dedicated SSD for Mac OS X?

[Hellhammer]

Indeed. Plus, I'm not sure you will really feel the real benefits (other than quick bootup) of having flash on-board unless the apps can live on the SSD, and 8-16 GB is just too small for that for most folks who'd be buying a MacBook Pro.

Mm. Also, if you are heavily paging out, you may fill the SSD and that is not good by any means. You need at least several GBs of empty space for the OS to function normally. Another issue would be the life span as you would be writing and rewriting to the same blocks all the time, meaning that sooner than later the NAND would wear out.

32GB should be the minimum, preferably 64GB.

I'm pretty sure that isn't true if it's designed right. It's the whole purpose of "Turbo Memory"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Turbo_Memory

That would require the HD to enter sleep mode (i.e. stop spinning) every time you're not using it. Not a very practical option as it will then take several seconds for the HD to spin up. Another thing is that most SSDs use pretty much as much energy as normal 5400rpm HDs.

I guess we'll have to wait and see but there would anyway be an extra component to power. SBs are so efficient so the battery life won't go down, that's fairly sure.

 

[ayoungie1]

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With Toshiba's new 1.8" 250gb drive and a
SSD drive for osx to boot from could
this not be a speed / weight advantage
Apple has be looking for?

 

[ovrlrd]

How do you think they will be saving that 1/2 pound?

There is more than one way to shave weight. I just have a hard time believing Apple will ever switch to liquidmetal until they have completely mastered the process of it. It might be easier to mold and thus cheaper, but there is a lot of unknown costs involved with any new process that makes it a risky investment. If Apple is gonna do it, then they will have been testing the process on a large production scale for over a year now. It is possible, but so far there is no evidence of it.

I hope to be surprised by what Apple has in store.

 

[nyctravis]

Are we still hoping it's this?:

Yes! I'm holding out hope

 

[DrJohnnyN]

I really don't see Apple going black on top of their regular shiny silver. For some reason, black laptops sell less for the strange impression that they are cheap. Yes, Apple could change that, but I bet they are perfectly happy with their beautiful silver MBP's right now. Personally I don't think black equals cheap, but in reality most of the worst looking laptops on the planet were black.

What about dark gray?

Yes! I'm holding out hope

Me, too!

 

[coolfactor]

I hope this is true, because this is EXACTLY what I've been waiting for. It makes complete sense to keep the operating system separate from the userland files.

 

[AJ Predictions]

What about dark gray?

Me, too!

NICE! That might work. But I'm still not sure Apple is all for it.

Could you attach the highest resolution you have of that image? I'd like a better view of that.

 

[Funkymonk]

FFFFFFFFFffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu



now I HAVE to buy it....

 

[linux2mac]

Hmmm, I think I will go back to my VAIO. Just kidding. Looking forward to the refresh!

 

[hcho3]

I just hope apple would stop charing 100 dollars extra for higher resolution on 15 inch MBP and 50 dollars for matte screen. That thing should be standard.

 

[AJ Predictions]

What do you guys think of Apple going from six base configurations to five? Is that a bummer? Or is it good?

 

[DrJohnnyN]

Could you attach the highest resolution you have of that image? I'd like a better view of that.

http://obamapacman.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Apple-Liquid-Metal-MacBook-Pro.jpg

 

[deputy_doofy]

What about dark gray?

Me, too!

I'm holding out hope simply for being an investor of LQMT.

 

[ciTiger]

I just hope it isn t just a speed bump or a lot of people will be disapointed... Me included...

 

[toddybody]

Mm. Also, if you are heavily paging out, you may fill the SSD and that is not good by any means. You need at least several GBs of empty space for the OS to function normally. Another issue would be the life span as you would be writing and rewriting to the same blocks all the time, meaning that sooner than later the NAND would wear out.

32GB should be the minimum, preferably 64GB.

My thoughts exactly. Why not use the very same SS blade the base air has(64GB), with a HDD (250GB+)? Id prefer that model over the extra cost and space limitation of a larger SSD...the 15 is prob gonna be 1500 base anyways, cant afford to drop much on upgrades...


Oh, and a kick ass dedicated GPU PLEASE. Ill cry if they tout SB IGP as powerful...

 

[gnasher729]

A smaller SSD for the OS and frequently used apps and a big regular HD for file storage sounds pretty awesome to me! I can't wait to hear what is announced!

Anything that is used for some fixed purpose is plain stupid and asking for trouble. For example, not being able to fit all apps on the same drive means the user cannot just have a single "Applications" folder. And I find boot time completely irrelevant. My MacBook at home is never rebooted except for OS upgrades, my Mac at work boots every morning before I arrive.

What you want is a file system that automatically keeps the most used data on the SSD drive (_not_ the most used files. For example, iTunes will very often read the album art contained in a music file, but not any of the actual music. So I would expect the album art to be copied to the SSD drive, but not the rest) and which makes this invisible to the user except for the speed advantage. I'd expect most directory to be copied to the SSD drive, because it is used a lot.

Unfortunately that won't help with big iPhoto libraries. On my MacBook iPhoto was unusable (>100GB library), everything was crawling slow ... once I upgraded to a SSD things got snappy and fast when doing stuff in iPhoto. I assume the main reason is that all the data and database are now on the SSD. At least for me, the hybrid solution would not be the perfect one ... but it seems that I will have the option to go full SSD (I just have to wait until the 500GB SSD drives have a more reasonable price).

Exactly what I'm saying: If the SSD drive is visible to the user then it loses a lot of its advantage. A 16 GB or 32 GB SSD drive that is visible to you wouldn't help you one bit with your 100 GB photo library. But if the OS is clever enough then all the metadata and thumbnails would end up on the SSD drive and be really fast, giving you a large portion of the speed advantage at very small added cost.

If this is true, it's probably similar to the Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid Drive with a 4GB SSD for cache, only better

Sounds good. I think the 4 GB is not quite enough of the Seagate hybrid drive is not enough; using it as a cache only for reading isn't good enough, and of course I wouldn't want a feature that disappears if I upgrade to a bigger hard drive. If Apple does this in the disk driver, it also has the advantage that performance can be improved in future OS updates.

 

[Funkymonk]

What do you guys think of Apple going from six base configurations to five? Is that a bummer? Or is it good?

it's good. that means they can start overcharging less for simple upgrades.

 

[ArchaicRevival]

Maybe i'm missing something...

Maybe I'm missing something... But... What the heck would u need a larger trackpad for? What new functions are gonna come up that u can't use the current trackpad with? It's just gonna be different gestures no?

Anyone?

 

[Red33m]

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Source is also saying that in two weeks the MBP will be updated..I wish THAT isn't true

 

[dr Dunkel]

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This what I do with all the computers I build. Larger trackpad for lion. Anyone think lightpeak is a still possibility. Or liquidmetal? What about gpus in the 15-17inch?

I don't think we'll see LP ot LM this time around. The GPU question interests me as well. I'm hoping for decent, up-to-date, cards for the first time.

 

[wschutz]

1/2 pound lighter=carbon fiber or no optical drive.

Obviously... no optical drive
Apples saves the money of the optical drive
Apple gets some love from people because of removing the optical drive and charging more money for this incredible new feature9
Just genius

 

[DrJohnnyN]

I just hope it isn t just a speed bump or a lot of people will be disapointed... Me included...

God, I pray not...

That gun metal grey is beautiful...just plain ol' beautiful

+1

 

[toddybody]

I'm holding out hope simply for being an investor of LQMT.

That gun metal grey is beautiful...just plain ol' beautiful

 

[314631]

If you currently own a MacBook/MacBook Pro without SSD, this upgrade will feel like a massive performance boost if Apple really does implement a small SSD for the OS installation. I guarantee you'll be reading rave performance reviews everywhere about the refresh if this happens.

 

[AJ Predictions]

Maybe I'm missing something... But... What the heck would u need a larger trackpad for? What new functions are gonna come up that u can't use the current trackpad with? It's just gonna be different gestures no?

Anyone?

Exactly!

I don't need any stupid 10 finger gestures coming out of a 13" laptop!! THIS IS NOT AN MICROSOFT TOUCH SURFACE!!