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

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

ovrlrd said:
For those of you curious what a MacBook Pro trackpad would look like if they made it larger.

Current trackpad

2e2qagx.jpg




Theoretical limit based on current space constraints

2d124g9.jpg



I see no reason why they shouldn't use all that space they have. It is silly that they weren't already using that much!
Click to expand...

As soon as I saw this, I looked down and saw my right thumb resting right below the trackpad on my 2010 mbp. If the trackpad was any bigger, I think it would become difficult to use.
 
I use my 15" MBP with a large external monitor and the Magic Trackpad so I can easily see a larger trackpad on 15 and 17" MBP's.

I am perfectly happy with my 2010 MBP and have no desire to upgrade but perhaps a 2012 model with a bigger built-in flash memory, light peak, and Ivy Bridge CPU's which I think may be able to handle 16GB ram. That's worth upgrading to (at least for an owner of a 2010 MBP). I do not care about weight but I would love a IPS panel instead of a TN panel as that would be a real game changer - I hate how the screen changes with viewing angle as I am a photographer and this is important when a group of people are looking at the screen from different angles
 
mabaker said:
I wonder why Apple didn't go for this technology in 2006 when Intel was making a big fuss about it. ;) It could have been perfect way to get some additional buyers.

Still, a great improvement for Mac OS X that simply flies on SSD and hybrid drive.
Click to expand...

Apple always waits to see if the technology is reliable... take USB 3 for instance. Apple ignored it... but now they are looking at it, or maybe something even better!
 
ECUpirate44 said:
As soon as I saw this, I looked down and saw my right thumb resting right below the trackpad on my 2010 mbp. If the trackpad was any bigger, I think it would become difficult to use.
Click to expand...

True, that is a concern, but as I said, "theoretical limit." They could still make it larger than the current and still have space left for your thumbs and wrist to rest.
 
tkhan456 said:
I disagree about the Magic Trackpad. I bought the thing, used it for a week and returned it because I hated every minute of it. It's finger tracking ability was extremely poor, it felt really awkward to use, and it was very uncomfortable. I like the magic mouse much much more, although it is also a bit uncomfortable with how flat it is.
Wow that is the complete opposite experience that myself and many others have had. You are definitely in the minority.
ovrlrd said:
Wow that is the complete opposite experience that myself and many others have had. You are definitely in the minority.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
More minority here. I like how you introduce the 'many others' and 'definitely' to prove your point :D
 
hcho3 said:
What are they really going to do about 13 inch MBP?

They really have room for all of these?

1. Dedicated graphics
2. Bigger battery
3. Bigger trackpad
4. All of those ports including SD
5. Bigger HDD
6. Optical Drive.

Yet, BGR says it will be .5 pounds lighter. Please show me how.
Click to expand...


1) Dedicated graphics? When did the 13in ever have dedicated graphics?

2) HDDs do not necessarily get heavier with capacity.

3) Lighter case material could give you weight savings.
 
Blu-ray is not coming or ever coming.

Waiting for bigger updates. This is better than I expected, but still needs bigger SSD, OS lion, and I personally do not care about bigger trackpad. My fingers aren't jumbo sized.
 
My MBP is still going strong but I could be seriously tempted if there is a thinner redesign with no optical drive :D

So tempted I think my hand is subconsciously reaching for the wallet all day :D
 
altecXP said:
Well 8-16GB or storage could easily fit on the motherboard itself. But I dont get the point to making it only fit OS X. If only the OS gets the speed bump I don't see the use in it unless it acts like the Seagate hybrid drive where it can also cache other applications to to help boost their performance too.
Click to expand...

If the NAND Memory does go on the motherboard I wonder if it'll be wired in to a Dedicated Memory Controller (on the south bridge/chipset) instead of via an SATA channel?

That way the system can treat it as special but addressable memory store, the users files and data would be unarchived in to this space from the harddrive instead of the volatile main memory. In effect creating Lion's auto-save feature as the users data is only volatile while being acted upon.

I think given Lion's demoed auto-save auto park features then every MacBook needs some NAND memory otherwise the HD will always be eating power to be active.
 
MattInOz said:
If the NAND Memory does go on the motherboard I wonder if it'll be wired in to a Dedicated Memory Controller (on the south bridge/chipset) instead of via an SATA channel?

That way the system can treat it as special but addressable memory store, the users files and data would be unarchived in to this space from the harddrive instead of the volatile main memory. In effect creating Lion's auto-save feature as the users data is only volatile while being acted upon.

I think given Lion's demoed auto-save auto park features then every MacBook needs some NAND memory otherwise the HD will always be eating power to be active.
Click to expand...

yea...what he said. :D

seriously, this does make sense.
 
Whilst this is good news, if you have Steam, loads of games, OS, Office, other apps. That tiny ammount suddenly looks pretty small!!! Plus I don't see the point in this over say a new Sata 3 SSD? I call bogus on this rumor because of this fact.
 
The one thing the MBP line needs is IPS displays. It is inexcusable that a $500 tablet has one but a $2500 "professional" laptop does not.
 
10.6.7 trim?

This kind of makes me hope TRIM support is coming in 10.6.7, or if that (ever) becomes something to make people upgrade to Lion. I've got to wonder if the timing of 10.6.7 and the new MBP models are meant to coincide.

I've never tried to split my Applications folder between two hard drives, but if Apple is building in some sort of small SSD into the next generation of MBPs explicitly for the OS, would this take much on the OS level to have OS X running on one SSD, but Final Cut Pro in an Applications folder on a separate internal hard drive? Would this be intolerably slow? I know there are some applications that complain if you don't dump them in the Applications folder, but again, is this something that could be easily addressed in 10.6.7? Presumably it isn't just Application folder content, but Library folder content as well that would need to get re-arranged across two drives.
 
MattInOz said:
If the NAND Memory does go on the motherboard I wonder if it'll be wired in to a Dedicated Memory Controller (on the south bridge/chipset) instead of via an SATA channel?
Click to expand...

A cache can be implemented just like Apple's software RAID is implemented now (built into disk utility). The apps and upper levels of the OS are presented a virtual device. The physical devices are still hooked to the machine via SATA.

It would work similar to RAID 1 only the SSD wouldn't copy everything. It would just mirror a subset of the data that was often used or associated with sleep/hibernation. Essentially get a virtual hybrid drive that just isn't contained inside of one metal container.
 
Before reading this article, I was expecting the following:
  • 13" resolution bumped up to 1440x900 (same as MBA)
  • 15" standard resolution bumped up to 1680x1050 (currently available as an option)
  • Sandy Bridge and i5 CPU
  • 64-128GB SSD for OS and apps (plus a 2nd drive for data: HDD standard, SSD upgrade option)
  • Elimination of optical drive
  • Lighter chassis
The rumor of a larger trackpad is intriguing, though the current size seems to work well.

The rumor of only 8-16GB SSD has me a little apprehensive. Yes the MBA's instant resume and faster boot times would be available on the MBP, but I agree with the general sentiment here: I don't want to install apps on a HDD, and I don't want to pay through the nose for an expensive SSD option.

Still, we're getting some new laptops for our development team and after this week we'll decide between 13" MBAs and MBPs. Personally I'll move from a late 2008 15" MBP to a 13" (now that I won't have to go down to 1280x800).

ThomasJL said:
More lameness from Apple. Instead of a tiny dedicated SSD for OS X, why don't they just program a TRIM function into OS X and offer SSD's for those who want them?
Click to expand...
I was under the impression from various forum postings and reviews (anandtech) that Apple was doing some sort of proprietary garbage collection, making this mostly a non-issue. Is that not the case?
 
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