New Slim 12" MacBook and MacBook Air Updates Soon

[anthony11]

i dont agree
fanless broadwell means underclocked/underpowered

In other words, a ChromeBook analogue? I wouldn't personally find such a device useful, but maybe somebody would. For that market though it would need to be priced below where the iPads are, so we won't see it.

 

[panther quest]

Awwww man ... September. I am yearning for a rMBP. Had been fantasising about a June release - gah, September!

What do you think folks - rMBP 15" now, or wait? I'm on a 14" i5 PC laptop, it's fine, battery's still holding around 5 hours after almost a year of daily cycles, nothing's broken, doesn't get particularly hot (yay Tecra!). But I got the rMBP itch. I'm surrounded by rMBP's at work - that delicate keyboard action, the super-sharp displays, the sturdy build ... Gah! September+ ?!

I realise the bias here, but I'm thinking: buy into the current model because it's at the mature end of the release cycle.

On balance, do you think 2014 rMBP will likely ship with unforeseen/significant build/component issues, or does Apple have good track record with MBP releases?

That's basically a half a year wait so I think you fall well within the zone of buying now. If they change up the rMBP design there may be growing pains. It has happened before.

I'd get the rMBP now and turn on all gestures in System Preferences. It'll change your life.

 

[639051]

I will replace my Dell 7000 series laptop with one of these if they actually come out. No interest in the AIR with their non retina screen, and no interest in the retina MBP. A 12" Air with retina would be amazing.

 

[thebrobrah]

In other words, a ChromeBook analogue? I wouldn't personally find such a device useful, but maybe somebody would. For that market though it would need to be priced below where the iPads are, so we won't see it.

the big advance broadwell has over haswell is gpu and power consumption

underclocking the already constrained gpu will lead to further throttling, performance loss, etc

cpu side ..same story

battery life should be great though

 

[panther quest]

Because of the higher degree of accuracy. It's a digital input rather than an analog one.

I've tried tapping, and it's absolutely not for me. Far to often I've tapped on something for a "click" and if I hit the surface the wrong way, one of my "clicks" ends up just moving the cursor instead of actually clicking on something.

Sure, maybe only 5% of the taps don't register the way I want them to on my iPod Touch, but that's very different from the 0% of clicks that don't register with my mouse or trackpad on my laptop. And considering the amount of clicking I do when using a computer, that 5% quickly becomes a big burden not just in one or two programs, but on my experience of the entire device.

A laptop without a button for the trackpad is a deal breaker for me. Strain? What, are you one of those people who uses two hands to manipulate the trackpad?

Tap to click and gestures work much better on my 2013 Macbook Air than they did on my 2009 MBP to the point I didn't ever use tap to click on it.

I could never go back to hard clicking now. Feels archaic.

 

[tigress666]

Apple is still ignoring the desktop replacement category. It is niche (OK, very niche), but still compelling. I'd be happy as hell with a 5-7 pound 17" MBP. Screw thinner-and lighter (than the 17" MBP already was).

I want screen real-estate and power in portable form. A REAL desktop replacement, from Apple. GIVE IT TO US, APPLE. DANG IT!!!

My 13" is my desktop replacement. I just connect it to a monitor when it is at home. And when I am on the go I don't mind sacrificing screen space.

I don't see why I would want some huge thing to lug around, a laptop is supposed to be mobile and if you connect it up like I do, you get the best of both worlds (hell, I actually have it set up so my laptop screen is used at home so I got a dual monitor set up). Only reason I like the bigger ones is they get better specs (the bigger screen is a minus imho as I want more portability over bigger screen when I'm travelling).

 

[Mal67]

Common sense.
That is thinking inside of the box. Laptop makers seeing the sales numbers of tablets and having the idea that a laptop with a touchscreen might participate in the growth of touch computing. It does not work that way.

Both CPUs with x86/64 instruction set and mouse/keyboard control are a given in future MacBooks. But weight, heat, noise and battery life can take a lesson from iPads. A future MacBook Air might even have LTE and GPS.

I think popularity of touch based models increased in response to the demands of windows 8 and the start menu as well as in response to tablets. Interestingly HP offer two similar models amongst their range, both Haswell, one with touch and discrete the other with a two gig graphic card and no touch. Both not ultra based as they include opti drives. With the changes to w8.1 and 8.1.1 will it become the norm to offer similar models with and without? Personally I would like to see touch on macs but as you suggest I wouldn't expect to see it on such small machines.

 

[Yr Blues]

I wonder if the button-less trackpad has something like a rumble feature. I can't think of any other haptic-like feedback.

 

[carmenodie]

A 12 inch MBA with retina display would cause mass hysteria!
Bring it on!!!!!

 

[Aylan]

This adds more credibility to all the 12" MBA rumors. That 12" class screen that has been rumored is for the MBA, not some Pro iPad. I also think Apple will retire the 11" and 13" MBA, and have this new MBA be handsomely spec'd with a screen size that would be perfect for the people that like "more real estate" as well as the people that love the 11" for its portability.

ARM is a very strong CPU platform and I fully expect it to be competitive in mainstream computing, but not in 2014. Apple will not go backwards (in performance) to switch CPU architectures. Intel has some great products in the pipeline and it would make no sense to leave them now. With that said, I am sure a fan-less design is not coming with this revision; once the GPU gets used in the current MBAs that fan spins up quite fast. There is simply no other GPU/CPU combination that is in this league of performance/watt ratio.

I think it will be spec'd as a 12" Retina IPS, Broadwell (hopefully) or Haswell refresh. 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD in the base model for $1100. The laptop market continues to fall, however slightly, and Apple will only benefit by consolidating the line. The $1100 12" rMBA, $1299 13" rMPB price difference would make more sense. In a way they are "upscaling" the MBA, and they should. The iPad is now replacing the place that and MBA occupies for a lot of MBA customers.

 

[Donoban]

gold is so new-rich, gaudy

Sounds perfect.

 

[brilliantthings]

12" and 14" rMBA 16:9
plus 13" and 15" rMBP 16:10

How is that for a future notebook lineup?

Love it. I'd like the 14" rMBA. I've got the 13" MBA and the screen is just big enough. 12" might be too small.

 

[Naaaaak]

12 inches. Fanless design. In a MacBook Air enclosure.

What other devices are fanless? What other device was rumored to have a 12" version coming?

ARM MacBook Air, anyone?

 

[iRun26.2]

i dont agree

fanless broadwell means underclocked/underpowered

I want it!

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

Apple continues to miss the mark at the expense of the shareholders. Yahoo!

 

[bungiefan89]

Tap to click and gestures work much better on my 2013 Macbook Air than they did on my 2009 MBP to the point I didn't ever use tap to click on it.

I could never go back to hard clicking now. Feels archaic.

Then don't use it. But don't force ME to stop using something I need when it doesn't hurt you one bit to have it in there and not use it.

 

[brilliantthings]

Are there any mockups yet for the 12" rMBA?

 

[hexor]

Maybe they will be able to reduce the bezel by 0.5" on both sides on the 11" MacBook Air so it will be the enclosure of the MBA 11" with a 12.6" display.

 

[TechGod]

It certainly won't have a decent graphics card if they are going fanless. They have dropped dedicated gpus in all but the top of the line 15inch

That's a very good point.

 

[Jynto]

Interesting, I actually predicted a fanless Macbook Air early last year. Although I got one huge thing wrong (Atom processors are not that powerful), I can definitely see the Air moving in this direction. After all, if the Macbook Pro is becoming more 'Air-like', then it would only make sense for the Air to become even more 'Air-like' to differentiate the product lines.

 

[69650]

Common sense.
That is thinking inside of the box. Laptop makers seeing the sales numbers of tablets and having the idea that a laptop with a touchscreen might participate in the growth of touch computing. It does not work that way.

Both CPUs with x86/64 instruction set and mouse/keyboard control are a given in future MacBooks. But weight, heat, noise and battery life can take a lesson from iPads. A future MacBook Air might even have LTE and GPS.

Totally agree here.

Apple has it right regarding screens that sit up away from you - people would rather use a trackpad on their desk, a mouse and a keyboard to interact with the screen. It's uncomfortable, awkward and tiring to reach up and press things and drag things around a touch screen that's horizontal.

For something on your lap vertically, or where it's on a table vertically, like tablets are used, touch screens are great, because there is no room for a keyboard or mouse. The screen IS the keyboard and mouse together.

If you already have those, I see it as such a waste. Everyone I've talked to that's had a PC with a touch screen (along with a keyboard and mouse), loved it for the first couple of days, but don't use it anymore as it felt just like a gimmick. Sure, occasionally, they feel like they want to touch something on the screen if it's on a web page with a big font and big buttons. But for daily activity, they don't. 95% of what they do on a laptop is too small and too precise for a finger to really work. And you need a keyboard anyways, so why not just have some input device next to the keyboard, or a part of the keyboard, so you don't have to keep moving your hands up to the screen.

For a tablet, awesome, for a laptop not so much.

How do you explain the popularity of keyboard cases with iPad users?

In doing so they are basically using the iPad as a laptop with a touch screen.

 

[rols]

This may happen in the future, but I don't think ARM performance is anywhere near x86 yet, and would require a massive software shift for Apple. I think the differnentiator between MBA and MBP will be size, CPU power and ports. The new MBA may just become the New MacBook and be the entry level 12" laptop with a medium power 2-core i5.

Indeed current performance is nowhere near Intel yet. The A7 has about 1/4 the power of an Intel i7 chip, or looked at another way, the performance of a desktop chip from about 2008. Since you would have to run a reverse Rosetta Stone type emulator, performance would be awful. Perhaps you could put 4 of them in there, or a 4x core version but then you've just lost your power and heat advantage, and your cost advantage.

ARM may well happen one day, I'm sure Apple has them running in the labs and they will eventually produce multi-core chips and deal with the challenges that brings but it's not yet. If they produced a laptop based on what they have currently it would be painfully slow.

Oh and I'm not sure I believe the 'fanless' part of the rumour either. I could see it having a small fan which rarely turns on (my air fan doesn't turn on that often in normal use) but fanless is also not practical without killing peak performance.

 

[69650]

I would call an iPad with a keyboard case "an iPad with a keyboard case".

There is no reason Apple can't make "an iPad with a docking keyboard and call it the new MBA", other than the fact it would be utterly ridiculous.

Thankfully, Apple is a disciplined company who knows what their customers want. And they won't stoop to playing silly gimmickry games (i.e. laptops with removable tablet screens), like their competitors in Windows world do. So you can sit here and throw out these wild "what if" possibilities until you're blue in the face.. But they won't materialize. Don't take my word for it - just wait and see for yourself.

Ok let's wait and see who is right when they announce it at WWDC in June.

 

[igmolinav]

Hi,

I have been looking through the messages already left in five pages already. It will take some time before I look through all the messages! However, I am interested in an 11" MBA. When do you think the updated computers will be released? It seems to me that in the next two to three weeks! The opening message already suggests that apple will do it very soon! That means, that at the latest it will be at the beginning of May! What do you think?

Kind regards,

igmolinav : ) !!!

 

[Gudi]

The biggest contradiction users are making is that a 'fanless' MacBook will have Retina. This isn't going to happen.

Look at the iPad. Does it have Retina? Yes. Does it have a fan? No. So it is doable, now it needs to be done by Intel.

Not only this, but Retina is a selling point for the Pro line.

At the moment, but some day everything will have Retina. The main differentiator between Pro and Air is TDP.

If it's an enhancement that, realistically, only benefits professional work, then what is the use including it in a consumer product?

Retina is useful well beyond professional work. For example, looking at porn with four times as many pixels.

Having just one consumer notebook makes a whole lot of sense these days, because the only distinction between the 11" and 13" models, at the present time, is the size of the device itself; the specs are near identical. 12" is a good compromise.

The only distinction between 8" and 10" iPad is the size of device itself, the specs are identical. Size is enough of differentiation to justify two devices. No reasons for making a compromise.

With just one size, the tier would drop from 4 different products to just two - a low end model and a high end. Simpler and a smaller inventory.

And the choice of size in consumer notebooks would vanish completely. Apple wants to reduce not remove choices.