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Next MacBook Air to Adopt Faster, More Power Efficient SSD?
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You think this is for better performance and battery life? WRONG! Apple wants more control of their computers and would love to put the 3rd party blade SSD makers out of business.
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Actually, you had theMacBook Pro for two years, not three.
syan48306 said:
Actually, you had theMacBook Pro for two years, not three.
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I doubt that's it. Apple has always valued battery life. That's why the worst battery life their products advertise is 7 hours, and even those products often get a lot more than that in real-world use. An MBP/MBA/iPad/whatever with a dead battery, is nothing more than a slab of metal and silicon, and Apple knows this. They do whatever they can to improve battery life, and always have, so I doubt this would be solely to mess with 3rd party SSD providers...
Also, most people never upgrade a thing in their computer once they get it. Even many of us geeks. MBAs are mainly used by light users, and they're even LESS likely to do so. I don't see this as being a problem at all for most users.
New rumour - too late?
Hope this development is in time for the next release.
It seems quite late for this rumour to be leaking, if MBAs are supposed to be built / stocked ready for release (w Lion) in the next few weeks.
Hope this development is in time for the next release.
It seems quite late for this rumour to be leaking, if MBAs are supposed to be built / stocked ready for release (w Lion) in the next few weeks.
Funny, I have a 2008 MBP which is more than capable of handling what I want it to do. Cost me £1,400 and can now fetch around £400.00 on eBay. For the same £1,000, I'd rather have a 256GB SSD and money in my pocket, than a new MBP WITHOUT SSD, but faster CPU.
My point is, that in 3 years time, when the soldered SSD starts screwing up and your resell value drops like a stone, I'd rather pick up a new SSD (by which time prices will have dropped considerably) than having to get a whole new laptop.
So, how's that resell value with a fried, soldered, SSD?
Hope this development is in time for the next release.
It seems quite late for this rumour to be leaking, if MBAs are supposed to be built / stocked ready for release (w Lion) in the next few weeks.
Actually, many of the reliable rumors are only leaked right before the launch of a product as the shipments arrive in stores, so any rumor could be true whenever we hear about it. This sounds like one that would be true knowing how Apple works, but you never know.
All it needs now is to get touchscreen functionality, lose the hardware keyboard, get an on-screen keyboard, and slim down the OS.
Done.
This puts me (a definite 1st day buyer) out, if true.
Was going for the cheapest ssd (64), bearing with it for a year or so and then upgrading to something much (300) bigger myself. Unless the apple price of the upgrades are significantly cheaper this time, I am out
And I will be gutted. Truly gutted.
Was going for the cheapest ssd (64), bearing with it for a year or so and then upgrading to something much (300) bigger myself. Unless the apple price of the upgrades are significantly cheaper this time, I am out
And I will be gutted. Truly gutted.
I agree! It seems like every other week we hear rumors of new improvements that could come to future MBA releases. It is very exciting!
(All that's needed now is a backlit keyboard, and I will be in...)
Funny, I have a 2008 MBP which is more than capable of handling what I want it to do. Cost me £1,400 and can now fetch around £400.00 on eBay. For the same £1,000, I'd rather have a 256GB SSD and money in my pocket, than a new MBP WITHOUT SSD, but faster CPU.
My point is, that in 3 years time, when the soldered SSD starts screwing up and your resell value drops like a stone, I'd rather pick up a new SSD (by which time prices will have dropped considerably) than having to get a whole new laptop.
So, how's that resell value with a fried, soldered, SSD?
I see a lot of these machines on Craig's list or e-bay in a few years. Buyer beware.
I loved the fact this years MBA had replaceable/expandable blades. Not sure how I feel about soldered memory yet. I guess in part it will depend on how this affects the price points and what options are available at time of purchase.
I enjoy longer battery life but, at some point drives do need changing. Even none geeks have drives fail, or fill up and need larger ones, etc. None geeks are typically horrible at disk management. My wife for instance knows how to create files, but deleting is another story. She just keeps filling and filling.
Most computer users do not upgrade the internals of their systems. A large percentage don't even upgrade the operating system.
If this makes the MBA smaller and lighter then I will be happy. I expect the SSD to be more reliable than spinning hard drive. I do not buy a MBA computer with the intention of upgrading it (nor I expect my SSD to fail any sooner than other system components).
While that is unfortunate, I would guess that 99% of current MBA users don't even know that they can upgrade the flash memory in the current gen.
And if this both saves space, adds battery life, and helps reduce cost I am all for that. Of course the savings probably won't be passed on to us...
I don't think the 2011 models will have the ONFI 3.0 NANDs as this report suggest. Apple needs millions of those NANDs ready by now and as far as I am aware, the ONFI 3.0 NANDs are just starting to exit the fabs. There isn't enough supply to make it a part of the 2011 models.
I think this is for the 2012 models or a silent update to 2011 models.
I think this is for the 2012 models or a silent update to 2011 models.
All it needs now is to get touchscreen functionality, lose the hardware keyboard, get an on-screen keyboard, and slim down the OS.
Done.
iPad already exists.
This is a very interesting rumor. I'm guessing that this serves several purposes. First, people would be more likely to "buy up" the way they did with the 4GB update. Second, it could improve battery life, which is a significant consideration in this segment. Third, they need to find space for the Thunderbolt chip, so this might be how they did it.
We'll find out for sure when these are released. Hopefully all these rumors mean that it's coming this month.
We'll find out for sure when these are released. Hopefully all these rumors mean that it's coming this month.
Expand-ability isnt my biggest concern, its replace-ability. SSBlade goes belly up, and folks are out of luck fast. Why cant they implement a user accessible blade that just slides out (ala RAM, PCI).
I appreciate aesthetics and all...but this is pushing Apple's integration obsession too far. Im looking forward to the ODD-less MBP with a user accessible SATA bay.
I appreciate aesthetics and all...but this is pushing Apple's integration obsession too far. Im looking forward to the ODD-less MBP with a user accessible SATA bay.
The sceptical in me says this is nothing to do with speed, but rather with limiting 3rd party SSD upgrades.
Custom hard-drive firmware on iMacs, now soldered SSD... Apple machines are fast becoming severely locked down, and turning computers into disposable units.
I love Apple but am getting royally pissed off with this artificial locking down, especially if I can't even reuse components like a screen.
If I can't afford a bigger spec machine right now, I can't upgrade in the future. Instead, I need to buy a new one
Unless I go MacPro which, let's be honest, hasn't received a lot of Apple's attention in the recent past...
Bingo.
Significant reduction of lifespan, decreases resale value almost
as much as the 8600 timebombs did and forces new model purchases
on a much shorter cycle.
Magic.
All it needs now is to get touchscreen functionality, lose the hardware keyboard, get an on-screen keyboard, and slim down the OS.
Done.
Isn't that an iPad?