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This sucks! Apple will release the new macbooks just after the free iPod touch deal for students expires September 15.

they have always done this in the past, either before or after the back to school offer is expired the newest model of ipod/macbook isnt offered as part of the promotion
 
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my guess is that by the time Macworld Ends, we will have a Macbook Youch on our hands
 
As far as the glass trackpad goes, just hope you don't break it and then use it without looking... While this would be extremely unlikely, it would still hurt quite a bit, and I don't know if blood voids the warranty.

I'm pretty sure you could sue.
 
Great ! One more thing that can break easily when I put my laptop into my backpack. I hope they dont use glass. I think they could be focusing on more important things...like updating the macbook pro. They like update the macbook every other week. My macbook pro is going on 3 years old and still looks like the ones they are selling in the store. Every now and then you'll hear something about the macbook pro or mac pro but every other week Steve is talking about the macbook or iphone using such Steve-isms as "Amazing" and "Revolutionary".

i don't see what your problem is. it's sitting in between an aluminum casing with a ton of other electronics in between. the last thing you would have to worry about the glass trackpad.wouldn't you want a significant update to the mbp rather than just copying the mb or mba design?
 
No touching no finger prints...Gestures

So what? The iPhone screen gets fingerprints too. Big time. If fingerprints are really the only downfall, who cares. You'll be able to touch your screen. I think the touch screen should just be there in case you feel like actually touching your screen, but the glass trackpad will be the place the user usually works from.

What are your thoughts on what I just stated?

I think you missed my point.
You don't touch the screen at all or the track pad.
Everything you do is done with Gestures above the track pad...thus no finger prints and no reaching for the screen.

Gestures is the key.
 
Maybe, Apple has a surplus of that aero-nautic grade glass they use to make the iPhone screens? Personally, I would hate the idea of this glass trackpad to be a tiny monitor like an iPhone for a number of aesthetic and practical reasons.

1) It's "un-Apple" and gimmicky
2) It would probably tax the GPU
3) I already look down enough at the keyboard to look at what I'm typing - I don't need to look at the trackpad, too, to see what's suppose to be displayed there.

Anyway, this is fairly consistent with previous rumors about the new MB looking more in line with the iMac, which has a glass cover and the MBA. The glass on the iMac is breakable, btw and is held on by magnets. I could see the glass trackpad on the MD to be held on by magnets too. The same magnet that keeps the notebook closed. People can then take out the glass on the trackpad and use it to snort coke. j/k. I really can't see this new design, yet, but I hope they don't mess up the simplicity of the current design. Adding aluminum would have been enough for me, along with the new specs. And, maybe LED. But, I'm not in the market for a new laptop anyway as my 12" PB is still going strong.
 
So thinking about this more....with a glass track pad and gesture patents built in wouldn't it become a touch display with out touching anything. No finger prints!
Just gesture a flip above the glass track pad and it works like you were touching the screen. You don't touch the track pad or screen...it does all of multi touch with gestures above the glass track pad.

The gesture patents you refer to are for touch gestures.
Yes, they do require touching the screen. You can't just wave your hand in midair. We're not quite there (yet)
Just an FYI
 
i don't see what your problem is. it's sitting in between an aluminum casing with a ton of other electronics in between. the last thing you would have to worry about the glass trackpad.wouldn't you want a significant update to the mbp rather than just copying the mb or mba design?


I thought that's what I was saying. I would rather have a significant update to the MBP or Mac Pro... The glass trackpad if it was used as a secondary screen I think would just be more bling or eye candy...not really necessary. I would prefer more storage, better graphics, longer battery life...you know the usual :rolleyes:
 
I think you missed my point.
You don't touch the screen at all or the track pad.
Everything you do is done with Gestures above the track pad...thus no finger prints and no reaching for the screen.

Gestures is the key.

how can you not touch the trackpad? confused here/ sorry :(
 
This sucks! Apple will release the new macbooks just after the free iPod touch deal for students expires September 15.

so why do you think they have the sale then?? :confused: To clear stocks!! :eek:

geez, you should stay in school so you can use your Brain!!
 
I think the idea of an IPod Touch style glass trackpad would blow minds. Apple possesses the technology, if they're able to jam it into a Macbook and not have the battery life drop significantly, I say go for it.

Found this image of what it could possibly look like, you may have already seen it.

Cool? Yes
Useful? Depends on the application but Yes
Structurally Sound? Maybe
Weird and obtrusive to your hands/wrists? Yes
Horrible Ergonomically? Absolutely - looking at a laptop screen is bad enough but to sit there with your head looking straight down so you can use it is a nightmare.

You'd have to spend a LONG time getting used to it in order to do something like cover flow without looking - of course Apple could fix this by showing a faint little blue dot where your fingers are when doing something like cover-flow.

Hmm - actually that's not a bad idea. I still worry about the wrists tho...
 
I think the idea of an IPod Touch style glass trackpad would blow minds. Apple possesses the technology, if they're able to jam it into a Macbook and not have the battery life drop significantly, I say go for it.

Found this image of what it could possibly look like, you may have already seen it.

if there is a trackpad like this then i'm against it. it just distracts you from looking at the screen. it's just a useless gimmick like the backlit keyboard on my powerbook (yes, it looks cool and 5% of users use it 0.001% of the time).

and then how many programs would actually make productive use of it when 95% of all other mac's don't have it? can you imagine that photoshop has essential menues on that trackpad if almost no designer is using it?

come on get real. the only reason for a glass surface is that the trackpad is easier to clean and doesn't look dirty and greasy. it will only be a surface, nothing will be displayed there. apple is about simple unified designs. it will have no function beyond what the current MBP's have.
 
how can you not touch the trackpad? confused here/ sorry :(

I'm thinking the glass is optical, and reads small gesture above it.... and example would be doing the two finger scale trick above the pad. Or the swipe over the glass optical track pad.

Maybe im just dreaming.
 
This sucks! Apple will release the new macbooks just after the free iPod touch deal for students expires September 15.

Why does this suck?! I don't get you guys. This promotion is to clear out the iPod inventory before the Sept refresh. If the laptop refresh comes after, it sucks in a sense that you either have to choose the an old style Macbook and iPod touch or a new designed Macbook. Again, you should consider yourself lucky if Apple does release before the iPod deal is expired. Really they don't owe us anything in terms of having it released before then. Expecting them to give you a discount and gifts for new products is a bit childish. I am looking for a MBP, but certainly I want a newly designed one. If it happens before the iPod deal ends, I will treat it as a bonus otherwise I will still buy it and enjoy my new MBP.

There's really no free lunch in this world.
 
Nope. It would have broken from misuse and being so dense as to try to touch broken glass isn't covered in the warranty.

This is true. But a rare circumstance could happen in which it wasn't broken from misuse and the person weren't paying attention when they touched it.

Anyhow, I don't see how lightly touching something poky would hurt anyone enough to bleed. Unless your trackpad is being prodded by your finger every time you touch it, I doubt glass would hurt anyone under normal use if broken.
 
it would certanly be great to have a hole lot of menus and possibilities in the trackpad... but what happens to the hole porpouse of the trackpad then? how would i control the mouse with lots of icons and buttons taking space?

anyways... very excited to september :D

I hate grammar Nazis as much as the next guy, but this is spelling and not grammar.

It's whole. A "hole" is the thing you dig in the ground with a spade.

/sorry, had to be said...
 
Really and truly all I'd want to see in the next iteration of the MacBook is slimmer and lighter (4lbs?), aluminum with color options (black aluminum?), an extra USB port, FW800 and multi-touch trackpad.

The only practical use of a glass trackpad would be longevity although I do like the whole idea of having media controls come up on it during full screen DVD playback or visualizations.

I really don't see the need for a touchscreen a la macbook touch. It just doesn't seem to be a more productive way of interfacing than a mouse and kb combo. The main adv. of a touch screen/tablet style would be for illustrators who would use a wacom tablet instead but don't want to walk around with one. If apple decides to make this then sell it as a new product line and not an update to the macbook.

My 2 cents
 
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