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Photos of a Prototype MacBook Pro with Integrated 3G Cellular Data

Always fun to see what the smart folks at Apple had been working on. If they added this to newer machines, im sure it would be in keeping with the iPad's integrated black strip. Cant see Apple throwing an external (and pronounced) Antennae on anything.


Personally, I'd pay for a slim hotspot before I went integrated.
 
Old old old old prototype. G4-era. Not unibody. Anyways. It may be real, but it's not "news", and definitely not new. I'm claiming "fake" for purposes that this idea is no longer on Apple's drawing board.
 
MUrhino said:
Looks like a PowerBook G4 prototype if anything, but not a MacBook Pro. All aluminum casing, keyboard, gray plastic around casing, etc. Any further antenna's will be internal or not at all if Steve has anything to say about it.
Click to expand...

The mid 2007 Intel MacBookPros looked EXACTLY like a late G4 Powerbook. :(

J1300 looks like it's actually the debug port. It's a Samtec LTH series connector.
 
iHateMacs said:
Why so much hate towards the antenna.

Are people only interested in looks rather than functionality?

If you were sat on a train with your invisible integrated antenna cursing that you could get no 3G connectivity you would be very jealous of the man sat opposite with his antenna sticking up laughing while he's watching youtube.

Come on, antennas NEED to be stuck up. Anything less is a compromise and reception will suffer because of it. If you want reliable 3G data you need a decent antenna.

Look at all the complaints about the iPhone4 because it lost signal when you touched it in a certain way. Wouldn't have been a problem if they could have had a decent antenna stuck up.

As with any antenna, bigger, higher and unobstructed is always better.
Click to expand...

Currently there're virtually no cellphones anymore where the antenna is sticking out of the device. Even in 2007 there were already more then enough phones which had no antenna anymore, so the antenna is needless. You might get a better reception with it, but so can you get a better reception with a parabolic antenna dish attached instead of the regular stick.

And this is a prototype device that is designed in a periode where 3G was by far not a common as it is today. Who could get on the internet with his mobile phone in those days? Apple and probably others, didn't know yet how this new market of universal internet connection was going to develop. So they made this thing, and decided to trash it. Maybe because it became clear there was virtually no market for both mobile internet on your phone and an extra dongle for your laptop (even when it's integrated you still need a dataplan). This device is a leftover from an era before the iPhone, but I guess it was developed around the same time as Apple tested out there first iPhones (with or without 3G).

And to be honest ... if Apple has to choose between functionality and design, they've always chosen for design int the past (and probably coming) decade (They've learned it the hard way with the Macintosh Portable ...).

----------
FroMann said:
Does the antenna give better reception compared to a iPhone 4?
Click to expand...

It's in the article. Currently no reception at all.
 
Remember, this was 3-4 years ago...back when we had unlimited 3G data plans that actually meant "unlimited"...at least here in the States.

This of course wouldn't work at all today, in this era of "unlimited" meaning 2gigs a month or less. :mad:
 
Maybe it was a prototype iPhone.... since iOS is based on OS X they would be able to test out in the field with this thing.
 
iHateMacs said:
Why so much hate towards the antenna.

Are people only interested in looks rather than functionality?

If you were sat on a train with your invisible integrated antenna cursing that you could get no 3G connectivity you would be very jealous of the man sat opposite with his antenna sticking up laughing while he's watching youtube.

Come on, antennas NEED to be stuck up. Anything less is a compromise and reception will suffer because of it. If you want reliable 3G data you need a decent antenna.

Look at all the complaints about the iPhone4 because it lost signal when you touched it in a certain way. Wouldn't have been a problem if they could have had a decent antenna stuck up.

As with any antenna, bigger, higher and unobstructed is always better.
Click to expand...

This.

The antenna looks great for one offering the best reception possible in the situation. Yes, they could have made a plastic 'strip' in the metal somewhere and hidden it behind it (the same way they implemented WiFi on the old powerbooks) but reception would suffer badly due to it being surrounded by metal. It looks like a design that had a lot of thought put into it.

It may even have worked ok in the folded down position, just offering the user the option of sliding it out in areas of bad reception for a few extra dBi of antenna gain. I'd certainly love that option.

The only thing that bothers me about the design is that it looks kind of fragile, easy to break off by accident. Oh and it won't translate to the unibody design because the screen edges are so thin there.
 
My God there are a lot of retarded posts in this thread (on the first page at least).

Anyway, this is very interesting. I can see why the ditched the idea, but it's cool to know they were at least test developing it.
 
Fake

So fake just measure the antennae ..you will see it will not fit in the slot shown in the photo.prople are so pathetic they will do anything for attention
 
I call shenanigans. 2007 wasn't that long ago, unless you're a teenager. Phones were getting rid of protruding antennas even during the first half of the past decade; and Apple has always been about hiding antennas (look at the older teardrop-shaped Airport Extremes, for example).
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_1 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8G4 Safari/6533.18.5)

I quite like that antenna actually, very 90s retro :(
 
MUrhino said:
Looks like a PowerBook G4 prototype if anything, but not a MacBook Pro. All aluminum casing, keyboard, gray plastic around casing, etc. Any further antenna's will be internal or not at all if Steve has anything to say about it.
Click to expand...

It's definitely a MacBook Pro. It's MY MacBook Pro (Santa Rosa) plus the 3G mods.

I bought the last revision of the MBP before they went unibody. 2007-era, sure, but still serving as my primary machine just fine.
 
Personally, I like the concept, but not the execution.

I always thought the black plastic hinge looked out of place on the unibody aluminum MacBooks and MacBook Pros. Perhaps that's been there from the beginning for a reason?

I can see Apple putting the antenna in there, IF 3G is ever integrated into Macs. Then again, putting it behind the glass screen bezel would be just as minimally intrusive, wouldn't it?
 
Maybe it is me, but this could also have been Apple's attempt to get into the failed porn / social media thing. you know with sexbookdotcom. Why do you need an antenna that can go up and down?!?!? :eek:
 
I'm surprised no one posted this yet:
iPhonePreview.jpg
 
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