Why not just put Mac OS on the iPad Pro now. Guess they just won’t or will wait until they can charge $2000 to let us have it on a tablet type device.
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Report: Apple Exploring 20-Inch All-Screen Foldable MacBook, But Foldable iPhone Delayed Until 2025
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From an engineering perspective, I remain extremely skeptical of the durability of foldable and rollable screens. The simulated device illustrated in this article looks like it would lend itself more to an iPad design than a MacBook design. And I can’t imagine wanting to type on a screen keyboard like the iPad's. So I put rumors like this one in the very same place I put all those device ideas I grew up seeing in Popular Mechanics issues. Few of those designs ever saw production. Most were wild imaginations that never materialized. Apple might explore things like this, but I seriously doubt it would work very well. For one thing macOS doesn't support touch screen technology, and iPadOS doesn't have a true file system that can allow it to work as a laptop. This contraption looks like a major fail, and quite frankly, I doubt it is even an Apple design at this point. My guess is this is merely an amateur idea of what the future might bring.
Not interested in the least
Agreed. They need to investigate an ultra-precise mechanical hinge and standard display technology.
Why would we need a folding screen on a laptop?
I get the dream and chase for a folding phone or a tablet, but a laptop?
I get the dream and chase for a folding phone or a tablet, but a laptop?
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TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️
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Already in the works 😩. Similar to this? It folds!
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Apple needs to up their AI game in order to transition smoothly to all touch screen typing for most MacBook users. They could release this product right now but most would revolt due to a poor typing experience - MacBook users want physical keys. Siri speech to text would work better but it's even harder to retrain everyone for this.
Apple has likely delayed its foldable iPhone until 2025 and the company is exploring all-screen foldable MacBooks, according to Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC) analyst Ross Young.
In a new DSCC report on upcoming foldable and rollable devices, Young explained that Apple's long-rumored foldable iPhone has been delayed until 2025. This appears to be a significant delay compared to previous predictions that the device will launch in 2023 or 2024. News of the delay comes after discussions with supply chain sources, suggesting that Apple is not in a hurry to enter the foldable market.
Despite delaying its foldable ambitions for the iPhone, Apple is allegedly exploring the possibility of offering all-screen foldable notebooks. The company is said to be discussing foldable notebooks with displays around 20-inches in size with its suppliers.
Young said that this device could form a new product category for Apple and result in a dual-use product, with it able to work as a notebook with a full-size on-screen keyboard when folded and as a monitor when unfolded and used with an external keyboard. The foldable could also allow for 4K resolutions or higher at the size Apple is investigating, Young added.
The launch timeframe for the foldable notebook is "likely later" than 2025, with 2026 or 2027 being floated as reasonable possibilities. The disclosure of Apple's interest in the foldable notebook segment is said to be "good news for the foldable space" generally.
Young has revealed a litany of accurate insights into Apple's plans, such as the iPhone 13 Pro's ProMotion display, the display size and bezels of the sixth-generation iPad mini, the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro's mini-LED displays with ProMotion, and more. Most recently, Young spearheaded rumors of the iPhone 14 Pro's pill-shaped and hole-punch TrueDepth camera design to replace the notch and the mini-LED iMac Pro's June release date.
Article Link: Report: Apple Exploring 20-Inch All-Screen Foldable MacBook, But Foldable iPhone Delayed Until 2025
My MacBooks have all folded nicely in half.
I had one of the first consumer models of a portable computer. Back then they looked like this:
(link)
Can't imagine why people would be sceptical....
(Actually it was a great machine but was quickly suprassed by the Mac+ IMO, which was nearly as transportable.)
Take your time Apple. The all-screen foldable I have used are garbage. I don't want a plastic screen with wrinkles and waves running through them. I'm in no rush for an all-screen foldable. But definitely look forward to Apple's implementation. Seems a segment that Appel will step in and make all other options seem pointless.
As far as an all screen MacBook Pro is concerned - THIS is exactly where I think the aborted TouchBar was always leading. Apple likes to baby step its massive (and passionate) user base into new concepts/paradigms. TouchBar was that toe-dipping step toward an all screen MBP that wold see the lap-side of the device offer an iPad-like touch keyboard that would undoubtedly represent one of the more polarizing topics in Apple history.
As far as an all screen MacBook Pro is concerned - THIS is exactly where I think the aborted TouchBar was always leading. Apple likes to baby step its massive (and passionate) user base into new concepts/paradigms. TouchBar was that toe-dipping step toward an all screen MBP that wold see the lap-side of the device offer an iPad-like touch keyboard that would undoubtedly represent one of the more polarizing topics in Apple history.
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Remember when everyone thought 3D TV was the future? Same thing with 'foldables'
Actually no they didn’t. I was there.
The issue is purely engineering. Laminated products degrade faster if you bend them than if you don’t. The device is in your hand several hours a day and bent regularly. It’s going to break quicker.
Compare cheap plastic strap hinge lunchbox to one with a mechanical hinge. It’s the same outcome.
All devices have compromises. This is a really poor one. I mean terrible.
What they need for touchscreens to match the user-friendliness of keyboards is spellchecking that isn't locked into the one-word-at-a-time spell- and grammar-checking that hasn't changed much since the 1980's. If they could use AI to predict what the user wanted to type from the semantic context, then a touchscreen might be tolerable.
Im talking about their stupid car also, and their VR goggles to play phone games.
Sounds to me like you think companies should keep chasing the technology. How else do you think they're going to work out the problems we've seen with early iterations?
No one's forcing you to buy anything, and the alternatives certainly aren't going away any time soon.
I would rather see apple release an OS not laden with bugs.. but thats just me.
I am a neuroscientist with a lot of experience with microwires and electrical circuits on semi-rigid substrates. All sorts of electronic mischief occurs when circuits flex. That, and the fact that repeated flexure will eventually degrade any material, makes me really sceptical about a display with a fold in it. Precise machining, on the other hand, seems to be coming on strong, so a mechanical hinge joining two conventional screens would only need a small enough gap and a good enough alignment to satisfy our visual system. Remember the thin horizontal damping wires across old CRT's? They were so small the you only noticed them when they were pointed out.
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