Thinner 15-Inch MacBook Pro Coming with Retina Display and USB 3.0?

[Fishrrman]

Seems like a good compromise on size. I'm also really excited about the USB 3 since I have several external drives for USB 3 that I use for backups.

With the end of firewire (and firewire target disk mode), I'm wondering if we may see the emergence of a -new- "USB target mode"??

One other comment. There are/were a few posters here on MacRumors who continually voiced that "the new Macs won't have USB3" over and over.

Obviously, they were 100% wrong. From this point forth, EVERY Mac will have USB3 and NONE (perhaps with the exception of a redesigned Mac Pro) will have firewire. At this point, it's clear that Apple considers firewire a "legacy technology" that will no longer be included on new machines.

USB3 will make the biggest splash in Mac design since the original introduction of USB on the first iMacs...

 

[yg17]

Hi there, I use the ethernet port on my Macbook to transfer several gigabyte uncompressed videos from my campus' video lab server all the time. Doing that over a wimpy USB-ethernet adapter would easily take 5-6 times longer.

USB is great for small little things but is complete garbage for larger files.

Well too bad. Your campus needs to evolve and install the latest newfangled 802.11wtfstopcomingoutwithnewstandardseveryotherweek routers at $200 bucks a pop so you can get a gigabit over wireless. Of course, one gigabit is only a theoretical max speed on wireless and you'll only get that if the sun, the moon, the earth and the stars all align, otherwise, you'll be lucky to see 500 megabits, but hey, that's close enough.

Down with Ethernet! I want an extra 2 millimeters shaved off the thickness of my laptop!

 

[apolloa]

Of course I was being sarcastic . I don't think the iPhone needs an Ethernet port.

That's just silly.

That's what I meant, I'm confused why someone made what seemed like a serious reply to your comment?
But I am now beginning to wonder about those smaller docking port rumours? USB 3?

 

[Spetsnazos]

But they want to make the new macbook pro thinner anyway.

its already thin enough. If I wanted any thinner I would just use my ultrabook or buy a macbook air. I need performance. Having the necessary ports was already assumed. My 2 year old $200 netbook has an ethernet port...

 

[nuckinfutz]

The ASUS equivalent to the Macbook Air is 30% cheaper with better components. ASUS UX31. I own it, and recently they fixed the trackpad and keyboard issues which make it nearly identical to the Macbook Air.

70% is for the actual work type laptops such as the MacbookPro or Thinkpads.

No Thunderbolt. A bunch of useless USB ports. Crappy Windows OS. I think not . Identical to the MBA because ASUS is a CTRL C company. They don't know what they want to make until Apple shows them.

 

[blow45]

Why not ? They did it with VGA,FireWire,ODD and display ports and flash.

This wouldn't be unusual for Apple.

I've explained it to you but you don't seem to get it for some reason. All the technologies you mentioned fall into the categories of either going quickly or not so quickly into obsolescence and/or not being affected by dongle usage. I don't care to stick a dongle on my mini to get a dvi output. It's a viable solution, I am not moving it around.

Dongles, docks, extra cables for basic out of the box functionality of the by far and away most common networking industry wide interface that's nowhere close to going away just because apple say so, is simply an insult to their users. When people end up in that hotel room or that conference table and look in the bag and go shhhh...I left it/dropped it/lost it and then anyone have a dongle, anyone with a thunderbolt to ethernet dongle please? they are going to be cursing apple and very rightly so.

 

[NewbieCanada]

hahahaha, I bet even as intelligent mankind, we would find other useless ways to waste time without the internet but so true....

Yeah, hoping for a dual drive setup, we will have to see I guess?

NOOOOO!!!!!! If it doesn't have a three-drive setup and blu-ray writer and weigh under a pound I'm going to Windows and I'm going to tell all my friends and family to do the same!

(Not that they've ever taken my advice so far)

 

[Peace]

I've explained it to you but you don't seem to get it for some reason. All the technologies you mentioned fall into the categories of either going quickly or not so quickly into obsolescence and/or not being affected by dongle usage. I don't care to stick a dongle on my mini to get a dvi output. It's a viable solution, I am not moving it around.

Dongles, docks, extra cables for basic out of the box functionality of the by far and away most common networking industry wide interface that's nowhere close to going away just because apple say so, is simply an insult to their users. When people end up in that hotel room or that conference table and look in the bag and go shhhh...I left it/dropped it/lost it and then anyone have a dongle, anyone with a thunderbolt to ethernet dongle please? they are going to be cursing apple and very rightly so.

I get it. You keep explaining it to me. But I can almost guarantee you if Apple does away with the Ethernet port on their new laptops they have something up their sleeve.

I hope you get that.

 

[Spetsnazos]

No Thunderbolt. A bunch of useless USB ports. Crappy Windows OS. I think not . Identical to the MBA because ASUS is a CTRL C company. They don't know what they want to make until Apple shows them.

I have the ASUS G74SX and its a better desktop replacement than even the iMac after you couple it with a monitor. I dont see anything that Apple makes that is equivalent...so Ctrl+C argument is null.

Thunderbolt is cool but not a lot of hardware support this just yet and honestly I don't see it being widely implemented until Windows decides to head full force with driver support. I'm not in the mood to be writing my own drivers like I do in Ubuntu or Debian...

For all discussion purposes, other than the OS, hardware wise, ASUS UX31 > Macbook Air with a 30% off price tag. So I'm clearly paying the premium for the OS, I should expect to get the ports...

 

[blow45]

And they actually listen? Microsoft's basically selling in their own pond. There's no more growth from them if their tablet initiative fails.

Android doesn't make money even for Google (see Oracle vs Google commentary)

This leg of the battle is pretty close to being over. It doesn't really matter what you recommend Blow45. You can steer maybe a handful of people but it doesn't matter when Apple stores are so busy people are waiting to spend money.

It did matter to apple on their way up when everyone was making another 10 people a mac user by sheer enthusiasm for their devices and it will matter to them now. Don't worry. A lot in this life didn't see the writing on the wall. Apple won't be the first nor the last. And yes of course people listen, that's how brands get their fame and acclaim, and how they lose it.

 

[Spetsnazos]

That's funny....

We'll see how much those equivalent laptops are selling for in a year or two compared to their Air counterpartst.

Apple laptops retain value. No one else's do.

that doesn't interest me. I plan to keep the laptop for years and years. I do not intend to resell it so the resale value means little.

I'm comparing useful features for the end-user.

 

[blow45]

Fonts are Vector, how again will you LOSE realestate?

What's so hard for you to get, if you pixel double and you need now 4 pixels per one you have to go with four times the resolution. Otherwise you are losing screen real estate. Apple are not going for 4 times the pixel count, they 'll do pixel doubling, ergo you lose screen real estate.Refrain from the use of capitals when you don't get something marcus.

 

[TMay]

USB3 will make the biggest splash in Mac design since the original introduction of USB on the first iMacs...

USB 3.0 is evolutionary by any definition. Hardly the "biggest splash" in design, albeit it is on everyone's checklist for all the newest Mac's.

TB is much more innovative, and will have much broader repercussions in the future.

 

[Forchaza]

I've said this once before and I will say it again.

If you are spending + $1500.00 on ANY Mac product you SHOULD NOT HAVE TO BUY A BLOODY DONGLE just to get the speed of internet connectivity that should come as a base spec/hardware with the machine.

It is ludicrous! Spend money on a bloody dongle because I want the fastest internet speed that my machine can get (ethernet) and yet be confined by the choking restrictions of something called a DONGLE???

How stupid. This is why they have iPads and MBAs.

At the very LEAST they should do is include connector devices that are a part of the basic requirement for a machine. ie: internet connectivity.

Think different my aunt fanny! More like think difficult!

Grrrr

Yeah, I know it's just a rumour. I will wait to see what they bring to the table.

Never better words said!

If I'm paying that much money, it better have one included in the box!
I'm a massive apple fan and have loads of different apple kit. But this (if true) actually putting me off buy a new MacBook pro. I went through this before when they stopped putting floppy drives in their machine when most of the world still used floppy disks. Not sure I can be arsed to do it again. You can be to far head of the game... All that does is cause problems for you customers!

 

[nuckinfutz]

I have the ASUS G74SX and its a better desktop replacement than even the iMac after you couple it with a monitor. I dont see anything that Apple makes that is equivalent...so Ctrl+C argument is null.

Thunderbolt is cool but not a lot of hardware support this just yet and honestly I don't see it being widely implemented until Windows decides to head full force with driver support. I'm not in the mood to be writing my own drivers like I do in Ubuntu or Debian...

For all discussion purposes, other than the OS, hardware wise, ASUS UX31 > Macbook Air with a 30% off price tag. So I'm clearly paying the premium for the OS, I should expect to get the ports...

ASUS has to be cheaper for a given product. They are Tier 2 in the industry at best which means they cannot command the same amount of money. That's just a fact.

Thunderbolt's hardware support is improving. Cactus Ridge will make peripherals cheaper and ASUS has a TB option for their upcoming motherboards. Apple fans like to get new technology first so I'd rather have TB in my Macs which means I'll get more use out of it as my computers age rather than having to replace or ignore superior technology.

For your needs the ASUS is fine and I'm ok with that but if you really want to find success on Apple products you need to realize that low price doesn't win here. The product has to be good.

ASUS can do whatever CTRL -C stuff they want. The current MBA design was done almost a year ago which means they're pretty much just playing catchup.

 

[Ryth]

For all discussion purposes, other than the OS, hardware wise, ASUS UX31 > Macbook Air with a 30% off price tag. So I'm clearly paying the premium for the OS, I should expect to get the ports...

Sorry. the ASUS UX31 doesn't beat a MBAir 13" in performance/benchmarks. Go look them up.

Whats funny is again, you are removing big equations in this comparison...other then OS I mean at that point...wtf is the point of comparison. All these things HAVE TO BE IN THE COMPARISON. The OS...that's a damn big draw for everyone that uses a Mac.

Plus you are comparing a year old MBAir to a new ASUS that has had a year to catch up. So what do you think is going to happen when the new MBAir hits in a month...?

It's easy to copy like ASUS is doing and they still can't beat a year old product.

 

[blow45]

that doesn't interest me. I plan to keep the laptop for years and years. I do not intend to resell it so the resale value means little.

I'm comparing useful features for the end-user.

Their resale value was high when they hadn't saturated the market and when their g4 macs could run leopard perfectly fine 6 years after they were released. When some 2009 macs won't be able to run even mountain lion we'll see about their resale value. Don't buy into what he's saying. What's the resale value of a premium priced iphone 4 with the crap antenna btw, let alone a 3gs? What's the resale value of a 16gb gen one ipad? Macs are quickly going that way too.

 

[marcusj0015]

What's so hard for you to get, if you pixel double and you need now 4 pixels per one you have to go with four times the resolution. Otherwise you are losing screen real estate. Apple are not going for 4 times the pixel count, they 'll do pixel doubling, ergo you lose screen real estate.Refrain from the use of capitals when you don't get something marcus.

Whats so hard for YOU to get? The text would scale with the image resources. DUH. 8 point font would become 16 point. damn.

 

[nuckinfutz]

What's so hard for you to get, if you pixel double and you need now 4 pixels per one you have to go with four times the resolution. Otherwise you are losing screen real estate. Apple are not going for 4 times the pixel count, they 'll do pixel doubling, ergo you lose screen real estate.Refrain from the use of capitals when you don't get something marcus.

False

the new iPad has 4 times the pixels and nary a millimeter of UI space has been lost.

1 pixel does not turn into 4 pixels. 2 pixels turns into 4 hence the "Doubling" of pixel.

 

[Ryth]

I have the ASUS G74SX and its a better desktop replacement than even the iMac after you couple it with a monitor. I dont see anything that Apple makes that is equivalent...so Ctrl+C argument is null.

Thunderbolt is cool but not a lot of hardware support this just yet and honestly I don't see it being widely implemented until Windows decides to head full force with driver support. I'm not in the mood to be writing my own drivers like I do in Ubuntu or Debian...

For all discussion purposes, other than the OS, hardware wise, ASUS UX31 > Macbook Air with a 30% off price tag. So I'm clearly paying the premium for the OS, I should expect to get the ports...

MBAIR vs ASUS UX31 BENCHMARKS...same processor base and max

MBAIR
PCMarkVantage: 10134
3DMarkVantage (IGP): 1748
3DMark06 (IGP): 4195
Just Cause 2: 11.32
The Verge Battery Test: 6 hours 53 minutes

ASUS UX31
PCMarkVantage: 6692
3DMarkVantage (IGP): 1574
Just Cause 2: 3.69
The Verge Battery Test: 5 hours 31 minutes

Average boot up times: MBAir: 17seconds ASUS: 29 seconds.

http://www.theverge.com/products/compare/2496/515/5138

You can even add the windows version of the MBAir and it still beats the ASUS which is made for Windows.

 

[Xtremehkr]

Nevermind, USB 3.0 is integrated into the new IB motherboards, so it's not overkill to include both.

It would be great if the new MBP's had an SSD standard.

 

[Spetsnazos]

ASUS has to be cheaper for a given product. They are Tier 2 in the industry at best which means they cannot command the same amount of money. That's just a fact.

Thunderbolt's hardware support is improving. Cactus Ridge will make peripherals cheaper and ASUS has a TB option for their upcoming motherboards. Apple fans like to get new technology first so I'd rather have TB in my Macs which means I'll get more use out of it as my computers age rather than having to replace or ignore superior technology.

For your needs the ASUS is fine and I'm ok with that but if you really want to find success on Apple products you need to realize that low price doesn't win here. The product has to be good.

ASUS can do whatever CTRL -C stuff they want. The current MBA design was done almost a year ago which means they're pretty much just playing catchup.

Thats fine. I'm not really in the market for another Windows machine, I have my G74SX for that. What I do not need is a Mac that will let me program, is portable, decent battery life and can dualboot into Windows allowing me to use my regular programs without hiccups.

My work uses ethernet. Most of our clients have ethernet. This is not outdated technology like optical drives. It is expected that modern laptops come with this. Moving back to 56k speeds is not innovating.

Apple needs to realize that this is a big deal breaker. If you want to be ultra portable, buy a Macbook air.

 

[blow45]

I get it. You keep explaining it to me. But I can almost guarantee you if Apple does away with the Ethernet port on their new laptops they have something up their sleeve.

I hope you get that.

Until whatever they have up their sleeve falls out of it, people are still going to be carrying and losing bloody dongles for the standard ubiquitous network protocol that is is ethernet, and going sorry boss missing my dongle, sorry guys, no ethernet for me, forgot my dongle at home, sorry attendees of this conference anyone have an ethernet dongle btw, I am a mac user, and apple has something pretty big up its long sleeve btw, and I am not talking about a tv set although that would be pretty big for someone's sleeve (laughs - walks down).

 

[NewbieCanada]

Of course I was being sarcastic . I don't think the iPhone needs an Ethernet port.

That's just silly.

Of course it's silly.

It needs TWO Ethernet ports. How else can it function as a router.

 

[nuckinfutz]

Thunderbolt and USB3 seems to be overkill, it would make more sense to stay with USB 2 because that would make the components cheaper. USB 2 for peripherals that don't require too much in the way of transferring information and Thunderbolt for the heavy lifting.

The MBP would benefit more from Apple going to an SSD standard than from adopting USB 3.0. That would be an investment that would benefit the user base the most, as thunderbolt is that much better than USB 3 to begin with.

Not quite. Even a modest iPhoto library can easily be 30GB. Transferring this content over USB means likely a 30 minute or longer transfer time. If USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt can transfer that same library over in 7 minutes it mean you're computer can no go back to putting it's resources into other areas.