Thinner MacBook Air in 13" and 15" Sizes Coming at WWDC 2016?

[Abazigal]

Good for them. The consumer won't be happy about having to buy new headphones or scruffy 3.5mm adapters which is why it won't happen.

I wasn't too happy about having to buy new lightning adaptors to replace my older 30-pin ones. I did it anyways. It represented a 1-off purchase which did sting a little at the time of purchase (those lightning to VGA adaptors aren't cheap!), but looking back, it's really no big deal considering the years I have held on to it and used it.

You seem to think this is the first time Apple is introducing a new standard and getting its customers to get more accessories. They are old hands at this and I daresay Apple knows how much they can get away with better than the rest of us.

 

[thewap]

The Macbook Air is not dead - far from it.

The MacBook Air was originally released as a premium ultraportable which was positioned above the then entry-level Macbook. The MacBook Air has become the best-selling Macintosh computer and the best-selling ultraportable notebook at Apple..doesn't make sense to kill it. It does make sense to upgrade the Air as now the lower entry level macbook has been upgraded (or downgraded depending on your point of view). This would keep the traditional line of Apple notebooks as they always had it. - MB, MBA, MBP

 

[nicho]

The Macbook Air is not dead - far from it.

The MacBook Air was originally released as a premium ultraportable which was positioned above the then entry-level Macbook. The MacBook Air has become the best-selling Macintosh computer and the best-selling ultraportable notebook at Apple..doesn't make sense to kill it. It does make sense to upgrade the Air as now the lower entry level macbook has been upgraded (or downgraded depending on your point of view). This would keep the traditional line of Apple notebooks as they always had it. - MB, MBA, MBP

By always, you mean for four years in the MacBook's first incarnation, and since April this year. It's not set in stone that they'd have three laptop lines.

By what metric are you ordering the MacBook, Air and Pro?

If by price (the original order) then the MacBook needs a big price drop or air a price bump and performance increase further into pro territory...

If by performance, that's not how it was in the first place.

 

[a0me]

That was just the charging port and removing an antquated 30 pin port was lauded as a good idea by almost everyone who didn't have an expensive 30 pin docking station. Removing the 3.5mm jack is just too soon. Maybe in another 2-3 years...

The 3.5mm jack has been around for something like 140 years. What would waiting a few more years change?

 

[nicho]

The 3.5mm jack has been around for something like 140 years. What would waiting a few more years change?

Not quite. The bulkier 6.35mm jack has been around that long, the 3.5mm came along later.

My parents expensive stereo from the late 80s came with a 6.35mm headphone jack rather than a 3.5mm one.

 

[Steve121178]

You seem to think this is the first time Apple is introducing a new standard and getting its customers to get more accessories. They are old hands at this and I daresay Apple knows how much they can get away with better than the rest of us.

3.5mm jack is an global industry standard, not an Apple standard. Headphone & audio manufacturers do not dance to the Apple beat, they don't need to.

 

[navaira]

Has it occurred to anyone how easy a Lightning cable, or more precisely plug, will be to break once you put the phone on your pocket?

 

[Abazigal]

3.5mm jack is an global industry standard, not an Apple standard. Headphone & audio manufacturers do not dance to the Apple beat, they don't need to.

And no one is forcing them to.

But they know that there will be people who don't mind investing in a pair of lightning-compatible headphones (even if it means getting a brand new pair all over again) and if they want a slice of that pie, these companies will create the necessary accessories out of their own free will regardless.

I don't need every such company to dance to Apple's will. Just a few good ones will suffice. Those who do will get the right to earn our money, and those who don't, won't.

 

[navaira]

Those who do will get the right to earn our money, and those who don't, won't.

Beats.

 

[Abazigal]

3.5mm jack is an global industry standard, not an Apple standard. Headphone & audio manufacturers do not dance to the Apple beat, they don't need to.

Is it just me, or do we risk derailing this thread into one regarding the merits of removing the audio jack? Because this sounds eerily a lot like the iPhone 7 thread I am also participating in, and for a moment, I thought I might have accidentally replied to the wrong thread.

How did we end up talking from thinner laptops to lightning-enabled headphones again?

 

[furi0usbee]

yes it certainly holds its own. Only thing i did to it was upgrade to 1TB ssd. Even with gaming its quite good, its just starting now to have issues with some of the newest games like battlefront, but even then can run on low.

I'm still on the stock 256 GB SSD with 173 GB free. No HDD issues yet, still blazing along. I haven't played many games on it, and delete them when done. I'll be sad the day it dies. When/if it does die, I'll send it to Louis Rossmann so he can breath new life into it

 

[Gudi]

The 13" Retina MacBook Pro has a 28w i5/i7 CPU and the MacBook 12" has a 5w Y-Series fanless set-up. Totally different!

It's a difference for time critical tasks only and even than it is manageable. The Apollo 11 Guidance Computer which put a man on the moon had approximately 64 Kbyte of memory and operated at 0.043 MHz. So don't pretend the fanless MacBook isn't a powerful computer anymore. Most of the time most i5/i7 CPUs run idle anyway, because they are waiting for a spinning hard drive. I personally run a Core2Duo MacBook Pro with a SATA-2 SSD. A blazing fast computer, the CPU in it is not a reason for upgrading. That single USB-C port however is tempting.

 

[driceman]

It helps the consumer decide which laptop model best suits their needs, and certainly offers better direction than a string of seemingly random numbers and letters strung together.

But I agree that Apple's current Mac lineup does seem bloated, and could do with some streamlining.

The biggest qualm I have with it is that when I was selling computers at Simply Mac people could never make up their minds between the 13" laptops- two Pros and an Air. It mostly confuses people more than helps them with Apple's "simple" approach.

Mostly I just think there should be 3-4 laptops mostly to offer different options that trade portability and power. Right now there are 3 Pro's, a MacBook, and 2 Airs (not counting storage configurations). They could chop that in half and come out ahead.

 

[Steve121178]

It's a difference for time critical tasks only and even than it is manageable. The Apollo 11 Guidance Computer which put a man on the moon had approximately 64 Kbyte of memory and operated at 0.043 MHz. So don't pretend the fanless MacBook isn't a powerful computer anymore. Most of the time most i5/i7 CPUs run idle anyway, because they are waiting for a spinning hard drive. I personally run a Core2Duo MacBook Pro with a SATA-2 SSD. A blazing fast computer, the CPU in it is not a reason for upgrading. That single USB-C port however is tempting.

It's nothing to do with time. You clearly know nothing about virtualization and the demands placed on a system. It has absolutely nothing to do with "taking longer". A 12" MacBook simply cannot run 4 VM's with 2GB RAM & 2 vCPU cores allocated to each machine without the computer grinding to a halt. It's very, very simple yet you don't get it.

To quote you again "Most of the time most i5/i7 CPUs run idle anyway, because they are waiting for a spinning hard drive" I nearly choked laughing at this. Please stop.

 

[JSH56]

a 15" air would be my next mac, but i don't expect my 2012 retina to die anytime soon lol

This is exactly what I need. I don’t need Pro power, but I need screen space! Unfortunately, Apple reduces the screen size with reduction in power. Let’s have an Air or MacBook with a 15” (or 14” or 16”) screen asap!

 

[Gudi]

A 12" MacBook simply cannot run 4 VM's with 2GB RAM & 2 vCPU cores allocated to each machine without the computer grinding to a halt. It's very, very simple yet you don't get it.

It's also probably a lie, because it heavily depends on what's running on those VM's and what needs to be running to accomplish the mission. We've already established that the 13-inch MBP has the same number of cores and virtual cores, so it can't allocate 2 vCPU cores to each of 4 VM's either. Because it doesn't have a total of 8 of them, only the quad-core 15 and 17-inch MBP's have 8 virtual cores. I'm also convinced that every job that requires your computer to emulate four other dual-core computers is better served with a 12-core Mac Pro. And that's also a very small and light design, I absolutely could see one integrated into a 200 mph motorcycle (for mobility). Why don't you complain about how 24 virtual cores aren't enough to run 25 virtual machines? What were they thinking, if only Apple made the Mac Pro a little bigger and heavier. Also only one physical keyboard in the 12-inch MacBook, seems like an omission to me. This thing is useless, when you're trying to pretend, that you have half a dozen computers in one computer. I'll better buy two of them to cover all my multiple VM needs.

 

[Steve121178]

It's also probably a lie, because it heavily depends on what's running on those VM's and what needs to be running to accomplish the mission.

It’s not a lie. I do this for a living.

We've already established that the 13-inch MBP has the same number of cores and virtual cores, so it can't allocate 2 vCPU cores to each of 4 VM's either. Because it doesn't have a total of 8 of them

This is what I mean when I say you don’t understand what you are talking about. The CPU has a number of physical cores, but I can assign a far greater number of virtual cores. A virtual core does not reserve an entire physical core!!!!

I'm also convinced that every job that requires your computer to emulate four other dual-core computers is better served with a 12-core Mac Pro.

Eh? Are you just being silly for the sake of being silly or do you really not understand anything about CPU architecture & virtualization? If I want to run 4 VM’s then a 28w i5/i7 CPU is sufficient for what I do. I have ESXi hosts for my production VM’s (I have over 600 VM’s in prod).

And that's also a very small and light design, I absolutely could see one integrated into a 200 mph motorcycle (for mobility). Why don't you complain about how 24 virtual cores aren't enough to run 25 virtual machines? What were they thinking, if only Apple made the Mac Pro a little bigger and heavier. Also only one physical keyboard in the 12-inch MacBook, seems like an omission to me. This thing is useless, when you're trying to pretend, that you have half a dozen computers in one computer. I'll better buy two of them to cover my multiple VM needs.

Baffling…

 

[Gudi]

I do this for a living. ... I have ESXi hosts for my production VM’s (I have over 600 VM’s in prod).

600 VM's that's just 25 Mac Pro's with 12 real and 24 virtual cores each, for a minimum of one virtual core per virtual machine. You better get a Volvo.

RackMac Pro​

 

[rabidkumquat]

Ive said it once, ill say it again. Steve jobs had it all right. THIS is what apple's mac lineup should look like.

 

[kiranmk2]

Haven't read through the whole thread, but I'm thinking that in much the same way as the rumoured retina Air turned out to be the rMB, this 'thinner MBA' will turn out to be the new MBP. The main internal differences are the CPU wattage and the GPU. If Apple have worked out how to get a 28 W Iris Pro into a thinner case then there is no need for the Air.

 

[kiranmk2]

Haven't read through the whole thread, but I'm thinking that in much the same way as the rumoured retina Air turned out to be the rMB, this 'thinner MBA' will turn out to be the new MBP. The main internal differences are the CPU wattage and the GPU. If Apple have worked out how to get a 28 W Iris Pro into a thinner case then there is no need for the Air.

 

[chleuasme]

The addition of a 15-inch MacBook Air could hint at Apple's vision for its future lineup, with the 12-inch MacBook occupying the ultraportable spot, the MacBook Air serving mainstream customers at 13 and 15 inches, and the MacBook Pro offering more power at those same sizes.

Close but I would rather see it go along the following lines:

. The rMB with Core M for a super light and fanless minimal OS X laptop, with its only port + audio jack,

. Two new intermediate rMB built around SKL-U dual chips: 15W (Iris 540) for a 13.3" model and 28W (Iris 550) for a 15" model, with the same retina screens as the current rMBPs but getting as thin as the MBAs were, and with a couple of TB3/USB-C ports, an audio jack and maybe still the card reader, the same keys height/depth as the Magic keyboard, and 10+ hours of battery life,

. A prosumer new rMBP built around the new 45W Xeon mobile quad chips (+ dGPU option), a ~4K P3 new 15" screen and a couple more ports, as "big" as the current rMBP15. Becoming wrt to the MB line a bit what the nMP is for the iMac line, a mobile truck vs mobile SUVs.

The MB line price scale could start at $1099/1499/1999 and the MBP start at $2499, or even straight to $999/1299/1799 and $2299. And exit the MBAs, pushing the iPad Pro and iOS at the bottom of the line.

 

[nick42983]

As a student could you really use iOS which has no file management system, as your main computer? Or the smart keyboard as your main typing method? Considering you are probably typing hours of homework each week and sometimes each day. I can't see that. Too many sacrifices just so you can save a few pounds of weight.

But maybe I should try it sometime. I've got an iPad Air 2 and a nice enough belkin bluetooth keyboard (probably better than the iPad Pro smartkeyboard in terms of things like key travel). I could take my iMac off my desk and set up the Air 2 on it and see how that goes for a few days. If I don't actually remove the iMac though I know I will just end up using that. There are some things I can't do on my iPad, but mainly because I haven't bought duplicate iOS programs from ones I already have in OSX. There isn't a technical limitation nor is the iOS ecosystem really in many ways limiting at this point.

I personally wouldn't want to do without a file management system, but that's a matter of what I'm used to. I think an 18-year-old student could manage it just fine. When it comes down to it, what files do they need to deal with for school other than documents? In iOS you can email Pages files as Word docs so emailing professors with assignments isn't a problem. The only other file types they's use a lot of are photos and videos which are handled fine within the iOS ecosystem. Students doing courses that require specialized software might need a regular laptop, but this is the minority. I think iOS can do almost everything I normally do, it's just much clunkier sometimes and makes me want a laptop.

 

[nick42983]

As a student could you really use iOS which has no file management system, as your main computer? Or the smart keyboard as your main typing method? Considering you are probably typing hours of homework each week and sometimes each day. I can't see that. Too many sacrifices just so you can save a few pounds of weight.

But maybe I should try it sometime. I've got an iPad Air 2 and a nice enough belkin bluetooth keyboard (probably better than the iPad Pro smartkeyboard in terms of things like key travel). I could take my iMac off my desk and set up the Air 2 on it and see how that goes for a few days. If I don't actually remove the iMac though I know I will just end up using that. There are some things I can't do on my iPad, but mainly because I haven't bought duplicate iOS programs from ones I already have in OSX. There isn't a technical limitation nor is the iOS ecosystem really in many ways limiting at this point.

I personally wouldn't want to do without a file management system, but that's a matter of what I'm used to. I think an 18-year-old student could manage it just fine. When it comes down to it what files do they need to deal with for school other than documents? in iOS you can email Pages files as Word docs so emailing professors with assignments isn't a problem. The only other file types they's use a lot of are photos and videos which are handled fine within the iOS ecosystem. Students doing courses that require specialized software might need a regular laptop, but this is the minority. I think iOS can do almost everything I normally do, it's just much clunkier sometimes and makes me want a laptop.

 

[nick42983]

As a student could you really use iOS which has no file management system, as your main computer? Or the smart keyboard as your main typing method? Considering you are probably typing hours of homework each week and sometimes each day. I can't see that. Too many sacrifices just so you can save a few pounds of weight.

But maybe I should try it sometime. I've got an iPad Air 2 and a nice enough belkin bluetooth keyboard (probably better than the iPad Pro smartkeyboard in terms of things like key travel). I could take my iMac off my desk and set up the Air 2 on it and see how that goes for a few days. If I don't actually remove the iMac though I know I will just end up using that. There are some things I can't do on my iPad, but mainly because I haven't bought duplicate iOS programs from ones I already have in OSX. There isn't a technical limitation nor is the iOS ecosystem really in many ways limiting at this point.

I personally wouldn't want to do without a file management system, but that's a matter of what I'm used to. I think an 18-year-old student could manage it just fine. When it comes down to it what files do they need to deal with for school other than documents? in iOS you can email Pages files as Word docs so emailing professors with assignments isn't a problem. The only other file types they's use a lot of are photos and videos which are handled fine within the iOS ecosystem. Students doing courses that require specialized software might need a regular laptop, but this is the minority. I think iOS can do almost everything I normally do, it's just much clunkier sometimes and makes me want a laptop.

Let me know how your iPad experiment goes if you do it. I'm sticking with my Air for the foreseeable future, but maybe in a few years as iOS continues to mature and evolve it'll be a clearer option.