Ultra-Portable Mac Expected at Macworld Expo 2008

Sounds really cool, BUT, what if it only has a 20gb hard drive? That would suck. They can only fit so many of those flash sticks in the case. :rolleyes:
 
I'm wondering how long it took Apple to modify the older MacBooks to transition to Santa Rosa. I know the design is somewhat different interanally (e.g. fans, exhaust holes), but with all the time spent doing that, would they really replace the current MacBook with this. I don't think so. If it does have solid state storage, it'll fetch a pretty penny...
 
CaptainCaveMann said:
Sounds really cool, BUT, what if it only has a 20gb hard drive? That would suck. They can only fit so many of those flash sticks in the case. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

They have 64 GB NAND drives out now, and 32 GB is becoming increasingly common. I doubt they'll release it with 20 GB.

slicecom said:
13" screen is too big. 10 or 11" would be ideal.
Click to expand...
I think 5" is ideal ... my OQO fits in my pocket, and it runs a full XP/Vista, Office, etc. Now that is ultraportable =)
 
So basically this is the return of iBook. however much slimmer, and with touchscreen like features in the touchpad?

I'm not really moved by this announcement if true. If it's a sub note book and doesn't come with a sub price to match then the market for it is very small. This is what the iBook suffered from. The price didn't justify the specs at all. So my question is what makes this product different?




However if the speculation is way off target and this turns out to be a no keyboard, touchscreen only keyboard .... tablet like portable then I might see what all the fuss is about.


Appleinsider describes this product as "...design long under development by Apple Inc." surely a tablet like full touchscreen surface laptop would fit the description better than, "Apple is re releasing an iBook again."
 
Oh, 13"? Forget it then. Flash + LED + 13" = $1499 (I'd wager).

I am looking for something around 10". And something in the $799-$899 range. An unreasonable expectation, I realize!

My gut says they will brand it Macbook Nano, and my gut further says they are going to combine the AppleTV and Mac Mini lines into a Mac Nano -- AppleTV sized, HDMI, meant for the living room but is an actual computer that can be used elsewhere.
 
HDMI/DVI out and we're talking! Don't look past a $69 external superdrive packaged with the laptop. I will be buying this at launch. Permitting it is as capable as the 2.2 MBP and RAM is upgradable; the deal is done. I will pay $2000 without hesitation. I had my eye on the Toshiba R200 before I got my 2.33gHz MBP.
 
I smell rental movies :) as well as digital downloads such as downloadable movies and games

Edit: please ignore my first posting . Did not know it posted itself
 
Chaszmyr said:
Completely right. Sony makes what are hands-down the most impressive ultraportables on the market, but you virtually never see them in the wild because they are extremely expensive. I think if Apple prices this new machine of theirs at $1499 it will sell like crazy. At $1999 it will sell alright, and anything over that and it will hardly sell at all. They could conceivably price it as low as $999, since it sounds like it will use standard laptop components, but at that price you'd have to expect to have hardly any disk space (like, say, 8gb).
Click to expand...

Assuming this has a reasonable amount of storage (say, more than 32GB) and based on their previous pricing strategies, Apple has given us every reason to suspect this will cost more than the current hard drive based MacBook Pros, so we're looking at $2,000+
 
I really want this product. A 64GB drive will be kind of tight, though.

I currently carry a Sony TX (when I'm not carrying my MacBook Pro), and the weight, size, and battery life are great. The performance is awful. I'm sure Apple will do much better. I won't mind losing the optical drive.

I hope the Apple product is super slim, sturdy like the MacBook Pro, and uses a tiny AC adapter. Keep it under $3k, and I (gadget geek) will buy it.

A 3GHz+ Penryn-based MacBook Pro would be nice too. :)
 
rename macbook to: MacBook Classic
Introduce: MacBook Nano
Change MBP trackpad to an iphone screen: Macbook Touch

lol

.....is possible!!
:apple::apple::apple:
 
I'm starting to wonder whether this kind of rumour is generated from actual leaks etc, or whether it happens the other way round: the rumour mill comes up with all these great ideas, and Apple implement them :D

In which case, yeah I'd expect them by 2008. By then they'll have put something together to meet the expectations of the fans and media :)

I honestly do think this is how the iPod Touch came about... the original intention being to have the iPhone as the high end iPod (getting better over the years in capacity etc) but the rumour mill was so loud with the idea of the Touch that they had to knock one together!
 
Also, let me chime in: I think this would be too close to the MacBook's size and weight, even if it's a lot thinner and a little lighter.

The people clamoring for an ultra portable are those that want something *really* small, like no larger than a 10" screen. Something that can be thrown around almost as easily as a cell phone.

That doesn't mean I don't think this will be released, it just means I don't think it will have as much appeal to the Mac public (and the target audience Apple is going after) as something much smaller.

After you factor in the lost sales due to A) folks turned off by the performance loss B) folks turned off by the price C) folks that just don't think it's a big enough jump in portability from the current offerings, I don't think you're left with much of a market.
 
My crazy theory about the "strange trackpad":

The machine contains a hollowed out location, near the trackpad for an iPod/iPhone dock. The iPod/iPhone would lay down flush with the notebook. The notebook would then be able to read the contents of the device and play media on the iPod in full screen mode, without using internal storage.

Take this a step further and maybe the machine is nothing but a dumb terminal for the iPhone or iPod touch. You actually use multitouch on the iPhone and it appears on the 13" screen. This would be sort of like Palm's Folio...which wasn't a good idea but maybe Apple could pull it off.
 
Bring Back the Duo

The Mac Duo was on of the best machines built -- an ultra-portable, with a based station that houses expansion cards, hard drives, etc.
 
13" just doesn't seem ultra portable to me. Sure my MacBook is more portable than a 15.4" laptop, but for an ultra portable, I'd want at most a 10" or 11" screen. Ideally smaller would be better, and I'm thinking about an Asus Eee PC as an ultra-portable.
 
sigamy said:
My crazy theory about the "strange trackpad":

The machine contains a hollowed out location, near the trackpad for an iPod/iPhone dock. The iPod/iPhone would lay down flush with the notebook. The notebook would then be able to read the contents of the device and play media on the iPod in full screen mode, without using internal storage.

Take this a step further and maybe the machine is nothing but a dumb terminal for the iPhone or iPod touch. You actually use multitouch on the iPhone and it appears on the 13" screen. This would be sort of like Palm's Folio...which wasn't a good idea but maybe Apple could pull it off.
Click to expand...

I dont think so. It would suck trying to look at the larger screen while typing on a touch screen I think...
 
So does this mean no aluminum MacBooks (not just at MWSF but in the foreseeable future)?
 
Either Apple is going to make their own SSDs from their iPod-enabled NAND supplies, or this thing is going to cost as much as a decked-out 15" MBP or a 17" MBP. Samsung's 64GB SSD is roughly a GRAND. That's $1000. Screen, casing, CPU, components, etc will be on top of that. And people on here (uninformed pipedreamers, as per usual these days) are using their novice guesswork to estimate that it'll be in the $1000-1500 range. it's priced at roughly $14-18/gb (and since they are not available to consumers, some websites are reselling at an outrageous cost of $50-75/gb), compared to about $1-1.50/gb with magnetic platter HDDs. Do some research before you post in response to what is a great and well-researched article. PLEASE.
 
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