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Ultra-Portable MacBook Likely at Macworld San Francisco 2008?

Ultraportable vs. Tablet

TripleCore said:
Something like this would be even greater for traveling. But I wonder if this is same or different from a rumored tablet...
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I assume this is a conventional laptop design but very light with no optical drive and potentially a solid state flash hard drive instead of a conventional disk based drive.

Is there a rumored tablet? I have always seen industry leaks and speculation about an ultraportable (and even patents that seem to look that way).

By contract, I feel like the majority of tablet rumors seem to come from board like this...

Here is one exception - friend of a friend at ASUS based on a 2005 patent filing - for what that is worth:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/06/apple-tablet-confirmed-by-asus/

I am not a tablet guy, but agree it would be a great addition to the Apple stable of products (the touch pad based keyboard on a ipod touch/iphone might work very well in a larger form factor). I also think that it would be like a secondary product for current Apple owners for meetings and the like (and so lead to an increase of sales rather than cannabalizing sales existing of laptops.
 
A market for this?

Sony already had a couple Vaio sub-notebook models that pretty much filled this niche, 2 or 3 years ago. Ultra-high resolution 12" or so LCD glossy screens with high-end P4 processors, etc. etc. They weren't cheap though (and obviously, were only suitable if you wanted a Windows machine). I believe they typically sold for around $3100 each.

If Apple can get the size of a Macbook to about the same thing Sony had with those Vaios, and sell in the $1800 and under price-range, I think they definitely have a "hit". The people who want their notebook to be as similar in specs and power to their desktop as possible will want to avoid it, though.

It's going to mainly be attractive to the people who value "slim, small and lightweight" over all else. (The 12" Powerbook never excited me, personally, for that same reason. Seemed too "wimpy" of a machine to me. Plus, as long as it's reasonably thin and light, I'd rather have a larger display. The lack of screen space for apps is a big penalty to suffer through, just to shave a couple more inches off the size of the thing.)


farmboy said:
"It's too expensive"
"This thing will never sell"
"It's too big"
"It's too small"
"What? No bluetooth?"
"What? No optical drive?"
"I can get a Dell for..."
"What? A mechanical keyboard?"
"What? A multi-touch keyboard?"
"I can't do Photoshop/Final Cut with THIS"
"It's completely useless unless..."
"Apple's being greedy"
"It's crippled! It only has....."
"The battery only lasts.....hours"
"Not enough RAM"
"You can get a terrabyte drive for only..."

Sigh. Have I missed any? I think most of the market for this small format Mac consists of posters to MacRumors. Has anybody REALLY succeeded with this type of unit? Maybe if it's something never seen before. It'll be interesting.
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I think the whole idea of it being in the "Pro" family is that it's not a consumer laptop, and no you probably won't be able to store your entire lossless music library and watch HD movies on it, because that's not what it's for. It's about portability and effectiveness at fulfilling its' task.
 
My guess

Here is my guess for what it is worth:

13" WS aluminum LED backlight
2.4 ghz C2D
2gb ram
64gb solid state drive
No optical drive
2.2 lbs
0.7 x 11.9 x 8.50 inches
$2499

PS. When picked up for the first time and handled, every complainer that wanted a 10 or 11 inch screen, will be the first to buy it...

PPS. on superdrives, (1) I NEVER use one, most people do not, (2) Apple likes to get rid of obsolete ports and devices before other company and (3) an external super drive that is sleek is pretty easy for them to do and just sell as an option.
 
Brianstorm91 said:
Remember when they got rid of the 3 1/2" floppy :eek:
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Here are two links to portable HDD and DVD burners to see why they can be external or done away with:

On portable burners, here is a concept device that will blow your mind:
http://www.slipperybrick.com/2007/09/ultra-portable-dvd-player-concept/

They wouldn't use this, but gives you a sense of why external drives are no longer clunkers...

On portable harddrives:
-We will have 32 gig USB keys soon
-I got a 250gig Hard drive for under $200. Check this one out from WD super small, powered on USB, fairly stylish and ultraportable:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=317&language=en

(I'd hope more firms would take styling cues from Apple, but it takes time...)
 
TurboSC said:
Still a little iffy about the NAND, since it's still a fairly expensive affair, but if Apple can pull off at least 80GB NAND I'm sold.
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Hmm, 64GB/32GB More likely.
The battery life would be amazing, and a lot of external drives can be powered via USB, so any extra storage I could carry in my backpack. Why is January so far away :(
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:confused: Why would you need multiple EXT. Drives all powered at the same time? This is an "Ultra Portable" MB, not a mobile video editing machine. How long has apple let iPod/iPhone users even edit a calender "on the go"? Not likely MBUP will offer sufficient robustness for your "mobile" needs. More Likely to be a Variant of the iPhone OSX strain.
This raises questions, if not a full OSX, No full applications? "Compete" with widows mobile, this might.

EagerDragon said:
I think I will wait for the ultra portable with the 30" fold out screen and the 7"X 3" form factor when closed.
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LOL, like an iMap.
 
Semi-submerged drive would be nice :) Otherwise how do I watch rented DVDs on this thing?

You plug DVD/CD into the side, it goes in half-way (just past the hole), rolls for a minute or so while system copies the whole content into memory/hard drive and that's it :D
 
bdkennedy1 said:
What do we need an ultra-portable for? What would it be used for? Didn't Apple already try this with the 12" PowerBook that nobody bought?
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I bought one and was hoping they would make an Intel version. I think the 12" is sweet. Mine is getting long in the tooth so I'm hoping this rumor is true otherwise my only alternative would be a Macbook.
 
iPortables

bugabuga said:
Semi-submerged drive would be nice :) Otherwise how do I watch rented DVDs on this thing? :D You plug DVD/CD into the side, it goes in half-way (just past the hole), rolls for a minute or so while system copies the whole content into memory/hard drive and that's it :D
Click to expand...
SLICK;). It now "Slices and Dices"
What about using the rumored mini cd/dvd discs with adaptor? Could see an increase in capacity with mini discs as HD disc technologies advance, Apple tv... Ahah! Now you can download Content from iTMS to a "apple disc" that only plays in the new line of iPortables. The rumored adaptor could be used to view the content on other video disc players.
 
why would this be a MacBook and not a MacBook Pro? Weren't the MB's just updated, and the Al design is MBP..
 
actually . . .

bdkennedy1 said:
What do we need an ultra-portable for? What would it be used for? Didn't Apple already try this with the 12" PowerBook that nobody bought?
Click to expand...

I'm still rocking a 12" PowerBook that catches the attention of way too many people who want something of this size. (Fits in a messenger pack with my gym clothes, sketchbook, and other crap.) It has enough power to handle a wide range of tasks. Final Cut will definitely choke it, but I've found it to have enough juice for Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash. The screen can be a bit of a pain at times, but connecting it to a 20" ACD at the home office works very well.
 
Apple really missed the boat on this one :mad:

I waited for like two years for an ultra portable replacement for the 12" Powerbook. It never came and I broke down a few months ago and bought a Macbook Pro. It's great for home use, but it's way too heavy IMHO to really bring anywhere. For those that drive everywhere, bravo. You may not care too much. For those of us that rely on mass transit to get around and have to lug their laptop with them for a few hours a day, it's a little much.

I just picked myself up an Asus EEE in Galaxy Black. You wouldn't believe how small this puppy is. 2 lbs *WITH* battery. The charger? The size of a cell phone charger. I don't have to think twice about bringing this with me. I've replaced the built-in Xandros OS with an nlited Windows XP install. Works great.

Sorry Apple. Asus had me at 2 lbs...
 
It'll have Flash + standard HD

For those who are talking about the expense of a flash memory HD...

I seem to recall that the idea is that you have flash memory in addition to your standard hard drive. The flash memory just contains the OS and key apps, so that you can boot quickly. My sense of it was it would be used as a chunk of fast virtual memory, not the whole HD.

(This would be one of the things you can add with the space saved from no optical drive.)

Correct me if I'm wrong... :)
 
In my last post I'm referencing Intel's Robeson technology for using flash on the chipset in this way. Not as the full harddrive, but something between it and ram. (like virtual memory? - that's how I was understanding it...)
 
Clive At Five said:
In order to accomplish this, we'll have to sacrifice a lot of power. That being said, I don't see how, at this point, we could give it any more complex of an OS than the iPhone and therefore, bmight just be dismissed as just "a big iPhone." Maybe that's what we need, but I'm assuming that people are going to want its capabilities to lie somewhere between the iPhone's and the MacBook's. If this is that case, I think we have a year or two to wait.
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OS X made it's debut on a CPU that's about the same speed as the CPU in my non-iPhone. I don't follow your logic, I really don't.


unclepunk said:
Apple really missed the boat on this one :mad:

I waited for like two years for an ultra portable replacement for the 12" Powerbook. It never came and I broke down a few months ago and bought a Macbook Pro. It's great for home use, but it's way too heavy IMHO to really bring anywhere. For those that drive everywhere, bravo. You may not care too much. For those of us that rely on mass transit to get around and have to lug their laptop with them for a few hours a day, it's a little much.

I just picked myself up an Asus EEE in Galaxy Black. You wouldn't believe how small this puppy is. 2 lbs *WITH* battery. The charger? The size of a cell phone charger. I don't have to think twice about bringing this with me. I've replaced the built-in Xandros OS with an nlited Windows XP install. Works great.

Sorry Apple. Asus had me at 2 lbs...
Click to expand...

Wow... that's a brilliant idea. I should do that. there's no way Apple could make a laptop that cheap... now to find somewhere with one in stock...
 
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