New MacBook Pro Ideas

Love it. Needs to happen. Won't for at least a decade.


So why would you bother even saying now? It's years off.


Anyone doing serious color work won't even think about using a laptop display, anyway.


The U.S. doesn't have the bandwidth for it, therefore it won't happen.

It should be here next year sometime. I think a hybrid Light Peak/USB 3 port would be best. 4 x USB 3/LP and replace ethernet, firewire 800 and the 2x USB 2 ports. If you need to capture video, you will get a Light Peak or USB 3 adaptor to support that protocol and you get an adaptor for ethernet too. If you don't need either of those, you are getting two extra USB ports.

Where the optical used to be should be the space for 2 x 2.5" 12.5mm drives to allow up to 2TB of storage and RAID options.

The battery would go right along the front so it can be tapered very thin.


IPS won't take away the reflections unfortunately. They need to use better glass. IPS displays are needed though.

I think a neat feature would be being able to remove the screen from the laptops and they work in iPad mode but with some synced data such as Safari bookmarks, contacts, emails etc. I feel the iPad is too small. The 15" Macbook Pro screen is ideal for me. This aspect is 16:10, which I like the idea of and at 1440x900, it is capable of playing 720p content full size.

The other advantage of a removable display is the lower cost in replacing one, assuming no hinge damage. If you crack the screen you just buy a new part and attach it.

I've been lucky as my MBP has taken a couple of drops with no damage. Each time though that sinking feeling comes on, will the LCD be broken, the disk corrupted etc & etc.

I have no idea what Apple will do but do know what I'd like to see.

That should be an external optical in my opinion. Further Mac OS/X needs to be distributed on SD disks.

As to the HD space I'd like room for at least 2 SSDs. My big problem is not enough internal space on the hard drive. So there three slots would be even better.

I'd love an app store for the Mac as long as the Mac and its OS remains open. Believe it or not the primary reason is updates. I'd rather that my machine is updated continuously with the latest bug fixes and security tweaks, these days that takes a lot of work. App store on the iPhone makes that incredibly easy to deal with.

I want Lightpeak myself but this idea that everything will be done on one cable is a pipe dream. Especially when we are about to see an explosion in monitor density.

Please grow up, people want the screens Apple currently has because they are an all around better experience. Besides if you are seeing your reflection whos fault is it?

No Intel graphics anywhere in the box!!!!!

Longer battery life.

Built in provisions for a cellular modem.

GPS - I'm not so sure why Apple has been so slow to implement this on the laptops. It is a big win for cell phones.

How about not.

Dave

Won't it be late 2011 before the thing is even finalized? Then Intel has to make chipsets that include it, THEN Apple has to make computers that use those chipsets on their custom boards... you see? Way too much time wasted, in my opinion.


You'd want at LEAST the new government-mandated minimum for "broadband": 4 megabits per second. And that's even with Apple's horrible compression that they use for 720 content.

1.5 megabits? I'm thinking that's REALLY optimistic. See, the U.S., unlike every other developed country on the planet, has ISPs that care more about money than giving people Internet access. They couldn't care less about us, and the majority of our citizens are too stupid to realize that they're paying four times as much for one twelfth of the speed as everywhere else in the world, so they get away with it.

Yes it certainly would. As long as it isn't the only way to install software on the Mac it would be very useful and save most users a lot of time. Further it would lead to an explosion in software development because developers would have a very low cost way to distribute their programs. I'm not against people making money off their works but I'm sometimes resistant to the high cost of software. As we have seen with iPhone Apples managed repository changes the dynamics significantly.

I know some people resist this idea out of fear of to much Apple control, but these are the same people that swear they will go to Linux. And just where do the majority get their Linux software, from repositories. There would be little difference other than some vendors at Apples Mac App store would be making money.

Note that an anti glare screen is not a matte screen. I have a real problem with the muddiness of matte screens.

From the standpoint of a laptop user that travels just a bit I'd have to agree. Outside of Las Vegas hotels are hit of mis with respect to bandwidth and overall reliability. Some places can't even serve up WiFi that is fast enough for E-Mail.

As one data point my bandwidth is ZERO. That is for the things I can't do on my iPhone I go down to the local library. The thing is cable is way to expensive for what you get, even a data only plan. So I object by not using the service. That might seem extreme to some but we are talking thousands of dollars a year for cable/data access, which is outrageous.

The problem is many people are so addicted to the services they can't do without. I went cold turkey a few years ago and frankly it pads the wallet with cash that otherwise would go missing. This might seem extreme but everyone has their priorities.

This hits the X ring pretty solid. People are very stupid and pay extremely high rates for rather pathetic transfer speeds. It is rather sad actually and some networks get so loaded down in the afternoons that you might as well punt. I got off this part of the tread mill a few years ago and likely won't get back on line any time soon.

My iPhone is actually faster than some of the isp's at times. That is pretty bad.

I don't think we have any cable that goes to 20 Mb/s. Verizon sells fiber optic connections up to 50 Mb/s, but that's $100 a month, I believe.

This implies that people have the choice to go for more interesting service/price ratio but they don't because of their ...hmm... stupidity. But from a previous post it seems that this is just not possible in the US. Is it or not finally?

What do you mean when you say "remove"? Something like "completely detach"? If yes, it would need a separate processor, storage and battery. Would not all this make a more bulky display, especially the battery part?

The last time I can remember Apple did something modular in the portable line was back in 1998-1999 with the Wallstreet-Lombard Powerbooks. They had the expansion bays to host anything from a battery, floppy, Zip, optical or hard disk drive. Great although bulky machines, but at that time thinness was not yet a trend.

What happened consequently? How the affair was settled down?

I think the optical drive will be removed much sooner. I see the Macbook Air as a testing ground for several things, one of which would be the lack of an optical drive. Apple sells already a slim external one.

Use of optical drives continues to decline. The Macbook Pro has already an SD slot, although the media is not that cheap yet. At some point in the next 2-3 years, Apple will need to free up room either for more storage or for more processing power. And with Microsoft now seeing Blu-ray as pointless, I think that the days of built-in by default optical drives in thin portables are counted. And don't forget that Apple was the first one to ditch the floppy disk drives.

OK, just an opinion.

I think the optical drive is going away in the next year or two. Apple already sells an external DVD drive for $99, it'll be for more than just the air soon.

Yes the display would be more bulky and heavy but that's with this iteration of device. It doesn't need to have as large a battery as the current iPad either. The current iPad lasts in excess of 10 hours. They can easily cut this in half when it's part of a laptop even despite the larger display so the display part would drop to under 1lb, which would be under 1/4 of the laptop weight.

If they can get it to last 3-5 hours, it would be enough because if you were watching a movie or typing, you'd dock it on the laptop base and get far better battery life in iPad mode running off the big battery. The main battery could be smaller too given that you have this extra power-saving iPad mode for movies, browsing etc.

The speakers and buttons would be a little tricky to hide but they don't stand out too much. You also get the benefit of the cellular network thrown in, which the laptop could use.

There is no free market for internet access in the United States. Your options are limited to what is offered. Don't like those options? The alternative is no internet.

Zero. Though 10.7 will likely be shipped on that slimline USB drive of Apple's now.

By that I mean disconnect from the net, cable or the phone company. You really don't have to pay the cable company anything if you don't want to.

I'd have to say the bigger the machine the less chance their will be for that to happen. Honestly I'd like to be wrong about that because I would prefer that my next MBP have slots for three or more SSDs.

The new 13" AIR is pretty close to what I was imagining, but for an ultra portable is missing one important thing, that is a 3G modem. I'd at least like to have the option in any renewed MBP. Honestly though a 3G or LTE modem doesn't take up much space, it is the the antenna that is the problem. This is probably anti Apple but I'd love to see a high performance antenna that slides out of the MBP to give us the best possible cellular performance. To me that would be very good use of the available space.

The problem you have with optical drives is that they are still used by many professionals. Personally I avoid them but that is another issue. So I'm expecting them to be in MBP in one form or another for a few more years.

Based on Jobs' comments yesterday, I expect a rapid phaseout of optical drives to begin within a year. There will probably be one MBP for a few more years which contains a DVD burner but most will lose it soon, IMO

Next year's models will probably lose the six ounce optical drive and will probably also be smaller and therefore lighter. Can't wait.

A decade? I'll happen next year. 2012 at the latest.

My thinking is normally wrong, but I believe that both the Optical and Hard Drives are on a short stick.

Jobs made it clear that the Air was the future of the notebook and I don't think that was an unplanned, casual comment.

Jobs also mentioned the potential of major acquisitions. While Netflix is at the top or the list for some I'm thinking more of a producer of SSD. Either as an acquisition, or as a joint venture program. Apple is going to suck up SSD at an incredible rate in the future.

Next will be integration of iOS & OS X at the consumer level. That would be the full screen apps shown, FactTime between Macs & iOS devices, with PCs joining later.

If Apple was to remove the Optical Drive another question would be what they could do with the 13" MBP in terms of upping their video offerings.

You say that now because of the Air. It's still wrong.

It seems like a safe bet that the MacBook will drop the optical drive before the MacBook Pro will. Therefore I expect the next redesign of the MacBook's case will drop the optical drive. The first redesign of the MacBook Pro's case following the next MacBook will then drop the optical drive.

If Apple puts IPS or PVA on a 15" or 17" model, I'll order it. It's not for pro image use, I just want a nice screen. Besides, iPad is a consumer device which has an IPS screen, so IPS doesn't have to mean professional use.

Besides I can remember that about a year ago Apple wrote a $500 million dolkar check for LCD panels. You don't throw that type of money around and not expect anything from it.

Ever since the unibodies came out I've been tempted. This might put me over the edge because I actually hate the matte screen I got now.

The question I have is just how nice will they be? You see I'm actually expecting a resolution increase. The new AIRs have rather dense displays but i wonder if Apple will go denser for the MBPs.

In a 15 or 17" screen the higher densities will impact GPU performance which may be why Aple gave up on Intel integrated GPUs. I'm not expecting them to double resolution like they did on the iPhone but a 50% increase in pixel count would be nice. It would still be a significant load on the GPU but managable.

In the computer world something is only considered professional until they get the cost down through mass production. I suspect Apple was a big factor in getting the cost of IPS screens down. Like I mentioned they are not affraid to throw money at the issue. For the notebooks far better screens would seem to be a natural next move.

Well in part, you see I'm expecting a major laptop overhaul for the next go around. As Steve said the AIRs are a sign of things to come. So it will be interesting to see what those new machines have and don't have. An update to the screens seems reasonable.

Apple has been making investments in LCD and other kinds of production for some time now, in a roundabout way. What I recall is they sent a lot of money LG's way so they can build a new plant to make the 30" screens, and that was many years ago. I think some of the big up front payments to the semiconductor industry has allowed them to expand flash memory capacity, which is just as well, I've heard Apple is the #1 buyer of flash memory chips.