Next MacBook update a yawner; Ultra-portable to get 13-inch display - Page 5

Those are very nice. If it had an Apple logo on it, I would buy it.

They are nice. I even emailed the Engadget link to a couple people. One is looking to replace his Panasonic Toughbook W2(?) and the other is a lover of Sony notebooks.

While some here think that this is a small catagory, I think it is a rapidly expanding one (no pun intended )

While I agree that its a rapidly growing category, I do see it as a comparatively small one.

As Apple's sales increase it opens up many doors for Apple to expand its user-base by introducing new models and categories. It has worked well with the iPod & iMac.

I am not surprised Apple has not yet released an ultraportable, but I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a 10-11" MacBook Pro at the WWDC. I fully expect such an offering within a year.

You won't see that offering if AI is right and it uses a 13" LCD. Which is really silly. Nobody makes a 13" ultraportable. It's almost an oxymoron. As others have noted in this thread, there are two main facets to portability: weight AND size. Even if someone could miraculously make a 17" 3.5 pound MacBook, it'd be too big to carry on a daily basis. I'm typing this at work on my 53-month-old 12" Powerbook G4. Like almost all 12" PB owners out there, I'd kill for something substantially lighter and even smaller. A widescreen 11" MB could be that dream machine.

Of course, if it's a rapidly expanding catagory, it may not remain a small one.

Also, if Apple's sales continue to increase at 30 to 40% a year, even a small catagory could mean a good number of sales.

Not at all. I would much rather have a 10 or 11 inch screen at 4 pounds than a 13 inch screen at 2.5 pounds. For me it's about space, not so much the weight. I miss the form factor of the PB 12" and I keep wanting to cut the edges off my MacBook to make it even smaller.

I'm not going to buy it unless it has a screen that's smaller than 12 inches and may switch to a Viao and LINUX if Mac doesn't produce something small enough.

Absolutely! An 11" MB would make my decade.

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Apple.. watch out!




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LINK.

... is it just me or does that seem frighteningly similar to a thinner, gold MBP? Backlit lights with ambient light sensor... built in webcam... Sounds like they had their sights on Apple <_<

--Edit--
Sheesh, even looking back at the pictures, most of them even look like Apple's typical shots of their laptops o.o

that's really freaking nice. the colors of the inside are very beautiful.

The definition of elegance in mobile computing? Perhaps not yet, but it makes the MBP design look really old school. I am curious to see if Apple can top that.

as i said, that's really freaking nice.

Apple has a big, and increasing, problem.

By turning their products into stylish object d-art, they now need to come out with new cases every year. this two to three year schedule just won't hack it any more.

Apple is not the only one who can hire top level designers.

Once they started this trend, they had to keep on top of it.

I hope that soon, we'll see some striking new designs.

there'll probably be some hot new stylish computers from apple at wwdc.

Of course, we don't know that. Let's hope that it's true.

Or, at least when they move to 45 nm later this year.

Which COULD be when Leopard comes out in October.

A good new combo.

New 64 bit OS, new generation chips, and new cases to commemorate it.

In the case of the Powerbook/Macbook Pro the current design is here for nearly four and a half years with minor tweaks. This is too long considering how fast the industry is moving roday.

Damn! I forgot it was that long ago. I was thinking three.

My 12" PB says it was made 53 months ago.

about 4 and a half years D:

It really looks very similar to a MacBook Pro. As was noted before the camera is in the same place. Even the screen hinge mechanism seems to be the same.

Perhaps Apple did in fact contribute to this design (who knows what their relationship with Intel really includes?). Either way someone certainly took a really good look at MacBook Pros.

And the pressure is certainly on for Apple to produce a 'MacBook slim'!

It seems more and more likely that there won't be a sub-notebook from Apple any time soon. At least in the classic 'sub-notebook' sense. More likely a full-size, but extremely thin 'slim' model.

Keep in mind, however, that these machines take months, even years in some cases, to design and put together all the way to a final product. Back then, Leopard was thought to have been coming out at WWDC. What we'll likely see is what would have been released alongside/with Leopard, now as "Leopard-ready" machines.

Keep in mind, too, that the new iMac redesign is due out increasingly soon, definitely before October's Leopard release. I don't think September's event in Paris is really big enough for such a major release, so I think WWDC will be it for the iMac. I also think the MBP refresh will be released there as well. With or without a case redesign is still in debate, and probably will be until the hour of its release.

Looking the Intel Concept subnotebook really makes me think that Apple has fallen behind the design curve.

To be sure I've always lusted after tiny Sony subnotebooks (the X505, say) but asides from the lack of OS X (a deal-breaker to I) there's always been things I would have had problems with. The X505, for example, has a horrible keyboard.

Thus I've long been an advocate of the Apple subnotebook (many many posts . An 11" widescreen as often mentioned would be the ideal size, any smaller and the full size keyboard has to go.

Looking at the Intel Concept there's a couple things I really like about it. First would be the removal of the bezel. Brilliant. It just looks so much cleaner then any other laptop screen.

I'd actually go one step farther and not only extend the glass but the screen itself to the edge. I'm not sure what the problems would be, but it should be possible to have the screen go all the way to the edge.

Second would be the keyboard. I actually prefer the look of the MacBook chicklet keyboard, but this comes in a close second. Not least because the orange glowing keys are awesome and a lovely piece of retro-futuristic thinking. Kinda puts the lie to Apple never including backlit keys in the 12" PB doesn't it

Now the gold trim is ugly, I'm not sure I like the mismatch in colours between the case and the interior, and the OLED outside screen and carry-strap bag are all silly ideas. But the thinness, weight, and screen are all things Apple needs to get on, and I wouldn't mind glowing orange keys as well.

My PowerBook 12" needs to be replaced in the next year or so (much abuse) and at the moment I'd prefer to buy another then buy any of the current line-up. I need low weight and small size, and so do plenty of other people. Further if Apple ever expects to sell stuff in Japan they need a subnotebook too (building in a 3G UMTS radio, and a one-seg TV tuner would be nice as well).

Apple had admitted in an interview (I forgot the name of the person who talked about) that the 12" Powerbook has no backlit keyboard not because of some technical restriction but because they chose to do so, in order to make the bigger Powerbooks more appealing. It seems that today Apple, if it decided to introduce a small size Macbook Pro, it would at last give it a backlit keyboard, or else everyone would laugh at them on this one. Differentiate the models in the same line by dropping features like that would be beyond silly today.

Ehh, like this was news to anybody.

I'm still sort of surprised how popular the 12" PB was, considering it was an iBook packed into aluminum casing.

No, not bringing news here, just refreshing memories. This has been discussed 4 years ago now.


I think the casing, although arguably not so rugged as the iBook one, made a substantial difference in feeling. Plus the keyboard, although lacking the backlit, has the same nice touch found on the bigger Powerbooks.

Yep. I meant it wasn't news back then either. It was obvious that there is no technical issue that would prevent making any normal keyboard backlit.

The case, sure. But having switched from a 15" Powerbook to a same age iBook, I never noticed a substantially different feeling between the keyboards. I figured it was a question of paint job.

I doubt if Apple has just started work on any of that, do you?

Apple likely has a half dozen case designs for each product on hand in their design labs at any given moment.

Apple is also not exactly known for releasing something when it is ready. they wait for just the right moment.

If they have a new case design, they could go to manufacture at the end of August for an October delivery.

Penyrn won't be available 'till later this year. As with Yonah, Apple could get it a bit early. It's ahead of schedule, but not for WWDC. October? Very possible.

They knew they would pospone 10.5 for a while before they announced it.

Will new things be announced at WWDC? Very likely. But not everything.

Smaller is better...


Give us a 13" mbp.

IIRC the iMac G5 was announced in Paris, arguably one of their most important ever product launches as it almost doubled iMac sales in a few short months and they've not dropped since. Other than iSights, I don't think Apple have ever released hardware at WWDC.

With the MBP, there's nothing especially wrong with the design. It's almost iconic with many imitators. I hope they don't go much thinner. The Intel laptop prototype throws out a lot of practical human design considerations to get that thin, sleek look. No hard disk, flat keys with how much travel? and a screen that more than likely sits flat on the keyboard and gets scratched easy.

I've always wondered why somebody couldn't develop a laptop keyboard that compresses all the keys to minimum height as you close the lid. After all, there's no reason keys need to be up when the lid is closed. You'd get the best of both worlds: full keyboard travel but not as much thickness when closed and the keys wouldn't touch the screen. The only drawback is you'd need to set it up to shut the keyboard off before the keys compress so it doesn't type gibberish, but that should be child's play. Taking up the travel when closed could save, what, 0.2"? That could give you a 0.8" thick MacBook right there.

About 10 years ago I had a $5000 Compaq that did just that. Just before the lid shut the keyboard would shrink down and move in together slightly. I'm not exactly sure how it worked. I guess it was the equivalent of today's sub-compact as it was very thin compared to other machines as it had no optical or floppy drive. That was contained in an additional attachment that attached to the bottom or by using a parallel port extension cable. You could also add a secondary battery or HDD in place of he optical drive when using the bottom attachment. It was also a very dark grey when most machines were still beige cases. For the time, it was a very impressive machine. I never had any trouble with the keyboard mechanism.

I tried to find a pic but that would be a pretty fruitless search without the model number, but I may have done one better with this 1997 patent filed by Compaq for a collapsing keyboard in a notebook computer and this 1998 granting of said patent to Compaq for a collapsible patent.

I used to have one of these:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_keyboard

What you want isn't necessarily what's good for the company. a 13" MBP would lower profits. I give it a 6.5% chance of ever happening.

As I mentioned in the other thread...there's no reason for a smaller MBP to be any cheaper. 13" is a bit on the large size but certainly more portable than a 15".

Vinea

Sure there is because the 15" models are way too much. I'd expect a 13" pro model to be at most $100 more than the high end black MacBook. The only reason the black MacBook is $1500 is because it's black and for some reason people will pay extra for that.

Fine...make it 11.1" and $2499 like the VAIO TX Series. Personally a 13" Core Duo machine is a better compromise between power and size but I can understand some folks want much smaller even it means a core solo ulv.

Vinea

Nah. Make it 11.1" and closer to $1300 like the Averatec 1579. That's got a ULV Core Duo, although not Core 2 Duo, and it even has an optical drive despite being only 3.5 pounds. It would sell like hotcakes.


That's exactly what I'm talking about. Surely Apple can come up with some other way of doing this. The way it collapses is covered by the patent, but surely the idea of collapsing isn't.

That's the whole point to patents. sometimes there's only one really good way to do something, and why many patents are licensed out.

That Ziba thing is gorgeous!