Most likely the 17inch will stay fat, portability is not its strong suit. We could see it lose the ODD though and get a choice of either second HDD or SSD in that bay. That would be very tasty for heavy users.
Hey I like the 13 inch, it has limited screen but it *is* portable. It also supports an 8GB RAM / 1TB HD configuration at 4.5 pounds. And it has 4 cores now!!
The present MBP 13 and 15 can support power-user computing including multiple parallel OS, which for me is running SAS in Windows, Excel, maybe Aperture, Safari, iTunes, STATA etc all concurrently. The Mac platform can support this. But a Macbook Air is not a total Mac computing solution. The normal MBP is getting there. For me my MBP 13 is my office. An Air can't support that. (Yes, in time it will). For me a 2GB RAM / 150GB storage whatever is very 2007. More needed.
The current macbook pros are good, but they have some fierce competition.
Nvidia's latest GPU's are awesome. I hear that AMD has equally impressive GPU's to compete. So we can see that coming up. But apple has an advantage, they can still slim down the macbook pro. Im not entirely convinced they would get rid of the CD drive on the pro yet. If they did, I would not mind, as well as reconfiguring it like the macbook air would be very sweet. As well as an SSD standard. It's hard to tell because of the cost of such a machine, but the price would actually reflect the high mark up. I can imagine apple including some of this but possibly not all, they always leave something out to do the next time.
The current macbook pros are good, but they have some fierce competition.
From what?
Quote:
Nvidia's latest GPU's are awesome. I hear that AMD has equally impressive GPU's to compete. So we can see that coming up.
Actual competition in the GPU arena is always good.
Quote:
As well as an SSD standard. It's hard to tell because of the cost of such a machine, but the price would actually reflect the high mark up.
I only see that when the MacBook Air-esque sticks of NAND flash are A) large enough to match the size of current MacBook Pro hard drives and CHEAP enough to not be much more expensive than the computers are now (say only $1-200 more than the computer with a HDD standard).
Actually, the new MacBook Airs that were just released are quad core machines.
don't scare me.
i don't know where you got that information, but i got this "Powered by a dual-core Intel Core i5 or i7 processor and DDR3 memory." straight off apple's macbook air page.
i don't know where you got that information, but i got this "Powered by a dual-core Intel Core i5 or i7 processor and DDR3 memory." straight off apple's macbook air page.
Everything since Nehalem is hyperthreaded. Two physical cores means four logical ones. Twelve physical cores means twenty-four logical ones.
I want a 17' macbook (pro) air. thin, minimum 256 GB SSD, take out optical, ethernet and firewire (I will use external dvd-writer six times a year). Keep the dedicated graphics card, same battery life and same price I'll buy one now! I want the 17' screen estate... Apple, are you listening??? 17', PLEASE
Here's what's likely to happen based on how Apple has worked in the past:
1) The optical drive will be removed - it's a foregone conclusion at this point. The Mac Mini got rid of it, and you can't make a thinner laptop if there are already parts with pre-defined sizes like an optical drive. This leads to point #2...
Agreed. Dropping the internal optical brick is necessary for ultra-thin.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dagamer34
2) Apple will switch from standard 2.5" sized drives to MacBook Air-style SSDs, which sit on a single piece of silicon without any extraneous housing to save space.
Agreed. Switching from a HD to mSATA SSD is necessary for ultra-thin.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dagamer34
3) FireWire 800 will be removed from the laptop completely. Few people ever use it and for those that do, I'm sure there will be a Thunderbolt->FireWire 800 adapter out by then.
Probably.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dagamer34
4) Ethernet port will either be moved to the opposite side of the laptop or removed completely. If I had to guess, it's probably going to be the latter since Apple assumes most people use their laptop wirelessly. As an appeasement, they'll likely create their own Thunderbolt->Gigabit Ethernet adapter to prevent a huge uproar.
Probably, though Apple's existing USB -> Ethernet dongle may suffice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dagamer34
5) Expect USB ports on both sides because of tapering of the design.
Agreed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dagamer34
6) Additional Thunderbolt port for 20Gbps simultaneous transfer.
I very much doubt this. A second Thunderbolt port would make more sense for the Mac Mini than for an ultra-thin laptop and the Mini got one Thunderbolt port, not two.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dagamer34
Will you still be able to add RAM yourself or are user-serviceable parts gone?
I think RAM soldered directly onto the motherboard is a big win for Apple. It reduces cost, weight, size, and failure modes while helping to ensure that customers buy a new laptop more often.
I think RAM soldered directly onto the motherboard is a big win for Apple. It reduces cost, weight, size, and failure modes while helping to ensure that customers buy a new laptop more often.
Back when I worked on telephone switches, ram was always on the motherboard for reliability reasons.
Agreed. Dropping the internal optical brick is necessary for ultra-thin.
Agreed. Switching from a HD to mSATA SSD is necessary for ultra-thin.
Probably.
Probably, though Apple's existing USB -> Ethernet dongle may suffice.
Agreed.
I very much doubt this. A second Thunderbolt port would make more sense for the Mac Mini than for an ultra-thin laptop and the Mini got one Thunderbolt port, not two.
I think RAM soldered directly onto the motherboard is a big win for Apple. It reduces cost, weight, size, and failure modes while helping to ensure that customers buy a new laptop more often.
Yeah thank goodness users are forced into buying a laptop just to get some more RAM... I would hate to have to the ability to extend the useful life of my machine (plus I also need to ensure I consume as much of the Earth's resources as possible asap).
Yeah thank goodness users are forced into buying a laptop just to get some more RAM... I would hate to have to the ability to extend the useful life of my machine (plus I also need to ensure I consume as much of the Earth's resources as possible asap).
Rubbish. No one is forcing you to buy anything. If you buy a laptop without enough RAM to suffice for what you want to use it for in the future, you have no one to blame but yourself.
Remember by default a 15" air will have a bigger case that is likely thicker. It would not be impossible to design in a bay for an HD along with SSD support. In fact they might have room for several SSD's and an HD.
As to the work you do, you have to buy the hardware suitable for that. However the current AIRs have their icy to fill and frankly a lot of people are successfully employing them to do whatever. A 15" AIR could bridge the performance gap between the current AIRs and the MBPs.
In any event there are lots of possibilities in such a design, so I wouldn't dismiss it right away. Maybe it isn't for you but frankly I don't see the MBP's going away anytime soon. If for nothing else it will be some time before Intel can successfully replace an external GPU. Beyond that the bigger box offers up the potential for other interesting hardware.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bwik
I guess maybe I am alone in needing to do actual computing work on my laptop computer. So I view this non-optical drive, non-terabyte laptop idea with suspicion. Basically the work I do, could not be done on an Air. What is the point? To run Word? What would this machine be for? FCP editing, seriously?
If anyone doubts the MBP will lose the ODD they need only to look at the Mac mini which is a desktop.
Except that the mac mini is the low end product of the line and the MBP is the high end.
Not having an optical drive on a macbook pro, at least as an option at purchase is a deal breaker. Some of us still have an avid consumption of dvd and cds, let alone creating content on them.
Case in point, i need to deliver a burned cd of my photo shoot to client on the spot right after i finished shooting.
SAD if the rumors of no optical drive in the new MBP are true and no matter what most say, an external optical drive is not as convenient as an internal one, especially if you are on the move.
Is the time soon coming when Apple will only cater to content consumers and give up on content creator. Would the later have to move back to windows (nightmare !!!) to be able to get a decent hardware for content creation ???
I need a real computer to create content. to consume content, i use my iphone.
Except that the mac mini is the low end product of the line and the MBP is the high end.
Not having an optical drive on a macbook pro, at least as an option at purchase is a deal breaker. Some of us still have an avid consuption of dvd and cds, let alone creating content on them.
Case in point, i need to deliver a burned cd of my photo shoot to client on the spot right after i finished shooting.
SAD if the rumors of no optical drive in the new MBP are true and no matter what most say, an external optical drive is not as convenient as an internal one, especially if you are on the move.
Is the time soon coming when Apple will only cater to content consumers and give up on content creator. I need a real computer to create content. to consume content, i user my iphone.
The writing has been on the wall for quite sometime.
No Bluray in any Mac
Optical is gone from the Mac mini now as well as the Macbook Air.
I suppose that we've got less than 18 months to go before optical drives are external and optional for Macs. I really shouldn't have to pay for an optical drive because others cannot be bothered with hooking up an external.
I guess maybe I am alone in needing to do actual computing work on my laptop computer. So I view this non-optical drive, non-terabyte laptop idea with suspicion. Basically the work I do, could not be done on an Air. What is the point? To run Word? What would this machine be for? FCP editing, seriously?
I an with you on this !!! Would be a shame to roll $1500 + and not be able to do something else than browsing or using text processing out of the box. I want a full hardware computer laptop, not the Apple version of a netbook.
The writing has been on the wall for quite sometime.
No Bluray in any Mac
Optical is gone from the Mac mini now as well as the Macbook Air.
I suppose that we've got less than 18 months to go before optical drives are external and optional for Macs. I really shouldn't have to pay for an optical drive because others cannot be bothered with hooking up an external.
Well, at least, optical drive should be offered as an option at purchase of a MBP. After all this is supposed to be a hi-end laptop, not a low end.
This would avoid the uproar.
And I learned by experience that external devices are not as reliable as internal ones.
Comments
I still find having an HDD in my laptop useful.
Because you've never used the alternative. HDDs are dead.
(p.s. - pls stop... ...speaking for others)
They've already spoken for themselves. No insults or lazy, incomplete words required, thanks very much.
Because you've never used the alternative. HDDs are dead
Once you've used an SSD you don't ever want to go back to HDD.
Most likely the 17inch will stay fat, portability is not its strong suit. We could see it lose the ODD though and get a choice of either second HDD or SSD in that bay. That would be very tasty for heavy users.
Hey I like the 13 inch, it has limited screen but it *is* portable. It also supports an 8GB RAM / 1TB HD configuration at 4.5 pounds. And it has 4 cores now!!
The present MBP 13 and 15 can support power-user computing including multiple parallel OS, which for me is running SAS in Windows, Excel, maybe Aperture, Safari, iTunes, STATA etc all concurrently. The Mac platform can support this. But a Macbook Air is not a total Mac computing solution. The normal MBP is getting there. For me my MBP 13 is my office. An Air can't support that. (Yes, in time it will). For me a 2GB RAM / 150GB storage whatever is very 2007. More needed.
Nvidia's latest GPU's are awesome. I hear that AMD has equally impressive GPU's to compete. So we can see that coming up. But apple has an advantage, they can still slim down the macbook pro. Im not entirely convinced they would get rid of the CD drive on the pro yet. If they did, I would not mind, as well as reconfiguring it like the macbook air would be very sweet. As well as an SSD standard. It's hard to tell because of the cost of such a machine, but the price would actually reflect the high mark up. I can imagine apple including some of this but possibly not all, they always leave something out to do the next time.
The current macbook pros are good, but they have some fierce competition.
From what?
Nvidia's latest GPU's are awesome. I hear that AMD has equally impressive GPU's to compete. So we can see that coming up.
Actual competition in the GPU arena is always good.
As well as an SSD standard. It's hard to tell because of the cost of such a machine, but the price would actually reflect the high mark up.
I only see that when the MacBook Air-esque sticks of NAND flash are A) large enough to match the size of current MacBook Pro hard drives and
Actually, the new MacBook Airs that were just released are quad core machines.
don't scare me.
i don't know where you got that information, but i got this "Powered by a dual-core Intel Core i5 or i7 processor and DDR3 memory." straight off apple's macbook air page.
don't scare me.
i don't know where you got that information, but i got this "Powered by a dual-core Intel Core i5 or i7 processor and DDR3 memory." straight off apple's macbook air page.
Everything since Nehalem is hyperthreaded. Two physical cores means four logical ones. Twelve physical cores means twenty-four logical ones.
So you're both wrightong.
Hey I like the 13 inch, it has limited screen but it *is* portable. It also supports an 8GB RAM / 1TB HD configuration at 4.5 pounds.
I'm using a 13inch MBP right now, but I can see that the writing is on the wall for the model
And it has 4 cores now!!
Oh god not this again
Here's what's likely to happen based on how Apple has worked in the past:
1) The optical drive will be removed - it's a foregone conclusion at this point. The Mac Mini got rid of it, and you can't make a thinner laptop if there are already parts with pre-defined sizes like an optical drive. This leads to point #2...
Agreed. Dropping the internal optical brick is necessary for ultra-thin.
2) Apple will switch from standard 2.5" sized drives to MacBook Air-style SSDs, which sit on a single piece of silicon without any extraneous housing to save space.
Agreed. Switching from a HD to mSATA SSD is necessary for ultra-thin.
3) FireWire 800 will be removed from the laptop completely. Few people ever use it and for those that do, I'm sure there will be a Thunderbolt->FireWire 800 adapter out by then.
Probably.
4) Ethernet port will either be moved to the opposite side of the laptop or removed completely. If I had to guess, it's probably going to be the latter since Apple assumes most people use their laptop wirelessly. As an appeasement, they'll likely create their own Thunderbolt->Gigabit Ethernet adapter to prevent a huge uproar.
Probably, though Apple's existing USB -> Ethernet dongle may suffice.
5) Expect USB ports on both sides because of tapering of the design.
Agreed.
6) Additional Thunderbolt port for 20Gbps simultaneous transfer.
I very much doubt this. A second Thunderbolt port would make more sense for the Mac Mini than for an ultra-thin laptop and the Mini got one Thunderbolt port, not two.
Will you still be able to add RAM yourself or are user-serviceable parts gone?
I think RAM soldered directly onto the motherboard is a big win for Apple. It reduces cost, weight, size, and failure modes while helping to ensure that customers buy a new laptop more often.
I think RAM soldered directly onto the motherboard is a big win for Apple. It reduces cost, weight, size, and failure modes while helping to ensure that customers buy a new laptop more often.
Back when I worked on telephone switches, ram was always on the motherboard for reliability reasons.
it says dual core on the tech specs unless I'm missing something.
I sincerely hope they intend to keep the anti glare option for these future MBPs, or there's no MBPs in my future.
Though there is a quad core i5, Apple isn't using it...
Also note that the i5 has hyperthreading disabled which sucks and certainly makes the i7 a much, much better choice
Agreed. Dropping the internal optical brick is necessary for ultra-thin.
Agreed. Switching from a HD to mSATA SSD is necessary for ultra-thin.
Probably.
Probably, though Apple's existing USB -> Ethernet dongle may suffice.
Agreed.
I very much doubt this. A second Thunderbolt port would make more sense for the Mac Mini than for an ultra-thin laptop and the Mini got one Thunderbolt port, not two.
I think RAM soldered directly onto the motherboard is a big win for Apple. It reduces cost, weight, size, and failure modes while helping to ensure that customers buy a new laptop more often.
Yeah thank goodness users are forced into buying a laptop just to get some more RAM... I would hate to have to the ability to extend the useful life of my machine (plus I also need to ensure I consume as much of the Earth's resources as possible asap).
Yeah thank goodness users are forced into buying a laptop just to get some more RAM... I would hate to have to the ability to extend the useful life of my machine (plus I also need to ensure I consume as much of the Earth's resources as possible asap).
Rubbish. No one is forcing you to buy anything. If you buy a laptop without enough RAM to suffice for what you want to use it for in the future, you have no one to blame but yourself.
Apple's aluminium laptops are highly recyclable.
As to the work you do, you have to buy the hardware suitable for that. However the current AIRs have their icy to fill and frankly a lot of people are successfully employing them to do whatever. A 15" AIR could bridge the performance gap between the current AIRs and the MBPs.
In any event there are lots of possibilities in such a design, so I wouldn't dismiss it right away. Maybe it isn't for you but frankly I don't see the MBP's going away anytime soon. If for nothing else it will be some time before Intel can successfully replace an external GPU. Beyond that the bigger box offers up the potential for other interesting hardware.
I guess maybe I am alone in needing to do actual computing work on my laptop computer. So I view this non-optical drive, non-terabyte laptop idea with suspicion. Basically the work I do, could not be done on an Air. What is the point? To run Word? What would this machine be for? FCP editing, seriously?
If anyone doubts the MBP will lose the ODD they need only to look at the Mac mini which is a desktop.
Except that the mac mini is the low end product of the line and the MBP is the high end.
Not having an optical drive on a macbook pro, at least as an option at purchase is a deal breaker. Some of us still have an avid consumption of dvd and cds, let alone creating content on them.
Case in point, i need to deliver a burned cd of my photo shoot to client on the spot right after i finished shooting.
SAD if the rumors of no optical drive in the new MBP are true and no matter what most say, an external optical drive is not as convenient as an internal one, especially if you are on the move.
Is the time soon coming when Apple will only cater to content consumers and give up on content creator. Would the later have to move back to windows (nightmare !!!) to be able to get a decent hardware for content creation ???
I need a real computer to create content. to consume content, i use my iphone.
Except that the mac mini is the low end product of the line and the MBP is the high end.
Not having an optical drive on a macbook pro, at least as an option at purchase is a deal breaker. Some of us still have an avid consuption of dvd and cds, let alone creating content on them.
Case in point, i need to deliver a burned cd of my photo shoot to client on the spot right after i finished shooting.
SAD if the rumors of no optical drive in the new MBP are true and no matter what most say, an external optical drive is not as convenient as an internal one, especially if you are on the move.
Is the time soon coming when Apple will only cater to content consumers and give up on content creator. I need a real computer to create content. to consume content, i user my iphone.
The writing has been on the wall for quite sometime.
No Bluray in any Mac
Optical is gone from the Mac mini now as well as the Macbook Air.
I suppose that we've got less than 18 months to go before optical drives are external and optional for Macs. I really shouldn't have to pay for an optical drive because others cannot be bothered with hooking up an external.
I guess maybe I am alone in needing to do actual computing work on my laptop computer. So I view this non-optical drive, non-terabyte laptop idea with suspicion. Basically the work I do, could not be done on an Air. What is the point? To run Word? What would this machine be for? FCP editing, seriously?
I an with you on this !!! Would be a shame to roll $1500 + and not be able to do something else than browsing or using text processing out of the box. I want a full hardware computer laptop, not the Apple version of a netbook.
The writing has been on the wall for quite sometime.
No Bluray in any Mac
Optical is gone from the Mac mini now as well as the Macbook Air.
I suppose that we've got less than 18 months to go before optical drives are external and optional for Macs. I really shouldn't have to pay for an optical drive because others cannot be bothered with hooking up an external.
Well, at least, optical drive should be offered as an option at purchase of a MBP. After all this is supposed to be a hi-end laptop, not a low end.
This would avoid the uproar.
And I learned by experience that external devices are not as reliable as internal ones.