Not as convenient as an internal battery and you're right, more expensive, but it's nice to have the option. In some circumstances the need will justify the cost and slight hassle. The ability to charge it from the car battery is really handy too. I've always wondered why Apple doesn't provide a cig lighter power adaptor. I'm sure there's a reason, I just can't imagine what it might be.
That's actually better than I was imagining. Anything around a buck and a half is pretty easy to swallow. $200 for the Retina is right on the threshold of pain though.
Is the wattage coming from the cig lighter port powerful enough to charge the battery effectively? I've had some of the smaller, inverters that say something 150W that didn't work with my MBP, especially when I was using it because the rating is for peak, not sustained... or it was just crappy.
The airplane power options are a direct DC current where as the ones I've used via the cig lighter were always the wasteful DC to AC which again gets inverted to DC in the MBP's PSU. I assumed the amperage (or whatever it is - clearly not an electrician) wasn't high enough to power the MBP. I'd think the car battery would be fine but you'd need a more power line between the battery and device, right?
lol. Manufacturers LOVE mind sets like yours, Sol. You're just the blank check that keeps cashing out. Meanwhile, ifixit and I continue plucking away and solving our own problems without ridiculously overpriced extended warranties and repair fees.
Speaking of battery replacement, this is funny: I can get an OEM replacement for my 2009 MBP 13" for 49 dollars online, and swap it out in about ten minutes. Apple, on the other hand, wants 130 bucks and a day to do the same thing. What? If I'm paying 50, they are probably paying 35 or less, which means they expect almost 100 dollars for ten minutes of labor. I don't care if you're Daddy Warbucks himself, that's ridiculous.
So fk'ng go ahead and do it yourself and quit fk'ng whining! Almost nobody cares!
The chip will also bring 50% more battery life to competing laptops. I wish Apple would stop concentrating on how thin they can make something. Make it 2mm thicker and give me an all day battery.
Maybe this would allow the return of the Ethernet port as well.
Is the wattage coming from the cig lighter port powerful enough to charge the battery effectively?
Oh yeah, and then some. A cigarette lighter is a high current device. You could run two or three Macs from one cigarette lighter.
Inverters are horribly inefficient, but that's what I've been forced to use. I avoid blown fuses by using a decent quality unit rated for way more than I'll ever need.
Speaking of the new Haswell chip Acer has an odd All-in-One coming out soon according to reports, and muddies the line between the mobile and desktop world. It will supposedly sell for $400, use an i5 Haswell processor and memory-wise offer a piddling 1GB RAM and and as little as 8GB ROM.
How is that possible you might ask? Rather than running the high-overhead Windows 8x, it's OS will be . . . . [B]Android according to the stories??[/B]
...because you just buy a new computer instead. I presume that when your tires wear out you just buy a new car?
Actually, no. The longest I've kept a laptop around was six years (a Dell Inspiron 8100), before passing it along to a family member. The battery held on just fine until the end, when it dropped to a 30-minute runtime (I originally ordered it with the higher cell-count battery when I bought it).
If you read the post you replied to carefully, you'd notice that *if* the battery became a problem, even on the unibodies, I would simply replace it at that time. The only cost to me would be the new battery. (Note that I've replaced 'pouch' style batteries before, albeit on PDAs... it's pretty simple to knock out.)
Links for your reading pleasure. I don't see a processor suitable for the AIRs in this release though, at least from what ie seen so far. I will add to the list as articles are found. Since the big day is tomorrow we should start to see some in depth reporting then.
Links for your reading pleasure. I don't see a processor suitable for the AIRs in this release though, at least from what ie seen so far. I will add to the list as articles are found.
That link doesn't detail the U and Y-series chips for Ultrabook-class machines and tablets. Are those not arriving this month?
Well that is the problem I don't know for sure. If you go to www.cpu-world.com you will find that they expect shipments in September. This does not jive of course with Rumors or AIRs dying up in the supply chain.
Of course prerelease info is subject to change. This is why I waited until now to begin this list as tomorrow we will have the detail that we need to understand what is (possibly) coming from Apple. The world outside of Intel could be completely wrong but there has been plenty of "hints" that some of the low power solutions would come late.
Which makes you wonder if scheduling has changed or if Apple will put a higher power chip in the AIRs. I thought the AIR have been designed around 17 watt chips so that kinda limits what can go into the machine. Haswell does fantastic in low power modes but still has significant power usage when running in a more normal mode. Apple could give us a machine, with a higher wattage chip, that throttles often under heavy load but works nicely for spurts of processing work.
In any event I hope by the time I leave work tomorrow there will be plenty of detail in the net. Maybe Intel will spill a few beans for Apple.
Unfortunately a rough day at work yesterday so I'm in catch up mode. However I must say I'm impressed with what has been released so far, to put it mildly it is more than I expected due to the rumors of a September release for some of those chips. I'm a bit concerned that some of the U models delete a lot of hardware that might be of use by various individuals. Will need to read up on that.
In any event it will be very interesting to see which of these dual core releases makes it into each of the AIRs. Further it will be very interesting to see if driver issues get resolved. All the GPU hardware in the world won't solve a thing if the drivers can't leverage that hardware.
Beyond the AIRs it looks like there are plenty of chips to bump other product lines. Unfortunately Intel went stupid with its desktop chips and only has a limited number of GT3 supporting chips. I'm not sure if there is a good "Mini" chip in the bunch.
Curious are you going to buy the new MBP with Haswell when they come out or airs?
To whom are you talking to Marv?
If it is me, well honestly I can't answer your question right now as I haven't made up my mind. Further I may just do another iPad update this year and push off to next year a Mac update.
As far as Macs go I'm actually tempted by the Mini as one of my uses would be better served by a desktop. As we all know I do wish that the Mini was a bit more than it is. Because of its shortcomings I can see myself being pushed into a laptop again. I could see an AIR if I could get over my reluctance to limit myself to dual cores, but the reality is cores do make a difference in the apps I use. If I went laptop I'd have to think long and hard about an AIR.
The interesting thing here is that CPU performance isn't stellar on many of these chips released, I'm even seeing reports of a few steps backwards on some platforms. This isn't really surprising as Intel has highly optimized for the GPU in many cases. The bench markers should have a field day with these machines though, in some cases we should see excellent improvements.
Of course with Apple you have the issue of drivers which frankly in Mac OS sucks. The drivers don't perform that well and often are stuck supporting legacy standards. I'm actually hoping WWDC will highlight vastly improved drivers for Mac OS. In this case I'm talking all drivers not just Intel and hope that standards like OpenGL, OpenCL and the like get supported in their latest versions with the next Mac OS rev.
So to answer your questions I don't know! That probably isn't the precise answer you wanted but most likely there will be a new Mac in my collection before the end of the year. Maybe before the end of the year as my MBP has been demonstrating its age recently. It just isn't a given that it will be a laptop either.
Ooh! Back on the Intel hype train, are we? All aboard! Next stop: It'd Be Nice If It Were True Like They Claimed A Few Years Ago, But We Probably Won't Suffer Too Much If It Isn't And As Long As They Don't Switch To iGPUs Across The Entire Lineup…ville.
It would be great if Apple could pitch the MacBook Air as having 10-12 hours of battery.
That's quite succinct, exactly what I was thinking. I hope Apple doesn't use Haswells better iGPU performance as an excuse to drop discreet cards in the base 15" models, in fact I hope they go the other way, give the 13" a nice quad core and GT3e, while giving the 15" an updated discreet GPU (765M like the Razer Blade 14" already uses at equivalent thinness uses would be nice. ).
And I fail to see how the battery life would be improved by 50% if the CPU constitutes so much less than that in power draw, the LCD is the bulk of the power draw in modern systems usually at over half already, then the motherboard and DIMMS take some, the CPU would be nowhere near 50% of the draw to start with so how can just the CPU improve things by 50%?
Then again Haswell is bringing some motherboard components on-chip. We'll see, I guess.
That's quite succinct, exactly what I was thinking. I hope Apple doesn't use Haswells better iGPU performance as an excuse to drop discreet cards in the base 15" models, in fact I hope they go the other way, give the 13" a nice quad core and GT3e, while giving the 15" an updated discreet GPU (<span style="font-size:14px;line-height:22px;">765M like the Razer Blade 14" already uses at equivalent thinness uses would be nice. </span>
I hope you're right and it's done to help differentiate the MBAs from the MBPs once the MBA's go Retina, but at this point I don't think that it is likely the 13" MBP will get a dGPU since no 13" has ever had it. The last time Apple used a dGPU at or below that size was in the 12" PB.
Comments
Is the wattage coming from the cig lighter port powerful enough to charge the battery effectively? I've had some of the smaller, inverters that say something 150W that didn't work with my MBP, especially when I was using it because the rating is for peak, not sustained... or it was just crappy.
The airplane power options are a direct DC current where as the ones I've used via the cig lighter were always the wasteful DC to AC which again gets inverted to DC in the MBP's PSU. I assumed the amperage (or whatever it is - clearly not an electrician) wasn't high enough to power the MBP. I'd think the car battery would be fine but you'd need a more power line between the battery and device, right?
PS: It doesn't look like Apple sells their airplane power cable any longer.
Originally Posted by ahmlco
It could mean improved battery life, but knowing Apple it just means they'll cut the battery size in order to make the silly thing 1mm thinner.
Why, when actually knowing Apple you'd know they pride themselves on battery life?
Originally Posted by vman815
Maybe this would allow the return of the Ethernet port as well.
Return? No.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
Is the wattage coming from the cig lighter port powerful enough to charge the battery effectively?
Oh yeah, and then some. A cigarette lighter is a high current device. You could run two or three Macs from one cigarette lighter.
Inverters are horribly inefficient, but that's what I've been forced to use. I avoid blown fuses by using a decent quality unit rated for way more than I'll ever need.
How is that possible you might ask? Rather than running the high-overhead Windows 8x, it's OS will be . . . . [B]Android according to the stories??[/B]
http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/pc/acer-s-haswell-pc-shuns-windows-in-favour-of-android-1155596?src=rss&attr=all
Quote:
Originally Posted by v5v
...because you just buy a new computer instead. I presume that when your tires wear out you just buy a new car?
Actually, no. The longest I've kept a laptop around was six years (a Dell Inspiron 8100), before passing it along to a family member. The battery held on just fine until the end, when it dropped to a 30-minute runtime (I originally ordered it with the higher cell-count battery when I bought it).
If you read the post you replied to carefully, you'd notice that *if* the battery became a problem, even on the unibodies, I would simply replace it at that time. The only cost to me would be the new battery. (Note that I've replaced 'pouch' style batteries before, albeit on PDAs... it's pretty simple to knock out.)
Haswell chips are now available for desktops and laptops. Desktop chips in stock at Newegg, and a couple of smaller players have announced laptops.
Edited to add linky-link
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2040540/asus-other-pc-makers-announce-laptops-desktops-with-intel-haswell-chips.html
6/4/2013 a few more links.
[SIZE=5]Haswell Info:[/SIZE]
[LIST=1]
[*] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/03/feature_inside_haswell_intel_4g_core/
[*] http://www.itpro.co.uk/desktop-hardware/19655/intel-haswell-release-date-and-specs-revealed
[*] http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Intel-Haswell-Ivy-Bridge-E-CPU,20590.html
[*] http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/381070/intel-haswell-launched-with-huge-boost-to-graphics
[*] http://www.anandtech.com/show/7021/introducing-the-dualcore-haswell-skus
[*] http://www.anandtech.com/show/7002/hit-the-road-jack-intels-mobile-quadcore-haswell-skus
[*] http://liliputing.com/2013/06/intel-haswell-chips-coming-june-4th-with-better-performance-longer-battery-life.html
[*] http://www.tested.com/tech/pcs/455882-tested-intels-haswell-cpu-desktop/
[*] http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel_4770k_linux&num=1 {Interesting initial Linux results, results highlight the need to have your software ducks in a row}
[*] http://www.extremetech.com/computing/157125-haswell-review-intels-core-i7-4770k-takes-over-the-pole-position
[*]
[/LIST]
That link doesn't detail the U and Y-series chips for Ultrabook-class machines and tablets. Are those not arriving this month?
edit: It does look like it: http://ark.intel.com/#MobileProducts
Of course prerelease info is subject to change. This is why I waited until now to begin this list as tomorrow we will have the detail that we need to understand what is (possibly) coming from Apple. The world outside of Intel could be completely wrong but there has been plenty of "hints" that some of the low power solutions would come late.
Which makes you wonder if scheduling has changed or if Apple will put a higher power chip in the AIRs. I thought the AIR have been designed around 17 watt chips so that kinda limits what can go into the machine. Haswell does fantastic in low power modes but still has significant power usage when running in a more normal mode. Apple could give us a machine, with a higher wattage chip, that throttles often under heavy load but works nicely for spurts of processing work.
In any event I hope by the time I leave work tomorrow there will be plenty of detail in the net. Maybe Intel will spill a few beans for Apple.
How about before you even get to work?
Curious are you going to buy the new MBP with Haswell when they come out or airs?
Unfortunately a rough day at work yesterday so I'm in catch up mode. However I must say I'm impressed with what has been released so far, to put it mildly it is more than I expected due to the rumors of a September release for some of those chips. I'm a bit concerned that some of the U models delete a lot of hardware that might be of use by various individuals. Will need to read up on that.
In any event it will be very interesting to see which of these dual core releases makes it into each of the AIRs. Further it will be very interesting to see if driver issues get resolved. All the GPU hardware in the world won't solve a thing if the drivers can't leverage that hardware.
Beyond the AIRs it looks like there are plenty of chips to bump other product lines. Unfortunately Intel went stupid with its desktop chips and only has a limited number of GT3 supporting chips. I'm not sure if there is a good "Mini" chip in the bunch.
To whom are you talking to Marv?
If it is me, well honestly I can't answer your question right now as I haven't made up my mind. Further I may just do another iPad update this year and push off to next year a Mac update.
As far as Macs go I'm actually tempted by the Mini as one of my uses would be better served by a desktop. As we all know I do wish that the Mini was a bit more than it is. Because of its shortcomings I can see myself being pushed into a laptop again. I could see an AIR if I could get over my reluctance to limit myself to dual cores, but the reality is cores do make a difference in the apps I use. If I went laptop I'd have to think long and hard about an AIR.
The interesting thing here is that CPU performance isn't stellar on many of these chips released, I'm even seeing reports of a few steps backwards on some platforms. This isn't really surprising as Intel has highly optimized for the GPU in many cases. The bench markers should have a field day with these machines though, in some cases we should see excellent improvements.
Of course with Apple you have the issue of drivers which frankly in Mac OS sucks. The drivers don't perform that well and often are stuck supporting legacy standards. I'm actually hoping WWDC will highlight vastly improved drivers for Mac OS. In this case I'm talking all drivers not just Intel and hope that standards like OpenGL, OpenCL and the like get supported in their latest versions with the next Mac OS rev.
So to answer your questions I don't know! That probably isn't the precise answer you wanted but most likely there will be a new Mac in my collection before the end of the year. Maybe before the end of the year as my MBP has been demonstrating its age recently. It just isn't a given that it will be a laptop either.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
Ooh! Back on the Intel hype train, are we? All aboard! Next stop: It'd Be Nice If It Were True Like They Claimed A Few Years Ago, But We Probably Won't Suffer Too Much If It Isn't And As Long As They Don't Switch To iGPUs Across The Entire Lineup…ville.
It would be great if Apple could pitch the MacBook Air as having 10-12 hours of battery.
That's quite succinct, exactly what I was thinking. I hope Apple doesn't use Haswells better iGPU performance as an excuse to drop discreet cards in the base 15" models, in fact I hope they go the other way, give the 13" a nice quad core and GT3e, while giving the 15" an updated discreet GPU (765M like the Razer Blade 14" already uses at equivalent thinness uses would be nice. ).
And I fail to see how the battery life would be improved by 50% if the CPU constitutes so much less than that in power draw, the LCD is the bulk of the power draw in modern systems usually at over half already, then the motherboard and DIMMS take some, the CPU would be nowhere near 50% of the draw to start with so how can just the CPU improve things by 50%?
Then again Haswell is bringing some motherboard components on-chip. We'll see, I guess.
Originally Posted by tipoo
…giving the 15" an updated discreet GPU (765M like the Razer Blade 14" already uses at equivalent thinness uses would be nice. ).
As long as the TDP is near-equivalent to what we have right now, that sounds fine.
I can't find the 765M on the wiki page. Is it a new chip?
I hope you're right and it's done to help differentiate the MBAs from the MBPs once the MBA's go Retina, but at this point I don't think that it is likely the 13" MBP will get a dGPU since no 13" has ever had it. The last time Apple used a dGPU at or below that size was in the 12" PB.