USB 3.1 Type-C definitely seems like a well-designed port. Let's just hope they have truly future-proofed it so we're not going through this again in 5 years. The constant changing of ports is so wasteful.
Future-proofing doesn’t exist.
The only way to stop changing ports is to get rid of all of them.
JUST PUT THREE</span>
<strong style="font-style:normal;line-height:1.4em;">THUNDERBOLT 3</strong>
<span style="line-height:1.4em;">PORTS ON IT AND CALL IT A DAY.</span>
Thunderbolt is dead. I'm sorry, but it is. Apple is not going to spend money putting a port on this machine that only 3 people will ever use.
Myself, I'm more concerned about how we're supposed to attach displays to this thing, but I figure I'll wait and see what happens. Hopefully they will have something like the multi-port power adapter pictured earlier in the thread or some similar solution.
Honestly though I hope this is a well thought out product and not just marketing using it to upsell people to 13" rMBP. Obviously if you add retina to the current MBA it does get closer and closer to rMBP and one can argue too much overlap. Maybe this will be marketed as a super lightweight and thin laptop with portability most in mind and geared towards people who need OS X but don't need a lot of I/O. I wonder if there's a large market for that.
As the article makes pretty clear, AI previously reported all of the new MBA stuff when it was a new rumor almost a year ago. The Type-C details were also reported months ago when they were news.
9to5 mac repackaged everyone else's reports and printed them with a speculative rendering, taking credit for old information.
Yet to see any evidence to support any of any of the original, minor tweaks they put on the old rumors.
I wish Apple would make a 10" netbook instead of focusing on thinness so much. Yes, it's true, we have iPads and iPhones for portability, but they don't substitute for a laptop for a serious writer and others. It seems Apple just made an arbitrary decision not to make a netbook size laptop, which is a shame, because they could easily blow away the PC competition in this area if they choose, and they would certainly sell a lot more laptops.
<span style="line-height:18.200000762939453px;">The main alternative is to use a three figure dragging gesture, which can be enabled in trackpad settings. </span>
Only you can't select text I am told so not a full replacement for a click yet.
EDIT: Oh you say it can ... I will try that ... thanks.
In regards to magsafe, Apple could do something like this for the rMBA. (copyright GagdetCanadaV2. Willing to sell patent to Apple for $1 billion
Great solution but I would suggest a slight modification. The device should be a dongle with a short leash to the rMBA and the MagSafe connector should be connected in a straight line through the dongle while the USB pass through connection would be perpendicular. That would look more natural when the rMBA is only connected to power and it would actually increase the safety feature of MagSafe. Yanking the power cord in any direction would cause the dongle to flex such that the MagSafe plug would always easily disconnect.
I also want to add that Apple or third parties could provide different dongles for different needs, supplying any combination of power, USB, thunderbolt, SD cards and even not yet known connectors.
And I wish Apple was more aggressive about killing old models so they could focus more on pushing the prices of their best products down.
I agree, regarding the number of models they are going the way they were pre-Jobs: they have a lot of inventory in circulation. Just look at the phones, there're:
iPhone 6+ 16, 64, 128
iPhone 6 16, 64, 128
6 * 3 colours = 18 models
iPhone 5s 16, 13
2*3 colours = 6 models
5c * 5 colours = 5 models.
That's 29 phone models, just for the US. The Asian and EU phones are different, so we could be talking 87 different models. That's a lot of inventory to track, just in phones.
Same reason previous USB ports are designed the same way, the contacts in the port are static, and the contacts in the cable have the spring that ensures contact is made. Since those spring contacts are the part that moves, are therefore under a certain amount a repetitive stress, are and one of the most likely parts to fail, there is an argument that it's better to put them in the easily replaceable and relatively cheap cable, than the port on the $1000 computer.
The contacts could still be on the top and bottom surface of the socket and the plug's "tongue" could have the flexible pins. That would make the connector much smaller, like Ireland said. Maybe they're doing it with a tongue on the socket so they can add more pins at a later date for USB 4.
I doubt Apple would drop Thunderbolt on a very popular machine, they are still sort of pushing it. Not as hard as they were early on though it seems.
They could have a MagSafe to USB-C adapter, they wouldn't lose the safety of MagSafe then. Apple likes adapters.
Edit: GadgetCanadaV2 beat me to it with a better idea. Adapters, Apple, adapters!!
Anyway, why aren't people talking about the move of the power button, which is now at the location where the Escape button used to be. Or so rumour has it
Anyway, why aren't people talking about the move of the power button, which is now at the location where the Escape button used to be. Or so rumour has it
Because that’s completely psychotic. Top right is completely unused. Top left has ALWAYS been Escape.
Switching Caps Lock and Control made sense, but this?
Thunderbolt is dead. I'm sorry, but it is. Apple is not going to spend money putting a port on this machine that only 3 people will ever use.
Myself, I'm more concerned about how we're supposed to attach displays to this thing, but I figure I'll wait and see what happens. Hopefully they will have something like the multi-port power adapter pictured earlier in the thread or some similar solution.
And yet more and more support is has been coming to TB and the mDP port every year.
If they are going to keep it Intel-based I'd like to at least have 1xTB and 1xMagSafe. With TV they can include an adapter that will allow for USB. This would also allow for the connecting into an Apple display easily.
Because that’s completely psychotic. Top right is completely unused. Top left has ALWAYS been Escape.
Yup. And so do many people think on other Mac sites as well. Big discussions going on about that. It does look a lot like the 12" MBP, with the edge to edge keyboard though:
One must wonder where Lightning fits in all of this. Will it remain a proprietary port on iOS devices? I suspect so, unless USB 3.0 has the same validation tech built into it.
Lightning is still the thinnest port. USB-A and TB are 4.5mm tall, 3.5mm jack is obviously 3.5mm, USB-C is 2.5mm, Lightning is 1.7mm.
A large part of the bulk in the Air is from the bulge at the bottom:
It's mainly USB-A taking up the space in the middle part, TB isn't all that big - they can tighten it up but really get rid of the bulge at the base and make the display part a bit thinner.
Removing TB would be more likely on an ARM device. Same deal with powering over USB C. It would effectively be an iPad with all the OS X software compiled for ARM in a laptop form factor.
In some ways both a 12" iPad and a 12" Retina Air but also neither. It would have to have 128GB SSD so you'd be looking at $699 like the 128GB iPad Air 2 and would take on the Chromebooks (cheaper Chromebooks aren't Retina).
I'd expect higher Air models to have a similar design but Intel, TB, multiple USB-C ports and starting at $999.
Escape could go next to the 1-key, I doubt that key is commonly used as it is and would still be easy enough to hit. I agree the power would be better on the right though.
Removing ports and adding Retina will greater differentiate the MBA from the MBP line.
Probably something Apple wanted to do as the two have almost become indistinguishable.
The MBA would again be truly the 'ultra notebook' in the lineup.
However, the greater challenge might be how to stem the tide of people jumping onto cheap $300 Chromebooks.
It doesn't seem that the Chromebooks are in the same notebook category. Chromebooks do have their shortcomings, although not for a lot of people. We have one and could pretty much only use that as our primary device, though.
Maybe the $300 market is one to cede to others. What advantage is there in a low margin environment?
Comments
Future-proofing doesn’t exist.
The only way to stop changing ports is to get rid of all of them.
Myself, I'm more concerned about how we're supposed to attach displays to this thing, but I figure I'll wait and see what happens. Hopefully they will have something like the multi-port power adapter pictured earlier in the thread or some similar solution.
Way to be late with this story AI.
Honestly though I hope this is a well thought out product and not just marketing using it to upsell people to 13" rMBP. Obviously if you add retina to the current MBA it does get closer and closer to rMBP and one can argue too much overlap. Maybe this will be marketed as a super lightweight and thin laptop with portability most in mind and geared towards people who need OS X but don't need a lot of I/O. I wonder if there's a large market for that.
As the article makes pretty clear, AI previously reported all of the new MBA stuff when it was a new rumor almost a year ago. The Type-C details were also reported months ago when they were news.
9to5 mac repackaged everyone else's reports and printed them with a speculative rendering, taking credit for old information.
Yet to see any evidence to support any of any of the original, minor tweaks they put on the old rumors.
Only you can't select text I am told so not a full replacement for a click yet.
EDIT: Oh you say it can ... I will try that ... thanks.
In regards to magsafe, Apple could do something like this for the rMBA. (copyright GagdetCanadaV2. Willing to sell patent to Apple for $1 billion
Great solution but I would suggest a slight modification. The device should be a dongle with a short leash to the rMBA and the MagSafe connector should be connected in a straight line through the dongle while the USB pass through connection would be perpendicular. That would look more natural when the rMBA is only connected to power and it would actually increase the safety feature of MagSafe. Yanking the power cord in any direction would cause the dongle to flex such that the MagSafe plug would always easily disconnect.
I also want to add that Apple or third parties could provide different dongles for different needs, supplying any combination of power, USB, thunderbolt, SD cards and even not yet known connectors.
I agree, regarding the number of models they are going the way they were pre-Jobs: they have a lot of inventory in circulation. Just look at the phones, there're:
iPhone 6+ 16, 64, 128
iPhone 6 16, 64, 128
6 * 3 colours = 18 models
iPhone 5s 16, 13
2*3 colours = 6 models
5c * 5 colours = 5 models.
That's 29 phone models, just for the US. The Asian and EU phones are different, so we could be talking 87 different models. That's a lot of inventory to track, just in phones.
The contacts could still be on the top and bottom surface of the socket and the plug's "tongue" could have the flexible pins. That would make the connector much smaller, like Ireland said. Maybe they're doing it with a tongue on the socket so they can add more pins at a later date for USB 4.
I doubt Apple would drop Thunderbolt on a very popular machine, they are still sort of pushing it. Not as hard as they were early on though it seems.
They could have a MagSafe to USB-C adapter, they wouldn't lose the safety of MagSafe then. Apple likes adapters.
Edit: GadgetCanadaV2 beat me to it with a better idea. Adapters, Apple, adapters!!
I thought it was a river in Egypt.
Anyway, why aren't people talking about the move of the power button, which is now at the location where the Escape button used to be. Or so rumour has it
Image obviously from Martin:
http://www.martinhajek.com/macbook-air-12-3d/
It’s an infinitely superior format. I’m still mystified why more companies haven’t used it.
$$, we're talking about PC companies that are so stupid they won't even make all the USB ports on a computer 3.0.
USB is a garbage standard that needs to die, but of course that won't happen. Intel wanted it to go away as well.
Denial is the first stage of grief.
Ho Chi Minh is an idiot who gets lucky.
Not even remotely close.
Because that’s completely psychotic. Top right is completely unused. Top left has ALWAYS been Escape.
Switching Caps Lock and Control made sense, but this?
And people will complain and joke about not having all of the ports.
Really a lot of us use our Macbooks and don't use ports. Just power.
Makes sense to have one port. Pushing the envelope in where things are headed. All wireless. Sounds Apple cool.
It will be Appe radical in a typical Apple way.
And people will complain and joke about not having all of the ports.
Really a lot of us use our Macbooks and don't use ports. Just power.
Makes sense to have one port. Pushing the envelope in where things are headed. All wireless. Sounds Apple cool.
"And people will complain and joke about not having all of the ports."
This product isn't even out yet and already most of the tech bloggers are complaining.
$$, we're talking about PC companies that are so stupid they won't even make all the USB ports on a computer 3.0.
USB is a garbage standard that needs to die, but of course that won't happen. Intel wanted it to go away as well.
Ho Chi Minh is an idiot who gets lucky.
Ho Chi Minh beat the US in Vietnam, so he couldn't be that benighted.
And yet more and more support is has been coming to TB and the mDP port every year.
Yup. And so do many people think on other Mac sites as well. Big discussions going on about that. It does look a lot like the 12" MBP, with the edge to edge keyboard though:
Source: http://tinyurl.com/objsrcd
Lightning is still the thinnest port. USB-A and TB are 4.5mm tall, 3.5mm jack is obviously 3.5mm, USB-C is 2.5mm, Lightning is 1.7mm.
A large part of the bulk in the Air is from the bulge at the bottom:
It's mainly USB-A taking up the space in the middle part, TB isn't all that big - they can tighten it up but really get rid of the bulge at the base and make the display part a bit thinner.
Removing TB would be more likely on an ARM device. Same deal with powering over USB C. It would effectively be an iPad with all the OS X software compiled for ARM in a laptop form factor.
In some ways both a 12" iPad and a 12" Retina Air but also neither. It would have to have 128GB SSD so you'd be looking at $699 like the 128GB iPad Air 2 and would take on the Chromebooks (cheaper Chromebooks aren't Retina).
I'd expect higher Air models to have a similar design but Intel, TB, multiple USB-C ports and starting at $999.
Escape could go next to the 1-key, I doubt that key is commonly used as it is and would still be easy enough to hit. I agree the power would be better on the right though.
I use tilde almost as much as Escape.
I use tilde almost as much as Escape.
My use of tilde is ~ zero
Removing ports and adding Retina will greater differentiate the MBA from the MBP line.
Probably something Apple wanted to do as the two have almost become indistinguishable.
The MBA would again be truly the 'ultra notebook' in the lineup.
However, the greater challenge might be how to stem the tide of people jumping onto cheap $300 Chromebooks.
It doesn't seem that the Chromebooks are in the same notebook category. Chromebooks do have their shortcomings, although not for a lot of people. We have one and could pretty much only use that as our primary device, though.
Maybe the $300 market is one to cede to others. What advantage is there in a low margin environment?