It's not about hacking anything. It's about converting the signals to work as needed, which is what Lightning does already. This does add cost and complexity to a cable because it's not simply a pin on one end absolutely corresponding to a pin on the other end, but it in no way means that Apple can't have USB 3.0 speeds with the Lightning pins. But, again, the NAND is the weakest link in that chain so it's nothing you should even worry about.
Besides, the guy that originally brought this up thought it would be a good idea to use lightning instead of USB 3.1 which I disagree with. USB 3.1 and the c connector is a far more versitile cable.
Besides, the guy that originally brought this up thought it would be a good idea to use lightning over USB 3.1 which I disagree with. USB 3.1 and the c connector is a far more versitile cable.
Wow! I hadn't realized the iPhone 6 series had increased the sequential read and write speeds so much. I wonder if that's from their acquisition from the Israeli company a few years back.
Wow! I hadn't realized the iPhone 6 series had increased the sequential read and write speeds so much. I wonder if that's from their acquisition from the Israeli company a few years back.
Indeed. Now I could be wrong about this too, but I remember reading on anandtech that the major issue with nand in phones isn't the nand itself but they lack sufficient controllers.
Indeed. Now I could be wrong about this too, but I remember reading on anandtech that the major issue with nand in phones isn't the nand itself but they lack sufficient controllers.
It is controllers but there just aren't enough NAND chips on phones to give them speeds that near SSD speeds. The solution I had years ago was to essentially make much smaller capacity NAND chips, but on a single chip so that a more powerful controller could be used to get higher speeds. Essentially an SSD the side of the current NAND that can be soldered to the board. That said, I had no idea if this is possible or what the cost, power, or other issues might be with my idea.
Either way, I'm glad to see that the iPhone 6 series sequential read and write have a nice boost to them. Perhaps it's time to retest the data-rates over Lightning.
Although I never want to go on record saying never. Never totally, but more and more features will cross-over, that I am sure of. I love OS X and personally don't like any mobile OS all that much (I use an iPad for Netflix and Mail, I can't stand using Safari thanks to the bloody ads I can't block unless I run Adblock's browser) and I certainly never want to lose the power of my beloved OS X!
It is interesting to note that the "roadmap" (posted by Ming-Chi Kho) seen in the first illustration is nearly completely wrong on dates for things. We didn't get a low-cost iMac upgrade in Q2; there was no 12-inch MacBook or Apple TV upgrade at all; the iPad upgrades and both new iPhones happened in Q4; and of course the "iWatch" (not its actual name) didn't arrive in 2014 at all.
Someone explain to me again what great "sources" this guy has over and above semi-educated guessing.
Is this an iPad with a keyboard, or an Air running with an A-class processor?
Since it runs OS X isn't not an iPad with a keyboard. It's merely a far more portable (and limited by design) Mac. Design is about making choices and compromises. This product wouldn't be for everywhere, but most good products are not.
Despite being the best computer ever made and me owning an older model, I can't recommend these MBAirs to any friends or family since the 2012 gen. Why? Because every single computer above the 500$ price range, since 2012, has a screens that is miles ahead. This was simple bean-counting, a decision that is only rivaled in stupidity by releasing 8 GB and 16 GB iOS devices. With their profits and margins, they could very well put a damn IPS display with the same resolution (heck, most likely IPS is even more efficient than TN), or use an IGZO display like Dell, from all companies, is doing with their latest XPS series.
If they go core M, I will be disappointed but I will understand their reasons. I was almost sure that by the time Apple could use a 5W Intel processor on the Air line (1.5 to 2 million MBAirs sold each quarter), they would give an FU to Intel and go ARM. But since other OEMs sales at the high end are so pathetic, Intel must already be sitting in a lot of inventory that Apple is going to buy in huge numbers, for cheaper.
Still, going from a core ULV to M means a lot. Unlike other core i and M-based products that throttle heavily and suffer from very bad performance (surface, yoga, etc.), this one is going to be a marvelous machine. If updated accordingly, the rMBP 13" can easily please previous MBAir users that do not want the new 12" model while proving a lot of power and other options. And the new MBAir should please those that want an allday battery life product that is extremely fast with a great screen and small formfactor.
They should stop selling current MBAirs. The TN panel is terrible garbage. Just like 8 and 16 GB of memory on iOS devices. And A5 devices being sold to this day.
It is interesting to note that the "roadmap" (posted by Ming-Chi Kho) seen in the first illustration is nearly completely wrong on dates for things. We didn't get a low-cost iMac upgrade in Q2; there was no 12-inch MacBook or Apple TV upgrade at all; the iPad upgrades and both new iPhones happened in Q4; and of course the "iWatch" (not its actual name) didn't arrive in 2014 at all.
Someone explain to me again what great "sources" this guy has over and above semi-educated guessing.
Being off by a few months isn't a big deal and may have been the plan in January. The watch was demoed about when he said it would be announced. The phone sizes were correct ( back in Jan). Mostly right give or take a few months.
Also the abscence of the Apple TV update is interesting. It seems likely that something went wrong there.
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.
TB is still interesting technology I wouldn't call it dead.
Myself, I'm more concerned about how we're supposed to attach displays to this thing,
Via adapter hell. Seriously if external displays are supported at all you will need an adapter of some sort. This would possibly be the biggest shortcoming of the device. Maybe Apple has the expectation that people will use Apple TV to link to displays over RF. If so Apple has gone off the deep end.
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.
You will still be in adapter hell. Further it eliminates one of Airs big draws, the ability to go to any lecture hall and do a presentation without the need to lug a power supply around.
I have a real hard time believing in the wisdom of a single port of any type. Sometimes I'm of the mind that Apple planted this device to find a leaker.
I have a real hard time believing in the wisdom of a single port of any type. Sometimes I'm of the mind that Apple planted this device to find a leaker.
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, 128i
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.
Oh come on, have you heard of a machine called a ""computer"" with a few good hard disks such a machine can track thousands of SkU's, millions even. This doesn't even get into the fact that Apple has to stock models suitable for the band allotments in the country they expect to sell in.
Beyond that there is a huge difference between today's company and the pre Jobs return era, that being that Apple has successful products today.
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.
There are two big problems here! First is the rumor indicates a grand total of one port, that is asinine. The other problem is the lack of a backwards compatible port to support old USB devices directly.
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.
It is now an established port that frankly has a different use case than USB.
They could have a MagSafe to USB-C adapter, they wouldn't lose the safety of MagSafe then. Apple likes adapters.
The more adapters one needs the more asinine the port becomes.
Edit: GadgetCanadaV2 beat me to it with a better idea. Adapters, Apple, adapters!!
Adapters suck, I can't imagine why anybody would think at they are a good idea. This especially when Apple could simply put a little effort into two ports on the machine, even if they are this type C port it is still better than having only one.
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
Who cares really where the power button is? It is the lest of my worries.
Apple can be as radical as they want to be but please don't replace the current Air with this machine. I can see many people wanting such a platform but it isn't for me.
And people will complain and joke about not having all of the ports.
It is a very serious problem if you need those ports.
Really a lot of us use our Macbooks and don't use ports. Just power.
That is unfortunate because honestly everybody should be using a port if for nothing else as part of their backup program.
Makes sense to have one port. Pushing the envelope in where things are headed. All wireless. Sounds Apple cool.
Where did you get this info the USB cable included with iDevices can only support USB 2.0 data rates and power? The devices can't, but until we get NAND that can handle faster read and write speeds it's pointless to include.
Faster ports on iOS devices is not pointless, in fact there is good reason to support such ports for fast I/O. The NAND flash has nothing to do with this need. One example here is to support fast I/O devices like Osccilioscope modules and other electronic instrumentation. The portability of Apples devices are an excellent match for such hardware, we only need to get Apple to pull head from ass here and remove the SDK restrictions they have in place as part of MiFi.
In short bringing NAND into the discussion means nothing in the context for the quest for a faster I/O port on iOS devices.
After years of searching and watching the Apple keynotes.... I have yet to see any survey or study that shows (a) Apple customers want fewer ports and choices of interfacing with the real world,
I don't believe you can find any credible research related to a desire to see fewer ports.
and (b) that removing ports promotes innovation.
Make no mistake it is innovation, just not the innovation many of us are looking for. I can certianly see where the rumored machine would be good enough for many.
I'm still using my wide array of firewire drives at work and home. USB still can't touch it in real speed. I don't understand.... Bluetooth devices (especially mice) eat batteries for snacks, and always die at the most important times. USB works because it's convenient and adaptable. No it's not fast, but it is reliable.
I'd add to that that it is widely supported which is a huge factor in devaluing the type C port. If you need an adapter to hook up to old hardware you are in effect screwed. You are even more screwed if you routinely need more than one port.
Just because Apple didn't invent USB, doesn't mean it's not a good idea that (yes) promotes innovation. I still have my 2009 MacBook Pro, with a new 980gig SSHD because it has firewire, 2 USB ports, magsafe, ethernet, SSD, earphone jack, and the apple display port (pre-thuderbolt). And I use ALL of these ports at least once a week. sigh...
Apple didn't invent USB but they where a critical element in its success leading the industry in its adoption. Intel and Apple have had a very good relationship with USB.
I understand your issues with ports, I'm often frustrated by the lack of ports on my MBP so a machine like this rumored one would be extremely frustrating. At the very least you need a port for a monitor, a charger and at least two USB capable ports. As I see it the machine is three ports short. A full performance TB port could make up for the lack of one USB port and a monitor port if Apple had a reasonably priced monitor/hub.
The reality is I like the idea of being able to hook up to a monitor with an external storage device connected and something project wise connected to a USB port. As far as I can see this would be impossible with this machine.
Presumably the one port would connect to a hub which could handle multiple inputs right? Or will this machine not be able to work as a projector or handle as SD card?
… But, again, the NAND is the weakest link in that chain so it's nothing you should even worry about.
I see this repeated often and frankly it is BS. First it assumes that storage will never get faster in IOS devices. Second it assumes that fast transfers only need to go to NAND. The second issue is the big problem and frankly Apples slow ports do limit what can be developed for the platform.
Comments
You may be right about lightning support 3.0. You are wrong about NAND.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8554/the-iphone-6-review/6
Besides, the guy that originally brought this up thought it would be a good idea to use lightning instead of USB 3.1 which I disagree with. USB 3.1 and the c connector is a far more versitile cable.
Wow! I hadn't realized the iPhone 6 series had increased the sequential read and write speeds so much. I wonder if that's from their acquisition from the Israeli company a few years back.
Indeed. Now I could be wrong about this too, but I remember reading on anandtech that the major issue with nand in phones isn't the nand itself but they lack sufficient controllers.
It is controllers but there just aren't enough NAND chips on phones to give them speeds that near SSD speeds. The solution I had years ago was to essentially make much smaller capacity NAND chips, but on a single chip so that a more powerful controller could be used to get higher speeds. Essentially an SSD the side of the current NAND that can be soldered to the board. That said, I had no idea if this is possible or what the cost, power, or other issues might be with my idea.
Either way, I'm glad to see that the iPhone 6 series sequential read and write have a nice boost to them. Perhaps it's time to retest the data-rates over Lightning.
No Intel, no Intel processor?
Is this an iPad with a keyboard, or an Air running with an A-class processor?
The ad blocking with FoolDNS works great for me. It is only on WiFi unfortunately but then most people use their iPads at home anyway.
Someone explain to me again what great "sources" this guy has over and above semi-educated guessing.
No Thunderbolt, no Intel.
No Intel, no Intel processor?
Is this an iPad with a keyboard, or an Air running with an A-class processor?
Since it runs OS X isn't not an iPad with a keyboard. It's merely a far more portable (and limited by design) Mac. Design is about making choices and compromises. This product wouldn't be for everywhere, but most good products are not.
Despite being the best computer ever made and me owning an older model, I can't recommend these MBAirs to any friends or family since the 2012 gen. Why? Because every single computer above the 500$ price range, since 2012, has a screens that is miles ahead. This was simple bean-counting, a decision that is only rivaled in stupidity by releasing 8 GB and 16 GB iOS devices. With their profits and margins, they could very well put a damn IPS display with the same resolution (heck, most likely IPS is even more efficient than TN), or use an IGZO display like Dell, from all companies, is doing with their latest XPS series.
If they go core M, I will be disappointed but I will understand their reasons. I was almost sure that by the time Apple could use a 5W Intel processor on the Air line (1.5 to 2 million MBAirs sold each quarter), they would give an FU to Intel and go ARM. But since other OEMs sales at the high end are so pathetic, Intel must already be sitting in a lot of inventory that Apple is going to buy in huge numbers, for cheaper.
Still, going from a core ULV to M means a lot. Unlike other core i and M-based products that throttle heavily and suffer from very bad performance (surface, yoga, etc.), this one is going to be a marvelous machine. If updated accordingly, the rMBP 13" can easily please previous MBAir users that do not want the new 12" model while proving a lot of power and other options. And the new MBAir should please those that want an allday battery life product that is extremely fast with a great screen and small formfactor.
They should stop selling current MBAirs. The TN panel is terrible garbage. Just like 8 and 16 GB of memory on iOS devices. And A5 devices being sold to this day.
Being off by a few months isn't a big deal and may have been the plan in January. The watch was demoed about when he said it would be announced. The phone sizes were correct ( back in Jan). Mostly right give or take a few months.
Also the abscence of the Apple TV update is interesting. It seems likely that something went wrong there.
You will still be in adapter hell. Further it eliminates one of Airs big draws, the ability to go to any lecture hall and do a presentation without the need to lug a power supply around.
I have a real hard time believing in the wisdom of a single port of any type. Sometimes I'm of the mind that Apple planted this device to find a leaker.
That could very well be the case!
Beyond that there is a huge difference between today's company and the pre Jobs return era, that being that Apple has successful products today. There are two big problems here! First is the rumor indicates a grand total of one port, that is asinine. The other problem is the lack of a backwards compatible port to support old USB devices directly. It is now an established port that frankly has a different use case than USB. The more adapters one needs the more asinine the port becomes.
Adapters suck, I can't imagine why anybody would think at they are a good idea. This especially when Apple could simply put a little effort into two ports on the machine, even if they are this type C port it is still better than having only one.
What I do like about that image is the apparent placement of the speakers which ought to provide an improvement is sound quality.
Actually it makes no sense at all.
But that's not how the Air is designed (supposedly): the grills are for the speakers and the heat, since it doesn't have a fan in it:
quote:
Above the keyboard are four redesigned speaker grills that actually double as ventilation holes for the fan-less device to keep cool.
http://tinyurl.com/objsrcd
Faster ports on iOS devices is not pointless, in fact there is good reason to support such ports for fast I/O. The NAND flash has nothing to do with this need. One example here is to support fast I/O devices like Osccilioscope modules and other electronic instrumentation. The portability of Apples devices are an excellent match for such hardware, we only need to get Apple to pull head from ass here and remove the SDK restrictions they have in place as part of MiFi.
In short bringing NAND into the discussion means nothing in the context for the quest for a faster I/O port on iOS devices.
I don't believe you can find any credible research related to a desire to see fewer ports. Make no mistake it is innovation, just not the innovation many of us are looking for. I can certianly see where the rumored machine would be good enough for many. I'd add to that that it is widely supported which is a huge factor in devaluing the type C port. If you need an adapter to hook up to old hardware you are in effect screwed. You are even more screwed if you routinely need more than one port. Apple didn't invent USB but they where a critical element in its success leading the industry in its adoption. Intel and Apple have had a very good relationship with USB.
I understand your issues with ports, I'm often frustrated by the lack of ports on my MBP so a machine like this rumored one would be extremely frustrating. At the very least you need a port for a monitor, a charger and at least two USB capable ports. As I see it the machine is three ports short. A full performance TB port could make up for the lack of one USB port and a monitor port if Apple had a reasonably priced monitor/hub.
The reality is I like the idea of being able to hook up to a monitor with an external storage device connected and something project wise connected to a USB port. As far as I can see this would be impossible with this machine.
I see this repeated often and frankly it is BS. First it assumes that storage will never get faster in IOS devices. Second it assumes that fast transfers only need to go to NAND. The second issue is the big problem and frankly Apples slow ports do limit what can be developed for the platform.