Apple's rumored 12" MacBook Air may aggressively target mobility with USB 3.1 Type-C

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  • Reply 141 of 227
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    philboogie wrote: »
    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:
    Actually what I'm imagining here is two speakers and two vent areas. Given that I'm not sure why Apple didn't bond the processor right to the aluminum shel.
    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

    Vent or not I'm still hoping for better sound.
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  • Reply 142 of 227
    wizard69 wrote: »
    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.
    So what is the slowest link for restoring a device from an iTunes backup on, say, an iPhone 5 if not the NAND?
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  • Reply 143 of 227
    wizard69 wrote: »
    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.
    What transfer speeds do oscippiscopes require?
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  • Reply 144 of 227
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    asdasd wrote: »
    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?

    It is a rumor at this point nobody can say for sure but honestly who would want to carry around a hub to get ports that should have been built into the machine in the first place. Being a rumor we don't even know if Apple would supply a hub or what types of I/O would be possible at the same time. We could look up the specs for USB C to get some insight but that doesn't even give us an idea as to what Apple would implement.

    One option is that the charger becomes a power source and a hub of sorts, giving you the video networking and standard USB ports. That is great for when you are at your desk but is frankly useless for portable work unless you want to carry your power brick around with you every where you go. I just had a vision in my mind of a Mac Mini using such an arrangement.

    In any event any solution that relies upon a hub destroys the ultra mobility concept that a Mac Book Air defines.
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  • Reply 145 of 227
    solipsismysolipsismy Posts: 5,099member
    wizard69 wrote: »
    It is a rumor at this point nobody can say for sure but honestly who would want to carry around a hub to get ports that should have been built into the machine in the first place. Being a rumor we don't even know if Apple would supply a hub or what types of I/O would be possible at the same time. We could look up the specs for USB C to get some insight but that doesn't even give us an idea as to what Apple would implement.

    One option is that the charger becomes a power source and a hub of sorts, giving you the video networking and standard USB ports. That is great for when you are at your desk but is frankly useless for portable work unless you want to carry your power brick around with you every where you go. I just had a vision in my mind of a Mac Mini using such an arrangement.

    In any event any solution that relies upon a hub destroys the ultra mobility concept that a Mac Book Air defines.

    Built into the power supply is the only way this rumour makes sense to me.
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  • Reply 146 of 227
    irelandireland Posts: 17,801member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rkevwill View Post

     



    Has anyone else wondered if the 12 inch iPad, and 12 inch Air is one in the same? If they are really looking for something new, would they ever consider a touch screen and a *gasp* stylus?


     

    Yes, many people have already speculated as much, and no they are not the same product.

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  • Reply 147 of 227
    irelandireland Posts: 17,801member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dbcoyle View Post



    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, and (b) that removing ports promotes innovation.

     

    Years of watching Apple keynotes and yet still not one clue about the company. Congrats ;-)

     

    Innovation is the buzzword of the decade. It has lost all its meaning. Do you like ports? Lots of ports? Apple will continue to sell those Macs, at least for a while. Obviously eventually basically-all electronics devices will have zero ports Read: eventually. This will not be for a while.

     

    If this product ships with just one port it will be a multifunctional port of sorts most likely. And yes, this product won't be for everyone. That is why Apple will not get rid of their other products, and especially the rMBP. They will kill the non-Retina MBP sooner or later and they'll reduce the rMBP in price a little when they do. They may even thin them out a bit. This is the product that wil replace the MBA as it stands.

     

    Then the new really-thin product becomes a new type of Macbook Air for people like journalists and writers etc. And those people who rarely use any of their ports. I reckon you'd be surprised by the numbers of users who never use their ports. Is this person you? No. But you can guarantee Apple would consider everyone who uses this forum a power user.

     

    http://sixcolors.com/post/2015/01/the-macbook-air-returning-to-its-roots/

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  • Reply 148 of 227
    canukstormcanukstorm Posts: 2,765member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post

     

     

    Years of watching Apple keynotes and yet still not one clue about the company. Congrats ;-)

     

    Innovation is the buzzword of the decade. It has lost all its meaning. Do you like ports? Lots of ports? Apple will continue to sell those Macs, at least for a while. Obviously eventually basically-all electronics devices will have zero ports Read: eventually. This will not be for a while.

     

    If this product ships with just one port it will be a multifunctional port of sorts most likely. And yes, this product won't be for everyone. That is why Apple will not get rid of their other products, and especially the rMBP. They will kill the non-Retina MBP sooner or later and they'll reduce the rMBP in price a little when they do. They may even thin them out a bit. This is the product that wil replace the MBA as it stands.

     

    Then the new really-thin product becomes a new type of Macbook Air for people like journalists and writers etc. And those people who rarely use any of their ports. I reckon you'd be surprised by the numbers of users who never use their ports. Is this person you? No. But you can guarantee Apple would consider everyone who uses this forum a power user.

     

    http://sixcolors.com/post/2015/01/the-macbook-air-returning-to-its-roots/


    "If this product ships with just one port it will be a multifunctional port of sorts most likely."

     

    That's exactly what USB Type-C is: Multifunctional

     

    "They may even thin them out a bit."

     

    Right now if compare the 13" MBA vs 13" rMBP, weight wise, you get the following;

     

    13" MBA - 1.35kg

    13" rMBP - 1.57kg

     

    A difference of only 220g or approximately half a pound.  Knowing Apple, it isn't out of the realm of possibility that they shave some weight off of the 13" rMBP while retaining the ports that users need or want. 

     

    Here's another interesting article that echos your sentiment;

     

    http://www.verschoren.com/blog/2015/1/7/macbook-air-12

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  • Reply 149 of 227
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member
    If the hub is a slightly larger version of the thunderbolt -> HDMI I already have I don't see the issue. Most people who connect to projectors, most workers, have to carry something like that around anyway as there are few native thunderbolt projectors. My company has converters for macs in all meeting rooms.

    Adding it to the power supply is a no no as that's a heavy awkward accessory.
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  • Reply 150 of 227

    I just hope that they keep alive the array of options in the Pro line. 

    http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/design-retina/

    If they remove any of these options from the current 13" Pro, then we'll know the trend.  I'm impressed that they swallowed a bit of pride, and went to the HDMI micro port.  Kudos.

     

    Funny how Apple has raised our expectations (those of us that has moved from the PC world) such that if a new mac doesn't meet our exact expectations, work perfectly, with (let's face it) demonstrate engineering and manufacturing technology as if it's from the future, we're all sorely disappointed.  If I have to reboot one of the dozen old macs at work, it's the end of the world...  for a second.  Then I realize I'm being a tool, completely unrealistic, and move on.  I have to still use a few Dell laptops (all within 2 years old) around the lab to run niche market researchy hardware, and it's insane to me how these compare in overall quality, materials, feel, fit, and especially function.... to even my 6 yr old Mac. 

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  • Reply 151 of 227
    nikon133nikon133 Posts: 2,600member
    1080p seems so lame these days doesn't it?

    It's entry model. QHD (3200x1800) with touch is also offered. Machine does offer 15 hours for 1080p and 12 hours for 1800p, so there's that. If we are talking about actual light usage time, I'd be fine with 12 hours... but if this transfers to real-life 10-12 hours for 1080p and 8-9 hours for 1800p, I don't know. I'm in my '40 and not of 20/20 vision, good quality 1080p in 13" should be OK.

    On a bright side, both screens are of Share IGZO variety, good quality panels, bright (400cd/m2) and with very thin frame, which let Dell fit 13" screens in otherwise 11" size chassis. Compared to last gen 13" XPS, this is pretty much what Apple did with iPad Air vs. older iPads, and would be logical for me to be repeated on new MBAs.

    Rest of Dell looks good. Broadwell-U, 1.2kg weight (a bit more for touch model), backlit keyboard, aluminium-carbon fibre chassis... quite decent piece of hardware, imho. Waiting for some detailed reviews, though.
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  • Reply 152 of 227
    elijahgelijahg Posts: 2,876member
    solipsismy wrote: »
    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.

    Parallel reading would be possible with a fairly sophisticated controller that can understand multiple serial inputs at once, but it would end up needing lots of pins to access the memory, and so lots of space needed for the traces on the board and the controller itself. I don't doubt Apple has thought of it, but deemed it unnecessary since I'm not sure of any use of the phone or iPad other than downloading stuff to it from desktop iTunes that is I/O limited in terms of internal storage.

    wizard69 wrote: »
    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.

    Of course. But remember Apple has to make specific components for each of these devices, which reduces their economies of scale. It also means they're more likely to run out of stock of a certain model, and someone has to actually check the inventory occasionally. And Apple's engineers have to design and test every model they make.
    wizard69 wrote: »
    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.

    I completely agree. One port imo would be bad, even if it involved something as simple as wanting to use a USB mouse with your iPhone plugged in at the same time to charge. They could easily add more than one USB-C socket. I can't see Apple switching to USB-C on one device and not others, and we've seen no rumours of other USB-C capable devices from Apple. They usually wait quite a while before they add new third party tech to their computers. It's pretty impossible to have a reliable, reversible USB3 socket without a redesign though, which usually removes backward compatibility. USB has been around for 20 years, that's pretty good going for a computer socket.

    I hate adapters. just a shame Apple doesn't.
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  • Reply 153 of 227
    shenshen Posts: 434member
    What would be really interesting is if this was more than we are guessing, and not only was it the extremely thin long battery life approach the original Air was, but if they got some of the battery life from a cpu change. A9x processor laptop anyone?
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  • Reply 154 of 227
    hentaiboyhentaiboy Posts: 1,252member

    Apple <cough> Chromebook

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  • Reply 155 of 227
    I don't like the sound of this 12" rumour.

    How is losing an inch of screen estate an improvement? If Apple scrapped the 13", I think a lot of people would feel forced to go to the MacBook Pro.

    The 11" Air is inferior ergonomically as well, because the screen is so low. I don't know why Apple don't put the 13" screen into a smaller chassis.

    They should also bring back the 17" MacBook Pro, or even bring out an 18" one.
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  • Reply 156 of 227
    ireland wrote: »
     

    So you're saying this product is not for you. Interesting.
    I'm saying that *like me* a lot of Apple users will have very new (my iPhone 6 + is not even a month old) devices that require USB.
    I may of course be totally wrong about this, but I can't see tremendous amounts of people preferring a marginal amount of mobility gain over flexibility. There is of course the option of carrying some kind of adapter, but you'd lose the mobility gain and add clunkiness.

    Besides, I've always chosen mobility in devices, from Thinkpads to MBAs and iPads, which kept me in a relatively small fringe of the computer users in my very high tech inclined entourage, so if *I* say this is not for me, I'm quite convinced it's representative of the general "mobility" population...

    I'm intrigued to know which part of the human race isn't mobile.
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  • Reply 157 of 227
    ianrid wrote: »
    Where does my USB memory stick go?

    In your pocket.
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  • Reply 158 of 227
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Benjamin Frost View Post





    I'm intrigued to know which part of the human race isn't mobile.

    The scary part is, a good part. I know people who have NEVER been outside of a 30km radius around their house in 70 years...

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  • Reply 159 of 227
    I'm intrigued to know which part of the human race isn't mobile.
    The scary part is, a good part. I know people who have NEVER been outside of a 30km radius around their house in 70 years...

    Not so long ago, most people would never have ventured further than that.
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  • Reply 160 of 227
    Apple gives themselves more money by making their products smaller and lighter all while asking the same price.

    How, you may ask?

    By not having to pay as much money to ship lighter products. They make more money from saving on shipping. That is the conclusion that I have come to. As long as they can make their products lighter and smaller, they will not have to raise their prices. As soon as they aren't able to do that then we should be worried.

    If they don't have to ship a power brick with the laptop then that is probably almost a third to a half of the weight of the box. Translate that into saving a third to a half of the shipping cost times a million units, you make that much more money.

    I'm not saying they are getting rid of it, just for reference. I'm sure they are heavily involved in making smaller and lighter power supplies like the MIT switching power supply or the one that was announced at CES. That is a lot of weight in the total shipping cost.

    I suspect you are over simplifying. Yes of course less materials cost less but ... the shipping?

    Firstly I don't think Apple folks sit down and think, 'how can we make more money ... Oh I know let's make products lighter ... we'll save on shipping!'. I suspect there are far more important and scientific reasons such as the heat and energy savings in scaling as just one example.

    Secondly, as an Amazon Prime member, I have seen for myself that shipping costs are far lower than I ever imagined when a massive company ships in huge volumes.

    So low that Amazon's profits last year were…a loss.
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