Nice idea to make it thin. Nice idea to include USB 3.1, which will become the norm anyway. But why would they drop the card reader? A microSD card reader is extremely thin and can add big quantites of memory, now that SD cards with 64GB or even 128GB are getting cheaper. Also, a single USB 3.1 port will inevitably be a limitation. It should have
2x USB 3.1 port 1x audio jack 1x microSD reader
In all you would have 2 ports on each side (all thin ones), which would still be very elegant and take very little space.
So taking the MBA, reducing its size, removing expensive thunderbolt connector, reducing other connector count. Let's also drop the expensive Intel CPU and in with the A8X or A9, OS X or iOS. I imagine battery life would be pretty good. 4GB ram with a 256GB SSD. Let pricing start at $700.
How about built-in induction charging hardware in the rMBA so you can have a charging mat on your work desk if you so wish. You can just take your rMBA at any time without disconnecting cables and it will be fully charged.
<span style="line-height:1.4em;">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.</span>
Future-proofing doesn’t exist.
The only way to stop changing ports is to get rid of all of them.
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.
A 10" netbook?
As a rule, Apple like to make more than one of a product. More profit, you see.
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.
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.
I can see that. Get thee to a library with a dictionary.
He only got 4 wrong if you want to hold him to the dates. Which might have been correct when he was writing the schedule. Otherwise he got everything right bar the Apple TV refresh and the 12" Mac Book which was clearly delayed but he got that it was slimmer and all new, as opposed to a standard refresh ( if these rumours are correct). In short a year ago he had indications about the rumour we are now talking about.
2 watch sizes. Check.
The correct sizes of the iPhones. Check.
Most of the rest was correct if the dates were a bit off, except for the Apple TV.
Given the introduction of Lightning headphones could potentially there be a lighting port (or two) which could be used for headphones or with a male-to-male lightning cable be used to charge suitably equipped iOS devices?
Not so long ago, most people would never have ventured further than that.
I know exactly what he is talking about and frankly it is sad in this day and age. There is so much to experience out there.
I understand your sentiments, too.
But I don't see travel as an intrinsically good thing. Some people like to travel a lot and see the world; good for them. Some people like to stay at home and enjoy it; good for them.
When do you connect your iPhone to your Macbook Air? For charging, syncing, backups, file transfers?
As you pointed out, I'm sure there will be USB 3 to 3.1 adapters that will facilitate this. But I think that's secondary to the fact that Apple appears increasingly reliant on the cloud as the primary solution for syncing and backing up devices, and on WiFi/Bluetooth as the primary solution for local file transfers.
The Macbook Air is the ultimate portable computer, targeted at users who place a high priority on mobility, not those who routinely have half a dozen devices wired to their notebook.
Remember that Apple is always planning several steps ahead of the rest of the industry. Elimination of USB 3 ports on a Macbook Air is trivial compared to Apple's omission of other ports and components over the years from parallel ports to floppies to optical drives.
Unlike Firewire and Thunderbolt, USB 3.1 will be both backwards compatible and sufficiently cost effective to encourage wide adoption. In the not too distant future, iPhones may ship with Lightning to USB 3.1 cables and you may need an adapter to plug one into your "older" USB 3 equipped computer.
Personally, I would miss the MagSafe power adapter. But if a new Macbook Air can last all day on a single charge, it's not too big a sacrifice for an increasingly portable computer. Personally, I expect Apple to do away with wires across the board and move their entire product line to wireless charging in the next few years, and by that point the MagSafe connector will seem like a quaint innovation from the past.
I personally agree with this line of thinking...
As I move more and more of my files to the cloud (not iCloud but Google Drive and Dropbox) I'm relying less and less on portable flash drives. I can only think of one major reason for me, personally, to use a flash drive and that is to do a system restore or to restore my iPhone. Both of those use cases can be justified by just using an adapter.
Granted I know that my use cases aren't standard but I long to be fast, ultra light, and portable. I would definitely look at getting one provided that I have the necessary adapters to make things work. Being USB also opens the door for cheaper third party accessories.
USB-C is the new IGZO: it is magical and can do everything and it's automatically cool because it's not Thunderbolt. I call it "fourth time's a charm."
Sounds like it will use a standard cheap $18 or so Intel Atom design, like those $100 Windows tablets. With the iPad in severe decline this is the future so it will be priced exactly the same as the Air 2 which itself will reduce in price.
I suppose this could be a red herring in that people want to go back to keyboards and this was meant to be a 12" iPad ! A 12" iPad with a keyboard then running Apple's Arm chips ?
I give it 50/50 either way as to being ARM or Intel. A 12" iPad might only have a keyboard as a $100 accessory/upgrade so that looks a good profit bet .
I give it 50/50 either way as to being ARM or Intel. A 12" iPad might only have a keyboard as a $100 accessory/upgrade so that looks a good profit bet .
If it's *not* an ARM-based Mac, that's a pretty good sign that Apple isn't considering it any time soon, since this is the perfect form factor for it.
The current Macbook Air is still pretty thin by industry standards so if the new one is ARM, the old one could be continued for those who don't want early adopter headaches.
Cost is a big factor. Then you have control of the upgrade process, as well as which features they wish to add or remove from the chip and package to make it more efficient and effective for a given utility. Since Apple uses their invest Img Tech for the GPU they can probably get away from Intel's iGPUs and away from the long-term use dGPU issues we've seen for years from Nvidia and AMD.
Comments
I've forgotten.
Also, a single USB 3.1 port will inevitably be a limitation.
It should have
2x USB 3.1 port
1x audio jack
1x microSD reader
In all you would have 2 ports on each side (all thin ones), which would still be very elegant and take very little space.
And Lo, he saw it was good.
Really?
Guess you've never seen a pear. Or a plum. Or a Blackberry.
Sounds like a cool idea.
Get to it.
I would never want to get rid of port.
It's just the thing for a Sunday evening.
A 10" netbook?
As a rule, Apple like to make more than one of a product. More profit, you see.
Rubbish.
He got three right and four wrong. Less than 50%.
That's a fail.
I can see that. Get thee to a library with a dictionary.
I know exactly what he is talking about and frankly it is sad in this day and age. There is so much to experience out there.
Rubbish.
He got three right and four wrong. Less than 50%.
That's a fail.
He only got 4 wrong if you want to hold him to the dates. Which might have been correct when he was writing the schedule. Otherwise he got everything right bar the Apple TV refresh and the 12" Mac Book which was clearly delayed but he got that it was slimmer and all new, as opposed to a standard refresh ( if these rumours are correct). In short a year ago he had indications about the rumour we are now talking about.
2 watch sizes. Check.
The correct sizes of the iPhones. Check.
Most of the rest was correct if the dates were a bit off, except for the Apple TV.
Given the introduction of Lightning headphones could potentially there be a lighting port (or two) which could be used for headphones or with a male-to-male lightning cable be used to charge suitably equipped iOS devices?
I understand your sentiments, too.
But I don't see travel as an intrinsically good thing. Some people like to travel a lot and see the world; good for them. Some people like to stay at home and enjoy it; good for them.
When do you connect your iPhone to your Macbook Air? For charging, syncing, backups, file transfers?
As you pointed out, I'm sure there will be USB 3 to 3.1 adapters that will facilitate this. But I think that's secondary to the fact that Apple appears increasingly reliant on the cloud as the primary solution for syncing and backing up devices, and on WiFi/Bluetooth as the primary solution for local file transfers.
The Macbook Air is the ultimate portable computer, targeted at users who place a high priority on mobility, not those who routinely have half a dozen devices wired to their notebook.
Remember that Apple is always planning several steps ahead of the rest of the industry. Elimination of USB 3 ports on a Macbook Air is trivial compared to Apple's omission of other ports and components over the years from parallel ports to floppies to optical drives.
Unlike Firewire and Thunderbolt, USB 3.1 will be both backwards compatible and sufficiently cost effective to encourage wide adoption. In the not too distant future, iPhones may ship with Lightning to USB 3.1 cables and you may need an adapter to plug one into your "older" USB 3 equipped computer.
Personally, I would miss the MagSafe power adapter. But if a new Macbook Air can last all day on a single charge, it's not too big a sacrifice for an increasingly portable computer. Personally, I expect Apple to do away with wires across the board and move their entire product line to wireless charging in the next few years, and by that point the MagSafe connector will seem like a quaint innovation from the past.
I personally agree with this line of thinking...
As I move more and more of my files to the cloud (not iCloud but Google Drive and Dropbox) I'm relying less and less on portable flash drives. I can only think of one major reason for me, personally, to use a flash drive and that is to do a system restore or to restore my iPhone. Both of those use cases can be justified by just using an adapter.
Granted I know that my use cases aren't standard but I long to be fast, ultra light, and portable. I would definitely look at getting one provided that I have the necessary adapters to make things work. Being USB also opens the door for cheaper third party accessories.
With the iPad in severe decline this is the future so it will be priced exactly the same as the Air 2 which itself will reduce in price.
I suppose this could be a red herring in that people want to go back to keyboards and this was meant to be a 12" iPad !
A 12" iPad with a keyboard then running Apple's Arm chips ?
I give it 50/50 either way as to being ARM or Intel. A 12" iPad might only have a keyboard as a $100 accessory/upgrade so that looks a good profit bet .
I give it 50/50 either way as to being ARM or Intel. A 12" iPad might only have a keyboard as a $100 accessory/upgrade so that looks a good profit bet .
If it's *not* an ARM-based Mac, that's a pretty good sign that Apple isn't considering it any time soon, since this is the perfect form factor for it.
The current Macbook Air is still pretty thin by industry standards so if the new one is ARM, the old one could be continued for those who don't want early adopter headaches.
Cost is a big factor. Then you have control of the upgrade process, as well as which features they wish to add or remove from the chip and package to make it more efficient and effective for a given utility. Since Apple uses their invest Img Tech for the GPU they can probably get away from Intel's iGPUs and away from the long-term use dGPU issues we've seen for years from Nvidia and AMD.
I'm sure I'm missing several other benefits.