I'm the first to agree however that the current design is beautiful and doesn't require any drastic changes to the overall design. But I think that buying it kinda makes you feel as though you've just bought a brand new 5 year old computer because even though it's a great design, it's a dated one.
This is quite an insightful point. You touched on what I've been feeling for quite some time. Even after 2 years since the TiBook was released, when I purchased mine, it was still the coolest computer on the market. The MBP doesn't seem to be retaining that kind of allure.
Don't get me wrong: I don't buy computers for the allure - but it sure has been cool to have such a beautiful computer, especially when I remember my giant grey Zeos 386 SX-16mHz tower that wouldn't even fit into the computer slot beside my desk in high school -
Do you have one? Perhaps yours needs servicing, because all the ones I've seen have never had that problem, with the exception of the ones that were bad enough they were getting repaired. Needless to say, the problem was quickly remedied. The outer design of a machine has no effect on the functionality of the parts inside, so you could build a MacBook Pro in the case of a PowerBook 140 and it would still work fine.
All I can say is that everyone wants Apple to redesign the MacBook Pro, but as soon as they do, everyone will complain that it's not as good as the old ones. A redesign is much easier said than done.
With all due respect, I have had many of them. I lost track. They all went back for defects (bad illumination, heat, whining, random shutdowns, blown/distorted right speakers, you name it). So I am still working on a PowerBook G4 1.5GHz 17". It seems _at the moment_ that the high-res 17" might have its act together. Lord only knows the new LED-backlit version suffers from a yellow hue.
With all due respect, I have had many of them. I lost track. They all went back for defects (bad illumination, heat, whining, random shutdowns, blown/distorted right speakers, you name it). So I am still working on a PowerBook G4 1.5GHz 17". It seems _at the moment_ that the high-res 17" might have its act together. Lord only knows the new LED-backlit version suffers from a yellow hue.
Well, the user that doesn't fire up ColorSync right away is the user that doesn't get the best out of his display.
Well, the user that doesn't fire up ColorSync right away is the user that doesn't get the best out of his display.
It's tough to fire up ColorSync to do a calibration when one side of the display is darker than the other side. ColorSync can't help uneven illumination! Now that the illumination seems to be fixed in the latest round (all except the standard res 17" which uses the same panel as before, 9C61), the LED backlit displays seem to have a jaundice cast. ColorSync helps, but apparently, doesn't really mask the yellow bias (From what I have read from user's reports of the new 15" models.)
In all honesty though, you could say the design hasn't changed since the TiBook. Powerbook G4 and Macbook Pro are almost identical in terms of outer casing. Sure, the Macbook Pro is a totally different computer when compared to the Powerbook G4, and it has had its fair share of significant and insignificant updates since its introduction. But they are only updates and speed-bumps really. The overall design hasn't been significantly changes since the TiBook and I think that's what we are all waiting to see. Because we want to feel like we're buying a new computer. We all love the current styling of the Macbook Pro, hell we all loved the Powerbook G4! But we love it enough to want to see it get a much-deserved facelift.
It's tough to fire up ColorSync to do a calibration when one side of the display is darker than the other side. ColorSync can't help uneven illumination! Now that the illumination seems to be fixed in the latest round (all except the standard res 17" which uses the same panel as before, 9C61), the LED backlit displays seem to have a jaundice cast. ColorSync helps, but apparently, doesn't really mask the yellow bias (From what I have read from user's reports of the new 15" models.)
I'm looking at a 15" LED-backlit MBP right now, and it has a perfect color tint. Perhaps there are a few that have the yellow, but you can get that fixed. Every new technology includes a few bugs to be hammered out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Go Banana
In all honesty though, you could say the design hasn't changed since the TiBook. Powerbook G4 and Macbook Pro
The TiBook has nothing in common with them, save for the placement of the card slot and the optical drive. Ports on the rear, crappy external hinges that often broke, the "titanium" casing which was mostly plastic, and a totally different internal structure were some of the major distinguishing points between the Titanium and Aluminum notebooks.
I'm not sure where you got that from. I have a Titanium PB that I've fully dismantled a couple of times. The only plastic part of the Titanium's casing was the plastic that allowed the RF into the casing for the Airport antennas to work.
Is it silly to think that they could just stick Multi-Touch on the trackpad for things like zooming in documents and such? I realize it's more for use with something that doesn't have a mouse interface, but it is called "Multi-Touch" so wouldn't it be reasonable to think it was "Multi-Purpose" as well?
Yes it is. I've made my case known in enough threads involving Multi-touch.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tenosce
USB PORTS
For the 15" Macbook Pro, please put both UBS ports together - or better yet, give us another one. There are an increasing number of USB devices (e.g. portable hard drives) that require one port for power.
That would be really nice... even if I did order my MBP on Monday...
With all due respect, I have had many of them. I lost track. They all went back for defects (bad illumination, heat, whining, random shutdowns, blown/distorted right speakers, you name it). So I am still working on a PowerBook G4 1.5GHz 17". It seems _at the moment_ that the high-res 17" might have its act together. Lord only knows the new LED-backlit version suffers from a yellow hue.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DHagan4755
It's tough to fire up ColorSync to do a calibration when one side of the display is darker than the other side. ColorSync can't help uneven illumination! Now that the illumination seems to be fixed in the latest round (all except the standard res 17" which uses the same panel as before, 9C61), the LED backlit displays seem to have a jaundice cast. ColorSync helps, but apparently, doesn't really mask the yellow bias (From what I have read from user's reports of the new 15" models.)
True, we've heard reports of this, there's already been a thread about it somewhere, I believe, and all the LED displays I've seen in MBPs have looked actually pretty amazing. Someone suggested Apple may be using two different suppliers for the displays, and one (obviously) has a better quality/standard than the other. If you have one of these yellowish displays on a new 15" MBP, you might want to give the Apple support people a ring to discuss things with them.
In all honesty though, you could say the design hasn't changed since the TiBook. Powerbook G4 and Macbook Pro are almost identical in terms of outer casing. We all love the current styling of the Macbook Pro, hell we all loved the Powerbook G4! But we love it enough to want to see it get a much-deserved facelift.
You're a smart man. Or woman...
(Go Banana is a gender-neutral name - didn't mean to offend!)
(Go Banana is a gender-neutral name - didn't mean to offend!)
Ha! Thanks. I'm just flattered you find me smart. Really though it's nothing more than personal opinion and reading a lot of ignorant posts around the forum from people who don't do their homework.
I think what would be really something special to watch and be a part of is if Apple decided to reinvent the notebook computer, like they tried to reinvent the cell phone with iPhone, (we won't know for sure until someone uses it). I think it would be a refreshing thing to see them change the face of notebook computing. They're certainly capable of it, the question remains though: what innovations are required to change it to such a degree? And are they really thinking of iPhone as being the next revolutionary step in mobile computing?
I think what would be really something special to watch and be a part of is if Apple decided to reinvent the notebook computer, like they tried to reinvent the cell phone with iPhone, (we won't know for sure until someone uses it). I think it would be a refreshing thing to see them change the face of notebook computing. They're certainly capable of it, the question remains though: what innovations are required to change it to such a degree? And are they really thinking of iPhone as being the next revolutionary step in mobile computing?
I think the collective wisdom around here is probably accurate - that is, it seems people are expecting a series of iterative improvements such as multi-touch on the trackpad, flash-based hard drives, LED displays, and (am I alone in this?) integrated sensing technology for eye-contact video conferencing so we can all pretend we've entered the Era of the Jetsons.
Apple has shown interest recently indicating their interest in lightening up mobile computing, such as the middle-bottom optical drive location and some kind of all-in-one plasticized hardware under the hood (I'm no engineer, apparently.)
As long as Apple doesn't lose too many of its brainy brains and the higher-ups continue to allow the expression of creative freedom in the engineering suites at Infinite Loop, I think we'll continue to watch Apple beat out Microsoft in "Wow!" hardware for at least a few more years.
I'm still trying to convince my father to buy stock, in other words.
Right now I think the MacBook Pro line is really crap. From the crappy uneven illumination and narrow viewing angles in the 15" and the standard 17" to the yellowish cast in the displays to the static and hiss coming through the headphone jack, it's a mess right now. The current design has run its course. We're 4 1/2 years on the same design. They NEED to change the design and FIX all of the flaws wit this product! I find it so frustrating! It's not worth the $2,000+!
I have a MBP C2D. It is the best Apple product I have owned, hands down. The display is a bit uneven with the backlighting. That is my only complaint. It's quiet and fast and solid. The other things you mentioned are isolated issues.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karelia
Do you have one? Perhaps yours needs servicing, because all the ones I've seen have never had that problem, with the exception of the ones that were bad enough they were getting repaired. Needless to say, the problem was quickly remedied. The outer design of a machine has no effect on the functionality of the parts inside, so you could build a MacBook Pro in the case of a PowerBook 140 and it would still work fine.
All I can say is that everyone wants Apple to redesign the MacBook Pro, but as soon as they do, everyone will complain that it's not as good as the old ones. A redesign is much easier said than done.
I agree.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DHagan4755
With all due respect, I have had many of them. I lost track. They all went back for defects (bad illumination, heat, whining, random shutdowns, blown/distorted right speakers, you name it). So I am still working on a PowerBook G4 1.5GHz 17". It seems _at the moment_ that the high-res 17" might have its act together. Lord only knows the new LED-backlit version suffers from a yellow hue.
Then you are either stupendously unlucky or buying from a bad source. It can happen to some people some of the time... but how many MBPs have you had exactly?
Quote:
Originally Posted by DHagan4755
It's tough to fire up ColorSync to do a calibration when one side of the display is darker than the other side. ColorSync can't help uneven illumination! Now that the illumination seems to be fixed in the latest round (all except the standard res 17" which uses the same panel as before, 9C61), the LED backlit displays seem to have a jaundice cast. ColorSync helps, but apparently, doesn't really mask the yellow bias (From what I have read from user's reports of the new 15" models.)
The jaundice issue is not confirmed across the board yet. I do agree the illumination is not even. It can be bothersome.
I think we're at a precipice now where we're close to seeing a perfect notebook computer emerge. We all love the Macbook Pro as it is now, any one who says they dislike it simply say so because it lacks a few key features that would make it the be-all solution to mobile computing. I think, ignoring current pricepoints, the key features that would make this computer the best computer ever are:
-LED or OLED Monitor
-SSD Hard Drive
-Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Superdrive
-Long ass battery life
These features would elevate the Macbook Pro to a new level. The LED we already have but OLED is supposed to improve upon this even further. SSD's are only a short matter of time before they become a viable consideration. Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Superdrive is up to Apple. And the battery life will improve with SSD and LED but someone needs to figure out a new solution.
The rest are all speed bumps.
-Processors (who really needs to go faster these days? It's mostly just about power-saving features)
-Graphics Card (if you're serious about gaming, get a PC, if you're patient this will get better and better on Macs)
-RAM (getting better all the time)
In my opinion, the SSD will be the biggest. It will be huge. I can't wait for the day when I can drop in an SSD to replace the old Disk Drive. This has been the biggest bottleneck in computers for years now. Processor speed, RAM, Video have all taken flight but they are all limited by the old school Disk Drive. This will be a tremendous leap in performance.
-Processors (who really needs to go faster these days? It's mostly just about power-saving features)
Are you kidding? We're mostly men around here! We always want to go faster!
(As for the hard drive issue, I agree. Aside from the speed issue, my concern arises from the constant chunking sound - it's unnerving given that every hard drive I've ever had since my first 60 MB in 1990 has crashed eventually.
Flash-based HDs would ease my mind considerably.
Also, it would be nice if the fan became unnecessary. I'm not sure how they are these days, but for my TiBook, the fan is constantly on, even just when using Safari.
In short, it would be great to forget that my computer is doing anything under that pretty exterior.
The LED we already have but OLED is supposed to improve upon this even further.
Whilst a brand-new OLED screen looks amazing, there are issues with lifetime. The organic compounds used break-down over time, worsening colour balance and brightness as the screen ages. I'm honestly not sure if OLED will ever be a good choice - LCD with LED backlight seems the best thing to me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Go Banana
In my opinion, the SSD will be the biggest. It will be huge. I can't wait for the day when I can drop in an SSD to replace the old Disk Drive. This has been the biggest bottleneck in computers for years now. Processor speed, RAM, Video have all taken flight but they are all limited by the old school Disk Drive. This will be a tremendous leap in performance.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but there are a few issues:
Whilst random access of an SSD is much faster than that of an HDD, sequential I/O is slower. So reading/writing large files from/to SSD is slower.
SSD is rapidly approaching a brick wall in terms of how much smaller the smallest feature sizes on the silicon chip can get. There are some parts which are currently only a few atoms thick. Once you've got to one atom thickness, you can't shrink it any more. You have to come up with a totally different topology. These are being worked on, but what we may see is capacities doubling say three or four more times, and then not increasing any more for quite a while.
One thing I'm sure of is that cost/GB of traditional HDDs will continue to be better than SSD for some time to come.
On the battery life front, I feel that there remain considerable opportunities for reducing the power consumption of the CPU, motherboard chipset, and GPU. Improvements in these areas will continue to deliver steady (albeit slow) improvements in battery life.
On the battery life front, I feel that there remain considerable opportunities for reducing the power consumption of the CPU, motherboard chipset, and GPU. Improvements in these areas will continue to deliver steady (albeit slow) improvements in battery life.
My concern is that as battery life theoretically improves, added technology to take advantage of the improved battery life will make it the same in practice. Similar to the increasing sizes of hard drives (I remember when my friend Terry was the only guy in town with a gigabyte-size hard drive, and he paid $1/MB for it) software writers somehow find a way for applications to get bigger, and obviously media files, etc. are increasing in size all the time.
Indeed, I've wondered if software designers have become increasingly sloppy over time. When Stunts by Broderbund was released in 1991, the replay files and track files were less than 1k in size. The entire game fit on 2 3.5" floppies. Now, there is little reason for designers to constrain themselves to size limits - even when such limits also might result in tighter, faster code.
My point is I wonder if Apple will choose not to take advantage of decreased power consumption for longer life, but rather will add bells and whistles so in practice, battery life between the old and new is a wash.
I think I read something awhile back about IBM or some team somewhere developing that Ion Jet Stream technology that cools chips at the atomic level with no moving parts at all. Definately cool stuff there, though probably like 100's of years away from Macbook Pro.
My concern is that as battery life theoretically improves, added technology to take advantage of the improved battery life will make it the same in practice. Similar to the increasing sizes of hard drives (I remember when my friend Terry was the only guy in town with a gigabyte-size hard drive, and he paid $1/MB for it) software writers somehow find a way for applications to get bigger, and obviously media files, etc. are increasing in size all the time.
Indeed, I've wondered if software designers have become increasingly sloppy over time. When Stunts by Broderbund was released in 1991, the replay files and track files were less than 1k in size. The entire game fit on 2 3.5" floppies. Now, there is little reason for designers to constrain themselves to size limits - even when such limits also might result in tighter, faster code.
My point is I wonder if Apple will choose not to take advantage of decreased power consumption for longer life, but rather will add bells and whistles so in practice, battery life between the old and new is a wash.
This is definately a valid point and something I hadn't thought too much about.
I think the answer is that battery life will improve along with tweaks to existing system functions, i.e. monitor, hard drive, motherboard, vid card, etc. We can keep making things more and more efficient, but at some point there's going to be a pressing need to jump to a vastly more powerful battery technology. Something that will give us days, or weeks worth of charge instead of hours. Until we reach this point, yes there will be a continual struggle for battery life between efficiency of parts and demand for raw horsepower.
Comments
I'm the first to agree however that the current design is beautiful and doesn't require any drastic changes to the overall design. But I think that buying it kinda makes you feel as though you've just bought a brand new 5 year old computer because even though it's a great design, it's a dated one.
This is quite an insightful point. You touched on what I've been feeling for quite some time. Even after 2 years since the TiBook was released, when I purchased mine, it was still the coolest computer on the market. The MBP doesn't seem to be retaining that kind of allure.
Don't get me wrong: I don't buy computers for the allure - but it sure has been cool to have such a beautiful computer, especially when I remember my giant grey Zeos 386 SX-16mHz tower that wouldn't even fit into the computer slot beside my desk in high school -
Do you have one? Perhaps yours needs servicing, because all the ones I've seen have never had that problem, with the exception of the ones that were bad enough they were getting repaired. Needless to say, the problem was quickly remedied. The outer design of a machine has no effect on the functionality of the parts inside, so you could build a MacBook Pro in the case of a PowerBook 140 and it would still work fine.
All I can say is that everyone wants Apple to redesign the MacBook Pro, but as soon as they do, everyone will complain that it's not as good as the old ones. A redesign is much easier said than done.
With all due respect, I have had many of them. I lost track. They all went back for defects (bad illumination, heat, whining, random shutdowns, blown/distorted right speakers, you name it). So I am still working on a PowerBook G4 1.5GHz 17". It seems _at the moment_ that the high-res 17" might have its act together. Lord only knows the new LED-backlit version suffers from a yellow hue.
With all due respect, I have had many of them. I lost track. They all went back for defects (bad illumination, heat, whining, random shutdowns, blown/distorted right speakers, you name it). So I am still working on a PowerBook G4 1.5GHz 17". It seems _at the moment_ that the high-res 17" might have its act together. Lord only knows the new LED-backlit version suffers from a yellow hue.
Well, the user that doesn't fire up ColorSync right away is the user that doesn't get the best out of his display.
Well, the user that doesn't fire up ColorSync right away is the user that doesn't get the best out of his display.
It's tough to fire up ColorSync to do a calibration when one side of the display is darker than the other side. ColorSync can't help uneven illumination! Now that the illumination seems to be fixed in the latest round (all except the standard res 17" which uses the same panel as before, 9C61), the LED backlit displays seem to have a jaundice cast. ColorSync helps, but apparently, doesn't really mask the yellow bias (From what I have read from user's reports of the new 15" models.)
It's tough to fire up ColorSync to do a calibration when one side of the display is darker than the other side. ColorSync can't help uneven illumination! Now that the illumination seems to be fixed in the latest round (all except the standard res 17" which uses the same panel as before, 9C61), the LED backlit displays seem to have a jaundice cast. ColorSync helps, but apparently, doesn't really mask the yellow bias (From what I have read from user's reports of the new 15" models.)
I'm looking at a 15" LED-backlit MBP right now, and it has a perfect color tint. Perhaps there are a few that have the yellow, but you can get that fixed. Every new technology includes a few bugs to be hammered out.
In all honesty though, you could say the design hasn't changed since the TiBook. Powerbook G4 and Macbook Pro
The TiBook has nothing in common with them, save for the placement of the card slot and the optical drive. Ports on the rear, crappy external hinges that often broke, the "titanium" casing which was mostly plastic, and a totally different internal structure were some of the major distinguishing points between the Titanium and Aluminum notebooks.
the "titanium" casing which was mostly plastic
I'm not sure where you got that from. I have a Titanium PB that I've fully dismantled a couple of times. The only plastic part of the Titanium's casing was the plastic that allowed the RF into the casing for the Airport antennas to work.
Is it silly to think that they could just stick Multi-Touch on the trackpad for things like zooming in documents and such? I realize it's more for use with something that doesn't have a mouse interface, but it is called "Multi-Touch" so wouldn't it be reasonable to think it was "Multi-Purpose" as well?
Yes it is. I've made my case known in enough threads involving Multi-touch.
USB PORTS
For the 15" Macbook Pro, please put both UBS ports together - or better yet, give us another one. There are an increasing number of USB devices (e.g. portable hard drives) that require one port for power.
That would be really nice... even if I did order my MBP on Monday...
With all due respect, I have had many of them. I lost track. They all went back for defects (bad illumination, heat, whining, random shutdowns, blown/distorted right speakers, you name it). So I am still working on a PowerBook G4 1.5GHz 17". It seems _at the moment_ that the high-res 17" might have its act together. Lord only knows the new LED-backlit version suffers from a yellow hue.
It's tough to fire up ColorSync to do a calibration when one side of the display is darker than the other side. ColorSync can't help uneven illumination! Now that the illumination seems to be fixed in the latest round (all except the standard res 17" which uses the same panel as before, 9C61), the LED backlit displays seem to have a jaundice cast. ColorSync helps, but apparently, doesn't really mask the yellow bias (From what I have read from user's reports of the new 15" models.)
True, we've heard reports of this, there's already been a thread about it somewhere, I believe, and all the LED displays I've seen in MBPs have looked actually pretty amazing. Someone suggested Apple may be using two different suppliers for the displays, and one (obviously) has a better quality/standard than the other. If you have one of these yellowish displays on a new 15" MBP, you might want to give the Apple support people a ring to discuss things with them.
In all honesty though, you could say the design hasn't changed since the TiBook. Powerbook G4 and Macbook Pro are almost identical in terms of outer casing. We all love the current styling of the Macbook Pro, hell we all loved the Powerbook G4! But we love it enough to want to see it get a much-deserved facelift.
You're a smart man. Or woman...
(Go Banana is a gender-neutral name - didn't mean to offend!)
You're a smart man. Or woman...
(Go Banana is a gender-neutral name - didn't mean to offend!)
Ha! Thanks. I'm just flattered you find me smart.
I think what would be really something special to watch and be a part of is if Apple decided to reinvent the notebook computer, like they tried to reinvent the cell phone with iPhone, (we won't know for sure until someone uses it). I think it would be a refreshing thing to see them change the face of notebook computing. They're certainly capable of it, the question remains though: what innovations are required to change it to such a degree? And are they really thinking of iPhone as being the next revolutionary step in mobile computing?
I think the collective wisdom around here is probably accurate - that is, it seems people are expecting a series of iterative improvements such as multi-touch on the trackpad, flash-based hard drives, LED displays, and (am I alone in this?) integrated sensing technology for eye-contact video conferencing so we can all pretend we've entered the Era of the Jetsons.
Apple has shown interest recently indicating their interest in lightening up mobile computing, such as the middle-bottom optical drive location and some kind of all-in-one plasticized hardware under the hood (I'm no engineer, apparently.)
As long as Apple doesn't lose too many of its brainy brains and the higher-ups continue to allow the expression of creative freedom in the engineering suites at Infinite Loop, I think we'll continue to watch Apple beat out Microsoft in "Wow!" hardware for at least a few more years.
I'm still trying to convince my father to buy stock, in other words.
Right now I think the MacBook Pro line is really crap. From the crappy uneven illumination and narrow viewing angles in the 15" and the standard 17" to the yellowish cast in the displays to the static and hiss coming through the headphone jack, it's a mess right now. The current design has run its course. We're 4 1/2 years on the same design. They NEED to change the design and FIX all of the flaws wit this product! I find it so frustrating! It's not worth the $2,000+!
I have a MBP C2D. It is the best Apple product I have owned, hands down. The display is a bit uneven with the backlighting. That is my only complaint. It's quiet and fast and solid. The other things you mentioned are isolated issues.
Do you have one? Perhaps yours needs servicing, because all the ones I've seen have never had that problem, with the exception of the ones that were bad enough they were getting repaired. Needless to say, the problem was quickly remedied. The outer design of a machine has no effect on the functionality of the parts inside, so you could build a MacBook Pro in the case of a PowerBook 140 and it would still work fine.
All I can say is that everyone wants Apple to redesign the MacBook Pro, but as soon as they do, everyone will complain that it's not as good as the old ones. A redesign is much easier said than done.
I agree.
With all due respect, I have had many of them. I lost track. They all went back for defects (bad illumination, heat, whining, random shutdowns, blown/distorted right speakers, you name it). So I am still working on a PowerBook G4 1.5GHz 17". It seems _at the moment_ that the high-res 17" might have its act together. Lord only knows the new LED-backlit version suffers from a yellow hue.
Then you are either stupendously unlucky or buying from a bad source. It can happen to some people some of the time... but how many MBPs have you had exactly?
It's tough to fire up ColorSync to do a calibration when one side of the display is darker than the other side. ColorSync can't help uneven illumination! Now that the illumination seems to be fixed in the latest round (all except the standard res 17" which uses the same panel as before, 9C61), the LED backlit displays seem to have a jaundice cast. ColorSync helps, but apparently, doesn't really mask the yellow bias (From what I have read from user's reports of the new 15" models.)
The jaundice issue is not confirmed across the board yet. I do agree the illumination is not even. It can be bothersome.
-LED or OLED Monitor
-SSD Hard Drive
-Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Superdrive
-Long ass battery life
These features would elevate the Macbook Pro to a new level. The LED we already have but OLED is supposed to improve upon this even further. SSD's are only a short matter of time before they become a viable consideration. Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Superdrive is up to Apple. And the battery life will improve with SSD and LED but someone needs to figure out a new solution.
The rest are all speed bumps.
-Processors (who really needs to go faster these days? It's mostly just about power-saving features)
-Graphics Card (if you're serious about gaming, get a PC, if you're patient this will get better and better on Macs)
-RAM (getting better all the time)
In my opinion, the SSD will be the biggest. It will be huge. I can't wait for the day when I can drop in an SSD to replace the old Disk Drive. This has been the biggest bottleneck in computers for years now. Processor speed, RAM, Video have all taken flight but they are all limited by the old school Disk Drive. This will be a tremendous leap in performance.
-Processors (who really needs to go faster these days? It's mostly just about power-saving features)
Are you kidding? We're mostly men around here! We always want to go faster!
(As for the hard drive issue, I agree. Aside from the speed issue, my concern arises from the constant chunking sound - it's unnerving given that every hard drive I've ever had since my first 60 MB in 1990 has crashed eventually.
Flash-based HDs would ease my mind considerably.
Also, it would be nice if the fan became unnecessary. I'm not sure how they are these days, but for my TiBook, the fan is constantly on, even just when using Safari.
In short, it would be great to forget that my computer is doing anything under that pretty exterior.
The LED we already have but OLED is supposed to improve upon this even further.
Whilst a brand-new OLED screen looks amazing, there are issues with lifetime. The organic compounds used break-down over time, worsening colour balance and brightness as the screen ages. I'm honestly not sure if OLED will ever be a good choice - LCD with LED backlight seems the best thing to me.
In my opinion, the SSD will be the biggest. It will be huge. I can't wait for the day when I can drop in an SSD to replace the old Disk Drive. This has been the biggest bottleneck in computers for years now. Processor speed, RAM, Video have all taken flight but they are all limited by the old school Disk Drive. This will be a tremendous leap in performance.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but there are a few issues:
Whilst random access of an SSD is much faster than that of an HDD, sequential I/O is slower. So reading/writing large files from/to SSD is slower.
SSD is rapidly approaching a brick wall in terms of how much smaller the smallest feature sizes on the silicon chip can get. There are some parts which are currently only a few atoms thick. Once you've got to one atom thickness, you can't shrink it any more. You have to come up with a totally different topology. These are being worked on, but what we may see is capacities doubling say three or four more times, and then not increasing any more for quite a while.
One thing I'm sure of is that cost/GB of traditional HDDs will continue to be better than SSD for some time to come.
On the battery life front, I feel that there remain considerable opportunities for reducing the power consumption of the CPU, motherboard chipset, and GPU. Improvements in these areas will continue to deliver steady (albeit slow) improvements in battery life.
On the battery life front, I feel that there remain considerable opportunities for reducing the power consumption of the CPU, motherboard chipset, and GPU. Improvements in these areas will continue to deliver steady (albeit slow) improvements in battery life.
My concern is that as battery life theoretically improves, added technology to take advantage of the improved battery life will make it the same in practice. Similar to the increasing sizes of hard drives (I remember when my friend Terry was the only guy in town with a gigabyte-size hard drive, and he paid $1/MB for it) software writers somehow find a way for applications to get bigger, and obviously media files, etc. are increasing in size all the time.
Indeed, I've wondered if software designers have become increasingly sloppy over time. When Stunts by Broderbund was released in 1991, the replay files and track files were less than 1k in size. The entire game fit on 2 3.5" floppies. Now, there is little reason for designers to constrain themselves to size limits - even when such limits also might result in tighter, faster code.
My point is I wonder if Apple will choose not to take advantage of decreased power consumption for longer life, but rather will add bells and whistles so in practice, battery life between the old and new is a wash.
My concern is that as battery life theoretically improves, added technology to take advantage of the improved battery life will make it the same in practice. Similar to the increasing sizes of hard drives (I remember when my friend Terry was the only guy in town with a gigabyte-size hard drive, and he paid $1/MB for it) software writers somehow find a way for applications to get bigger, and obviously media files, etc. are increasing in size all the time.
Indeed, I've wondered if software designers have become increasingly sloppy over time. When Stunts by Broderbund was released in 1991, the replay files and track files were less than 1k in size. The entire game fit on 2 3.5" floppies. Now, there is little reason for designers to constrain themselves to size limits - even when such limits also might result in tighter, faster code.
My point is I wonder if Apple will choose not to take advantage of decreased power consumption for longer life, but rather will add bells and whistles so in practice, battery life between the old and new is a wash.
This is definately a valid point and something I hadn't thought too much about.
I think the answer is that battery life will improve along with tweaks to existing system functions, i.e. monitor, hard drive, motherboard, vid card, etc. We can keep making things more and more efficient, but at some point there's going to be a pressing need to jump to a vastly more powerful battery technology. Something that will give us days, or weeks worth of charge instead of hours. Until we reach this point, yes there will be a continual struggle for battery life between efficiency of parts and demand for raw horsepower.