Apple to begin production of Thunderbolt MacBook Airs next month

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  • Reply 101 of 214
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ChiA View Post


    I wonder if all the posters clamouring for a 15 inch MBA realise that the current 13 inch MBA has the same screen resolution as the current standard 15 inch Macbook Pro?



    If you can see the screen fine then the reduced screen size is not a problem. Us old folks aren't that lucky. I wouldn't mind a 13" laptop for travel but would find it difficult to use anymore.



    By the way one of the things I love about Safari is the ability to pinch to zoom. Again maybe not a big deal for many. I'm also quickly adapting to "reader" which makes poorly designed web sites much more readable.

    Quote:

    I myself went from a 15 inch Powerbook g4 with 1280 x 800 screen resolution to a 13 inch Unibody Macbook with the same screen resolution and not noticed any major difference in usability, but maybe my eyes are very good!



    Trust me it gets worst with age.



    In any event I suspect Apple will need to implement resolution independence rather soon. You really can increase resolution in a reasonable manner without this solution.
  • Reply 102 of 214
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post


    In any event I suspect Apple will need to implement resolution independence rather soon. You really can increase resolution in a reasonable manner without this solution.



    It’s been noted since the first beta of Lion that RI is not included. However there is evidence of a "double resolution” elements that either point to denser pixels displays and/or really large displays.


    (Click for full size image) — [PNG; 1024x1024; 847KB]









    (Click for full size image) — [JPG; 3000x2000; 2.83MB]
  • Reply 103 of 214
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post


    I really wish you'd get your story straight.



    We're talking about putting an additional device into an MBA. What does removing the ODD from the MBP have to do with that? :roll eyes:



    You keep ignoring the facts:



    1. Even if Apple included that slot, users would still have to carry a PCIe card - which is not significantly smaller than a USB card. There's no advantage.



    They would carry nothing as the card would be installed inside the AIR.

    Quote:

    2. Not everyone wants 3G on their laptop



    No fooling! Really I bet nobody here realized that.

    Quote:

    3. The device you're proposing takes up space. The MBA is very crowded inside - more crowded than most laptops.



    More crowded than an iPad? On top of that the coming machines should be running an entirely new set of silicon. The potential is for much more free space.

    Quote:

    4. In addition to the space required for your card, there's also some lost space because of inefficiencies in packing. You also need to cut an extra (large) port in the side of the case. Even if you could make it fit (which isn't clear), it would weaken the case



    Nothing dictates that the card must be accessible via a port in the housing.

    Quote:



    5. The device (along with installation costs and design costs and costs for cutting another hole in the case) costs money. Since users still need an external card, why should Apple spend the money?



    You really aren't making any sense here.

    Quote:

    6. Whatever space is required would almost certainly come out of the battery size - which means a shorter run time and greater cost for all users. Why would Apple do that?



    Apple wouldn't but that doesn't mean they can't build in WiFi.

    Quote:

    7. Apple knows a lot more about designing computers and computer markets than you do. Apple hasn't included it - so obviously Apple agrees that the advantages do not outweigh the disadvantages for any significant number of people.



    Admit it you don't know what Apple is think, what technology they have access too nor do you really know what customer demand is. All you are doing is passing off wild a$$ guesses as fact.

    Quote:

    You're proposing a significant change. It is up to you to provide a justification as to why that change makes sense. So far, you haven't done that. All you've provide is "I want" and "I'm going to ignore all the disadvantages because their inconvenient to what I want".



    Talk about the kettle calling the pan black. Nothing you have enumerated above is rational nor reflects on the fact that technology moves forward.
  • Reply 104 of 214
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post


    Some people don't want 3G on their iPads, that hasn't stopped Apple from offering 3G!



    3 distinct types and 18 total SKUs.



    I thought I made a good argument. I even tracked down roughly measured, and compared the 3G boards in the iPad. I even posted pics. I really couldn’t figure out what he was on about with this carry around a card and cutting into the side of the notebook business.
  • Reply 105 of 214
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by crocodile View Post


    The enthusiasm for Sandy Bridge Airs is incredible. It is going to sell very well whatever spec it offers.



    Yes they will. If the current AIRs are a hit these machines should drive the ball out of the ball park.

    Quote:

    The screen of the existing C2D 13" Air is amazing - much better than the 13" screen on the MBP. Honestly, who needs a 15" unless it offers better resolution.



    Hand raised high here.



    Seriously guys without resolution independence stuff becomes too small for us old folks to use comfortably on these very high resolution screens. "I" devices are very nice on the other hand due to the sharper definition in graphics.

    Quote:

    I would very much like it to have a 500 GB SSD and a back-lit keyboard. With these, I buy it the day it comes out.



    I'd be happy if they have a couple of Blade SSD slots so that I can meet my future storage needs. This is another reason to want a 15" AIR, it gives Apple a little more space to work with.

    Quote:

    Can anyone tell me how the performance of the i7 ULV chipset in a 13" macBook Air would compare to that of (a) a 2009 2.4 Ghz C2D 13" MacBook Pro and (b) to 2011 i7 SB 13" MBP 2.7 Ghz. In particular, will it play Call of Duty?



    I'm not a big gamer so I can't answer your questions directly but honest web sites are still reporting that the SB graphics still suck at games. This is another good reason for a 15" AIR, a real desecrate GPU would be just the nuts.

    Quote:

    I have this feeling that the MacBook Air is going to become my next primary machine.



    Maybe here too. I really don't know for sure as the GPUs lack of OpenCL support is a bit of suckage that I really don't like.



    As a side note and in regards to the 3G support in a laptop, I'm using my iPhone right now and the hotspot just went dead a few minutes ago. With 3G support you just keep going. Can't do that currently with any of Apples notebooks.
  • Reply 106 of 214
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    It?s been noted since the first beta of Lion that RI is not included. However there is evidence of a "double resolution? elements that either point to denser pixels displays and/or really large displays.


    (Click for full size image) ? [PNG; 1024x1024; 847KB]









    (Click for full size image) ? [JPG; 3000x2000; 2.83MB]



    I'm not convinced that big icons indicate anything at the moment. Apple would need to add a lot of infra structure to make a 2X increase in resolution viable. Text rendering and controls would be too tiny on a Retina like screen to be usable. In other words you need more than icons to make these sorts of screens work.



    Hey we can all hope for such screens but evidence is a little thin right now. Besides Apple would need seriously powerful GPUs to get equivalent performance.
  • Reply 107 of 214
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post


    I'd be happy if they have a couple of Blade SSD slots so that I can meet my future storage needs. This is another reason to want a 15" AIR, it gives Apple a little more space to work with.



    In their non-MBA notebooks I?d be happy with a SSD card with at least a 7mm 2.5? HDD/SSD behind it.
  • Reply 108 of 214
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    3 distinct types and 18 total SKUs.



    Isn't it only 9 for the current production model? I guess it doesn't matter as the point remains it isn't a huge negative for Apple nor the buyers to choose.

    Quote:

    I thought I made a good argument. I even tracked down roughly measured, and compared the 3G boards in the iPad. I even posted pics. I really couldn?t figure out what he was on about with this carry around a card and cutting into the side of the notebook business.



    Maybe he has been living in a jungle for a few years and hasn't seen an iPad? It is about the only reasonable excuse I can think of.
  • Reply 109 of 214
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post


    Isn't it only 9 for the current production model? I guess it doesn't matter as the point remains it isn't a huge negative for Apple nor the buyers to choose.



    18 SKUs.



    2 (white & black) x 3 (16GB, 32GB, 64GB) x 3 (WiFi, GSM, CDMA) = 18
  • Reply 110 of 214
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    In their non-MBA notebooks I?d be happy with a SSD card with at least a 7mm 2.5? HDD/SSD behind it.



    That would work too. Currently I have a lot of bulk storage in an external USB drive. That leaves a lot to be desired! The problem is my main drive is really stuffed with apps and documents.



    Speaking of stuffed to the brim I was catching up on software updates and pruning unused apps today. Spring cleaning for the harddrive if you will. Installed the latest version of Adobe Reader - do you realize that takes 415MB of disk space. All I can say is wow, that is a good chunk of disk space for a document reader.



    The trimming of apps really becomes a requirement if your disk doesn't also grow.
  • Reply 111 of 214
    dunksdunks Posts: 1,254member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mcarling View Post


    I want a 15" MacBook Air. The CPU and storage options now available on the 13" MacBook Air are acceptable.



    The 13-inch MacBook Air does have the same native screen resolution as a 15-inch MacBook Pro (1440x900).
  • Reply 112 of 214
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    18 SKUs.



    2 (white & black) x 3 (16GB, 32GB, 64GB) x 3 (WiFi, GSM, CDMA) = 18



    OK. The white units don't even register with me. I find them very distracting for video.
  • Reply 113 of 214
    mcarlingmcarling Posts: 1,106member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dunks View Post


    The 13-inch MacBook Air does have the same native screen resolution as a 15-inch MacBook Pro (1440x900).



    The native resolution of my 15" MacBook Pro is 1680x1050, which is the minimum I want and exactly what I would expect for a 15" MacBook Air.
  • Reply 114 of 214
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mcarling View Post


    The native resolution of my 15" MacBook Pro is 1680x1050, which is the minimum I want and exactly what I would expect for a 15" MacBook Air.



    Well "I have issues with it" might be the better statement.



    For one I got a matte screen on it - a big mistake. Especially if you want to read or work with a lot of text. Matte means blurred text and looks rather bad up against my iPhone or iPad.



    Second I'd like to see higher resolution. Even for us old folks the higher resolution makes for sharper screens. The smudged out text on relatively low resolution screens means you are starting out with poor character definition before your eye sight comes into play.



    Third higher resolution makes for better video and picture viewing.



    However those three items combined aren't what makes the possibility of a 15" AIR interesting to me. It is more about an AIR with a more complete feature set. Hopefully one with a discrete OpenCL supporting GPU and the potential for a lot more internal secondary storage. Of course a faster CPU would be a given also. An extra USB port wouldn't hurt either.



    I really like my 15 incher and would stay with that platform if Apple would port over some of AIRs features but I don't think that will happen. I don't want a step back in performance either, in fact after three years I'd expect a significant gain over my old machine even in an AIR replacement. All of this can happen I'm just not sure it will happen with Sandy Bridge.
  • Reply 115 of 214
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by al_bundy View Post


    the MBA like all the other subnetbooks are niche products. most people want 15" screens, faster CPU and more storage



    the people who buy them use them for email and work on the road, especially long flights



    eh? got any statistics for that? bloody big niche. talk about sweeping generalisation.
  • Reply 116 of 214
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by iGuessSo View Post


    I'm a developer and I spend most of my time in XCode, Outlook, Word, and Excel. Plus lots of web based activity. My 13" MacBook Air is docked to a large monitor, keyboard, and trackpad. Is that a niche?



    None of these apps tax the CPU/GPU in the slightest. In fact with the SSD this is one of the real-world fastest machines I've ever had the pleasure of using.



    I also travel a lot and the MBA can't be beat for that.



    I have the external DVD drive too, which I think I've used about 3 times.



    When I see people lugging around the behemoth MBPs I just smile. If you're a gamer or you're rendering video in the airport it's great I guess.



    lol yeah I used to lug around the 15" MBP. madness...
  • Reply 117 of 214
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    Concerning the SSD, one thing that always interested me was Apple's use of Toshiba branded NAND memory and controller. This is a rival of Intel/Micron/Crucial who have moved to 25nm, which seemed to be better than Toshiba/SanDisk who reportedly would only do this in the second half of the year.



    Thing is, they aren't moving to 25nm but 19nm instead:



    http://www.thinq.co.uk/2011/4/21/san...nd-flash-19nm/



    This technology is due to ship in the second half of 2011 just in time for a Macbook Air refresh around September/October - in line with its refresh cycle and enough to allow Apple to drop the white Macbook.



    Naturally they will want to push out Thunderbolt as soon as possible so the MBA could get an update soon and a storage bump later but it seems like there's to be updates to the Mac Pro, iMac, Mini, Macbook and Air all at once and Apple just don't do that sort of thing because it means no updates at all for months afterwards.



    I still think the update cycle will be iMac and Mini first due in April/May. Then we have WWDC in June with the launch of Final Cut X and Lion. I don't think there are Xeon chips suitable for a Mac Pro update but they can do a redesign with TB support but signs point to Q4 for new Westmere-EP CPUs.



    Then the iPhone 5 (possibly 4S) could arrive in September/October (possibly earlier) with new NAND memory at double capacities (maybe not from Samsung any more) similarly in the MBA meaning the entry model will have 128GB or maybe 160GB. While this is about half the current Macbook offering, it will allow Apple to drop the plastic Macbook and people who need the 256GB can get the $1199 11" model or $1299 13" model.
  • Reply 118 of 214
    touch1touch1 Posts: 22member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by al_bundy View Post


    the MBA like all the other subnetbooks are niche products. most people want 15" screens, faster CPU and more storage



    the people who buy them use them for email and work on the road, especially long flights



    I respectfully disagree.

    I have two Tablet-PC with 12.1" screens (1400x1050) to do solids modeling and write on the screen with a pen to make sketches and take notes. Perfetly confortable with that sise. And i am looking at the 11" MBA. i like the battery life and instant on-off.
  • Reply 119 of 214
    felix01felix01 Posts: 294member
    If they give me Wi-Fi + 3G (or 4G) like the iPad, keyboard backlighting and bump up the flash drive size, my credit card will be out in a heartbeat. But cellular connectivity is absolutely critical to my purchase decision...I want something light and small more like an iPad but with more computing smack and a keyboard.
  • Reply 120 of 214
    felix01felix01 Posts: 294member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post


    Get a USB 3G adapter if you need it.



    What's a reliable choice?



    Every time I've read USB adapter reports from Mac users, there's plenty of problems. I want it built in to my MBA just like on the iPad, same data plans for AT&T or Verizon as the iPad uses...without having to plug something into my USB port.



    Probably won't happen though. The cellular networks are already saturated with smartphones and iPads without adding thousands of MBAs to the mix.
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