Rumor: Apple to launch MacBook Air refresh with Intel Broadwell chips Feb. 24

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  • Reply 41 of 59
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member

    so is this happening? Apple laptops have been stale for like 5 years.

  • Reply 42 of 59
    aquatic wrote: »
    so is this happening? Apple laptops have been stale for like 5 years.

    WHAT?! You can't be serious. Apple's notebooks have never been better.
  • Reply 43 of 59
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismY View Post





    WHAT?! You can't be serious. Apple's notebooks have been better.



    This reeks of the "Applie did iPhone then iPad and now what have they done lately?" argument I used to get from idiots who thought that somehow that was a compliment to Samsung.  A company can't completely redesign the wheel every few years forever, and i think the lineup of MacBooks now is fantastic.

  • Reply 44 of 59
    joelsalt wrote: »

    This reeks of the "Applie did iPhone then iPad and now what have they done lately?" argument I used to get from idiots who thought that somehow that was a compliment to Samsung.  A company can't completely redesign the wheel every few years forever, and i think the lineup of MacBooks now is fantastic.

    They moved to Retina IPS displays at a reasonable cost when HP was still selling am IPS display upgrade for $500 over the cost of their regular TFT display, and they weren't even close to the resolution Apple introduced. Then we have the amazing trackpads and thin design that eschews the ODD and HDD. I do think they got rid of the ODD a couple years too late, but that's something else entirely.
  • Reply 45 of 59
    solipsismy wrote: »
    aquatic wrote: »
    so is this happening? Apple laptops have been stale for like 5 years.

    WHAT?! You can't be serious. Apple's notebooks have never been better.

    Still no MacBook Air with Retina display.

    Apple are moving like dinosaurs.
  • Reply 46 of 59
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    aquatic wrote: »
    so is this happening? Apple laptops have been stale for like 5 years.

    I'd hardly say stale. Apple has dropped the ball here getting updates out though. Broadwell would be one nice update to the Airs.
  • Reply 47 of 59
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member

    from my experience ZERO has changed about Apple notebooks in over 5 years. They lost optical. Good. Retina:  golf clap.  And where is it in Air.  OS X is just finally getting good again.  My MBP with Snow Leopard honestly looks better than their new laptops, for my use pattern.  I will not be pleased if I spend full price on what they are currently offering. Let's see more classic Apple revolution not evolution.  Touchscreen. Real voice and AI like Google Now.  And fanless design would be nice, along with radical battery life increase. etc etc.    Oh yea don't get me started on iPhone.  Now that it's copied most of Android from literally 8 years ago.. it's almost passable. Whatever. Still doesn't hold a candle to the Galaxy Note. I use my Galaxy Note as much as my Mac now.   I want an Apple Surface with the power of Samsung TouchWiz. And a stylus. I can dream.. :)

  • Reply 48 of 59

    Hmmm cant decide whether to buy my new MacBook now or wait another few months :/

  • Reply 49 of 59
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Aquatic View Post

     

    from my experience ZERO has changed about Apple notebooks in over 5 years. They lost optical. Good. Retina:  golf clap.  And where is it in Air.  OS X is just finally getting good again.  My MBP with Snow Leopard honestly looks better than their new laptops, for my use pattern.  I will not be pleased if I spend full price on what they are currently offering. Let's see more classic Apple revolution not evolution.  Touchscreen. Real voice and AI like Google Now.  And fanless design would be nice, along with radical battery life increase. etc etc.    Oh yea don't get me started on iPhone.  Now that it's copied most of Android from literally 8 years ago.. it's almost passable. Whatever. Still doesn't hold a candle to the Galaxy Note. I use my Galaxy Note as much as my Mac now.   I want an Apple Surface with the power of Samsung TouchWiz. And a stylus. I can dream.. :)


     

    Its hard not to commit an ad hominem about this post, but basically you destroyed any credibility you had by making a bunch of ridiculous statements.  Anyway lets hope they do an iPad/Air hybrid ¡

  • Reply 50 of 59
    joelsalt wrote: »
    Its hard not to commit an ad hominem about this post, but basically you destroyed any credibility you had by making a bunch of ridiculous statements.  Anyway lets hope they do an iPad/Air hybrid ¡

    He gives a golf clap to moving to 4x the number of pixels with IPS without a shift in price when others were still selling much lower resolution IPS displays in notebooks at a huge premium. If that wasn't enough to warrant acknowledge then I guess nothing will.

    How many notebooks today have eschewed SATA for PCIe? Anyone that says Apple hasn't done anything with the Mac notebook since 2010 is either trolling or not paying attention.
  • Reply 51 of 59
    frank777frank777 Posts: 5,839member

    So...um...where's the Retina Air I was promised today?

  • Reply 52 of 59
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    solipsismy wrote: »
    He gives a golf clap to moving to 4x the number of pixels with IPS without a shift in price when others were still selling much lower resolution IPS displays in notebooks at a huge premium. If that wasn't enough to warrant acknowledge then I guess nothing will.
    They did start out with a price premium but that didn't last long. Realistically Apple did lead the market into Retina screens in mass produced products.
    How many notebooks today have eschewed SATA for PCIe? Anyone that says Apple hasn't done anything with the Mac notebook since 2010 is either trolling or not paying attention.

    I have to agree here, Apples laptops are still best in their classes. They have continued to improve them. People need to realize that these are mass produced machines that aren't designed to meet their particular special interests.
  • Reply 53 of 59
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    frank777 wrote: »
    So...um...where's the Retina Air I was promised today?

    Good question! Obviously somebody has gotten their rumors wrong. Personally I see this as Apple dropping the ball, especially with Broadwell. Let's face it it took Intl so long to get Broadwell out the door that Apple could have designed 20 new laptops around it.
  • Reply 54 of 59
    frank777frank777 Posts: 5,839member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post





    Good question! Obviously somebody has gotten their rumors wrong. Personally I see this as Apple dropping the ball, especially with Broadwell. Let's face it it took Intl so long to get Broadwell out the door that Apple could have designed 20 new laptops around it.



    I've been wondering if the fact that the MacBook Air finally has worthy competition might have anything to do with a delay.

     

    I doubt it, but Dell did do a really good job with that one. The only problem seems to be the placement of the camera.

  • Reply 55 of 59
    frank777 wrote: »

    I've been wondering if the fact that the MacBook Air finally has worthy competition might have anything to do with a delay.

    I doubt it, but Dell did do a really good job with that one. The only problem seems to be the placement of the camera.

    I don't see Macs really having any competition. Sure, people who buy a Dell aren't going to also buy a Mac for the same use case, but I don't see people deciding over the new Dell because Apple hasn't updated the MBA yet.

    As for why the MBA hasn't been updated yet, part of that is probably on Intel for their delay, and another could be the sheer number of machines Apple needs immediately when they go on sale. Unlike other PC makers Apple will sell a lot the moment they go on sale. I also wonder if there are other changes coming, like NFC and Touch ID, but I don't imagine that those would hold up production since Apple can sell 100 million of those in a quarter.

    The final thing is what I expect to be a major change to the MBA look and feel. This usually comes with a demo, which means an event. Since I expect Apple to do another ?Watch demo I would expect them to detail this new MBA at that time. I am expecting it to be the 12" as I feel the 11" is too small and the 13" is now to similar to the remodeled 13" MBP.
  • Reply 56 of 59
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    frank777 wrote: »

    I've been wondering if the fact that the MacBook Air finally has worthy competition might have anything to do with a delay.
    I look at it like this, Broadwell has been delayed several times, however test silicon has been available for some time. Given the lengthy delay, the fact that Apple has been so slow debut the new machines just smells a bit.with all of the extra engineering time available to them shipping an AIR on time should have been a tight priority.
    I doubt it, but Dell did do a really good job with that one. The only problem seems to be the placement of the camera.
  • Reply 57 of 59
    aquaticaquatic Posts: 5,602member

    pff I am not trolling I am a common use case. Past a certain point pixels do not matter to a lot of users. Yes as wizard pointed out a while back, even when you can't "see" the difference it is "easier" on the yes.  And I actually did notice that. It an improvement that it is welcome. But at first, retina added a massive price increase. It was painful. And I certainly think DPI on laptops with retina has maxxed out. Any more for quite some time would be a frivolous waste of GPU and also needlessly raise price. Look, the past 5 years have not been as big, as the 5 years before. Or before that. For the MBP line. Mostly it has just been spec bumping. CPU and pixels can only grow so much more these days past diminishing returns. It now becomes about hardware features, functionality, sensors, and about software, about its power use optimization, its user interface, etc.  We are due for a big upgrade for MBP.  The pace can be picked up. Although I will say that "continuum" mode for transferring iPhone stuff like calls onto the computer was outstanding. Do I wish I could do that with my Galaxy? Yes. But that, that is what I am talking about. Big ideas. Like the lighted keys, the amazing glass trackpad with gestures. That kind of thing!! You know! That's why we're all here! That kind of amazing Apple idea that makes us do stuff in half the time Windows does it. I bet Apple will expand on that actually and build more control of the computer into iOS and vice versa, including to the Apple Watch.

  • Reply 58 of 59
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    aquatic wrote: »
    pff I am not trolling I am a common use case. Past a certain point pixels do not matter to a lot of users. Yes as wizard pointed out a while back, even when you can't "see" the difference it is "easier" on the yes.  And I actually did notice that. It an improvement that it is welcome. But at first, retina added a massive price increase. It was painful.
    It is amazing how quickly people forget that initial massive price hike. I would imagine by this point production is to the point where a retina screen would be cost effective in a MBA.
    And I certainly think DPI on laptops with retina has maxxed out. Any more for quite some time would be a frivolous waste of GPU and also needlessly raise price. Look, the past 5 years have not been as big, as the 5 years before.
    I'm not sure what you are getting at here, the last five years have been huge! We now have laptops that literally go all day. Those same laptops have GPUs that are passable without the addition of discreet GPUs and the general power requirement problems. Hell even the MBA has gotten to the point that I'd consider it.
    Or before that. For the MBP line. Mostly it has just been spec bumping. CPU and pixels can only grow so much more these days past diminishing returns.
    First I have to reject the idea that CPUs and pixels are in te same state as far as technology advancement goes. In fact I'd have to say we are far far away from the point where we don't need massive increases in CPU performance. In fact I can see CPUs going off track here and start to employ other technologies to be able to deliver the features of the future. Neural networks and hardware AI technologies come to mind here.

    Fact is I've never understood the mentality that says computers are fast enough these days. There is so much that has yet to be explored as far as functionality goes that I simply think people need to open up their minds a bit.
    It now becomes about hardware features, functionality, sensors, and about software, about its power use optimization, its user interface, etc.  We are due for a big upgrade for MBP. 
    Obviously features are important, but many of those features will never come without massive performance improvements. For example a Siri like AI built right into Mac OS. As far as hardware features I'd love to see LTE built into Mac Laptops. In fact I find it perplexing that Apple hasn't offered such for any of its laptops.

    As far as the big upgrade goes that will be SkyLake, the question of course is when does it arrive.
    The pace can be picked up. Although I will say that "continuum" mode for transferring iPhone stuff like calls onto the computer was outstanding. Do I wish I could do that with my Galaxy? Yes. But that, that is what I am talking about. Big ideas. Like the lighted keys, the amazing glass trackpad with gestures. That kind of thing!!
    Touch ID on a MBA would be ideal too. What will be interesting is if Apple comes up with a hardware feature we don't know about and have yet to develop a desire for.
    You know! That's why we're all here! That kind of amazing Apple idea that makes us do stuff in half the time Windows does it. I bet Apple will expand on that actually and build more control of the computer into iOS and vice versa, including to the Apple Watch.
    I've gotten to the point that I don't even care what is happening in the Wondows world. I'm actually surprised by the amount of use my iPad gets and as a result I sit here thinking why. One of the big reasons is LTE. This is one reason I was suggesting LTE in a laptop though Mobile Hot Spots are certianly an alternative now.
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