How to mod a MacBook Nano (Black&White), pics-a-plenty!

[CaryMacGuy]

Can I be so bold as to say that Apple missed the mark on the Macbook Air. As near as I can tell, the Air is aimed to be a companion product to the Mac or PC that one already has. It isn't meant to be a standalone product (someone's only computer). However, they are pricing it more than most standalone notebooks will all the bells and whistles. Maybe what Apple needs to do is reduce the product to a 10" screen and sell for $499-$599.

Also to note, Mac OS X 10.6 (which from what I understand will have a smaller footprint) might be part of a grand plan to bring to market such a device. I can imagine a netbook 10" with the form factor of a Macbook Air and it just seems like a killer device.

Only time will tell.

 

[BrianFD3S]

Wirelessly posted (SonyEricssonK800i/R1KG Browser/NetFront/3.3 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1)

I found my PowerBook 100 in the cupboard at the weekend..it's about Netbook size. Pity I couldn't get it to turn on..

 

[DogcowUK]

I have a MSI Wind clone (Advent 4211) running OS X, runs it perfectly except for the normal hacintosh bugs such as forgetting about the battery kext etc. Of course it feels every bit like a £279 laptop, the case creeks, the keyboard isn't great, the webcam is off centre in it little hole and the internals are squeezed into the case to the point where it's hard to close it after you take it apart.

Still I don't worry about scratching it, it has 3 USB ports, ethernet and my wallet is heavier, hence why I don't miss my Air too much

 

[lftrghtparadigm]

A netbook would be great.

Of course, it won't happen, because Steve prefers to get $1000 out of someone for an Apple notebook computer, when all they need is a $300 netbook.

Yup, thats the bottom line. What Steve should have said in that recent Q&A is, "We are not interested in selling OSX on a full machine for less than US$800. Period."

A "Nascent" netbook market is a flat out lie, and a joke. What he means is there is nascent market for smaller, less functional products, that are MORE expensive than they should be. The one person in this thread who said they'd pay a "premium" for such a thing is an example of that irrational and normal-opposite consumer who is part of the "nascent" market.

Apple won't create a lighter, smaller, sub-notebook unless they charge a ridiculous premium for it.......OH WAIT, they already do and its called the MacBook Air.........

Same concept applies to all future notebook possibilities. You won't see a $300,400,500, or even 6 or 700 dollar MacMiniBook anytime in the near future. It would set a precedent that could never be reversed. It would also destroy MacBook sales. It would be absolutely lethal to the MacBook. Pro would be unaffected, but the standard MacBook would TANK, whereas right now the MacBook is the best buy in the store.

This discussion wouldn't persist so much if geeks knew anything about marketing.

 

[Jpoon]

Other people have modded the wind.

All kinds of pics
http://forums.msiwind.net/post44132.html

Thank you, I was having trouble providing links for that. Mac Rumors is behind the times on this story.

 

[The Tall One]

Does anyone remember the Duo? I had a Duo 2300c which was a sub notebook. Meaning, it had no inputs, no disk drive (this was before cd drives) and no nothing else. The only inputs it had was a dock connector and a modem port. IT WAS USELESS without the other half of the Duo.

 

[BBCWatcher]

Apple Is Waiting But Cannot Wait Long

The rise of the netbooks is going to put pressure on Apple, particularly with increasing disruption in the economy.

I think from a software point of view Apple really does not want to use the current Intel Atom CPUs which do not support 64-bit instructions. Introducing a 32-bit only system would be sliding backwards to circa 2006. There is an Atom 330 dual core 64-bit CPU with an 8W TDP, but it is intended for desktops. If it's possible to put that CPU into a netbook, it would be a good choice. Otherwise Apple would have to wait until 2H2009 for the next batch of Atoms. Or get a special 64-bit Intel Atom early.

I tend to think there's room for Apple in this market, and they could dominate it. For example, they could introduce a MacBook with an 11 inch LED backlit display (probably 1366x768 resolution), conventional 2.5 inch hard disk, 2 USB ports but no built-in ethernet, no built-in optical drive, a display port, audio in and out jacks, aluminum unibody, a slight tweaking of the keyboard, 1 GB soldered to the motherboard plus one SO-DIMM slot (maximum 5 GB total), Mac OS X with iLife "Light" (dropping some of the more CPU-greedy iLife apps), and wireless and price it at $699 (for a 120 or 160 GB hard disk model). Weight would be just a shade under 3 lbs. They'd sell millions of them.

 

[Bubba Satori]

Cheap and nasty - nuff said.

Let me guess. They are nasty because Apple refuses to sell them. We can't keep them in stock in my store. Customers love them. They do exactly what they need.

 

[AidenShaw]

You know, lets set the record straight here. PC's like Dell's are NOT more "open" than an Apple computer.

Wow - my "nonsense meter" just pegged.

They still have a certain list of manufacturers they use and bundle the software/hardware together. They are just as proprietary as Apple computers when you get right down to it...

The difference, however, is that while Dell may only do build-to-order from a small list of parts - you can open the box up and replace those parts quite easily. And, except for the disk controllers that have the boot disk, pretty much any aftermarket card or device will work fine. (The BIOS/UEFI have to understand the disk controller to boot the system far enough so that the real disk driver can be loaded. For an exotic disk like a Fibre Channel or iSCSI HBA, a consumer PC is unlikely to boot correctly.)

"Proprietary" doesn't just mean that the build-to-order options are a subset of the known universe.

FOr example, I bought my sister a $600 quad-core 2.4GHz 3 GiB HP mini-tower a year or so ago.

It had integrated graphics, so first thing was to disable that and install a $129 512MiB Nvidia GeForce in the x16 PCIe slot.

Now tell me any system from Apple where you could do that?

 

[killmoms]

I tend to think there's room for Apple in this market, and they could dominate it. For example, they could introduce a MacBook with an 11 inch LED backlit display (probably 1366x768 resolution), conventional 2.5 inch hard disk, 2 USB ports but no built-in ethernet, no built-in optical drive, a display port, audio in and out jacks, aluminum unibody, a slight tweaking of the keyboard, 1 GB soldered to the motherboard plus one SO-DIMM slot (maximum 5 GB total), Mac OS X with iLife "Light" (dropping some of the more CPU-greedy iLife apps), and wireless and price it at $699 (for a 120 or 160 GB hard disk model). Weight would be just a shade under 3 lbs. They'd sell millions of them.

I love reading people's dreams.

 

[bigdaddyp]

Hacintosh

I am waiting on my Dell Mini9 to be delivered today. If you go to http://mydellmini.com and go into the forums and go down to osx you will find a complete tutorial on how to install os x.
The size is exactly what I wanted and its supposed to be a solid little unit. After I test it out I plan on installing os x on it. I will be buying a macbook pro in the future but the size of this is perfect for me when traveling and at 450 bucks if its lost or damaged its not such a big deal. If it works well the kids will be getting one as well. If apple sold one I would buy it since they don't....meh.
It just killed me though to order something that has "DELL" on it.

 

[QCassidy352]

Ug-ly!

But this particular little gremlin aside, I just don't get the whole "netbook" idea. A iphone/ipod touch/blackberry/etc. is something I can put in my pocket and use for pretty decent surfing and other functionality (since the birth of the app store, I often find myself thinking of my iphone as my primary computer).

The beauty of the iphone (and similar) is that it's so small that it fits in a pocket, and taking it places is simply automatic. If I'm going to go to the trouble of packing and carrying something more than what fits in a pocket, I'll take a macbook or air and have a full-featured computer with a decent screen.

For me, the extra weight means essentially nothing - what matters is whether I'm carrying an extra bag. With either a macbook or a netbook, the answer is "yes," so at that point, I'd rather have the power and functionality of the macbook.

 

[137489]

Can I be so bold as to say that Apple missed the mark on the Macbook Air.

Yes and no. Thin to place in a port folio, yet full sized. One thing I hear about netbook complaints is the cramped keyboard. so some say it missed the mark, others say it is perfect.

As near as I can tell, the Air is aimed to be a companion product to the Mac or PC that one already has. It isn't meant to be a standalone product (someone's only computer). However, they are pricing it more than most standalone notebooks will all the bells and whistles. Maybe what Apple needs to do is reduce the product to a 10" screen and sell for $499-$599.

You have a point, but... It pretty much had the same specs (CPU, memory wise) as the Dell XPS M1210 I had (12.2 screen). so if you do not need all the USB ports, just adding in the external hard drive, and it could function as someone's only computer - a little less powerful and more expensive; but it could.

Also to note, Mac OS X 10.6 (which from what I understand will have a smaller footprint) might be part of a grand plan to bring to market such a device. I can imagine a netbook 10" with the form factor of a Macbook Air and it just seems like a killer device.

Only time will tell.

would be cool. see my last post on my perfect netbook machine. think we are discussing the same thoughts. Of course my ultimate perfect one would include the tablet feature like the gigabyte and Kojinsha (man I can never spell it right).

 

[rumplestiltskin]

I have the Wind and have installed OSX on it. I haven't read about the fix to the mic/headphones ports but, if true, that's great. The WiFi is now by Ralink and really sucks (bad driver software). I swapped that out for a Dell 1490 card that uses the Realtek driver (which works fine). The trackpad was a Synaptics but MSI is now using a Sentelic pad for which there is no software so there's a permanent "tap-to-click" enabled and no scrolling.

Still, it's a sweet unit, well-priced and, with my glasses (*grin* - it's only a 10" screen!), it runs my OSX apps quite nicely.

 

[137489]

One think that would be pretty interesting.... Apple knows that the laptop market is huge. They shrunk the offering with the latest models (I can see why, they only had slight differences between them). they kept around the white plastic because they know how people feel about rev A, and they also know people wanted a little less pricey a machine.

I wonder?

1. netbook at macworld and white MB eliminated next year $500-700? - not getting my hopes up, but it seems like this was a step to almost make that happen and increase christmas sales and drive down the existing stock of all the whites. Everyone knows black was not selling well. Even I opted for a while and beefed the harddrive and memory.

2. Macbook - for normal laptop usage (for those who want a laptop as only computer). they already set the price

3. MBP - for those who want a real beefy laptop. I could see the 17-inch being eliminated since the trend to to smaller machines (I just hooked up a 19-inch monitor to my mackbook for when I need a larger screen).

4. Air? - Well it has its place for people who want thin and light, but prefer a larger screen and keyboard.

As far as netbook cannibalizing macbook sales. Not necessarily per say. I think with these 4 offerings, Apple would totally pick up the market and turn more away from PC's.

as for a tablet or net tablet like a Gigabyte and Kojinsha, one can only dream...

 

[ChrisA]

I made myself one of these.

It's a great little machine. Same size as a hardback book.

But I don't think Apple will make one. It's similar in specification to the Air, and costs about 1/4 of the price.

C.

I was just about to post these exact words. Why would Apple want to sell this. Yes I'm sure Apple knows they'd sell millions of them but for exevy one sold they'd NOT sell a more expensive Mac so in effect Apple would loose money on every "netbook".

So Apple actually makes more money by telling their customers "Buy the Linux based computer."

 

[Spades]

Yes I'm sure Apple knows they'd sell millions of them but for exevy one sold they'd NOT sell a more expensive Mac so in effect Apple would loose money on every "netbook".

Uh, that's only if every lost netbook sale means a gained Air sale. That's not likely to be the case.

Let's say you had two options for products to sell. One has half the profit per unit that the other does, but the one that sells for half the profit will sell more than twice as many units. In that case, you'll get more profit out of the product that makes half the profit per unit.

Netbooks will sell more than Airs. Netbooks will cannibalize the Air market but there are also people that would buy a netbook that would never consider the air. But nobody knows if the extra netbook sales would balance out decreased profits per unit, and only Apple can make a guess.

And you never make money by telling people to buy somebody else's product...

 

[sangosimo]

looks pretty cool to me.

 

[kingtj]

Nice hack, but .....

This just further illustrates the point I've been trying to make all along about these little "netbooks". They're toys for computer enthusiasts and hobbyists, primarily. They're not really that practical as full-fledged computer solutions for most people.

When you sell a little, tiny notebook for around $300, people who enjoy tinkering and hacking are going to swarm all over it. They did with Tivo boxes. They did with most of the vintage Macs, as soon as they dropped in price enough to justify messing around with them. They did with the short-lived "I-Opener" terminal from Netpliance. And the list goes on....

I think once the novelty factor of them wears off, sales will slow back down. Apple is probably thinking the same thing, wanting to wait before diving into a niche market that has a good chance of drying up quickly.

Owning both an eeePC 701 and an Apple iPhone, I can tell you right now which one I'm getting the most practical use out of for anything related to "mobile computing" and "Internet access". Hint, it's NOT the eeePC.

A single core 1.6Ghz Atom running OSX would make the 1.5Ghz CoreSolo Mini feel like a MacPro in performance, the TV would be more powerful! There is no way in hell would I buy a pile of junk like that "MacbookNano".

People already have a "netbook" and tablet PC, they are called the MacBook Air and iPhone.

 

[bplein]

I'm surprised that people aren't complaining about Firewire. I mean, come on guys, the complainers here complain about the MB Air lack of firewire, and the new MB lack of firewire. But people point to this as if it's the next big thing.

yawn.

 

[Alchematron]

Steve

Just crank out a 10" Air

With Matte Screen, Silver Keys, Internal 3G Antenna

And I will be happy

Thank you

 

[kingtj]

re: upgrades

The thing is, you actually *can* do such a thing with any Mac Pro system right now. Only issue is, most video cards either only work when booted into Windows via "Boot Camp", or don't show a display at all when plugged in, simply because the firmware and software support isn't there for them.

If all the regular Windows PCs out there went to "open firmware" as the standard, instead of hanging onto the outdated "BIOS" concept they've been patching and patching since the early 1980's - any video card you bought would at least run fine in Windows on a Mac Pro right now.

Wow - my "nonsense meter" just pegged.

"Proprietary" doesn't just mean that the build-to-order options are a subset of the known universe.

FOr example, I bought my sister a $600 quad-core 2.4GHz 3 GiB HP mini-tower a year or so ago.

It had integrated graphics, so first thing was to disable that and install a $129 512MiB Nvidia GeForce in the x16 PCIe slot.

Now tell me any system from Apple where you could do that?

 

[Simplicated]

I don't know if someone have posted this, if it is doubled, sorry

I want to point out that the Apple icon does not glow (i.e. not backlit). It is just the reflection from the flash of the camera making it look like a backlit icon. The second comment, from the image's author, says that.

 

[weckart]

I think from a software point of view Apple really does not want to use the current Intel Atom CPUs which do not support 64-bit instructions. Introducing a 32-bit only system would be sliding backwards to circa 2006. There is an Atom 330 dual core 64-bit CPU with an 8W TDP, but it is intended for desktops. If it's possible to put that CPU into a netbook, it would be a good choice. Otherwise Apple would have to wait until 2H2009 for the next batch of Atoms. Or get a special 64-bit Intel Atom early.

The problem is not the 8W draw of the Atom 330, it is the inefficiency of the Intel 945 controller chip it is saddled with. The anticipated Poulsbo is too feeble for a netbook and so we wait for further developments. Perhaps nVidia may come up with something.

W
"Proprietary" doesn't just mean that the build-to-order options are a subset of the known universe.

FOr example, I bought my sister a $600 quad-core 2.4GHz 3 GiB HP mini-tower a year or so ago.

I have a Dell with the same CPU. A good one, since it is the G0 stepping, which has a great overclocking potential. I say potential because Dell in its wisdom has decided to butcher the BIOS and disable a lot of the standard options including voltage and FSB changes. No overclocking for me then. Fine, I understand Dell's rationale. It does not want to deal with returns and repairs from overenthusiastic yet reckless customers who end up frying their motherboards. Yet, it is undisputably a proprietary BIOS, unique to Dell.

I don't know if someone have posted this, if it is doubled, sorry

I want to point out that the Apple icon does not glow (i.e. not backlit). It is just the reflection from the flash of the camera making it look like a backlit icon. The second comment, from the image's author, says that.

I think the first Macbook Nano mod I saw was from someone who had actually taken a modeling saw to his Wind lid and cut out the Apple. He used a bunch of LEDs to illuminate the Apple logo in classic fashion. Not as neat as using the screen backlighting, but apparently the way the Wind was put together made that a particularly difficult mod to attempt.

 

[AidenShaw]

The thing is, you actually *can* do such a thing with any Mac Pro system right now. Only issue is, most video cards either only work when booted into Windows via "Boot Camp", or don't show a display at all when plugged in, simply because the firmware and software support isn't there for them.

Thanks for proving my point, and showing that I should have said "Apple system running OSX" in my post .

If all the regular Windows PCs out there went to "open firmware" as the standard...

Or, if Apple would take the time to fix her BIOS in boot camp to match the real world, the cards would work. Instead, she only supports the short list of CTO devices (and ones similar enough to work well enough to get the OS drivers loaded).

I say potential because Dell in its wisdom has decided to butcher the BIOS and disable a lot of the standard options including voltage and FSB changes. No overclocking for me then.

Fine, I understand Dell's rationale. It does not want to deal with returns and repairs from overenthusiastic yet reckless customers who end up frying their motherboards. Yet, it is undisputably a proprietary BIOS, unique to Dell.

I'd hardly consider the overclocking settings in the BIOS to be "standard". You find them on upper range enthusiasts' boards, but the vast majority of systems sold do not allow the user the option of "frying" the system.

Every BIOS is "proprietary" in that it is matched to the motherboard. Nobody says "I think that I'll load this Phoenix BIOS from this Asus into my Dell instead of the AMI BIOS that it has."

It's called "firmware" exactly because it is not general purpose interchangeable software.

I can't quite accept the claim that any device is "proprietary" because it has to have matching firmware.