Macbook air bigger update coming?

[IgnatiusTheKing]

A new air must appear at some point at least with 2xUSB, 256 SSD, 4 GB RAM, gigabit ethernet and above all, a better screen.

I wouldn't hold your breath for ethernet or a second USB port.

 

[patrixl]

The only new port I foresee with any certainty on the Air is the SD card reader, and will put an end to the "no removable storage" complaints, yet we'll see a new flood of "SD CARD? but my camera has ____ card instead!" complaints

Could it also be the first with USB3?

Patrix.

 

[trbutler]

\
Isn't it funny how a change of name from MB to MBP made many people immediately declare 13" MBP is exactly what they were waiting for, and now it's considered good enough for "pros"? Even though the only significant change was the return of FW. I think it's the best marketing decision Apple made this year.

Well, I think it was the fact that the Unibody MacBook brought the line as close to the good old days of the 12" PB as possible, save for the missing FireWire. The few added touches really round out the 13" nicely so that it "feels" like it is in the same place as my 12" was back in 2004: not as powerful as a lot of the bigger models, but well enough equipped and yet in a smaller, nicer to carry package.

 

[queshy]

I have a Rev A MBA and couldn't be happier.

My only wishes for future updates are:

1) Good pricepoint
2) Better battery life
3) Faster, more stable OS (do this by hardware or software modifications (i.e. SL), I don't care).

The current Air has a good pricepoint, decent battery life, and is pretty fast.

I wouldn't mind a slight increase in size/weight to have a 7 hour battery life, and I wouldn't mind having more ram.

 

[Mhkobe]

A new air must appear at some point at least with 2xUSB, 256 SSD, 4 GB RAM, gigabit ethernet and above all, a better screen.

I would also love all this, but I think that they should keep the current 1.83GHz model as it is, and as the price goes down, eventually market it as the "standard" macbook. However, I would also like to see them offer 4 GBs of RAM and others that you listed above as the second configuration.

 

[hitekalex]

Apple made processor (the macbook air is a high end test dumby for future computers, and would be a great way for apple to emerge into the CPU industry that would allow macs to become even more under the control of Jobs)

If you're talking about Apple designing x86 processors to compete with Intel.. there is a zero chance of it happening.

P.A.Semi that Apple acquired is a small producer of power-efficient chips, which we may see in iPod/iPhone some day (or not). But this has nothing to do with x86 processors. There is a huge barrier of entry in x86 space (just look at where AMD is at). We will not be seeing Apple competing with Intel, they are not that dumb.

 

[hitekalex]

The only new port I foresee with any certainty on the Air is the SD card reader, and will put an end to the "no removable storage" complaints, yet we'll see a new flood of "SD CARD? but my camera has ____ card instead!" complaints

No need for SD reader in Air. I'd rather see more camera makers integrate Bluetooth in the cameras. This way you can transfer the photos wirelessly (as intended with Air).. rather than including hardware ports with limited function or utility.

 

[patrixl]

No need for SD reader in Air. I'd rather see more camera makers integrate Bluetooth in the cameras. This way you can transfer the photos wirelessly (as intended with Air).. rather than including hardware ports with limited function or utility.

SD cards could be used for more than just storing photos on a camera...

Booting your OS installer from an SD card? Making backups? Sharing files? Could be the new floppy...

Not to mention transfers on an SD card are way faster than over bluetooth.. If I wanna move my music files to my mobile phone, I use the SD card USB reader I have, not bluetooth, for example...

 

[hitekalex]

SD cards could be used for more than just storing photos on a camera...

Booting your OS installer from an SD card? Making backups? Sharing files? Could be the new floppy...

That would be USB flash drive, already supported by the existing MBA.

 

[patrixl]

That would be USB flash drive, already supported by the existing MBA.

Really, I'm just dreaming, so neither of us can say if it's coming to the air or not. For me it makes sense, it's small and compact and can fit on the Air and add removable storage to it without the bulkiness of USB drives and such.

Only time will tell!

Patrix.

 

[Maserati7200]

I just got a new MBA with 128 ssd and I am running snow leopard on it.

Oh, really. Because Snow Leopard doesn't come out until September, so you must be from the future.

 

[hitekalex]

Oh, really. Because Snow Leopard doesn't come out until September, so you must be from the future.

I must be from the future too.. OR.. we're running WWDC build of SL

 

[Macintox]

I must be from the future too.. OR.. we're running WWDC build of SL

great.. (so by the way, do you still have Rosetta working OK in SL ?
and what about the RAM apetite of safari 4 ?
it is quite important to know because with only 2 GB of RAM it can be a decisive factor between macbook air and Macbook pro ( I am still undecided )

 

[Mhkobe]

i7 xMac in progress

The i7 works with OS X?... I wish apple would just put the i7 in the mac pro.

 

[macbook123]

The addition of more ports can mess up the whole MBA concept: SMALL, EFFICIENT, CLEAN. There is no "Eier-legende-Wollmilchsau" (German for "egg-laying wool-milk-sow") without sacrificing one of the above. There are so many mac users who are happy with one USB and one Audio port, so why ruin it for them. Next thing people demand will be the addition of a VGA-port and we are back in the PC world.
My suggestion to Apple: leave the ports as they are and concentrate instead on the screen and HDD and RAM.

I SO second this suggestion! The screen needs to be higher resolution so it can be used as a laptop for intense work. The resolution on all Apple's laptops excluding the 17 MBP is an EMBARRASSMENT for Apple! The bezel could be smaller to accommodate more pixels. SDD (I take it you don't mean HDD) 256 GB, 4 GB Ram at least. I'd buy this in no time. I don't understand why they haven't built this machine yet. Optical drives are a thing of the past, or will soon be.

 

[aleksandra.]

Obviously apple's original struggle with the air was heat issues, that still remains a major issue, although it doesn't have core shutdowns anymore, it is still just too hot to touch.

Mine isn't (1.86/SSD). Even under heavy load (100% CPU for a long time, reached 80° C and stayed there) it never got too hot to touch it. I'm not going to repeat the experience often, though...

 

[Macintox]

I SO second this suggestion! The screen needs to be higher resolution so it can be used as a laptop for intense work. The resolution on all Apple's laptops excluding the 17 MBP is an EMBARRASSMENT for Apple! The bezel could be smaller to accommodate more pixels. SDD (I take it you don't mean HDD) 256 GB, 4 GB Ram at least. I'd buy this in no time. I don't understand why they haven't built this machine yet. Optical drives are a thing of the past, or will soon be.

could not agree more about screen resolution...but Apple will wait and wait until sales go down or because it will be so ridiculous to have lesser res than cheaper PCs.
Such a large bulky 15" with less res than even the old powerbook G4 is a shame. But Macworld and other magazines are guilty too by not warning away new buyers .
It is totally unbelievable that we cannot BTO a higher res and a matte screen. Many of us will pay top dollar for these options and it will be soo easy for Apple to put in place.
But this is a mainstrean company by now and it shows. I went to an Apple store in Ft Lauderdale recently and was totally amazed by the ignorance of the sales rep... in 1 hour I heard so many stupid things beeing told to customers and myself ... pitiful.

 

[hitekalex]

great.. (so by the way, do you still have Rosetta working OK in SL ?
and what about the RAM apetite of safari 4 ?
it is quite important to know because with only 2 GB of RAM it can be a decisive factor between macbook air and Macbook pro ( I am still undecided )

Rosetta still works. I run MS Office Mac 2008, which needs Rosetta, no issues so far.

2GB seems OK thus far as well. Got 5 Safari tabs and XP VM running right now, memory util is at about 65%. If anything, SL has substantially smaller memory and disk space footprint, as compared to 10.5.

 

[hitekalex]

The i7 works with OS X?... I wish apple would just put the i7 in the mac pro.

Sure it does. i7 is the same Nehalem architecture as Xeons they put in the latest Mac Pros.. Minus the dual-socket capability and astronomical price tag

 

[Mhkobe]

Sure it does. i7 is the same Nehalem architecture as Xeons they put in the latest Mac Pros.. Minus the dual-socket capability and astronomical price tag

Thx for that info... might consider building one myself.

 

[Macintox]

The addition of gigabit Ethernet + another USB would add nothing to the bulk , 4GB of RAM neither. Even an SD port will add nothing , and a new screen with 1440x800 will surely add nothing . It is just for Apple a matter of Marketing decision, the engineers can do it in no time.
If they see that by doing that 70% of MBAir would want to trade up..they will do it.
Let's hope they do because an MBAir at 2.53/4Gb/high res/2xusb/GBethernet/SD would be a smash and many of us will trade up for sure, even if it was 199 more expensive...

 

[lixuelai]

Obviously apple's original struggle with the air was heat issues, that still remains a major issue, although it doesn't have core shutdowns anymore, it is still just too hot to touch. I think that the way to combat this is (again, please don't attack me for this as I know intel is vicious) to make super low clock many core processors. The reason all new processors made are dual core or quad core with lower clocks than the ones we've seen that have a single core is power. A single core processor with a 3.0Ghz clock speed consumes more power than a 2.0Ghz intel Dual Core processor. If apple could design eight cores on one die that each clock at 500Mhz or so, they could enter the processor battle subtly and also improve the air's battery life as well as lower it's heat. We also know that apple must be planning to produce processors for one of it's products due to their recent acquisition of P.A. Semi, and their postings for jobs for someone skilled in this field. My thoughts when they bought P.A. semi were that they would start making the processors that go into the Iphone. This would, however, be a way too risky move on their best selling product, they could however start a go at this business in their apple fanboy only market of macbook air's. It would be the perfect test, get the people who worship apple to spend 2000 or so on a computer that is really just a test in order to improve future products. If apple managed to be successful in this business, it would make it even more impossible for ppl to make hackintoshes, and give jobs more control over their computers. They might stick with intel on their mainstream computers for a while, but the air is the mac of the future, and this would put them even more ahead of the rest.

There is no way Apple will be making CPUs for computers themselves. Unless Apple decides to make the MacBook Air some supersized Iphone and only run a very selective suite of software.

 

[Macintox]

There is no way Apple will be making CPUs for computers themselves. Unless Apple decides to make the MacBook Air some supersized Iphone and only run a very selective suite of software.

let's play sherlock.... years ago the newton far ahead of its time ... then the recent iphone / ipod touch craze shows the enormous demand for email and web apps on the go.
Now, cloud computing , snow leopard, iphone OSX lite... and you get a super slim +- 1 lbs 10" wifi tablet from Apple before the end of the year 09.
It will "then" be time for a real profound upgrade for the MacBook Air.
Don't forget that since Apple went to the Unibody construction there is a huge amount of flexibility and production runs do not need to be as large as before.
We could in fact see many more niche products because of that...

 

[Mhkobe]

let's play sherlock.... years ago the newton far ahead of its time ... then the recent iphone / ipod touch craze shows the enormous demand for email and web apps on the go.
Now, cloud computing , snow leopard, iphone OSX lite... and you get a super slim +- 1 lbs 10" wifi tablet from Apple before the end of the year 09.
It will "then" be time for a real profound upgrade for the MacBook Air.
Don't forget that since Apple went to the Unibody construction there is a huge amount of flexibility and production runs do not need to be as large as before.
We could in fact see many more niche products because of that...

I second this.

 

[lixuelai]

let's play sherlock.... years ago the newton far ahead of its time ... then the recent iphone / ipod touch craze shows the enormous demand for email and web apps on the go.
Now, cloud computing , snow leopard, iphone OSX lite... and you get a super slim +- 1 lbs 10" wifi tablet from Apple before the end of the year 09.
It will "then" be time for a real profound upgrade for the MacBook Air.
Don't forget that since Apple went to the Unibody construction there is a huge amount of flexibility and production runs do not need to be as large as before.
We could in fact see many more niche products because of that...

If that happened it will not be called the MacBook Air anymore. The MacBook moniker is associated with Intel processors. In fact it will just be what I said, a supersized Iphone/Touch. You will not be able to run most software that is written for Intel processors on such a device unless you can convince me that Intel is going to grant Apple a X86 license. It takes a lot of engineering and investment into a product to bring it to the marketplace. The actual manufacturing is a small portion of that total. Apple is not going to make some "niche" product. The MacBook Air certainly isn't. It is a part of a much larger, well established portion of the ultraportable market. There is no reason to get out of that market. A much more realistic scenario would be Apple coming out with some device, under a new line, that will use Intel's Atom with Nvidia's ION platform.