New Air speculation...next month?

[flynz4]

If you guys want 3G in your computer, don't be lazy, carry a MiFi or 3G USB modem.

I've been using a Verizon MiFi for the past year, but I just cancelled my $60/mo service. In evaluating my different options for mobile internet, I decided that my $30 iPad option was better than the more general, but "clunky" extra MiFi device to carry around.

I travel a lot for business and pleasure, and I almost always have WiFi available. I carried the MiFi for just those times when I was staying someplace without an internet connection. I have decided that for those occasions, I can suffice with just my iPad connected. It is not perfect, but it works.

This was NOT my original plan when I got the iPad. In fact... I only planned to buy 3G access for it on an a very occasional basis (if ever). I have found that having iPad internet access 100% of the time was more valuable to me than expected. I wish it was one of the 4G technologies just for performance sake, but even the slow 3G is useful... and I know that a future version will be 4G.

/Jim

 

[thinkdesign]

"Stuff ties you down."

Yes. Thank you Joel, and was it Stevemore too?

For all the appreciation expressed for the Air's weight on this forum, I sometimes wonder how many "mobile" workers there really are, here. Welcome aboard.

It's a sure sign that someone isn't that mobile a worker (or they just toss the Air into their car as they drive from one office to the next) when they rhapsodize as much about the Air's thinness as they do it's weight. If one's on one's feet, lugging around a laptop PLUS at least a little other stuff, the blessedly light weight is paramount, while the thinness means close to nothing. (I asked Apple how much the charging brick weighed. "I don't know." Couldn't find out either.)

And there probably are some mobile workers who move from outlet to outlet all day. But many of us do NOT have outlets so available. Libraries often won't allow plugging in, even if you can find an outlet. (And my favoutite giant bookstore eliminated their one outlet. My grey matter now houses quite a database, of where the outlets are and are not.) "A mobility company" would understand that. And they do, in the phone and the pad.

I suspect that some people like the Air's thinness just as a sort of modern aesthetic / symbolic thing. It can sit, never moving, on your desk... and it makes your loft look even bigger by comparison. Or they have a bigger primary computer on their desk, while the Air's light weight comes in handy as they carry it from the dining table to the sofa. For those users, it's Wi-Fi'd to their home cable ISP, so a 3G modem option isn't needed. Or they hop from office to office, all having Wi-Fi.

I looked at the new round Sprint USB modem yesterday. I can't bring myself to buy this. It looks like, if you sneeze on it, or if come klutz sitting next to you accidentally bumps it.... the crowbar-like action of the dongle will wreck the Air's one uniquely vulnerable USB outlet. Not saying it would, but the delicate hinge is enough to worry over; I need fewer computer worries, not more.

So having been saved from buying a new 2.13 in the nick of time, by this latest Barron's rumor..... I'm hangin' in there yet another month (sigh), waiting for the Air's design to finally gel, to finally mature. And it's so nice to read the refreshing p.o.v.'s of a couple of new post-ers, who really "get" the everyday realities of mobile work.

 

[stevemoore]

thin is in

The one true benefit of the thin-ness - significant to me, and part of what makes it the best laptop I've ever had (and I've probably had 20 or so) - is that the vertical distance from table to keys is so short. The 1cm step (-ish) on the MBPs puts my wrists into a sort of z-bend and it is uncomfortable after a while. (the (literally) sharp edge isn't bad at all but the pesky pointy un-radiused corners where the cutaway is by the trackpad piss me off at least once a week, however).

Anyway - I guess we can hope for thin in the new one, although when launched the MBA presaged a number of design cues for the following MBPs, so who knows.

 

[halledise]

Since we're all speculating about the next MBA, what are the odds of an AMD/ATI combo instead of i3+Intel HD or C2D+320m?

yes full agree that that'd be very nice to see. +1
however, it'd make the Air the only Mac w/o Intel components and that'd be kinda unlikely unless Apple are considering a wholesale shift to AMD, which is improbable.

 

[thinkdesign]

Yes, ergonomics. Absolutely.

I didn't want to write "War and Peace" there, so I left out a more detailed look at thinness. But 2-3-4 months back, I have called the Air's thin dropped front of the keyboard as "ergonomic gold". And therefor suggested that any increase in volume (for jamming in enough chips/SSDs, jacks, stronger hinges, stronger lid (lookup "white donut problem" on screen, etc.) should be accomplished by thickening the hinge end, (slightly steepening the wedge profile, which wouldn't hurt). NOT making the thickness uniform across the whole thing, which loses the "ergonomic gold". Alas, I read no takers back then, on that thought. Now I've got one

Maybe I should have myself frozen for a decade. Tell them to wake me up when the whole MacBook lineup has that thin "ergonomic gold" front edge, and they've all shed the disc drives. A 3 lb. 5 oz. 17" Air, with that new type superscreen that somebody here told us about, a few days ago. With any bezel area put to work as a solar battery, like some of the Casio G-Shock watches have. (See Apple's patent application on integrating a solar battery with a screen... in another way. Incredible!)

 

[Nautilus007]

I hope

I hope the air reinvents itself.
I would love a 2.66 CPU
4 gigs ddr3
usb 3.0
and a nicer GFX card
screenwise a retina display would be sick.

 

[tekboi]

MacBook Airs? They still make those?

 

[mangrove]

I agree, I deeply hope a MBA with 3G, but it seems impossible. Because that would reduce the sales of iPads. Now Apple is focusing on introducing its new product and making it popular, it would not let any other product competing with iPad.

You know I've been thinking about what you said above. If the cheapest new MBA say with SSD +4GB +3G would come in at around $1500, then I do not think it would hurt iPad sales. In fact it would probably benefit Apple's margins handsomely.

Keep in mind if the most expensive iPad is at $829 for 64GB+3G, I do not believe even $500 more (at the low end) to $700 more (at the higher end) for the entry Air would in any way hurt iPad sales. To many buyers, even a $500 stretch to the Air keeps them in the iPad camp, not to mention $700. I do possibly agree with you if the price differences came in at $250-$300.

There is a market for both-iPad $500-800 and MBA-$1500 & up.

 

[Joel Horn]

The reason for this MBA

You know I've been thinking about what you said above. If the cheapest new MBA say with SSD +4GB +3G would come in at around $1500, then I do not think it would hurt iPad sales. In fact it would probably benefit Apple's margins handsomely.

I agree 100%. Take your specs above, add a longer battery and I would pay $1500, give me one size bigger SSD and I'd pay a bit more. If anyone from Apple reads these, I think this would become the road warriors tool of choice. I would buy three immediately for our company. And, I know some will laugh at "3" but that is a lot for us and from talking with many others who travel a lot for work, this is the dream machine. We don't edit movies or edit photos on the road. I do all editing at the office where we have latest version iMacs and a Mac Pro running Mac OSX Server. But on the road we need word, excel, powerpoint, mail, and safari, that's it except for watching the Daily Show which we buy on itunes.

 

[Disavowed]

I wish Apple waited for Sandy Bridge, otherwise it's either C2D + 320M or iX + Intel IGP. Sandy Bridge's IGP is big improvement so it should be fine as GPU. To be honest, I couldn't care less about the CPU and GPU, the current ones are just fine for me. I would like to see 4GB RAM and better battery plus SSD in all models, then I'm fine. Price cut would be nice too.

+1

 

[zodqyv]

If an 11.6" model actually ships then I will be buying one each time they get updated from now on. I have a family of three and I know each of us could use one. Presently our main computers are MacBook Pros and will likely continue to be, but a small Air would be perfect for on the go.

 

[Raje]

Do you think there is any chance Apple could be making the new MBA cases out of Liquidmetal's alloy?

 

[n2arkitektur]

Let me guess, Sandy Bridge w/integrated graphics and nothing else, which would be their preferred architecture for a notebook slated for eventual mass adoption. They may skim the margin a little at the beginning to get them off to a good start, so maybe starting at a grand and working up. All models will be SSD only, perhaps, but hopefully not, be chips on the mobo. They may go with Corning's "gorilla" glass for the screen cover. I wouldn't be surprised to see 3g onboard, and maybe one extra port- perhaps a sd slot or ethernet?
Oh, and I think all models will only be available in limeberry polka dot style.

These are the facts.

I assume you were being ironic. You will never see Sandy Bridge with integrated graphics, SSD, and 3G in a Mac at a $1K starting price. You must be one of those expecting it to build you an island and fly you there.

I think if we are giving any credence to the rumors that have surfaced thus far, and this thread was started with that premise, it is reasonable to conclude the 11.6" MBA (they will probably market it as a 12" MBA, despite the controversy that will cause) will be stripped down to reach the mass-market pricing of the Macbook ($999-$1099). The 13" MBA and the Macbook will both be EOL'd. The '12" MBA' will have the cheapest processor with integrated graphics they can squeeze in there. It will have the least battery life that consumers will tolerate. It will have a traditional HDD. And, I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't get the 4GB RAM we have been asking for. It will be stripped down, so it can fill a dual roll as an entry level computer for students and as an ultraportable for road warriors. For power computer users, it will not suffice as a primary computer. For those of us in graphics, advertising, design, marketing, and video production, we will be bound to the MBP's, iMacs, and Mac Pros, possibly paired with an iPad or a 12" MBA for our portability needs. In other words, our hopes of an updated 13" MBA that could be our primary computer have been dashed. It will for all intents & purposes be Apple's answer to the netbook. Steve Jobs has routinely said the opposite of what he intended to do. It would be just like Apple to release a 'revolutionary' product to fill a market it had previously criticized. Steve Jobs says netbook manufacturers have sacrificed power and screen real estate (10"), so he releases the most powerful netbook ever with an 11.6" screen and a full-size keyboard.

I would expect Apple's goal for the MBP's to be released in Q1 2011 would be for them to be lighter (more Air-like). I would expect to see Apple-branded AMD chips. MBP's will become the testbed for Apple's latest and greatest technologies, as the Air has been downgraded.

Given Apple's stated ambition to be the mobile computing company and unstated ambition of vertical integration/monopoly, none of this would be surprising.

For me, this all translates to upgrading to a 2011 13" MBP and a Gen 2 or Gen 3 iPad with iSight/Face Time for my portability needs.

 

[n2arkitektur]

Do you think there is any chance Apple could be making the new MBA cases out of Liquidmetal's alloy?

No.

Apple just licensed this technology. They will need at least a year of R&D to apply the technologies in products for mass release. I would be surprised if you saw any leaked prototypes using this technology before this time next year.

 

[Shandor]

This is what Dell Alienware puts in their 11.6".


Intel® Core™ i5 520UM (3M Cache, 1.066 GHZ with 1.866 GHz Max Turbo Frequency) - Overclockable
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
11.6-inch WideHD 1366x768 (720p) WLED
4GB1 Dual Channel DDR3 at 800MHz
250GB2 SATAII 7,200RPM
1GB3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 335M
Internal High-Definition Surround Sound Audio (5.1)
Alienware M11x a/b/g/n 2x2 MIMO Wireless

 

[analogkid]

I assume you were being ironic.

Not at all. In the chance that Sandy is ready to rock for October, I see no problem with Apple selling an 11.6" screen machine with no additional graphics chip starting at a grand. It wouldn't have 3g in the base model, but 64 gigs of flash memory might make it... maybe not even a drive. Like I said, this would be assuming Apple is willing to drop margins just to get the new line off to some kind of hyped up start.
Do I think this will happen? Not really. But I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility. I think that would be more likely than a P-8600 C2D w/320m.

But look, it's only a guess and you already have it all figured out, only time will tell.

 

[gwsat]

This is what Dell Alienware puts in their 11.6".
. . .

Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
. . .

Genuine Windows! Who knew?

 

[Jayomat]

This is what Dell Alienware puts in their 11.6".


Intel® Core™ i5 520UM (3M Cache, 1.066 GHZ with 1.866 GHz Max Turbo Frequency) - Overclockable
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
11.6-inch WideHD 1366x768 (720p) WLED
4GB1 Dual Channel DDR3 at 800MHz
250GB2 SATAII 7,200RPM
1GB3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 335M
Internal High-Definition Surround Sound Audio (5.1)
Alienware M11x a/b/g/n 2x2 MIMO Wireless

and now guess how thick that it...

 

[kixx]

Its not a little worse. The intel graphics are worse than the 9400M which is ridiculous. And there are LEGAL PATENT ISSUES that PREVENT any manufacturer from using any INTEGRATED graphics such as the 320M in a machine which sports the core I series of processors. This is a legal fact.

This is the reason apple didn't use it in the MBP, because the intel graphics suck, and there isn't room in there to put in an additional discrete GPU like they do in the 15" and 17".

I would rather, by far, have a faster CPU than a faster GPU, i mean honestly who is going to play games on a mac, especially the MBA. So so far from what i read i would like to see an i5 plus an integrated graphics card.

I agree with the people saying that the targeted buyers for the MBA are those who want more mobility over usability.

i5 520M, 4G ram, 80G SSD with a 13" 1680x1050 and the MBP design is what i hope for, dont care about rest.

/first post XD

 

[Spacekatgal]

I would rather, by far, have a faster CPU than a faster GPU, i mean honestly who is going to play games on a mac, especially the MBA. So so far from what i read i would like to see an i5 plus an integrated graphics card.

I agree with the people saying that the targeted buyers for the MBA are those who want more mobility over usability.

i5 520M, 4G ram, 80G SSD with a 13" 1680x1050 and the MBP design is what i hope for, dont care about rest.

/first post XD

No offense, but I think this betrays an understanding of what a GPU is used for.

Mac needs to concentrate more on GPU than CPU, in my opinion.

Bri

 

[ozreth]

This is what Dell Alienware puts in their 11.6".


Intel® Core™ i5 520UM (3M Cache, 1.066 GHZ with 1.866 GHz Max Turbo Frequency) - Overclockable
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
11.6-inch WideHD 1366x768 (720p) WLED
4GB1 Dual Channel DDR3 at 800MHz
250GB2 SATAII 7,200RPM
1GB3 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 335M
Internal High-Definition Surround Sound Audio (5.1)
Alienware M11x a/b/g/n 2x2 MIMO Wireless

Lol. Apple products arent about how much power you can shove into something.

1. That laptop is going to be huge compared to an air. Way heavier.
2. Way more heat
3. Horrible battery life.
3. Not nearly as good of a build quality
4. Willing to bet the display isnt as good
5. Cant run OSX

 

[kixx]

No offense, but I think this betrays an understanding of what a GPU is used for.

Mac needs to concentrate more on GPU than CPU, in my opinion.

Bri

In my understanding, GPU is purely made for gaming unless you are talking about 3D rendering or modelling. In either case a 330M would not do much good anyways. Not mentioning people who would buy a MBA, the Apple version of "netbook" are going for mobility rather than performance. So i would rather have them improving some of the more practical features (eg, starting Microsoft Word in a shorter period of time) than something people would never use in a netbook.

 

[.summerfree]

Honestly, if the next MBA can hit a 5-7 hour battery life, I'm sold. 4GB of RAM and a lower price point would be nice also.

 

[Tyrannosaurs]

Honestly, if the next MBA can hit a 5-7 hour batter life, I'm sold. 4GB of RAM and a lower price point would be nice also.

Yep, though I'd also add at least a 200Gb drive on it. I got to the point where squeezing into 120Gb was just too much work shuffling stuff around.

In terms of screen size, am I the only one who'd lose interest altogether if they didn't offer a model with a 13.1" screen? I don't want two machines and an 11" (or smaller) screen is too small for regular day to day use. I know plenty of people (writers, journalists and the like) who are the same - they're not looking for a second portable machine, they're looking for a lightweight single machine and reducing the screen size would just stop it working for them.

 

[animatedude]

i really hope they announce this ASAP.