New MacBook Air.....When ?

[gianly1985]

Rubbish! The fact that you find the menu items small is your subjective opinion.

My opinion is that THEY R HUGE and I'd like to make them smaller

Stop trying to sell your opinions as objective criticism.

It is true that rising resolution makes things smaller. But perception of how small something is can only considered relative to the observer in question.

You want to increase pixel density while keeping proportions the same (resolution independence), while I want to have smaller things so I could put more of them at the same time.

Besides, give me your universal measure of smallness. 1cm? 1mm? 1 micron?

All you're saying is that you don't like high resolution screens and hence there should be no high resolution screens. And argument like that is rubbish.

Cheers!

Now read my post again, slowly this time.

You totally missed the point, it was never about "what I like". (see, instead, your point about "your opinion that THEY R HUGE")

I was just trying to explain you why somebody could be against higher resolutions and what are the OBJECTIVE SHORTCOMINGS of MAC OSX in that regard.

ps: you don't need to call other people's arguments "rubbish", it makes you sound like a kid

Besides, give me your universal measure of smallness. 1cm? 1mm? 1 micron?

Are you serious?

There is obviously a certain range of size of UI elements and text that is better suited and more comfortable for the average human eye.
This range may vary SLIGHTLY/GREATLY from person to person, so it's not 100% objective, what I was stating is that it's objective that OSX still isn't able to ADAPT to every user's range if we pump up the pixel density.

Hence, there's a need to be in a range that is suited for most people.

Hence, if one resolution has to be picked (and I don't think an OPTION of different resolution is feasible on a product like the MBA), I think that 1280x800 at 13" fits most people. And that's got NOTHING to do with what I like, I could also like 1920x1200 on a 13", I'd say the same. It's not about ME. It's about the tens of threads you can find on this forum about people finding UI elements and text on the 27" iMac and on the hi-res 15" MPB too small. It's not objective, it's statistics. If 1 resolution has to be picked, the current will fit most people. Until real fail-proof resolution independence.

 

[gianly1985]

Oh, btw..

I have to call this argument BS. Point in case: iPhone. Somehow ppl aren't going blind trying to read retina display. More: Vaio Z with 1600x900 is awesome.

Besides, why do you care? I want an option for high res screen. You don't like it, don't buy it but shut up and stop telling me what I want or need or what my eyes can handle.

And YOU call other people argument "rubbish" or "BS"?

If you don't understand the difference between iOS and mac OSX, you don't know what you're talking about.

Your point on the Retina Display is completely inappropriate.

 

[gri]

You mean "it was amazing a year ago"?

It still looks nice? with that I could agree. Its still thin. How about it still has the same processor, it still hasn't been updated, it still offers only 4GB of ram, it still has low resolution screen ;-)

I decided I'm getting basic model MBP. And this is only because I'm going to Japan and they're dirt cheap there compared to UK.

Or if you're American, MBP is dirt cheap compared to UK or Japan ;-) The price difference blows my mind...

Wouldn't it be nice if it were still 4G of RAM...? Than half of the people would not sit here and complain about the subpar 2 G they have in their MBAs...

 

[fyrefly]

Scottsdale: ok, ok, C2D + 9400M should be fine for a while. But what about "cosmetic" upgrades? Glass touchpad? High-res screen?

Consumers don't pay for "cosmetic" upgrades. They'd have to spec bump somehow - otherwise people/reviews say "this is the same old crap with a new coat of paint" and it won't significantly increase sales (the primary reason Apple ever updates it's products).

And since there are no higher-clocked C2D chips or i3/i5/i7 chips that'll fit with a discrete graphics solution right now - we (and Apple) are kinda F'd by Intel's suit against Nvidia.

I don't understand the silly argument "glass is heavy". Its a tiny little bit of glass but it makes a HUGE difference to me. I love the glass touchpad. It won't really make the laptop noticeably heavier.

I love the Glass trackpad as well, but the glass trackpad won't FIT in the current MBA chassis. They'd have to redesign the whole case and make it thicker at the end - but then how could you slice cheese with it??

 

[thinkdesign]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 8.12; MSIEMobile6.0) Sprint T7380)

Comments to the effect that an all glass trackpad would weigh a lot, be impossible, or require redesigning the whole case, are uninformed. In design there is a specialised area called \"detailing\". Goals are set by a general design, and the details are worked out to get it built in conformance with the intent of those general design drawings.

An all-glass trackpad is well within the realm of detailing... without sacrificing the Air\'s (very socially responsible) carpal tunnel syndrome-avoiding, ergonomic, tapered-down keyboard shape.

 

[BornAgainMac]

Apple has another event on portables. They announce brand new iPads. Then Steve says "We are going to update our entire notebook lineup with our biggest update ever." And then go over the updated Macbook (black), Macbook Pro (13, 15, 17). And that is all.

 

[L0s7man]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 8.12; MSIEMobile6.0) Sprint T7380)

Comments to the effect that an all glass trackpad would weigh a lot, be impossible, or require redesigning the whole case, are uninformed. In design there is a specialised area called \"detailing\". Goals are set by a general design, and the details are worked out to get it built in conformance with the intent of those general design drawings.

An all-glass trackpad is well within the realm of detailing... without sacrificing the Air\'s (very socially responsible) carpal tunnel syndrome-avoiding, ergonomic, tapered-down keyboard shape.

Yeah, I wonder how people come to this conclusions. No one ever said: "Look, according to these *technical specifications* its impossible" or "I'm an engineer, I worked on projects like this, this is too hard to to". All I hear "impossible", "need to redesign the case".

If someone has technical expertise to claim that it can't be done with the current chasis, I would really like to know why.

One might say that if Apple could do it, they would; but we all know that's a feeble argument ;-)

So, here's the template:
* It's to heavy because [...]
* It doesn't fit because [...]

and in the place of [...] I'd like someone to insert a rational argument backed with some kind of (at least semi-)technical data; e.g. "the glass weights 15 grams more than the equivalent plastic touchpad, therefore it would increase the weight of the laptop by mighty 15 grams and that's totally unacceptable!", or something like that.

 

[fyrefly]

I don't understand why the "if Apple *could* have put the glass trackpad into the MacBook Air it would have" argument is feeble? There have been multiple updates times (Including the major RevB Oct 2008 update) when they could have put the Glass Trackpad into the Air, and saved themselves a lot on component costs (not having to manufacture separate trackpad's for the MBA). But they haven't.

And it's pretty much a given that Glass weighs more than plastic, right? Is someone disputing that? I'm no engineer, but this says Glass (even at 1/8" thick) weighs 1.64lbs/sq. ft. While this says even a cubic foot of Acrylic (easiest plastic I could find) weighs only 0.5112lbs/sq. ft.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 8.12; MSIEMobile6.0) Sprint T7380)

Comments to the effect that an all glass trackpad would weigh a lot, be impossible, or require redesigning the whole case, are uninformed. In design there is a specialised area called \"detailing\". Goals are set by a general design, and the details are worked out to get it built in conformance with the intent of those general design drawings.

An all-glass trackpad is well within the realm of detailing... without sacrificing the Air\'s (very socially responsible) carpal tunnel syndrome-avoiding, ergonomic, tapered-down keyboard shape.

But the MacBook Air was introduced almost a whole year before the Glass Trackpad came into existence in Apple Portables. There were even a round of Penryn MBP's introduced months after the MBA without a Glass Trackpad. I'm genuinely curious - how does "detailing" work - and does it happen years before a product is even thought of or brought to market? I'd generally assume that since the Glass Trackpad was a year away from being introduced, it may not have been thought of by the engineers designing the MBA's (relatively unchanged) chassis in 2007.

 

[HLdan]

I don't understand why the "if Apple *could* have put the glass trackpad into the MacBook Air it would have" argument is feeble? There have been multiple updates times (Including the major RevB Oct 2008 update) when they could have put the Glass Trackpad into the Air, and saved themselves a lot on component costs (not having to manufacture separate trackpad's for the MBA). But they haven't.

And it's pretty much a given that Glass weighs more than plastic, right? Is someone disputing that? I'm no engineer, but this says Glass (even at 1/8" thick) weighs 1.64lbs/sq. ft. While this says even a cubic foot of Acrylic (easiest plastic I could find) weighs only 0.5112lbs/sq. ft.



But the MacBook Air was introduced almost a whole year before the Glass Trackpad came into existence in Apple Portables. There were even a round of Penryn MBP's introduced months after the MBA without a Glass Trackpad. I'm genuinely curious - how does "detailing" work - and does it happen years before a product is even thought of or brought to market? I'd generally assume that since the Glass Trackpad was a year away from being introduced, it may not have been thought of by the engineers designing the MBA's (relatively unchanged) chassis in 2007.

It may not be about weight at all, it may have a lot to do with room for the engineering of the trackpad itself. The thinnest part of the Air is right where the trackpad resides.

 

[fyrefly]

It may not be about weight at all, it may have a lot to do with room for the engineering of the trackpad itself. The thinnest part of the Air is right where the trackpad resides.

I've said that before - but lots of people seem to not want to believe that. They'd rather believe that there's some Apple conspiracy at work to not let them have a Glass Trackpad on the Air instead.

 

[CaoCao]

I've said that before - but lots of people seem to not want to believe that. They'd rather believe that there's some Apple conspiracy at work to not let them have a Glass Trackpad on the Air instead.

People love conspiracies whether it was Bush bombing the WTCs, Moon Landing, or Death Panels