What things will we realistically see in the refresh?

[entropi]

Uh, the whole point of TB is more speed and more functions. There certainly isn't already a thunderbolt port on there. Its an mDP port, nothing more nothing less.

By your logic there are already USB 3.0 slots on there as well, they just need to make them faster and add a couple more pins for power

no, I just mean that there is already space for the thunderbolt port, there's no need to reduce the numbers of usb-ports as the text I was replying to implied...

you didn't get my point at all - I think if apple brings thunderbolt to the mba they will do it like they did on the mbp (by using the space the mDP already used). ok?

 

[tbobmccoy]

It's not so much the fluff about the hardware changes, but rather the real menace at hand. The new MBA's will come infected with the dramatically dumbed down Lion. An OS, that by all I've seen, is purely a rather cartoonish, childish way to present the OS in a non threatening way to those you have no business buying a computer of this overall caliber.

Yet that said, soon these will be offered hanging in blister packed packages, at WalMart, Sams Club, and other mass market big box stores. As Apple lowers both quality and functionality, and pricing, they will sell as easily as the plastic Fischer Price toy computers in the toddlers department of WalMart's Nationwide.

After all, with the massive profits Apple already makes, and money being the only item of interest to Apple and company. The logical next step is to flood the market with iToys, computers, including pads pods and phones.

How much 10.7 time have you logged? Are you aware of the many improvements,refinements, new features of the OS? It certainly isn't the cartoonish caricature that you're intimating.

 

[urkel]

How much 10.7 time have you logged? Are you aware of the many improvements,refinements, new features of the OS? It certainly isn't the cartoonish caricature that you're intimating.

Cartoonishly huge Launchpad icons. Disjointed workflow due to Mission Controls feature compilation. Awkward hand positionings with new gestures. Unnatural scrolling that is supposed to emulate the real world. Heck, All that's missing is putting Lion in rollerblades and sunglasses.

Now that you mention it, "Caricature" actually seems surprisingly accurate.

 

[jmpnop]

Macbook Air already has great resolution, no point in adding some more pixels. You really won't notice much from normal viewing distance. Also IPS screen highly unlikely...

 

[sporadicMotion]

I would too. The difficulty I see is that 8GB of RAM will be so pointless of an upgrade. Sandy Bridge is dual-socket. I believe the Air uses two soldered modules of RAM (or is it just one?). If it's just one that's actually surprising -- since dual channel memory is superior to single-channel I think? Anyways... getting off on a tangent. The thing is 2GB of RAM would allow Apple to force people to pay $100 more from their baseline to get their Macbook Air to get that 4GB amount... I'm wondering what they'll do.

If it weren't for Lion's memory needs, I'd switch my money over to this I wouldn't call 8 pointless though. I got page outs all the time on 4 gigs in my i5 13" and I'm sure I will on my Air as well (if I only have 4... not a deal breaker). 8 is pretty much my ideal working number... but the Air won't be doing much heavy lifting so I can deal with some page outs.

I think 4GB baseline makes sense since Apple isn't the type of company to want to release a new operating system and sell a refreshed line of new product that doesn't, at base cost, operate very smoothly. I'm thinking if they do a baseline of 4GB of RAM, they may raise their baseprice by $100 on the Air? I don't know.

Maybe... but I have a feeling we won't see that jump in price... not that my intuition means anything

 

[PaulWog]

Macbook Air already has great resolution, no point in adding some more pixels. You really won't notice much from normal viewing distance. Also IPS screen highly unlikely...

That's kinda why I put the IPS screen under highly unlikely... lol. Way to state the obvious?

 

[Kyllle]

I love how people tell others to stop making rumor threads, yet these are usually the threads with the most posts. Clearly some people don't mind the rumors.

I don't see the battery life increasing, maybe a higher capacity battery, but only if the parts were upgraded enough that they required more power. I mean, what laptop battery lasts for more than 7 hours? I think that's more than enough for the vast majority of people as it is.

On the 11", I guess it's possible it could get a boost to 6 or 7 hours, but I don't see the 13" battery increasing noticeably.

I too am really hoping for 4gb of ram, and I agree that this is a pretty likely upgrade.

I think the thunderbolt port is somewhat likely, but I'm not too sure about it. Either way, I don't really care. I don't think I'd use it anyways.

And of course I'm hoping for a backlit keyboard but who knows

 

[Duke15]

A good chance of seeing the 25W chip int the 13 inch, would make plenty of sense to do that.

 

[fristuff]

I mean, what laptop battery lasts for more than 7 hours? I think that's more than enough for the vast majority of people as it is.

I'm going to get the refreshed mba, but my current laptop, asus ul30vt, easily cracks 10 hours battery life because of the low voltage processor... it's kinda sad to know that I'll get less, but mba is irresistible.

Facetime hd webcam would be nice

 

[Kyllle]

I'm going to get the refreshed mba, but my current laptop, asus ul30vt, easily cracks 10 hours battery life because of the low voltage processor... it's kinda sad to know that I'll get less, but mba is irresistible.

Facetime hd webcam would be nice

Just looked it up, it claims 12 hours of battery, wow. Even though it's definitely a bit thicker than the air and only has a 1.3ghz c2d, that's still really impressive.

 

[orfeas0]

Just looked it up, it claims 12 hours of battery, wow. Even though it's definitely a bit thicker than the air and only has a 1.3ghz c2d, that's still really impressive.

This lil guy has 16 hours of battery http://www.asus.com/Eee/Eee_Pad/Eee_Pad_Transformer_TF101/

8 hours in tablet mode + another 8 hours with the keyboard.

 

[tbobmccoy]

This lil guy has 16 hours of battery http://www.asus.com/Eee/Eee_Pad/Eee_Pad_Transformer_TF101/

8 hours in tablet mode + another 8 hours with the keyboard.

That's an iPad competitor, not MBA.

 

[hotcocoa]

is it just me or does anyone else think thunderbolt will be left out of the macbook air?

I can't see it replacing any usb ports, so can they fit in another port for thunderbolt?

also at the moment it seems thunderbolt is directed at pro's who actually need to use it. I can't see the 11' getting it for sure though.

The rumormill seems pretty certain that we'll see Thunderbolt. In terms of port space Thunderbolt isn't an issue because it uses the same mini display port connector already found on the Air. The logic board space needed for the Thunderbolt controller might be an issue.

I think the big question is how Apple sees Thunderbolt. They might think of it as a high-end connector like FireWire that will only be on high-end models. They might see it as a universal port found on all Macs. Right now we really don't know how the people at Apple view this. If Thunderbolt is on the 11 inch MBA, then we'll definitely see it on all Macs. My guess is that it will be included.

Right now almost nobody uses Thunderbolt (the wires just became available a few weeks ago) so this is all about the future.

 

[flynz4]

is it just me or does anyone else think thunderbolt will be left out of the macbook air?

I can't see it replacing any usb ports, so can they fit in another port for thunderbolt?

also at the moment it seems thunderbolt is directed at pro's who actually need to use it. I can't see the 11' getting it for sure though.

Your post assumes that the point of TB is just for high speed I/O. However, it also can enable dramatic system partitioning... in which case, the MBA is perhaps the computer that can achieve the largest benefit from TB.

Small, light, thin, comfortable computing in the field, with the data and connectivity you need while being remote. On the desk, it becomes a powerful platform with TB's of storage, large display, high performance external graphics, specialized peripherals, etc.

TB is more than just a fat pipe.

/Jim

 

[2IS]

Here's a thought regarding TB and a potential eGPU...

Would be possible to have the video output from an eGPU redirected to the laptop screen instead of an external monitor?

That would be pretty slick. I don't have any plans to upgrade to a 2011 MBA, but if this became a reality it may just push me to do just that.

 

[Duke15]

Your post assumes that the point of TB is just for high speed I/O. However, it also can enable dramatic system partitioning... in which case, the MBA is perhaps the computer that can achieve the largest benefit from TB.

Small, light, thin, comfortable computing in the field, with the data and connectivity you need while being remote. On the desk, it becomes a powerful platform with TB's of storage, large display, high performance external graphics, specialized peripherals, etc.

TB is more than just a fat pipe.

/Jim

Also as people have stated it will take the place of the miniDP, so shouldnt loose any USB slots.

 

[57004]

Here's a thought regarding TB and a potential eGPU...

Would be possible to have the video output from an eGPU redirected to the laptop screen instead of an external monitor?

That would be pretty slick. I don't have any plans to upgrade to a 2011 MBA, but if this became a reality it may just push me to do just that.

Yes that's possible but Thunderbolt doesn't offer the same bandwidth as a true PCIe x16 port so it won't be as fast as a native GPU on-board.

However it must still offer some benefits because Sony is doing exactly this.

Edit: Sorry: I just realized you were asking about redirecting the output back to the laptop screen, Sony doesn't do that with their media dock. It connects to an external screen. I'd say that would put even more pressure on the bandwidth so I can't imagine that being feasible.

 

[simon77]

I realistically expect:
An i3 and 2GB on the base 11", a i5 and 4 GB on the base 13". Same SSD capacity as last year.

I want: 4GB on the 11", backlit keys, bigger SSD capacity, Norina to realise that it is me she wants (oh wait, getting my dreams confused again... )

 

[MTD's Mac]

Can anyone confirm (as I've heard it both ways): are there i3 chips that would work for MBAs, technically? Or are the people who say "no i3s" making an assumption about Apple's standards?

 

[2IS]

Yes that's possible but Thunderbolt doesn't offer the same bandwidth as a true PCIe x16 port so it won't be as fast as a native GPU on-board.

However it must still offer some benefits because Sony is doing exactly this.

Edit: Sorry: I just realized you were asking about redirecting the output back to the laptop screen, Sony doesn't do that with their media dock. It connects to an external screen. I'd say that would put even more pressure on the bandwidth so I can't imagine that being feasible.

Well from what I've read, TB is using 2 4x PCI lanes, at least that's what it's using on the MBP. If an eGPU can use both these lanes (effective 8x) that's plenty of bandwidth. If it's limited to 4x you may see some performance degradation with higher resolutions, but 8x has about 99% of the performance of a full blown 16x slot.

 

[dagaz]

The new MBA's will come infected with the dramatically dumbed down Lion. An OS, that by all I've seen, is purely a rather cartoonish, childish way to present the OS in a non threatening way to those you have no business buying a computer of this overall caliber.

After using Lion for the better part of a week, I can't see myself going back to Snow Leopard. I don't use LaunchPad at all, but quite like MissionControl, full-screen apps and the overall feel. The new interface is to me more muted (10.1 was very cartoonish in comparison) and gets out of the way so that you can concentrate on what you're doing.

 

[fat jez]

but, puh-lease - there is ALREADY a "thunderbolt" port on the mba!
(the mini displayport) it's just a question of adding more functions (and the needed hardware) to a port that's already there, ok?

To Thunderbolt enable the existing mini-Displayport connector, they also need to find room on the logic board for the controller chip (it's not built into the CPU or north/south bridge controllers on the MBPs). I guess it could go in place of the discrete GPU on the previous models.

 

[KillerTree]

I really hope i7 is standard on the 13" but it probably won't be.

 

[NutsNGum]

Can anyone confirm (as I've heard it both ways): are there i3 chips that would work for MBAs, technically? Or are the people who say "no i3s" making an assumption about Apple's standards?

There are i3 chips that do an adequate job as processors, but their Integrated Graphics are worse than those of the HD3000. They also dont offer Turbo Boost as far as I'm aware, though this might not be seen as a negative issue for Apple if theyre looking to extend battery life. I wager it'll be low voltage i5s and i7s, however.

 

[Aboo]

I'm not sure we are going to be seeing 3G just yet. Given that Apple is currently partnering with both AT&T and Verizon, the number of variations to the generation of the Macbook Air would be too many (i.e. A 3G AT&T mode and then a 3G Verizon model, not to mention "ultimate", "midline", and "base" configs of each of the Macbook Airs). I bet we will see 3G once Apple secures a supply of those GSM/CDMA combo receivers that are rumored to be in the next iPhone. This would vastly simplify Apple's inventory management, and would also make more sense since iCloud should be more established by that point.