Nothing like a wild and unsubstantiated Apple rumor to keep us entertained in the run up to Apple's Leopard launch on the 26th. The latest comes courtesy of TheStreet.com's Scott Moritz, who says Apple will have a new 13-inch ultraportable laptop ready to coincide with Leopard's launch party, and the laptop will be aluminum like the MacBook Pros. Unfortunately, not only do we have zero idea where he got this information, it's also unclear from his statement if this will be a refresh to the existing MacBook line, an additional tier of "Pro" ultraportable Apple laptop, or maybe that
"Slim" unit we've been hearing about. We've got our fingers crossed for the latter options, but the MacBook could certainly use a bit of TLC, so either way it wouldn't be a total loss.
[Thanks, Byrd]
Update: Many people in comments have pointed out quite accurately that this guy really has crap for a track record. He's been particularly off on
iPhone numbers in the past, and some even claim he's screwing with Apple stock on purpose. While that's a pretty wild accusation to be slinging around, we'd certainly caution you from placing any hope in this guy's predictions -- ours has certainly been shaken.
posted Oct 17th 2007 2:10PM
I just bought a goddamn macbook on sept. 1st - if it's an update to the line I will stab someone in the eyes.
Hi, Kris, I'm from Apple Product Development, and we appreciate your concerns. Therefore, we have decided to cease producing new products until you are ready to upgrade. So please, let us know when that happens. We'll wait for you.
Dude, no offense, but why did you buy one? You knew Leopard was going to be released in october and there have been rumors about this for sometime. Though I guess it still is...
Bummer...
It was an emergency replacement for a broken powerbook.
Powerbook off eBay = a lot cheaper?
Just a thought....
Theres been a rumors out for a while 'bout an ultra portable macbook. You must have just tuned in. My friends screen cracked on her 12" powerbook...she also did the same thing. I told her id buy the one she just bought if the ultra portable arrives. Theres always ebay. What happen to your powerbook?
give him a break, dudes. everyone knows that you can't wait for the next upgrade, or you'll be waiting forever - but it still sucks hardcore when a badass update happens weeks after you make a multi-$k purchase.
Meh, it probably wont beat my VAIO TZ190 that ive been using for 2 months. And aluminum? lol, get with the times Apple, carbon fibre is the only way to go.
What do you mean by "beat it"? Hardware wise....who knows. OS...you lose.
douchebag troll...
you should spend your time on a VAIO TZ190 fan site, instead of commenting on every Apple post with a "mine is better" mentality.
What's funny is...he thinks it is better just because of its casing?!?!?! At least that's the only thing he ALWAYS brings up. Too funny.
Apparently, the VAIO TZ190 hasn't made much of an impact on the electronics & computing world. I can't find very many reviews on it at all. The one customer review I did find rated it like 6.5 or something average. Surely a laptop that is so much more impressive than a Macbook that doesn't even exist yet would have more info posted by gushing, happy customers about it? Or is it just another Windows based laptop, like the hundreds of others before it? Hmmmmm?
And while carbon fiber is durable & light, it breaks down over time & as a material is mainly functional for areas where it can be quicly replaced, and not as a permanent solution. Not only that, but if you are insinuating the carbon fiber is the next big thing aesthetically, you are about 8 years late with that statement there, Vin Disel.
Keep your chin up, someday you'll get your Mac.
Yeh, but mine is bigger than yours. Much longer. Way much thicker. It's called the Bigger Slim.
lol ... given that half the posters on here are Apple Fanbots.. im not surprised i got voted down while everyone else in the thread got voted up
Get with the times indeed - aluminum is recyclable and what the environmental activist interests have been pressuring Apple to use. Is carbon fibre green? It can be recycled but it's more expensive the produce and reclaim than aluminum.
I'd say Apple made the decision that it was less expensive to produce and more environmentally responsible to use aluminum rather than shave a few ounces off weight.
hahahahahha I looked at this guys postings since one of the above posters commented that he's always talking about his Viao TZ. He does in fact have many posts mentioning is LEET Viao. Get a life LOSER!!! NO ONE cares about your STOOOPID Sony! Freaking hilarious!
@GoreTEX
You are a total douche bag. I got curious and read some of your posts on BlogSmith and I'd say about 80% of them are about how much you hate the Mac, Wii, and Xbox 360. Why don't you take your negativity some were else. Maybe you should have gotten the hint when basically all of your posts get voted down. Why waste time expressing how much you hate something? How about go comment positive things on things you like, and leave the things you don't like alone.
P.S. Over 1.5 thousand comments? Good lord!
"lol ... given that half the posters on here are Apple Fanbots.. im not surprised i got voted down while everyone else in the thread got voted up"
Or it could be the fact that they posted thought out, coherent responses, and yours was just flame bait?
Let me guess, you live in texas & think gore (as in mutilation, not the politician) is cool, right? Hence your clever name?
You must be a pretty lonely guy...
But hey, who needs friends when you've got a VAIO TZ190!
@GoreTex
Please give us your reasons as to why your little "carbon fibre" POS is better than a Macbook. I saw you had the sack to comment again, but have not backed up your comments. Maybe you had been running your antivirus for an hour or so and didn't have the horsepower to come do that AND jump on the interwebs. Just a hunch.
Its an an all out goretex beat down!
You've got NO game, son!
carbon fibre? please, if its not adamantium its old news. get with the times.
GORETEX IS A SONY FANBOI, THROUGH & THROUGH.
@ Irfan
Best Post Ever!
It seems to me that fanbois got you out numbered man.
Let me say this, people that waste their time in the internets posting on tech related blog threads are ALL L00SERS and GEEKS, how do I know?? 1st It takes one to know one, 2nd Ive seen the pics of the reader meetings (I couldn't get myself to go to the last one) and 3d geez people, its only technology not religion (maybe for some is huh?). But my point is were all just the same, and we all need some space in here, its sad to see some losers become bullies and other losers become even more losers. Is there any way to stop fanbois and antifanbois??
Sorry to shoot down all the Apple fanboys here, but the TZ190 DOES have the specs to pwn any Apple notebook ever made.
@all you need to know/m1s3r/Damien/HUMILIATION/profile #8820:
And you're an Apple fanboy through and through whose profile is littered with nothing but insults and demeaning statements towards those who don't agree with you. You obviously need to become more familiar with that adage about people throwing stones in glass houses.
Kal El, except that even the slowest MacBook has a faster core 2 duo than the TZ 190. I don't see any pwnage here.
I can't believe you guys would report something Scott Moritz would say. This same guy also reported that Apple wanted to sell 1 Million phone in the first week of its release, according to "unnamed sources." It's no secret that Moritz makes his money by what's called "shorting" stock. That is, people like Scott Moritz make more money when the stock actually goes down, so they regularly produce news that is absolutely outrageous so that the stock tanks when reality doesn't live up to the hype.
He's the king of misinformation! Scotty boy can suck a fat one.
i love that guy on Smallville
If it materializes I think it's a dead cert to be new 13" MacBooks. Why? White plastic is on it's way out.
Stever Jobs is notoriously secretive. If this is true, someone will get fired or lose a contract. Knowing history, this story is BS.
This guy is a liar, an asshole, and a thief who attempts to manipulate Apple stock.
This latest video is nothing more than a compilation of info from AppleInsider, 9to5, and ThinkSecret all rolled into one big wild guess. He does not even cite a source and the whole thing is dubbed "Rumor of the week." But if he is going to do this, he may want to get his story straight. Less than a month ago, he claimed it was a 10-12 inch notebook.
Now that AppleInsider recently restated that this would be a 13 inch notebook, now this asshole changes his story on some video.
Engadget should be ashamed of itself for publishing this guys lies.
M
I would love if there were a macbook with dedicated graphics. I'm probably going to be buying a new one in six months or so, and the Macbook Pro is too big to lug around between classes easily, but I want my gaming at the same time, either on Windows or on Mac. A smaller Macbook Pro would rock.
would-be caption contest material: "Yep, 13 solid inches of Scotty"
If this is true, this will be my 1st Apple computer ever.
I would recommend checking the vaio TZ first
Agreed, this guy should be in Jail for unethical ways he attempts to manipulate stock prices to better suit him. He's pulling this one out of his Ass, & it makes no difference to him whether or not it happens... if it doesnt' great, tons of dissapointed people & stock price goes down.
This rumor has been around for how long? & now that Moritz says it it adds ZERO credibility to it.
Seriously engadget... why even post this? Terrible.
If he's shorting AAPL, then that look on his face is pure panic...the run up over the past 3 months has been remarkable.
No, you forget, the Apple stock plummetted 4 percent when the news about those 146,000 activations didn't meet the demand that Scott Moritz and a few other analyst taking his lead established several months ago. Scott Moritz and his cronies at The Street cleaned up after that.
4 percent is a lot of money if you have hundreds of thousands invested in Apple.
I hope so much that they bring out a slim version of the macbook.
This guy cannot be trusted on aapl. Remember the small boutique shop this clown reported on in August? "production cuts coming on iphone" HE WAS WRONG
These guys admit to deliberately publishing lies in order to manipulate stock prices. Please spread the word, and don't repeat their crap. :-)
I don't know where they got this duo, but these are the two most useless people on TSCM. Most of the other reporters are good, except for that jack*ss that does the '10 dumbest things' bit. Brittany Umar is pretty cute, FYI for all you nerds.
If he was short AAPL why would he try to pump it with a 13" MBP rumor? I could understand a claim of him buying Nov puts AFTER this rumor, but I'm too stuck on the fact that he just doesn't know what he's talking about.
I love it! Soulless stock manipulators... reminds me of the good old days of commidity trading in turn of the century Chicago... ahhh, America, God bless you!
seriously why is no one talking about that chick. She seemed to know nothing about computers but she was very cute and I think that's more important.
I just have a quick question. Is it just me or does Leopard seem like a Service Pack that you have to pay for. Don't get me wrong I have nothing against apple but the price. And yes I use Windows, but today I was looking through the "300 new things" and yes a lot do seem pretty cool, but I would be pissed to have to pay for it.
On a side note, if they ever do put a real graphics card in the MB I would probably be in line to get one myself.
"Unfortunately, not only do we have zero idea where he got this information..."
but we'll print it anyways
Just to annoy some fan boys up there ;-)
I agree with the statement of GoreTEX above on the vaio TZ, though not with the way he stated it and backed it up.
Why?
1) Incredibly light (
(sorry about the post before being truncated...)
Just to annoy some fan boys up there ;-)
I agree with the statement of GoreTEX above on the vaio TZ, though not with the way he stated it and backed it up.
Why?
1) Incredibly light (~1.2Kg) . I don't even consider Apple laptops as an option to me given their weight.
2) Incredible battery life (~6h standard bat.; ~9-11h extended bat.). Again Apple laptops are out of my options due to this issue.
3) SSD options. More reliable, less power requirements, much faster, lighter.
The first two are key factors to me (and many other persons that do carry their laptops out), and that is why I would like Apple to bring in a ultraportable option.
Regards lack of positive reviews on TZ... well there is something called google you know? search "vaio TZ review" and you'll see a few good reviews (scores 9 on 10) immediately at the first links...
On the OS issue: yes Windows is bad. But as I use Ubuntu Linux, TZ is just perfect on this side either.
So, yes TZ is one of the best (if not the best with the exception of the price) machines on its class, and Apple does not have an option on that class. So please, give me an ultra portable Apple and then we can compare it with the TZ. Till then TZ will always be a better laptop for many people, not only GoreTEX.
Just my 2 cents ;-)
2 very valuable cents may I say!
and to engadget:
I cant believe you would want us to take John Locke's words on apple
I can't believe you guys suggested that we were wild for speculating that Scott Moritz and The Street was trying to drive down the price of the stock. You can go here http://www.tradeguider.com/gavin_webinar_files/cramer.wmv and see The Street's Cramer bragging about the practice.
The street is run by crooks! I hate most of the ANALyists out there, and they are often wrong.
Could be typical pump and dump manipulation here, having said that the apple stock price is was overinflated in my opinion! Kinda like a designer stock I guess, haha!
That Sony TZ is a good bit of kit though! Kinda refreshing to see a Sony fanboy giving it to you Apple guys!
Reap what you sow, I am sick of seeing Apple fanboys posting rubbish all over place!
13 inch is a bit big for my liking, why cant Apple make something like the flybook?
As crazy as what I'm about to say may sound, it would be quite plausible that the new MacBook revision would come out with the Mac OS X Leopard release, since Apple came out with the revision of the iMac at the same time as iLife '08. Maybe it's a pattern? If so, I know what I'm getting myself one of the new MacBooks, in black if possible. Long live APPLE!
Sony and Dell both have ultra portable models using LCDs with LED backlights. This premium option is super thin and lightweight. All Sony models with carbon fiber use the same technology. Apple already has 15.4" models using this, so it only makes sense they will follow the market trend.
Chin up, Engadget. Let's see what next week brings.
Scott Moritz
bet you ten bucks it's true to a degree i would probably give my right arm to say that they will release a aluminium/not white macbook however i kinda need my right arm and to think about it i also need the left so i think we'll just stick to the $10 but it also proves my theory i sent you at the start of the year. which to date has been spot on.
I don't have a Mac but want one soon. Does anyone know if the iPhoto lets you make pictures black and white but then add color to one thing? or do I have to get the Photoshop program later on?
i think i saw the new macbook today. Someone in my computer sciene lab had what looked like a macbookpro, but the outside shell was all black. at first i thought it was a modified macbook pro, but the entire keyboard was lit up. This coincides with recent rumors that the new macbook would have keyboard design similar to the new desktop ones. And other than the different keyboard, the rest of that area was brushed aluminum like the MB pro. I didnt bother asking him about it though.