Ultra-portable Apple laptop rumored to be landing at Macworld Expo
By Donald Melanson 
posted November 12th 2007 12:49PM
posted November 12th 2007 12:49PM
posted November 12th 2007 12:49PM
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I could not agree more. I admit watching DVDs in flight is nice but I've always used Mac which = 1 movie tops and then battery goes kaput... other than that, I cannot remember the last time I used my optical drive on my iMac... it is dusty! Wait, a few months ago I did rip a CD, but that's it! Almost all content is downloadable now so one really doesn't need to carry the drive at all times. You could have a slim USB one at home, load the movies you want to watch and travel super light and with (hopefully) a loooooooong battery life.
It reminds me of what folks were saying when the first iMac had no floppy drive. Everyone was going nuts. "What will we do?!" And yet it was fine, just fine. Jobs is pretty good at predicting the curve. I think it is spot on.
It disturbs me that you are calling Jobs "Stevie"
Because of an NDA, I can't tell you that I've seen one. Nor can I not say that it will be announced in January.
Wow, you really are an ass wipe - good for you.
Is he an ass wipe because he won't confirm, or an ass wipe because he is trying to skirt an NDA?
wtf
12" is a minimum size which still allows for full size keys for the main keyboard keys. Function and navigation keys do get reduced on a 12" so it's already too small for some but for touch typing 12" is probably the limit.
Funny, I was thinking the other day, "How often do I use my optical drive anymore?" I almost download all my software, movies, music, etc...
If I do need to transfer data physically I use a usb key.
@matt
"Much smaller than 13" and you're starting to look at having to reduce the size of the keys, something many people will avoid like the plague."
You've never seen a 12" PowerBook have you? I've had one since they came out in 2003. The keyboard is the reason that I'm still using it even though it's slow. It's by far the best keyboard that I've ever typed on. The 12" iBook, not so much. But smaller than 13" is possible.
i would really like a ultraportable mac, but 13" isnt ultraportable, its just small enough to make a widescreen display a really bad idea.
so most likely i will have to keep my 12" ibook, since it is the most compact and most important the mac with the longest battery life.
cool. that means i will save money, even when i get an eee (wich i will do, as soon as they release a version with a full screen and a big battery).
Wtf? The new MacBooks are lighter, thinner, faster, and have better battery life than your amazing iBook
Huh. Now, I'm not necessarily suggesting that I believe that it's true, but I will say this:
Back in the day, when Apple released the iMac without a floppy drive, umpteen critics declared it dead on arrival because of that.
I can't name anyone that I know who would use an ultraportable as their only computer. Given the ubiquity of wireless networking and thumb drives, I fail to see why a second computer would require an optical drive.
For those of you slow on the uptake, my point is this: you don't need an optical drive on a secondary computer. It takes up weight, space, and it kills battery life.
Fuck that, just upgrade the MacBook Pro's specs for me so I can finally buy one.
Why do they keep calling this an ultra portable when it's 13 inches? That's the MacBook's size! If you want one as powerful as a MacBookpro at that size, then keep the optical drive in! And if you can't do that either, it better be at least the price of a MacBook.
This thing is going to look really awesome, I'm confident in Apple's design. With the removal of an optical drive, inclusion of SSD, I imagine this laptop will be .5" thick. That's about half of what my 17" MacBook Pro is. That's dead sexy, depending on how awesome it is, I may buy one but I'll have a hard time living with such a small resolution.
I don't think an optical drive is necessary, I barely use the one on my laptop, I usually do all my things via an external hard drive, we'll see how this works out. I'll be here when everybody is talking about how awesome it is come January.
Everyone is getting a prediction in on this thing so they can all be "right" come MacWorld. I honestly hope Apple doesn't come out with one just to watch people squirm afterwards.
Oh really, well way to ride the fence on this barely-an-issue. I don't really see how making predictions is a bad thing. In fact like half of engadget is predictions. . . why did you open this thread if you don't like predictions. . . I'm confused
I was pointing out that this prediction has been around for months and months. It's not a prediction anymore. It's an inevitability. Every time the ultra-portable subnotebook Macbook (Pro) thin "rumor" hits over the past few months, it evolves from rumor to "well, no shit".
It will have multi-touch no doubt. . . if it exists that is.
But multi-touch does exist! The iPhone has it and also that iLick thing or whatever it's called.
Sorry, couldn't resist. ;-}
I'm not going to miss the optical drive, but I'm actually more concerned about the SSD rumour. In my opinion, that should be optional. The problem with a SSD is that dual booting with XP will be impossible because of lack of space.
werd. I am worried about this too. 64GB won't be enough for me...
Hopefully they will update the MacBookPro as well.
I bet you they do more multi-touch stuff with the mouse trackpad, and port it to all of their notebooks.
Call me a fanboy, but I'm buying it the second it comes out. I've got a Mac Pro and my work XP laptop (thinkpad T60) at home, but really wish I had a Mac to browse the web and such while watching TV. I miss my old 12" G3 iBook, but it was simply getting too slow so I sold it last year.
Who really wants to use their work computer for 'personal web browsing' anyway, and I find XP to be far from useful, especially since the thing takes 10 minutes to boot and login. Not to mention how poorly it handles WiFi.
I'm, of course, assuming this new machine will come in at a reasonable price, ie in Macbook territory, rather than 1400+.
Also, time to buy Apple stock. Glad I sold it before it tanked and can get in at a lower price again!
I have an aging HP TC1100 hybrid-tablet PC, who's 10.5" screen might fit into the "ultra portable" category everyone is talking about.
It dosn't have a CD drive and it works just fine. The solution for me has always been an external USB drive or the docking station. Since I never needed to use a CD anywhere I needed the computer to be portable it was never an issue. The biggest complaint with the smaller form factor (10.5") is usually the keyboard size. Once you shrink the computer past 12-13" you start shrinking your keyboard and there are people who can't or won't accept that.
I am looking for a replacement for my TC1100 and if Apple releases something small I'll have to consider it.
Apple needs to learn how to make the laptops more energy efficient, from what I have heard, they heat up very quickly.
I think they will drive away alot of customers with out a DVD drive.
13" is still a laptop. 10" or less is UMPC territory. If Apple want to waste their time making an expensive 13" laptop then let them.
I remember an under the laptoptop-stupid as hell- idea from apple what happened to that?
Yeah, I won't be getting it. I'm getting a MacBook Pro, about $4,600 15 inch configuration and I can't replace that with "ultra-portable." I need a disc drive and at least 250gb of space
OH HELLLLL NO!
I just got my b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l Macbook Vanilla July!
I don't like my stuff getting obsolete!
Ooo, I cannot wait to get my hands on one of these if they really do come true.
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I wonder if he'll announce The Beatles catalog for release on iTunes... Paul said that it should be ready for release in 2008, and if he's giving this keynote in January, that's 2008.