An interesting wave of MacBook rumors hit today, for some reason, following up on these
weird case images we saw a while back. First up, Seth Weintraub at Computerworld says the new machines will be manufactured in an all-new process out of one sheet of aluminum and feature glass multi-touch trackpads -- which seems entirely unnecessary, since there's no reason for the trackpads to be clear if there's no screen underneath them. (No, there's not going to be a screen underneath them. Stop it.) Second, AppleInsider says that the inherent suck of Intel's integrated graphics solutions is pushing Apple away from using the Centrino 2 / Montevina platform in the MacBook, and that the company's planning on doing its own custom chipset instead. That'd be a big step for Apple, since it's basically used Intel reference designs ever since it went x86 -- but given how useless Intel's integrated graphics are when really pushed, we can see why Apple's ready to walk away. Of course, this is all nothing more than rumor and speculation, so we wouldn't expect any of this to actually come to pass, but hey, it's fun to dream, right?
Read - Computerworld
Read - AppleInsider
posted Jul 28th 2008 8:44PM
Glass multitouch trackpads? Sounds like recycling components from the iPod touch/iPhone line to me.
Let's face it. Apple does need gimmicks to sell their product.
The Number one PC manufacturer is kickin' their ass with the Voodoo Envy 133.
NO RESPONSE NECESSARY.
Holy Fuck !!
Wait.... doesn't glass smear ??? How about trynig to keep that clean !
kccboy2004
Take it easy fanboy
gimmicky yeah...once i read about macbooks having transparent lcd screens...did anyone see those around??
I like ponies!
it would be funny if they were actually iPod touch/iPhone screens and you could hook up your iPod touch/iPhone with your MacBook and it would appear or if they maybe had something like Vista Sidebar except better (a feat easily accomplished).
Wow! A badly drawn Illustrator image speaks volumes - are you sure it's not actually a sure fire clue that the Weapons of Mass destruction are situated at Cupertino?
Glass... didn't apple patented a glowing touchpad (although for iPods) a while ago? It would be interesting if there's a trail of glowing light following your fingers. :)
Glass is a great dielectric for the capacitive sensing that all modern touchpads use. If you understood the technology itself and not just the shiny bits, you might know that.
It's possible that the glass will be completely opaque and just a way to avoid the early "bald" spot of the trackpad, though I imagine a different material could be used to do the exact same thing (or could it? I'm not sure how reactive other materials would be and their adequacy for use as a trackpad)
But veering away from the GMA's is more than welcome. But, what I'm really hoping for is a damn user-replaceable HDD for the Macbook Pro. Lifting the keypad to do this is crap.
the new mbp is suspected to incorperate this.
very heavily suspected, that is.
The HDD on the current Macbook is easily user replaceable. I have a 250GB HD that I installed in minutes with zero technical skills. Yes, you will probably need to buy the mini-screwdrivers for a couple of bucks.
Replacing the keyboard in my 2.33 MBP was surprisingly easy. I must admit that I'm kind of amazing at taking things apart and putting them back together again (particularly computers and electronics), but I was expecting it to be really hard, or scary in some way. It was quite the cakewalk.
Admittedly, it could be easier, but I was in and out in well under 30 minutes. The longest part was contacting some of my mac technician buddies to ask them why there was a metal disc glued to the original drive.
Partially obscured by the casing?
Ha. What about that big ass web address?
"...but given how useless Intel's integrated graphics are when really pushed..."
Really? The x4500 is decent (integrated) GPU, handling everything (incl. HD-movies) except games.
Wouldn't understand that move at all.
Apple is going to bet big on OpenCL. Better graphics chips in all their products will make OpenCL shine, and hopefully brighter than whatever Microsoft can deploy onto the myriad of PC GPUs.
@Khattab
Actually, the CPU is responsible for playing videos, which is why they work so well. Graphics are mainly for gaming, which is why it doesn't do that well.
@sam
Actually, you're wrong. The new integrated graphics from Intel have hardware acceleration for playing all kinds of video, including Blu-Ray. Previous integrated graphics couldn't have handled 1080p video, even with a good CPU.
Don't be so quick to put people down when you don't know what you're talking about.
Meh. I'll wait for the Jobsnote about it.
are you actually the big john from philly living in mass.? if so, I KNOW YOU. AND I'M COMING FOR THAT ASS, SANTA! You gonna pay what you owe.
Ponies?
I've always wanted one of those! D:
Ha ha, I'm eating ice cream right now and looking at this on my macbook!
im riding a pony and typing this on my macbook.
I'm riding my horse and typing this on my macbook pro, beat that.
I'm playing Crysis on my PC and going back to Engadget's main page.
I'm trying to feed my pony ice cream but he's eating my macbook! *mad*
My GF's riding me, using her MacBook while I'm using ice cream in various interesting ways...
I'm riding a MacBook while eating a pony?
I'd buy if they made the trackpad into a multi touch screen.
I could say 'meh', too.
BUT, these rumors have a funny way of turning out to be mostly true.
The bottom line? Save your gobs of money now, cuz it isn't gonna be cheap...
what about all that talk from apple about lowering prices dramatically to stay in line with other pc manufacturers.
On the contrary, their intentions are to lower prices, not raise them. Just because it is an added feature, doesn't necessarily mean higher prices. When they first incorporated the iSight into the iMacs, for example, the prices were not increased.
I'm gonna have to be "that guy" who chimes in on the rumor threads to post a wish list that will never be ready by anyone who cares...
... c'mon, Apple, sub-$900 12" or 13.3" laptop. I'm sick of having my work Thinkpad as my only portable, but can't justify buying a mid to high-end laptop when all I need my portable for is resource-unintensive work. If I wanted big power I'd use my desktop.
Apple better release their new MacBook's before the end of September MAN I cannot wait any longer!!!
@Arley,
Why wait.
Voodoo Envy 133. Now.
kccboy2004
He wants an optical drive in it, fanboy! And he doesn't want to wear gloves when using his laptop too!
I dont know what some apple exec was smoking (or drinking) when they "leaked" *cough*pranked*cough* the "news" to some blog and laugh at all of us that give this crap any press. Plus what a stupid idea. Why would you put some of the hottest components (the battery,the hdd, the GPU) next to each other? Why put the battery and the hdd in the same compartment? I guess so you could upgrade the hdd. But if you want to use two or more batteries that means you would need to reinstall the os and have an exact mirror on each drive that is constantly updated. This is such a fake. Im calling shenanigans!!
Last I checked you had to take out the battery to get to the HDD chamber, at least on the MacBooks, which could mean they're doing the same thing here.
fail. and your fifth.
Please Apple, just use Montevina. It's awesome. I'd rather rely upon Intel for updated drivers when I Bootcamp Vista/OS X, not Apple.
That case better be easy to open, since almost every component on mine died just a week after it went out of warranty. Apple refuses to fix it too...
CPU is now averaging 80 C, hitting 100 C often.
Screen has many faded pixel clusters.
Lid sensor dosnt work, so it cant stand by.
DVD drive is dead.
Battery casing has opened up...
And yes that pretty much all happened in a day.
haha. so much for 'it just works'.
Well it does work... but just barely. I'm honestly disappointed with it, since alot of people praised that its one of the best laptops you can buy. Sure its good at first but it sure as hell didn't last, heck my 7 year old Toshiba would be in perfect running condition if it got a new battery.
@XGM,
Apple innovated the phrase "The Emporer has no Clothes".
Mate, welcome to the Apple-swindled-me-those-dirty-rotten-bastards club. You're in !
Yea and to make it worse they want me to drive 4 hours to the damn apple store in Toronto !!! I still like OS X, no doubt, but still this support and warranty has put me off getting a new Mac for quite a while...
Dude don't lie, if your cpu was hitting 100C (212F) it would be fried not to mention the motherboard around it burned pretty bad too just from being near it.
*sigh* Link, don't put people down when you don't really know what you're talking about. many CPU's are designed to take 100ºC, many of those being laptop CPU's. Also, you can technically go beyond the "maximum" heat specification and have your laptop still work, it will just greatly shorten the life of the CPU.
Link, max TDP of a Xeon quad core is 85C. Laptop CPUs are designed to take heat.
The poster above is right, STFU because you dont know what you are talking about.
Heh, my MBP is a piece of shit too. I have had my screen, keyboard, bottom casing, battery, and my logic board replaced. I have only had it for a year too. I have no idea why everyone always praises Apple's workmanship. It seems to me that Macs are pretty poorly made. I know it will be my last one.
My Macbook Pro works absolutely fine, my iMac too.
Maybe it's possible that you only hear those who have problems with their products as they are the most vocal compared to the silent and happy majority?
PFFFF!!!!! what do you mean "silent and happy majority?" You got it backwards my boi, the majority of Apple product owners/phanboys are the biggest iTrolls I've seen since Linux got its cool back again.
Kizorblade: Sounds like what a majority of 360 and Vista owners have been saying for years now.
Uhm, so are they saying that Apple will be manufacturing it's own IGP, because I really doubt that. They have no experience in that market. That is insane.
Far more likely that they might decide to lower their lofty profit margins a tad and stick a decent dedicated GPU in that oversized embarrassment of a chassis that is the Macbook.
They didn't have much experience in the cell phone market, either, 2 years ago.
8 years ago they had absolutely no experience in the realm of PMP's.
While i can't say that either the iPod or the iPhone are the greatest inventions in their realms, i can say that they're doing pretty freaking well for themselves in those arenas. Who's to say they wouldn't be able to do the same with their own chipsets?
Uhm, phrogg, I know you probably think anything Apple does is gold, and they can't possibly do wrong, if you think about this for more than 5 seconds, you will realize it makes no sense. Making an end user device, and designing a chipset, are completely different skillsets, and Apple has never done anything even close. Besides the fact, they have the best, most reliable, chipsets in the world made by Intel at their disposal. There is no motivation for them to make their own.
Think for 5 seconds before you mindless defend Apple when it doesn't make a lick of sense.
I was about to post the same thing when I saw your post... Agreed. In fact, it made me immediately think of the debacle Microsoft got into with the Xbox when they decided to take chip design in house. Result, failure rates and losses well in excess of the "savings".
I know they just bought a chip company, but still... Color me concerned.
Actually 0megapart!cle, Apple have a long and proud history of designing their own chipsets -- including graphics chipsets. Okay, so they've not done so in a while, but they have just bought a bunch of very clever chip designers in PA Semi.
Uhm, no. I am not intensely familiar with the history of Apple, but I know they didn't design their own GPU's at least as far back as the G4 powerbook (which came with nvidia graphics). While Apple may have designed their own chipset way back when they were using Moto processors, Intel is a whole different ballgame. The first several iterations of any Apple chipset would be guaranteed to run hotter, slower, and bigger (physical size) than the best Intel chipset (which is what they normally use), and Apple is not stupid enough to make such a decision.
And PA Semi has no history designing chipsets. Anything they made would be so inferior to Intel chipsets, as stated above, that it would make no sense to use it.
Well glass is scratch-resistant and more environmentally friendly... but.... I don't know what use the first advantage is, and the second advantage is only minor due to the size of the component.
Maybe it will be a completely eco-friendly laptop with powder-coated aluminium and glass.. ;)
The title made me laugh, that's all I've got to say really :) Ponies!
Wait A minute WTF is this for the MacBook or MacBook Pro man I hope this is for the MacBook.
What position does this make you in life?
Now I am worried I just got a black MacBook!!!
im with you :D
wow another apple thread thanks engadget
Wow, another complete arsehole who not only sees the apple article but goes into it and posts a reply... unemployed much?
I would bet you a large sum of money there are twice as many "OMG WTF another Apple thread from the Apple-loving Engadget bloggers" posts than there are actual posts about Apple.
hehe you guys kicked him in his teeth :)
why is it that engadget has nothing but rabid windows fanboys, 2 articulate apple fanboys, and 27 semi-parody apple fanboy/trolls?
"why is it that engadget has nothing but rabid windows fanboys, 2 articulate apple fanboys, and 27 semi-parody apple fanboy/trolls?"
So if you like windows, you = "rabid windows fanboy"
Then you have two, articulate people, oh they have to be Apple users, of course.
And how do they explain all of the Apple trolls?
Why those are all "27 semi-parody apple fanboy/trolls"! They cant be real Apple users! They are so embarrassing to phanbouy, that he has to try to pawn them off as fake Apple users. Real cute.
Fred,
Phanbouy has a point, but he missed what you were alluding to: There's a good deal of sensible Windows users here who are (rightly) sick and tired of the vocal minority of actual Apple noisemakers.
I'm an Apple user and, yes, I like OS X more than Windows, but I'm not about to delude myself into thinking either platform is without strengths and weaknesses.
Unfortunately, the people who make the most noise and draw the most attention are the fanboys, and the moderate majority tend to stay silent. There's usually not much point in commenting since we're not often heard over the din of them.
@nick
u r welcome.
Hopefully this is true about the x4500...intel screwed the crap out of the launch of the 4500 gpu...where is it?? Still no where to be found..nice.
ICE CREAM AND PONIES WOOT!!!!
But seriously glass trackpad.. Come on where's the logic in that. The only thing we can really predict here is custom chipsets.
I'm sporting a tremendous woody!
i can so imagine you fwapping to apple presentations with steve jobs. a turtleneck makes you need a cold shower lol.
apple-molesters have it easy, they can't get viruses.
I hope they release it while Steve is still alive or still CEO, which ever comes first if his health rumors are true.
You know who else tried to engineer their own graphics chipset? Microsoft. RRoD coming to Mac's? Don't do it, Apple.
Only your deluded into thinking that my annoying pathetic Apple troll.
I was trying to reply to Clak, for some reason, I can't reply to his comments, nobody can! What the fuck!?
glass trackpads? awesome. something else that's easily breakable and is going to cost a nice amount of coin to fix.
Why not get a systemboard manufacturer like Foxconn or Asus to make a motherboard with a discrete nVidia or ATi chip soldered on? Driver wise it would be the same as any other high performance laptop.
This is all BS. I remember the hype surrounding the MacBook Air very well. About one-tenth of the rumors turned out to be true. From a lightweight that had everything to a lightweight that had almost nothing except a multi-touch trackpad.
I know where Apple is heading: Thin and light and very little else. No memory slots, no hard drives, one USB port. Everything is gonna be wireless. Apple calls it minimalist. Most computer users call it very short on features.
OMG PONIES!!!!!11
So, were getting a MacBook "pony" edition, and Apple is getting into the ice cream market with apple flavored ice cream? All my favouite things in one store, they should add a hotel so I can love there!!
go away clak
you are not funny
you don't annoy people
you are simply wasting bandwidth and space
so go away
u r not funny either
Uh, didn't Apple just buy a chip manufacturer? Sounds like they have good designs too. Considering this happened just a month or two ago I'm not sure they would be releasing products with chips made from that venture. It could be that they were already working together before Apple bought them though. All in all I think it's more about regaining some of Apples margins (they've been slowly/continuely loosing of the last few quarters) than it is about increasing performance.
I think this will eventually hit home on the Iphone as well. The margins for the first one versus the second were drastically larger.
Reading up on P.A. Semi, it doesn't seem like they were originally into graphics processors...
But entering the competitive market with Nvidia's upcoming offerings of integrated and mobile processors seems to be a very big undertaking.
Reading up on the acquisition, Apple wanted P.A. Semi's intellectual property and engineers; and P.A.'s design to fabrication time on new chips in the past was years.
So I sort of doubt Apple will be trying to compete on the graphics front...But that's my take...
walk away from Intel??? so...are they planning design there own processors and graphics card to compete against Intel?? or are they going back to powerpc???
none of the above i suppose
Tell that to the first MBP that I had that went in for repairs 4 times in 6 months until Apple replaced it with a C2D and that one has been in twice. Would have been a third and fourth time but the graphics corrected itself and the thing stopped seeing an optical audio something plugged into the side and finally turned the internal speakers back on so it works again.
Now I just need to take the fucking thing in and get the optical drive replaced, now that they got the Apple care transferred from the old laptop to the new one, because the pile of shit is burning coasters.
I'm sick of people extolling the virtues of Apple. Its horseshit propaganda.
I will never buy a Mac EVER again if for NO other reason then they do their beta testing on their early adopters. It it a KNOW and well documented fact that if you go to any board Mac users will recommend staying away from gen 1 hardware. Why? Mum when you ask them that but it boils down to beta testing by the users.
Two laptops within a year's span. Both garbage. Apple makes overpriced shit that you can barely upgrade, and is so on the edge of the thermal envelope that it causes x number of systems to die prematurely, all in the name for Unkie Steve's thin fetish. I swear to god if I ever met the man I would spit in his face for the number of times I've been left in the lurch without a laptop. My fav was when I went to TX for a 4 day training event in early '07. Laptop's keyboard stopped working. I went out and ended up buying an external keyboard for those other two days. Get back. Go to the Apple store and lo and behold it starts working again. NEVER. NEVER in 4 other laptops that I've owned (Dell, Toshiba, IBM, IBM) have I had the keyboard just STOP working.
And at least Dell will send someone out to your fucking house. Apple will take your computer and keep it for a week or more while they fix it. Hell last time I took it in they shipped the damn mobo to the Apple store and it still took 4 days to repair it. That is the mark of GREAT customer service.
Fuck Apple. Fuck them with sandpaper. I couldn't cure if they used gold trackpads. Until they do some REAL QC with those billions they have in their coffers I will say Hell no. Never again Apple.
PS- Flame away. The above may have been a really pissy rant. Not a damn thing in it was a lie or an exaggeration. Its all true and it has cost me weeks of productivity. All because I "heard" and read how wonderful the Apple platform was. So I dived in all $3,500 in. And what did it get me....misery. I hate Apple, and when I can either scrape togeter enough to get a SOLID PC or a PC that has a warranty that doesn't leave me in the lurch for days on end. I will sell this thing to the first sucker that comes along.
Dude I hear you, but at least you got yours replaced. I have a Santa Rosa MBP that has had the screen, keyboard, bottom casing, and logic board replaced in the first year that I have had it. As a computer science major I had a really hard time bringing it in because I use it for everything. Those assholes at Apple said that they don't replace laptops. I tell everyone I can that is buying a new computer to stay away from Apple. I figure it is the least I can do to counteract all the idiots that spew praise at Apple all the time.
For one Apple is ranked in #1 in customer support
#2:
Troll, take your pill and go back in your cave hermit!
Macbook Pro and iMac here, works fine.
There. Not all of us have faulty laptops. Mkay?
@Jon Doe.,
take your pill. again.
waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa :(
I own a macbook gen 1 penryn hardware, and it kicks ass. No problems at all.
In my household there are 4 macbook pros, 2 of which are the new gen 1, as well as 2 new macbooks gen 1.
No problems. Ever. Wait, no, my roommate spilled beer on his keyboard and had to get his mobo replaced, but somehow was able to pass it off as not his fault, got it back in 2 days. My, what terrible service huh?
And oh, how dare those bastards replace your aging laptop with a shiny new one, what pricks!
It sucks that your MBP is getting hot, but, show me a good graphics lappie that doesn't get pretty hot.
In the mean time though, you should probably find a therapist that isn't a bunch of random articles on a tech news blog.
Tell that to the first MBP that I had that went in for repairs 4 times in 6 months until Apple replaced it with a C2D and that one has been in twice. Would have been a third and fourth time but the graphics corrected itself and the thing stopped seeing an optical audio something plugged into the side and finally turned the internal speakers back on so it works again.
Now I just need to take the fucking thing in and get the optical drive replaced, now that they got the Apple care transferred from the old laptop to the new one, because the pile of shit is burning coasters.
I'm sick of people extolling the virtues of Apple. Its horseshit propaganda.
I will never buy a Mac EVER again if for NO other reason then they do their beta testing on their early adopters. It it a KNOW and well documented fact that if you go to any board Mac users will recommend staying away from gen 1 hardware. Why? Mum when you ask them that but it boils down to beta testing by the users.
Two laptops within a year's span. Both garbage. Apple makes overpriced shit that you can barely upgrade, and is so on the edge of the thermal envelope that it causes x number of systems to die prematurely, all in the name for Unkie Steve's thin fetish. I swear to god if I ever met the man I would spit in his face for the number of times I've been left in the lurch without a laptop. My fav was when I went to TX for a 4 day training event in early '07. Laptop's keyboard stopped working. I went out and ended up buying an external keyboard for those other two days. Get back. Go to the Apple store and lo and behold it starts working again. NEVER. NEVER in 4 other laptops that I've owned (Dell, Toshiba, IBM, IBM) have I had the keyboard just STOP working.
And at least Dell will send someone out to your fucking house. Apple will take your computer and keep it for a week or more while they fix it. Hell last time I took it in they shipped the damn mobo to the Apple store and it still took 4 days to repair it. That is the mark of GREAT customer service.
Fuck Apple. Fuck them with sandpaper. I couldn't cure if they used gold trackpads. Until they do some REAL QC with those billions they have in their coffers I will say Hell no. Never again Apple.
PS- Flame away. The above may have been a really pissy rant. Not a damn thing in it was a lie or an exaggeration. Its all true and it has cost me weeks of productivity. All because I "heard" and read how wonderful the Apple platform was. So I dived in all $3,500 in. And what did it get me....misery. I hate Apple, and when I can either scrape togeter enough to get a SOLID PC or a PC that has a warranty that doesn't leave me in the lurch for days on end. I will sell this thing to the first sucker that comes along.
haha, love the ponies reference!