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MacBook Pros to have better battery and HD screens, white MacBook finished
Rumors of the imminent MacBook Pro refresh are gaining even further momentum. So far, we've heard reports that the new, upcoming MacBook Pros will sport larger trackpads, weigh slightly less than the current models and have a 8 - 16 GB SSD boot drive to house Mac OS X (everything else will be stored on a separate HDD). It's also been reported that the new MacBook Pros will come with a custom all-SSD option, but at a higher price, of course. Now, French Mac site MacGeneration has chimed in, too. The site corroborates claims that the new MacBook Pros will feature a SSD (16 GB mSATA) boot drive, providing faster startup times and performance improvements. It also claims that new MacBook Pros will weigh 200 - 300 grams less than the current versions: 1.8 kg for the 13-inch model, 2.3 kg for the 15-inch model and 2.65 kg for the 17-inch model. The site also expects HD resolution displays (1,440 x 900 for the 13-inch model and 1,680 x 1,050 for the 15-inch model), plus a newer Core i3 chip, an extra USB port and 12 hours of battery life for the 13-inch model. The 15-inch model will have 10 hours of battery life. Additionally, MacGeneration claims that customers will be able to order the 15- and 17-inch models with additional storage (a solid-state drive replacing the SuperDrive). The 17-inch model is expected to have 8 GB of RAM and the high-end 13-inch model will apparently have a matte screen order option, too. Also, the French site claims the MacBook Pros will see the introduction of a "new technology." Most likely, this will be the introduction of Light Peak or, if again the rumors are to be believed, the now formally titled Thunderbolt technology. And last, but not least, MacGeneration says the white MacBook model will be discontinued. [Via AppleInsider, MacRumors]
Apple's Light Peak implementation called Thunderbolt, coming in new MacBook Pros?
The rumor gears are really starting to churn with regard Apple's upcoming MacBook Pro refresh and now we have a purported leak of the upcoming spec sheet for the new 13-inch model. The highlight is a note (and image, above) seemingly confirming that Apple will implement Intel's Light Peak high-speed interconnect, renaming it the Thunderbolt. Yes, we know there's an HTC handset headed to Verizon with that very same name -- and we've checked the USPTO archives, Verizon's the only tech company with any trademark claim filed for "Thunderbolt" -- but Apple has done weirder things before. Also notable are the apparent inclusion of an SDXC card reader and the absence of a discrete GPU chip, indicating that perhaps the new Core i5 integrated graphics from Intel are finally good enough to convince Cupertino to rely on them full time. Jump past the break to see the full data sheet. Update: We now have an image claiming to show the new Thunderbolt port, which happens to look exactly like the Mini DisplayPort but has a tidy little lightning logo next to it. That's extremely easy to Photoshop, as is the accompanying photo displaying a broader trackpad on the MBP, but we'll let you judge the validity of those images for yourself. Check them out after the break. Update 2: One more image of the spec sheet, this time in English, provided by MacRumors along with the note that it's for the "low-end" 13-inch MacBook Pro. The doc states that the Thunderbolt port supports "high-speed I/O and Mini DisplayPort devices," which would explain why it looks the way it does. [Thanks, Leon and Rodney]
Intel to show new technology on Thursday, Light Peak rumors swirl
We know Light Peak is ready, at least in its 10Gbps copper form. We think that Apple will be the first to use it, possibly in a set of new MacBooks. Now, this Thursday, Intel has invited journalists to a San Francisco event, where it will "discuss a new technology that is about to appear on the market" and provide tech demos. There's no hard news here, but things appear to add up, and so the web's ablaze with rumors that Thursday's the day Intel will unveil the finished first generation of its interconnect technology to the world. Here's what happens now: We'll be in San Francisco this Thursday, reporting live from the event, to let you know for sure.
Apple announcing new high-speed interconnect, Light Peak here we come?
There's not a scrap of evidence to back this rumor, but everything seems to line up: CNET reports that Apple will announce "a new high-speed connection technology" soon -- and Intel's Light Peak seems to be a shoo-in for the job. We've long known that Apple's been secretly backing the 10Gbps interconnect, but with a likely MacBook Pro refresh right around the corner and Light Peak allegedly due for a 1H 2011 launch, it seems the time for action could be right around now. It also doesn't hurt that this latest rumor comes from CNET, actually, as we're pretty sure the publication has an inside source. The very same reporter wrote that Light Peak would be downgraded to copper, a full month before Intel would admit anything of the sort.
Apple about to add Light Peak to Macs?
According to CNET sources, Apple is set to introduce a new "high-speed connection technology" very soon. The most obvious new connection type this could be is Light Peak, a sort of jack-of-all-trades connection technology. Light Peak allows one interface to be used to connect pretty much any device you can plug into a computer, including displays, scanners, printers, external hard drives and even devices such as iPods and iPhones. The obvious hardware to introduce the Light Peak connection interface (if that's what it is) on would be next week's rumored MacBook Pros; however, CNET's sources did not confirm that the new notebooks would be the first to sport the new interface. Additionally, CNET's sources claim Apple will not use the name "Light Peak" for the new technology, but instead brand it under a different name. Light Peak was first previewed by by Intel in 2009 and is based on fiber optic technology, but instead of using light-based technology, it would use copper lines. Many have suspected Light Peak is the reason Apple has not updated its Macs with USB 3.0 -- Light Peak technology offers significantly faster data connections which top out at 10 gigabits per second in each direction. Intel originally said the first Light Peak-based products would ship in the first half of 2011.
Why native USB 3.0 for Mac won't happen
Mac Life has put together an interesting article on why we probably won't see USB 3.0 natively on the Mac. It's worth a read, but the long and short of it is this: Light Peak -- the ultra fast 10 Gbps, one size fits all (USB, Ethernet, FireWire, SATA and PCI Express) optical cable replacement that's been dangled before our eyes, but not made a reality, yet. Light Peak was first demonstrated by Intel back in 2009 on a hackintosh running Mac OS X -- which ruffled a few feathers. At the time, Engadget reported that Apple was behind the technology, with discussions between the two companies developing the technology dating back to 2007, and that (according to an extremely reliable source) Light Peak would be introduced to the Mac line-up in the autumn of 2010 with iPhone implementation in 2011. Since then, we've seen USB 3.0 come to market (to a small extent, and not natively on the Mac), but there's been no sign of Light Peak. Unfortunately, at the 2010 Intel Developer Forum, Electronista reported that the chip-maker said it didn't expect Light Peak to come to market until 2012 -- making its original "...maybe not next week, but soon" comment a little overly optimistic. Regardless, and getting back to the Mac Life article, it's unlikely that we'll see Apple natively support USB 3.0 because Light Peak is on the horizon -- be that a distant one. In my humble opinion, with the slow adoption of USB 3.0, and its imminent obsoleteness with Light Peak around the corner, it wouldn't make sense for Apple to introduce a technology that's about to be replaced by a better one. As paradoxical as that might sound, Light Peak will not be an upgrade, it will change the way we connect peripherals to our computers, which is likely why it's worth the wait.
Intel: Light Peak is ready for implementation, but it's built on copper
It's the classic good news / bad news dichotomy: Intel's highly anticipated Light Peak interconnect is totally ready for implementation into consumer devices, but its present iteration is based on communications over boring old copper wire instead of fiber optics. The company's David Perlmutter says transmissions over copper turned out "surprisingly better" than expected and that it'll prove plentiful for the majority of user needs today. Yeah, maybe, but we don't suffer bouts of gadget lust based on our needs, it's our wants that keep us up late at night dreaming of dual-core smartphones and tablet-optimized Androids. Then again, it's not like the 10Gbps optical option has been dismissed out of hand, it's just that we'll probably have to keep on waiting for it for a little (or a big) while longer.
New MacBook Pro could arrive in April 2011 with SSD, Light Peak, no DVD
Update Put your checkbooks away, folks. Electronista has all but debunked this rumor. By crunching the numbers, they confirmed that (at today's prices at least), such a MacBook Pro could easily be priced out of the market. Read on and dream, but don't expect this machine to appear on your desk any time soon. ----- Three Guys and a Podcast are reporting that the next-generation MacBook Pro will likely arrive in April 2011 with a new design inspired by the latest slim-line MacBook Air. That means that the high-end laptops will probably dispense with spinning drives altogether and come equipped only with solid-state drives of up to 512GB capacity. If you haven't yet finished ripping all of your CDs and DVDs, you'll want to complete that task before migrating to a new MBP because the internal optical drive will probably follow the floppy into the annals of history. With the internal speed bottlenecks reduced by the flash memory drives and new Sandy Bridge CPUs, Apple will also work on speeding up the external communication interfaces. Light Peak may finally debut on the MBP, two years after it was originally announced by Intel. Whether or not Light Peak makes it to the party, we expect that USB 3.0 probably will arrive in an Apple product on these new machines. The fate of Firewire is unknown at this time, but it seems unlikely to make the cut, especially if Light Peak is included. The one exception may be if Apple keeps one of the current generation 15-inch machines in the lineup as an entry model. If the 13-inch MBP also remains in the lineup, the new interfaces, CPUs and perhaps a higher resolution display will be what set it apart from the similarly sized Air. Users are expected to be able to put this speedy new hardware to work with a new version of Final Cut Pro that should debut around the same time. Not much is known about FCP at this time except that it should be faster.
Intel Light Peak on track for release in first half of 2011?
10Gbps. In both directions. At the same time. That's been the tantalizing promise of Intel's Light Peak optical interconnect, and now we're hearing its penchant for speed is overflowing into the company's roadmap. CNET cites a source familiar with developments behind the scenes in reporting that Light Peak is expected to arrive in the early part of next year, slightly accelerating the already known plans for delivering the technology at some point in 2011. We've already been graced with a set of Light Peak-enabled prototypes, so you could've guessed things were gathering pace, but it's always good to get the odd bit of anonymous confirmation that things are moving along swiftly. And hey, when Light Peak hardware finally drops, we can just switch gears and start salivating over improvements that'll lift that 10Gbps ceiling even further.
Intel's Light Peak optical interconnect shrinks slightly, LaCie, WD, Compal and Avid begin prototyping
Intel's Light Peak isn't setting any new speed records at IDF 2010 -- it's still rated at 10Gbps for now -- but the optical data transfer system is finally looking like it might appear in some actual products. As you can see immediately above, a Light Peak to HDMI converter has shrunk considerably since May, and a number of optically-infused sample products were on display at Intel's Light Peak booth. Compal's got a laptop with the optical interconnect built in, while Western Digital showed an external hard drive, from which the Compal could pull and edit multimedia in real-time using a Light Peak-enabled Avid rackmount. Meanwhile, LaCie showed off what appeared to be a 4big Quadra RAID array with two Light Peak ports catapulting high-definition video content at 770MB/s to a nearby Samsung TV, though we should warn you that the TV itself was a bit of a hack job, and not a collaboration with Samsung -- note the big, honking EVGA video card sticking out of the back. Though obviously a good bit of work went into these prototypes, Intel reps told us none would necessarily become a reality. Either way, don't expect to see Light Peak products until sometime next year.
Freescale partners with Savannah school for some leg-stretching tablet concepts, makes a nice use case for Light Peak
Normally when you've got industrial design students going wild on computer concepts, you get a lot of wild, unrealistic computer concepts. There's plenty of that here, but this 10 week collaboration between Freescale, some of its top partners, and Savannah College of Art and Design students is yielding a bit of fruit. We particularly like this docking tablet that can slot into different docks depending on use case -- the two primary ones shown being a home entertainment setup and a pro audio breakout. Sure, it's still not the most realistic way to use a tablet -- we'd much rather have solid support for 3rd party USB devices in the near term -- but with a bit of Light Peak and some as-ye-unseen pricing, this could make for some pretty slick use cases.
Intel demonstrates Light Peak on a laptop, says 10Gbps speeds are only the beginning
Folks in Brussels for Intel's European research showcase got to get their hands on the company's Light Peak this week, with the first demonstration of the optical cable technology running on a laptop. Outfitted with a 12mm square chip that converts the optical signal into data the machine can read, two separate HD video streams were piped to a nearby TV, which displayed them with the help of a converter box -- a necessary evil until the Light Peak chips are developed for the display side of things. According to Justin Rattner, Intel's CTO, the current 10Gb / second speeds are just the beginning. "We expect to increase that speed dramatically. You'll see multiple displays being served by a single Light Peak connection. There's almost no limit to the bandwidth -- fibers can carry trillions of bits per second."
Intel says Light Peak coming next year, can and will coexist with USB 3.0
How do you sell a generation of hardware manufacturers on yet another standard? If you're Intel, you tell them that it'll transfer files at 10Gbps and is compatible with every major protocol that came before... and if that doesn't work, you simply fail to give your competitor hardware support. But PC World reports that while Intel is still dragging its feet regarding USB 3.0, it's planning to have Light Peak fiber optic devices in the market next year. Intel insists Light Peak isn't meant to replace USB, in so much as it can use the same ports and protocols (photographic evidence above), but at the same time it's not shying away from the possibility of obliterating its copper competition with beams of light. "In some sense we'd... like to build the last cable you'll ever need," said Intel's Kevin Kahn. Now, we're not going to rag on Light Peak, because we honestly love the idea of consolidated fiber optic connectivity. We just want to know now whether we should bother locking ourselves into a USB 3.0 ecosystem if better things are just around the corner.
Light Peak supplier says mass production to start early 2010
The more we hear about Intel's Light Peak optical interconnect, the more it seems like Intel was playing it way too cool at IDF -- Foci Fiber Optic Communication, which supplied the gear used during that Hackintosh demo, told CNET today that pilot manufacturing runs of Light Peak equipment are scheduled for November, with mass production to start in early 2010. That's right on track with what we've seen and been told about Apple and Intel's plans for the tech, which forecast a line of back-to-school Macs featuring Light Peak in the fall of 2010. And, well, let's not get ahead of ourselves, but Intel was pretty high on Light Peak for devices that needed maximum connectivity in the smallest amount of space, like an iPhone -- or, say, a tablet. Quite a nice little package of rumors, don't you think? Okay, we'll calm down now.
Engadget Podcast 164 - 09.27.2009
It's been a crazy week in news, and after a couple cross-country flights the podcast crew is together and ready to break it all down. Join Josh, Paul and Nilay as they take on Microsoft's Courier tablet concept and rumored Pink smartphones, dish on the HTC Leo and Windows Mobile, debate the finer points of net neutrality, and talk over the highlights from the Intel Developer Forum and the Tokyo Game Show. Yeah, there's a ton here -- grab a snack and tune in! Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller Producer: Trent Wolbe Song: Today Hear the podcast 00:02:34 - Microsoft's dual-screen Courier booklet emerges, isn't near production00:06:18 - Codex and InkSeine -- the roots of Microsoft's Courier?00:33:30 - Microsoft's Pink phones revealed?00:43:00 - HTC Leo looking confirmed for O2 UK debut, will be free on the right plan00:46:20 - Steve Ballmer talks 'three screens and a cloud' and more with TechCrunch00:50:00 - Ballmer: Windows Mobile 7 should have been out, like, yesterday00:55:58 - FCC chairman formally proposes net neutrality rules00:58:45 - AT&T, Verizon poised to fight FCC's net neutrality stance on the wireless front01:10:00 - AT&T's 3G MicroCell tested and reviewed by Charlottean: yes, it works01:13:56 - Intel announces Moblin 2.1 for phones01:18:07 - Dell announces Moblin Mini 10v at IDF (updated with pricing)01:17:25 - Video: Moblin 2.1 for MIDs and phones, sort of in action01:21:15 - USB 3.0 has a SuperSpeed coming-out party at IDF01:22:44 - Video: Intel's Light Peak running an HD display while transferring files... on a hackintosh01:28:40 - 13 PS3 motion control games confirmed for next year, motion-enhanced Biohazard 5 coming Spring 201001:30:03 - Nintendo finally confirms new $199 Wii price Subscribe to the podcast [iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (enhanced AAC). [RSS MP3] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in MP3) to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically. [RSS AAC] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in enhanced AAC) to your RSS aggregator. [Zune] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace Download the podcast LISTEN (MP3) LISTEN (AAC) LISTEN (OGG) Contact the podcast 1-888-ENGADGET or podcast (at) engadget (dot) com. Twitter: @joshuatopolsky @futurepaul @reckless @engadget
Is Apple behind the development of Intel's Light Peak?
If the relationship between Apple and Mac CPU provider Intel was any closer, the two companies might have to start labeling their record collections and discussing whether to keep the wagon wheel table. In an intriguing technology demonstration last week, it was pointed out that the in-development Intel ultrafast optical connection called Light Peak was being shown on a rather elaborate hackintosh, running good old Mac OS X. This raised an eyebrow or two, but the background story seems to be just as interesting. Engadget reports today, based on conversations with an 'extremely reliable source,' that Apple is behind the Light Peak technology, with C-suite-level discussions between the two companies dating back to 2007 about the specific implementation and capabilities of Light Peak. The post goes on to suggest that Apple will be doing rapid adoption of the optical tech a year from now, with Mac introductions slated for autumn of 2010 with the new port, and a low-powered version to follow along in the 2011 timeframe with future iPhones. With the initial specification set to transfer data at a blistering 10Gpbs full duplex over cables as long as 100 meters (and with speeds up to 100Gbps lined up for future revisions), a single Light Peak connection could replace DVI, USB, gigabit Ethernet, FireWire, eSATA and just about anything else that would connect your computer to its environs. One cable for everything, reducing clutter and increasing elegance? You have to admit, it does sound rather Jobsian. Thanks to Josh Topolsky and everyone who sent this in.
Exclusive: Apple dictated Light Peak creation to Intel, could begin migration from other standards as early as 2010
Remember how Intel showed off its new, advanced optical standard -- Light Peak -- this past week on a Hackintosh? Well it turns out there's more to that story than you probably know, and it all leads back to some revealing facts about the connection... literally and figuratively. Engadget has learned -- thanks to an extremely reliable source -- that not only is Apple complicit in the development of Light Peak, but the company actually brought the concept to Intel and asked them to create it. More to the point, the new standard will play a hugely important role in upcoming products from Cupertino.
Video: Intel's Light Peak running an HD display while transferring files... on a hackintosh
Intel just did a pretty impressive demo of its new Light Peak optical device interconnect, driving a greater-than-HD display while saturating an SSD RAID all over one cable, but we couldn't help but notice the monster Frankenstein test rig on stage was running OS X -- looks like someone's violating their EULA! Video after the break.
Intel unveils Light Peak 10Gbps optical interconnect for mobile devices
USB 3.0 might be one of the big stories here at IDF, but Intel just showed off a glimpse of the future: Light Peak, an optical interconnect for mobile devices that can run as fast as 10Gbps. That's fast enough to do everything from storage to displays to networking, and it can maintain those speeds over 100-meter runs, which is pretty astounding. Intel says the idea is to drastically reduce the number of connectors on mobile devices, which should allow them to get even smaller -- but the demo was on a huge Frankenrig, so don't expect to see Light Peak devices shipping any time soon.Update: We just snapped a quick pic of the connector -- it's a connector, that's for sure. Check it after the break.
