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Apple To Refresh Entire MacBook Lineup Next Month, Air and Pro To Feature Kaby Lake (bloomberg.com)
Apple will unveil new laptops during its annual developer conference, known as WWDC, next month, reports Bloomberg. The company is going to refresh the MacBook Pro (as well as Air and just the 'MacBook' models) with new seventh-gen processors from Intel, the newest available, the report adds. Last year, Apple launched three new MacBook Pro laptops with older sixth-generation chips, which means people who already own the newer model may be a bit dismayed by Apple's refresh. From the article: Apple is planning three new laptops, according to people familiar with the matter. The MacBook Pro will get a faster Kaby Lake processor from Intel, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss internal planning. Apple is also working on a new version of the 12-inch MacBook with a faster Intel chip. The company has also considered updating the aging 13-inch MacBook Air with a new processor as sales of the laptop, Apple's cheapest, remain surprisingly strong, one of the people said.
NT
When you buy any laptop there's going to be an update before too long - even if Apple were not doing "new" models there's usually some kind of mid-year refresh you're going to not be getting.
At the time of the last MacBook Pro release there was a lot of technical analysis pointing out all of the things coming on-line in the next few years - the new intel processors, and with them mobile chipsets that could handle more memory efficiently. So it was pretty easy to judge at the time if you should buy a laptop then, or wait another year if you really wanted the Intel processor update.
Not everyone cares about all of the aspects of a laptop being at peak, it's always judging tradeoffs and deciding if a system will meet your needs.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This time, we're taking away the SCREEN. SCREENS were invented as a part of 1960s/1970s MAINFRAME technology and are outdated. The entire computer will run with SIRI.
Sucks that Apple stopped innovation over seven years ago.
TFA? not that I want to read it or anything..
4 years ago I spent $2.2k on a laptop. It's still faster and has more memory than the shit Apple craps out.
But I guess they have given upon the pro market a log time ago. Guess I will have to keep developing on a virtual machine under Linux.
I hope they will quickly do away with the Touch Bar, which, as much a fan of Macbooks that I am, has been totally useless. Even worse, it interferes and causes errors when I do other tasks that happen to go near the Touch Bar, such as the calculator.
Every time I try to use the calculator (and the top row of number keys) my fingers graze the Touch Bar, which then triggers an incorrect calculation because the Bar adopt some calculator function keys while open.
There is something positive to be said about having keys that have physical boundaries and limited functions, and having that well separated from a touch bar which, if it provided some actually useful function, had the versatility to change roles during use. They should have kept dedicated physical volume, brightness keys -- which now hide behind 2 finger presses on a strip that you have to look at carefully to find where to press.
Aside from that inconvenience, I have to date used the Touch Bar approximately 0 times productively. I am not a video manipulator, so maybe that's what it's designed for, but so far, nothing. I am not really in need of having quick access to emoticons when I chat, thank you Apple...
...as long as Apple expects us to keep using dongles, I'm not buying a new laptop no matter what they're putting inside it. My computer is for real work. Not for dicking around, and not for fiddling with dongles. A pro-level machine needs pro-level connectivity, not some Jony Ive masturbatory fever dream of a glorified iPad Pro with a keyboard attached.
Will they have headphone jacks?
and storage on a M2 card the same ones used on pc's
apple will lose people who take the bar in some states with that pad.
Yes, in continuing the Apple tradition of removing useless external ports with each "upgrade", these will feature a single thunderbolt port and no external power connection. One. Single. Port!
Of course, you have to buy a new laptop after the 10 hour battery life is up.
Do you have ESP?
Sounds awesome. Intel is getting ready to launch its Core i9-series to compete with AMD's Ryzen 9, aaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnddddddddd Apple will be featuring neither. Tip your stock broker accordingly.
The goal of this report is to make the existence of Intel CPU backdoors a common knowledge and provide information on backdoor removal.
What we know about Intel CPU backdoors so far:
TL;DR version
Your Intel CPU and Chipset is running a backdoor as we speak.
The backdoor hardware is inside the CPU/Bridge and the backdoor firmware (Intel Management Engine) is in the chipset flash memory.
30C3 Intel ME live hack:
@21m43s, keystrokes leaked from Intel ME above the OS, wireshark failed to detect packets.
[Video Link] 30C3: Persistent, Stealthy, Remote-controlled Dedicated Hardware Malware
[Quotes] Vortrag:
"DAGGER exploits Intel's Manageability Engine (ME), that executes firmware code such as Intel's Active Management Technology (iAMT), as well as its OOB network channel."
"the ME provides a perfect environment for undetectable sensitive data leakage on behalf of the attacker. Our presentation consists of three parts. The first part addresses how to find valuable data in the main memory of the host. The second part exploits the ME's OOB network channel to exfiltrate captured data to an external platform and to inject new attack code to target other interesting data structures available in the host runtime memory. The last part deals with the implementation of a covert network channel based on JitterBug."
"We have recently improved DAGGER's capabilites to include support for 64-bit operating systems and a stealthy update mechanism to download new attack code."
"To be more precise, we show how to conduct a DMA attack using Intel's Manageability Engine (ME)."
"We can permanently monitor the keyboard buffer on both operating system targets."
Backdoor removal:
The backdoor firmware can be removed by following this guide using the me_cleaner script.
Removal requires a Raspberry Pi (with GPIO pins) and a SOIC clip.
Decoding Intel backdoors:
The situation is out of control and the Libreboot/Coreboot community is looking for BIOS/Firmware experts to help with the Intel ME decoding effort.
If you are skilled in these areas, download Intel ME firmwares from this collection and have a go at them, beware Intel is using a lot of counter measures to prevent their backdoors from being decoded (explained below).
Useful links:
The Intel ME subsystem can take over your machine, can't be audited
REcon 2014 - Intel Management Engine Secrets
Untrusting the CPU (33c3)
Towards (reasonably) trustworthy x86 laptops
30C3 To Protect And Infect - The militarization of the Internet
30c3: To Protect And Infect Part 2 - Mass Surveillance Tools & Software
1. Introduction, what is Intel ME
Short version, from Intel staff:
Re: What Intel CPUs lack Intel ME secondary processor?
Amy_Intel Feb 8, 2016 9:27 AM
The Management Engine (ME) is an isolated and protected coprocessor, embedded as a non-optional part in all current Intel chipsets, I even checked wit
I like the touch bar, and think it's an excellent idea they just need to refine a bit.
In my case I agree that the Siri button is a little too easy to hit, because my finger will slide up off delete and graze it.
My solution would be either to make the touch bar pressure sensitive and require a bit more force to trigger Siri, or to put up some kind of small ridge between the keys and the touch bar so your finger could not slide up there from the row of keys below.
My only complaint about the Touchbar is that I often use the laptop shut attached to an external monitor so I *really* would like an external keyboard with the Touchbar.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
...as long as Apple expects us to keep using dongles,
They do not, they expect you to use USB-C devices.
That will be more and more true. Already this last month, I went looking for a slim external hard drive case and the best one I found was... USB-C. So I have to use a dongle to use it with older equipment...
Because USB-C is so much more versatile the changeover is going very rapidly. Why do you insist on staying behind the ENTIRE (not just Apple) computer industry? Many high end Android phones are also USB-C now...
My guess that the iPhone switches to USB-C this year or next. There is no reason to keep Lightning since USB-C has all the same advantages (basically the main one, being able to plug in either direction plus it is small).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Last year's MacBook not allowing 32GB of RAM was on Intel, not Apple.
For sure that is the biggest driver behind the early update, so you'll see expansion up to 32GB (possibly beyond) with the newer laptops.
I also also question the wisdom of filing RAM increases under "innovation" while ignoring last year they added the Touchbar....
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
SCREENS were invented as a part of 1960s/1970s
Screens? In the 60's early 70's? Would have loved to have screens! We had teletype machines, line-printers with keyboards attached! You're "screen" was a roll of paper. Files edited one line at a time. You think they call 'em "carriage-return" and "line-feed" for nothing?
Gett^H off my lawn^H^H^H^HLAWN!
Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...
I've had two Airs in the past three years, and the 2nd one only because the first was stolen. It was covered by insurance, so I tried like hell take advantage of the situation as an opportunity to upgrade. But I ended up buying the exact same configuration. For my purposes, given it's not a primary device, the thing is perfect. Will go all day and then some, is almost as easy to carry around as an iPad, yet you can throw some moderately compute-intensive chores at it and performs admirably. The only thing it doesn't have is retina, but that would just add weight or subtract battery life or both---so no thanks.
But for the love of Pete, Apple, please don't trash this gem. I have nightmares of them going with two USB-C ports. Or going Retina. Please, just don't. Up the RAM max, update the CPU, give us more SSD capacity, whatever. Just don't fuck with the mag-jack, keep the SD card slot in there, and only put USB-C in as replacements for the USB3 ports that are there already if you must. But that's probably wishful thinking.
The current iteration of Air is about as perfect a light-to-medium workflow laptop as you can get right now, and now I fear it will be history.
(and before you trash me as a fanboi, my career has been Windows/Linux software development for 30 years, and I've gone through at least 5-6 generations of Dell laptops in the course of my work).
No, you just have to walk into an Apple store and pay them $2700 to walk around for 10 minutes and leave with nothing.
No, that's not "on Intel". Other laptop integrators have had no issue adding 32 gigs of RAM. You just end up with less battery life as a result.
A LOT less battery life. It's not on Apple to refuse to sell what is essentially a crippled system because of limitations Intel imposed. It's not like you can on the fly switch to acceptably low power RAM for a laptop!
To me it's funny that Apple moved away from Motorola because they were screwed by system limitations, than Intel screws them over the same way years later... this is what will drive Apple to designing main system chips (well will drive them to use said chips, I'm sure they have been designing them for years).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
1) The Touch bar needs to physically PRESS DOWN like the trackpad does.
2) 32GB ram
3) magsafe power (and use a cable that doesn't purposely wear out quickly)
4) BATTERY. Simple-- have a 2nd cover that is a bit thicker. Sell 2 models; only battery and 1 cover piece would differ. Or perhaps they can get those new pure lithium batteries and not change anything.
5) an ESC key. ignore the stupid designers who put balance against functionality at an increased price. Hell, make it black if you must, like the finger print scanner on the right side.
6) USB-A. HOUSES are being wired for USB-A, it is not going away anytime soon. USB-2 memory sticks are still quite common.
7) If you kill HEADPHONES I will finally move to linux.
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Undo some of the stupidity of the last refresh, and I'll look at it. I've already written off the last refresh as an option, and stuck with a 2-generation-old MacBook Pro. With a few upgrades (SSD, RAM, new battery) it's more capable port-wise and I keep the now-unavailable non-glossy screen. It's an older i7, but performance is fine.
To late, replaced my retina macbook pro with ubuntu gnome on a razerblade pro v2 last weekend boubt the new macbook pro will out spec it.
Of course, you have to buy a new laptop after the 10 hour battery life is up.
I think they can and will do better than that with a new MacBook Air. It comes in an empty box. Actually it's just the empty box, because it's Air. Now that's courage.
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Like MF839LL models? :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
lol, HP zd7000 FTW.
Hehe, my dad's old laptop had a regular P4 instead of the M variety. Throw your shoulder out trying to carry it and burn your leg off trying to use it :)
Hell of a computer though. had a mobile Geforce and nice stereo speakers and a huge screen.
Still useable, altho I think my desktop is now lighter.....
I'll hold off upgrading until I can get more than 16GB of RAM.
Nope, not that generous any more. Plus, I no longer have a paper tape reader. :) I'll probably sell it someday, so it doesn't get lost in some relative's WTF box at the time of my death.
However, I did write a complete emulation of the 6809 and the Flex OS, which you can get from here, if you're so inclined. It's a few years later than the paper tape, but on the other hand, it's hugely more capable, just as one might expect. Plus, the 6809 is a dream to program, unlike any other microprocessor of its vintage, or prior.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
I agree the performance boost will be minimal... from the processor.
However what Apple will be doing is putting much more powerful GPU's into the newer laptops, and also allow for much more ram (I am thinking a cap of 64 GB).
That's because Apple heard all of the complaints about how they didn't have a "real" pro laptop and are doing an about face on that as quickly as they can. It's all part of the same drive that is totally re-working the Mac Pro, it's just they can tune up new laptops much faster.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
On the hardware side I would expect to see only one port. They may even ditch the LED backlite lid altogether.
On the OS side, macOS sierra is the most worthless excuse of an operating system in existence: MacOS 9 even beats macOS sierra.
Why buy a laptop with only one port, no LED lid and an operating system that can only handle emojis where you have to use Parallels or VirtualBox to install a real operating system in VM; even Mac OS X Lion which is a degraded version of Mac OS X Snow Leopard is 100 time better than macOS sierra. Why? It works!
What a shame on Apple Ink Toner Heads. Steve was a profit: He predicted Apple Ink Timmy Cook when he was talking about XEROX.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yraBG1s4gm8
Jajajajajajajaja
Until that I'm running a 2013 old one. See no need to upgrade, everything works. Price is no issue.
17779 eligible voters in a district, 17779 'vote' as one. This is Russia.
n/t
My MB Pro, after 7 years and 4 motherboards later, is starting getting slow with Final Cut Pro. Plus its display is also not as bright as it used to be.
Prediction, in 2018 they will go back to a keyboard that works and diet down the Double Big Mac trackpad.
I've just checked Amazon, Curry's, Argos and even Tesco's websites. Almost all hard drives are USB3 and very few are USB-C.
I did't say hard drive, I said small external HD enclosure.
I bought it on Amazon and the best ones I found were mostly USB-C...
The cases go first but the other things like portable hard drives follow soon after. Do you seriously not remember this from past transitions??
In fact it's hard to find USB-C
It sure seems like there are a lot of options to me.
I have had zero trouble finding USB-C anything.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
So they're doing a refresh to bring their systems a bit more up to date. The real world benefits are small; they'll be about 10% faster than the models they replace and will have slightly longer battery life. Streaming fans who hook up their laptops to an external display will get one more benefit: the new systems will presumably support 4K streaming because they'll have the required Kaby Lake processors.
Updating the Air is a bit more of a step forward since it's currently still using a 5th generation processor; it might get a 20% speed improvement. Apple probably was thinking that it would go end of life by now, but they still have a lot of presence in the higher education market and the Air is their main product there. The ultrathin MacBook is a bit too limited, and I don't think Apple is prepared to cut the price to the under-$1000 level that they need to reach. The MacBook Pro is too expensive; the CS and media studies majors will buy it because they need the extra power but most students will not.
The question if they do update the Air: will they just shove in a newer CPU and leave the rest of the design as it is, or will they decide that the product has a longer term place in their product lineup and give it a more substantial refresh? The relatively low display resolution stands out as the #1 thing they could improve, though that would bring up the question of cannibalizing their more expensive products. It's also likely that a new version would move to USB-C for charging and connectivity - but would they go all-in as they have on their other products, or offer a mix of USB-C and legacy USB ports as most Windows laptops have?
The ultrathin MacBook might see some design changes as well, though not as major. The most popular thing Apple could do with that system would be to shoehorn in at least one more USB port; that would allow the user to connect something and charge the system at the same time without the need for yet another dongle. The MacBook Pro design is less than a year old, so I don't expect any changes there other than the CPU and perhaps some tuning of the available configurations (amounts of RAM and flash memory, etc).
Please bring back good keyboards. And useful ports. 2012-style expandability, 2015-era ports, 2016-era screens and 2017-edition processors would be a combo that would win back the professional/creative market in a heartbeat. Touch screens wouldn't hurt, either.
The read/write/lifetime considerations for SSDs and spinning storage are still different. For pro machines, one can reasonably assume that writing to storage may be a big deal. Plus, you can put a lot of things into a drive bay besides drives. Plus, you have a drive bay, you can put SSD or spinning media in there (or many other things.) Choice! If you have internal slots for SSDs... well, then that's all you have.
It's different in that there are more options. It's not different in that one doesn't need what one had before. So for a reasonable design, add I/O. By all means. Who's going to argue against more capability? That'd be dumb. But don't be throwing out things that are still widely in use. You know, like.... headphones. Ethernet. HDMI.
Now, see, there's that again. No, I don't want a bunch of adapters. I don't want extra stuff cluttering everything up. I want the ports. The trashcan is crippled because everything ends up flung on one's desk, power supplies, drives, etc. It's awful. We need to move away from that. And it's not like this stuff is expensive, or like drivers need to be written. Apple should just do it right and quit trying to tell us stupidity = courage.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
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