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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.
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 SCREENS were invented as a part of 1960s/1970s MAINFRAME technology and are outdated.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.
Mac Pro probably in mid-2018, is what they lightly implied last time around. Still too early to be sure, basically.
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...
i wouldn't equate adding ram to innovation, however, fact is, the only reason i held off buying new mbp is 16gig ram ceiling.
i want (almost need) 32gig in my next laptop.
They've confirmed that the next Mac Pro, which will be using a modular approach that should allow for easier customization and upgradeability, is already in the works, but that it shouldn't be expected until 2018.
Right, because buying the newest model of laptop and phone from the same company and neither one comes with a cable that connects the two together, is "the start of the new normal." In what fantasy universe is that even remotely justifiable? That the iPhone doesn't come with a USB-C cable is proof that the claim that USB-C is the future is flawed and that Apple isn't putting its money where its mouth is. If they truly wanted to have people adopt USB-C, they would convert their entire product line over and flood the market with natively operating cables, all for relatively low cost. One could even argue that they should do away with packaging USB-A connectors in their products.
...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).
Last time I checked, it was in a trash can.
WTB [sig], PST!!!
Steve Jobs dies and everyone in Apple forgets how to think.
Another day closer to redwood heaven
See, I'm actually a bit surprised that Apple did a touchbar at the top of the keyboard. I think a couple other options might have been smarter:
1) A small screen on the outside of the laptop so that notifications can be seen while closed. New Macs have a feature called "Power Nap" which allows the Mac to do limited things while asleep (e.g. check email). It might be handy to be able to see if you've received PowerNap enabled controls and notifications without opening your laptop. On the other hand, I'm not sure there are many uses for this that wouldn't be better handled on a smartphone.
2) Turn the trackpad into a touchscreen. It's basically already a fairly large glass touchscreen that you're used to performing gestures on. All they'd have to do is put a display behind the glass. Then you could enable apps to assign functions to specific gestures to specific areas of the touchscreen.
To replace some of the keyboard buttons with a touchscreen, however, doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Power users are generally going to be accustomed to touch typing, so forcing them to look at the keyboard for some of those keyboard functions seems counter-productive.
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
A pro-level machine needs pro-level connectivity.
True. I went for a refurb of last-year's Pro, just for the ports. A photographer friend of mind is suffering with his Touchbar model because he HAS to have USB Type-A style ports for his cameras and other equipment, so he's got this cheesy-looking third-party multi-port dongle that keeps falling out when he moves the machine from place to place because Type-C is so damn small and doesn't grip that hard.
Apple should take notice that PC laptops don't all stink anymore... and they all feature a full variety of ports. USB Type-A, in particular, is not going away soon, nor is it likely that the thumb-drive your co-worker just handed you has a Type-C connector. Maybe for the tiny Macbook a single Type-C with Thunderbolt is ok, but for the bucks you throw down on a Pro model, it's just irritating that you have to shell out yet more bucks (and space in your bag) for at least a Type-A dongle, which makes comparably equipped PC's that much more attractive.
and so-what that the Type-C can be used for power... stop showing off and bring back the MagSafe connector.
Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...
It's not about the cost of the cable. It's about convenience and what Steve Jobs once used to say, "it just works." It's about Apple as a company being able to stand behind their design decision to put ONLY USB-C ports in their pro laptop, from which it is only logical to promote USB-C adoption by including the required cables in their other products, even to the point of excluding USB-A, if that is how serious and sincere they are about USB-C adoption. As it is now, their approach is half-assed. If they aren't willing to commit to include a Lightning to USB-C cable in their iPhone boxes, then the decision to put USB-C ports ONLY in their flagship laptop is wrong. If you argue that they shouldn't have to pay to include both, then my response is that they should take out the USB-A cable, and make those users pay $10 for the legacy connector, if they really believe that USB-C should be adopted. That's how the serial port and RS-232 was killed off in the iMac days: the devices that were included in the box were natively USB-A. They didn't sell iMacs with mice and keyboards that used the old connectors, and then ask you to buy a $N dongle. It worked out of the box.
Anything from 2013 to 2015 can be upgraded to 16 GB - not the ultimate of 32 or 64 but it IS a laptop.
16 GB in my 2015 MBP is fine. 8 is really limiting the machine. YMMV.
But come on, a minimal processor refresh is not particularly exciting nor unexpected. Maybe some ports this time. Or at least a custom sleeve with dongle pockets.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
On a desktop, you could make that argument. On a laptop, it needs to actually work with random crap you get in conference rooms and classrooms. People don't want to take a ton of dongles with them everywhere for ethernet, USB C to A, HDMI, DVI-D, VGA, and any other ports I'm forgetting. I don't carry a purse. I don't like huge computer bags. I want something small, light weight and portable with a laptop but I also want to avoid 20 dongles.
Apple should have at a minimum:
1 usb A, 1 usb c
ethernet
HDMI
mini display port
nice to have: headphone jack
MidnightBSD: The BSD for Everyone
A small screen on the outside of the laptop so that notifications can be seen while closed.
I don't see it, my laptop when closed is in a case or backpack pretty much instantly. When I use it when closed, a small screen would have almost no value to me.
Turn the trackpad into a touchscreen
I still like the Touchbar as it is more than doing a touch-screen trackpad. Since my fingers are often hovering over or around the Touchpad I think it would be really hard to see the display compared to the Touchbar, which is always visible at the top fo the keyboard.
To replace some of the keyboard buttons with a touchscreen, however, doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
It makes a ton of sense to me and in practice is very useful. That's why I yearn for an external keyboard with a Touchbar.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Comment removed based on user account deletion
They don't need (and I really wish they would not consider) a case redesign. The 2008/2009 cases were (still are) fabulous. Great cooling, hugely serviceable, expandable, plenty of room for drives, rackable, plenty of I/O, good looking, tough, quiet, reasonably secure...
All they actually need to do is abandon that trashcan thing as a (really) bad idea and cook up a new tower-fitting motherboard, for which I have no doubt whatsoever Intel has readily available sample electrical designs, add the I/O sauce of the day to it, change a few cutouts for the case to match, and ship the damn thing.
That whole "sometime in 2018" could mean they're going to do something "courageous" again. Otherwise there's little excuse for the timing. Well, unless they're not starting until 2018. Which might be the case. [lies:] No pun intended.
It's possible the new "courage" will be something worthy, but based on the trashcan and the headphone screwups and the lack of wired networks on various models and the withering of the mini's capabilities... I think "courage" has failed them as far as actually making something, you know, better. I just wish they would go back to the tower. Maybe pop out a mid-tower for the masses, too.
Here's hoping. I'd almost certainly buy a new mac pro with current CPU and (upgradable) GPU hardware and upgradable memory and drives and so on. Unless they screw it up. Again.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
then ressurrect jobs ffs. Timmy is making a titanic out of apple lol...
Don't worry. They have a big ring-shaped new building to use as a life preserver.