Instead of making devices ultra thin I really wish manufacturers would simply fill up the freed space with batteries.<p>Not only Apple MacBooks, this goes for mobilephones as well. Samsung Galaxy half an inch thick and a runtime of one week please.
Something about AppleInsider's writing makes me feel like I'm reading an old copy of the <i>Soviet Union</i> magazine.<p>Maybe it's the constant talk about industrial production power and revolutionary breakthroughs that, after years of careful planning, will soon be unveiled to the shock of hapless competitors.
It makes sense and it wouldn't surprise me if by the end of the rollout there's no longer a "MacBook Air" or "MacBook Pro", just a "MacBook" in 11, 13, 15 and 17 screens with the CPU and RAM gradually increasing with screen size.<p>Seeing as how my MBP is almost 3yo, I'll have to pick one of these up. Let's just hope it runs ubuntu well.
There was a rumor about a high density display similar to the iPhones with more than 300ppi. That would be the best and most important improvement, since OSX has to be adjusted heavily. I dont get it that we still use displays with 100-130 ppi like 10 years ago.
So what exactly is new? It doesn't take an "Apple insider" to know that the MBPs are due for a refresh, that SSDs are the way to go, or that the next model of an Apple product is going to be lighter and thinner than the previous iterations…
I remember thinking they wouldn't make it in the mid-90s. I had just bought one of the pizza box PowerMacs and it felt like an expensive mistake. Now it's $14B in profit for the quarter. It took my company all of 2011 to earn in EBITDA what they earn every 3 hours.<p>And I'll be contributing soon. The only thing that's kept me from getting an air is the lack of an 8GB model. If it's 15", even better.
I like being able to swap out my HD for an SSD, and later a bigger/faster SSD. My 17" MBP is a mobile workstation. A 17" Air would suck for my purposes.
It's the only way to go for laptops. I swapped a 17" 3 kIlograms MacBook Pro for an Air and I sure am not going back. My only gripe with Air: it's still too heavy.<p>Unbeknownst to many, Air's SSD is replaceable, you can upgrade it up to 480GB with an Air-only blade from OWC.
I hope this is right. I'll be replacing my MBP in the Summer, and have been wondering if the trade down to 4GB memory and lower CPU speed in an Air will be adequately compensated by the SSD, or if I need another Pro. An Air-style Pro would be just right for me.
wonder what this will do to the noise these things make. I had the 2011 Macbook Pro 15" i7 with dedicated graphics and under heavy load it was as noisy as a vacuum cleaner :/
Cant see how that gets any better with even thinner devices, despite the fact das Ivy bridge might improve heat a bit.<p>But still for power users doing graphics intensive stuff, the noise is an issue.
It sounds like Apple is attempting to gear up before ultrabooks become established as market favourite.<p>The article mentions that the model referenced doesn't have style or panache .. but I've seen a couple of models that do.