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MacBook Updates Rumored To Include Glass Trackpad
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Mon Jul 28, 2008 03:12 PM
from the unfounded-speculation dept.
from the unfounded-speculation dept.
CWmike writes to tell us that Seth Weintraub has been hearing some interesting rumors surrounding the next iteration of Apple's MacBook line. "I have been hearing some interesting things about Apple's upcoming line of portable computers. The talk amongst insiders on the new MacBooks is kind of scattered but here's a summation of what I've heard: The new models are thinner than current MacBook and MacBook Pros and slightly more rounded, taking design cues from the MacBook Air; the trackpad is glass, multi-touch and uses gestures. The screen isn't multi-touch; the body is manufactured out of one piece of aluminum. Eco-friendly, yet sturdy. Manufacturing process is completely different; the release date will be in the last weeks of September."
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I don't get it... (Score:5, Insightful)
What makes this "eco-friendly"? The glass trackpad? The "manufactured out of one piece of aluminum"?
Re:I don't get it... (Score:5, Insightful)
they paid off the right groups
-or-
realistically they know what words sell.
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Re:I don't get it... (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, you accidentally looked over the fact that it runs on new Ego(TM) power, not electricity. Common mistake.
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Re:I don't get it... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:I don't get it... (Score:5, Funny)
I think they made a typo.
Ego-friendly*
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Re:I don't get it... (Score:5, Funny)
Apparently the materials used to make the Air are relatively environmentally friendly
Duh. It's made of air
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Re:I don't get it... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:I don't get it... (Score:5, Informative)
Not necessarily, he could be a monkey.
You mean orangutan. NEVER call him a monkey.
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Re:I don't get it... (Score:5, Funny)
Ook?
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Re:Tough one... (Score:5, Insightful)
I disagree...
I work at an Apple Store (therefor the AC, and obviously take what I say with a grain of salt as I'm as much a fanboi as the best of em').
From everyone's perspective, having repairs done in larger part replacements are much better. There is one flaw with your statement. The large replaced part isn't just thrown away, but rather can be refurbished.
Consider an LCD display on a laptop. We'll low-ball and say there are 7 individual replaceable parts and cables. Brick and Mortar big box retail stores get shipments from all shipping companies for all different purposes from all over the globe. With Air and Ground shipping for say 4 failed parts in an LCD panel (say it's a liquid damaged LCD) and you get shipments from DHL, UPS, and FedEx delivering all of your parts over a period of 3 days. Now, if you only have to order a monitor clam-shell instead of 4 different parts, you have 1 shipment on 1 single day. When you are sending parts back to be refurbed or recycled or trashed, you are sending a single item as opposed to several different packages. From an inventory standpoint this means MUCH less paperwork per shipment and less boxes/packing material being used to ship and be trashed/recycled.
For users, repairs can be done faster. (If repairs can be done while customer waits, only one car trip out to store)
For retail stores, more repairs can be done in-store. This means fewer repairs will be packaged and shipped out to repair centers.
I just don't see how single part replacements are bad. This allows Apple to help end users more effectively. It takes less shipping and packing, and as I've understood eco-matters (and I won't pretend to be the brightest bulb on the matter), air cargo and travel are pretty big carbon emitters. Apple can then refurb/recycle the part in a larger warehouse environment that is more adept at repairing the individual components of the larger part.
Any-hoo... just my $0.04
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Re:Tough one...Not Really (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Tough one... (Score:5, Informative)
Also if it has a 1-piece aluminum chassis, it will be more difficult to repair, therefore more likely to be replaced, therefore more hardware going into landfills, therefore less eco-friendly. The case itself is sturdier but if it's one hard piece of aluminum, the internals will take more damage and the case will take less. Again, less eco-friendly. A good case for preventing damage would be a replaceable one made of thin, soft metal.
I disagree. An eco-friendly case would ironically be made from plastic, or if necessary some GRP or CFRP. Metal and glass, to use terms of trade, need shitloads of energy to manufacture, and the process is highly lossy. We don't even want to get started about how aluminium is extracted from the ore in the first place, or that a rather rare resource is needlessly wasted. Plastic can be molded to almost the final shape in a single pass, with a relatively low amount of energy (some heat and a vacuum pump).
All that "metal is good for the environment" is bullshit. It's good for marketing, because a laptop that feels like you could use it as a blunt weapon just feels better than "cheap" plastic. And even in that area, I'd put a lot of trust into some CFRP. It's effectively stronger and lighter than aluminium.
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Re:Tough one... (Score:5, Informative)
But metal is recyclable, plastic is not really recyclable. And about 8% of our crust is aluminum, plastic is from the oil, which is disappearing quickly. You may have noticed that aluminum is extracted from the ore, but did you know how plastic become plastic?
As carbon fiber reinforced plastic, I hope you realize that carbon fibers are made from polyacrylonitrile fibers by heating. And most CFRP products are absolutely not recyclable.
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Re:Tough one... (Score:5, Insightful)
I would think the internals would be damaged more by a thin soft case than by a sturdy one.
There needs to be a happy medium. Most damage to a notebook with be blunt-force, not sharp-pointy. As long as the energy from a fall is used up in deforming the exterior, the interior will take less damage. If the exterior is made of diamond, the interior will slam into the diamond exterior with the same energy as if it had hit the ground itself. Of course, if someone's stabbing your laptop, you'll want a hard case, and maybe better working/living conditions.
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An iPhone screen for a trackpad? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:An iPhone screen for a trackpad? (Score:5, Funny)
Why, so you can glance up and down constantly to see what you're doing, and then curse occasionally as you press the wrong spot on the trackpad and open several programs at once?
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Glass trackpad? (Score:5, Interesting)
What are the advantages of a glass trackpad? Wouldn't your finger stick to it?
Re:Glass trackpad? (Score:5, Interesting)
Bling factor! It looks and feels more "expensive" not to mention the glass is harder so it won't scratch with use. Most trackpads kinda feel like a cheap vinyl / plastic sheet and get "wear" marks in the pad from finger friction after a couple months use..
Wouldn't your finger stick to it?
I'd think that getting fingerprints all over a shiny glossy surface that you are meant to touch all the time would be a bigger issue.
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Re:Glass trackpad? (Score:5, Funny)
The superior solution is obviously the clit mouse [xkcd.com].
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Glass? Eww, eww, eww, eww (Score:5, Insightful)
I've not used an iPhone or iPod touch for long, but I got the impression that they were designed to favour short finger motions on the pad for precisely this reason. I'm not sure it would translate well into a touchpad.
Re:Glass? Eww, eww, eww, eww (Score:5, Informative)
I've not used an iPhone or iPod touch for long, but I got the impression that they were designed to favour short finger motions on the pad for precisely this reason.
I have to say, I've had an iPhone for a year. At first I was skeptical of the glass because of fingerprints, etc, but in practice I never notice any smudges, and I've *never* had any skipping, etc. In fact, it's remarkably precise, considering the blunt nature of a fingertip.
My theory on the way it works is that it finds the centroid of the pressure region. I've used drawing applications with it, and it's actually amazing how well it works drawing thin lines with a fingertip.
I don't know about a multitouch touchpad, that seems kind of lame. What makes multitouch cool is touching directly on the screen.
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Multi-touch pad (Score:5, Informative)
the MacBook Pro already has a multi-touch trackpad [apple.com], so I'm not sure where the rumor part comes in...
I realize thin is in... (Score:5, Interesting)
But I really would like to see something that I could use a day or two on a charge. If they can make it paper thin and still run a few hours, then surely, they could make something twice as thick that would go for a day?
Re:Yeah... (Score:4, Informative)
Yes. Yes it can actually.
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Re:Touchscreen (Score:5, Informative)
Look up touchscreen gorilla arm.
That's why touch screens are not great and won't cause a revolution.
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