795817
story
Comments: 273 +- Hardware: MacBook Updates Rumored To Include Glass Trackpad on Monday July 28 2008, @02:12PM
background: url(//a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/topicapportables.gif); width:67px; height:56px;
macbook
background: url(//a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/topicbusiness.gif); width:64px; height:54px;
business
background: url(//a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/topichardware.gif); width:64px; height:55px;
hardware
background: url(//a.fsdn.com/sd/topics/topicapple.gif); width:52px; height:64px;
apple
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."
Related Stories
We have art that we do not die of the truth.
-- Nietzsche
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2009 Geeknet, Inc.
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.
Parent
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.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You can thank your sig for inspiring this:
Re:I don't get it... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Just wrong! (Score:3, Informative)
Apple has NEVER used desktop processors in ANY of their Intel lines. Even Mini and iMac use notebook processors, and the Mac Pros use Server-grade Xeon processors. That give them an edge up in buying quantity over Dell because they only buy higher margin parts that Intel likes to sell, not "cheap" ones.
They are considered more "eco-friendly" because they are removing parts and changing to reusable materials. I have an old Snow iBook and the thing is a complex mess of two layers of plastic with "tin foil"
Re:Just wrong! (Score:4, Informative)
First, consistent customers with a high spec get the best parts. When I was working shipping blanks, one or two big name companies got the reliable items. Everyone else go their rejects. This is a fact. If Apple is willing to commit to purchasing a year in advance, they get the good stuff. Everyone else, like Dell, who is looking for the cheapest price, gets Apple rejects.
Second, Apple has always been conscious about the environment, especially in relation to user safety. For instance, Apple was one of the first retailers to move CRT monitors to the swedish standards for radiation. They also moved to LCD for similar reasons. In the switch, Apple also cut the power needed to run a computer considerably. In fact Apple tends to have very energy efficient computers, with current models running on half the power of similar models from other vendors.
All this of course costs money. For years CRTs are cheaper than LCDs. Building power efficient kit costs money. It is easier to throw together a power consuming piece of junk than a well designed performer. A lighter, smaller machine has obvious savings in transportation. What is missing from most discussions is the fact that energy consumption during the lifetime of the product is going to far outweigh, in most cases, the energy needed to build the product. Furthermore, refurbishment of the entire product, where the company has control of disposal, it likely the best way to go, although it is also expensive as it does not externalize costs.
Parent
Tough one... (Score:4, Informative)
I've really been trying to figure it out, but I can't. If it does have a second LCD in the trackpad as smitty97 speculates, it sure won't be more eco-friendly:
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/07/04/lcd-greenhouse-gas-worries/1 [bit-tech.net]
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.
Also getting the parts inside such a case would be a nightmare...I guess the screen would have a slit on the bottom where the internals are inserted and then clipped into place, and the body would just have removable bays as usual, but then the mobo and keyboard would be non-replaceable.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Aluminum is very recyclable. I really doubt many Aluminum chasis make it past the sorters and into a landfill. Hell, Al cans vanish out of my recycling bin before the truck even gets there. It's magic!
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
Parent
Re:Tough one...Not Really (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
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.
Parent
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.
Parent
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.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
What makes this "eco-friendly"?
Al Gore is on their board of directors... therefore everything they make is automatically considered to be eco-friendly...
Just like Al Gore's giant house w/ huge power consumption bills... b-b-b-but I was spending that power on computing climate models to prove what horrible polluters American's are!
Re:I don't get it... (Score:4, Informative)
Higher power consumption != less eco-friendly. Gore's house has a much, much lower carbon footprint than the average American home because he gets nearly all of that energy he uses from solar and geothermal sources. Much of the reason that bill you're referring to was so high is because he's paying a premium to get his energy from clean sources.
Maybe you were just trying to make an innocent joke, but that meme needs to die.
Gore isn't saying everyone needs to cut their energy consumption down to zero, he's saying people need to make an effort to be carbon-neutral, and he's making that effort himself.
Parent
Re:I don't get it... (Score:5, Funny)
I think they made a typo.
Ego-friendly*
Parent
Re:I don't get it... (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
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
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Here, you dropped this:
L
Re:I don't get it... (Score:4, Funny)
Not necessarily, he could be a monkey.
Parent
Re:I don't get it... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:I don't get it... (Score:5, Informative)
Not necessarily, he could be a monkey.
You mean orangutan. NEVER call him a monkey.
Parent
Re:I don't get it... (Score:5, Funny)
Ook?
Parent
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?
Parent
yes! (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:An iPhone screen for a trackpad? (Score:4, Funny)
I hope under the glass trackpad there's a little display just like the iPhone's.
Presenting the new smitty97 MacBook Touch [wikipedia.org].
Parent
How about just using the iPhone docked there (Score:3, Interesting)
Dock the iPhone where the trackpad would be, to lower manufacturing costs. Could use the iPhone's screen so that the trackpad would be more than just input, it would be a second display.
Maybe.
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.
Parent
Re:Glass trackpad? (Score:5, Funny)
The superior solution is obviously the clit mouse [xkcd.com].
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Bullshit. Styli don't function on the iPhone, only fingers. Why make things up?
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.
Parent
yeah aluminum... (Score:3, Interesting)
so the wifi range can be shorter O_o
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...
Screw trackpads (Score:3, Insightful)
If Apple wanted to be cool, they'd dump the trackpad entirely and add a trackpoint.
Yes, that's right. They should switch to the nub. The pencil eraser. The clit mouse. The keyboard clit.
C'mon, it'd be awesome.
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?
Glass = not ideal material for laptops (Score:3, Interesting)
Surely glass is a really bad idea for laptops? It's heavier than plastic, and less durable in terms of scratch resistance and shattering. Worse still it has more friction than some plastics, so not ideal for moving your finger over.
joke (Score:4, Funny)
Round corners reminds me of the old joke;
Q;Why do they make macs so big?
A: So mac users cant put them up their asses.
Q: Why do macs have round corners?
A: Just in case they manage the above!
(-:
Re:Yeah... (Score:4, Informative)
Yes. Yes it can actually.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Since when was /. (officially) devoted to Linux/open source?
Re:How about adding A bigger screen and video card (Score:4, Informative)
13" lightweight laptops are more expensive than the big bulky 15.4" laptops of the same specs.
This is true across the board.
The Macbook actually compares very well with current offerings from Dell. Compare it to the Vostro 1310 and XPS 1330. The Macbook specs are getting slightly dated in comparison to Dell's frequent updates, but when the new Macbook comes out expect the specs to be as good or better for the price than similarly-equipped laptops from other manufacturers.
Parent
Re:How about adding A bigger screen and video card (Score:3, Insightful)
Why do you assume bigger is better? I'd rather have a 13" laptop than a 15" laptop.
My perfect laptop form factor would be a 12" non-widescreen with nVidia discrete graphics. Oh, and it would be even more awesome if it were a tablet and doubly awesome if I could rotate it into portrait mode.
Too bad the ThinkPad X61 only has GMA...
Re:Touchscreen (Score:5, Informative)
Look up touchscreen gorilla arm.
That's why touch screens are not great and won't cause a revolution.
Parent