Apple is preparing an all-new MacBook Air for 2015 with a radically new design that jettisons standards such as full-sized USB ports, MagSafe connectors, and SD card slots in favor of a markedly thinner and lighter body with a higher-resolution display. Sources within Apple, who have used internal prototype versions of the upcoming computer, have provided in-depth details about the machine, and our exclusive artist renditions of the revamped MacBook Air provide the first close look at Apple’s first major step in mobile Mac computing since the Retina MacBook Pro launch in 2012.
The 12-inch MacBook Air will be considerably smaller than the current 13-inch version, yet also slightly narrower than the 11-inch model. The new 12-inch version is approximately a quarter-of-an-inch narrower than the 11-inch version, yet it is also a quarter-of-an-inch taller in order to accommodate the slightly larger display. In order to fit the larger screen into a footprint about the size of the current 11-inch model, the bezels on the display have been reduced on all sides.
Besides a new look for the front of the computer, the entire unibody has been revamped from the keyboard to the trackpad to the speakers. Taking cues from the 12-inch PowerBook introduced by Steve Jobs over a decade ago, the new keyboard sits edge-to-edge across the width of the laptop. In addition to going edge-to-edge, the entire key set has been subtly redesigned so that each key sits noticeably closer together. Apple has squeezed the keys closer in order for the computer to be as narrow as possible, which can be seen in the rendition below:
Apple has also relocated some of the function keys across the top and simplified the arrow key array in order to keep the keyboard as narrow as possible without taking away from overall usability. In addition to the keyboard, the trackpad has been changed. The trackpad is approximately the same width as that on the 11-inch MacBook Air (if not ever-so-slightly wider), but it is apparently slightly taller, nearly touching the bottoms of the keyboard and the frame. In line with earlier rumors, it also appears that the new trackpad does not have the same clicking effect as found on current and earlier MacBook models.
The elimination of physical feedback in the click is part of Apple’s plan to reduce the thickness of the MacBook to a bare minimum. As can be seen in 9to5Mac artist Michael Steeber‘s rendition above, the new 12-inch Air (on the left) is far thinner than the current 11-inch model (on the right). Taking cues from the current Air, the future model has a teardrop-like, tapered design that gets thinner from top to bottom. Above the keyboard are four redesigned speaker grills that actually double as ventilation holes for the fan-less device to keep cool.
The upcoming laptop is so thin that Apple employees are said to refer to the device as the “MacBook Stealth” internally. In order to reach that new level of portability, Apple not only slimmed down the trackpad and tweaked the speakers but the ports as well:
The upcoming 12-inch Air has the fewest amount of ports ever on an Apple computer, as can be seen in the rendition above. On the right side is a standard headphone jack and dual-microphones for input and noise-canceling. On the left side is solely the new USB Type-C port. Yes, Apple is currently planning to ditch standard USB ports, the SD Card slot, and even its Thunderbolt and MagSafe charging standards on this new notebook. We must note that Apple tests several designs of upcoming products, so Apple may choose to ultimately release a new Air that does include the legacy components, though there is very little space on the edges for them.
As we’ve reported on multiple occasions, the new USB Type-C connector is smaller, faster, and more capable than the standard USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports on existing computers. The connector is able to replace the Thunderbolt Display port on the current Apple laptops as USB Type-C actually has the technology to drive displays. Additionally, the latest specifications from the USB foundation indicate that USB Type-C can actually be used to power computers, which makes the standard MagSafe plugs unnecessary on this new device. The connector is also reversible like Lightning on iPads and iPhones, which should make the overall experience a bit more intuitive.
As the new MacBook may only have a single port, it would make sense for Apple to create a hub of some sort for users to be able to plug in multiple devices into the new laptop. Apple already ships all sorts of adapters for its Macs and iOS Devices, so adding yet another attachment to the accessory portfolio would not be unprecedented. With Apple moving to a new “Space Gray” color on its iOS devices and on some Macs (such as with the 2013 Mac Pro), it seems possible that this new MacBook may come in a new gray color, as shown off in some of our renditions.
The latest rumors indicate that the new MacBook Air will ship in mid-2015 (perhaps around WWDC), while other reports have claimed that the new Air is already nearing production. With Intel revealing the latest news on the Broadwell chipset family at CES this week, the ball is likely now in Apple’s court for pushing the future of mobile computing into the world.
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This should rock when it comes out.
WOW!!
Wow … This looks great
It would be nice if it came with a fingerprint reader so as to make it possible to use Apple Pay for online purchases.
Indeed, Touch ID would be great
Applewatch maybe?
I don’t want to need a Apple watch to unlock my Mac. The Apple way to add Touch ID to the Mac would be to have the entirety of the trackpad on this device be Touch ID capable.
Apple Pay already exists for the web. Apple unveiled this in September of 2014 – alongside the iOS tap to pay version. Apple Pay online verifies identity by using a password. No fingerprint sensor is needed.
But you can’t deny that doing away with passwords entirely on desktop via TouchID isn’t a very tempting proposal.
Similar to making phone calls on your mac, you’ll probably use your iPhone’s Touch ID to authenticate purchases on the mac. No fingerprint need on computer.
*No fingerprint scanner needed…
No one is going to break out a laptop to do ApplePay. They’ll use their AppleWatch or iPhone to do that.
Only one port would be stupid
especially if it is not a thunderbolt
Thunderbolt is too expensive to implement, hence why it never caught on. I’ll admit sometimes I use two USB ports, but I’m betting the power adapter is also a USB hub since the laptop will be charged via USB, why not?
It’s possible that the single port could be used for both USB and Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt is system for extending a PCI Express lane over a wire, it doesn’t really care what shape the connector is. When it was still called Light Peak, it used a USB-A connector. There’s no reason it couldn’t be adapted to a USB-C connector.
Wrong. Intel’s Broadwell chips are pushing wireless technology like Wireless 4k displays, connectivity and charging..
At CES Intel was pushing the fact that Broadwell will reduce the number of wires plugging into a system. Combined with this design AND the that the processors that will be used in this system are to be release Mid-year, makes for a VERY compelling product.
No different from the original MacBook Air, although if it is also used to charge the device it would limit usefulness unless there is a hub that can charge the machine while expanding the port selection.
The original Macbook AIr had effectively three ports, if you’re comparing them against something that crams everything into one. It had a power port, a video port, and a USB port. Try to cram them all into a single port and you’ve got a ridiculously constrained laptop that makes you choose between things like “Can I afford to use this projector, or is my battery too low?” or “I’d love to use this LCD monitor, but I really need a mouse right now.”
@adam: I would guess for projector scenario – the projector / display will also recharge the mac. And on the mouse, apple would recommending bluetooth mouse. So yes, “apple way” all the way.. else you would need a usb hub anyway to make the current usb c to be compatible with usb type A. So either way, apple has been thinking to make everything into one port
Said iPad doubters.
Retina display?
Yes.
You notice there isn’t a word “retina” anywhere in this rumor?
Guys, hairy fungus ads in the main column of your article. I didn’t make it past.
I believe ads on this site as based on your cookie history so……might want to use private mode from now on
I have an ad on the side of my screen right now for seeking a Chinese love partner. I’ve never browsed anything of the sort…
I guess maybe not, I just know when I come here the ads are almost exclusively for things Ive googled or checked Amazon for earlier in the day/week.
@thejuanald Or so you publicly claim :-D
Adblock plugin is available for most browsers. No need to put up with any ads.
It’s important to make thing thin.
No MagSafe? Is USB Type-C magnetic? I sure like not having to worry about my pets yanking down my Macbook while its connected to a power source.
I can’t tell you how many times the MagSafe has saved my laptop. Heck, even I trip over the power cord.
Same here – it’s one of the primary reasons I stick with Apple Laptop hardware. I have to run Windows for work a lot of times and even then – an Apple laptop has always been my pick.
I’ve always had AC charging ports on PCs/Windows Laptops end up failing so that you have to hold the AC plug just right or wiggle it around or just get lucky for it to charge – likely from the cord getting yanked out by pets/being tripped over/etc.
What if they use a recharger just like the Watch?
I was thinking the exact same thing as Gabriel – we have to be thinking that it might not have a “port” per se, but a magnetic area on the chassis that a connector can stick to; and charge like an Apple Watch. Invisible to the eye but there nonetheless; like the old sleep LED and battery charge LED’s on the first unibody MacBook Pro’s
I’ve long since thought we need one magnetic data power cable to rule them all. I wish Apple would create that cable and open it as a stardard to replace USB c-type. Reversible took long enough to get to. But reversible and magnetic is the holy grail for a power data cable.
The USB-C plug could have a MagSafe connection to the rest of the cable. That plug could also double as a small USB hub.
one port to replace thunderbolt and usb and i guess charging too? Let me just plug this into charger, then plugin my mouse and hook it up to thunderbolt display. oh wait. guess if i’m charging it, no display and no mouse. using a mouse today? guess i’m running on battery. Smaller is good when it’s not a sacrifice. But smaller at expense of everything else, horrid design. Users will get over the “wow this is cool” real quick when they realize even the most basic of functionality is ruined.
Maybe they will carry a USB hub around with them and make it work. Or there is an apple solution planned for this. Honestly though, I haven’t liked apple laptops since before retina models. Long gone are the days of a decent machine with multiple USB ports, DVD drive for movies on the go, etc.
Who uses dvd drives in laptops anymore? Are new laptops from Windows OEMs even shipping with them anymore?
You still use a wired mouse in 2015?
There are plenty of reasons to still use a wired mouse with your computer.
Gaming, for example.
If you are “gaming” on a Macbook Air, mouse latency is the least of your worries.
Rhys, if you’re serious enough about gaming to not use a wireless mouse – you would not game on a MacBook Air.
My Logitech mouse is not Bluetooth, so yes I do still use a “wired” mouse in 2015. Apple’s mice are, for me, horrendous. Also I have yet to find a Bluetooth mouse that was not just a basic two buttoner. Further, I do not think I have replaced the batteries in this mouse since I got it 4+ years ago, checking, yes they are the OEM Duracell’s still.
Most (not all) wireless mice still come with a receiver since they don’t make use of Bluetooth.
Most of the issues with delay etc in wireless mice for say gaming are very much a Windows thing. Their implementation of the Bluetooth stack is somewhat… under-developed. Apple’s is pretty rock solid and very good at low latency.
@Urtho If you are using a wired mouse, why do you need batteries? That makes no sense. It shouldn’t even have a place to put batteries.
Having a DVD drive isn’t such a big deal to me considering most software I install is downloaded these days. If I want to make a copy of it – I just throw it on the redundant NAS storage and can access it anytime I need from there. There have been a few times where I did need a CD drive – I just pop it in my desktop, rip it to an ISO, and then mount it on the laptop. I can even store that ISO to the NAS and access it anytime [even if the CD gets lost/destroyed/damaged].
Having multiple USB ports is really only important to me in an environment where I’m sitting down at a desk. This is unlikely to be very common with the MacBook Air IMHO [but I am sure others do it differently].
I use my desktop at my desk or [sometimes] my MacBook Pro – I plug in a power cord, USB hub, displayport cable, etc. What would be really nice for me in this situation is that if there was a solution where you plug in power, usb hub, and all kinds of stuff into a single cable and then plug that cable into the laptop it will make desktop use of the laptop easier for me.
No longer will I have to plug each and every device into the laptop every time I want to use it on the desk. I can just plug it into the cable/hub/whatever and when I need to use the laptop on the desk I only have *one* cord to plug into the machine for power, display, USB, etc.
I can’t really imagine many situations where the portability of the laptop would be important *AND* I’d need to have numerous USB ports, display ports, etc. I’m mobile and, as a result, I probably won’t be using peripheral devices.
If I am wanting to plug in numerous devices most likely I’m going to be stationary/somewhere that it’s not a big deal to use a hub/cord/device to make it possible.
At the end of the day if you want a machine with a lot of ports – buy one. If the new MBA works for you and you want one – get it. If it won’t meet your needs or you don’t want one – well don’t get it.
Nobody is forcing anybody to buy/use anything they do not wish to buy/use so at the end of the day while your opinions are valuable to you – that’s all they are – opinions [same as mine].
Except that they are probably going to eliminate the old MBA’s which were perfectly functional for me and would be forcing me up to a MacBook Pro, which is thicker and more expensive.
Well… Companies are all the time releasing new hardware that replaces their old hardware. They tend to support the old hardware for a period as well after they stop selling them. I know I’ve been in the Apple store numerous times and seen the old white plastic MacBooks being serviced when they haven’t been sold in years.
This happens with all kinds of products in all sorts of industries and is not specific to Apple or the MacBook Air.
Who uses a non bluetooth mouse with a laptop? But anyway, the USB 3 displays will charge the device. The world is moving on from usb sticks. If you think laptops should still have a DVD player then it’s no surprise you wouldn’t like this. I haven’t watched a DVD in over a year and can’t remember the last time I put a disc in my 2009 MacBook (for all I know the drive may not even work anymore). It’s good to see Apple are yet again leading the industry forward.
Apple has included Remote Disk in it’s OS for years now.
DVD drives are one more point of breakage for hardware. Buy a garbage DVD drive from eBay for $15 and use it twice a year like the rest of us.
You use a DVD drive that often?
What’s a DVD?
What I hope they do here is to make the power brick, on the power cord, double as a USB hub. That would be a super clean implementation.
A very good idea indeed.
I agree that that sounds like a good idea, but if you need close proximity and flexibility then having them plug in 6ft away from you isn’t such a great idea.
Apple employee reading this “Damn, we should have leaked this sooner!”
I agree, Microsoft has done this for the Surface Pro 3 and it’s awesome!
ready to buy one now
That Esc key location is SHIT!
Yeah, I have already imagined myself wishing to press ESC and locking the screen of the laptop instead.
Same here. I can’t imagine it being moved from the right side of the machine to the left for any sort of good reason. I’ve never gone to hit F12 and gone ‘Crap! I hit the power button!’
Won’t happen, now on Macs you much hold the damn power button to do anything useful.
Exactly why I’m calling BS. Makes no sense to move the power button from its current position. I get narrowing the keyboard to make the overall size smaller, but that power button location provided NOTHING to the overall design other then a huge headache for users accustomed the the ESC key being there. I can see myself putting my machine to sleep far too frequently with that design.
It’s called change. Change is hard but it’s the Apple way.
In this case it’s change for the not so greater good. If true. Which I have serious doubts about. Until Apple get up on stage and show the world this thing is nothing but rumour and speculation. Let’s not forget how many times we’ve had “people familiar with the matter” etc who end up being incredibly wrong.
You understand this is not actually the real product, right? Artist’s renditions aren’t always reflective of the final product.
Well you are right but lately Apple leaks are pretty accurate. Until its actual reveal I was defending iphone camera wont be outside like this and those plastic antenna covers. But despite everything they did it. iPads also leaked and if iPad pro happens I will start to believe everything I see:D
You understand it is the keyboard layout is gloriously shitty, right? It has NOTHING to do with whether it is a mockup or an actual product.
I guess they figured people accidentally hitting the power button instead of the ESC key was slightly better than people hitting the power button instead of the DELETE key (which is what happens now).
That’s why tapping the Power button doesn’t do much anymore… Too many miskeys from people trying to delete stuff. So you could argue it really won’t matter much.
The Delete key gets much more use than the Esc key… someone will have figured that in total, you’ll get a reduction in miskeys by moving the power button over to the left — maybe a temporary spike while we adjust.
yeah but i think we’ll continue to see magsafe and thunderbolt for a while for good
No thunderbolt? What year is this?
Several years after it launched and still there are very few devices that use it ;-)
BS. There are plenty. There aren’t many in the consumer space because not many things need that kind of bandwidth, but in the professional A/V world Thunderbolt is a godsend, finally replacing FireWire for things like audio interfaces etc. It’s a major boon to video pro’s especially.
They said USB Type-C can handle more than Thunderbolt.
I guess this is the direction where the Air is heading. The lack of ports would mean I’d have to carry extra adapters, SD to USB Type-C, and USB 3.0 Type-A to USB Type-C for my often used thumb drives and external hard drives. I think I’ll lean towards the next gen MacBook Pro 13 inch to upgrade my 2011 13inch model, and hope it has plenty of connectivity options. For portability my iPad will make due.
This will be the iPad-like notebook from Apple. For power you’ll need MBP. For someone like myself this computer is perfect. I use my 5K iMac for the heavy lifting and use my MBA exclusively for writing and nothing else.
This rMBA looks great. Even greater is if they kept the current 13.3″ form factor, trim the size of the bezels and stick a 14″ retina display in there. Therefore you have a 12″ 14″ rMBA.
Heh, using a $1000+ laptop to do nothing but writing? I love laptops, but I definitely can’t afford that kind of inefficiency…
Isn’t this a rumor or something? Because this article looks like you actually had such a unit here to review.
It clearly states in the article (if you take the time to read it) that the images are renders.
That was not what I meant. This article should be clearly marked as rumor, regardless of renderings or not.
This is a rumor. But given Gurman’s excellent track record I trust this report.
1 USB-C, obviously means that you will have to buy hub to run this laptop as the power supply will use this port leave “Zero” ports available without a hub.
Is this a backward step, not sure as i really don’t use my USB ports now, we shall have to wait and see.
Again Apple would be pushing the boundaries or portability
What do you use the USB port for? If you use it for transferring information onto a stick them you can unplug the charger.
My main concern with this device is battery life. I want 15 hours please.
The fact the Air’s storage is fairly limited means it’ll be unpractical for users to have to unplug the power cable in order to connect usb drives for what could be hours at a time. Many people likely have a lot of their data sitting on them and will need access to those files. Since this is a mobile device its also likely that NAS storage isn’t a feasible option as well as any other sort of network sharing. I don’t have a powerhouse of a work laptop, but it’s still adequate for running VMs off and I do that over a USB drive since having an 80GB VM on a laptop with 500GB of storage is pretty wasteful.
Then there’s keyboards, mice (wired or wireless + a receiver), external TV cards, Apples own Superdrive, any iOS device etc that may need to be plugged into the system.
If this is true (and frankly I doubt they are ditching USB just now without making some transition steps first), then they’ll need a hub of some sort somewhere in the box.
The USB charger plug could include both a MagSafe port and a small USB hub.
This is my next laptop. Totally sold if they find a smart solution hub-wise.
I will wait and buy the current model cheaper. I don’t like the idea of a Macbook which I can’t recharge and use an USB port at the same time. And what about battery? Will they maintain the 12h battery?
My guess is a hub could power the device and drive USB devices at the same time.
Hmm, maybe a few too many changes.
I currently use a 2011 13 inch MBA for photo-editing on the road. I like the MBA because I have a single carry-on with all my camera equipment and laptop. The package overall just does squeeze into an overhead bin comfortably.
Looks like with this I would need to carry a few more dongles and ports to make it work for me.
I am skeptical it will provide a significant performance boost or any over a 2011 i5 processor.
I’ll probably hang on to the MBA a while longer I guess.
Dont worry about the performance, it has no way to win your 2011 i5.
Fanless means it runs a Core M, which is decent but will not touch your i5.
Mouse can be bluetooth, storage can be iCloud, it is designed to be constantly running on battery instead of AC. So the only scene you need to use that USB-C is monitor. And the monitor serves as a USB hub.
Storage can be iCloud? Not really.
With only one port (usb) how do you charge the battery ?
Trying reading the article next time.
Try reading the article next time.
Will it bend?
idiot.
Not on your life my [insert religious preference here] friend.
Anything will bend with enough force so I imagine the answer is a simple, “Yes.”
I missed the part that shows how it is radically different. Did that part get taken out?
Still waiting….
……
For what it is, the changes are pretty radical. Down to 1 port for both USB and power, somehow it’s even thinner than the previous gen, much better speaker placement for listening (plus they double as air vents), it will have a retina display, I’m sure it’s going to be lighter and the charge will last even longer.
What the hell do you expect from a portable laptop? Do you want it to double as a skateboard or something?
I dont get people expecting apple to do something revolutinary in every single device yet everyone is ok with samsungs lg’s or microsofts spec only changes. Apple gets a new resolution everyone says ”is that supposed to impress me?” Lg does it and nobody says anything. I am a windows laptop user and I change my device only for new specs for 12 years. Nothing revolutinary.And frankly I dont care it does its job well enough for me. It feels like only Apple products are bashed every single year. Maybe its success causes that but its annoying.
I don’t expect it to be radical. It doesn’t have to be. That is fine, nothing wrong with that.I realize there is only so much you can do until new technology becomes more widespread.
However, when the article title says RADICAL, i expect radical. Stop propping up minor updates as radical change.
I was sad to see only one USB type-C port, but what if the charger was also a USB hub along with another type-C and standard USB port, or perhaps a complete docking station with the graphics output? It’s already USB, I don’t see that as a stretch. The new Thunderbolt display, whatever it is called, should supply power, carry graphics and act as a docking station. Perhaps that’s how they plan to reduce it to a single port? Regardless, I’m hoping for two ports.
I think you’re onto something here by having a bunch of ports on the USB charger plug. That could include more USB ports, possibly Thunderbolt and MagSafe. That plug would never need to be used on the move because you’ll never have to charge it during the day.
MagSafe? You know the point of MagSafe right? If it’s not on the computer itself then there’s point.
I think mag-safe is done, but I assume USB type-C is designed to break the cable, not the port on the computer if under too much stress. USB type-C is certainly the future for all computers, so replacement cables should be cheap. It also supplies 100w of power, so yes I’m thinking the charger will simply be a USB hub/docking station solution, and the laptop should be compatible with all future USB type-C docking stations/chargers.
This is much better than thunderbolt unless you have a thunderbolt monitor (I do). I assume they will offer a compatibility box for those but it won’t be cheap, thunderbolt is never cheap. That’s why I don’t have any thunderbolt accessories past the monitor, nor does anyone I know.
@irelandjnr: The main design point of MagSafe is to protect the computer if someone or someone’s pet accidently jerks the power cable. So yes it would still serve that purpose.
I don’t think the USB standards body designed that into the new type-C plug.
By continuing to use MagSafe as a breakage point on the power line, Apple or third party accessorizers could offer different hubs for different needs to connect to the single USB-C port on the new Air. Most would have MagSafe while others might include additional USB ports, Thunderbolt, HDMI and more.
Recall that Apple’s Thunderbolt Display has a Thunderbolt plug and a MagSafe plug. Those need to be able to connect to the single USB-C port.
My guess is that without a cooling fan, and with the latest mobile processors from Intel (just being announced at CES), this macbook will probably get even better battery life. Like, maybe 14 or 15 hours. That alone would ease many people’s concerns about charging and using USB at the same time. The answer is that you just won’t need to charge until the end of the day. That’s my guess.
Also, the obvious place for the “hub” is the back of the display. One cable comes out of the display and goes into the MacBook Air’s one port. This charges it, hooks up an extra display and provides I/O via a series of ports on the display. I’m in! I love the 11″ macbook air, can’t wait for this new machine.
I’m hoping for a simple adapter that allows you to plug in the charger + gives you one or two legacy USB3 ports. Something small/light that I can throw in the bag with the charger/laptop that I have if I need but isn’t cumbersome if I don’t.
Keep in mind that having a Retina Display is not without a battery penalty. The gains main from the the CPU will be balanced with the increased power consumption from the display. I’d say that’s why they didn’t release this laptop 1-2 years ago, they will likely at best maintain 12 hours battery life instead of increasing it.
Say that to the iPads and their battery life. I’m seeing them claiming over 12 hours.
Seems like they’re pushing the limits a bit. A laptop whose primary attributes is portability will go well with a singular/consolidated port and a good hub/solution IMHO.
When I want a lot of peripherals I’ll likely be in an environment where plugging in a hub of some kind [that already has all of my other stuff plugged in] won’t be a problem.
When I’m mobile I want thin, light, fast, and good battery life – I don’t care so much about having a lot of ports that I am not going to use [while mobile, that is].
Whatever solution Apple comes up with for USB-C for power and a USB port while on the go I am sure will work/fit in my bag. I manage to carry my MBA + Charger now so carrying some sort of hub or special short cable [to give access to a normal USB port] wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me by a long shot.
The ideal situation would be to build the hub into the charger, but is that Apple’s style? Does the iPad coming with a hub? I see this thing shipping with one port and no hub to differentiate it from the MBP. If you want ports go pro, if you want battery life, mega-portable and mega-light go MBAr. This thing would be a journalists, students, writers dream. We don’t need many ports any longer.
Is it’s Apple’s style? I don’t know – I don’t work for Apple nor do I ever associate with anybody that designs for Apple.
Does the iPad come with a hub? Well has it *ever* come with USB ports directly on the device? No? Then it’s not relevant.
I am sure, however, that if they decide to go the way of USB-C with a single port – that a lot more thought into how to make that work and work well has been put into it buy Apple engineers than me, you, and everybody else commenting on this post put together :). Hopefully it will be a beautiful implementation and will set a bar for other manufacturers moving forward – maybe not – maybe it will fail hard.
I don’t understand the conclusion that the keyboard will be less than full size. The new Air is only a quarter of an inch narrower than the 11 inch Air while reducing the bezels on each side of the keyboard significantly. It looks like the new Air will have a bigger keyboard than the 11 inch Air even though Apple claims the 11 incher has a full size keyboard. I measured the width of a full sized (iMac) keyboard to be less than 11 inches so it would easily fit on the new Air. I think the keys are simply larger while having less space between them – maybe a new trend for Apple.
As to the single USB-C port that will be used to charge the new machine, my guess is that the charger itself, will double as a USB hub, maybe even offering an older style USB port.
This is a beauty.
The power/esc button placement means I’ll never buy this. Such a shame really.
Shame fo you.
Keep in mind it’s a mock-up/rendering and not pictures of the actual real product if I’m not mistaken. Apple does use various versions of their prototypes to test different things so it’s possible that the rendering was based off of one statement by one individual who saw a prototype that will never actually go into production… Rumors abound :).
Let’s rename the lines MacBook Dongle and MacBook Functional
uhhh.. where is the magsafe port? How do you plug the damn thing in?
Read the article people.
If this uses force touch for the trackpad that might make up for the lack of click.
so how many ppl will press power instead of escape button?
now way this is a real thing. total bs, including just one port for everything, including power.
Nothing will happen as you need to hold power now on macs to access power function.
Why is Apple so obsessed with the thickness??.. I don’t get it. I mean, as long as it’s light, the thickness doesn’t really matter, especially when it comes to computers. I know that Apple could make it lighter by making it thinner, but did they really have to make it THAT thin that they had to give up on standards?
Lightness and thinness are not mutually exclusive.
This is crazy looking, but they should have done something like Dell unveiled today and severely reduced the bezel size. They new XPS 13 has a 13″ screen on an 11″ chassis thanks to the incredibly thin bezel. Not to mention the fantastic 3200×1800 (276ppi) screen.
I’d love to see that on the Air.
http://i.dell.com/sites/imagecontent/products/PublishingImages/xps-13-9343-laptop/laptop-xps-13-love-pdp-design-1.jpg
They haven’t “done” anything yet. The specs and renderings are based on rumors.
True. Then I will say I hope they go this direction rather than what was shown here.
I’ll probably be buying a new Mac this year, this laptop is what I’ve been waiting a while for. So far I really like the design.
I’ll be waiting to find out what kind of internals will be in this, I’m hoping the new Broadwell processors and a 256GB PCIe-based SSD, hopefully with 8GB of Ram as standard too. I’m doubting dedicated graphics will be included but the current state is fine.
Two critics of this is the placement of the power button, why not leave it on the right side. Also the fact there’s just one USB 3 type-c port, one more and it would of been perfect. I could see Apple including some type of mini hub in the box to ease users into this.
Price will be another factor, hopefully around the €1,000 mark. Main problem is the ports, Id say battery life woud last a day but if you have it charging the one extra port woud of made things easier for running displays and attaching a USB key which lost people will regularly use. I’d say this is aimed at the home user, who like me has never used thunderbolt and very rarely uses SD cards.
Overall a great design, nice scoop as usual Mark.
I’m impressed! But I will say that when I saw the edge-to-edge screen on the new Dell XPS today, I hoped it would find its way into the Air. Oh well. If I hadn’t seen the Dell I’d have nothing but praise.
Due to the likely smaller size of the battery, I really do expect a USB hub of some kind that also acts as an AC adapter. This would let the adapter both charge the laptop and power external devices so that the battery goes through as few cycles as possible. Probably one reason why having as few ports as possible on the laptop is a good thing (taking power from the battery is less than ideal since it would need to be continuously topped up).
Considering that USB type-C devices can both receive and deliver power in either direction, an included powered USB hub just makes sense that can also deliver power to devices when not plugged in from the laptop battery. In a few years, you’ll be able to plug in to any type-C port to charge the laptop like micro-USB today, as well as use hubs and adapters. It’s going to deliver 100w which is plenty.
I like new hardware as much as the next guy, but it would be even nicer if they could squash the bugs in OSX and IOS this year…
yes, if only apple would put some of their hardware team on software so we could see how that would turn out.
I hear you there… iOS and OS bugs are driving me nuts. It didn’t used to be this way……….
It needs more than 1 port if you need to use that same port to charge it, use a USB-C peripheral, and or connect a monitor to it. 1 port is simply not enough Apple! Sometimes getting to minimal is not the answer.
The very first Macbook Air was to minimal with only 1 standard USB port. Just isn’t enough.
Unless you can run power, display, and external USB devices over that one port with a breakout box.
I will cut someone if they move the escape key.
Other than that, this is amazing. A really nice upgrade for the Macbook Air. A breakout box with display, power, and external USB devices for the type-C port would make my docking setup way simpler and nicer.
So can you power it while it drives a secondary screen? Am I missing something?
USB-C is capable of that, yes.
Weight? Is this new, radical Mac lighter than previous?
Here’s an idea: Apple should (and hopefully is) turning the power brick in the power cable into a hub with various ports for input/output devices. One of those bricks could have enough room for a few USB 3.0, one Thunderbolt, and an hdmi port, probably, without adding too much bulk…
I really like this idea, I hope something like this is in development
Thinking outside the box. I like it. I can hear Tim Cook or Jony Ive (in a video, of course) explaining how the power box is no longer just a useless brick.
The SD slot is missing. I use that thing all the time!
Looks great, interesting changes.
I think the upshot is that this again becomes a niche product, and that many mainstream/light duty users will be forced up into the Pro lineup, which is suspiciously good for the bottom line.
This is gonna be cool, great exclusive.
And as an aside, congratulations Mark on being in the Forbes 30 under 30 list! I had no idea you were only 20…. Makes me think about where I am as a 20 year old!
But USB type C doesn’t disconnect magnetically and thus will re-introduce the “flying notebook” whenever someone trips over your cable! NO!
Or, the type C cord will have an in-line connector that will perform the same function as having the magnet in the body of the machine. As Spongebob says … “ImagiNATtion!”
That Escape & Power Button location is bound for troubles. lol.
Ok, that power button placement is just stupid. Esc has always been on the top left corner, what’s wrong with the power button where it is now?
No standard USB == Fail.
One row of Keyboard one millimeter narrower, WOW That’s “RADICALLY” new.
http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/5-annoying-ways-internet-fools-you-into-clicking-crap/
Oh, I remember back when IBM (not Lenovo) went to 95% keyboard width on the 701 laptop by shrinking the spacing between keys. Didn’t go well.
On the other hand, I love USB-C. With an external hub connected to keyboard, mouse, display, DVD, even wired ethernet, it would be a simple, single connector, very cost effective “Docking Station” for desktop use. I like it!
2013 Mac Pro is not “space gray”
Only one connector for all I/O and power? Is this leak from The Onion? What if someone on the go needs to do these at one and the same time:
1. Charge their MBA.
2. Charge their iPhone, iPad or both from it.
3. Work with it in some way that also requires a USB port.
Beside, the MBA in that top-down view is ugly. It lacks balance and looks like those $199 computers of a few years back, even down to the compressed keyboard.
Someone really should tell Apple that ‘thinner and lighter’ is now so passe, even Dell’s new tablet advertises that. Dell virtually defines dull and outdated.
And doesn’t anyone at Apple realize just what a pain it is to have to travel cluttered with a host of adapters for this and adapters for that simply because the laptop itself is so barren?
I’d be more impressed if they made it a bit larger and added built-in features such as:
1. World power supply with only a cable: that’s 12/240 AC and 12-24 v. DC.
2. Cellular as a built-in option.
3. GPS.
4. An optional EL (for Extended Life) version with a larger battery.
—–
When I was studying engineering at the same school as Tim Cook, what is described here is what we called ‘artsy fartsy’ design. It exists only so the designer can drone on with meaningless jargon and impress those with empty heads.
—-
On the other hand, maybe this is a feint to confuse competitors. Maybe the actual design won’t be this clumsy, useless, ugly and stupid.
It reminds me of the original MacBook Air. Apple may well sell an external dock of some sort. This is for the road warrior who wants something as small as possible.
When you were “studying engineering”, did they teach you to be a clone engineer or a creative engineer? If you think out of the box just a little, you might realize that that the power adapter for such a laptop could also serve as a multi-port like for USB or other connectors.
Such a long post on one little issue that in all likelihood won’t be one. Sigh.
If USB is used for charging, surely the charging plug will provide another USB port.
USB and headphone jacks are the only ports I’m using on my fancy rMBP. Would be classic Apple to ditch the others. Especially the utter failure that was thunderbolt.
Apple isn’t that stupid.. is it? I mean come on.. I know their crown jewel has passed but are they really going to abandon what they’re all about?
What do you mean? How would this be abandoning what they are all about? The original MacBook Air had only a single USB port. It would be an admission that Thunderbolt has been largely a flop, though.
Also, if it is as rendered, it would be exactly what Apple is all about. Remember, this is the company that released the original iMac that jettisoned every legacy port in favor of USB before USB was ubiquitous, and didn’t include a floppy drive.
I would not be surprised if they put a 24h battery or a micro nuclear plant, so the battery charger is not needed as always on and leaving space for other devices.
So while companies are throwing multiple ports onto tablets, Apple is removing ports from laptops? I’m sorry Apple, you can push your Cloud and streaming on us as force ably as you can, but I will always back my stuff up on a physical hard drive. I will still continue to purchase blu rays and cds. This just seems to be a step backwards. I’ll always love Apple (only tech products I use), but this just seems really, REALLY stupid.
So when does Apple quit being evolutionary and start being revolutionary again?
Apple is removing all form of external storage gradually so that you will use their iCloud service. All companies want control of you and your data.
I will stop using computers the day that you can no longer install apps locally on your machine or have internal data storage.
I’ll hold you to that.
I suppose one would learn to have their own network storage available or rely on third parties for cloud storage… Roll with the punches or get out of the match :).
Touch screen please. I really like swiping to browse up and down a web page as much as I like to pinch to zoom on an Illustrator or Photoshop image on the screen, not the trackpad. Else, I keep my Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro.
I have to imagine Apple would include at least one more USB Type-C and a legacy USB2/3 to allow for users to use peripherals without having to drag around a USB Hub. A laptop is supposed to be portable — having to pack a hub detracts from that. And moreover, what’s the point in buying an ultra-slim laptop if it means you’ll need to drag along extra gear to support it?
These days it’s very common for professional users to have a micro-USB storage device always docked in their laptop for extra portable storage — I can only imagine people would scream bloody murder if they had to buy and attach a hub to use their external storage or be forced to choose between charging and having access to their external data. Apple can be real bastards when it comes to how they treat their user base — but they are not complete f*cktards.
I’m really not feeling this design. I love my 11″ MBA that I have had for over 3 years but I am hoping for something a little more drastic to upgrade to. In my head I saw something more like an iPad air but with a keyboard. This just reminds me of the 12 inch MBP from 10 years ago. Feels kinda dated now. And the aluminium bezel on the screen? Surely it will finally be black to match the MBPs? Also I’m not sure about this ‘no ports’ thing. I’m not this render has really been thought through. Feels like someone has just taken the existing design and modified it to adjust to the rumoured spec. I’m hoping for a full redesign.
wrong
what the hell is this!? what a shit design, what about that lonley port, are we in the 90’s? and the esc button? this “”designer”” should stop designing and start working in another thing where he can’t be a fucking failure.
and what about freedom, why is this thing including a propietary port and not a freedom port. holy fuck, im not glad that steve is dead but im glad he’s gone, he would have commited suicide after seeing this horrid design.
It looks nice, but what the hell is up with that single USB port? How many mainstream devices such as thumb drives, printers, hard drives use that kind of USB port? Isn’t it enough that we have to carry around Thunderbolt to Ethernet, Thunderbolt to Firewire, etc. adapters? Now we will have a new breed of adapters for this thing. Let me guess… They expect us to charge this think through that single USB port, right? This obsession with thinness is getting really stale. Thin is not always better.
I agree that functionality > thinness, yet I love my MacBook Air’s and iPhone’s thinness and I don’t want to return to previous thicker models. It’s complicated. :-p
It does follow from the MacBook Air’s philosophy though. The first iteration removed the CD/DVD drive and non-USB ports because wireless was acceptable. If you don’t want that, you buy a MacBook Pro. Now, they’re going one step further: if you want the extra thin MacBook Air and not the Pro, you’ll have to use AirDrop, iCloud, and wireless HDs.
I wouldn’t buy the Air if I were to need 2 or more adapters. Stay with the MacBook Pro—assuming that the last won’t get the same “thin remodelling.”
I’m more worried about the non-magnetic charging port. :-/
I have a MacBook Pro, so I’m safe :) I love the MacBook Airs too, but I need way more processing power and memory than the MacBook Air offers.
The lack of a magnetic charging port is a regression. Unless this Air is so light that the MacSafe’s magnetic force is greater than the resistance force of the device—just like the iPad.
The lack of a second USB port, which is especially important that you have zero ports while charging, isn’t a problem. The MacBook Air is since its inception about wireless (and disc-less)—it’s time to replace that printer/scanner (or don’t buy an 12″ Air).
Hmmm. I really like it, and yet, I can’t stand it either. Apple has a habit of making at least one really dumb design decision on almost every one of their products (remember the 1st gen iPhone and the fact that a standard 3.5mm headphone jack would not fit…and on the iPhone 6, the phone cannot be put to sleep without changing the volume because of the button arrangement?
So here is a proposed MacBook Air design that breaks their decades old standard of the Power button on the top right, placing it instead next to a moderately well used Escape key. DUMB.
I think the comments about depending on cloud storage are probably on target, but if I wanted a Chromebook, I’d buy one. The beauty of a MBA is that I can use it anywhere and everywhere. That is no longer true if I am reliant on a wifi connection just for data storage or data transfer.
Abandoning a standard USB port is really painful to contemplate. Sandisk, Belkin, and others must be positively salivating at the concept of gazillions of new flashdrives entering the market. Time to buy stock in accessory makers again!
I would love to see at least a microUSB port in addition to the new port. Adding a non-legacy or new standard port is fine, but not as the sole option! Does USB-C require expensive microchip controlled cables like Thunderbolt does? Do I really want to keep spending $30 per cable or adapter? NO I DO NOT!
Is this proposed MBA replacement going to be acceptable to Enterprise users? Probably not. It’s 100% reliant on open networks, and without a Standard USB port, many of the privacy dongles enterprises rely on (especially the healthcare market!) simply won’t work. The thumbprint scanner would help, and I think the suggestion that the MBA pairs with your iPhone’s thumbscanner is a great idea, and perhaps that is what is envisioned. But that decision alone eliminates maybe 50% of the potential market who really enjoy their Samsung Android phones. It certainly is not uncommon to see MBA’s on the laps of fellow airplane commuters while furiously texting on their corporate Android (or Windows/Blackerry) phones.
The Bezel still looks larger than necessary, but Apple has always seemed to struggle with that. The iPhone is positively chunky compared to other handset makers when it comes to edge to edge screen designs. I wonder what their reluctance is? Rigidity? Perhaps. Seems like a laminate of a thin carbon layer on the interior side of the aluminum case would solve that though.
To the user who wanted standard PCI-e SSD cards, nope. Not in that profile thickness. I just don’t see that happening.
Put the power button back where it belongs, add a legacy dataport, even if it’s microUSB, add a thumbscanner for enterprise use, don’t force us to use silly inelegant dongles for everything, and then you’ve a winner that meets the most needs.
I don’t think the Retina screen will go over well on such a small screen. I have an 11 inch Macbook Air and when connected to a 1920 x 1080 external monitor using mirroring it remaps and displays the 1920 x 1080 screen on my Macbook Air 1366 x 768 screen and things are way to small to read. The 11 inch screen isn’t that much smaller than a 12 inch screen so viewing the new 12 inch Macbook Air with a Retina screen isn’t going to be very comfortable.
Am I the only one that’s worried about the actual screen size 12 inches? It would be awesome if they would also release a 13 or 14 inch model. I have always used 15 inch one and I could settle for 14 or even 13 inch one but 12..
Nobody thinks Apple may switch to ARM (Apple’s A9X or something like that) in its new laptops?
They can be enough powerful for some casual users that actually use a Macbook Air.
Yep, that’s been rumoured for a while. I’m not sure this particular MBA will be the transition, though.
remind me of the 12 inch PowerBook back in the day, that was a classic model.
They can add the MagSafe connection on the power adapter itself, rather than the laptop. Problem solved. Usb on the latop side, magnetic connection to the power block.
Surprised they’re branching into a new new new connector. Not thinderbolt, not lightning, not old school usb.
Not a fan of the USB type C, or the speaker placement, but I doubt the speakers would look like that, and I rarely take my laptop far away from my desk
So it will not be able to connect to anything when it’s connected to power if it has only one USB Type-C port for everything?
They could put additional USB/display ports on the power brick or use some kind of other breakout box.
I trust they have a solution to that. Like a USB extender / charging plug. E.g. when you plug in the charger, it’ll provide an extra USB on the outside.
Or this is all just a rumor and there is a charging port somewhere.
USB blocked while charging – unthinkable. Not gonna happen.
should be $700-$800 ?
Apple (or accessory manufacturer) would probably make a power brick for it that doubles as a multi-port USB hub
Even if the USB ports were at the laptop end of the cable (largely useless at the power brick) – what if you unplug your laptop? You then have to replug USB items back in individual or use a separate hub.
Way too messy.
I predict 2-3 TypeC ports. Not one wants to rely on a hub they will inevitably forget to take with them or lose.
The USB hub could be connected to the power cable via MagSafe.
PSU could connect to the MBA via 802.11ac. Solves the problem of disconnects, and allows you to leave devices plugged in whilst you wander around. It’s still not ideal (can’t take the device with you and connect externals) but it’d make for a reasonable solution.
I think they’re going for a daisy-chain solution, meaning that the charger will have on the plug itself another USB port available.
At any case, the narrower keyboard seems bad, the 12 inches seem worse, I would have gone and upped the ppi on the current form-factor.
And if they can save on the frame of the display, why not have a 14-inch with the same dimensions of the current 13-inch?
My guess is that their ‘air’ line is eating away too much clientele from the ‘pro’ line of products, and if that’s the case, having marketers make such big decisions makes Apple more economy-driven rather than tech-driven (I mean, even more so). I hope they don’t forget that the bigger part of mac-buyers are techies.
The problem with ditching older ports is that some people still have peripherals for them. Maybe a backup hard drive… okay, with port-c it would be faster, but still, you would need to buy a new one. Also, some people have their laptops connected at their desktops to a keyboard, mouse and display. Mouse and keyboard could be wireless, but not display.
I think that a minority of people would still like the standard USB and display plugs, but I still that they are still usefull.
rzozaya1969 says:
January 7, 2015 at 2:27 pm
The problem with ditching older ports is that some people still have peripherals for them. Maybe a backup hard drive… okay, with port-c it would be faster, but still, you would need to buy a new one. Also, some people have their laptops connected at their desktops to a keyboard, mouse and display. Mouse and keyboard could be wireless, but not display.
I think that a minority of people would still like the standard USB and display plugs, but I still that they are still usefull.”
rzozaya, USB 3.1 is backwards-compatible with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0, so you would only loose compatibility with USB 1.0, i.e. only with VERY ancient devices …
E.g. your backup hard drive is almost guaranteed to be at least USB 2.0
99% hate from me on this. I’m currently using a Thunderbolt RAID array with my MBA, which is my sole computer. I vastly prefer Thunderbolt over USB. If they’re going this way with the MBP (which I jettisoned in favor of the MBA in 2013), then I may have to (gulp) switch to Windows. I’ve never owned a Windows machine before, and as a former Apple engineer, that pains me to even think about.
Don’t switch to Windows. Switch to Linux.
I’ve already been there, done that. No thanks.
@Deirdre I would suggest trying again. I use all three OS’s regularly and trust me, you DON’T want Windows. It’s not worth the headaches. The list of completely asinine bugs is overwhelming (for example, Windows still pings all your network printers when you right-click on the desktop, for reasons I’ve never seen explained. If any of those printers happen to be unavailable, you’re looking at a 30-second delay for each one before the desktop’s context menu will even appear).
It’s a textbook definition of death by a thousand cuts (and sometimes a few stabs to the gut too).
@Daniel – “Windows pings all your network computers when you right-click the desktop”….. Uhhh what? Just no. That’s completely ridiculous and innaccurate. I’ve heard a lot of ridiculous things said about Windows by Apple fanboys, but this one surely takes the cake.
@Deirdre Linux has come quite a ways in the last couple years, the new Ubuntu is really slick. Or if you like the look of OS X, ElementaryOS (http://elementaryos.org/) looks really nice.
Nice troll – no one is this stupid, even you.
So someone who posts an informed opinion, gives good reasons and a balanced perspective as to why they feel this way, states certain credentials, and you call them a troll? How old are you… 12? I believe the only one trolling here, based on this comment and others on this page, is you. Grow up.
srsly? A Thunderbolt RAID array on a MacBook Air.
You can’t see why this person is obviously trolling. Open your eyes bra.
“””srsly? A Thunderbolt RAID array on a MacBook Air. You can’t see why this person is obviously trolling. Open your eyes bra.”””
What exactly is strange about a “Thunderbolt RAID array on a MacBook Air”? There are tons of RAID array enclosures for MacBook Air, both for USB3 and Thunderbolt.
And I know lots of people who have one (or a similar technology like the Drobo).
If you’re a photographer or edit video on the road/set (and even heavy duty video professionals like Philip Bloom prefer the lighter Air than the Pro’s when working outside the office), a RAID array is pretty much standard, and Thunderbolt is quite common.
That was completely uncalled for.
Having used both, I can tell you windows is fine. You won’t have apple hardware, but you will have options, like more than one port.
The single port is a welcome advance. With my current MBA I have at least 3 cables to plug and unplug every time I leave or return to my desk (power, thunderbolt, USB). With USB C I will have only a single connection to make – using a power adapter/hub left at my desk, which presumably is the scenario that is being proposed. Almost like the old-school laptop dock. Mouse and keyboard are bluetooth, no connection required there. And when I’m on the sofa or in bad I don’t need any wired connections (or mage just the charger) – and/or if I’m projecting on my TV I use AirPlay to do it wirelessly. Very well thought out features all working together.
Take a look at the Surface Pro 3. I switched to it from my Macbook Pro and I love it! It’s a super solid machine.
Let me elaborate a little more, the Surface only has one USB but it does have separate DisplayPort and Power. Also the docking station is super convenient and adds a bunch of extra ports
Either you MBP was prehistoric (PowerBook) or you never had one.
I use a SP3 for work (the high-end model). Unless you’re coming from an older MBP, or you had the base model 13″, I can’t see how you could be satisfied with it. The SP3, even with the i7 and 8GB of RAM, is painfully slow for anything but the simplest of tasks. The 2014 MBA it replaced was similarly sluggish for my uses.
I actually carry around my personal 15″ rMBP in addition to the work-supplied SP3 because I often find myself in need of more power. But then again, my typical browsing habits involve hundreds of tabs.
Don’t get me wrong, the SP3 is a nice piece of hardware. The touch screen comes in handy, it’s somewhat more portable than an 11″ MBA, and it has a much better screen. But it’s still slow.
And worse yet, it runs Windows (I use Linux/Win8/OSX on a daily basis, and I struggle to find good things to say about Windows. 8.1 fixed a lot of stupid UX issues, but it’s still buggy).
There is no way in hell that Apple is going to make a MBP with one port. I doubt they are going to make a MBA with only one port. They will always have at least two Type C ports – even the Air.
I hope you’re right, though I really think not having MagSafe and Thunderbolt is stupid. SD Card slot’s important to me, but not a show stopper.
Don’t worry they will throw in a Samsug Galaxy Too…how many comments to simply unsubstantiated, incoherent and mostly nonsense made up rumor…. Yes they are ditching lighting with a new spring iPhone 6s and iPad Air 2s in favor of USB C… And Thunderbolt will go the way of FireWire did as soon as USB 2 was out… Nowhere.
All the electrical engineers around knows that being backwards compatible bring many compromises… Something than in the Windows and PC world everyone is afraid to break from.
On the other hand, you have Apple, that has had the guts to break backs compatibility almost almost step of the way… It did it:
a) When moving from a PowerPC architecture to Intel.
b) When moving from OS9 to OS X.
c) When they dropped all together support of 32bits architecture in favor of a full native implementation of a 64bit OS.
d) When revising Works to Addapt it to Work for iOS and OSX, f) When it dropped FireWire and DVI in favor of Thunderbolt
g) When it abandoned the SATA HD interface for PCIe in MacBook, MacPro for SSD… And soon in iMac…
Do you think they are going to adopt a its main interface an “standard” with compromises due to backwards compatibility with USB 2.0 with or without Jobs. Let me LOL :-) a little…
Yea, it makes very little sense for Apple to invest a lot of time and money into Thunderbolt 2 and MagSafe 2 and then drop it on the MacBook Air 12″. The USB protocol does in no way replace Thunderbolt (regardless of the connector) and the Type C plug does not have the magnetic connector of the MagSafe, so it does not replace that either.
Yes, it’s going to have a USB Type C port, but it’s likely going to be on the right side of the machine, with one MagSafe and Thunderbolt 2 port on the left side. If they can squeeze in another Type C on the left, it’s going to have that as well.
An Apple engineer who has never used Windows? No wonder you are a former one. You are either ignorant or a troll.
Never owned a Windows machine != never used Windows.
Reading comprehension skills are important.
I thought I’d write up a longer version of this comment based on several conversations. Here ’tis.
http://deirdre.net/explaining-some-hardware-whinging-i-love-my-macbook-air/
It’s quite unlikely that they will ditch the Thunderbolt in the Pro lineup. Whether it be 13″ or 15″. The difference between the Thunderbolt throughput and the USB one is gonna be a considerable one. The peripheral makers are gonna have to roll out their thunderbolt compatible devices in much greater quantities. They just haven’t embraced the technology. I don’t understand. It’s a well established open standard IO technology although it hasn’t gained a whole lot traction. Storage drive makers have somewhat done some products around it. I wish they could do more. Not a lot of PC makers support thunderbolt into their laptop and desktop products. This thing majorly attributes to thunderbolt being placed in a niche category as far as IO technologies go.
Once Apple starts ditching a technology on one platform, essentially they’ve called it dead. Third parties stop supporting it, etc. I’ve watched Apple for many years (and was an engineer there for more than 5).
I wish they would just leave this stuff alone. currently on my mba, I have a usb 3.0 hub plugged in to the usb port I have my dongle for a logitech cordless mouse, an iPhone and a 3.0 usb 64 gb flash drive. all this stuff cost money and will be obsolete. I have lots of DVD’s, TV shows I recorded, all my sons football games, music mp3 files collected over the years. I never have riped DVDs of movies but I bet lots of people did. I am not going to put all my data in the cloud. for the ultimate portability I have an iPad. its rude that a guy who uses a wired mouse gets abused on here. everyone has their own way of doing things that is not necessarily best practice. i’ll give you an example of how stuff becomes obsolete to fast. at the holiday inn in laramie wyoming they have in all the rooms a alarm clock radio that will charge an iPhone or an iPad if it has a 30 pin connection. holiday inn spent good money to provide what they thought would be a selling point. I bet they never do something like that again. as the vast majority of iPad and iPhone users use lightening. I have 3 lightening to 30 pin connectors at $30 each. i keep hearing hearing yeah its going be better I don’t want better I want convenient I have 4 external hard drives 1 usb 2.0 2 usb 3.0 and one fire wire 800. I have a thunderbolt 27 inch external monitor with 4 usb 2.0 ports. for me its not about the money as much as it is having to think thru and hardware addition. good luck selling this to the education world or corporate world
Perhaps you’d be more comfortable with a typewriter. Or perhaps a quill and parchment.
Technology moves fast bra – if you can’t keep up get out of the game.
No one is forcing you to sell your current setup either – it should be good for 5 years.
Very true brah
What’s the real problem? Your USB stuff will be compatible via a hub. If it doesn’t include thunderbolt, and apple doesn’t have any sort of thunderbolt adapter, I bet someone else will make one. I don’t think Apple would abandon the current 27″ ACD users.
Not to mention your current computer is not going to just stop working.
This technology is far superior. If Apple doesn’t innovate, they’ll lose business to companies that do.
I don’t get it. Why is there a headphone jack? Who doesn’t use wireless headphones in 2015?
Also, a USB port? Who uses that in 2015? You can charge it magnetically with an apple watch-like charger!
So many ports… :( Why not go all the way and remove all?
Also, lol @ esc/power .. also @ left/right arrows…
1. A headphone jack is necessary for connecting to most external A/V equipment. And, no, most people don’t use wireless headphones.
2. Yes, for USB devices. You may have heard of them.
3. No, induction charging is not yet ready for this level of hardware. Besides, you’d still have to carry some kind of power adapter even if it were.
4. Totally agree with you on the buttons, though.
Someone didn’t get the joke.
i don’t use wireless headphones. i use the earpods that shipped with my iphone. lots of people dont use wireless headphones. i do use usb ports all the time, for charging or syncing my iphone, connecting an older wireless usb mouse that i have, plugging in my time machine hard drive, and other stuff.
WTF? Trolling or what? Name one single pair of HIGHLY REGARDED quality headphones that are wireless. ONE. I have a collection of $4000+ in headphones ranging $1000 ~ $300 ea. and not a one is wireless nor have I seen a review of a wireless pair that features quality sound or anything else aside from “oh, it has no wire”.
Yes, he was trolling.
“”” I have a collection of $4000+ in headphones ranging $1000 ~ $300 ea.”””
And how is that working for you?
No, not trolling, it is called sarcasm. It is a style of humour that the plebs fail to appreciate.
I find wireless headphones to be a real pain because they all have limited battery capacity – it’s too easy to forget to charge them and when they run down you’re stuck. Wired for me (and for most people I think).
what’s to lol about the left/right arrows?
It was supposed to be sarcasm :)
About the arrows – the arrow keys are currently all the same size. Either full size, or half size. In this rendition, the left/right are full size, while up/down are half size. I think it’s more ergonomic for all of them to be the same size, than to fill up the entire space there.
Love it. Out with the old, in with the new. Next level of Apple innovation. The Retina iMac is amazing, now I just need one of these to take on the road.
I really hope the Power and Esc key positions shown here are inaccurate. Ugh.
Escape out of this dialog box or sleep the computer? Only millimeters between them.
Luckily Apple has changed the power key behavior recently so that tapping it does nothing. You have to hold it down to trigger sleep.
Any Vim user will be sad to have a power key there, and I don’t see any advantage to having it there…
I wonder why the power button is oversize too – might it indicate some new functionality in there?
Yes, the ability to press it, innovative new functionality.
Would be interesting to see how they handle the issue of using the (only) USB port for power… if the charger doubles as a hub with a few ports that would be pretty good (though gotta wonder what that’s going to do to the cost of having a bunch of chargers lying around! I’m still rocking both Magsafe and v2 chargers and adapters all over the house!)
My Surface3 Pro has a USB port on the charger, but that appears to be for charging only, not an active connection (though I’m curious to go check that out now, as the power is supplied via the same connector that plugs the Surface into the dock)
The whole concept will need a well thought out power adapter/hub and I’m sure Apple has thought of that. Meanwhile, yes, I too have multiple magsafe adapters – no doubt there will be a magsafe-to-USB-C adapter plug as there is for the last magsafe update.
So it will be thinner than this which is 16.5 mm docked?http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/05/asus-transformer-book-chi-family-broadwell/
Well… I’m surprised! Apple is going with an industry standard! Idk why they don’t use usb type c for iPads. Nokia n1 is using it.
Well I would of looked into this but I have to buy a 2014 MacBook pro for college.. Should i get 250 or 500gb?
Almost no one needs a MBP. Get a MBA. Unless you’re doing hardcore 3D work – I do HD video editing on an 11″ MBA – no problems.
People forget Moore’s Law exists…
Respectfully disagreeing. The only Macbook Pro that matters is the top end 15″ with dedicated graphics card – as a video editor having CUDA or OpenCL acceleration is essential for video editing. I can apply around 3-4 effects on a clip in Premiere Pro and then have realtime playback at full resolution and full quality. You can’t do that on an Air.
Your videos must be pretty amateur if you are relying on a max of 8 gigs RAM and that awful color gamut of the macbook air. Also, rarely is anyone doing professional 3D work using a mac in the first place.
I recently bought a MBP, really wanted a MBA to begin with, tried to convince myself that was the way to go, but everything suggested otherwise. When you factor in the cost of additional Ram and an adapter for HDMI output, more reasonable flash drive storage option etc the jump to a matched and better specced MBP with a retina display is so small that its hard to say otherwise. The only advantage you are getting is a slightly more portable model, and the difference there is actually hardly significant. The only reason left to consider a MBA was if I was someone who preferred aesthetics over practicality. The lower end Air’s are fine, if all they are is a spare laptop, for casual use and travel. But if you were serious about video editing or photo editing on it then the MBP picks itself.
If these changes to the Air make the range come down in price a little, it may sit in a better, more justifiable place.
At first look, the new MacBook might seem like a too big change to be true, but if you think about it, it actually makes a lot of sense. The important thing to keep in mind here is that this MacBook is not going to be a direct replacement for any of the current MacBooks. This product is going to represent a completely new category for Apple computers – a hybrid between MacBook and iPad. An improved version of 64-bit A-series processor (like the ones we currently have inside iOS devices), amazing battery life and portability, gorgeous display, great physical keyboard and OS X inside will make this computer a dream for the users who have been trying to replace their main computers with the iPad.
This!
Where did you get the part about the A-series processor? All reports suggest Intel…?
People keep saying A-series will replace Intel…
No. It isn’t going to happen, not anytime soon, because Intel keeps improving with an extremely competitive roadmap and a fabrication process advantage that no-one has been able to match for years (decades…?).
Apple is good, I’ll give you that, but they’re not Intel-good. No-one is. Not even in high-power mobile. Low power, perhaps…but Intel is even competitive there, where they were a heaping pile of trash a couple years ago. They caught up, and fast.
LOL, both of Apple’s OSes are _extremely_ portable. There is simply no way they haven’t had skunkworks for this for years already. Apple can and will switch processors when the time is right, as they have already done twice before. Microsoft will be stuck on 8086 chip derivations forever.
The only thing it would ‘lack’ is ability to run Windows. It would also push any laggard devs into Swift (if they are too dumb not to have already started using it).
Having a high performance, price competitive lappy that merely can’t run windoze would be the PERFECT product for Apple and would amount to the ‘other shoe dropping’ on the Windows monopoly.
Don’t really understand your logic.
OS “portability” has nothing to do with it. Windows 8.1 runs surprisingly well on Bay-trail SoCs with 1GB of system RAM. I doubt OSX would be able to do that. MS isn’t “stuck” on anything – Intel’s mobile SoCs have been competitive since late 2013 (also, note: they haven’t seen a refresh until this CES).
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7314/intel-baytrail-preview-intel-atom-z3770-tested/3
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/01/intel-begins-shipping-14nm-cherry-trail-chips-for-tablets/
x86, ARM, doesn’t really matter at all. Intel’s latest chips are just as power-efficient as their ARM competitors, and can be more powerful as well. I can’t wait for Cherry Trail, we might see performance significantly besting A8X and Nvidia’s K1.
If I had the ability to run desktop-grade software in a mobile device (realistically, 90% of iPad apps don’t compare with their professional-level desktop counterparts – if you include gaming, desktop handedly takes the cake), I’d easily take that over iOS – especially since ConsoleOS is creating a native x86 version of Android with direct access to the Google Play Store and dual-booting with Windows 8 (yes, with Secure Boot enabled).
For me, there’s literally no reason to choose ARM at this stage other than the fact that Intel chips aren’t available in many hardware designs – yet.
(If you need more convincing, ExtremeTech has an article here; it doesn’t fit Apple’s culture and history to make a move like this yet: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/187513-why-apple-wont-dump-intel-x86-for-its-own-arm-chips-in-macbooks-and-the-mac-pro/2 )
Firstly, speed is not the main feature of MaBook Air, it is an affordable small computer for general population. It’s mainly for browsing, mail, video playback[1] and other relatively light tasks.
But let’s talk about raw speed. Already today iPad Air 2 compares very well against the latest MacBook Air in Geekbench[2]. In single core tasks MacBook is on average 26% faster. In multi core tasks iPad wins slightly, with help from an additional core. I am sure Apple could add a core and still fit it in the new MBA chassis, clock it a bit higher or both. They also control the core design, which will likely give speed benefits in the coming years.
Could Apple think of replacing a $315 chip[3] with a $30 chip[4], which performs almost equally?
I bet they could. In addition to the cost benefit on one model Apple would gain leverage against Intel regarding component prices thru whole mobile/compact Mac lineup. Apple would also be in control of the whole package. If they need some additional functionality (e.g. codecs), they’d just add it on their own SoC. If Apple wants a certain release date for MBA, they could do it and not wait for Intel. Similar model has worked without a hitch with iOS devices and Apple custom SoCs.
Switch to ARM may happen or not, but it is definitely not about speed or claimed superiority of Intel but about price and control. It’s not about today but a long term play. My bet would be on the switch happening in the next 3 years.
[1] Video playback is hardware accelerated
[2] http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench3/compare/1659234?baseline=1658502
[3] Intel list price
[4] My estimate, based on Isuppli estimate for A8
Replacing the various types of ports with a generic one that can handle anything – including power – is a very Apple-like move, and I can totally see them doing that. But: if there’s only one of them, you won’t be able to have any peripherals plugged in unless you run off of battery power, which (if true) is kind of lame…you couldn’t even use an external display with it then. Looks awesome otherwise, though.
Secondary display possible with AirPlay and Apple TV. Of course you’ll need an Apple TV but can’t blame them for trying to help push their other wares.
But this is what Apple does. They push people into new workflows even if they don’t want to, then a few months/years go by and suddenly you realize how little you used certain ports. The same happened when the original Air debuted sans optical drive. After a while you realized how little you used discs until you just stopped using them at all.
Anyone remember when Apple dropped 3.25″ floppy disks?! They were still in heavy use but Apple dropped the format for CD-RW drives.
This is Apple being Apple and ONLY Apple has the balls to do something this bold. And just like the past others will eventually follow.
Bingo – I share these thoughts – Apple has been priming the pump – my guess is if you don’t want files in the cloud, u keep em on your iPhone & use AirDrop – this would be Apple being Apple – just like the Apple Watch needs an iPhone!
I like this move, it’s more differentiation between the notebook lines. This is meant for REALLY light use. its light and thin like an iPad, but for people who prefer a laptop form factor. Yea, one port might turn a few people away. But I kinda like how this is just a really simple laptop. I hope that it isn’t any more than $999, but who knows.
And i wish o wish upon a star that the space grey one is DARK.
slate please
Yeah, since the MBA already starts around $800 for refurb or educational. (Albeit the entry level model, the upsell isn’t that much. MBP costs far more.
People think PC is cheaper, it’s not. If you buy a PC with ‘comparable’ chip (no where near comparable OS, BTW) you end up paying almost just as much (sometimes even more, which is bizarre) and your ‘reward’ is you can only run 1 of the 2 major OSes…
This will be the $500 unit, or less, if running on Apple processor.
Epic for vim users.
I guess finally I will buy a mac
Reblogged this on pundit from another planet.
droooooooooooooooooooool
if it’s that sexy i don’t care which adapters it leaves out.
come to think of it the only port I use on my retina MacBook Pro is USB and the headphone jack. Well, and power. I guess if this is actually using USB-C to power the laptop then the power adapter plug itself will extend the USB port.
All the other ports on my laptop – never use them. They’re wasting space and money.
Looks awesome – been waiting for this for years. I predict 3 type-c ports though – more ports on the power cable end may help but that’s gonna get messy fast and no one wants to carry a hub round, however small it is.
Looks great for me, but I won’t buy it, I’m not the market for MBA which made me think why people getting angry with this one USB type C port. This is not even released yet, nothing is final, and more importantly, if you need more ports, then you’re clearly not the market for this device. I think it’s more targeted for iPad users who can’t live without desktop app, so instead of carrying 2 devices, you can buy this one to do your job, similar to Microsoft Surface 3.
Giving up the magnetic Mag Safe functionality would be a step backwards. Figure out how to make a magnetic Thunderbolt cable. Make the trackpad a Touch ID sensor. and incorporated the form factor design language of the iPad Air into the unibody design of the new Macs, with seamless soft rounded edges.
I can’t understand why they would remove Mag Safe functionality, it has saved me a million times. its almost a must have.
Who cares about what you can plug in – this is Apple’s answer to the popular Chromebook – the first step towards everything being in iCloud.
Education market will love this – kids need physical keyboards, and iPad sales in education are reflecting this…
They won’t love it when it costs $999. This is not a Chromebook competitor. Awesome laptop, though.
I just don’t think there is any way they will not put an A8X into this (or next gen A chip). This would be the other shoe dropping on the Wintel market. The software is already there. The development tools are already there. Mac laptops area already taking 90+% of the market for high end laptops! This would take the wind out of the race to the bottom that all the cloner-assemblers churn out, cookie-cutter style, appealing strictly on (often dubious) benchmarks and specs.
Reminds me of the old 12-inch iBook G4’s.
I loved that one.
The title is misleading…These are ARTIST’S RENDITIONS and not commissioned Product Photos from Apple, they are not official, they are mock-ups based on rumors alone, nothing confirmed here.
And yet a few months later, reality proved “sketchy” rumours are indeed real.
I’m wondering if the earlier rumors of that new unique-voltage Apple power adaptor are related to this.
Am I the only one who find those speaker/ventilation grills very ugly,
I know it’s just a rendering, but the shape/size and placement make it look cheap.
Just what I was thinking. I’ll bet Apple brings out a line of updated displays. I also like the idea of the brick doubling as a hub too for when you are out on the road. I also think the cable that runs to the power outlet should definitely be MagSafe so there is no pressure on the TypeC port should someone trip on that cable. Am I the only person noticing the new silhouette resembles an iPad? What if we finally get that rumored dual-bootable device (iOS/OSX) some of us have been asking for? What if that screen pops right off and switches to iOS automatically but with a pro level iOS instead of the usual we see every year? That would converge the iPad Pro rumors with the new MacBook Air rumors. I’d throw money at that.
Someone could build a power brick with a hub at the connetcor end, where the hub can be kept in the MacBook even when you unplug the power cable. Speaking of magsafe you could have the “mag” part at the brick end, or a “two stages” connector that splits and keeps one half in the MacBook and the other gets mag-connected.
Also I think it’s a very good idea to be able to connect your MBA to a display with a single cable, thus obtaining power, usb ports, speakers, a display and wired keyboard and mouse from the external display.
The problem with the disease of less USB ports (I”m already fscking DYING with the rubbish 2 on my 15″ MBP) is that USB is a shit technology and there is no company that makes a dependable USB hub on the planet earth. I’ve tried many. EXPENSIVE ONES. They all have a serious problem with one thing or another. If they don’t cause your 3 external harddrives to start acting weird in a very subtle way due to insufficient voltage or overload of data or something else, you’ll find your headset you use for work conference calls won’t work, or something else needs plugged directly into the machine itself and not the hub before it will work. I’ve experienced this same nightmare in 100 combinations, — let’s all hope and pray Apple is not so f stupid they don’t know this.
USB is a shitty standard because it is (it was?) designed to be cheap. Chinese manufacturers didn’t want the added cost of managing a proper interface like firewire and its cables back in the days, USB cables were cheaper, and USB chipsets were cheaper because it relies heavily on the CPU. It also didn’t have a real spec for power supply so you could find ports with low current or unstable voltage. Let’s hope USB-C is a step in the right direction…
I REALLY hope this is NOT IT. The changes made are not positive IMHO.
1. Thinner than the current MacBook Air? What for? The Air 11-inch was already bordering on too light to use in your lap. It’s pointless to make thinner. Guess they’ll make it more slippery too so it can slide off your lap and hit the floor.
2. ONLY ONE USB port? That’s ridiculously stupid. Hmm, charge my computer or plug in my external SSD Hmm… hard choice.
3. Changing the keyboard? WTF? I think any change to the keyboard, except making it more responsive, is a mistake.
4. No fan? Another great move. The Air was never too warm for my lap or palms. Without a fan and adding a retina screen – is this going to make it hotter?
5. A clickless trackpad… brilliant.
6. A 12-inch screen – also brilliant. I’m praying they have a 14-inch screen too with more ports, better battery life, etc.
I’m betting on more rounded edges like the iPhone 6.
If we wait a little longer we can wear it on our wrist lol
Maybe a stupid idea but what if the new MacBook Air uses a Lightning connector for charging? With iOS and OS X being more and more integrated I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple wanted to move the two platforms even closer together.
Speaking of which, my guess is by next year iOS 10 and OS X will be fully integrated and renamed Apple OS. 😉
No SD card slot and only one USB plug that is used for charging as well? No thank you. I was really looking forward to this device, but not like this.
Hell yeah for USB Type-C though, that is much needed.
This really bums me out. I need a new Mac to replace by current Air. But I don’t want a cramped keyboard. I want to be able to plug something into it while it’s being charged, and I want the SD card reader. Currently mine is occupied with a Jet Drive on which I keep files from Google Drive and Dropbox, which are used for work. I hope the screen is no smaller than the current larger MacBook Air. That 11 inch model is just too small.
Clickbait and pure speculation based off of rumors.
Hum… Except every single major point in this article is now true.
The form factor is smart. Smaller than a sheet of paper (USL or A4). 1-inch (sic) narrower body but exactly the same screen width as the 11-inch MBA (which I have owned now for 3 years and I love). And the full inch of extra screen height (with almost no increase in the body dimension) is very welcome because the menu bar, dock and application toolbars all consume vertical space – so a widescreen format makes things very cramped in the vertical direction. Smart, logical move to stretch the screen vertically.
Some of the math does not add up. I’m reading this article on my existing mac-air 11″. Looking down at my keyboard there is easily more than 1/2″ of space on either side of the keyboard. You could cut the width on this by 1/2″ to maybe even 3/4″ and still fit the existing keyboard without the need to make the keys closer together.
Looking at my screen, there is almost an INCH of space on all sides of the 11″ display. You could seemingly increase the size of the display by an inch or more within the 11″ mac frame.
I am excited about this new 12-inch mac-air. I’ve been waiting for one for a LONG TIME and will be the first buyer…
I take a bet: Apple will introduce this new MBA with its obvious counterpart: A NEW APPLE DISPLAY (at last!). USB-C on the MB side, Ethernet-USB-Thunderbolt and others hub on the desk side. Maybe 32″, maybe 5k, maybe 1499 USD.
A MBA wouldn’t have the power to drive a 5k display…
I’d sure like an SD slot because…. Cameras
Wow, a REALLY expensive chromebook.Congratulations Apple, you screwed it up again.
Not even close, though chrome book may outlast Android at this point, I seriously doubt apple would release such a hobbled mess.
Clickbait.
Three small design changes driven by my OCD and I’d be over the moon happy:
1. The speaker grills should be combined and run all the way from the left side of the hinge to the right, without rounded corners, and centered in the depth.
2. The power button should be the same size as the rest of the function buttons, then a slightly bigger metal gap, followed by the hardware settings (brightness and backlit keys), followed by software functions, followed by media functions (prev, play/pause, next, mute, volume down and volume up), followed by a slightly larger metal gap, followed by an instant sleep/wake button.
3. Esc should move where the tilde is, next to 1, as a full size button. Tilde can be a key combination, as it is only used often by a small percentage.
Tilde is use a lot in command line modes … not a small percentage, I suspect that a lot of Mac users are techies and programmers …
I really expected to see TouchID in any new MacBook – to support Apple Pay webb purchase, AppStore, ITunes, etc.
Are you kidding me?? My comment was deleted it appears.
I’ve never had that happen before…and I’ve said some inflammatory things (Generally directed at HerbTroll so no one minded I’m sure).
I make one challenging comment on the ethics of stories like this and it gets removed?! Great censorship 9to5.
I think it’s worth discussing this level of reporting. We all like news and rumors, but where is the line? I’m not saying I can define that line, but there reaches a level of reporting and digging that approaches unethical. 9to5 and Mark’s complete publishing of “HealthBook” before iOS 8’s release was the other example I mentioned. Just because we are excited to find out the new MacBook doesn’t mean we support you completely outing the next new product at this level.
I received a few likes before my comment was deleted. I’m not the only one questioning this.
Rabble rabble.
If it is not open to debate what’s the point of leaving comments enabled, I wonder?.
Touch screen display? Apple is really being left behind when they don’t offer touch screens and everyone else does.
Buy an iPad
Macbook Pro?
Do not that mess!
I need all 4 connectors daily when I am in the office:
USB 1 – Keyboard and Mouse
USB 2 – Network Adaptor (W-LAN is not allowed in most of the companies)
MAGSAFE – always full power when I have to leave
Thunderbolt – for my 21:9 Widescreen where I work on (MBa is closed)
Ok, the slot for SD Card is nice to have…. not more.
But if the 12″ hasn´t that connectors it is senseless for business use.
How to use it with a beamer?
How to connect LAN
Keyboard, Mouse, external Monitor?
Sorry Apple, to be small is not enough – it needs also function before design :-)
You need that your Corp. supplies you with a docking station for your office… Not to carry around 20 ports ;-)
Why in the world does this thing have such an enormous Caps Lock key? Who the heck still needs all caps?
Surely this isn’t legit. How can Apple make a computer without regular USB ports? Are they serious? I was waiting on purchasing a new Mac because I wanted to see what the 12″ turned out to be. If this is it, I’m not even going to bother. Why would I want to carry a USB hub around?
Mag safe has saved me countless times because I live with a bunch of overactive kids and a dog and who trips on my wire constantly so I hope they somehow incorporate something similar to that lone USB-C type connection. Though I suspect that Magsafe will still occupy the other side. Also I hope they are also working on making the Air’s power brick smaller and lighter not just the machine itself.
got to have the Mag safe, or some version of it.
Look, I know it’s just grammar but “fewest amount of ports” is so wrong. I pointed this out in an earlier comment and it was deleted. That was the fewest amount of feedback I’d ever given. I’ll try to me more better.
I look forward to it – been running linux on an 11″ for around 3 years now & love it. I dual boot to my micro OSX partition on rare occasions. The last 3 or so iterations of the air haven’t really incentivised me to upgrade. This looks like the ticket …. or is first gen new tech a big no no, wait until round two to get the kinks removed. In all fairness Id say at this point with Apple it will most likely going to be a solid product, they make great hardware.
Holy crap I’d power off my laptop every 10 seconds!
This looks awesome but I will never, never, never buy a computer with only one USB post. ESPECIALLY if they then expect you to use that port to charge it as well
Frankly I don’t like this edge-to-edge keyboard… You can comfortably grab current MBAs by their side without worrying about pressing any keys, I’am afraid with this machine this won’t be as comfortable anymore… Also, my first impression is that it’s more like a netbook than ultra-portable laptop, the sacrifice for portability is pretty huge. And I do believe that these photos are real, kinda makes sense to leak them as well in order to make us used with this seemingly crazy idea.
do you realize that the c-type port on the comparison picture with the old mac book air is on the wrong side??!
Let me tell you something, I do not know if they’ll put an 12″ MBA in the market (although I doubt it, as it would be more wise and marketable to reduce the 13″ to near the the form factor of the so called 11″, as the latter really measures near 12″ ) but your specs are inconsistently to the form factor you are talking… Thus it’s bull.
On the other hand if you were to say that they were to revamp the entire MBA product line, to differentiate it more from the Retina Pro 13″, then it would be more believable as the specs you give would be applicable to realistic a much smaller 11″ but not to a 13″ that can be reduced to the size of an actual 11″ MBA. The constrain of the exterior design is the screen size and not the key size or hinges in anything larger than 11.6″ and smaller than 13.3″.
For an 11″ the could, technologically wise – don’t know cost wise – scrap at least inch from every single side of the screen but that would cause a major ergonomic redesign of the keyboard and the touchpad… that’s with out taking into consideration the engineering redesign to fit the interior electronics, and it’s optimization to keep the battery life on par with the previous generation without losing to much power.
In the case of the 13″ inch scraping that 1 inch in total from both sides and 1½” in total from both the top at bottom is feasible without touching the keyboard or touchpad and would then have the size of the actual 11″, and would probably will need a retractable hinge design to keep the screen clear from being shadowed by the hands of the user… That is without considering cost and how increase the efficiency of the processing to avoid losing battery life. :-/
HDMI? Must be!
I Think it’s wirelessly charged!
Great next step! What about a tablet computer?
It looks like there would be room to put one USB-C port on each side and still have the headphone port and microphones. Otherwise using this thing would be a constant hassle of switching devices and make it too dependent on external hubs.
USB-C is unlike previous USB.X, backwards compatible and superior to Thunderbolt. USB3-C/ Thunderbolt conversion cables/hubs are technically possible.
In what way is it superior to Thunderbolt. (serious question, not snark)
This is just getting ridiculous. No usb port, no sd card reader. what we have here is a pos tablet w/o the touchscreen and with a built in keyboard. Basically a Surface Pro but crappier. LOL
Hope they fix the charger which gets incredibly hot very quickly.
Three of my friends still have their Macs thanks to the magsafe power plug. Most laptop deaths seem to be due to people tripping on the trailing power cord. I cope with a single USB, although I do see it as bad design, because I always plug into a hub at home and have airport but not everyone will like this as it does make it about as useful as an iPad. The magsafe has always been a major plus point for me and will seriously affect my future decisions regarding Macs far more than the loss of a USB or thunderbolt port. That said I do know people that will be seriously put off having been sold on thunderbolt by the company that now drop it.
Reaches for ESC, turns off computer.
No …. Please don’t reposition the esc key, where the photo shows it … The editors i use for writing programs uses esc a lot …
If esc has to be re-positioned, maybe switch places with the fn key in the lower left corner ?
I don’t know about others, I don’t use the fn, or keys at the top for mission control, and showing apps/desktop … finger gestures on the trackpad is faster and more intuitive …
My 3 year old HP laptop has the same layout on the arrow keys. That’s nothing new folks.
when Expectation release macboook air?
I’ve owned a MBA 11″ (2011) (given to my Son), a MBPR 13″ (given to my Daughter) and now another MBA 11″ (2013). I bought this last MBA as I didn’t like the size/weight of the MBPR and I wanted something to tide me over until the MBAR came out. I also own (2) 29″ Thunderbolt displays and a Belkin TB dock. So, I’ve got a bit of an investment in TB and while I have been anxiously awaiting the MBAR, I won’t jump if/until there is a solution to use my displays at full quality with the MBAR. Others seem optimistic about a USB-C-to-TB adapter, but I’m not so sure. I waited quite a while for the Belkin dock and as far as I know, it is still the only TB device that includes a pass-through that will drive a display. Yes, it is also pricey and I absolutely won’t jump until a solution is available and shipping. Based on the cost of the Belkin dock, I would expect a full-featured device to be around $300. I would prefer a simply adapter under $100. I am a Retina fan and it was disappointing to go back to a non-Retina laptop display, but the goodness of the form factor of the MBA 11″ outweighs the reduction in display quality. If I am forcibly separated from my TB investment, I will also leave Apple behind and go back to WinTel/Linux and standard technologies. TB has been a pain, but now that I have made the investment, I want to get my money’s worth. Cheers.
I suspect that this device is going to be the iPad plus or Pro. I think they’re one and the same. It’s going to be an iPad and a Mac Book Air combined. You’ll be able to either flat out remove the keyboard or fold it back and perhaps the OS will be full fledged OS X but it will be touch screen and be able to be used folded back as an iPad and be damn near as thin as an iPad Air 2 when it’s folded back. Though I think they’ll make it removable so that you can pop the screen off when you want, perhaps turning the OS mode to iOS when you do. That would really be the coolest thing they’ve done with both the MBA and iPad line in a long time.
Ok, let’s try to be good. … No ! I can’t . It’s a great idea create a 12” Mac Book Air, but the new design is one of the worst I have seen out there, the new keyboard is just.. ridiculous, delete the USB ports to leave just one type-C port it’s not an option, there are users that really need the USB and thunderbolt ports.
In my opinion this is just a great fake or a joke, the main reason to believe this is the keyboard, if you pay attention in the dimensions of the 12” Macbook the “height” is the same of a 11” Macbook Air, so to ensure the screen resolution proportions will be near to 16:10 the macbook width must be really near to the 11” macbook Air, based on this assumption the keyboard is a “giant” one, it’s out of natural proportions, for every key and in the general size.
As an avid photography always on the go I love the concept of that smaller footprint MPA . However if it doesn’t come with a SD card slot it a no go for me. My current Late 2012 MPA is still going though so I don’t have to worry for another year or so.
Still no edge-to-edge display though. Wtf? That’s the part of this that truly matters. It seems ancient to have 1″ thick borders around the display.
seems like this is a good solution
The KADi Port
http://kck.st/1LjpgHT
Wish we could afford this machine, until that we can stare this beautiful mirage !!!