MacRumors has put together this roundup, consolidating the rumors of an Apple ultra-portable macbook. I've made no secret of my wish for a double- or triple-size iPod-touch-like tablet but a 2.5-pound NAND-based Macbook sounds pretty appealing, even if the estimates are on the pricey side.
So what are your takes on ultraportability? Let us know in the poll below.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
brian said 1:53PM on 12-10-2007
I've wanted what I call a "MacBook elite" for quite a while: 10-12" screen, very light, solid state storage, no optical drive, fast bootup, great (12 hrs+) battery life. 4-16 GB storage, not meant to be a primary machine, would sync to your "main" Mac like an iPod or iPhone. No reason to go touchscreen, though. Shouldn't be too expensive: if Apple can make 8 and 16 GB iPods for $299 and $399, they ought to be able to make a solid-state laptop pretty cheaply. Positioned as either a "very entry-level laptop" or "secondary portable Mac," it could sell for $999.
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Dale said 2:50PM on 12-10-2007
To me, that doesn't sound like an "Elite" system - looking at other devices, the term elite is used to denote the most powerful or well specified version of a system.
I definitely like the idea of a very small, portable, inexpensive system like that though.
Ed said 4:50PM on 12-10-2007
I think it could be a good portable machine for an "Elite" user: a small lightweight secondary computer that is not meant to be powerful, but an easily portable device. With a low voltage cpu and no optical drive, it would be more meant for terminal use along with some light use of less cpu-intensive apps. I'd buy it.
Michael said 2:35PM on 12-10-2007
For many years now I have been wanting a small "tablet" size (yet another vote for the 2x / 3x iPod Touch size) device. Now with the iPod Touch / iPhone my dreams are reasonable. As much as I hate "add-ons", a keyboard and other input devices could be done this way but the device itself needs to be physically keyboard free.
DVDs and CDs are not needed. This is the modern digital age where we can store enough on the built-in storage device to negate the day to day use of removable media.
In terms of storage, yes it would need solid state storage. Apple is in the position to move the 64/128gb products. However, 64gb should be the target.
The device needs to be able to interact with the popular file formats - interacts does not necessarily mean work on... but you should be able to at least append documents.
By the way, the 2x/3x size would put it right inline with being an Excellent eReader. I can see how this device could massively change the education market. For truly the first time no more books on paper... they would keep all books here among other possibilities in the education sector.
Just think how great it would be to have in-class syntonization of homework assignments and projects. My mind goes crazy at all the things you really could do with this size of device... for education, business, and daily life.
only to dream.....
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Flip Sasser said 2:02PM on 12-10-2007
I use my MacBook Pro primarily for programming, so I need a full-size keyboard and a large enough screen to see many lines of code. An ultraportable will never appeal to me short of cool factor.
I don't understand why these things are necessary, and I'd argue that the UMPC market is proving they're NOT, every day. An iPhone and a laptop serve me perfectly; adding a device between the two seems crazy. Of course, I thought the Mac mini was crazy, so what do I know?
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Mystic said 3:30PM on 12-10-2007
I agree!
brian said 5:50PM on 12-10-2007
"... I need a full-size keyboard and a large enough screen to see many lines of code. An ultraportable will never appeal to me short of cool factor. I don't understand why these things are necessary..."
Because most of the world aren't programmers! :-)
I have desktops at home and at work, so my laptop is just for little odds and ends--browsing/doing email on the couch while watching TV, running the occasional program that I don't have installed on my work machine, checking network drops, using it as a way to move data between locations, etc. All relatively light work.
And when I travel with a laptop, I'm not doing intense work on it either--just checking in on things, transferring pictures from my camera, posting to Flickr, etc.
None of these tasks need tons of CPU or screen real estate. All are made easier by having a portable that is easy to carry and has good battery life.
mike said 2:07PM on 12-10-2007
can we call it the "MacBook Duo?"
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DagMX said 3:34PM on 12-10-2007
I hope they keep a keyboard at the very least. Typing on an iphone is a complete PITA right now. If they have a touch interface, I don't see it working very well. It works on the iphone to some degree because it's not a heavy text centric device, but on a computer, a proper keyboard is necessary.
As for the optical drive, I hope you can purchase a nice dock with it rather than them making you resort to some ugly standalone disk drive
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rp said 2:26PM on 12-10-2007
"PodBook." The device would be a component based system with a folding keyboard of some sort and/or touchscreen that would be about half the size of a macbook, maybe less. the base of the device would have a few ports for usb, audio out, etc, but very minimal. There would be no internal hd. It would be designed to use an iPod to boot into OS X. This would allow for an extremely portable and compact laptop without sacrificing hd space for NAND while having a seperate battery to power internals and display. Internal optical or component based optical drive is easily possible for this setup.
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Ed said 5:04PM on 12-10-2007
Sounds cool, but I wouldn't want to have to lug around an iPod all the time just to use it. I'd rather just have a big SSD (128 GB NAND drives were just announced) or if it were cheap enough, a normal hard drive. I do like the iPod idea though, maybe it could have a separate partition for an apple TV type OS that would quickly boot to your media.
Josh said 2:48PM on 12-10-2007
I love my 12inch PowerBook. Why didn't they make a 12inch Macbook Pro? It's just the right size, just make it thinner and lighter.
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Big John said 3:17PM on 12-10-2007
Eh, can we go back to the plain vanilla voting system?
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Tungsten TX said 2:21AM on 12-13-2007
Yes, at last a possible competitor to the Palm Foleo! oh, wait...
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Brendon Carr said 7:24PM on 12-10-2007
I travel with a MacBook now because I like the screen size and the keyboard. A thinner, lighter Mac portable with a similar overall screen and keyboard size would be ideal and I would buy one just as soon as it became available. Flash SSD storage could enable this.
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Eliot said 7:39PM on 12-10-2007
I have a mac at home and the office, but I travel with a Sony VAIO TX. 1"+ thick, 2.8 lbs, 11" screen, 60 GB drive, DVD-RW built in. I love it, but I wish it was a mac. I would buy a new smaller MacBook Pro if it had the following specs:
Silver aluminum enclosure
11"x8"x1" dimensions
Under 3 lbs.
11-13" widescreen
U7600 Core 2 Duo @ 1.2 Ghz +
60GB drive or optional 32 or 64GB Flash drive (not sure I'm ready to pay the premium for flash though)
Slot-loading super-drive
Express Card slot or built in Sprint WAN
5 hour battery life (2 movies on a plane to Asia)
$1799 or less
Would you buy this? I would.
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Dennis Lee said 7:46PM on 12-10-2007
What I really would like to see is a giant iphone/ipod touch. Say 6-8 inches. Sort of like the data pads in star trek.
Obviously any real work would be done on a laptop or desktop system, but things like note-taking, email, ebook reading, and web browsing would finally be viable on a form factor of that size, due to multi-touch technology.
A keyboard would be unecessary, since most of the difficulty with the iphone keyboard is the inability to a.) use it in landscape mode in most apps, and b.) the inability to fit all five fingers on it.
For those who like tactile feedback the new super thin bluetooth aluminum keyboard would be a good match for the device.
A PCMCIA slot for EVDO or 3g, 802.11b, bluetooth, couple usb ports, and you have yourself a portable device that is simple, elegant and usable while you're on the road or at the coffee shop.
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Valdisk said 8:49PM on 12-10-2007
A TravelBook...
* a peripheral Mac for viewing/presenting docs, no hard core processing... and iPod for the rest of your files!
* no hardware keyboard
* no optical drives
* 32-64GB NAND
* Full OS X Leopard
* eBook reader would be a bonus
* pen input with new drawing/sketch pad SW as bonus
* sync to one or more desktop/laptop Macs
* VGA-out for presentations, plus USB, plus various card readers, plus Firewire for auto terminal disk mode with host Mac
* wifi and wimax
* load it for your trip and go, or access your desktop/laptop Mac via internet
* new .Mac services
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pjg said 9:05PM on 12-10-2007
I just bought a new MacBook. I am considering returning it and waiting... The MacBook is nice but doesn't excite me much. If it does not excite me, I won't use it that much. I would love something smaller, lighter, more portable for odds and ends stuff and traveling. Otherwise, the PowerMac and iMac at home are sufficient. A slick overgrown iphone with a real keyboard and lightweight 12 inch display... SEXY!
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diego said 10:16PM on 12-10-2007
I don't care how big it is... just get the weight down... w-a-y down.
And what's with the touch screen love? I can't imagine key commands as being easy on something so slickery. Don't know about you, but I loves me some tactile feedback.
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