Well it’s been rumored almost exactly to the day since the Apple “Let’s Rock” event and today it’s been confirmed: New laptop’s on October 14th!
Several rumors are:
A new design for the Macbook Pro’s and Macbook’s
An all glass multi-touch trackpad for the Macbook Pro’s with “enhanced” multi-touch controls.
An entirely new Macbook in the sub-$1000 area.
Possibly the option for a larger screen size on the Macbook and/or Macbook Pro’s.
The Macbook Pro’s getting quad-core chips (not really a rumor, just a hope).
Nvidia GPUs in the Macbook line.
Cheaper overall Macbook’s and Macbook Pro’s.
For that last bit, that would only be possible with the highly rumored Apple Brick manufacturing method. In short Apple uses water jets and the like to cut the entire laptop case out of a brick of aluminum. This significantly cuts production costs as this would be done in the US (not China) and would only need a minimum number of staff to oversight it. I highly believe this to be true as the same source for this rumor correctly predicted the iPod Touch, Fat Nano and the Macbook Air (to name a few).
That’s all for now folks. I’ll do another blog post on the 14th (or maybe before if another plausible rumor appears).
Wow, we just got done with Apple’s “Let’s Rock” event and there’s already rumors of an event next month on the 14th (for those whom aren’t month savvy, that’s October 14th). At least according to John Gruber.
Such speculation was misguided; Apple has held an iPod/music special event in September or October every year since 2001, and, to my knowledge, has never once used such events to announce new Mac hardware. Those of you holding out for a new lineup of MacBooks will have to wait until October 14, according to sources who, as they say, are familiar with Apple’s hardware plans
This really comes at no surprise to me. It’s been roughly six months since Apple’s changed anything in their Mac line-up, and since hardware changes a lot in short periods of time, Apple needs to update at least their laptop devision.
So without further adieu, here’s my speculation on the changes we might see to the Macbook line-up (if not on the 14th then whenever Apple does decide to update them).
The Macbook- Ah the good ol’ Macbook. So far has ye’ gone. Sadly the Macbook, while looking fantastic, is still using the rather dated Apple look of white plastic. Time for change! And that change brings a nice aluminum casing which an enhanced multi-touch trackpad. Nope, I don’t believe this will be a Macbook Touch. Why? Too soon. I believe that, at the earliest Apple will announce any “Macbook Touch” at Macworld 2009. In addition to this I believe that the CPU will be upgraded to 2.4 GHz as the base speed and 2.5 GHz for the top speed (yes, I know it’s the same as the current Macbook Pro).
The Macbook Air- Honestly I think nothing will change here aside from maybe a faster CPU and a larger HD (120 GB)
The Macbook Pro - Okay, here’s the biggy. To start off, though, I believe that the Macbook Pro will also get a case redesign and a more functional multi-touch trackpad. But the two big things are the CPU and GPU. I believe that Apple will switch the Macbook Pro to a mobile Intel Quade Core chip. These are relatively new and provide the power pro customers need if they’re on the go. Secondly I believe that the GPU will be upgraded to an Nvidia 8800 (don’t care which model to be honest). All of Apple’s higher-end Mac’s are getting an 8800, why not the Macbook Pro?
There you have it, my predictions for the new Macbook’s.
A few months back I did a bit of speculation that Apple would probably be doing a price reduction of their iPod line-up to be more competitive with the iPhone’s current price. And while I wasn’t entirely right with my predictions, I was pretty close. Let’s start from the bottom of the line up:
The iPod Shuffle - No price cut here. The same storage capacity for the same price, however there are a few new colors.
The iPod Nano - I was really close here. I did correctly predict that Apple would drop the 4GB model. However, I incorrectly guessed the price of the 8 GB model (I was $50 shy).
The iPod Touch - Another close one. I knew that Apple would lower its price, but I over-guessed it. I guessed that the price would be $150 for the 8Gb model. However, instead Apple made it $229. Still, a much better price in my opinion. I would still like to see a 4GB model iPod Touch though. I believe that would have a lot of uses, and could be sold at $150.
The iPod Classic - I did predict that Apple wouldn’t change the price of the Classic. However, I didn’t predict that they’d knock off the fatter Classic and bump the storage capacity of the skinnier version.
So there you have it. I was close, but not exact. At least those who thought I was completely wrong with my price-cut plan have something to gawk at now.
Lastly, here’s the new iPod Nano ad. Isn’t it gorgeous?
