“A fresh report says that, indeed, the new MacBook Pros and MacBook Air are imminent,” Brooke Crothers reports for Forbes. “Japanese-language site Macotakara – considered a reliable purveyor of Apple rumors – is reporting that the new MacBook Pros and 13-inch version of the MacBook Air are slated to be announced this month.”
“This jibes with both Bloomberg reports and with what Rhoda Alexander, Director Tablet and Notebook PCs at IHS Markit Technology, told me last month,” Crothers reports. “Alexander told me: ‘Production started in the second calendar quarter on refreshes of the 13.3-inch and 15.4-inch MacBook Pro [and] the 13.3-inch MacBook Air.'”
“Macotakara says that the 11-inch version of the MacBook Air will be discontinued. Possibly because that market need is already met by the super-svelte 12-inch MacBook,” Crothers reports. “The Japanese site adds that there will be USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 port ‘support,’ thereby eliminating the traditional USB-A connector. ”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Depending on how much the MacBook Pro tempts – and we expect it to be nearly irresistible – with out beloved 11-inch MacBook Airs biting the dust, it’s looking like 12-inch MacBooks are going into our backpacks along with our 12.9-inch MacBook Pro units. Both together weigh less than the 17-inch MacBook Pros we used to carry (one computer on the road and on the desktop) before we bifurcated to small and light on the road (11-inch MacBook Airs / 9.7-inch iPad Airs) and big and brawny on the desktop (27-inch iMacs, loaded). We’ll wait to see just how much we’re tempted by the MacBook Pros first, though.
SEE ALSO:
Apple still plans all-new MacBook Pro this month, new USB-C MacBook Air also in the works, sources say – October 18, 2016
As new MacBook Pro models loom, Apple issues fourth beta of macOS Sierra 10.12.1 – October 11, 2016
Thoughts on Apple’s MacBook Pro OLED touch strip – August 11, 2016
Apple preps all-new MacBook Pro line with OLED touch strip and more – August 10, 2016
Apple’s new MacBook Pro expected to feature OLED touch-panel, Touch ID power button – August 8, 2016
Next-gen MacBook Pro could feature Touch ID power button – June 28, 2016
Leaked photos pretty much confirm 2016 MacBook Pro’s OLED touchpad – June 1, 2016
Thinner, lighter 2016 MacBook Pro may feature OLED display touch bar and Touch ID – May 24, 2016
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Tom R.” for the heads up.]
Please address more Ram PLEASE!!!!!!
I’m dying for a new MacBook Pro. But if it doesn’t have 32GB of RAM, a much better processor, and at least 4-6 GB GPU, I’m skipping it until it does. I’d even pay into the $3000’s for that. But I’ll keep using my Late-2013 rMBP if not. Apple used to have top of the line stuff, but now it’s super easy to find competing hardware that have double the price:performance. For $2800 I can get a monster PC, why is Apple so embarrassingly behind?
Why? Because Tim Cook simply does not believe in the Mac. He’s not interested in the Mac. There is NO WAY that the Mac would be as neglected as it has been without direct orders from the top. The pitiful state of the Mac today is Tim Cook’s legacy.
The Mac, especially the Mac Mini, MacBook Pro, and Mac Pro are veritable laughing stocks of the industry at their price point.
Tim Cook is milking the Mac for all its worth and allowing it to fade away.
The alternate view by myself is that my 2010 MBP is still an incredible machine and so are the later ones.
Cook had to decide where to put resources to claim the high market volume product mountain-top, the iPhone, and to nail the high ground against Samsung and he has done it (Samsung flamed out.)
Now Cook has gotten back to releasing the next iteration and rumors are that Macs will be sporting a lot of ‘new’ expanded features, so lets just wait a bit over a week and find out.
You reminded me of a quote, “If I were running Apple, I would milk the Macintosh for all it’s worth — and get busy on the next great thing. The PC wars are over. Done. Microsoft won a long time ago.” — Steve Jobs, 1996
It seems that Tim Cook is doing just what Steve Jobs would do…what he in fact did, once he returned to Apple in 1997. What followed was a hit parade of next great things, starting with iPod / iTunes, followed by iPhone. In a few short years, Mobile was in, Desktops — including the Mac — were out.
It does seem that pundits were right about Apple: it’s a company of next great things; it has scant interest in products that have become commodities. Tim is trying to carry forwad Steve’s mandate, not deviate from it. Tim’s own next great thing was Apple Watch. Further, Tim’s “pipeline” apparently is a cornucopia of futuristic marvels, he just won’t say much about ’em. They’d better be good, though, after leaving poor Mac by the side of the road.
IF this rumor is true, it projects that this iteration will be based upon Skylake.
Yes, new Macs with 8-9 months old chips when newest chips will be out in 2-3 months. No native TB3 support (extra chips to do that, but Kaby Lake will have it native in 2-3 months). No MagSafe support. No SD card support.
If these Mac laptops are as portrayed, Apple should have shipped these six months ago.
Kate, what has happened is this: Apple has become so big that being “embarassingly behind” is a vanishingly small factor in their business decisions. Any number of other factors weigh more heavily. They hardly acknowledge their core, professional users any more.
Because of their immense size they have the luxury of dictating when, how, and with what speed they will turn the ship of innovation. I have to trust they are taking their time doing it with the sensibilities of their passengers in mind, not wanting to alarm us with reports of icebergs ahead.
Why would Apple remove Mag-safe? that’s a feature that I suspect has saved a number of Mac’s from abrupt falls to a floor.
Sad to say, but I’d say enough beancounters have taken over enough critical positions within Apple that they figure they can make money on repairs or full replacements if that happens.
It also protects the charging port. It’s fairly common for a charging cable to be snapped off in the charging port on an IBM Clone laptop.
and of course the total irony of it is, in their zeal to drive us to portable media and cloud storage they just happen to have the most expensive and most trouble prone cloud of any of their competitors.
Very true. iCloud is an abysmal cloud service compared to Google or even Dropbox. Apple has NEVER done cloud services properly. Even the most drooling fan boy knows that.
Dear Mr. Birdseed.
With all due respect this *is* a Mac fan site.
iCloud is slow, and that is about all you can say. It has never lost any data and not given me or anyone I know any trouble.
Dropbox lacks the tight integration I want, and as for google, well, let’s just say they are never going to get their grubby little paws on my data. So iCloud it is.
If you have trouble with iCloud the place to complain is Apple, not on public forums. We know it’s imperfect already.
Peace.
Caveman: This *used to be* a Mac site. Now it’s sort of an echo chamber of extreme right wing politics, insults hurled at Samsung (almost always misspelled, very classy), and complete worship of Apple business results and anything that achieves it. It has long ago stopped being a forum to get answers to your Mac questions or learn about what new Mac features and capabilities are coming. To be fair, part of the problem is that Apple hasn’t done squat to improve Mac hardware capabilities compared to the competition ever since Cook arrived. He comes straight out of Compaq, what did y’all expect?
As for iCloud, it’s a waste of everyone’s time. Slowness is just the tip of its problems. Look, if you’re going to store your data on Microsoft or Google or Amazon’s servers (which is what iCloud does), then paying Apple to be middle man does nothing for you. It takes serious fanboyism to convince yourself that you need iCloud at all.
Again, with respect Mike, and on the iCloud topic, I have many family members and even more friends that use it. The unanimous verdict is that it’s slow. But that’s all.
iCloud may very well use M$ servers but it is secure (as secure as it can be anyway) and Apple does not mine the data, as all the rest do.
I was an iTools user, then .Mac then MobileMe.
All my business invoices on there and all manner of things, it’s fine.
If you have had a less than great experience with it that’s a shame, but please don’t write it off as useless for everyone else and attribute our use of iCloud to “fanboyism”.
As far as politics goes, I have one observation:
When someone says “right wing” that means they are left wing.
There are very few real right wingers left, as the country has been going steadily more to the left. When you see a moderate, you call him a right winger, because, from your perspective, he is.
I’ll give you one example that I myself just learned about:
Al Gore used to associate with the Southern Baptist Convention.
He left because, he said, they had become increasingly right wing. But wait, he supports homosexual marriage and abortion and all manner of things, things that 50 years ago (rightly) deemed extremist.
The SBC has always had the same views on those topics though.
So. Gore went to the left, but then viewed the SBC position as moving to the right, which was simply not the case.
The creation/evolution debate is the same.
Atheist people will denounce those that believe that God created everything as right-wing, anti-science nutjobs. Are they? Of course not. It’s just that as the people have gone further to the left they think those that stick to their principles are moving the other way.
It’s just not so.
I think you just confirmed Mike’s point. It seems that every comment section, at some point, goes off topic and often includes a political rant.
What did MagSafe ever do to Apple to make them want to get rid of it?
If that’s the case, another bad decision by Tim.
Maybe there’s something better coming?
USB-C is a “rip-it-off-the-table-and-on-to-the-floor” connector. The very reason MagSafe was invented and marketed by Apple. Definitely a step backwards.
Potentially could add a MagSafe inline connector to USB-C cable, but unlikely by Apple, given their history.
That is what Apple now calls ‘Courage’
The 13″ MacBook Pro I understand (more powerful, 4 core, etc), but what is the differentiation between the 12″ MacBook and the new 13″ MacBook Air? Seems like overlap to me…
Little by little, Apple is losing its rabid fans because of things like this (if true), having only USB-C ports on the new MBP. To not include even one legacy USB 3 port is indefensible. It’s not a large port, its cost is next to nothing, the only reason to exclude it is to force people to buy the $hitty quality cables and adapters Apple sells. I used to be such a rabid Mac fan, but I no longer recommend them. Between the crappy hardware decisions and the extremely poor performance of OS X on older hard-drive based Macs, Apple has just lost it in recent years. And favoring USB-C over MacSafe 2? Dumb, dumb, DUMB!
This. Someone asked which laptop to get recently, I honestly couldn’t recommend a new Mac at the moment. Macbook? no legacy USB and only a single port period. No go. MBAir? too old. MBPro? too old and expensive at current prices for what you get.
I agree. Even as recently as 18 months ago I was recommending Macs to people that would only run Windows on them. However, today, I won’t recommend Macs to anyone who isn’t Mac centric already. If their question is, “What computer should I get.” the answer today is never a Mac (and this rumored crop won’t change that). If their question is, “I need a new Mac; which one should I get?” then the answer is Mac centric, but often not Mac exclusive.
Those that have frequented Mac sites for many, many years know that I’ve been a Mac user since ’84 (and Apple user several years before that) and have purchased thousands of Macs both professionally and personally. I’m ever hopeful that Apple will wake up and restore the Mac line to its former glory, e.g., there was a time a decade or so ago when even Oracle was pushing Macs over PCs and XServes over Windows servers. That is not the case today.
Apple needs to wake up. Apple **IS** starting to lose its fan base.
whats up with Apple desktop solutions?
Steve Ballmer’s is Tim Cook’s mentor.
As depressing as all this is, I’m going to hold out another month before determining whether advocate Cook’s head on a pitchfork.
I will say this: the staleness of Mac hardware is now unprecedented. Cook owns this now.
The problem is that Apple has gotten itself into an unwinnable situation. They either ship based upon 8-9 month old technology (that they should have shipped 7-8 months ago) OR they wait another 2-3 months when the new technologies are available.
That’s what you end up with when you go non-user upgradeable.
well maybe he does own it and then again, maybe not. at least not entirely
i am commencing to suspect that many of our mutual discontents with mac hardware quite likely resides at the increasingly ample belly of jony ive.
he seems to be the guy with the closest ties to the spirit of steve jobs. my guess is that he concurred with jobs assessment about the shift to portables from macs as we have heretofore known them, and is ardently pursuing that vision, in part by making them less desireable, and crippling them – makes it easier to force us to move on to where they want us to go.
however, steve was not always right and he could be convinced to change his mind now and again.
for instance take his famous dictum about no styli for iphones or ipads, well that was one way to distinguish apple products from the others at the time, but if his acolytes kept to that principle we would not be having the pens that open up the capabilities of ipad pros.
so my guess is that jony took steves opinion on supplanting macs with pads and phones and has just run with it and in the process is running the mac line (very prematurely) into the ground.
to which i say
better smarten up chump
even if macs days are numbered – in the long run – there is still no reason not to give us the best damn machines that can be made, up to the very day they die, or are discontinued
The iPadPro stylus has been a huge disappointment. My stylus on my MessagePad 1000 had more functionality. That was twenty years ago! Apple can so pen computing better. They have done it better.
As we are running out of October, it looks like this won’t be an event-style announcement of the new devices. The strong implication of that is that the new machines won’t be interesting enough or enough of an upgrade or there won’t be enough of them to warrant a public showing (and the ‘free’ marketing from press coverage that goes along with such an event).
So that OLED function strip? Apparently not so innovative or interesting. Form factors? Pretty much the same, except maybe for port changes. And on the subject of ports, I wonder if Apple is actually afraid of the negative response they’ll get from changing everything to USB-C. The blowback from the iPhone 7 headphone port removal might have rocked them on their heels a bit (I’m not saying that the iPhone 7 won’t be a success, just that Apple experienced a lot of negativity in the media, which they aren’t used to).
Or, maybe this will just be a spec bump, and the updated hardware people are asking/yearning for is still a few months away.
Prove me wrong, Apple. Impress me. It’s been a while.