[icerabbit]

I never thought about the consolidation of the two notebook lines; but I think it would be a great move.

Imagine a unified 10/11" 13" 15" 17" line ... and hopefully matte screen options in the smaller sizes and full I/O. That would be irresistable. (I still think the PB G4 12" was the best notebook built)

[Mike_Doolin]

Am I the only one who wishes Apple would introduce a small laptop? I have a years-old 12" G4 that I love! I would replace it in an instant if there was a newer 12" Intel-based version, but until there is, I'll just keep it. I bought my wife a 13" Macbook and she loves it, but it's too big to schlep around as far as I'm concerned.
Am I the only one who feels this way?

[griffman]

You are not the only one who feels that way. I love my 12" PowerBook G4 as well, and have many friends who also carry the small and useful machine. We were all excited by rumors of what turned out to be the MacBook Air, but were disappointed in the end result -- sure, it's a marvel of thinness and lightness, but it's got a footprint that's basically identical to the MacBook. Instead, I was hoping for a 12" machine with a 1440x900 resolution, and a similar selection of ports as can be found on the 12" PowerBook G4.

I'm hoping the recent hot sales figures for Windows/Linux "netbooks" gets Apple to once again think small - but I'm not holding my breath for such a machine (or the MMMM).

-rob.

[bobdrake]

I have TWO 12" PowerBook G4s, having bought the second one on eBay for $650 after I priced newer models and decided to stay with what I knew and loved. One runs 10.4.11/9.2.2, the other 10.5.5. However, I am upset to learn the new aluminum MacBook will not have a FireWire 400 port, just two USB2 ports. All my port-powered backup drives are FW. I am NOT a happy (Apple) camper!

[griffman]

MMMM = Mythical Midrange Mac Minitower

-rob.

[alfred_bowman]

montgomery_burns wrote:
"Jon Seff wrote:
Do you honestly think that Jobs is sitting in his lair cackling as he says "they'll buy what I tell them to buy!"?
Your question was probably intended to be witty and sarcastic, but quite honestly, I would not put it past him. "

Indeed you (and everyone else) should not put it past Jobs' dictating hardware choices to us. He started with the original Mac!
According to Steven Levy's book "Insanely Great" which chronicled the early history of the Mac, Jobs instructed the engineer (who may have been Burrell Smith) developing the first Mac's logic board to provide for 128 KB of RAM and no more. Job's reason was that 128 KB of RAM with the 64 KB of ROM would be plenty . Fortunately for Jobs and everyone else, the engineer disobeyed this instruction. He made the design compatible with the next generation of RAM chips that would have four times the capacity of its predecessor.
The original 128 KB of RAM proved to be far too small for the kinds of graphical apps that developers wanted to produce. Because the Mac's logic board supported a RAM upgrade, Apple was able to bring out the 512 KB (or"FAT") Mac in under a year. This was the first "useable" Mac. It was the development and runtime platform for Word, Excel, Pagemaker and Illustrator , among others.
The only thing I would specify for a mini-tower is the use of desktop components rather than the more expensive notebook components used in every current Mac but the Mac Pro. Of course, it would use a Core 2 CPU and conventional RAM. IMO, it would cost less to design the logic board as it wouldn't be necessary to cram components into a tiny space. I suspect that it would cost less to manufacture and assemble a mini-tower than the Mini.
Finally, "Insanely Great" reported that the first time Jobs demonstrated the Mac to the public, he was using a 512 KB configuration!

[HawaiiBill]

Were Apple still ambitious and wanting to really serve its huge graphics base, the next MacBook Pro 17" would have a small Wacom tablet next to the mostly frustrating mouse pad, self adjusting color calibration for the monitor and a re-positioning of the keyboard to the bottom of the open machine desktop. As it is, using the keyboard can roast your wrists from battery and disc drive heat.
Is it my ancient memory failing or didn't the first MacBooks have titanium rather than aluminum cases? Maybe that just what comes of being 73! Ho Ho Ho.

[Jon Seff]

Titanium hasn't been used since the PowerBook...all MacBook Pros have had aluminum.

[uncdomination]

Agreed, I think they will keep the lines distinct but they may add another line of macs like a netbook or something at least

[HawaiiBill]

Jon,

Thank you for straightening me out on that. Was that machine the predecessors of MacBook? My MacBook Pro 17" is the first Apple in my long computer career.

And this is an opportunity to congratulate you and all your colleagues for the work you do with Macworld. As far as I'm concerned the other Apple/Mac mags are merely catalogs to keep us buying more while your publication consistently offers valuable tips on operations and maintenance for what we already own. You clearly take the side of your readers where appropriate in urging improvements from Apple.

Keep up the good work and aloha from Hawai`i.

[Jon Seff]

There were aluminum PowerBooks before Apple released the MacBook Pro (which replaced the PowerBook line).

And thanks for the kind words...glad you find what we do useful :)

[context]

Well, I did tell ya so.