MacPrices.net

A Compact MacBook Pro Should Demand Few Compromises - Plus 'Book Mystique Mailbag

by Charles W. Moore

I don’t generally traffic in rumors, but it does seem more and more likely that a compact MacBook Pro to replace the discontinued 12” PowerBook is forthcoming in the not too distant future.

Last week, applerecon.com posted the most comprehensive prognostication of a new professional subcompact Apple notebook that I’ve run across yet. You can read the article here, but here’s a capsule of the predictions:

• 12” widescreen display 1280 x 800
• LED display backlighting
• 2 GHz Core 2 Duo
• 1 GB RAM upgradable to 3 GB
• NAND Flash cache Hybridation (sounds like Intel’s new “Robson” technology)
• 80 GB HD - with up to 200 GB available
• ATI Radeon X1900 GPU with 256MB VRAM (hooray! - no Intel GMA 950 RAM-sharing kludge)
• Lithium Polymer battery providing up to six hours runtime
• Dual-layer SuperDrive,
• 3.5 pound weight
• iSight, Bluetooth, 802.11b/g/n, both Firewire 400 and 800, USB2.0, 10/100/1000 Ethernet, audio in/out, mini-DVI
• Priced at $1,799

Cool. If Apple can actually deliver a product with the above specification and feature set, they should sell like proverbial hotcakes.

Frankly, it’s difficult to imagine how they could manage that few-compromises inventory of features in a tiny form factor weighing more than a pound less than the 12” PowerBook did. I really hope they can, because it sounds awesome, but recall that it took eight months before they figured out how to cram FireWire 800 and a dual-layer SuperDrive into the full-sized 15” MacBook Pro.

My guess would be that they might leave out the optical drive, or perhaps include it in a separate, freestanding module, as was done with the floppy drive for the PowerBook 2400. I can’t imagine them selling a machine at the premium price of $1,799 without some sort of optical drive solution included. You still have to install software, and not everything is downloadable from the Internet. Likewise, some sort of backup and data copying medium is really indispensable or maybe you just want to watch a movie on the 12” widescreen.

Speaking of which, it will be interesting if Apple really does introduce LED backlight technology on a new subcompact notebook. Actually, it might be a good plan to go that route, since supply of LED screens is expected to be tight in the beginning, which would represent ore of a risk with the mainstream volume-selling 15” MacBook Pro. Still on the topic of displays, the widescreen aspect ratio doesn’t really appeal to me all that much in a machine of this size, and I think the conventional laptop screen proportions make pretty good sense for a small notebook intended for mobile use. On the other hand, the forecast 800 pixel resolution vertical depth is an increase over the 12” PowerBook’s 768 pixels, so I guess I shouldn’t grumble too much, although those pixels are going to have to be awfully tiny. At least such a screen should be exceptionally sharp and crisp.

A 2 GHz Core 2 Duo should supply plenty of processing grunt for anyone other than complete speed freaks, who probably aren’t all that interested in subcompact notebooks anyway, and hopefully the relatively modest clock speed will help keep temperatures down to a tolerable level.

One thing I really hope they do follow through with is the real graphics processor unit instead of the half-baked GMA 950 technology used in the MacBook that annexes some of the system RAM for video support duty. I know that people with MacBooks say this doesn’t cramp their style significantly, but benchmarking by sites like BareFeats that have run direct comparisons indicated that video performance is indeed compromised, and while that may be acceptable in a “consumer” notebook, and it must be acknowledged that Apple packs a ton of features and value into MacBooks for the prices they sell for, nobody wants to accept too much compromise in a $1,799 professional machine.

That was what was so great about the 12’ PowerBook - it was small, but it was a real PowerBook with a pretty comprehensive range of professional laptop features, absent a few non-crucial ones like a PC CardBus slot, a second RAM expansion slot, and the illuminated keyboard. It had a real graphics accelerator with a respectable amount of VRAM that could drive big external monitors, just as good a keyboard as its larger siblings, and an available SuperDrive. Of course it wasn’t possible to cram everything available in the 15” and 17” units in, but the LittleAl PowerBook could serve as a professional workhorse laptop with no apologies necessary. PowerPC PPC 603e motherboard with 256k L2 cache, and also using the 3400’s video sub-system with a built-in VGA connector port. Built for Apple by IBM Japan, the 2400c was small, sleek, and lightweight (at 4.4 pounds the lightest Apple portable so far). It did have some compromises, such as the aforementioned external floppy drive module, and also a much smaller than standard sized (87%) keyboard, but at least it was a really good scissors-action keyboard - the same technology Apple used for the superb G3 Series keyboards.

I’ve always been puzzled as to why Apple did not keep the 2400 in production, and even upgrade it to G3 status, since that would have been dirt-simple to do, given that its processor was mounted on a removable daughtercard, and third-party vendors indeed did offer G3 upgrades for this much-loved machine, which unfortunately went out of production in 1998.

However, the 2400c, short production run notwithstanding, was a real PowerBook , as was its predecessor in Apple’s compact laptop slot, the PowerBook Duo which debuted in October, 1992. The original Duo concept was for the portable unit to function as a normal laptop while on the road, but when you returned home or to the office you could insert the closed Duo into a Duo-dock with a full-size CRT monitor, a full set of ports, a floppy drive, an internal hard drive, and two internal NuBus expansion slots and have it function as a no-compromise desktop computer. This was a particularly compelling concept in the days before large active-matrix color laptop monitors. There were also smaller, portable minidocks that could plug into the 152-pin connector providing a set of standard ports and a connector for an external floppy drive.

The Duo was always expensive even in the context of its time, and always a serious machine, becoming Apple’s longest-running laptop model of the ‘90s, eventually being built with 68030, 68040, and 603e PowerPC chips. The ‘030 Duos come with a 19-mm trackball that was much smaller than the trackballs in the PowerBook 100 series, bumped to 20 mm with the ‘040 models. The Power PC Duo 2300c had a trackpad. The Duo keyboard was slightly smaller (95%) than a standard PowerBook keyboard as well, but with the dockability feature the Duo could serve as a professional workhorse.

The baby MacBook Pro should be able to do no less.

A final point, I don’t think the smallest member of the MacBook Pro family will be called a MacBook mini as some have suggested. My guess is that it will follow the precedent of the 12” PowerBook and just be called the 12” MacBook Pro.

But whatever it’s called, it will be a welcome addition to the family, and there should be lots of pent-up demand

The 'Book Mystique Mailbag

DiskWarrior Rave

From Walter

I guess I’m lucky that I haven’t had DW save my bacon as much as you have.

But right now, I’ve been living with the requirement of 3.0.3 not being bootable on my MacBookPro, and am not thrilled that Alsoft is proposing I spend my money with them with no guarantee that I’ll be able to travel with a protection CD once I upgrade to Leopard, likely in just a couple of months. My email to them about an upgrade protection program has gone unanswered.

There’s been a lot of talk about new file system support under Leopard; I understand that they can’t promise to handle new twists they haven’t seen. Still, it seems some clever marketing ought to accompany their clever engineering. Maybe bundle a 1-year license for any upgrades, even major point versions, into the sale price.

Walt

CM