“ We believe all notebooks will attend like these one day . ” Those were Steve Jobs ’s words when he take the stage on October 20th to bring in a refresh version of the MacBook Air , take it clean that Apple ’s novel computer were a herald of things to get .
Many people take a firm stand oncalling the Air an overpriced netbookdespite the fact that every single one of its spec would easily blow any other computer in that family out of the urine . But much of the analysis on this new product has been on its quick utility as a mobile computing platform , rather than on its significance for the long - full term phylogeny of the notebook computer .
A triumph of integration
There are a number of major changes in the Air that clearly tag it as a forward - looking system ; it seems clear that Apple has live out of its way to redefine the very concept of portable computers .
Those old enough to remember a time when laptop were still a ecological niche area of calculation will also think of how alien they calculate inside . While the desktop industry was already well on its room to standardizing component sizes , specification , and arrangements , laptop manufacturer were faced with the unenviable task of fit a whole estimator into some kind of portable format — and that was before load it up with heavy , bulky batteries .
The early effort at this procedure ensue in some rather bizarre convenience that were called “ portable ” merely because they pass off to be check with a handle : case in level , the 16 - pound “ luggable ” Macintosh Portable . It was n’t until the industriousness embark on rethinking the ingredient themselves that the form factor of laptop computer start to evolve into what we ’re used to today . The demand for retooling and rethink made laptop expensive for many years until , finally , the entire market once again standardise on the component that make today ’s laptop potential : 2.5 - in hard disk , ultra - slender optical drive , smaller and less powerfulness - hungry processor , more efficient batteries , and so on .
If Apple wants to push laptop computer design to a novel level , the newest Air clearly indicates that the roadmap it has chosen point in one direction : integrating . A pic of the Air ’s underbelly clear shows that no drive has been spared to squeeze every last three-dimensional inch of quad from the machine ’s interior . This has meant letting go of the traditional 2.5 - inch casing that solid - res publica drives have espouse in favor of a set of a chips on a circuit display panel ( which is really all an SSD is , of course ) , shed the optical drive , and tightly integrating every chip into a custom design that minimizes jumble and go forth as much room as possible for those still bulky electric battery .
From this perspective , then , the tune is much more than a thin laptop : it is a proof of concept that a powerful computer does n’t need to fall into a bountiful packet . If Apple can rack a political machine like the atmosphere into a container that others have only been able to utilise for underpowered devices — such as the many netbooks currently on the market — think what it can do with a system like the MacBook Pro .
The death of spinning
Elsewhere onMacworld , my colleague Chris Holt makes the breaker point that SSDs are not for everyone . Apple , for its part , seems intent on ridding its portable computers from anything that spins . While replacing a hard disk with a different form of fixed warehousing is a mostly - internal change that can affect the exploiter in speeding or reliability , removing the optical drive is more akin to decreeing that CDs and videodisk are , for all intents and purposes , dead .
Of of course , the previous incarnations of the Air also came without an national DVD reader / writer . Apple , however , still shipped them with ocular installation media , and Jobs himself made certain to point out that an external optical drive was uncommitted , in add-on to the choice of sharing a driving force remotely from another computer . This meter , optical medium did n’t even qualify for a reference in Jobs ’s presentation and the OS X install DVD that has been a staple of Mac packaging for many yr has been replaced bya read - only USB key .
Now , it might be premature to announce discs stagnant , but they ’re certainly being shown the doorway . speak from personal experience , I honestly can not remember the last time I used the optical private road on my early-2009 laptop — in fact , I do n’t even know if it still works , and I ’d gladly switch it for an extra intemperate - drive bay tree .
Is Apple moving to ARM?
The last big unknown region in the future of Apple peregrine computing is whether the company will stick with its current Intel weapons platform or move everything to ARM , the architecture that powers its Io - found nomadic devices like the iPhone and the iPad . Of course , this means enrol the world of speculation , which is always a unsafe game to fiddle with a company that , like Apple , justlovesto keep its card confining to its corporate pectus .
However , Apple could benefit in several ways from moving its integral fluid occupation to ARM . First of all , ARM central processing unit were design specifically for mobile program ; this makes them more effective in terms of power consumption , thermal looseness , and space optimisation . In other words , you may squeeze more processor into the same place , which means more power without a bigger box . Apple has already plenty of expertise with the ARM platform thanks to itsacquisitions of key chip design firmsand the piece of work that has gone into several generations of iPods , iPhones and iPads .
Most importantly , however , the exercise of ARM central processor would give Apple that which it craves most : control . With the current platform , Apple is dependent on Intel for the primal component in its computers : the majority of hardware and software decisions made by the companionship shower from its selection of CPU . ARM , on the other manus is a specification that leaves Apple free to design and build its own chips , which it ’s already done with the iPad and iPhone 4 . A move to a platform that it controls all , therefore , would give the o.k. folks from Cupertino complete , ending - to - end vertical integration in all its ware — which , give what they have been able to do with their other wandering devices , could afford some awful results .
On the software side of things , the Mac has already been successfully transition out of the PowerPC earned run average through a fair smooth appendage that saw the gradual introduction of Intel microprocessor chip with minimal interruption to both developers and remnant - users . This has give the company all the tools it needs to make another changeover , this fourth dimension to ARM . In fact , one could argue that this passage is already well under fashion : we sleep together that the guts of OS X , on which Io is based , work absolutely well on ARM ; by the same token , the fellowship has built developer tools that are equally at simpleness on both platforms . It has also been working firmly on abstracting ontogeny away from single architectures for years , so that developers today hoard “ for iPhone ” or “ for OS X ” rather than “ for ARM ” or “ for Intel . ”
Still , if such a transition is in the card , it ’s unbelievable to just be a cakewalk — not the least because there are so many dissimilar Mac models involved , each with its own marketplace segment to supply to . ARM has try out itself a worthy choice for mobile public presentation , where powerfulness consumption and oestrus looseness are important characteristics , but it has no raceway record where in the buff power is the key metric . So , while conceive of an ARM - power MacBook may not be a stretchability , the same can not be suppose of , say , a Mac Pro run on the same architecture .
Like its predecessor , this move is pass away to take time , provision , and a lot of work on both hardware and software . In the meantime , we can look ahead to our laptop getting thin , lighter , and cooler — in every possible sense .
[ Marco Tabini is a frequent contributor toMacworldand a Toronto - ground developer . ]
