 |
 Stephen Withers turns his gaze on the world of Apple, with
detours into other aspects of IT and communications as they catch his
attention. |
Technology news and Jobs 
Our Blogs Core Dump New MacBook Pro, Mac mini coming on Tuesday?
Our Blogs Core Dump New MacBook Pro, Mac mini coming on Tuesday? | New MacBook Pro, Mac mini coming on Tuesday? |
|
| by Stephen Withers | |
| Monday, 05 January 2009 | |
      
The idea of a 17in unibody doesn't require a huge leap. Apple revamped the 15in model last year, so bumping the 17in version to a unibody chassis with the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M/9600M GT combo and a LED backlight would hardly come as a surprise. What does seem more surprising is the suggestion that the 17in MacBook Pro will feature an iPhone/MacBook Air style fixed battery. The idea is that a fixed battery would save weight and allow a thinner chassis. There's also a suggestion that the weight saving will be used to fit a higher capacity battery (perhaps using a technology other than lithium ion) than would otherwise be possible, reducing the need to carry a second battery around. Despite the outcry from some quarters about the iPhone and the MacBook Air lacking user-replacable batteries, this feature (or misfeature, depending on your point of view) doesn't seem to have hurt sales significantly. After all, power points seem more widely available in conference rooms and on long-haul aircraft than they were a few years ago. There will be a similar fuss if a new MacBook Pro does arrive with a fixed battery, but since relatively few people travel with multiple batteries it's likely that Apple would barely notice any lost sales brought about by this as yet hypothetical design choice. Some commentators claim a fixed battery would be a negative from an environmental perspective, but that might not be true. Swapping batteries only at service centres would likely result in a significant reduction in the number of old batteries that end up in landfill, and a corresponding increase in those sent for recycling. Also, a built-in battery might need less packaging - not in the 'cardboard box' sense, but in terms of the strength and therefore thickness of the shell around the cells. As for the Mac mini, rumours have it that the revised version of Apple's tiniest desktop will use the GeForce 9400M chipset like the 15in MacBook Pro (and supposedly a forthcoming iMac update). Graphics performance is currently one of the mini's weakest points. The switch would allow support for dual displays, and one suggestion is that the 2009 mini will sport mini DisplayPort and Mini DVI connectors. The 9400M supports DisplayPoty, VGA. HDMI and DVI. Other rumours include the use of a more powerful CPU and greater disk capacity. It's also suggested that the current Firewire 400 port will be replaced by a Firewire 800 interface, and that there will also be a fifth USB port. |
Tags
| < Next story in category | Previous story in the category > |
|---|
