‘Brick’ Explained

Today the world (of those who cared) found out what the rumored ‘Brick’ referred to. 9to5Mac has revealed that the ‘Brick’ refers to a new manufacturing process. The process allows MacBook casing to be made out of a solid block of aluminum instead of different pieces. Oh yeah, this also lets onto the fact that new MacBooks are probably going to be aluminum instead of plastic.

Yes ok, this sounds really boring on paper but in the real world it would mean the slickest and most gorgeous Apple notebooks you have ever seen. If you have seen the new iMacs you might have noticed that there is seamless joining between the aluminum face and the curved sides. This means there is no need for unsightly screws and such, just aluminum joining to aluminum. Imagine this look for a newly designed MacBook (and hopefully Pro as well). At the moment the MacBook Pro looks amazing, but what I hate is that strip of plastic around the edge of the body and around the screen. This new manufacturing process would get rid of that ugly plastic strip and would extend the aluminum to the edge of the device.

This may make no sense to you what so ever. If you would like to find out what I’m talking about, go to your local Apple Store and have a look at the MacBook Pros (and at the same time, could you please leave my blog page open on the screen as you leave. Thanks). Even if you don’t care about this new manufacturing process, you have to acknowledge that it would make the Mac notebook line leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the PC market in terms of design. This is inclusive of the fact that they are already leaps and bounds ahead, but this will mean leaving PC notebooks looking like they were during the ’90s.

Steve Jobs was right, exciting times are ahead.

(Yes, this proves more then anything that I am an Apple fanboy)

Code Name: Brick

After rumors a few weeks ago that a German store had received new MacBook Pros, we now have 9to5 Mac and MacRumors reporting that they have strong evidence that a new line of MacBooks (not the Pros) that could be arriving as soon as October 14! Supposedly, the tip off comes from the same supplier in Asia who let the world know about the ‘Rainbow iPod Nanos’.

It is rumored to be code named ‘Brick’. What is interesting about this is what the name may illude to. While some are speculating it refers to the form factor (I hope not, I thought we were past the brick laptop stage) Macenstein are saying it may refer to something else. They are deciphering it as a Windows killer, literally saying this about it: “After all, how do you break “Windows”? You throw a brick through them!”

But what would break the Microsoft market share? To answer this question, we have to look at what has probably constricted Apple’s market share until now. The answer is the price point. If you compare them, a PC could cost $200 less than a similarly spec’d MacBook. If Apple dropped the price of the MacBook to around $1000, they would be in an excellent position to make an agressive push into the market.

While this would be fantastic (I want to buy a MacBook for university), it could mean massive changes to the walled garden Mac users currently live in. In my opinion, Apple products are only as good as they are because they only have a 7% market share. Apple know their market very well and know what they want. Should millions of people join the market, they might have to diversify what they do for the Mac, moving it ever closer to Windows. I don’t want a product that doesn’t work like I want it to. Windows only has a bad name because Microsoft have to deal with the fact that 1 billion computers running Windows turn on every day and not all of those will work the way they’re supposed to. Apple will have to deal with this as well should their market share grow dramatically (but logically it won’t grow enough to threaten Windows).

On a personal point, Macs are only cool because on 7% of people have one! Lets face the facts, we have Macs because we are egotistical, competitive and want to say “Look at me, I have a Mac and you don’t because you can’t afford one.” Macs are cool because it is an exclusive club and that is something that we are protective of! If Macs evolve to take over 90% of the market, I would switch to Windows (should it improve) just to stay cool and say “Look at me, I have a PC and you don’t.”

Dear Apple,

Don’t change =)

3 Days to Go

Three days out from the now announced Apple iPod Event the rumors are starting to become settled and more concrete. Here is a round up of the new products you can expect from Apple on September 9th (if the rumors turn out the be true, which they will):

New iPod Touches and Nanos (New iPod Classic?):

This rumors is a given considering the FCC released their dimensions earlier this week.

The iPod Touchshould be getting a face lift to be more in line with the new iPhone 3g and the iPod Nano will receive the curved treatment (luckily the screen won’t be curved judging from the images.) Details here and here.

iTunes 8:

Being a completely new update there are going to be quite a few new features. Here is a list from Kevin Rose’s blog post:

iTunes 8 includes Genius, which makes playlists from songs in your library that go great together. Genius also includes Genius sidebar, which recommends music from the iTunes Store that you don’t already have.

With iTunes 8, browse your artists and albums visually with the new Grid view; download your favorite TV shows in HD quality from the iTunes Store; sync your media with iPod nano (4th generation), iPod classic (2nd generation), and iPod touch (2nd generation); and enjoy a stunning new music visualizer.

There is the mention of the 2^nd generation iPod Classic! But it’s probably just a face lift.

What isn’t mentioned in Kevin Rose’s post is the rumored inclusion of a new visualizer from Robert Hodgin. The visualizer is called Magnetosphere and looks awesome! This rumor came up after Hodgin removed the free download from his website saying that he had sold the rights to Magnetosphere to a 3rd party. Later on, Kevin Rose confirmed that Magnetosphere was the visualizer he saw in a build of iTunes 8. More info here.

It all seems to be coming together in the land of Apple. Watch out for all this stuff on September 9th!

The Day Draws Closer

 

As the time period Kevin Rose described as the release date of the new iPod line there is even more to back up the rumors that the iPod Nano will get a new, uglier look. Its becoming more likely that Apple will in fact release the 4G, slim and tall Nano in the next few weeks judging from this case available at Alibaba.com

On a side note, this mock up (by a MacRumors Forum poster) of a new MacBook Pro looks reallllly purty (pretty)! Note that this is not an actual leak. If Apple does refresh the line, I hope it looks like this. I dunno about the September date though. It seams a bit to early for Apple to do this. I would think they would want to wait until the new Intel Nehalem quad-core processor was released next year.

Still no word from Apple as to a release event date yet.

Introducing the iPod Ugly

 

Today Kevin Rose (founder of Digg) posted on his blog rumors of new product refreshes from Apple to be released in the next few weeks. Theyr’e bound to be true, I mean he’s Kevin Rose, what sources doesn’t he have? I’m sure most of these will be confirmed if we just wait.

Latest rumors:

-Revamp of entire iPod line.
-Small cosmetic changes to Touch, Nano to see significant redesign (see pic below).
-iPods to see fairly large price drops to distance itself from the $199 iPhone.
-iPod touch 2.1 software, iPhone to get update very soon after.
-iTunes 8.0 (“it’s a big update w/new features”).
-All of this coming in the next 2-3 weeks.

The biggest rumored change to the iPod line is a new Nano. It’s out with chunky-fat and in with tall and slim. The pictures I’ve seen of it look RELLLLYY ugly. It’s curved for some obscure reason. I can see Apple making the Nano taller but not rounded across the face.

The rumored price drop is one I am confident will happen. Apple has done it in the past and they will probably do it again. This is of course to stop the iPhone taking sales away from iPods.

Something Kevin briefly mentioned at the end of the video was Blue-Ray support in Mac OS 10.5.6. He said that in line with this, a Blue-Ray option would be included in the refreshed in the MacBook Pros. This isn’t something outrageous and was guaranteed to happen with time.

With all these rumors flying about it sound like an exciting few months at Apple. I will be watching with anticipation!

Running the Rumor Mill

It’s a common fact: Apple nearly always update their iPod lines around this time of year. And as is tradition before any Apple event, the rumors start to fly! This years rumors come from a tipster via MacRumors. Interestingly, there are no mentions of an actual iPod line refresh…

MobileMe, iPhone, iPod Touch
-Enable disk use 
-When enabled for disk use, iDisk folder accessible
-iDisk app
-Viewable formats can be opened, other formats grayed out
-Button to sync with MobileMe
-Photo syncing support via MobileMe
-October launch

iTunes Unlimited
-256 Kbps music; highest quality digital music subscription service ever
-50% of U.S. store available for iTunes Unlimited at launch, U.S.-only launch
-Available through iTunes or retail box a la MobileMe, funds applied through iTunes gift cards cannot be used towards subscription purchase
-$129.99 stand-alone or $179.99 with MobileMe, current MobileMe subscribers can add iTunes Unlimited for $99.99
-One-year subscription period
-Current a la carte options unchanged
-When signed in to subscription account, “Buy” is “Get”
-“Download and Play throughout iTunes Unlimited Subscription” or “Buy and Keep”
-“Buy and Keep” option available for downloaded subscription songs, purchased version replaces subscription version
– Late October launch with iTunes 7.8

Disk Use is a big feature that is already available on the rest of the iPod range but one not available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Disk Use would allow them to be used a USB storage devices just like other USB flash drives. I would be interested to see how Apple would (if they even do) implement this. The main reason they haven’t allowed disk use before is because it opens the door to hackers, people Apple have been determined to beat (although they are failing miserably). I don’t know about the likelihood of Apple opening up the device this much, but I wouldn’t be complaining if I had a 16GB flash drive.

Judging from the ‘rocky’ start to MobileMe’s life, one can only presume that Apple have a few new features to show off. iDisk support sounds something along the lines of what Apple would do considering MobileMe’s heavy integration with the iPhone already. I can see a simple app that allows browsing files as you would music. And as all your files are online, there is no need to open up the device as a flash drive, which is in Apple’s interest (see above). This doesn’t seam like anything major to implement and is what I’d say was the most likely to actually happen.

iTunes Unlimited would be a subscription service model allowing you to download all the music you want for the length of your subscription. Mind you, this is nothing that has not been rumored before. In 2007, CNN reported it and in March this year, the Financial Times reported on a similar model. I doubt this model would be popular among the younger population (including myself). Personally, I like to own my own music (however much DRM there is on it) and want to know I will always have it available. Also, 99c for a song is a lot more appealing that $129.99 for a year. Judging from the success of other subscription services, Apple might be tempted to release a service along these lines.

Who knows whether any of these rumors will become reality. After all, there are also rumors of a MacBook and MacBook Pro redesign and it is unlike Apple to bundle so much into one event. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!