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We'll see it it's true soon enough

Sep 24, 08 - 10:19 am Comment from: flappo

they can't match apple already , so god help them all if this is true !

Cheap MacBook!

Maybe it has something to do with apple's recent acquisition of PA semiconductor. Maybe PA semiconductor has technology that intel and therefore others can not replicate which is being rolled into new apple products.....

Sep 24, 08 - 10:30 am Comment from: John Gee

The brick is cloud computing out of your home. That's my third guess. The cloud is a home server. And it powers devices through induction. And it breaks Windows.

I give up. I'll just have to wait :(

Sep 24, 08 - 10:32 am Comment from: Macintosh

I read a rumor about how Apple is close to being able to use a GPU as a CPU, which would would give the overall system an unprecidented speed boost. Could that be the new technology?

He could have just been talking about the new ipods. After all, no competitor has been able to match the ipod thus far.

I.... just.... cannot.... resist....

G5 Laptop!!!

At last!!! W00t!

since january 2007 we haven't seen a new revolutionary product by apple. which is understandable to me. seems you can't bring out a world changing product every year or so. thus i am afraid that we have to wait still some time now before apple will do it again (how about the ultimate home cinema center: an apple designed tv with build in appletv functionality and surround sound out of the box). until then i am afraid it is evolutionary times and the famous quote from oppenheimer is all about more bang for the buck aka nand-storage as standard, 32gb iphone, thinner notbooks, led-screens, better price points etc. the "new products" are the new ipods / macbooks, not a new category. i hope i'm wrong of course.

The MacBook should start at $999.99, and no lower. That is plenty cheap enough for a laptop. Any cheaper and they'll have to start releasing shoddy POS's with 1-or-2-year-old crappy processors like every other PC manufacturer does with their sub-$1000 laptops.

Since the current low end MacBook is only $1,099 they only ned a price drop of $100. Even at the end of its product cycle the MacBook still compares favourably in terms of processor to many PC laptops in the same price range.

Rather than lower their prices and compromise their quality and integrity, I'd rather Apple simply start shipping a lot more RAM in their laptops and focus on making Snow Leopard make very good use of it. This is a huge handicap with WIndows right now, the fact that most users are not on 64-bit Windows and are not ready to be. They are limited to 4GB of RAM. Apple is not, and they need to capitalize on that. RAM is one of the cheapest components now. Most people don't really care about hard drive size on a laptop; unless they are storing video even 160GB is plenty for most people, and even if they are then external hard drives are cheap and plentiful.

RAM is the biggest way Apple lags right now with the MacBook line, a $1099 laptop with 1GB of RAM is unacceptable. Most consumers don't need a discrete graphics card, especially on a mac where there's limited selection of games.

"Cheap MacBook!"

The MacBook is already Cheap. If you want a CrapBook, they can take the Quality out of a MacBook and lower it's price.

Have you ever taken apart a MacBook? the Shell is very inexpensive, besides the keyboard. Quality components and healthy Margins for Apple are built in every one.

Reducing the weight to 4 lbs or 4.5 lbs would be nice. 5 lbs is quite heavy for a 13.3" laptop, most 15.4" are only 5.5lbs. For students and anyone on the go weight can be an important selling point.

Sep 24, 08 - 10:41 am Comment from: Sixvodkas

Radius,

A G5 laptop would indeed be a brick, what with the dual 5 lb liquid cooled heatsinks attached to it and all...

Maybe they finally found a way to run Windows apps on a Mac without needing virtualization. That would suck for VMware and Parallels, but that would definitely convince a lot of people.

What if this brick thing were a little usb brick that could be plugged into a windows pc that then allowed it to run Mac OS X? That would smash a lot of windows and open up the market. I doubt it, but a thought.

Sep 24, 08 - 10:46 am Comment from: rsbell

I'll be happy to smash Windows with my new MacTablet...

Sep 24, 08 - 10:47 am Comment from: jtc

@Sixvodkas

and dont forget thats the reason they bought PA semi... to whip up a G5 chip... it all makes sense now!!!

Brick will smash Windows.
And Microsoft will be mortar-fied.

The size of a standard 8 pin Lego block with wireless interface to keyboard, mouse and display.
As an option, a new clip-on display will be available for mounting on the user's eyeglasses, or to a pair of sunglasses.

Because the new brick will have nubs similar to those on an actual Lego block, users will be able to build scalable, multi-brick processors in virtual any form factor desired. Configurations possibilities include homes, apartment buildings and churches and even incredibly tall communications towers like the CN Tower or other famous radio towers like those in Berlin or Seattle.

Because of the modular nature of the new Mac Brick, the MDN Magic word "larger" comes into play as users can build computers that match their needs for today, as well as massively multi-cored machines for the future.

Actually a baseball is better at breaking windows...

...with a brick it's obviously malicious if you get caught, with a baseball, it was a "just a accident".

Sep 24, 08 - 11:00 am Comment from: January 24, 1984

Maybe Apple will just bundle Parallels installed, and ready to go.

Even comes with a "starter-virus" kit. Kind of like a yeast pack for getting a home brew batch going.

I think what the author is referring to is brick the code name for intel and amd OS using the mac os x but modified for the PC market.

that won't happen.

Brick will be intranet cloud computing.

It's Mac OS X on Windows.... no one can match it, everyone has to go through Apple to get the best O/S on the planet.

But it reduces margins because they'll sell it for cheaper to make major inroads?

Maybe?

Or maybe not... we'll see. I'm just guessing.

"We will be delivering state-of-the-art new products that I cannot discuss today that our competitors will not be able to match." -- He was referring to the current quarter that ends in a week from now. Either he was referring to the iPods just released or there is a product coming today, tomorrow or the next few days that will factor into his statement and the current quarter (this one) that he was referring to. What is your take on this? Think this out. Did he mean 'the future' which could mean 'whenever' or did he make reference to THIS quarter?

".... unless they are storing video even 160GB is plenty for most people."

Aren't 'most people' storing video these days?

160GB is pretty paltry if that is all the storage you have. Just my documents folder is 161GB in size, photo's take up 13GB, the audio library is 20GB, my apps take up another 16GB.... then I have to have enough room to back all that data up and none of the above takes into account my video work at all. DV takes roughly 13GB per hour of video.

I have over 2 TB of HD storage attached to my iMac, which should last me for a year or so.... one of those TB's will be filling up with video for me to process very shortly...the other TB is strictly for backup purposes.

I agree with you on the RAM postulation though. I'd love to see the macs ship with more ram...much more ram!

Sep 24, 08 - 11:15 am Comment from: Harvey

The disappointment begins. The wish list is getting too long.

We don't even know for sure that anything is happening on October 14.

Apple will do what Apple will do, when they do it. Whatever they do next will be wonderful, unless you've built up your expectations too high.

The FUTURE is to move storage OFF the portable devices - Not to add larger drives or memory banks to them. The idea is to reduce redundancy. Why do we need the same files in our mobile as we have in our iMacs that we have in our Time Capsules that we will eventually have in our automobiles too. etc.

Technically, the official product name will be MacBrick.

Sep 24, 08 - 11:20 am Comment from: Tommyr

I hope it's iVagina! I know they can do it!

It wouldn't be G5 and it might be 22nm...
but I hope it's just a mini.

can't... stand... the wait...

must have a time machine to answer the question. Must know what the new stuff is.

Sep 24, 08 - 12:03 pm Comment from: Macromancer

"since january 2007 we haven't seen a new revolutionary product by apple...."

Um, id I miss something here? Have I been dreaming all this time that I've been using an iPhone?

Sep 24, 08 - 12:05 pm Comment from: Cubert

My guess is that there will be nothing released or talked about on October 14th that will be this "brick" thing. Probably another product that will be released in the future or will never see the light of day.

It just CAN'T be a tablet-style Mac. Why would they codename it "brick" unless it was an internal stab at humor?

A "Brick" won't smash Windows. Instead, Apple must encourage the big Windows-based developers to release more apps for OS X. I feel that a short-term subsidy program to reward such developers would be a very wise use for Apple's current pile of cash. Licensing OS X to major PC vendors would also help Apple to destroy Windows, but that's an argument for another time.

By the way, is Brick really the best codename for a new product? If I say that Apple is going to brick your iPhone, wouldn't you consider that to be a bad thing?

>>Maybe they finally found a way to run Windows apps on a Mac without needing virtualization. That would suck for VMware and Parallels, but that would definitely convince a lot of people.<<

If "Brick" is about breaking Windows, this is the way to do it. This would make my computing life complete, as I currently have to use bootcamp for AutoCAD and many games.
Working all day, then sinking into Oblivion WITHOUT rebooting, and while enjoying all benefits of OSX, is like the holy grail for me.
Besides, isn't "I need to run some Windows aps" the last reasonable refuge left to the sufferers?

I'm betting the "brick" is just a new, smaller Mac mini. The Mac mini hasn't been updated in a year and a half. It's time for Apple to either update it or kill it. I don't think they're going to kill it.

How could they make a Mac mini smaller? For one, if they switched to the same Core2Duo processor that the Macbook Air uses, they could save some space there. Also, if they switched from DVI-out (which is HUGE) to HDMI-out (which is DVI-compatible and tiny) they could save some space there too. Just include a HDMI-to-DVI adapter with the mini instead of the DVI-to-VGA adapter that currently ships with it. It's 2008, let's let VGA die and start the process of moving beyond gigantic, video-only DVI. They could also switch from DVI to Apple's own Micro-DVI (found on the Macbook air) as long as they included the adapter.

Sep 24, 08 - 12:56 pm Comment from: MacintoshSoftwareList.com

my sources say it is big

Sep 24, 08 - 12:59 pm Comment from: Brau

Y'know when they already have a device with an accelerometer and a vibrator, it's not that hard to see what might be coming down the pipeline.

Clearly the brick is a device with oxx installed that plugs into the ethernet port of a windows pc and allows it to immediatly run osx and still keep the windows software. It will be plug and play - that is my guess

@ slash:

He gave specific reference to lower profit margins in the next quarter (this current quarter) due to new products being introduced that competitors can't match, but that the new products would result in lower profit margins.

maybe its software to run windows apps natively without windows?

How about an artificial iball popped into your eye socket that contains the computer, the display, a camera to replace the functionality of your eye and wired to your intestines for the source of power? Anyone interested?

Only thing Macs need to make them irresistible and to break Windows, is slightly lower prices.

That image of expensive elitist devices for a bunch of highky snob people is still very powerful, at least in Europe

Sep 24, 08 - 03:06 pm Comment from: Cubert

Pete,
Given the gas that passes from my ass on a regular basis, I could power a whole city with your device!

@ Cubert,

Then I suggest you become an adviser to vice presidential candidate Sara Palin. Perhaps the two of you can power a nation.

(Please don't take this as a personal insult. It's just my free association getting the better of me. I really enjoy your comments)

A brick that will smash Windows? A bit like the hammer in the 1984 ad, eh? (Maybe Jimmy Page could be the musical guest at the end, playing his "Hammer of the Gods").

What about iWork for Windows? Perhaps as a free download? Everyone knows that Office is a major facto in maintaining Microsoft's hegemony. If Apple could offer a free or lower cost alternative to PC users, would that not be a blow against the Empire?

In order to make a dent in the market, the new iWork would have to the full functionality of Office, so at the very least that would mean adding a database. Also, I think an option should be provided to save files by default in Office formats.

One final thought...

The language about "state-of-the-art new products that...our competitors will not be able to match" leads me to think that whatever Apple releases will be groundbreaking. Simply changing case designs, shedding weight, increasing RAM, adding Blu-Ray, or even lowering prices would hardly make these products "unmatchable". (Unless, of course, it's meant that others will not be able to match Apple's new price/performance ratio - which would explain the bit about lower margins.)

I'm thinking (hoping?) that Apple is gunning for something that represents a paradigm shift, perhaps creating a entirely new category in personal computing. Alternatively, it could be something that, like the iPod and iPhone, simply raises the bar so high, that it makes everything else seem outdated.

i just soiled myself with excitement.

Sep 24, 08 - 09:36 pm Comment from: Jubei

I still think its a WiFi dynamically searching device to find Zune ( if any ) users and will send a kill command. The kill program is like a virus and will latch on to the WiFi Mixstupidity feature at the Zune UselessMarketplace and Kill other Zune users... Yep thats it.

"That image of expensive elitist devices for a bunch of highky snob people is still very powerful, at least in Europe." And in America too, at least for some Mac users. Where's the built-in memory card reader, up-to-date graphics, optional hardware like HDMI and Blu-ray, decent screens in Apple laptops, etc.? If mainstream Windows-based PCs can offer the latest in computer hardware, why can't Macs?