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802.11ac is coming with 10.8.4 Mountain Lion

Eug

Eug

Lifer
http://9to5mac.com/2013/04/09/os-x-...super-fast-802-11ac-gigabit-wireless-support/

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I don't think it will be limited to Macs either. I suspect the iPhone 5S might have it too.
 
My perfect Mac would be a 13" MacBook Air with 2560x1600 Retina display, USB 3, 802.11ac, backlit keyboard, and 256 GB SSD. Too bad that would likely cost more than I'd be willing to spend at this time.
 
This isn't all that surprising. Basically everyone is going to be rolling out 802.11ac hardware with Haswell, so I'd certainly expect Apple to do so too.

As for a 13" MBA with a 2560 retina display, don't wish too hard or you'll pop a blood vessel.:| The technology is there, but it's the same general problem that you see everywhere else with HiDPI displays: it takes one heck of a backlight. For the MBP it's not so bad, but 50Wh on a MBA isn't going to cut it if Apple wants to maintain their current battery life.
 
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ViRGE said:
This isn't all that surprising. Basically everyone is going to be rolling out 802.11ac hardware with Haswell, so I'd certainly expect Apple to do so too.

As for a 13" MBA with a 2560 retina display, don't wish too hard or you'll pop a blood vessel.:| The technology is there, but it's the same general problem that you see everywhere else with HiDPI displays: it takes one heck of a backlight. For the MBP it's not so bad, but 50Wh on a MBA isn't going to cut it if Apple wants to maintain their current battery life.
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Well, it may be that they will drop the optical drive from the Pro. It would still be bigger than a Retina Air, but a lot smaller than the current Pro.
 
Eug said:
Well, it may be that they will drop the optical drive from the Pro. It would still be bigger than a Retina Air, but a lot smaller than the current Pro.
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What's wrong with the existing 13" rMBP? It already has a smaller footprint than the 13" MacBook Pro/Air, and is somewhere in between them in terms of thickness and weight. Or do you just want the wedge shape?
 
I'll be glad when they make a 13" Pro that's actually pro. I'm looking at you, quad core and discrete graphics. Though I guess it's a holdover from when they axed the non-Pro line.
 
You're not likely to get discrete graphics in the 13" rMBP. What you will get are some nice Haswell integrated graphics though.
 
TheStu said:
What's wrong with the existing 13" rMBP? It already has a smaller footprint than the 13" MacBook Pro/Air, and is somewhere in between them in terms of thickness and weight. Or do you just want the wedge shape?
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Not much wrong with it. I just momentarily forgot about that model, despite the fact I just played with one last week. 😱

That's pretty much what I want, but with 802.11ac, although better graphics is preferable.

However, I would also expect the rest of the Pro line to lose the optical drive too.
 
Eug said:
Not much wrong with it. I just momentarily forgot about that model, despite the fact I just played with one last week. 😱

That's pretty much what I want, but with 802.11ac, although better graphics is preferable.

However, I would also expect the rest of the Pro line to lose the optical drive too.
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I expect them to drop the plain MBP completely actually. But if that isn't in their best business interests, I could potentially see them dropping the optical drive, maybe upping the battery a little, putting in the 1440*900 display from the Air, and then a real GPU. But that would also drive up costs, and further blur the lines between the 3 systems.
 
TheStu said:
putting in the 1440*900 display from the Air
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That would be a deal killer for me.

The ppi is too high, or else not high enough. 110-115 is just about perfect on a laptop IMO, which means for Retina, it's 220-230.

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Plus the screen is not as nice.
 
Thanks for the update, however I don't think this comes to a surprise to anyone. It was pretty much a given that we would see 802.11 AC in this years MacBooks.
 
Wow, what a shocker! /sarcasm

Too bad nothing runs on 802.11ac. Only your home network, if drop 2 bills on a router. And the 13" rMBP is not likely to ever get quad core or discrete graphics until we have some new development in battery technology, Apple is not giving up their status quo 7h battery life. However the current model is almost perfect (although sometimes I miss ethernet), and if Intel keeps bringing more power out of their future GPUs, it will be truly perfect.
 
JAG87 said:
Wow, what a shocker! /sarcasm
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So everyone knew it was gonna be in 10.8.4 then? 😉 We knew it was coming sooner rather than later, but it's always good to have real confirmation.

Too bad nothing runs on 802.11ac. Only your home network, if drop 2 bills on a router.
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I'd upgrade. Maybe not this year, but perhaps next year. I really like my Airport Extreme and would buy the 802.11ac version. It's kinda annoying having to plug in Ethernet to transfer large files.
 
Eug said:
So everyone knew it was gonna be in 10.8.4 then? 😉 We knew it was coming sooner rather than later, but it's always good to have real confirmation.


I'd upgrade. Maybe not this year, but perhaps next year. I really like my Airport Extreme and would buy the 802.11ac version. It's kinda annoying having to plug in Ethernet to transfer large files.
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Haha, I wasn't beating on you man (thanks for the news btw), I was just saying what a shocker that developers are working on it...

Honestly, you'll still plug in ethernet if you care about your file transfer. Wireless will always be wireless. It gets faster, but almost never more reliable...
 
JAG87 said:
Haha, I wasn't beating on you man (thanks for the news btw), I was just saying what a shocker that developers are working on it...

Honestly, you'll still plug in ethernet if you care about your file transfer. Wireless will always be wireless. It gets faster, but almost never more reliable...
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Can you do file transfers over Thunerbolt? That would be the real way to go to saturate those SSDs, 10Gb/s full-duplex, suck on that ethernet. Plus with the new chip next year, that moves up to 20Gb/s full-duplex.
 
TheStu said:
Can you do file transfers over Thunerbolt? That would be the real way to go to saturate those SSDs, 10Gb/s full-duplex, suck on that ethernet. Plus with the new chip next year, that moves up to 20Gb/s full-duplex.
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Yea sure, but external thunderbolt storage devices cost their weight in gold.
 
802.11ac basically looks like a higher bandwidth wifi network, right? that's really not needed at all.

Maybe if it were like some sort of extended range way to get metro-wide internet, maybe.
 
Rakehellion said:
I'll be glad when they make a 13" Pro that's actually pro. I'm looking at you, quad core and discrete graphics. Though I guess it's a holdover from when they axed the non-Pro line.
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I'd doubt you'll ever see either in the 13" Pro, simply because there isn't any space for a cooling solution anymore. Apple hasn't had "dedicated" graphics in its 13" laptops since they switched to Intel and that was 7 years ago and they were anemic at best.

Besides, Haswell GT3e shows some decent performance here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6600/...rformance-compared-to-nvidias-geforce-gt-650m

As for quad-core, maybe die shrinks will eventually get power consumption under control to fit in a 13" slim chassis, but even still there needs to be something for Apple to get you to upgrade to the 15".
 
dagamer34 said:
I'd doubt you'll ever see either in the 13" Pro, simply because there isn't any space for a cooling solution anymore. Apple hasn't had "dedicated" graphics in its 13" laptops since they switched to Intel and that was 7 years ago and they were anemic at best.

Besides, Haswell GT3e shows some decent performance here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6600/...rformance-compared-to-nvidias-geforce-gt-650m

As for quad-core, maybe die shrinks will eventually get power consumption under control to fit in a 13" slim chassis, but even still there needs to be something for Apple to get you to upgrade to the 15".
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I'm pretty sure I read something with a source in the CPU sub-forum about a 17W Haswell quad core mobile CPU, it will certainly be interesting to see if Apple uses that SKU. At present their current CPU TDP is 35W.
 
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I fully expect to see a quad in a 13" Pro eventually, along with Retina. Eventually.

My current 13" Pro non-Retina is 25 W TDP for a dual core, so a 17 Watt TDP for a quad is a ginormous improvement. However, it doesn't necessarily need to go that low.

My MacBook Pro and my MacBook have similar-sized batteries, but the Pro is a 25 Watt CPU (P8400) with 58 Watt-hour battery, and the MacBook is a 35 Watt CPU (T8300) with 55 Watt-hour battery. Battery life on the Pro is good. On the MacBook it is not.

The current Retina 13" is an i5-3230M, which has a 35 W TDP, and it is paired with a 74 Watt-hour battery. That gives us a lot of room to maneouvre IMO, esp. since Haswell is supposed to give us significant idle power advantages.



P.S. I'd be perfectly happy with Intel HD 4000 qraphics in a 13" Pro Retina, as long as general dual-monitor OS usage was smooth.
 
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Actually, you can't wiggle much with the 74WHr battery in the 13" Retina because of the screen.

The screen sucks harder than a starved vampire. Depending on screen brightness, I can have my 15" Retina lasting anywhere between 5 to 10 hours. And that's just doing text editing.
 
Hmm, so how good are Haswell's IGP supposed to be? It implies...GTX 650 performance? That sounds like it's on-par with the huge 12 inch dual fan'd GTX 560 ti card I have in my machine.
 
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