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The Apple Blogotubes are a-buzz with boffo Interblag bloviating at a rumor from 9to5mac.com that Apple’s rumored “Brick” product was actually a nickname for a new manufacturing process that will use “lasers and jets of water to carve the MacBooks out of a brick of aluminum.” More, it’s a “game-changer;” “totally revolutionary;” “Apple’s biggest innovation in a decade.”
…Yeah, maybe not.
As Adam Richardson, an industrial designer at consultancy frog design and CNet blogger, points out, lasers and waterjets have been used in manufacturing for ages — by Apple.
The glowing LED that appears behind a “solid” front face of the MacBooks is apparently achieved with laser-cutting to thin out and partially perforate the wall in that one area.
Richardson also speculates that the existing iPod Shuffle is manufactured using a similar process, and even the MacBook Air has some telltale signs that it draws on really interesting and unusual manufacturing techniques. But would Apple actually carve an entire laptop out of one block of aluminum? And would it save any money?
On such a small product this is do-able. On a large product like a laptop this would typically result in a massive amount of waste (so kiss your green credentials goodbye). And the notion that this is somehow cheaper than stamping thin sheets or molding plastic is completely wrong - it’s much more expensive.
Yeah… no.
I’ve been talking with other industrial designers about this issue, and they all agree that the reasoning behind the current Brick rumor doesn’t add up. One friend of mine guessed it would add up to $50 in manufacturing costs and might not be any stronger or lighter than more traditional manufacturing approaches.
Does Apple have a game-changing laptop in the wings that will reinvent the MacBook and MacBook Pro design language? For their sake, they’d better. Will it be milled from a single block of aluminum? Not in this lifetime.
Matter/Anti-Matter
Written by Pete Mortensen on October 7th, 2008 with no comments.
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Looking quite a lot better than the thrown-together mockup David Sieger used to illustrate his theory of an upcoming iPod Touch-based MacBook tablet, possibly reviving the Newton name, this fan-made creation manages to capture the current state of Apple design. They’ve even developed the idea of an iMac style docking station into which an Apple sub-device would slot so as to allow access to full-sized peripherals.
“[T]he Keyboard Wireless Dock connects to the dock using Wireless USB. It also has a bigger hard drive, some sort of DVD player/burner, inputs for your USB and Firewire devices. The whole keyboard part itself is used as a large multitouch track pad. Since the keys need to be depressed when hit, you can do lighter touches as you move across the whole thing” Design’s creator
 
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Written by Chris Davies on January 5th, 2008 with no comments.
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If the news that the Modbook is shipping fills you with little more than sorrow that your savings don’t amount to the $2,290 required to get one into your grubby, artistic hands, then how about DIY surgery on your current MacBook to add in some Wacom-powered touchscreen joy. Over at Instructables there’s a guide for doing just that, with an Apple G4 that has seen better days integrated with a Wacom USB tablet via some tape and software tweaking.
 
Check out a video of the hacked MacBook in action after the cut
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Written by Chris Davies on January 3rd, 2008 with no comments.
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Could this be the new Apple ultraportable? The short answer is that nobody knows; a new sign-up to the MacDaily messageboard posted the photo and very little else, leaving everyone to make up their own minds whether this is the machine Steve Jobs will be announcing at MacWorld later this month.
 
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Written by Chris Davies on January 3rd, 2008 with no comments.
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In other patent news, Apple has further fuelled expectations for an ultraportable MacBook with the filing of an application that details an iMac-like base station into which a laptop-sized device can be slotted so as to take advantage of full-sized keyboard, mouse and screen. Gizmodo, who unearthed the patent, threw together this mockup of how the system could work, with the ultraslim notebook sliding into the side of the monitor, which has the same ports and connectivity as an iMac desktop machine.
 
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Written by Chris Davies on January 3rd, 2008 with no comments.
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