Apple Notebook Event: The Unibody Enclosure
by John Paczkowski
Posted on October 14, 2008 at 10:30 AM PT
Steve Jobs invites Jon Ives, senior vice president for industrial design, to the stage to explain the evolution of Apple’s design and manufacturing process. Looks like the “brick” manufacturing process could be true. …
Ives describes how excess aluminum left over from the original piece used in manufacturing is recycled throughout the process. The precision aluminum unibody enclosure that Apple used in the MacBook Air, he notes, is now being extended to the rest of the Mac notebook lineup.
Jobs returns to the stage. He explains that chipmaker Nvidia approached Apple (AAPL) about a new graphics chip that could be used in desktops. Apple decided to adopt it for laptops, however. The chip, called GForce 9400M, delivers graphics up to five times faster than Apple’s current graphics chips.
New notebooks will boast a multi-touch glass trackpad. The entire trackpad is the button.
The trackpad supports multifinger gestures, including some new ones. Four-finger gestures can control AMD app-switching.
A full-glass instant-on LED displays all connectors on one side. The notebooks feature next-gen graphics, mini-display port connector and a magnetic latch.
And they’re environmentally responsible. The unibody design, for example, requires only half the number of parts of Apple’s previous notebooks.
Jobs passes a chassis around the audience, and it is, indeed, very slick. “A tour de force of engineering,” says Jobs. Holding one of these in your hands, it’s tough to disagree.
More coming …
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Comments
Apple is fast becomming the BMW of the computing world. No sooner do you purchase a computer than they come out with a new version. Of course, like BMW, they are 20 years ahead in terms of R&D so they know exactly what they are doing: banking that you will upgrade. The iPhone is another example — you can’t even find accessories at an Apple store for the original model. Apple is beginning to make Microsoft look ethical.
Posted by Robert J Loomis III at October 14th, 2008 at 11:28 am