Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
Apple Reportedly Sourcing Thinner Components for 2013 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro
While Apple's MacBook Air is already extremely thin and the new Retina MacBook Pro has reduced the thickness of the company's flagship notebook by 25%, work naturally continues on new ways to shave even more thickness from future versions of Apple's notebooks.
Digitimes reports that Apple is working with suppliers on a new process that will enable the company to shave 0.15 mm from the thickness of the light guide used to distribute lighting for the company's illuminated keyboard in the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.
A difference of 0.15mm seems a negligible reduction in thickness that would by itself be essentially imperceptible by users if it were even to translate to slightly thinner overall profiles for the machines, but the company is likely pursuing the reduction for some purpose. Apple is unlikely to significantly alter the overall form factor of next year's MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, but combining small reductions in thickness for multiple components would pave the way for more significant overall reductions down the road.
Kyle Wiens from iFixIt speculates that the added thinness for the keyboard may help prevent the keyboard leaving residual marks on the screen when the laptop is closed.
Digitimes reports that Apple is working with suppliers on a new process that will enable the company to shave 0.15 mm from the thickness of the light guide used to distribute lighting for the company's illuminated keyboard in the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.
Apple will reduce the thickness of light guide plates for the illuminated keyboards in its MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models from 0.4mm currently to 0.25mm in 2013, according to sources in Apple's supply chain.
Since the current injection process for the production of 0.4mm light guide plates has been optimized to its limit, makers utilizing extrusion processes are likely to win orders for 0.25mm light guide plates, the sources indicated.
A difference of 0.15mm seems a negligible reduction in thickness that would by itself be essentially imperceptible by users if it were even to translate to slightly thinner overall profiles for the machines, but the company is likely pursuing the reduction for some purpose. Apple is unlikely to significantly alter the overall form factor of next year's MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, but combining small reductions in thickness for multiple components would pave the way for more significant overall reductions down the road.
Kyle Wiens from iFixIt speculates that the added thinness for the keyboard may help prevent the keyboard leaving residual marks on the screen when the laptop is closed.
Related Roundup: MacBook Air
Tag: digitimes.com
Buyer's Guide: MacBook Air (Buy Now)
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Top Rated Comments
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90 months ago
how about instead of trying to make your amazingly thin and fast notebooks even thinner, you come out with a freakin imac already!!!!!! holy jesus enough is enough....
90 months ago
It's thin enough. Don't they remember the backlash of when Barbie became too thin!
Forget about the thinness and focus on getting a better screen (IPS, matte option), better keyboard, better speakers in there. The areas where the Air is falling short now.
Forget about the thinness and focus on getting a better screen (IPS, matte option), better keyboard, better speakers in there. The areas where the Air is falling short now.
90 months ago
Dear Apple,
Time to stop focusing on the thinness and weight of your products and instead now focus on power, features, and battery life on ALL devices.
My MacBook Pro Retina is just slightly thicker than my iPhone 5! And both are incredibly light and easy to carry.
PLEASE move on to more important things now.
Signed,
A loyal Apple fan.
-
Time to stop focusing on the thinness and weight of your products and instead now focus on power, features, and battery life on ALL devices.
My MacBook Pro Retina is just slightly thicker than my iPhone 5! And both are incredibly light and easy to carry.
PLEASE move on to more important things now.
Signed,
A loyal Apple fan.
-
90 months ago
"Apple will reduce the thickness of light guide plates for the illuminated keyboards in its MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models from 0.4mm currently to 0.25mm in 2013, according to sources in Apple's supply chain."
Tim Cook - "Yeah, we're doubling down on secrecy."
That's a pretty damn specific leak, Tim.
Tim Cook - "Yeah, we're doubling down on secrecy."
That's a pretty damn specific leak, Tim.
90 months ago
the 2015 MacBook Air
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