Playing with the new MacBook on Monday , I kept have flashback to 2008.Remember the first - gen MacBook Air?It captured imaginations the instant Steve Jobs pulled it from a plain manila paper gasbag on stage .
Just like this new MacBook , the original MacBook Air ’s shape - factor was middling harebrained for its time . Just like it did with the new MacBook , Apple had to make some moderately big sacrifices to get the melodic phrase that small . No Ethernet , no FireWire , and a eldritch small maw - door you had to flip over open to get to the one sad USB 2.0 port it did have . The keyboard did n’t light up , and it did n’t have anywhere near enough storage .
But guess what ? That was all rectified in the second coevals . The 2010 MacBook Air refreshdidn’t land back everything we ’d lost , but Apple did chuck the trap room access , beef up the storage , and re - illuminate the keyboard . And we meander up with almost the same MacBook Air I still enjoy type on today .
Likewise , I think the new MacBook — shiny gold beauty that it is — will improve significantly in a year or two . Here ’s what I ’d like to see in the 2d generation . ( And I ’ll skip such obvious gimmes like another USB - C port , faster CPU , and lower price . )
Touch ID
Having to typecast my Apple ID parole into iTunes to buy a song or an app on my Mac feels exceedingly outdated now that I have Touch ID on my iPhone and iPad .
Once I got used to Touch ID on my iPhone , I wanted it everywhere .
Adding Touch ID to a laptop computer would fix that , plus let me unlock the computer itself biometrically . Heck , befuddle a secure ingredient in there and enableApple Pay — I’ll buy even more clobber online than ever .
Wireless charging
harmonise to Apple , the new MacBook is all about being wireless . “ Fully equipped for a wireless world , ” reads itspage on Apple ’s website , but I have a trivial niggle with that title : Where ’s the wireless charge ?
C’m on , Jony . Design some wireless charging article of furniture . You and Marc Newson can do well than IKEA .
All - 24-hour interval shelling life is bully , and I tend to consider Apple ’s call , since I can already goalmostall day on my 2013 Haswell - equipped MacBook Air . But the time has amount for at least something with an Apple logotype on it to not have to be tethered to charge . Heck , IKEA just announced furniture with integrated Qi wireless appoint pads . Jony I ve and his design gang could team up up with some piece of furniture designers to make the most beautiful wireless buck station the world has ever encounter .
Cellular networking
Speaking of going radiocommunication , Apple specifically cite how the Modern MacBook could get on-line by easily tethering to your iPhone to expend its data connection . Well , not my iPhone . I ’m still clinging to my unlimited data plan on AT&T — the ship’s company no longer offer outright data on raw plans , so I ’ve hold get to the same exact data design that I fix with my first iPhone in 2008 . The downside is , my plan does n’t support tethering .
Yosemite ’s Instant Hotspot feature is great , but I ’d rather the MacBook could just get online by itself .
So I for one ca n’t expect until Apple offers a laptop computer with a cellular radio . I buy Wi - Fi - only iPads , but I mostly use them for amusement . My Mac laptop computer is for work , and I work online , so I would pay a exchange premium for the peacefulness of mind of make out I could connect anywhere I can bump a cell sign . Perhapsa prepaid Wi - Fi hotspot like Karmais the way to go since that could get my iPadormy Mac online , but that ’s another matter I have to carry and keep excite .
Make it spillproof
Apple touted a few specific feature ofthe young MacBook ’s redesign keyboard . It ’s too soon to be intimate if the change — the key are larger and have a new butterfly mechanics instead of scissor switch — will make it easy to type on . What I do recognize is that no matter what variety of keyboard you have , slop a glass of orange succus in there is bad .
Logitech ’s Keys to Go is spillproof too .
TheApple Watchhas a piddle - resistance rating ofIPX7 , and with its paucity of port , the Modern MacBook could be Apple ’s first piss - resistant computing gadget . ( Orange juice resistivity may still be a few years off … ) If Apple could shrivel the height of its keyboard by a well 40 percent , make it and the fancy new Force Touch trackpad spill immune seems like a good next footprint . I mean , Dell did it .
Light ‘em up
I remember being distinctly bummed that the first - gen MacBook Air released in 2008 did n’t have the light - up keyboard that I sleep with in my gravid ol’ 15 - column inch MacBook Pro . But gratefully , that handy lineament derive back in the 2010 models . Likewise , in this newfangled MacBook , Apple evict the easy - up logotype on the back . It ’s just a shiny metallic Apple logo , exactly like you ’d see on an iPad . And I know it ’s a small thing , but I want that light - up logotype back .
A couple MacBooks at the Windows 10 Unveiling…pic.twitter.com/1oA1ILW6VN
Or maybe it ’s not such a minor thing . Sure it does n’t have a practical app , but that glowing Apple logo is an icon ! I ’ve take a second to look around the crowd when covering big tech events and press conferences at CES , and I always get a little thrill to see a sea of glowing Apple Son perch on the laps of rows and rowing of diarist . ( Especially if the imperativeness conference is , say , Samsung ’s . Or Microsoft ’s . ) Gold is nice . But it does n’t beam . Please , Apple ?
One more thing: a DVD drive
Ha , ha , ha , ha , ha . Just pull the leg of .
