Notebook Rumor Roundup

With just one day until Apple’s ‘Spotlight on Notebooks’ press event, I thought I would gather the most compelling rumors into a single place for About: Mac readers to enjoy.

Ports:

When Macx leaked images of the supposed case design of the new MacBook and MacBook Pro, many people quickly started counting ports, trying to determine what type of connectivity would be available in the new offerings. After close examination of the images, some believe the MacBook lacks a FireWire port.

If you remember, back in August I suggested that FireWire could be dropped in lower-end consumer Mac products, and retained in higher-end Macs. But I also thought the FireWire port would be replaced with an eSATA connection, to allow for easy attachment of external hard drives.

NVIDIA Graphics Chipsets:

AppleInsider reports that Apple will use NVIDIA’s MCP79 chipset for the graphics processor and the core processor support functions that currently use Intel’s chipsets. Intel processors will still power the notebooks, but the NVIDIA MCP79 chipset will handle all support functions.

Blu-ray:

Edible Apple reports that the new MacBooks will include support for Blu-ray optical drives. The term ‘support’ may be used loosely. It could simply mean that the software will be able to fully work with Blu-ray devices, or it could mean that at least one MacBook configuration will include a built-in Blu-ray optical drive.

It makes sense for a notebook to be the first Mac platform to support Blu-ray technology. One of the requirements for the DRM (digital rights management) system used in Blu-ray is that the digital data stream must only pass through devices that support the DRM technology; this includes the display as well as any other component in the playback path. Because it has a built-in display, a notebook can easily meet the DRM requirements. A desktop computer would need HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) display ports that are HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) compliant.

MacBook Air Revisions:

Speculation abounds about a revision that would bump the MacBook Air up to at least a 2 GHz processor and a larger hard drive. It’s also been suggested that the solid-state drive option will both increase in size and fall in price.

My Take:

My gut feeling is that Apple will indeed field a new MacBook Pro that will use the NVIDIA chipsets, to gain an edge in the graphics capabilities of its professional line of notebooks. I’m not sure that this edge will trickle down to the MacBook, which is a more price-sensitive product. Certainly notebooks near the $1000 price point won’t include the advanced graphics capabilities inherent in the NVIDIA design.

I’ve always believed that Apple would eventually drop FireWire ports from most of its consumer Mac products, so it doesn’t surprise me to see a MacBook case without a FireWire port. But I expected Apple to replace the FireWire port with an eSATA port. I’m taken aback that this simple and inexpensive port appears to be missing. I also think it’s a bit early to start the transition away from FireWire, so I suspect that some form of FireWire will still be present in the new MacBooks.