As December approaches and 2011 looms, Apple is juggling a lot of balls up in the air. Of course, everyone’s expecting the iPhone 4 to hit Verizon in early 2011, a move which should only serve to increase already booming iPhone sales. And now comes word via Three Guys and a Podcast that Apple has two special events planned for the first quarter of the new year.
First, and this should come as no surprise, Apple will reportedly hold a special even this coming January where the company will introduce the iPad 2. Apple, of course, first introduced the iPad last January and the scheduling is in line with Apple’s typical release/upgrade cycle. As for details regarding the new iPad, users can expect rear and front facing cameras and upgraded specs to boot.
Next up, Apple will reportedly hold a special even in April where it will introduce brand new MacBook Pros along with a significant Final Cut Pro update. But don’t start yawning, gentle reader. The planned MacBook Pro upgrade is poised to be a whole lot more than a simple bump up in specs. The new MacBook Pros will reportedly feature a complete redesign with features borrowed from the recently released MacBook Air.
But wait, there’s more!
The new MacBook Pros will move to solid state storage, up to 512GB, remove the optical drive, and we believe light-peak is being pushed to make it’s first-ever entrance into the market, another Apple exclusive.
Over the past few years, Apple has systematically upgraded the base level MacBook to a level where the difference between the Pro and consumer models were arguably becoming negligible. Toss in a SSD and light peak technology and the MacBook Pro is all of a sudden a Pro machine in every sense of the word again. We’re not sure how we feel about removing the optical drive from the Pro machine, but that’s a debate for another time.
Now as for light peak, here’s why you should get excited. Really excited. Light Peak is an emerging technology capable of transferring huge chunks of data with blazing speed. We’re talking about 10 Gbps both up and down. So yeah, we’re talking about a huge technological leap here.
Apple and Intel have reportedly been working together to develop Light Peak, and the transfer technology will be an Apple exclusive when it first hits the market. And as impressive as Light Peak sounds today, the upside is even more mouth watering. Intel has boasted hat Light Peak will be able to scale to 100GB/s within the next 10 years. Back in May, Intel officials said that manufacturers will begin deploying the technology by the end of 2010/early 2011. Fancy that.
Below is a demo of Light Peak from the 2009 Intel Developers Forum.
And oh yes, there is one more thing. Apple will reportedly introduce a long-awaited upgrade to it Final Cut Pro suite of software this coming April. Steve Jobs has previously stated that the next version of FCP “will be awesome.” Jus a few weeks ago, a user emailed Jobs inquiring about an impending Final Cut upgrade and whether or not the the software will be 64-bit. Jobs’ response? “Stay tuned and buckle up.”
November 26th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
Removable media are obsolete now, eh?
November 26th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
Lightpeak will be a patent-filled failure – from the chipsets and protocols to the fibre media itself.
Don’t expect Lightpeak to be inexpensive or popular. And don’t expect the MacBook Pro to have it either – just crazy speculation.
November 26th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
@Tariso: because USB is not patent-filled, nor HDMI and HDCP, nor any other protocol? You stay classy 🙂
As for the protocol being expensive or not, it probably will be at first. But we’ll see. It’s mostly a question of easy integration onto current devices and whether there is a good incentive to do so. That’s like driverless printing (AirPrint) Apple tries to add up. That’d mean the end of drivers for printers, much like Bonjour meant being able to connect computers and devices without a network DHCP/WINS server.
But as far as “just crazy speculation” goes, I totally agree 🙂 We’ll see!
November 26th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
HDMI is patent-filled. Thats why the new TVs use a Cat-5 replacement and not the connector that has too many patent issues.
November 26th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Nice that they demo’ed it in the Mac OS
November 26th, 2010 at 10:51 pm
Intel has been struggling to get LightPeak to fit on a 7″ long PCI card and has not even shown a single consumer product device that uses it. I say it is pure fantasy that it will be in a MBP this Sprint.
Jobs said there was no demand for USB 3, so how could he justify putting LightPeak on a laptop when it is going to be two years before someone can ship 2.5″ form factor portable HD that uses it?
November 27th, 2010 at 2:23 am
Actually, Jobs didn’t say there was no demand for something like USB3. He said that he didn’t see USB3, specifically, taking off at this time. And that even Intel wasn’t actually planning on using it.
As for Intel struggling to get LightPeak onto a 7″ PCI card, well, that may or may not be true, but is hardly germane, since they showed off a LightPeak laptop in May, that played two simultaneous HD video streams over it. Clearly nowhere near peak theoretical throughput, but at least they’ve clearly gotten some functional drivers etc.
So yeah. GRPeng? You’re pretty much 100% wrong.
November 27th, 2010 at 12:08 pm
Contenders…
USB 3.0 Backwards compatibility+ 1.1/2.0
Firewire 1600/3200 is in the works? Backwards compatibility? 400/800
LAN 10/100/1000 – Backwards compatibility!
Wireless a/b/g/n – Backwards compatibility + –
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Light Peak is another idea to use Fiber optics being developed by Intel.
You will see huge networks using fiber optics to transmit data over vast distances and even across oceans! But this idea is decades old even the idea of Optical Processors are over a decade old. Unfortunately you will not see signal compatibility with fiber optics. Is this supposed to be “FiOs” compatible? I don’t think so. Optical Audio? Yeah right!
There is already a groundwork of fiber optics in major cities but how available is it to everyone?
November 28th, 2010 at 6:40 pm
I think light peak will be one of the new features every notebookproducer will introduce next year. So I expect Apple to introduce it also and I even expect Apple will do more with it’s 13″ MacBook Pro’s. Give them a modern Core i7 processor and a 1600×900 screenresolution as the Sony VAIO Z has.
November 29th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
Lightpeak is NOT a protocol, it is a physical layer that is protocol independent. It will be interesting to see what devices that are plugged in that can take advantage of 10 Gbps and what consumers are willing to pay for this. USB 3.0 will be cheap. Intel will support it in 2011, and there will be a small premium for it.
December 1st, 2010 at 11:19 pm
the new Macbook Pro it will be true?
but i think it will be expensive.
i want change my Dell laptop. who can give me a suggest? I am buy Macbook Pro now? or wait fo the new Macbook Pro.
i want to know~~~