A MacBook Pro update seems increasingly likely, as the whispers of new Intel Core chips and more turn into a roar. But if a new MacBook Pro does arrive tomorrow, it won’t be the first new computer Apple’s launched this month. Apple’s been busy rolling out the iPad, and given its stellar reception and strong sales, it’s already shown us a few things about what people really want from their computer. Here’s what Apple needs to take from its tablet’s launch when it rolls out a MacBook Pro update and new MacBook line up.
Touch is the future
A touchscreen MacBook Pro update would be a real surprise this time around, but if the iPad has shown us one thing, it’s that the internet was meant to be perused through with your digits. Multitouch pinch zooming and flick scrolling feel totally intuitive, and we’d love more than anything to be able to do the same on any Mac, without the need for any third party welding and alchemy. At 13, 15 or 17 inches, the screen would be bigger, and there’d be Flash support too! This is easily our single most wanted feature in any new Mac, not just a MacBook Pro update.
We want more games
Apple’s iPhone turned out to be a huge success as a gaming platform, and the number of native iPad games ready at launch suggests the iPad could dominate too. But it’s high time Apple turned OS X into a gaming platform too: Valve thinks it’s worthy of Steam support and Portal 2 as well, and the latest MacBook Pro models are perfectly capable or sauntering through games with Windows 7 installed. We’d love to see a MacBook Pro update with a desktop version of Games Centre, the achievements focused social network Apple is launching for iPhone OS 4 and coming to the iPad in the Autumn.
Read our iPad UK review now
We need flexible 3G
As we discovered while reviewing the iPad, the day you first take out a Wi-Fi model on the bus and realise you can’t jump online is the day you wish you’d waited for the 3G model. Apple’s made it as simple as possible to hop on and offline with the 3G iPad, letting you pay from the screen itself, and for single months at a time so you can pay for just when you need to use it. It’s shameful that the ultra portable MacBook Air still doesn’t have a 3G SIM card slot, but it’s high time the thin and powerful MacBook Pro line gets it too, letting you surf the web from wherever, whenever. What’s to lose, Apple?
New MacBook Pro update due this month?
It needs to be cheap
At least in the US (We don’t know the iPad UK price yet), the entry level 16GB Wi-Fi iPad is remarkably cheap ($499, or about £323). And it’s sold accordingly, racking up hundreds of thousands of sales in the first week in the States. While we’re not expecting to see a cut price MacBook Pro update anytime soon (Hey, it’s why it’s called Pro), we’d love to see more of a concession further down the laptop line. Apple’s current budget Mac concession is the Mac Mini, but if the company is serious about styling itself as a “mobile devices” giant, we need one that can be unplugged too. A lower end MacBook Air would be a welcome addition, as would a white plastic MacBook with a lower pricetag.
Apple needs to put in the right ports
One of our grumbles with the iPad (And they stand out for being so few) is the placing and selection of ports on the side. We appreciate Apple’s trying to keep out the clutter, but there was no need to put the headphone port on the top. But it’s the lack of an HDMI connection for easy plugging into a flatscreen, and an SD card slot for loading up your camera pics that jar the most. Why do we need to buy a separate accessory for the latter? The last MacBook Pro update did see the introduction of an SD slot admittedly, but Apple needs to play nicer with universal standards, and switch out DisplayPort for HDMI, and move up to USB 3.0 rather than 2.0 for fast file transfers, as other big names are like Asus.
