@tkohrs2002:

You should like the aluminum getting hot... that means the internal components are getting cooler.

Muaddib1116

hopefully, there stocks start going back up.

Anyways, basically what this is.... Seamless cases for MacBook and maybe even special etching you may be able to get on the site. That would be pretty cool.

Adisah

@Seinosuke: fair enough! thats kinda what i guessed but it seems like a pain in the butt to re use them but i guess if its mechanical then no biggy

drallac

This sounds really awesome, although I can't believe this would be 'new' technology...people have been carving things out of single blocks of material for thousands of years. Are they trying to say nobody's done this with aluminum yet? Sounds like a ridiculous claim...

And where are these weak spots in my MBP? How much stronger does the thing need to be? Do they want me to be able to throw the whole thing off the 3rd story now?

Instead of making their products more expensive (how's that working for you AAPL? oh that's right, your stock is off 52% from it's 52 week high) how about you make them less expensive...

cpthook

like the white ipod was a trademark but is no more.
Maybe this will usher in new designs for the pro hardware, the mac pro and macbook pro have looked the same since the g5 powermac and g4 powerbook days.

thedarkhorse

@drallac: I would imagine they'd have to melt it down, 'rebrick' it, then recarve a case.

cpthook

@drallac: Nah, the bricks can still be used after the MacBook casings are cut out of them.

Seinosuke

If they eliminate the white plastic macbooks that would be a shame. It like a trademark. And the Alluminum gets all hot. Im all for them giving the option of white/black/aluminum, but aluminum only is bad. Oom kay

tkohrs2002

So...you're saying Apple Brick might be designed to make Apple computers even less technician-/user customization-friendly than they already are?

Jud

All credibility was lost when they said super cheap.

"The shell is one piece of metal so it is super light, super strong and super cheap."

Ajay

isnt that a big waste of aluminum? or can aluminum bricks then be reshaped so you get the most out of it? or am I being dim?

drallac

@Jud: Yeah, really. You think it's tough now...

rcast1986

Sounds good to me.

kmkl

@tkohrs2002: uuh, are you out of your mind? You'd rather have that cheap plastic than the Aluminum protecting your laptop!? Aluminum is definitely the way to go.

tharden33

@tkohrs2002: Umm Kay

+ Watch video

MatthewMace

It sounds like it would let them be able to design something new and stamp it out without having to retool. They could simply reprogram the lasers and supersoakers, and voila, a new form pops out.

Since every big technology innovation can only be real if it's referenced at some point in "Minority Report," since this sounds like it could be something from the Lexus factory scene, it's probably a credible rumor.

frigg

@D.E.P.C.: aluminum is not particularly cheap, much more expensive than steel to get the same strength. That's why you don't see much in cars. It is used for planes because it has a higher strength to weight ratio.

The major cost in producing aluminum is not the raw material (bauxite), but all the electricity it requires to turn it into alumiunum. Metallic aluminum isn't found in nautre in significant quantities.

catbutt

@drallac: We recycle tons of aluminum every year, and last time I checked it was cost efficient(read: energy efficient).

On second thought maybe they'll be making smaller MacBooks out of the leftovers. A matryoshka MacBook.

D.E.P.C.

Exquisite coolness. I'd like one body suit, please.

sonicwinder

@drallac:
yeah, it's a big waste of aluminum, and really, i doubt it's any revolutionary at all, lol. there are already so many types of machinering that already does that, nothing the aerospacial industry doesn't already know.

The problem with the whole "melting the waste and rebricking" is that it's not very "eco-friendly", as it takes a huge amount of heat just to melt the metal to "rebrick" it, it goes as high as 1220 F for the melting point, and the boiling point is kinda 2 times that.

energy often means "coal power plants"(specially china) and you know, that doesn't help much the whole enviromental problem...

i'm not a greenpeace stupid and all, but that doesn't seem to be really any news or anything good at all.

i thought macs weren't meant to fall many times and stand big chassis' stress.

for me is only a cute article to the apple pride.

laio

@undefined: I actually don't care that its super cheap... it looks and feels awesome to touch, as well as dissipates heat better then most other materials... unfortunately in order to get a super cool to touch laptop you have to hack the fans inside your macbookpro/powerbook =(

segamanxero

@cpthook: The thing motivating the cheaper idea is the reduction in labor. Technology in laser carving allows for things to be completely automated -- and less prone to imperfections. Also, reduction in parts requires less assembly, which requires less labor also. It should be obvious that labor is one of the biggest costs in manufacturing anything.

As for aluminum itself being expensive, it isn't. It's one of our most abundant resources and easy to mine -- it's like the coal of metals. As for the laser machines being expensive, they are; but it's likely cheaper than the combined prices of the 20 machines it'd take beforehand.

Automation is the best thing for consumers; the worst thing for laborers. So don't be so pessimistic unless you're a machinist working out of Taiwan. (And if you are, why not take up laser carving?)

And haven't you noticed the whole market is down?

D.E.P.C.

Hmm, don't really see why this is so super special, or even necessary.

RobotVampire

sounds like that big financial out lay that apple talked about ealier in the year would tie in to this.
match that to new slimmer, curvyer MBPs to match the Air in style i'd cal this plausible.
Recon they are already using this on the new nanos any one?

big_marky_t

@thedarkhorse: The iMac and iPods are no longer white. Only the MacBook, the Mac mini, and the back of the 16GB iPhone come in white. And two of those are overdue for a revision, and the other can't have an aluminium backing, so I'd wager that Apple will be dropping plastic from the line.

Leonard Nimrod

@cpthook: You make a lot of poor assumptions and jumps in logic.

• Using aluminium is not new. No one has claimed that. Using carved, rather than pressed aluminium is not new. No one has claimed that. What 9to5 is claiming is that Apple will be using a new automated manufacturing process to make Macs. Jobs went all high-tech with NeXT back in 1990, using a highly-automated process to make more reliable machines. This may have even cost less to produce these machines do to the efficiency and low employees needed for the process.

• Anytime you stress a metal by bending it you introduce weaknesses. This is why metal is reheated to realigned the atoms, but this isn't possible for thin metals as it will warp. I think it was King C. Gillette that pioneered heating a stack of cut blades together to prevent warping.

• I want my notebook PCs to be as strong and durable as possible without having to introduce extra thick cases and internal buffers for components. Your comment on being able to throw it off a 3 story building is just asinine. Or are you suggesting that MBPs can easily survive a drop from a 2 story building?

• Who said it would be more expensive? How much are polycarbonate cases? How much does it cost to mold the aluminum cases. How much of an extra workforce is needed? How many are defecting resulting in wasted time and effort?

• If you think the stock has fallen recently because of the price of their machines, despite these Intel Mac price not having changed, having 30% of the total consumer PC market, and 70% of the >$1000 consumer PC market then I beg you, for your own good, not to invest in the stock market.

Leonard Nimrod

@catbutt: I haven't taken Chem yet... Next semester.

D.E.P.C.

I've give Apple something to bend...

General Halfshaftery

If it means Macbook Pros and Macbooks that have as little body flex as the Macbook Air, then I say hells yes, bring it on.

Kaiser-Machead's LEGO WALL-E

@D.E.P.C.: Cost efficient VS finding new aluminum. I don't think that the gains in rigidity warrant the potential waste here.

BanMeAgainBrianLam

They'll be able to use all the extra screws on their customers in the next round of updates...

AmishJohn

@Jud: No, it's just their way of charging you more for higher quality that saves them money.

kanon

sounds like they're using something like Seco provides.

Using water to cut through metal is nothing new, it's process people use to maintain a nice clean edge.

So, in a way this story makes sense to me.

Think of it in terms of machining, it's much more expensive to mill something using a drill (parts break and need replacing... drill bits ware out) than it is with water.

Biscuitcleaver

Billet aluminium is certainly more expensive than cast, and for an application like this, I fail to see any functional purpose. From a standpoint of form and structure, it makes sense. Only one of those is of any importance on the desktop though.

If it's true, I guess I still think it's cool to have product manufacture evolving. It's probably completely frivolous though. Any Green people want to count the carbon footprint of this vs other means of manufacture?

TorkLugnutz

@AmishJohn: lol

Usama

Of course Apple doesn't have to remelt and use the aluminum they carve out themselves right? I'm not speaking from any evidence here, it's a purely hypothetical thing but this is how big business cut costs and use tax codes to save money:

Carve out the casing, and instead of discarding the unused Aluminum you sell it to a company that specializes in melting and making aluminum reusable. That company sells aluminum at a premium since it is reused aluminum and some cost went into bringing it back to reusable form. Apple buys said aluminum paying the higher rate but there are tax incentives to purchase recycled materials, and Apple benefits from these tax incentives.

Doesn't have to go down exactly like that, but you know, if there's anything we know about Jobs it's that he is methodical in his planning and he wouldn't be using this process if there were multiple benefits, not just the one.

I can't imagine the process is especially wasteful since this movement to aluminum is supposed to silence the environment critics as well as bring unity in design/material to their entire line.

Usama

I seriously doubt this is credible. Having some background in material science, this is pointless. Anybody here having a problem w/ their aluminum cases cracking? didn't think so. pressing and folding the metal is just fine for this kind of aplication. The cost to produce a machined case from a block of bullet vs a press if several magnitudes greater. The case alone would cost the manufacturer at minimum $100 (that's accounting for mass production cost savings), vs less than a buck for pressed aluminum. Heck, think of the tool bit wear, electricity, coolant cost, and wear and tear on the machine. There maybe a new manufacturing process here, but nothing like this article describes.

jkr's bold comment

@RobotVampire: I agree. I would much rather see a new product.

kellygeorge

Apple needs to differentiate its product by more than just the OS since the switch to intel processors and main boards. Virtually all notebooks are made by a handful of companies which makes the pricing difference between Mac and PC's hard to justify.

Jobs moves to their own production process and line, possibly manufactured in the U.S.A, uses nvidia main boards with SLi with discreet and add on graphics chips with intel processors at the current price point. Better control of leaked info, unique design and build process that would take some time to copy, rapid ability to change product and substantial product differentiations between Mac's and PC's.

tcrown

The Voodoo Envy just shit itself.

peacefulpony

After reading these comments I feel a bit smarter. Thanks for the lessons folks.

Apple HQ must be loving it when we citizens talk about things we think we might know...

CutePuppyz

Carving out of one piece = less aluminum. If you bend it, then the aluminum sheet needs the be thicker everywhere else (far thicker than it needs to be) so that it isn't dangerously weak at the bend point. Even then, the bend will still be relatively weak. Carved out of one piece, The curves are as solid as everywhere else, so you can use less aluminum in the places where there is not much danger for stress and damage, while not worrying that the curves will still be too weak. The shavings can easily be recycled (likely in the same factory), so nothing is lost.

So yeah, this will make the macbooks stronger, thinner, lighter, and slightly cheaper to manufacture, at least in the long run.

labrats5

These are coming from the same Taiwan manufacturers that are now making your "Hydroformed" Aluminum bicycle frames. Hydroforming is a process that enables a manufacturer to internally mold a shape of a thin walled alloy. This process was pioneered by GIANT bicycles mid 2004.

Tedinasia

@D.E.P.C.: Actually labor is typically about 10% of the cost in manufacturing. Learned this in my manufacturing engineering class.

buckeye17

@Biscuitcleaver:
I have a lizard that was cut from an aluminum pipe with a water-jet CNC "router", and the edges are nowhere near as clean as they would have been if they'd used mill bits (drill bits are only for boring holes, where mill bits will bore and cut surfaces in passes with both the end and sides). In addition, a mill bit can cut to a controlled depth, where water-jet technology is only useful for cutting _through_ something. It also cuts a conical path, as the water spreads outward as it's cutting through stuff. The advantages you get are that you don't have to replace bits, it cuts faster than traditional methods, it doesn't cause heat-related problems like distempering, and you can cut pretty much anything with it (including glass).

Purple Dave

so there's going to be a hyped up press conference all about a new manufacturing process for the cases of laptops?

there has to be at least "one more thing" than just this.

CraziestGadgets.com

It does seem kind of a waste to take a half inch or so (for the bottom shell) chunk of aluminum and carve out the inside of it like a halloween jack-o-lantern. Since the product weight is something Apple always touts when showing off new portables it doesn't seem likely the shells would be any thicker. I suppose maybe if the inside electronics have been sized down a bit the corners could be not as deep on the inside and not off-set the weight.

I still seems like a lot more work to go through then just pressing a flat piece of aluminum into shape..

Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude

@laio:

Recycling scrap aluminium is 95% more efficient than processing new aluminium from bauxite.

Iain

Nikon has been making their camera bodies out of milled aluminum for quite some time now. It might not be as sexy as a laser, but man it's strong! I have no idea about the cost difference...

[a.img-dpreview.com]

Gary_7vn

@Leonard Nimrod: small correction
70% of the >$1000 consumer LAPTOP market
so the macbooks and macbook pros are doing great, but not so much the other computers
it also means there missing a significant chunk of the Laptop market, as well as the overall computer market

jozen

@frigg: does this mean they could take a CAD image and turn it into a real case by simply giving the machine a new "template"

jozen

@monkeybars:

this is iBullet Aluminum.

Seriously, the unwashed masses....

endless

@Iain: But using a process which does not generate aluminum scrap to be recycled is even more efficient.

fargi

How is this any different from billet aluminum?

monkeybars

@tcrown: You're going to have to do a little bit better than throwing a different shell around the aforementioned intel boards to provide "substantial product differentiations between Mac's and PC's."

TeriyakiChicken

Ever seen the 3D Flow-Jet being used on American Chopper? It's really cool but very very slow (vs. metal bending) with all the extra aluminum eroded away and not readily reusable (I suppose there is scrap that can be remelted though). I would think this would be a very expensive process and not worth of mass production...although Apple does still enjoy those 30% margins so I guess anything is possible.

Vagabum

@jkr's bold comment: Exactly my point, only you said it better :)

cpthook

@Leonard Nimrod: Well nimrod, since you evidently missed the news about being able to throw hard drives off three story buildings, I'll forgo that aspect of your reply.

I'm assuming this is going to be more expensive because introducing new manufacturing tech like this always costs a fortune to implement. You know why nobody has used laser carving before? Because it's a whole hell of a lot cheaper to bend aluminum and use screws.

As to your babbling about the stock, well, it's babbling so I can't really reply to it. Are you trying to say that Apple has 30% of the pc market?

Anyway, I hope your long on aapl and I hope you enjoy the rough couple of years they've got ahead of them.

cpthook

INstead of making the blody things solid make them felxable. take a dimond and smak it with a hammer and somehting will give, Although the dimond makes in impression in the nicely polished hammer head it turns to white powder (yes i have done this). Now do the same to a peice of rubber and it will deform then bounce back.

even better make them out of a non-newtonian material.

ShadowX

Awesome. that's exactly what we need. macs that are even harder to take apart when something as simple as a bad stick of ram or bunk hard drive fails.

You want market penetration Apple? Try making a mac that is affordable and goddamn user upgradable. Nerds will flock to you in droves.

squish123

@Ajay: I second that.

It wouldn't even be super light, strong, seamless or screwless. Sure aluminum is light for a metal, but stuff like plastics and carbon-fiber are lighter and strong enough for what laptops need.

What solid aluminum laptop would be is insanely hot on all surfaces.

Bloodboiler

@Ajay: super cheap for Apple not the consumer.. BIngo

mpar

@monkeybars: I'm assuming you're referring to accessories and other bolt-on items in terms of automotive use. In that application 'billet' aluminum parts are milled from blocks which are usually a mix of aluminum, magnesium, and silicon since aluminum by itself tends to be a bit soft.

Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude

yeah but apple outsources the manufacturing of its laptops, right?

MrBlahBlah

So just like CNC aluminium machining.
Just like Apple to copy an existing standard rename it and impress everyone with how well the innovate.

Fourthletter

@cpthook: While I was with my company going through mobilization training for this deployment to Iraq, one of my battle buddies actually knocked a white MacBook out a third story window onto a concrete sidewalk.

Not only does it still work...it doesn't look all that damaged.

Ginsu

@Biscuitcleaver:

Purple Dave is right, to a point. The surface finishes have improved dramatically over the last few years, and machines use 3 axis heads yjat tilt on the fly so the "conical part" (it's called the kerf angle ) is into the scrap. And the process uses a fine grit called garnet mixed in with the water. Typically, the nozzels last about 150-200 hours before needing to be replaced, and both the garnet (it's a consumable, as it breaks down) and the nozzels are not cheap. My guess would be they'd rough the external shapes out of billet sheets with water jet, 5 axis mill the internal pocket (the cheapest method), then finish the outside (including all the ports and openings in the shell) with the 5 axis laser. But what do I know, I just program these things for a living.

Full-Moto-Jacket

@jkr's bold comment:

"Having some background in material science, this is pointless."

That may be true, but I don't think you know anything about the initial costs involved with stamping/forming and injection mould tooling. There's a reason why these industries are outsourcing their tools to China.

"The cost to produce a machined case from a block of bullet vs a press if several magnitudes greater."

It would depend on how automated the cell is (and I can see Jobs/Field going the full 9 yards on one). Roughing out shells from sheets of billet with water jet would take about 30 seconds per, and the scrap ratio would be very low. A $150K machine machine can be programmed to cut out shapes for multiple products, and run on about $3-400 in consumables per week. With stamping/forming, you're looking at about $100K per tool per part, and the tooling needs to be maintained (the tool needs to be removed from the press and all the punch/die sections need to be sharpened, forms need to be recoated, not to mention chipping and breakage etc.) You make it sound so simple, when in reality, it's not. It's just how we've been doing it for the last 100 years.

Full-Moto-Jacket

Yeah, I agree. This doesn't seem to be a credible argument, and if it is, this technology has been around for a while - there wouldn't be anything too revolutionary about it. It doesn't make any sense for apple to make a big deal out of this; I also don't think they've ever paid much attention to manufacturing engineering. In any case, it wouldn't make significant benefits for the consumers, as the aluminum case is definitely not the most expensive piece of hardware that has to be manufactured for apple products.

SanwariDarnoldo

Machining would not be cheaper. When you recycle your chips you recoup a fraction of the cost of the actual material. I've worked in many machine shops and not one has processed their own chips. While materials will cost more the biggest increase in price is the machine time. You can stamp a piece of aluminum start to finish in less than a minute. When machining parts it can take a minute just to load it, not to mention all the time that is spent to machine the actual part. Much more material is wasted when machining.

JillianPsyche

You're right companies have been creating products from 1 piece of aluminum for a very long time, im sure you've heard the term "billet aluminum" that term refers to that product being cut from a single piece of aluminum. Alcoa rims are a famous example of a billet product, in this case a whole rim.

TancredoBuffalo

@catbutt:
To get the same strength. But pound-for-pound, aluminum is vastly cheaper, not to mention lighter. It's why we don't have zinc or steel cans anymore.

DisposableInterloper

@Fourthletter: Yup, that's exactly it. Typical Apple hype.

KLanD

Revolutionary? Hardly. It's just CnC machine, they've been around for years.

KLanD

@fargi:
This may perhaps be just such a process.

DisposableInterloper

@mpar:
It depends. Sometimes savings do get passed down to consumers. There have been mentions of a budget MacBook line coming soon. Add the fact that there have been mentions of a possible aluminum MacBook refresh, and it might just be one and the same - a cheaper, sleeker MacBook. Apple's been going that route with everything lately.

DisposableInterloper

@Tedinasia: Wow, thanks for that. Very interesting. I went to wiki and found this, which is even cooler.

Explosive Hydroforming

Industrial hydroforming machines use a piston to generate pressure in the hydraulic fluid used in hydroforming, but an experimental alternative is the use of explosives to generate the pressure. Called explosive hydroforming, this method places an explosive charge, with or without an additional working fluid, on the high pressure side of the material. When the explosive is detonated, the pressure forces the working material into the die, at pressures of up to millions of pounds per square inch.
[en.wikipedia.org]

Gary_7vn

@Kaiser-Machead's...: what the hell are you guys doing to your laptops that you're worrying about body flex??

shorty6049

@Leonard Nimrod: Er, harddrives != computers

Leonard Nimrod

@cpthook

1) != computers

2) Apple has already stated that they will be getting net profit due to a product transition. This could be what they were takling about.

3) Increasing price in one area often means you can reduce costs in other areas. A smart company does well to make the end justify the means. A better built machine means less chance of repair and funds needed for future lawsuits. Yes, they account for potetial legal issues in the pricing.

4) Again, claiming that the recent stock drop is due to the current prices, which have been set the Intel Macs have come into being means you have no concept of the stock market or technology.

Leonard Nimrod

@jozen: They have 70% of the consumer PC market over $1000, too. Their desktop market is the only desktop market that is thriving... and people said AIOs were not a good idea.

Leonard Nimrod

@Kaiser-Machead's LEGO WALL-E: Macbooks flex? Mine seems pretty damn solid. They're plastic on the outside but the insides are supported by a magnesium frame.

dingus

@drallac: Aluminum recycling is cheap and more efficient that mining. The real key is reducing use, failing that recycling. If Apple really wanted to save the environment, they would make a laptop case that can be opened and upgraded indefinitely, but they are not. Like any korporation their SOLE goal is to make lots and lots of money. It is the ONLY thing that matters. The rest is just PR and spin.

From Wiki
Aluminium recycling is the process by which scrap aluminium can be reused in products after its initial production. The process involves simply re-melting the metal, which is far less expensive and energy intensive than creating new aluminium through the electrolysis of aluminium oxide (Al2O3), which must first be mined from bauxite ore and then refined using the bayer process. Recycling scrap aluminum requires only 5% of the energy used to make new aluminium. [1] For this reason, approximately 31% of all aluminium produced in the United States comes from recycled scrap. [2]

A common practice since the early 1900s and extensively capitalized during World War II, aluminium recycling is not new. It was, however, a low-profile activity until the late 1960s when the exploding popularity of aluminium beverage cans finally placed recycling into the public consciousness. [3]

Sources for recycled aluminium include aircraft, automobiles, bicycles, boats, computers, cookware, gutters, siding, wire, and many other products that require a strong light weight material, or a material with high thermal conductivity. As recycling does not damage the metal's structure, aluminium can be recycled indefinitely and still be used to produce any product for which new aluminium could have been used.[4]

Gary_7vn

Seems like overkill for a laptop or workstation. It's a computer for gosh sakes, not a load-bearing-structure. Seems wasteful and unnecessary.

newgalactic

The MacBook Air keyboard frame is an amazing piece of machining, and I think it's the future of apples designs. It's the relatively thick piece that provides the structural support for the whole machine (which is unlike most machines, where the bottom shell or an internal framework is the structural part). It has a lot of unique features - screw holes are tapped at an odd angle to match the curve of the bottom. The lower lip is undercut to capture the bottom shell better. The power light requires both some high-aspect-ratio machining from the back side & micro holes to allow the light to pass through (but small enough to completely disappear when the light is off). Finally, it has all the internal standoffs for components to mount to while keeping a perfectly smooth outside appearance.

morcheeba

@Ginsu: damn, that's awesome! so then, how much stronger do they really need to be?...

cpthook

@Full-Moto-Jacket: So maybe you work for Apple and you're just trying to dispel the rumor to throw us off.

AlanR

@D.E.P.C.: The whole market is down, but MSFT and YHOO are doing fine.

AlanR

@squish123: Nerds are not the market sorry, just poseurs. If it breaks - just buy a new one, that's their evil dream.

Gary_7vn

@KLanD: Although you know Apple isn't hyping anything. This is everyone else guessing at what Apple's up to.

frigg

@jozen: (based completely on speculation about a speculative report that speculates about speculation)... yes!

frigg

Apple iShock.

FinalValgas

@Full-Moto-Jacket:
I only saw a demo of a machine about five years ago, and I think they were pretty new tech at the time. I did remember the tilting head system that would give you one straight vertical edge (but it'd still look pretty rough, judging by that lizard...unless they were using a worn-out nozzle to save costs). I forgot about the use of garnet dust, but I do recall now that they only use that for cutting through harder materials. If you're cutting plastic, you can just use straight water (and the fact that you're not feeding powdered gemstones into the stream of water means the nozzles last a lot longer).

Oh, and when you say that 5-axis milling the internal pocket is the cheapest method...that'd still be a pretty expensive process, especially if the open surface isn't on the side. Ooh, but that brings up another possibility. What if they're just making a four-sided milled case, and the ends screw on afterwards? If they did that, they actually _could_ cut the core out with a water jet, and it would be a lot easier to reclaim the waste material because (except for the cut path) it'd be a big solid chunk. If they wanted to get really fancy with it, they could then take the scrap core and use that as the material to make two endplates.

Purple Dave

BTW, I still don't believe this is what the "Brick" is....It wouldn't have been this hyped...I thinks it's a consumer product of some kind. Just my 2¢. Would REALLY like to see Apple do a Netbook with OS X on it. and post, unlike the somewhat limited MacBook Air. I personally would dig the air, you can just use disc images etc. when installing software etc, so no big deal there, but the usb posts need to be moved or something they are hard to accommodate many plugs, So I hear. I don't own one.

Faslane66

They cut custom chopper wheels this way, American Chopper Anyone? Do it all the time, and it's accurate as hell!!!!!

Faslane66

@Biscuitcleaver:

Mill with a drill? "Your ideas intrigue me. I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter."

PittsburghEatsOhioFarts

@RobotVampire:

Same here..nothing new here really, nothing that cool to brag about so to speak...how about a 7" MacBook or netbook Apple? Seriously....!

Faslane66

I don't care what it is as long as it's building some new MacBooks. I have the 1st generation MacBook and it's about time for an upgrade. I hope they make some big improvements to the air (hard drive anyone?) because I am dying to get one.

Ryan Goins

@Faslane66: 1) Netbooks are budget PCs, something that Apple doesn't do.

2) You can't call a notebook computer a 'brick' as it implies both something that is heavy and clunky, and also a device that no-longer works.

Leonard Nimrod

super strong It's a case isn't it?? I don't put my case in any danger. Does anyone else sit on their case? warm buns?

raymondit

@General Halfshaftery: Jesus maybe?

Alex2643

@PittsburghEatsOhioFarts: Yeah, my apologies - I tend to use the term mill pretty generally.

Full-Moto, I agree. Something like a 5 axis is correct. I work for a company that provides training for the Advanced machining industry - so, I think my point was that it's in theory possible, however; it didn't seem all that weird or news worthy in this case.

By the way, if anyone hasn't seen a 5-axis machine run.. it's pretty fascinating. 6 Axis is insane - OR the INDEX machines. They are pretty crazy too.

Biscuitcleaver

@AlanR: LOL! I wish. I'm guessing Cupertino in February is a lot nicer than here in Toronto.

Full-Moto-Jacket

@RobotVampire: Yeah, it sounds a lot like CNC machining that has been in use for quite some time. If you've been around CNC machines, it's already almost labor free- I don't see what is revolutionary about this.

jdickson87

Im not sure but with aluminum DiCast and Extruded has a higher tensile strength than billet anyway. Also Forged aluminum outperforms all of the manufacturing processes.

But then Im a TOughbook owner and have not managed to damage it regardless of the fact that its been droped, knocked, hit, scraped and used both to hld doors open and as a makeshift step.

ShadowX

@Full-Moto-Jacket: wtf, my post gets deleted? Well Like I said before my post got deleted (yeah mods, we know you can despite what you say).

Did you say water jets? Water jets don't work so well on billet, but works great on sheet metal. This post talks about billet, so -1 to you. 100K is not how much the stamp costs (well maybe if you didn't collect bids). Now if you are referring to the whole machine, it would cost more, but I digress.

jkr's bold comment

@Faslane66: Who hyped the brick? Not Apple. If you're disappointed blame the media.

Mark 2000

The macbook pro is no longer top of the heap in laptops now that HP (and soon Dell) have laptops with sata ports and up to 8gb of ram.

It's definitely time for a refresh.

schrosa

They have to do something to justify the ridiculous prices for Macs. Maybe they will even through in some super sweet hi-def monster cables too.

deputyjones

Sorry, no sale.
Since when has Apple ever known anything about materials and manufacturing processes? If the original post is saying that Apple are applying a new technology some hot-shot materials manufacturer has developed I might buy it, but if it's saying that Apple have *developed* a new aluminium manufacturing process then I call bullshit.

AAPL have no expertise in manufacturing; their suppliers do.

JD

@JD: Apple is just the name on top of a ziggurat. Apple could be developing cases made out of camel nose hair with a 3rd party even if no camel has ever stepped foot in Cupertino. Apple's cash reserves give them a lot of leeway to extend the definition of "in house."

frigg

@dingus: With a stiffer outer shell, the Macbook may actually become a bit more immune to ruining discs in the Superdrive when you pick it up. I should be able to move a laptop around with a CD inside of it, save for knocking it about and jostling it. All I have to do is pick it up gently, and it flexes just enough so that a DVD can get scratched all to hell.

Kaiser-Machead's LEGO WALL-E

@Jud:

What's the matter, is it too hard for you? Does it hurt your little feelings that Apple doesn't make enough room inside their computers to wiggle your fat little fingers around in?

UbiquitousGeek

@labrats5:
Stronger, thinner, and lighter, maybe. But cheaper? Not hardly. It'll take a huge chunk of solid aluminum that's larger than the final size of the case to produce a solid 1-piece case that's made of a mere fraction of the original raw materials. Folding it up out of sheet stock may use more aluminum in the final construction, but there's very little scrap compared to that massive core that you'll end up carving out of a 1-piece case.

Purple Dave

@Biscuitcleaver:
Well, they're pretty fascinating if they've been properly maintained, and they're not old as dirt. My last employer bought a used 1st generation Thermwood. It had computer cards the size of breadboards that had radio tubes all over them (they installed an air conditioner in the side of the machine to keep them from overheating). The real problem, though, was that someone in the past had decided that keeping the oiler working was too much trouble. They pulled back the accordion sleeves on the Y-axis ways/ball-screws and just oiled them by hand (they were full of ABS chips, the ball-screws were worn very unevenly, and one of the ways had a huge groove cut into the top surface), they stopped oiling the X-axis ways and ball-screw altogether, and they hammered shims in around the rotating portion of the head to immobilize it. It took a few months just to get it running properly as a 3-axis machine, and a combination of a new PC-based control system, an upcoming job that we couldn't reliably do with just a 3-axis machine, and a few more months to get the 4th and 5th axes working. But hey, it only cost $10k to buy the original machine, which was within that company's price range at the time. A new machine would have cost at least ten times that much, and I can guarantee that we never spent that extra $90k on replacement parts and labor.

Purple Dave

@drallac:

they wouldn't waste aluminum.
why?
cost!!
many manufacturing processes create scrap material.
most of the time this is saved and recycled for no other reason that to not waste money. yes it costs more than a simpler process like stamping metal, but nicer production tends to cost more!!

apple has had a history of doing this. with their early designs they used special higher grade zero draft molding for their cases. this allowed for perfectly 90 degree flat corners whereas most other products used molds that have slightly outward slanting walls to help the plastic release easier. of course this leads to ugly bulging seams. but its cheaper.

Justifan

@jkr's bold comment:

LMAO. Do your research. 6-8" workpiece thickness is the norm these days for waterjet machines.

Mitsubishi Waterjet

Cutting a 1" thick piece of Al billet for a MacBook isn't a problem. And if you're gettig bids for tooling for less, it's from hacks or offshore. But like I said in another post, what do I know, I just program machines for a living.

Full-Moto-Jacket

@Killjoy: ...or even the most delicate part.

Killjoy

Late to the show as usual...

In the event of a fall, a harder casing would transfer more shock to the components it housed. I'd like to know if they're changing the way hardware is mounted inside. By the time this shell is commonplace SSDs would be too but that's not the only deliceate part of a laptop.

Killjoy

@DisposableInterloper: This may perhaps be what kind of process? A process that cuts a part out of a solid aluminum block without leaving any scrap (like, say, the rest of the block)?

Wow, Apple really is innovative. And magical.

HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak

bollocks! No new plastic cases?

Elasticity

@UbiquitousGeek: LOL I really can't tell if that's a fanboy remark or just a cheap shot.

araddatz

Just sounds like more shiny objects for Apple customers...and here I thought the Apple "Brick" is what happens to iPhone owners shortly after upgrades!

comp_wiz101

@araddatz: Or hes just generally a complete douche bag...

bpapa9013

The "revolutionary" part would be in finding a way to do that in an economical manner. Cutting aluminum in this way though is a common enough procedure. Generally relegated to custom jobs though.

plastikwaren

@fargi:
that's pretty much the idea!

laio

I fix a lot of white iBooks and Macbooks. Frequently I find the aluminum frame has cracked - especially around the hinge. The white plastic shell hides those breaks. With an all aluminum shell there should be a lot more rigidity and strength to the skeletal structure. Probably something else will break when it gets dropped. Maybe the frame should be milled aluminum and the shell should be super rubber ball material. :-)

ChesterFlubwib

I'll start by saying I have little knowledge of metallurgy in the applied science of manufacturing.

However, I can't see how revolutionary aluminum carving with water jets and lasers is necessary for something so straightforward as a laptop shell (that likely won't be thicker than 1/8 inch). As I know it, the stresses put on metals by bending them don't weaken them so significantly that they become useless. I remember the science lesson where we bent a metal rod a couple times and it became increasingly harder to bend because the molecules were becoming "jumbled" and strengthening the "bend" point. Isn't that what the basis of forging? I'm sure there is a fine line between introducing strength and then going too far and weakening the metal.

And seriously, WTF are people doing with laptops these days? I have a few laptops, ranging in age from 1 year to 5 years and none of them has the slightest case damage because I don't treat them like Tonka toys.

BeautifulAgony

the little boy said to steve jobs : "wow, you made this awesome new computer from a brick of aluminium?" "on the contrary" steve jobs replied, "the computer was always there. i just removed bits of the brick which weren't the computer."

GiovannaBaba-Booey

@Kaiser-Machead's LEGO WALL-E: I just wish they'd fix that issue with the drive mechanism being right over the keyboard piece so that weight transitioned from the palm rests no longer flexes the drive itself causing failure over time.

Lite

@cpthook: Right, let's clarify that statement. That's dropping, not throwing, a SSD drive off of a 3 story building. SSD drives tend to have a lot less mass than the traditional rotational media that we think of when it comes to hard drives. They also cost a lot more at this time. Especially when you consider data density. 128 gig vs 320 gig at this time.

An object with less mass, in a vacuum, will accelerate at the same rate as a device with more mass. Now, throw in the fact that this does not happen in a vacuum, we can assume that the object will likely not accelerate as quickly as say, a golf ball of equal mass dues to wind resistance yada yada insert pseudo physics mumbojumbo here.

Back when I was in college I had the chance to play with some robotics and cnc machinery. I watched a swinging robot arm moving at ~5 mph strike a guy's forearm and break it. A kleenex box moving at 5 mph wouldn't do this.

Take that and transfer it from low weight SSD drive, to higher weight rotational drive, or better yet to an entire laptop or PC. My laptop has a dent in the case where it fell 18" and contacted the corner of another object. Nowhere near 3 feet. Laptop works fine, minus small cosmetic blemish. Thankfully this laptop is aluminum. Rather than crack/break/shatter, it simply dented.

And to answer another of your questions, no Apple does not have 30% of the PC market, foreign or domestic. However the last report I read said that they did manage to capture 20% of the laptop market for sales in the US this year. Considering they don't have $500 entry-level laptops, I'd say that's pretty significant.

Lite

Since at some point you need to attach hinges, a screen, and keys for a keyboard, the "seamless" aspect just doesn't seem worth it. And you need some way to slide all the components in, so one end has to be opened up. Interesting stuff, tho.

bandit

@ChesterFlubwib: Flubber coated?

Lite

@ShadowX: Can't really do that, as the internal materials don't flex very well due to solder being rather brittle.

Lite

@Full-Moto-Jacket: So, take a 6" material and remove enough to make it the thickness of sheetmetal. Billet is not stacked sheets of sheet metal. perhaps you should re-read over my post, before thinking you understood what I said. Unless you are to buisy LYAO.

jkr's bold comment

I thought it was the new iPhone, and rather aptly named too...

metaslugx