Appletell

If that brief news tidbits coming from Commercial Times of Taiwan is any indication of what may come for the MacBooks, we may well be looking at a new MacBook model soon. According to the report, AU Optronics (AUO) and Chi Mei Optoeletronics are splitting up their orders of LCD panels from Apple. Those LCD panels are apparently for Apple’s “new MacBook consumer notebook PCs.”

The report also mentioned that the said new MacBooks are slated for release in the third quarter of 2008 and are expected to shoot up MacBook shipments this year by around 3 million units.

I know this may not be enough reason to get excited about a new MacBook, especially since we haven’t heard any slight hint coming from Apple about this the past few days. Aside from the fact that Apple has been busy prepping up the rumored release of a 3G iPhone. But if ever a new MacBook will come out later this year, I wonder how Apple will brand it this time? MacWind?

Via [Digitimes]

Here’s another rumor to add to the June speculation - not only will 3G iPhones be supposedly released, but Apple will apparently redesign their notebook line. If you take a look at the MacBook and MacBook Pro - their designs have been around for quite some time now. The MacBook Pro even shares an almost identical design to that of the PowerBook G4. According to AppleInsider’s sources, brand-new redesigned MacBooks and MacBook Pros will be released in the third quarter of this year. The newly designed notebooks will sport the same sized enclosures as the current models: 13-inch MacBooks, and 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pros. MacBook Pros are expected to use Intel’s Montevina chips that are being released in June. The new designs will most likely be inspired by the current iMacs and the MacBook Air.

Via [AppleInsider]

This week, Apple released a new software update, weighing in at about 551kb, to the MacBook Air’s system management control (SMC) in hopes that it will finally put an end to frequent and annoying freezing and overheating issues that have troubled some early adopters of Apple’s newest line of notebooks.

The new update specifically fixes the speed and operation of the MacBook Air’s internal fan, which is responsible for cooling the notebook and preventing overheating issues. The fan has failed to perform properly before the update was released, which resulted in random intervals of freezing that left the MacBook Air unresponsive for 10 to 15 second periods (if not longer) at a time, according to several users who have posted on Apple’s support forums (see here and here).

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Apple as once again seen a nice increase in notebook market share. Apple had climbed to 14.3% for US based notebook sales this past spring and according to NPD have gone up to 17.6% for June 2007. While this is far from the highest market share it is certainly a nice step for Apple. Based on reports from research firm IDC this is the first time since 1996 that Apple has been this high on the top sellers list.

Currently Apple is sitting in the third spot, Dell and HP are the top two with Gateway and Acer fourth and fifth. Of course with increased notebook sales comes an increase in overall market share, Apple is now at 5.9%, which may sound low to some but that is a 1.1% increase from this time last year. As a long time Mac user its nice to see the Apple getting some much deserved attention.

Read [Macworld]

Apple has filed a continuation of an older patent for a wide touchpad on a portable computer. Now before anyone gets to excited, its not for a touchscreen display. This patent deals with the touchpad that would seem to replace the current trackpad and make it larger and wider and from the look of the patent picture it would go across the entire notebook.

The current trackpad would be replaced by this large touchpad and will have some “multi-touch” capabilities. My first thought was that would be where your wrists would sit or touch while typing, but it seems that Apple has taken care of that and according to the patent filing the touchpad would be smart enough to tell the difference.

Of course, this is still just a patent filing and we could never see anything from it. It would be nice to see some extra functionality via the touchpad, I wonder what Apple has in mind for it to control.

Read [Engadget]