12" or 13" MacBook?

How big would you rate the chance that there will be

- a new MacBook 13" (with LED-Display and Santa Rosa)
- a new ultraportable 12" Apple notebook

in September/October?

I don't need a notebook right now (could use it but i'm not desperate) and could wait until then, but end of October would be the latest.

I'm new to Apple, but maybe someone of you knows something or has experience in their business.

 

New Macbook, pretty good.

Ultraportable, slim to none.

 

I personally think a Macbook update is almost guaranteed. I would expect it to keep the 13.3" screen, shifting it to LED. Apple already said they want all of their displays to be LED by the end of the year, and Dell beat Apple to the punch with the LED-based XPS M1330. Apple has got to feel the pressure to upgrade when Dell has a more advanced, more powerful, more attractive, AND more expensive laptop.

 

There's been several threads discussing this...please search next time instead of opening more threads. I don't want to write another post again .

Anyways, an upgrade of the MacBook in October is likely, and don't expect an ultraportable MBP until 2008. Apple has lots to do, lots to upgrade and releasing another product when their "loyal" customers demand updates is not good. Plus, Apple likes to spread out its announcements over time so all products get equal media coverage. If you look at the timeline, its most likely new iPods next month, October is Leopard and maybe minor MacBook update, January will probably be iPhone 2 and iPhone Nano and maybe ultraportable MBP, but I see the ultraportable MBP best suited for WWDC 2008.

 

Thanks for answering!
I already read some of the threads, but I thought that maybe after the press conference yesterday someone might have some information.
I couldn't read all the news about yesterday (started a new job as test engineer...and it wouldn't be nice to surf the net the whole day in the first few days )

Don't know if I should risk to wait until October. On November 10 I'm going to Thailand for vacation for 5 weeks. Would be nice to have a mobile computer by then. With new products you'll never know when you get them (like the Dell XPS M1330 right now...).

What could be better? LED-Display, smaller and less heavy? Argh...don't know what to do.

 

LEDs for sure. Steve Jobs said he expected to transition all his Macs to LED by the end of this year, and if they update the MacBook in October it should have LED by then.

Less heavy really is hard...Apple uses the same internal parts as the rest of the industry. The materials they used in the MacBook exterior is what weighs it down (compared to aluminum in the MacBook Pro, which is super light). So I don't see Apple leaving the materials they use in the MacBook, and unless the internal parts start getting lighter that probably won't happen.

 

As I already mentioned, I'm new to the whole Mac notebooks.
I've read different threads on different forums and magazines. But still, some things I really like to know from people who own a MacBook:

I've read about problems of the notebook getting pretty hot and that the fan is very loud (and begins to cool down when the CPU hits around 30%).
Is this still a problem? Or has this been solved when the faster MacBooks (2.16 GHz) came out in spring?
What exactly means 30%? Does it get over 30% when you watch a movie? Is this only for things like adding a filter in Photoshop?

 

For reference: I'm listening to music from an external HD with VLC, I have firefox open with three tabs, and I'm compiling software with Code::Blocks in Windows XP through parallels(alloted 1GB ram). My CPU load is staying between 10 and 30%.
I think watching a movie in full screen with QT nets about a 12% CPU usage.

The thing about the fan is that it only ever kicks on when the computer gets really hot. It idles at 2krpm, which isn't much. I use SMCFan controller to idle mine at 3k rpm. There's no extra noise, and the temperatures drop about 5 degrees*. There's no real noise out of the fans until about 4500rpm. But as I said the fans don't move from 2k until it gets really hot, at which point they burst into action up around 5500rpm.

* This is on a Macbook Pro, so Macbook results may vary

 

The MacBook fans are the quietest I've heard in the notebooks I have used before. The CPU does get pretty hot (I get around 50-60 C using a browser, iTunes and an IM client) but the fans stay around 2000 RPM until I start passing 65-70 C, and that's when you watch a YouTube video or something that requires more power.

With a browser, iTunes and an IM client open I get about 15% CPU usage. I rarely use more than 50% (only when importing photos and such). The CPU doesn't work that much when watching a movie, actually. I never find the fans to be any louder when watching a movie than when surfing the web and listening to music.