MacBook Pro Rumors That Are Probably Not True

Posted by Kirhat | Tuesday, August 02, 2016 | | 0 comments »

The New MacBook Pro
Rumors surrounding the 2016 MacBook Pro are swirling around and many of them should be treated with a grain of salt. It is true that the lapotop will be redesigned and will pack some latest and high profile features, but not all of those that were reported before will be included.

The Touch ID has been tossed around for some time now. Some claim Apple is trying to squeeze dedicated Touch ID hardware into its new computer, possibly near the top of the device.

The overall dimensions of the case are also said to be slimmer. Many heard several times that the MacBook Air is serving as a type of reference device for the new Pro.

Elsewhere, USB-C is going to be the silver bullet for connectivity moving forward. Apple is believed to be including up to three USB C ports on the new MacBook Pro; the MacBook has but one.

There’s also talk that the new MacBook Pro will have a Lightning port. Apple’s reasoning for that may be headphones; it's believed to be dropping the audio jack from the iPhone 7, so it makes little sense to have it on the MacBook Pro.

The new Pro is also said to come in the color-ways of the MacBook: Space Grey, Gold, Rose Gold and Silver.

Kaby Lake processors are also likely to be inside. Intel has confirmed it’s now shipping them to OEMs like Apple.

It is not certain which GPU the MacBook Pro may carry, but rumors point to both Intel and NVIDIA as contenders, here.

LTE is also being tossed around. A recently discovered Apple patent details methods for packing antenna into the hinge of a computer, which could be for better Wi-Fi as well as LTE connectivity.

And the OLED bar above the keyboard? That’s supposed to be some sort of rotating command center.

MacBook Pro
Are they all true? Straight away, the OLED bar is probably not happening. There were no confirmation whatsoever in any of the official Apple page and site anywhere.

Speculatively, some of the more believable tech blogger thinks Apple would rather keep it simple; the technical and hardware debt incurred with an OLED bar is through the roof, and repairs on the new MacBook Pro likely won’t come cheap or easy.

A Lightning port on a MacBook is also a silly idea. It’s a step backwards; Bluetooth headphones are easy to come by, and very reliable. Adding a Lightning port also confuses data transfer methods (a Lightning-to-Lightning cable for your iPhone? Stupid.), and having one simply for headphones is a waste of space.

To that, the 2016 MacBook Pro will probably be a bit thicker than the Air, and definitely nowhere as slim as the MacBook is. The Pro doesn’t have the luxury of a unified chipset design, and needs to be a lot more powerful than the MacBook. That means it needs to have more upgrade options, which in turn leaves us cobbling off-the-shelf parts together, more or less.

LTE is a stretch, too. The antenna patent may not make it into the 2016 Pro, but it is doubtful Apple is looking to make a connected MacBook. It has gone all-in on tethering to an iPhone, and leaving us with connected MacBooks fragments Apple’s 'please buy every Apple device' missive.

Touch ID is also something everyone should probably forget about. Apple recently created a way to authenticate a MacBook log-in via the Apple Watch, which can also be used for Apple Pay transactions on the Web. Using a second device has a lot more avenues than Touch ID for authentication, and keeps everyone tied to Apple’s ecosystems.

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