What is the Apple Brick? Net awash with rumours of new Mac notebook

[#1]

The rumour mills and tech sites are really starting to go Mac-crazy on the run-up to the inevitable, any day now, news that Steve Jobs has got some exciting new Macbooks to share with us all - most likely on 14th October. Or who knows? it could be sooner. After all, rumours tell us that this gear is already shipping. Within the space of a week, the blogosphere seems to have moved on from aluminium (that's alu-min-ium guys, not alu-min-um) Macbooks (yesterday's news already, although as soon as real news comes out about price and spec attention will flip back fast enough). No, the current gossip is all about what the word 'brick' relates to. The brick rumours started right after the recent iPod 'Let's Rock' event, with tech site 9to5Mac letting us all in on some juicy goss and quoting a source who claimed that the next special Apple event, would be "all about the brick".  This much we know, what we don't know is what this mysterious 'brick' might turn out to be. Will it be an updated MacMini redesigned to imitate the larger Mac Pro desktop machines? Will it be some sort of wireless device to act as a USB hub or even charge a laptop battery wirelessly? Will it be a relaunched Apple TV? Or will it be what the thing the Macbook Teatray Air should've been all along, Apple's answer to the netbook?  Although if these rumours of a second, multi touch screen in place of a keyboard turn out to be true then this is a very different beast to the run-of-the-mill portable mini notebooks as we know them now.  P-j   Update (9th October): Over the past couple of weeks the interweb gossip machine seems to have settled on understanding 'the brick' as referring to laser-machining the chassis for the new Macbooks from a single 'brick' of aluminium.  This would make the machine easier to build and lighter, making the machine a more attractive proposition and just as, if not more importantly, cheaper to produce.  The industry pundits reckon we'll see a range of up to 14 Macbook models and options starting from $800.  No news yet about dates we might see these or UK price points.    

[#2]

Apple has officially now issued invitations today for a laptop event next Tuesday at its Cupertino, California campus. "The spotlight turns to notebooks", so said the invitation sent to reporters. The only other information Apple has provided in this release is the 10am start time (PDT US time) and driving directions to the campus building.

[#3]

Indeed. Would be nice to upgrade my MacBook Pro if it's worthwhile doing so, though I'm concerned that the presence of a reduced-size DVI port means it won't be dual link... I am one of those few people who actually plugs a laptop in to a 30" monitor so I'll be pretty miffed if the ability to do so disappears.

[#4]

So.. a bit of a letdown? After all the hype and rumours based on rumours it was inevitable that the actual launch didn't meet many bloggers' expectations I guess. A nice range of powerful Macbooks with Nvidia graphics chips. But still extremely pricey when compared to Wintel laptops. For those on a budget, the older white Macbooks are on sale from £719 on the Apple website. But would you want one now when you know that the more expensive aluminium ones have the 3D graphics (and hence gaming) capability? http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKTRE49D7TX20081015

[#5]

I don't know, they seemed to embody pretty much all expectations set by the rumour sites aside from the possibility of a sub-$1K price (I don't call $999 'below $1000'). And I'd certainly be very happy if one of the new MBPs landed on my doorstep, particularly seeing as they do support dual-link DVI after all... problem is that we've been hit by a weakening pound against the dollar. When Apple's last laptop revision took place we were at £1 = $2, but now we're at £1 = $1.75, which makes quite a difference when you're talking in the thousands. Having said that Apple's conversion is reasonably fair; their $2000 MBP sells over here for £1400 now... but if you convert $2000 to GBP then add on VAT you get about £1350, which isn't far off.