Posted on 10/25/2016 2:08:16 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Including Touch ID and a MacBook-style keyboard
Apple is widely expected to unveil a redesigned MacBook Pro at an event on Thursday, but it looks like it may have let a couple images slip out early. MacRumors spotted a pair of images hidden inside yesterday's update to macOS Sierra, both of which show a new MacBook Pro, a touch panel above its keyboard, and a fingerprint reader.
The images show a narrower MacBook Pro with slimmer bezels around both the keys and screen. The keys all look to be flatter, likely adopting the same slim format used on the MacBook. Otherwise, the design looks more or less like the Pro we know today.
But the highlight of these images is of course the touch strip at the top of the keyboard, which has been rumored for months. The images give an early idea of what it'll be like in use: completely blank and black when the computer is off, and able to display colors, buttons, and symbols in response to whatever comes up on-screen.
One of the pictures shows it being used for Apple Pay. An arrow points to the right corner of the touch strip, where a Touch ID fingerprint reader is located.
Apple could end up calling this touch strip the Magic Toolbar. Brian Conroy at The Trademark Ninja, who's caught a number of other product names early, spotted a trademark filing for the name that he's traced back to Apple. That doesn't make the name a certainty, but it certainly sounds like a name Apple would come up with. After all, it already has a Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Mouse.
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I’ve been meaning to upgrade my MacBook Pro for years but it just won’t die! Best portable computer ever.
I see a problem. The keyboard shows QWERTY etc instead of ABC etc.
This is what happens when you have Chinese children construct the keyboard..... : )
I just bought a new one 3 months ago. 80(
Why did my Macbook pro and iMac both crash and burn up within two weeks of each other? Does Apple have a secret kill switch?
Replacing them ain’t cheap.
Love my Mac laptop. it was the last year they came out with a 17" screen. Love it!
Love my Mac laptop. it was the last year they came out with a 17" screen. Love it!
:)
Never had such a thing happen in years of managing Macs of all kinds. In sixteen years and hundreds of Macs, we've had only two go glitzy on us. One had a hard drive go bad and the other was just a few months ago was a brand new 27 inch 5K iMac that was a lemon. . . it was a serial killer of logic boards. Apple finally just swapped it completely after it killed the fourth logic board in as many weeks!
What do you mean "both crash and burn?" Did they die completely? How? What year were they made, version of OS X were they running?
“Statistics mean nothing when it happens to you.”
“What do you mean “both crash and burn?” Did they die completely? How? What year were they made, version of OS X were they running?”
Genuis bar, without diagnostics, said Macbook fried logic board. Wife said iMac died from geospatial storm attack from Mars. Subsequent analysis by yours truly confirms death of both. (Sniff.)
WTH! And I get stuck with the bill regardless. Never had two macs die within two weeks of each other. I used to be allowed at least six months mourning with a Mac death. Maybe the Macs were married in a previous life and decided to die together. That’s not unheard of in Indian metaphysical literature.
Sigh.
They can do that if you piss on them! Anyway, do you have drinks near the keyboard? My daughter fried her Macbook when her 2-year-old spilled a drink into it. She sent the Macbook to me, and I fixed a component on the keyboard, easy fix (even then, keyboard replacements are under $100). These machines are rugged and last a long time if not abused, and repair is cheap if you do it yourself. My wife just upgraded her ten-year-old Macbook earlier this year, it still works fine but she wanted features on the latest machines. A neighbor brought his busted Macbook Pro to me, he was going to toss it in the garbage but then thought I might want it. I easily fixed it with a $20 part. His son had broken a jack in a port, then jammed another jack in which fried a part. Easy fix, and my neighbor is back in business. I have found that most problems are user-caused.
Well, for the iMac, look at the Apple refurb store . . . save money and get a full as-new warranty. I'd look at the new MacBook Pro on Thursday before going to the refurbished on that.
You can't think like that. That way lies madness. Just enjoy the excellent computer you now have.
Stewart-Warner, a radio and automotive instrument manufacturer, used the name “Magic Keyboard” back in the 1930s.
If they trademarked that name, it would have been trademarked in a different industrial category. Unlikely they've kept up paying the trademark license for almost eighty years either. However, while Apple may have already Trademarked "Magic Keyboard" for a future product, I haven't seen any evidence of such a thing. Apple received an international Trademark for "Magic Toolbar" under a Netherlands shell company last year along with some others which are at this point still unknown. They do this to keep future products as secret as possible until they are ready to reveal them. They then transfer the Trademark to Apple USA when the product is ready for announcement. Next time it might be a French or German shell corporation that applies for the Trademark.
I put up an article a week or so ago about the discovery of the "Magic Toolbar" Trademark by a blogger who tracks trademark transfers.
The “Mother of all Demos”, presented by Douglas Engelbart (1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY
Oh, incidentally, Apple was granted a patent a couple of years ago for an entire moveable key, haptic feed back keyboard in which the entire keyboard was a touch screen that could be changed instantly, modifying the look, purpose, and layout of each key, and also become an entire mutitouch track pad as various apps modified the needs of input. That will probably, one day, be released as the “Magic Keyboard.”
What county in Calif. are you located in? Just noticed you’re near me. I’d hire you in a heartbeat to work on my macs or set me up with the best system for my needs. My regular guy has a full time job and he’s helped with PC more than Mac over the years.
T.W.
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