- Oct 14
3
MacBookish
There was plenty of chatter today surrounding Apple’s announcement of new MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops, which feature a one-piece body carved from a single block of solid aluminum and sport multi-touch trackpads (sort of like the iPhone). John Gruber has several items on Daring Fireball, Engadget got one dirty, and Gizmodo did a side-by-side comparison with the previous incarnations.
Apple also released a video featuring design director and Objectified cast member Jonathan Ive explaining the new design, along with some nice footage of metal gettin’ cut up. And if you chug a beer every time someone says “fit and finish”, you’ll be slightly drunk.
October 17th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Jonathan (Weg Eins) says:
I love it…
Apple did it again!
October 27th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Steven P. says:
The new Macbooks are a good exmaple for »Function follows form«. The glass in front of the display looks good but provides only disadvantages in terms of usability.
The reflections on the glass are horrible. Unusable in bright environment.
The trackpad seems to follow the new credo also: Looks nice but usability suffers. If you come in contact with any other than one finger, the cursor jumps or clicks won’t be recognized. AND you will touch the large trackpad with your thumb where the button was on older models.
I think the new MacBooks are a good example for style over ergonomics.
October 27th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Steven P. says:
The picture above shows it pretty good: If the user touches the trackpad also with his thumb, unwanted cursor action is the result. You can’t rest your thumb at the position you’re supposed to click.