Cult of Mac: a blog about the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone - and the people who love them

57 comments

(If real) This look like a small Macbook White that they could easily sell for $600. However, I am not a big fan of that kind of Apple logo. Hopefully that’s not the final version.

Matt, on May 4th, 2009 at 9:14 pm

Is that like 9.5 inches wide? So the screen wld logically be smaller than that?

Wld make sense to use the “old” white casing since it’s technically a lower end notebook.

More pics, pls.

MacSheikh, on May 4th, 2009 at 9:40 pm

Is this the new Apple “netbook”?

Umm……..no.

Olternaut, on May 4th, 2009 at 9:43 pm

worst. fake. ever.

nate, on May 4th, 2009 at 9:49 pm

No chance

Danny, on May 4th, 2009 at 9:55 pm

worst. fake. ever.

Badger, on May 4th, 2009 at 9:56 pm

awww. nate, you’re no fun. :^)

Lonnie Lazar, on May 4th, 2009 at 9:57 pm

Unless Apple is able to bend space-time and still manage to include all the exact same ports as the 13″ White MacBook has in significantly less space, I’m calling this a photochop.

If a compact Apple notebook were to exist in reality, it would have the same keyboard as current MacBooks, which would make such a machine about 11″ wide. I think it would be possible to narrow the keyboard *slightly*, maybe less than a quarter inch, and still be “full-size.” The screen would likely be a 10″, 16:9 LCD. And why *wouldn’t* Apple use its unibody aluminium construction, which results in a more compact, lighter-weight machine?

foresmac, on May 4th, 2009 at 9:57 pm

looks a tad like the old ibook to me. the logo styling is all wrong for the current trend. also, the dominant definition of a ‘netbook’ is one designed for surfing the web, reading email and other similar tasks — NOT has a full machine. so this would be a tad thick I would think and too many ports. something more in line with the macbook air (with perhaps built in 3g alongside the wifi) would make more sense to me.

Scott, on May 4th, 2009 at 9:58 pm

No, it’s not. Well, I doubt it. Tee logo, for a start – There’s never been one with that fake swoosh across it on a piece of hardware. They’ve spent the last couple of years refining the MacBooks and MacBook pros to be more streamlined, made from Aluminium, sexier and sleeker and then they’d bring out a crappy looking plastic box like this? I don’t see it – It just doesn’t seem like Apple to do that, especially given Jobs’ insistence that if they were to do a netbook they would only do so to bring something different and unique to that segment of the market. That thing could be anything, an ASUS, a Sony, whatever. Looks just like an old MacBook shrunk down.

Matthew, on May 4th, 2009 at 9:59 pm

But it does look boring by today’s Apple standards, though. Very much like the “old” iBook G4. Would I’ve have passed this? i doubt so.

MacSheikh, on May 4th, 2009 at 10:02 pm

“more images that will take time to process”? That’s the worst BS excuse I’ve read all day. “Processing” those images shouldn’t take more than a few seconds

haha, on May 4th, 2009 at 10:33 pm

takes times to process images?? egads man…how long does it take on a Mac? Maybe you need a PC…it can do that stuff is seconds!

myles, on May 4th, 2009 at 10:35 pm

Please remove this image and posting immediately. We have contacted the webmaster by email and phone with no response, we would appreciate your swift action in removing the unauthorized image.

Apple, on May 4th, 2009 at 10:51 pm

it looks clunky and a bit naff. If they make a netbook (shudder) it’ll be a netbook like no other, and this is a netbook like every other, ie boring and ugly (at least from the image so far)

Matthew Kerr, on May 4th, 2009 at 10:53 pm

wow. tough crowd. who knew how hard it would be to have a little fun on a Monday night?

Lonnie Lazar, on May 4th, 2009 at 10:55 pm

Yeah, that’s a *totally* believable “future Apple portable product” image. I mean, it even has screws and vent slots like the new… oh wait, never mind.

Then again… why the hell not photoshop the Air?

Xander, on May 4th, 2009 at 10:56 pm

So, a ‘trusted contributer’ gets this ‘new’ Apple device and lays it out nice next to a ruler for a few photo’s eh?
This kind of nonsense makes this site a joke- I can’t even believe I am wasting time to reply to it….pointless waste of time and energy on your part.
Tell us more about the ‘trusted contributer’ and in future I can skip straight over his/her posts knowing they aint so ‘trusted’.
Regards
Jem

sooper8, on May 4th, 2009 at 10:58 pm

It’s OK Lonnie, us Mac Cultists (as you know) take our rumors very seriously. People should have figured out that it was your joke after the first two hints. At least one thing can be said: Mac Cultists make up for their sense of humor with their sheer intelligence.

Austin, on May 4th, 2009 at 11:03 pm

I love how the name of the image file is “macbook-small-13.jpg”.



Lalizig, on May 4th, 2009 at 11:04 pm

Apple should just make a 10″ MacBook Air for $699 and we could forget all of this foolishness.

Fred, on May 4th, 2009 at 11:18 pm

http://gizmodo.com/5240279/apple-netbook-student-project-is-a-pencil+drawn-beauty

blah, on May 4th, 2009 at 11:20 pm

This isn’t it.

I know for a fact the new device is coming out in the 2nd half of the year. But it doesn’t fold in half like a typical Macbook. It’s an open-face device with a 10″ touchscreen. (No keyboard.)

Cook on their recent earnings call stated that Apple has no interest in the Netbook market. But that was merely a red herring. Apple IS about to release a 10″ touchscreen media device that they believe will create a new category of devices/computers. It’s a ‘tweener’ device that will fulfill needs between a MacBook and an iPhone.

Don’t ask me how I know this.

Anonymous Poster, on May 4th, 2009 at 11:23 pm

Its time to kill the $999 macbook and bring this out at $599. But yah I agree with others above and hope this is not the final design. What I see so far disappoints !

Parikshith Kumar, on May 4th, 2009 at 11:34 pm

No. That looks like total crap. Apple would not release that unless Steve Jobs is secretly dead.

@Anonymous Poster: You know this because that’s the exact rumor that’s on every tech show including Macbreak Weekly, etc. There’s nothing new in your statement at all.

scott, on May 5th, 2009 at 12:04 am

PS. Note to Cult of Mac: You can stop trusting this source now.

scott, on May 5th, 2009 at 12:05 am

ibook g4 shopped

Fernando, on May 5th, 2009 at 12:06 am

Lonnie, I recalled the image from Gizmodo immediately, but I have to warn you, this can be fun for you (for me fun it is, as I know how the MacWeb works) but this could easily be a credibility Watterloo. It’s not April 1st.


Little hint, on May 5th, 2009 at 12:17 am

Haha, what a fail.

http://gizmodo.com/5240279/apple-netbook-student-project-is-a-pencil+drawn-beauty

Do you guys do any research? Guess who has just been removed from my RSS feeds in the ‘apple rumors’ folder?

Anon, on May 5th, 2009 at 1:40 am

Looks like an old 12″ badly photoshopped. Yech.

David Everitt-Carlson, on May 5th, 2009 at 1:57 am

Fake.
No way they wouldn’t make use of their spankin’ new unibody assembly lines.

Giovanni Bianchi, on May 5th, 2009 at 2:23 am

Ummm….

http://gizmodo.com/5240279/apple-netbook-student-project-is-a-pencil+drawn-beauty

Steve.Avery, on May 5th, 2009 at 2:40 am

Haters!



Aaron Miller, on May 5th, 2009 at 3:39 am

Don’t think it is, and will be. As Tim Cook said, they wouldn’t make such a bad netbook for Apple?OS X, and even if they did make one, it wouldn’t look like this. It would have a better form factor, better features, etc, instead of a smaller version of the current MacBook White.

Oh, and about the logo…

Fyre Vortex, on May 5th, 2009 at 5:54 am

You even feature the exact same image in another post on your site about MacBook inspidered art at 3/4 scale. How much dummerer could this get?

http://cultofmac.com/macbook-art-project-is-a-labor-of-love/10464

Ray Scott, on May 5th, 2009 at 6:32 am

More images to parse??? Cmon? Anyone believe that?

TMC11755, on May 5th, 2009 at 7:04 am

Give Apple and your readers some credit. The picture presented looks like the 4th runner-up for the 1988 design awards in India. Apple’s entry will be on the iPod platform, not the “book”. Think Amazon Kindle, a larger iPod Touch with an App store already in place. Read PDFs like you would a book, view video as you do now, touch screen a given, around $495-$695.

Bob Forsberg, on May 5th, 2009 at 7:49 am

NO NO NO!!!!!! NO MORE KEYBOARD. I am sick of reading with a big keyboard on my lap; IT NEEDS TO BE A 10 inch tablet!

syang, on May 5th, 2009 at 9:31 am

Didn’t Tim Cook already mention that those little crappy netbooks had small screens and cramped keyboards, so why would Apple produce something like that. Apple is not coming out with a netbook. They are coming out with a tablet or pad computer. I surmise this photo is a either a fake or some prototype that got shot down.

Constable Odo, on May 5th, 2009 at 10:43 am

no way, too ugly. jonathan would never authorize such an atrocity.

christian, on May 5th, 2009 at 10:53 am

Yep, that’s it.

Ryan, on May 5th, 2009 at 11:32 am

total photoshop job. look at the reflection on the ruler…notice taht at the top (towards 1inch line) the reflection isn’t staggered…but towards the bottom (9inch-10inch) the reflection is staggered…if this is a real reflection, shouldn’t it not go past the 9inch mark?

i call bs, too.

bs, on May 5th, 2009 at 1:00 pm

Real or no, when are people gonna give up this rediculous pipedream of a netbook from Apple?

Again ….
THERE IS NO NEED OF A DEVICE BETWEEN A LAPTOP & A POCKET COMPUTER.
Cool looking?
Sure — I’ll give ya that. [not *this* hunk o' offal but netbooks generally]
Practical?
No.

And I love how the image’s name is > macbook-small-13.jpg
Perhaps you shoulda — ahhh …. “processed” ‘em some more ….

CaryMG, on May 5th, 2009 at 1:24 pm

Seriously, time to update with “our sources were flat out wrong”?

David, on May 5th, 2009 at 6:45 pm

A while back, over a year, maybe, apple was granted a patent for a screen into which a small notebook device could be plugged in. At the time there was no portable computer from apple small enough. Could this be it? Perhaps we’ll see a screen launched alongside it?

Andrew, on May 5th, 2009 at 7:42 pm

Its a piece of wood mate.

JD Remington, on May 5th, 2009 at 10:44 pm

Strange, the smallest of the machine means smaller USB port and all, it can still have 6 ports but proportionally smaller too?

I totally believe in this trusted source, now smaller USB plugs must design for this wonderful netbook.

nafnaf, on May 6th, 2009 at 3:30 am

Lulz, Apple Fanboi’s Get A Woody!

http://www.osnews.com/story/21439/Apple_s_Rumoured_Netbook_Made_Out_of_Wood

badenov, on May 6th, 2009 at 5:23 am

Apple already has a netbook. It’s called the iPhone

Tom, on May 7th, 2009 at 7:45 am

For those who have something bad to say, you do something better and get it posted here. I don’t understand why you people have to be so judgemental. It took alot of time and effort, obviously. Go ahead and post comments towards what I have to say, also.

KAITLIN, on May 7th, 2009 at 7:31 pm

Kaitlin makes a great point, actually. The artist who created this – it’s no photoshop graphic, after all – spent many hours constructing this piece out of raw materials. And for all anyone can really tell it looks just like and actual MacBook. It’s extraordinary, really.

Lonnie Lazar, on May 8th, 2009 at 12:06 am

I really wish people would stop saying that the iPhone/iPod Touch, or the macbook Air are netbooks or can take the place of a netbook. That is simply not true to those of us who want something along the lines of a netbook. None of those 3 items qualify. I carry several very heavy books with me to classes every day and the 12 inch powerbook I take along as well would be perfect if it weighed less than 4.8LBS. The footprint of it is just right for my needs as well as the needs of many others. The MBA (which I like very much), is too big to fit in the pocket in my bag, and too expensive. I have the same issue with the mac book as far as size goes, and it only weighs 4 ounces less than my Powerbook. That is not enough less weight for me to consider getting it. I want something in roughly the same footprint as my powerbook, but 1.5-2LBs lighter. While the iPhone is a great piece of engineering, it can’t replace my laptop for taking notes in school, partly because there is no support for Hebrew Language, and partly because I can’t connect my bluetooth keyboard to it.

Marc, on May 8th, 2009 at 4:40 pm

i bet it would blend.

goosesensor, on May 9th, 2009 at 2:33 am

Worst.Fake.Ever.

David, on May 10th, 2009 at 2:35 pm

Uhhh… the apple logo is upside down.

suckers, on May 20th, 2009 at 9:01 am

I don’t think Apple will be as bland as that . . . I think it will more like the fusion of the Macbook and the technology found in “www.hellosmartbook.com” which will blow away the field altogether. New category = Smartbook

Futurist, on May 31st, 2009 at 5:37 pm

Ho hum, needs a tastier industrial design please.

DJ, on June 1st, 2009 at 6:30 am