Filed under: Laptops
The Apple rumor mill has really cooked up a doozy this time. According to 9to5mac — a site with a fairly good track record — Apple’s next big thing isn’t just a laptop or an iPod… it’s an entirely new manufacturing process. If you believe the site’s sources, an as-yet-unannounced event on October 14th will herald in a new iteration of the MacBook dubbed the “Brick,” but the big news won’t actually be about the laptop. Apparently, Apple has created a brand-new process to sculpt casings for products out of aircraft-grade aluminum, using a system that carves the pieces out of a single block of metal using “3D lasers” and water-jet cutting. The new technique will supposedly allow for seamless components which require no bending or folding, won’t use screws to join together, are ultra-light but also “super strong,” and will enable the company to rapidly prototype and produce new designs. Of course, not a single word of this is confirmed or even acknowledged by Apple, though we have been hearing whispers of the “Brick” for a few weeks now. Ultimately, everyone should approach this news with extreme skepticism, but if these rumors get magically transmuted into reality, there’s no telling what kind of new gear Apple might have up its sleeve.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
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Some commentators say that the process is not able to cut only partially through a brick to indicate that the process is not as refined as bending metal, but this does not matter because cutting can create angles and protrusions that could theoretically make shapes that could fit together without screws or welding, much as the way a Japanese religious building can be erected.
If this is the result, then it fits in with S. Jobs’s interest in the aesthetics of the manufacture process and could be what we will see in future mac products.
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