March 2021 • Macworld 19support Thunderbolt, of course, and
I would hope that Apple would find a
little bit of room in any new MacBook
for a second port, just as there are
two ports on both M1 laptops.
Finally, there’s the keyboard.
The butterfly keyboard design
that debuted on the MacBook and
gradually migrated to the entire Mac
laptop line was a multi-year disaster
for Apple that it’s only recently
addressed. Obviously, that keyboard’s
not going to work. But Apple has
already done the redesign work,
twice – first for the Magic Keyboard
in modern Mac laptops, and second
for the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro.
Surely one of those designs would
be thin and light enough to be tucked
into a new MacBook.WHAT’S IN A NAME?
To be honest, the worst part of the
MacBook is its name. Not that the
name MacBook doesn’t have a proud
legacy, but that it’s both the name of
a specific computer model and the
name of an entire product line.
I’d like to add a rider to my
proposal that Apple bring back
the 12in MacBook: why not just
call it the 12in MacBook Air? The
company already has two sizes of
MacBook Pros. There were two sizesof MacBook Air for years, and both
models proved popular.
As much as I love my M1 MacBook
Air, I would drop it in a heartbeat
for a 12in model that looked like the
Retina MacBook. There’s room in the
Mac laptop line for a smaller, lighter
MacBook. I promise it won’t take up
very much space.March 2021 • Macworld 19support Thunderbolt, of course, and
I would hope that Apple would find a
little bit of room in any new MacBook
for a second port, just as there are
two ports on both M1 laptops.
Finally, there’s the keyboard.
The butterfly keyboard design
that debuted on the MacBook and
gradually migrated to the entire Mac
laptop line was a multi-year disaster
for Apple that it’s only recently
addressed. Obviously, that keyboard’s
not going to work. But Apple has
already done the redesign work,
twice – first for the Magic Keyboard
in modern Mac laptops, and second
for the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro.
Surely one of those designs would
be thin and light enough to be tucked
into a new MacBook.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
To be honest, the worst part of the
MacBook is its name. Not that the
name MacBook doesn’t have a proud
legacy, but that it’s both the name of
a specific computer model and the
name of an entire product line.
I’d like to add a rider to my
proposal that Apple bring back
the 12in MacBook: why not just
call it the 12in MacBook Air? The
company already has two sizes of
MacBook Pros. There were two sizes
of MacBook Air for years, and both
models proved popular.
As much as I love my M1 MacBook
Air, I would drop it in a heartbeat
for a 12in model that looked like the
Retina MacBook. There’s room in the
Mac laptop line for a smaller, lighter
MacBook. I promise it won’t take up
very much space.