Apple’s Phil Schiller just announced a new lineup of MacBook Airs based on Intel’s Haswell processor. The 11-inch Air now has 9 hours of battery life, and the 13-inch now boasts 12 hours! The exterior design hasn’t changed. This is a huge internal specs bump.
The new 11-inch starts at $999 with 128GB of flash storage. The 13-inch starts at $1099 with 128GB of flash storage.
With just over two hours to go until Apple kicks off its WWDC 2013 keynote, the Apple online store has gone down. We can’t say we’re hugely surprised, but the move does suggest that we won’t just see software previews today, but also new hardware as well.
Today’s the day, folks! In just a few hours, Apple will kick off WWDC 2013 with a first look at its next-generation iOS 7 operating system. We’re expecting big changes with this update, and according to sources for The Wall Street Journal, those will include a brand new look, new ways to share your photos and videos, and a new music streaming service.
You can also expect to see a glimpse of OS X 10.9 and new notebooks at the event.
Saving space on your Mac’s hard drive is more important than ever, especially if you use one with a faster but smaller solid-state drive in it, like my MacBook Air. Being able to manage your space wisely is the key here, and once you’ve done the obvious things, like pare down your Applications folder and delete all those iMovie source files, it’s time to get tricky and a bit advanced. If you’re using a MacBook Pro M1, optimizing storage is even more crucial to ensure you get the best performance from your device.
Here’s five things that you can do to get rid of hard drive bloat, if you dare.
If you have a mid-2012 MacBook Air, Apple has released a small firmware update that addresses “a storage firmware issue that, in rare cases, may cause a system to fail to recover from crash.”
The update itself is just 1.69MB, and can be downloaded here
New MacBook Airs might be revealed at WWDC, but if you’re just looking for the cheapest price on the current MacBook Air lineup, then Best Buy’s got you set this week.
To celebrate Mother’s Day, Best Buy is taking $100 off the price of certain MacBook Air models. Then to make things even better, you can get $25 more off the price by entering the code MOM25.
Here are the prices you can expect after the discount:
It’s no secret that new MacBooks are coming at WWDC in June, but they’ll just be spec bumps, featuring a small ~8% performance boost thanks to Intel’s new Haswell processors, and a gain to battery efficiency. Nothing to get excited about, right?
Actually, no. Haswell’s hiding one super beefy update in its silicon: Iris, Intel’s super-charged integrated graphics that will boost Haswell’s polygon by 200% compared to the last generation… not to mention make the MacBook Air’s graphics beefy enough to support a Retina Display.
Putting a sweet decal on your MacBook’s lid is cool and all, but if you’re looking to take things to another level with your MacBook decorating skills, maybe you you should try cutting some artwork into it with a laser.
The process of laser cutting artwork into your MacBook’s lid isn’t easy, but the people over at Uncover will do it for you. You can get almost any design cut into your MacBook, but Uncover requires that you send in your MacBook to be beautified, or just buy a new one through them so they can customize it before sending it out to you.
The results are pretty stunning, and it will definitely help you stand out at a college or your next IT conference.
Here’s a peek at some of the cool laser-cut artwork others have had Uncover do for them:
Apple’s not expected to show much at WWDC that isn’t software. Tim Cook himself pretty much precluded seeing any major updates to Apple’s hardware line until fall. That doesn’t mean, however, that Apple won’t bump the specs of some existing Mac models, and it’s now expected by one of Apple’s more reliable activists that Cupertino will do just that, unveiling upgraded MacBooks across the line at the beginning of June.
Do you ever worry that your beloved MacBook’s sleek aluminum shell will get damaged when it’s packed inside your bag with the rest of your gadgets and gizmos. This handmade, wool felt sleeve from MyBanana aims to give your notebook a home of its own, away from sharp keys, USB cables, chargers, and all the other things you might need to pack into your bag when you’re on the road.
Wool Felt Sleeve by MyBanana Category: Sleeve Works With: MacBook Air, MacBook Pro Price: £48+
Its slimline design holds your MacBook Air or Retina MacBook Pro — depending on which size you go for — plus smaller items in a pocket on its front. This is ideal for carrying Lightning cables, an iPhone, or even an iPad mini.
Anything you stick inside the sleeve is secured by two vegatable tanned leather traps with snap fasteners.
Pricing starts at £48 ($56) for the 11-inch MacBook Air sleeve, then rises to £54 ($63) for the 13-inch MacBook Air or Retina MacBook Pro models. If you have a 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro, it’ll cost you £58 ($68).
The Retina MacBooks are fabulous machines. They’re super thin, powerful, and just plain sexy. But have you ever opened your Retina MacBook and watched the screen just sit there in limbo for a few seconds before it actually comes alive again? It’s frustrating that you can see the password box, but you can’t actually type anything until the MacBook fully wakes up.
Apple has baked a feature called “standby mode” into the Retina MacBook Pros and the post-2010 MacBook Airs. Standby mode is the reason newer MacBooks sometimes take a little longer to wake, and there happens to be a simple terminal command you can enter in OS X to change the timing.
As I never tire of telling people, I do all my work using an iPad. Research, communication, writing and photo editing – all of these are now second nature for me on both the iPad mini and the full-sized iPad 3. I love the portability, I love the stripped-down “workflow” which lets me get stuff done way faster than I can on the Mac, mostly due to lack of OS X’s inherent distractions.
In fact, I am so happy with the iPad as a work machine that I thought that I’d never buy another Mac. I figured that, by the time my iMac died, iOS would have caught up with most of the “truck” tasks I still need to do: keeping a big photo library, running a BitTorrent client.
So why am I writing this post on a brand-new MacBook Air? One thing: My arm is fucking killing me.
It’s no secret that the best place to buy a MacBook or iMac is from the online Apple Store’s refurbished section. You get the same products, with the same warranty, for a few hundred bucks cheaper than buying it brand new.
But what you probably didn’t know is that Apple has a secret eBay store which sells the same refurbished items you can get from the online Apple Store, except they’re even cheaper.
Owners of late 2012 Macs like the Mac mini, the new iMac or the MacBook Pro with Retina Display are reporting a major problem with their machines: they can’t re-install Mountain Lion or even re-install from a Time Machine backup if their systems get corrupted.
Apple is rumored to release a Retina version of the MacBook Air this fall, according to a new report from Taiwanese publication Economic Times. The next-gen MacBook Air is expected to ship in the third quarter of 2013, and the laptop will go into production overseas during the summer months.
Both the 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air models are expecting a refresh. Apple will likely use Intel’s new Haswell processor, and the MacBook Air would be given an exterior “facelift” to complement the Retina display.
Apple has today announced that it has updated its 13- and 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro to add faster processors and lower prices. The 13-inch model now starts at $1,499 with 128GB of flash storage, rising to $1,699 for a new 2.6GHz processor and 256GB of flash.
The 15-inch model now offers a faster 2.4GHz quad-core processor as standard, while the top-of-the-line model gets a new 2.7GHz quad-core processor and 16GB of memory.
While Apple’s newer notebooks like the MacBook Air and Retina MacBook Pro are certainly aesthetically pleasing, some trade offs had to be made in order to achieve such thin machines. Apple has been slowly paring down the number of ports it includes on its notebooks, most notable with the MacBook Air.
Even though these machines are becoming more and more capable all the time, the lack of connections on them puts a serious strain on their functionality. That’s where the Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock comes in. This little attachment for your laptop gives you eight additional ports to work with right on your desk.
SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD/iWORLD 2013 – When you walk onto the Macworld Expo floor you’re immediately assaulted by a cacophony of iPad cases and stands. Everyone thinks they have the perfect solution for you to rest your iPad on.
Honestly, a lot of the iPad accessories here are pure crap, but I roamed around the floor all day and this is the best one I could find. It’s called the Desktop Chair from Moku Woodware, and it’s the only iPad stand from Macworld I might consider buying.
Best Buy has slashed $200 off all MacBook Air models and up to $700 off MacBook Pros for its two-day winter sale. You can now get Apple’s 11.6-inch ultraportable for just $799.99, while the discontinued 17-inch MacBook Pro has been reduced from $2,499 to $1,799.99. All machines come with free shipping, but these prices are only valid today and tomorrow.
The first Microsoft Surface RT tablets were supposed to be Redmond’s answer to the iPad. They have a cool design, with a fancy keyboard and an innovative new operating system to boot. Sales have been abysmal. The reviews were bad. And we weren’t too impressed either.
Microsoft swears that the Surface Pro is going to be way better though. It’s going to actually run a full version of Windows 8, meaning it will have access to a lot more apps than its Windows RT counterpart. It’s totally going to compete with the iPad 4 now, except the problem is the Surface Pro is going to cost nearly as much as a MacBook Air.
Apple celebrates the Chinese New Year by offering its fans in Asia one-day “Red Friday” deals, similar to the Black Friday sale it holds for customers in the United States. And the Cupertino company has today begun teasing the event via its online store with a big red advert that promises “great gifts for everyone on your list.”
Apple’s Back to School promotion has begun in Australia and New Zealand ahead of the new school year. Like previous years, the promotion offers a free gift card with new Macs and iOS devices purchased for education, and it’s open to students, parents, and teachers. This year’s deal includes the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro, the iMac and the Mac Pro, and the iPad with Retina display.
Apple has released an important software update for all mid-2012 MacBook Air models. The EFI firmware update is available now via Software Update in the Mac App Store. Today’s 2.6 update addresses issues with coloring on HDMI-connected displays, booting into Windows via a tool like Boot Camp, and a Thunderbolt glitch.
This update fixes a color issue with HDMI displays connected to MacBook Air, resolves an issue with Windows which can prevent MacBook Air from booting properly, and also resolves an issue where unplugging a Thunderbolt device may cause the system to freeze when waking from standby.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – The venerable MacBook Pro has a number of workstation options available to it, but the MacBook Air tends to get short shrift in the B2B accessories market.
The LandingZone wants to change that, and they’re showing off a simple, attractive pair of docking stations that not only make it easy to “check in” to your workstation, but give the MacBook Air a wealth of new USB ports and security benefits.