Apple’s online store has gone down ahead of the company’s keynote presentation at WWDC in just under four hours. We’ve had our suspicions that the company will be refreshing a number of its Macs, and this almost confirms they’ll be available to order today.
Most of us have considered moving out iTunes library to an external hard drive to save space at one time or another. If you use a MacBook Air, you know how squeezzed for space you can feel after using a laptop with a much bigger hard drive. Heck, we’ve even written about saving space via iTunes migration.
But what about iPhoto? True, pictures take up less space than iTunes videos, or even MP3 tracks, but more and more these days we’re taking photos with huge pixel counts with similarly large file sizes. And what about all the movies we use our iPhones or cameras for? They eat up a lot of space, too. So, you might at some point want to move all the photos and home movies you manage in iPhoto to an external drive to save space. Here’s how.
As we patiently wait for Tim Cook to kick off Apple’s WWDC keynote in just under five hours time, the last of the WWDC rumors and reports are spilling in. One of the more questionable pieces comes from KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who believes the new MacBook Pro won’t get that thinner, lighter, MacBook Air-like form factor we’ve all been hearing about. But that a resurrected MacBook will instead.
We’re almost certain Apple will announce a new MacBook Pro at WWDC this week, but what we’re not quite so sure of is exactly what the new notebook will bring. An Intel Ivy Bridge processor and a high-resolution Retina display seem like the most feasible changes, but there’s also been much debate over a new design.
Some reports have suggested the device will sport a thinner, lighter form factor that will be heavily influenced by the MacBook Air. While others have claimed the design will remain the same as existing MacBook Pros. Now a leaked logic board for the upcoming device seems to side with the latter.
Macs equipped with Retina displays are high on everyone’s wish-list right now, but despite many rumors claiming we’ll see them announced at WWDC, we’ve still had our doubts they’ll arrive this year. However, we’ve been handed a glimmer of hope this morning after Retina-ready Mac applications began appearing in the Mac App Store.
The MacBook Air quickly snatched away the title of world's thinnest notebook. Tapering down to an astonishing 0.16" in its first version, the MacBook Air remains one of the most beautiful devices Apple has ever created. Unlike most ultraportable laptops, it came with a full-sized keyboard, too.
Photo: Apple
The wedge design of the MacBook Air has been patented by Apple, meaning that the Cupertino company now owns the rights to “the distinctive wedge or teardrop profile” of the sexy notebook. Apple’s D296 patent means that the MacBook Air has solidified the tapered, wedge-like design for its class of computer.
Instead of focusing on concrete details, the new patent covers the general aesthetic of the MacBook Air’s design. Over the past year or so, dozens of laptops, dubbed “Ultrabooks,” have been copying the metallic look and feel of the Air. Could this new patent mean that Apple is setting its legal sights on Ultrabook competitors?
TwelveSouth is a company as known for their fantastic innovations (for example, the PlugBug) as their curiosities (the BookBook case). The SurfacePad for MacBook doesn’t fall in either category: it’s a strictly utilitarian accessory, a thin leather sticker for the keyboard of your MacBook Air that makes it feel more pleasant to type on by putting an almost imperceptibly thin layer of dyed cow flesh between your palms and the cold unibody aluminum.
We’ve seen a handful of tablet cases — especially for the iPad — that aim to turn your slate into a MacBook Air lookalike. But the ClamBook from ClamCase is the first solution we’ve seen that’s designed for the iPhone and Android smartphones, and it promises to “change the way you view smartphones.”
Built from sleek aluminum, the ClamBook is incredibly thin and light. It comes to life when you hook it up to your smartphone to see its content on the widescreen display, which is accompanied by a full-size QWERTY keyboard and a multitouch trackpad.
Ever wish your MacBook Air came in carbon fiber black? Or maybe you just miss the classic old iPod white Apple used to ship its MacBooks in, and wish your Air was as clean and ivory?
Moshi’s got you covered. They’ve just announced the iGlaze, an ultra-slim case for your MacBook Air that adds maximal protection, minimum thickness and lets you have your Air in any color, as long as it’s black or white.
Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference is swiftly approaching (June 11th!), and we know they have some big announcements up their sleeves. Will we see new “Air like” Macbook Pros with SSDs and no DVD drives? Are updated iMacs with Retina displays on the horizon? And what about iOS 6? We tell you what we know on our brand new CultCast.
And then a segment we love: listener questions! You’ve tweeted at us and we’re ready to answer all your queries.
Our all-new CultCast is on iTunes now — subscribe to listen and read on for our show notes!
Apple has given its Premium Reseller across the United Kingdom authorization to discount £100 (approx. $160) off all Macs when customers trade-in their old machines. The Think Green scheme will run until June 17, and some believe it could signal Apple’s effort to shift existing stock before its next-generation MacBook Pros make their debut.
Believe it or not, some people still carry around laptops. Sure, those laptops are ultra-thin MacBook Airs, but they’re laptops nonetheless, used in ignorance of the real future of portable work — the iPad paired up with a Bluetooth keyboard.
Still, we don’t judge you luddites out there. And to prove it, we bring you this sleek little sleeve made just for your MacBook Air. It’s called the City Slicker, and it comes from SF Bags in San Francisco.
Intel may be the biggest world’s biggest chip maker, but the company failed to cash in on the mobile technology craze. Staying focused on desktops and laptops where it had a near lock on general computing market, Intel missed out taking the lead in smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices.
Now trying to play catchup, Intel has introduced its own ARM-competing tablets. The company is so confident (or arrogant) that it thinks it can make chips so compelling that Apple “can’t ignore” them for future iterations of the iPhone and iPad.
In what might be a move to clear out current inventory to make room for the upcoming line of Ivy Bridge Macs, Best Buy has slashed prices on all current generation Macs. Every single machine has been reduced in price, and while most discounts aren’t astounding, the extra $100-$200 saved on a new MacBook, iMac, Mac Mini, or Mac Pro, might be enough to entice customers who can’t wait another minute for a new Mac.
These type of discounts usually don’t happen without some involvement by Apple. It’s not uncommon for Apple to notify vendors of expected supply shortages before a transition to a new product line. Apple is expected to release new Macs this summer that utilize Intel’s new Ivy Bridge processors, so buy with caution. You can purchase the discounted Macs at your local Best Buy, or online.
Here’s a break down of the discounts you’ll find online:
Even as the iPad continues to slowly strangle the life out of the netbook market, HP is determined to rebrand that small, inexpensive laptop category while also breaking away from Intel’s MacBook Air-like ultrabook standard. Calling the new line of laptops “sleekbooks,” HP is repudiating Intel’s ultrabook requirements and cozying up with Intel’s longtime rival AMD.
The new sleekbook devices were announced along with new ultrabook models in HP’s Envy line. The new sleekbooks aim to strike a balance somewhere between Intel’s rigid ultrabook specs and the netbook ideal of minimal, low-cost notebooks.
While we can debate how much the iPad cannibalizes Apple’s MacBook sales, there’s no doubt that the device is continuing to kill of the entire netbook industry. While iPad sales are literally selling as fast as Apple can make them, netbook sales continue to plummet – with the first quarter of this year representing a sixth consecutive quarter in which shipments of the small, inexpensive, and often low quality PC notebooks have declined sharply.
Sources in Apple’s Taiwanese supply chain claim that the Cupertino company is gearing up to launch a cheaper $799 MacBook Air later this year that will decrease the price gap between the next-generation of Windows-powered ultrabooks. Although specifications are not mentioned in the report, sources say the notebook will make its debut during the third quarter.
When Apple introduced the MacBook Air without an optical drive, everyone freaked out. “How on earth will we be able to watch all of our DVDs and listen to our CDs?” cried the internet. And sure, totally disowning physical media with a disk drive-less laptop may have been a little preemptive of Apple back in 2008, but the times have changed since then. We live in a world of digital media and digital software distribution. The success of services like Netflix and the Mac App Store proves that.
With rumors saying that Apple will introduce new and improved Macs in the coming weeks, what can we expect? Faster processors? Solid-state hard drives? Retina displays? While these features certainly seem to be on the table, there’s also the chance that Apple’s next-gen MacBook Pro will sport significant physical changes. Namely, we could finally see the optical drive retire from the MacBook line once and for all.
Oh, man. Today is totally turning into Kickstarter day here on Cult of Mac. The latest accessory from everybody’s favorite crowd-funded idea factory is the Brydge, another keyboard case which will turn your iPad into a miniature MacBook Air-a-like.
This case has a little twist, though. Instead of offering an entire laptop-shaped shell into which you can drop the tablet, it has a clever hinge which holds the iPad and uses it as the entire lid of the clamshell case.
Linus Torvalds is not a huge fan of Apple products. He is, as he describes himself, a socks and sandal kind of guy, a tinkerer. Even so, the Linux creator is absolutely in love with the MacBook Air… and wonders why the hell other laptop makers can’t come out and release an ultrabook that’s worth a damn.
Yesterday, we heard an analyst report suggesting that Apple would effectively kill off the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lines and merge then into a single, streamlined device known only as the MacBook.
It was an interesting report, but analysts say a lot of things, including sometimes when they are at the bottom of a barrel of bourbon. But now Mactrast is saying that their own unproven source is echoing reports of a MacBook Pro/MacBook Air hybrid… boasting USB 3.0 support and a sexy, lightweight Liquidmetal chassis.
Just as expected, Intel launched its first crop of quad-core Ivy Bridge processors today. This is the chip that will replace the company’s Sandy Bridge CPUs in Apple’s next-generation of Macs. They’re the world’s first processors to use a 22-nanometer manufacturing process and feature Intel’s “Tri-Gate” 3D transistor technology.
The iPhone 4S is hardly a fatty, but it is thicker than many of its Android-powered rivals. However, thanks to in-cell touch technology and other improvements Apple is expected to make to the sixth-generation iPhone, the handset could measure in at just 7.9mm thick — 1.4mm thinner than the iPhone 4S.
We’ve heard plenty of speculation surrounding the future of Apple’s 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros in recent months, which are soon expected to adopt a new form factor and Intel’s latest Ivy Bridge processors. However, according to one analyst, there may no longer be a MacBook Pro… or a MacBook Air.
Instead, Apple will release an all-new MacBook that combines the qualities of both, while the 17-inch MacBook Pro will be discontinued completely.
Rickshaw, the folks behind my favorite bag ever, has released a new biker-friendly reflective messenger bag which can be used to tote your 13-inch MacBook Air in addition to all your other junk. It is in fact a fancified version of the Zero Messenger I use every day.