MacBook Pro - page 62

The biggest shopping day of the year is fast approaching. The day after Thanksgiving in the United States is Black Friday, and it’s the best time to begin you’re holiday gift shopping — if you can face the frenzy, that is. Retailers all over the U.S. will be offering big discounts on some of this year’s hottest gifts, and the Apple store will be no exception, having given Black Friday discounts to Apple Store customers for the last few years regularly.

Next Friday the 23rd is Black Friday, and while Apple hasn’t tipped its hand as to when

If you’re looking to save cash on the latest Macs, iOS devices, and accessories, then Black Friday is an ideal time to buy them. Based on Apple’s previous Black Friday deals, here’s what you can expect to see this year.

If you haven’t already installed Apple’s latest EFI firmware for your 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro, you may want to avoid it for a little while. Users on the Apple Support Communities forum are reporting that the update causes reduced frame rates and processor slowdowns when using graphically-intensive applications.

If you don’t know by now, Mujjo makes the sexiest sleeves around for Apple products. If you just bought or plan on picking up Apple’s new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, then Mujjo has you covered. The Dutch company has announced its new sleeve for the 13-inch Retina MacBook.

“OMG—it’s huuuuge…” That’s what my friend said when she first saw me holding the Retrospective 50 camera bag from Think Tank Photo ($240). My ego properly boosted, I heartily agreed with her.

But besides being the size of a japanese automobile, the Retrospective 50 (R50) is a continuation of functional, understated, vintage-looking camera bags from Think Tank. And unlike the other smaller bags in the Retrospective line, this one has a special space reserved for your 15-Inch Macbook Pro, which I discovered in testing, can be both a pro and a con.

Adobe has made available a new RC (release candidate) version of Lightroom, numbered v.4.3. On its own, this is clearly not worth an entire blog post, or even a tweet. But there’s one new feature that you Retina MacBook Pro owners might be interested in: HiDPI support.

Apple has released a software update that’s recommended for all MacBook Airs and MacBook Pros released in June 2012 — including the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro. In addition to graphics performance and reliability enhancements, the update promises to improve compatibility with some USB devices.

As is their wont, as if their drive, the lovely boys over at iFixIt have already ripped apart the new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro to check out the gooey silicon insides of Apple’s latest laptops.

Just in case you’re not interested in watching the full iPad mini keynote, we’ve compiled the entire thing down into just 90 seconds, like always. Check out the video after the break to see Tim Cook and Phil Schiller announce all of today’s products, at a rapid rate.

The iPad mini just left the land of make believe to become Apple’s hottest new gadget. And on our just-recorded special edition CultCast, we’re ready to reveal our first impressions of the mini’s smaller form factor, compact screen, and higher than expected price tag.

Plus, are you more than a little peeved that Apple just made their 7-month-old “New” iPad obsolete? Sure, the newly announced 4th-gen iPad the is great news if you didn’t just buy the now last gen iPad 3, but if you did, you’re probably none too enthused.

Our discussion on that and our other hardware first impressions on this very special edition CultCast! Subscribe now on iTunes, or easily stream The CultCast via Apple’s free Podcasts App.

Today’s iPad Mini event was incredible. Tim Cook and the gang just unleashed a tsunami of new Apple products on the world for the second straight month. Yes, the iPad Mini made an appearance, but there was so much more sweet stuff that it’s hard to keep up with all the details.

Rather than getting lost in the flood of thousands of different posts that will be written about the Apple event today, we’ve broken down all the necessary info into delicious bite-size information nuggets just for you, so you can know all the essentials.

Here’s everything that Apple announced at today’s keynote:

Apple will hold a media event at 10AM PT/1PM ET today, October 23rd at the California Theatre in San Jose. Select members of the press will gather to see the “little more” Apple has up its sleeve for the holiday season. The rumored iPad mini is expected to be announced as well as new Mac hardware and iTunes 11.

Wondering what all Apple will announce this time around? Here’s what you can expect to see at tomorrow’s event:

Apple’s search engine leaked the iPhone 5 hours before the actual keynote announcement last month. This time Apple search engine hasn’t spoiled any of the announcement, but the world’s most popular search engine has one of the main products of today’s announcement.

This morning Google search was pulling results from Apple.com that revealed Apple will release a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display today. Google’s web crawlers even picked up that the pricing on the new units too.

When Apple holds a press event to announce its latest gadget, the vast majority of us are frantically refreshing our favorite websites in an effort to keep up with the news as it’s breaking. It’s not often we get to watch the event live.

But sometimes, Apple treats us to a live video feed. And it’s doing that today for the much-anticipated iPad mini event.

The Crumpler Nhill Heist is a laptop backpack that “allows you to step off your bike and into work, without looking like you’ve just stepped off your bike.” Built from water resistant 900D/300D rip-stop nylon, with reinforced stitching on all stress points, it aims to outlast its lifetime guarantee by being super tough.

iFixit called the the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display the “least repairable” laptop ever made, and for good reason. Apple’s super-strong glue, soldering, and proprietary screws make it impossible to replace the battery, upgrade RAM, swap the circuit boards, etc. That’s why Apple originally withdrew its products from EPEAT, the American standard for eco-friendly consumer electronics. After plenty of public outcry, Apple issued an apology and re-added its products to the EPEAT’s registry, despite the fact that laptops like the Retina MacBook Pro aren’t exactly “green.”

Last week EPEAT said that Apple’s products, including new laptops like the Retina MacBook Pro, meet its eligibility requirement for registry approval. Now EPEAT is giving the Retina MacBook Pro its highest “Gold” approval rating.

It’s finally here. After months of rumors and speculation, the iPad Mini keynote is just days away. Apple just sent out invites to their October 23rd event where they are expected to reveal the iPad Mini, 13-inch MacBook Pros with Retina display, and possibly some new iMacs. The tag line for the event is “We’ve got a little more to show you.”

The event will take place in San Jose at the California Theatre on October 23rd at 10AM PDT. Along with the new hardware, the iPad Mini event is rumored to focus heavily on iBooks. Cult of Mac will live-blog the event, so mark your calendars and tune in.

According to the latest round of rumors, Apple will unveil the iPad Mini and a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display on October 23rd. Both aren’t radically new products, they’re just smaller versions of the iPad or 15-inch MacBook Pro.

So which one is more lust worthy? I’ve been using a 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro for a few months now and it’s beautiful, but too bulky compared to the 11-inch MacBook Air I had been using for the last year. A smaller MacBook Pro with a Retina display would be perfect. As far as the iPad Mini goes, I don’t play a lot of games on my iPad, and a smaller screen would make it more portable and better for reading in bed. I can’t decide which one I should want more though. What do you think?

Click here to go to the Cult of Mac Forums and tell us which new Apple device you’re most excited for

Apple’s iPad Mini event that is rumored to be taking place on October 23rd is going to be jam packed with goodies. The iPad Mini is coming. Some redesigned iMacs might be revealed too. And now we’ve gotten some solid info that Apple will also unveil a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display at the event.

It’s back to the Mac on this week’s CultCast, and on our newest episode, we’ll tell you everything we know about Apple’s rumored 13-inch Retina Macbook Pro, and why you might be seeing it before the year is through.

Then, is Apple’s Passbook really going to take over the world of tickets, coupons, and payments? It’s tough to imagine, especially with how little Passbook can do now. But imagine coupons on your lock screen right when you need them and making payments with nothing but your iPhone. Ready to leave your wallet behind? Passbook may soon let you do exactly that.

All that and our three favorite Mac apps on our latest CultCast! Subscribe now on iTunes, or easily stream The CultCast via Apple’s free Podcasts App.

Read on for the show notes!

When Apple first unveiled the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro back in July of this year, they used two images to specifically highlight the incredible resolution of the new display. The first was a shot of a herd of zebras running through the grass captured by photographer Steve Bloom. And the second? A photograph of an eye in full Ziggy Stardust make-up, taken by Swiss photographe Sabine Liewald.

The only problem with that latter photograph? According to the photographer, Apple never properly licensed it to be used in Retina MacBook Pro marketing materials. And she’s now suing over it.

It seems right now like Apple has a lot of prospective new products on the horizon. The 7.85-inch iPad mini. The 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro. Updated iMacs. Yet despite the fact that all of these products have been highly rumored to debut this month in time of a busy holiday season, we’ve yet to see any of them. Now one report is suggesting a reason why: Apple’s having production problems on both the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro and iPad mini.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro has been rumored to be in production phases recently, but we’ve yet to see any reasonable leaks of the new Apple laptop. According to a new report though, the 13-inch MacBook Pros with Retina display are indeed on the way, and they should be in mass production sometime in the fourth quarter of 2012.

It’s not clear when the new MacBook will hit stores, but analyst Richard Shim of DisplaySearch speculates that it should be released sometime after the iPad Mini announcement that is rumored to take place on October 17th.

If you’re reading this website on a new iPad or MacBook Pro with a Retina display, you may have noticed how crisp the logo is. Go on; take a good look. Zoom in with your fingers. Also check out the navigation bar, and the graphics for Reviews, Tips and How-Tos. See how clear and crisp they are?

That’s because we’ve upgraded the site to Retina — Apple’s marketing term for screens that are so dense with pixels, they’re practically invisible.

We think it looks really sharp. And next week, we’ll be giving the mobile site a complete overhaul to make it pretty for the iPhone 5.

Here’s what the site looks like on Retina and non-Retina devices.

Hit the jump for some of the geeky details:

Steve Jobs was passionate about a lot of things: simplicity, challenging the status quo, creating products that people loved, etc. He was a man of many shining strengths and deep personality flaws. As one of the most dynamic titans to ever grace the tech industry, one can only imagine what Jobs would think of Apple in 2012. How would he have handled Mapgate? We’ll never know.

Based on what we do know about the late CEO, there are several things Jobs would have definitely been proud of at Apple in 2012.

Tons of Apple accessory manufacturers make cute little palm rest covers for MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs so the metal of your cherished MacBook doesn’t get all scratched and nasty and damaged. They make your MacBook standout, but Apple thinks you need to stop freaking using them because you’re going to break your display if you keep it up.

In a note published on Apple’s support blog, Apple warned users that using palm rest covers might totally interfere with all of Apple’s fancy engineering that went into making the MacBook Pro with Retina display super thin. The added thickness might mess up your display and crack your screen when you shut your MacBook, leaving you super sad.

Here’s what Apple said about the palm rests –