MacBook Pro - page 68

Unboxing a new MacBook — or indeed any new Apple product — is a pretty exciting experience that most of us only get to enjoy once every few years. But thanks to a team of artists from Melbourne, Australia, you can enjoy the scent of a brand new MacBook Pro every day.

Gavin Bell, Jarrah de Kuijer, and Simon McGlinn have teamed up with Air Aroma to create a new perfume that smells just like a new MacBook Pro.

Episode 8 of The CultCast is in iTunes now, and if you’re itching for a new Macbook Pro, you’re not going to want to miss it.

Join us and special guest, Ars Technica Writer Chris Foresman, as we reveal the secrets of the rumored new Air-like Macbook Pro, and explain why Intel says it could pack a Retina Display; and Facebook just bought Instagram, is now the time to jump ship?

All that and lots more on this week’s CultCast — subscribe now on iTunes!

Intel has reportedly shifted the announcement of its next-generation Ivy Bridge processor from April 29 to April 23 as PC makers gear up to release their second-generation of ultrabooks in May. But you could see it powering Mac OS X before then, with the new chip expected to replace its predecessor, the Sandy Bridge processor, in Apple’s next MacBook Pro and iMac.

Apple retail stores in London have begun stocking international parts ahead of this summer’s Olympic Games as the company prepares for an “onslaught” of international journalists seeking repairs. Many of the journalists covering the event, which kicks off on July 27, are expected to be carrying Apple notebooks, so international keyboards are expected to be high in demand.

Have you been following all the rumors and saving up your pennies for a new MacBook Pro or iMac the second Apple releases them? Well, looks like you might not have to wait, as two reports this morning suggest new models will be dropped imminently.

The latest iMac refresh is now just three or four months away, according to a “reliable tipster,” and they’ll introduce Intel’s next-generation Core i5 and Core i7 Ivy Bridge processors to Apple’s all-in-one desktop line.

Want a thinner, lighter and more Air-like MacBook Pro? You’ve only got a couple months or so to wait… provided you want a 15-inch. The 13-inch might take a little longer.

External batteries for our Apple notebooks aren’t cheap, but they’re hugely worthwhile if you’re frequently on the road with little access to a power outlet. But before you shell out $250 for a ready-made solution, why not make your own for less than $60?

Apple’s iMac line of all-in-one desktops is set to receive a pretty significant refresh this year. The machine hasn’t really received any design changes since late 2009, when the aluminum unibody enclosure was introduced. But this 2012’s first refresh is expected to bring slimmer models, and new anti-reflective glass displays.

Apple is set to begin mass producing its next-generation MacBook Pros next month, according to sources in its supply chain — just in time to receive Intel’s latest Ivy Bridge processors. The 15-inch model will be first to hit the production line in April, with the 13-inch model, which is claimed to be the most popular, following in June.

Steve Jobs coined it: the “Post PC Revolution.” But is this revolution actually occurring? Are people flocking en masse to tablets, forever leaving behind their keyboards and mice?

And what about those rumors that we’re going to see a 15-inch Macbook Air this summer? Is Apple on the verge of releasing the first pro-edition of everyone’s favorite paper-thin notebook?

We answer these questions and more in episode 5 of The CultCast, now ready for your listening pleasure.

Subscribe now on iTunes!

Episode 5 of The CultCast just hit iTunes my friends, and this one is sure to give you a pleasant, tingly sensation.

This week we investigate the truth behind overheating new iPads; declare why new retina display MacBooks could be in your hands by summer; and new iPad data plans — why are some users chewing through their monthly caps in less than a week?

All that and so much more on this week’s CultCast. Subscribe now!

There’s a good reason we say The CultCast is the best 30 minute Apple conversation you’ll hear all week long: not only do we bring you the best news, products, and rumors in every show, we make it fun!

And there’s never been a better time to subscribe to The CultCast. We just released a fresh new episode filled with informative Apple banter.

Fancy a listen? Good show! Episode 4 is out now, and if you subscribe, we’ll delivery another great CultCast to you every Thursday night.

Apple apparently already has slimmed-down 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pros in production. The redesigned cases drop the optical drive, but storage will still be plentiful and CPUs will be more powerful than those in the current MacBook Air lineup, say the rumors.

If you’ve ever taken apart an Apple device, you know what delicate work it can be.

Imagine trying to extract incriminating child pornography photos from a laptop and you’ll understand why tools that help you see what’s on the device before opening it up are increasingly important in law enforcement.

The MacBook Air has become increasingly popular since Apple overhauled the ultraportable and introduced an 11-inch model back in October 2010. The company also dropped its price, making it more affordable for the average consumer and paving the way for the death of the white plastic MacBook.

But it seems the MacBook won’t be the Air’s only victim. According to one accessory vendor, the MacBook Pro will be killed of by a 15-inch MacBook Air in April.

This is pretty hard to believe, but if true, it could have a huge impact on the future audience of the MacBook Pro line: Apple could have dropped NVIDIA as the supplier of the next-gen MacBook Pro’s discrete GPUs, and will instead go with Intel integrated graphics. Huh?

One of the things I have always found interesting about bags is the way they are defined by their intent. There is more to them than their fabric and stitch. To judge a bag, you need to look beyond what it is to what it aspires to fill itself with. In other words, bags have souls, and like people, you can’t judge them just by what they are. You must also consider what they want to be.

The Acme Made Clutch is a bag that aspires to be as sleek as the 13-inch MacBook Air and MacBook Pro that it is designed to fit. At that, it succeeds. Those looking for an all-purpose laptop bag to throw anything and everything into should look elsewhere, though. The Clutch is as minimalist, meticulously organized and with as much eye to fashion and form, it’s as if Jonny Ive had designed it for Steve Jobs himself. But Steve never was a guy who needed to keep a lot of things in his bag.

Bag-maker STM hails from dehn undah (if you think my Aussie impression sounds bad here, well, it’s even worse in person), where they’re apparently pretty huge. They’re less well-known here in the States — but that’ll likely change thanks to a big marketing push and bags like the fantastic STM Velo ($100), a designed laptop bag stuffed with unusually clever features.

The guy in the picture above is named Bill Flora, and according to the caption accompanying his smiling face from this CNET article, Bill’s a key leader on the team that created the Metro interface that Microsoft will be using for all desktops, laptops and tablets running Windows 8.

Looks like a nice guy, right? Now take a look at Bill’s work desk, and notice that he is designing Windows 8 using exclusively Apple products, including an Apple Cinema Display, a MacBook Pro, an Apple Bluetooth Keyboard and what appears to be a Magic Mouse.

Good taste in hardware, Bill! Windows 8… good enough to be designed on a Mac. Hey, that should be Microsoft’s new tagline!

[Thanks for the tip, Paul!]

Update: Apparently Bill is no longer with Microsoft. Here’s hoping Apple snatched him up!

It’s taken a while, but it seems that the dried up tear-duct that was the supply of Thunderbolt accessories is about to turn into a torrent of high-speed, daisy-chainable tears of relief. Hard drive supremo LaCie will at last sell you a 2big Thunderbolt Series external drive.

Ever since the redesigned MacBook Air first debuted back in late 2010, the rumor mill has strongly indicated that Apple would redesign its MacBook Pro line of laptops to suit, ditching their bulkier chassises, optical drives and slow, spinning hard drives for Air-like slimness and ubiquitous SSDs. But when is it actually going to happen?

It looks like it might finally happen in 2012, with a report now claiming that Apple “plans to exit 2012 having completed a top-to bottom revamp of its notebooks lineup that will see new MacBook Pros adopt the same design traits [as the] MacBook Air.”

Apple has issued a set of firmware updates for more of its Macs that were introduced during 2010. These updates bring Lion Internet recovery to the early 2010 MacBook Pro, the mid 2010 iMac, and the late 2010 MacBook Air.

Meet the HP Envy 15, a laptop that Engadget says “unapologetically copies the MacBook Pro” but “stumbles in several critical areas” including being heavier than the MacBook Pro and having a worse display, touchpad (pictured), keyboard and battery life.

Completely shameless, no? It’s the tech equivalent of The Third Man’s Harry Lime selling counterfeit penicillin on the post-war Viennese black market. Accept no substitutions.

[via Reddit]

Apple has issued an EFI firmware update to its mid-2010 13-inch MacBook Pro which enables Lion Recovery over an Internet connection, allowing users to reinstall the latest OS X operating system onto their machine without the need for physical recovery media.