With Apple’s entire family of iOS devices now kitted out with high-resolution Retina displays, it’s time for the Cupertino company’s Macs to get the same treatment. We’ve speculated about Retina display MacBook Pros for some time, but there’s been little mention of a high-resolution display for the iMac.
But fear not. Those of you with a love for Apple’s all-in-one won’t get left behind when the Retina display upgrades begin their rollout.
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:
The Notebook Case from CPeel is a plastic keyboard case for the iPad that’s designed to transform your tablet into a mini MacBook for €85 (approx. $111). It adds a full QWERTY keyboard that includes 13 function keys and connects to your iPad via Bluetooth.
But it’s not only its looks that make this case desirable. It also features an integrated 4,000 mAh Lithium-ion battery and a built-in USB port, which allow you to charge almost any device via a USB cable while you’re on the go.
Rumors have been flying about Apple’s next-gen iPhone featuring a liquidmetal alloy casing, unlike the glass backing that currently cradles the iPhone 4 and 4S’s precious internals. Liquidmetal would assumedly create a lighter iPhone that’s also more durable and scratch resistant. There’s also been rumors that the next-gen MacBooks will be made of liquidmetal, but no hard evidence has surfaced to support the speculation.
Two years ago Apple bought exclusive rights to use material from Liquidmetal Technologies in its products, but we have yet to see a liquidmetal iPhone. The only liquidmetal material to be incorporated was the pin used for ejecting the iPhone 3G SIM card. Will 2012 be the year Apple’s product line goes liquidmetal? Sadly, the odds don’t look good.
We can all surmise that urinating upon your Mac will not be covered by your AppleCare, but here’s an interesting question: if you stand up right this second, unzip your fly and hose off all over your MacBook, can you even pay Apple to service the machines?
The answer is no, because Apple looks at micturated-upon MacBooks as a biohazard. Along with an obnoxious 11-year-old’s full bladder, the obscure fact above is what ended up costing a Pennsylvanian school district upwards of thirty-six thousand dollars to replace a cart full of thoroughly soaked MacBooks.
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.
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.
While the real iPhone 5 probably won’t show its face until October, there is one that’s already available and it’ll keep you cool this summer. Spotted in a Taiwanese bakery, the iPhone 5 ice pop tastefully rips off Apple’s logo and its iPhone to become the perfect treat for any Apple fanboy.
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.
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.
I have had to replace more than one frazzled MagSafe charger thanks to an uncharacteristically bad piece of design by Apple. Sure, the magnetic connection breaks away to save the connected Mac from a fall, and it’s great that the latest MagSafe adapters have newly-designed, tougher aluminum tips, but the junction between the cord and the chager itself is still pathetically weak. So weak it makes a sick kitten look like Chuck Norris.
Thinklabs’ Wrap Up is an effective solution to this.
I’ve never had an insatiable hunger to fondle my MacBook Air’s screen. I got an iPad, and she gets the job done. But some people are dying for touchscreen MacBooks because of some weird delusions that having a keyboard attached to their device at all times is an absolute necessity – nevermind that voice-dictation will be the input method of the future. This MacBook Touch concept video/commercial attempts to envision what a touchscreen MacBook Air would look like. I think it’s crazy in the “damn-that’s-so-silly-ugly-it’s-neva-gonna-happen” sense, but you might think it’s crazy in the “cool” sense.
Take a look and let us know what you think:
Forget the slight increase in temperature issue-that-shouldn’t-even-be-an-issue affecting the new iPad. According to some early adopters, the third-generation tablet has its own antennagate. Many users are taking to Apple’s Support Communities forum to complain that the Wi-Fi signal on their device is a lot weaker than that of their iPad 2, and even their iPhones and MacBooks.
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?
Ever struggled to juggle apps around your MacBook Air’s small screen as you work? And have you ever taken a look at that screen and though how much better it would be if there was another LED panel hanging off the side like an errant dust-jacket flapping in the breeze? If your answer to these two questions is “yes” and you have around £120 ($190) to waste spend, then the GeChic On-Lap Dual Monitor 1301 could be just the thing for you.
The coolest thing about the Microsoft Kinect is that it makes your feel like a freaking Jedi. Controlling a device by moving your hands or feet is ridiculously awesome when the technology works. Apple has been slow to jump on the motion control bandwagon, but that’s not stopping some clever developers from taking advantage of Apple’s built-in webcams and implementing their own crazy motion control technology. Enter Flutter – the new OS X app that lets you control all of your music without having to ever click a mouse.
If you make anything but iPad cases, you’d be a fool to announce a new product on the same day as an Apple keynote. So, it’s a sign of how smart the folks over in San Francisco-based Waterfield designs are that they held off announcing their new bag until now. It’s a smart little waxed canvas number called the Muzetto Outback.
Over the last couple of years, I have developed an obsession with traveling light that has been wonderfully encouraged and cultivated by Mssrs. Cook, Ive & Co. When I go out of the house and need to work remotely, my bag is as light as I can possibly make it: an 11-inch MacBook Air, an iPad 2, my iPhone 4S, a couple pens and a steno-pad for notes. Despite the sheer amount of silicon and tech stuffed into my shoulder bag, it’s always light, always svelte, always uncluttered. As they have done with so many other things when it comes to consumer electronics design, they have turned making gadgets thin into a cutting-edge art.
Well, except for one thing. The chargers.
The standard Apple MacBook Charger is easily two to three times thicker than my MacBook Air. The same can be said about the Apple 10W USB charger, which is just a brick compared to the thin slate it powers. Between the bricks and the cords, Apple’s chargers add an extreme amount of thickness and ungainliness to a streamlined gadget bag… and since my MacBook Air, at least, doesn’t have 10W USB ports, I can’t piggy back charging my iPad off of just the one charger.
Well, not without TwelveSouth’s ingenious, button-cute accessory, the <a href=”https://twelvesouth.com/products/plugbug/”>PlugBug</a>, that is.
I’m so hungry for a new Mac that I’m starting to get tech scurvy. I need some new delicious Mac goodness all up in my desk area, and I’ve been impatiently waiting over 300 days for Apple to announce a new iMac so I can hand them my money in exchange for a new computer. Unfortunately, it looks like I’ll have to starve a bit longer, because new information is showing that Intel’s next-generation Ivy Bridge processors expected to appear in the Mac lineup will be available 8-10 weeks later than originally planned, according to one company official.
This is my favorite bag. I have many (too many) bags, but this is the best. I doesn’t have any fancy features. It has no padding, and there’s no way to lock it securely shut. But unless I have a special task requiring a special bag, it’s the one I always grab. I’m so used to it that every piece of junk I carry with me has its place inside.
And even after more than a year of solid use, it’s as good as new. The bag is the Zero Messenger from Rickshaw, and here’s why it’s so good:
The new Timbuk2 Command Messenger 2012 ($140) is nothing like the first Timbuk2 bag I ever owned, some 11 years and 20 pounds ago, back when I was heavily commited to the world of cycling. Timbuk2 called it the Bolo, and it was a real messenger bag — though messengers almost always opted for it’s larger sibling, the Tag Junkie — crafted from a single piece of vinyl and Cordura; just a massive main compartment with not much more than a small pocket sewn on the outer face for coins and maybe a patch kit.
Although it’s just about as tough, the Command Messenger is light years away from my Bolo (and is really as much a messenger bag as a Chevy pickup is an ox cart): It’s sophisticated, uses several advanced materials, has loads of pockets and a trick feature that makes air travel easier for laptop-toting jestsetters. My how you’ve grown, Timbuk2.
Zooka bills itself as a wireless speaker bar for any of your sound-producing gadgets, but one look will tell you the truth: it’s made for iPads and skinny MacBooks. The Zooka is a silicone cylinder which can work alone, but which also has a slot into which you can slide the edge of your favorite Apple device.
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.
Chances are, you’re already salivating to download the latest version of OS X, Mountain Lion, when it’s released later this summer. For a fair number of Mac owners, though, installing Mountain Lion is going to require buying a new machine, as Apple has abandoned support for Intel’s GMA 950 and x3100 chipsets.
Here’s a list of the machines that can run Lion that can’t run Mountain Lion.