With any other company, you’d chalk this up to coincidence, but with Apple, you suspect meaning: Swedish designer Mattias Östergren noticed that the iPhone 4 fits exactly inside the dent below the trackpad in the MacBook Air that allows the ultraportable laptop to be easily opened.
At the very least, it shows what the base unit of reference for Apple’s designs are these days: everything’s measured in terms of iPhones.
We close out another week with three hardware deals in the spotlight. First up is a 64GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad for $529. Next is a number of Mac mini desktop machines, starting at $599 for a 2.4GHz Core 2 model. Finally, there is a 1.4GHz 12-inch MacBook Air for $930.
Along the way, we’ll also check out more MacBook Pros, a MacBook Dual Core, as well as a Mac Pro Xeon workstation. As usual, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
Apple had to shave a lot of extraneous features off of the MacBook to come up with a device as blade-thin as the latest MacBook Airs, and while we can obviously point to things like the presence of an optical drive as hardware that didn’t make the cut, one lesser known edit is the traditional notebook security slot, which allows you to fit your laptop with a lock.
MacLocks has a solution: the MacBook Air Lock and Security Case Bundle, which works with both the 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Airs. It’s basically a case that you fix to the bottom of your MacBook Air, which comes with a security slot through which you can fix any compatible lock.
The MacBook Air is extraordinarily portable, so it’s natural you’d want to try to protect it from a run-by snatch and grab when you’re out writing at the local cafe. Even so, though, the MacLock solution seems to work by permanently grafting a case to the bottom of your Air, presumably by some sort of exoxy.
Do you want to protect your Air so much that you’d be willing to graft a case onto its underbelly permanently? $75 then. Me, I’ll continue to take my Air along with me when I have to go to the toilet.
First up in the deal spotlight is seven refurbished MacBook Air laptops from the Apple Store, starting with a 64GB unit with a 11.6-inch screen for $849. Also on tap is “Monkey Island: Special Editition for Mac,” just one of the two free downloads from MacUpdate. We close out today’s featured items with a 27-inch LED Cinema Display for $849.
Along the way, we check out a number of cases for your iPad, as well as a bargain on an iPod touch and various accessories for your iPhone and iPod. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
People have had complaints about video problems on the MacBook Air since they were first released. I encountered some video problems initially, but after the plethora of updates that Apple has released the video problems haven’t returned.
These updates and suggested fixes worked for some, but unfortunately they didn’t work for everyone. People are still complaining on Apple Discussion Forums about problems they are encountering when connecting their MacBook Airs to external displays.
People were hoping that the next Mac OS X release would solve these problems. That update, Mac OS X 10.6.7, was released yesterday.
It didn’t solve the problem for some people, but we’ve gotten some clues on how to resolve the problem for others.
Apple reportedly sold 1.1 million MacBook Air laptops during the December 2010 quarter, 63 percent above analyst expectations. The 1.1 million figure could mean MacBook Air sales represented about 40 percent of the 2.9 million notebook sales reported by the Cupertino, Calif. company for the three-month period.
The December sales numbers were 400,000 higher than the 700,000 units previously expected by Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
I’ve had my 13-inch MacBook Air since they were first released and although I encountered video problems initially after the plethora of updates that Apple has released the video problems haven’t returned.
The updates included an EFI firmware update, a specific software update for the MacBook Air 2010 model, and the Mac OS X 10.6.5 software update. I even offered not one, but two suggested solutions to try.
These updates and suggested fixes worked for some, but unfortunately they didn’t work for everyone. People are still complaining on Apple Discussion Forums about problems they are encountering when connecting their MacBook Airs to external displays.
Anyone who has used the new MacBook Air can attest to what a tiny miracle it is. Spec-wise, it doesn’t look like much at all, but even the 1.4GHz 11-incher surprises by bleeding the edge of OS X performance in nearly all the ways that count for the average users through the accomplishment of its standard SSD drive. Consumers are thrilled, and so is Apple, with Tim Cook recently saying that Apple saw the new Air as “the future” of the MacBook line.
Looks like NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang agrees, but if anything, he’s even more excited about the Air than Cook is, claiming it’s not just the future of the MacBook line, but the future of laptop design across all platforms.
We start today with a number of deals on unibody MacBook Pro laptops, starting at $999 for a 2.4GHz model. Also on tap: a MacBook Air laptop powered by a Core 2 Duo chip running at 1.86GHz for $1,318. We wrap up the daily spotlight with the Otterbox Defender case for the iPhone 4. The case includes a belt clip and access to the camera lens, dock connector port and home button.
Along the way, we’ll also check out other bargains, including a faux leather iPad case, plus software for your Mac. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
Over the course of the last week, Apple has began reaching out to current MacBook Air owners on what they’d like to see in future versions of their tiny miracle of a laptop.
