Hasta La Gadget!

Apple updated its Retina MacBook Pro lineup recently, the biggest change is the adoption of Intel’s Haswell processors, while a number of nominal changes have been made as well. Though it appears that owners of both 13 inch and 15 inch models of the late 2013 Retina MacBook Pro are facing issues with Wi-Fi connectivity. There’s a thread on Apple’s official support forums filled with such complaints, where customers find Wi-Fi connectivity be inconsistent as the connection drops unexpected. Some even complain of fluctuation in speeds.

It is unclear what’s causing this issue, Apple is yet to inform us that its looking into this, but its likely that the issue might be due to a software glitch. Issues such as this are often easily fixed through a firmware update. Only recently Apple released a firmware update for the new Retina MacBook Pro models fixing various keyboard and trackpad related issues that many customers were facing. Some customers are making use of a temporary fix mentioned in the comments, turning Wi-Fi off and back on again fixes the issue. Though the fix isn’t permanent, its comes up again when the laptop is woken up from sleep mode. On the official forums, some customers are also complaining about the laptop being unresponsive after its woken up from sleep.

Several Late 2013 Retina MacBook Pro Owners Complain About Wi-Fi Connectivity Issues original content from Ubergizmo.

There are sales, and there are $ALE$. This is the latter. Today and tomorrow only, you can get a retina MacBook Pro—13-inch or 15-inch, two configurations each—for $200 off at Best Buy. Have a valid .edu email address? Make that $300. And that’s just for starters.

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Popular gadget repair site iFixit has taken the Microsoft Surface apart to see what makes it tick, and discovered a tablet/PC that scores higher on repairability than Apple’s iPad and its Retina MacBook Pro computers. The Surface ended up with a repairability score of 4 out of a possible 10, compared to just 2 out of 10 for the iPad, 1 out of 10 for the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro and 2 out of 10 for the newer, 13-inch model.

Why did the Windows RT-powered Surface beat out Apple’s hardware? Mostly due to the modular nature of several key components. The battery (while glued in), headphone jack, volume buttons, and speaker specifically are called out as easy to remove and replace. That means that the Surface’s potential consumer lifespan is extended, since users can pick up replacement parts and swap them out easily enough at home with a few commonly available tools.

Another interesting tidbit dug up by iFixit is a part that appears to be a small speaker component specifically included to make the “click” noise created when users type using the Touch Cover keyboard. Overall, iFixit still had some difficulty with the removal of the back panel to provide access to internals, however, and there appears to be a tamper-proof indicator to let anyone looking know you’ve been poking around. Plus, taking off the glass protecting the LCD is incredibly difficult, so repair costs will rise accordingly.

Overall, though, it’s interesting to see Microsoft put out a compact tablet device that outdoes the competition on repairability, even if it isn’t as modular as a desktop PC or something like the Kupa UltraNote we tried out at MobileCon this year. Whatever the impression of reviewers on the overall Surface experience, at least it stands a better chance of clogging landfills than some of the competition.

At its event today, Apple made much of the fact that the 13-inch MacBook Pro is still its top-selling notebook, right before unveiling the new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro. It’s clear that Apple wants this new version of its top-performer to take over as a product that redefines the laptop category, and judging by limited hands-ion experience, there’s good reason to believe they’ll eventually get their wish, though not just yet.

The 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro offers the same amazing display as its larger predecessor, but in a much smaller package, with a 2560×1600 screen but with a starting price $500 less than the 15-inch notebook. That still doesn’t make it exactly affordable (consider that the non-retina version still starts at $999), but it does mean a lot more people will be able to get on board with a Retina-resolution notebook.

As for how it performed, it was very much like using the 15-inch rMBP, which is my main machine currently. In the hand, however, it feels significantly lighter, at about a pound lighter than the bigger model. That’s a big difference for a machine you carry around with you all day, and alone might sway some users, price considerations aside.

The reduced glare did seem to have an effect vs. previous versions of the screen, which definitely photographed better. And changing up the display resolution really gives you a ton of screen real estate at maximum settings for what is a very, very portable computer. So long as you’ve got good eyes, this could be a great solution for people looking for a work machine when they’re away from their dual-monitor setups.

Two Thunderbolt ports also mean you can plug it in at home and power up to two separate monitors at resolutions of 2560×1600, another big bonus. Basically, if the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro wasn’t the right machine for you, there’s a good chance the 13-inch is. But again, at that price it’s still not budget-friendly by any means, so while I expect significant sales beyond the 15-inch’s mostly niche pro market, I still don’t think this is the machine that supplants the regular 13-inch MacBook Pro as Apple’s top-seller.

If Google’s web crawlers are correct, there will be a new Retina display 13-inch MacBook Pro announced today. The Apple Store is currently down, so we can’t follow the link, but a Google search for “13-inch macbook pro” returns results at the official Apple site referring to the new model. More »