Last weekend, Apple oversaw a relatively successful launch of its new iPad tablet. On Thursday, the company made waves with a much publicized unveiling of iPhone OS 4.0. And today Apple has even more big news: The company is releasing updates to its Macbook Pro line. The 13-, 15-, and 17-inch versions of the laptop have all been upgraded.

The 15- and 17-inch models feature Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors. Also new is a 256-MB Nvidia GeForce GT 330M graphics graphics chip with auto-switching, which should help cut down on power consumption.

The 13-inch model comes in two primary configurations. The first, starting at $1,199 features a 2.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo process, 4GB of 1066-MHz DDR3 SDRAM (expandable to 8GB), a 250GB hard drive, a Mini DisplayPort, two USB ports, and an SD card slot. The $1,499 13-inch model adds a 2.66-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and 320GB hard drive.

The 15-inch model starts at $1,799. That configuration features a 2.4-GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM (expandable to 8GB), and a 320GB hard drive. Upgrading to the $1,999 version will get you a 2.53-GHz Intel Core i5 processor, and a 500GB hard drive. For $2,199, you get a 2.66-GHz Intel Core i7 processor.

The primary 17-inch configuration runs $2,299. For that you get a 2.53-GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, integrated HD, and GeForce GT 330M discrete graphics.

The new Macbook Pros are available now through Apple’s site. For more information and images, check out PCMag.com

This transition from the last crop of Core 2 Duo chips (which Apple introduced in June of last year) to Intel’s Core 2010 chips has caused quite the unprecedented wait, but at last we’re staring down a fresh crop of MacBook Pros and all is right with the world. The 13-inchers are sticking with Core 2 Duo, but the 15.4-inch and 17-inch models are now Core i5 and Core i7 through and through. The higher end models are nabbing NVIDIA’s GeForce GT 330M graphics with something akin to Optimus switching (though Apple just calls it “automatic graphics switching technology,” and claims to be using its own tech), while the 13-incher get NVIDIA GeForce 320M scraps. Along with the faster 2.4GHz and 2.66GHz chips in the 13-inch, Apple claims to be able to squeeze 10 hours of battery life from the machine, but the real meat is in the Core i5 2.4GHz (520M), Core i5 2.53GHz (540M), and Core i7 2.66GHz (620M) processors in the larger models. The 330M graphics are twice as fast as the 13’s 320M, but thanks to the magic of Optimus, er, “automatic graphics switching,” which switches the GPU on and off on the fly based on the needs of the task at hand, Apple still thinks you’ll manage 8 to 9 hours of battery life on these big guys.

All machines come with 4GB of RAM, and while hard drives are standard (320GB and 500GB in the higher end), you’re free to add a 512GB SSD to your machine if you so choose, for a mere $1,300. Interestingly only the 15-incher is getting that top Core i7 chip, with the sole 17-inch model is consigned to the 2.53GHz Core i5 (though you can choose Core i7 in the build to order options). Prices range from $1,799 on the 15 (up from the last-gen’s $1,699 base price!) to $2,299 on the 17, with a $1,199 starting price on the 13. On the 15-inch you can pick between a 1440 x 900 “glossy” display, a 1680 x 1050 glossy display for $100 more, and an anti-glare hi-res display for another $50 on top of that (you 17-inch users are stuck with 1920 x 1200 and glossy). The biggest tweak outside of these beefy internals is “inertial scrolling” support for the trackpads, à la iPhone, though we’re not sure why this couldn’t have been added with just a software update. Everything’s up on the Apple Store right now for your perusal, with the bigger models shipping “within 24 hours” and a 2-4 day delay on the 13-inch.

Apple refreshes MacBook Pro family with Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors… at long last! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 08:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yeah yeah, the Apple Store is down globally, on a Tuesday, and we’re sitting on a pile of overdue MacBook Pro and Mac Pro rumors. Next.

Update: AppleInsider has a last minute tip showing refreshed MacBooks Pro across the entire range of 13.3-, 15.4-, and 17-inchers. Each ships with 4GB of memory and new Intel Core processors with clocks ranging from 2.4GHz to 2.66GHz with options for glossy, high resolution glossy, and high resolution glossy with anti-glare displays. Some models are expected to offer a 512GB SSD option as well. See the part listings after the break.

Continue reading Apple Store down — human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together (update: refreshed MacBook Pro?)

Apple Store down — human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together (update: refreshed MacBook Pro?) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 06:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So, all this storage talk has gotten you excited about upgrading your laptop’s crappy old 120GB drive? It’s about time, dammit.

Traditional hard drive have never been cheaper, and the advent of flash-memory based SSDs—that’s solid-state drives—delivers a storage upgrade path that actually deliver solid, real-world benefits that you’ll notice every single day. SSD-equipped PCs boot faster and are quicker to load applications. In fact, the only bad thing about SSDs is their cost—a 128GB solid-state drive can cost upwards of $400.

So what’s the right storage solution for you? Read on, and I’ll tell you what you need to know.

Option 1: The Cheapskate

SSDs sound pretty sexy, but you’re running an old machine—say an Athlon 64—and you’ve got an immediate problem. Your porn collection has filled your old 500GB drive. You need more space, stat, and there’s no reason to shell out more than your PC is worth for a 128GB SSD. Lucky for you, terabyte drives are cheap—$90 at Newegg for an awesome drive. There are a few key specs to watch out for when buying a hard drive for use as your system drive. The speed that the platters spin at has a direct correlation on the performance of the drive. Faster platters = faster data transfer. For an inexpensive, mainstream drive, that means you should be looking at 7200rpm exclusively. The number of platters is also relevant. The fewer platters there are in the drive, the faster the drive will be. For those reasons, I recommend Seagate’s 7200.12 series 1TB drive. At $90, it’s cheap, fast, and reliable.

Total Capacity: 1TB
Total Cost: $90

Option 2: The Budget-Conscious SSD Shopper

Today, the 128GB SSDs sit in the sweet spot for price to performance ratio. However, smaller SSDs don’t necessarily sacrifice anything in terms of performance, just capacity. (The brand of controller used and configuration of the memory are much more important to SSD performance.) So, if you want to scrimp, you can buy a smaller SSD for Windows and your applications, and pair it with a traditional hard drive where you store your large files—like your music and video files. If you want to get really tricky, you can even use symlinks—special links that are invisible to applications but are between files or directories—so that your applications don’t even realize your files are on different drives.

While Intel’s mainstream 160GB SSDs cost about $500, the 80GB retail version comes in right around $220, and even includes a mounting kit, so it will slide into your 3.5-inch drive bays (most SSDs are 2.5-inch drives, sized for laptops and servers). That’s not a ton of capacity, but it’s more than enough if you just want to install Windows and your applications. You’ll need to install games and store your media on a secondary drive, but for that you can use an inexpensive traditional drive, like the Seagate 7200.12 1TB. And, the quick boot and speedy application load times are more than worth the hassle. One caveat, when buying Intel SSDs, make sure you get the second generation drives (they’ll have G2 in the model number). The first-gen models don’t support TRIM, which is an important feature for maintaining the drive as you use it. We’ll talk about TRIM in a moment.

Total Capacity: 1.08TB
Total Cost: $310

Option 3: Handy Laptop Upgrade

While it’s definitely tempting to put a speedy SSD in your laptop—after all quick load times and a complete lack of moving parts does sound spiffy—if you use your portable machine like I do, you’d probably rather have some extra space. Lots of extra space. That’s why I recommend the Western Digital 640GB Scorpio Blue drive. It’s a 5400RPM drive, but its balance of price to space is excellent, and it shouldn’t eat through your battery too quickly. When you upgrade the hard drive in a notebook, you need to know what height drive your computer can accommodate. The easiest way to find out is to look in Device Manager (in Windows) or in System Information (in OSX) and see what model drive you have currently. Then Google that model number to find out thick your current drive is. Anything that size or smaller should fit. At 9.5mm, the Scorpio is a perfect upgrade for my MacBook Pro.

Total Capacity: 640GB
Total Cost: $99

Option 4: Balls to the Wall

What’s a truly nutty storage solution? How about a pair of 160GB SSDs paired with 2TB of the fastest traditional hard drive in the world? While there are some faster SSDs out there, they’re either based on untested controllers or have had problems in the past. When dealing with bleeding edge, we’ll take reliable and slightly slower in some situations over speedier with a chance to lose our data, which is why we recommend a pair of 160GB Intel’s X-25MG2’s running in RAID0, paired with a speedy and spacious 2TB Western Digital Black drive. This gives you 320GB of storage on the RAID, more than enough space for Windows and all your applications and games, plus an extra 2TB for your music, videos, and… yes… your porn collection. It’s the best of both worlds, but with a pair of $500 SSDs, it’ll cost you!

Total Capacity: 2.380TB
Total Cost: $1280

The Care and Feeding of SSDs

There are a few things you need to know about SSDs, before you shell out big bucks for one. First, because of the way flash memory works, either the operating system or a vendor-provided piece of software needs to do some occasional housekeeping to keep write speeds up. If your drive supports the TRIM command—as the second-generation Intel SSDs I recommended do—Windows 7 will take care of the scut work for you.

If you’re running XP or Vista, you’ll need to manually run the Intel SSD Optimizer every few weeks or months, whenever you notice write speeds slowing down. It’s part of the Intel SSD Toolbox. Unfortunately, the SSD Optimizer doesn’t run on RAID arrays, so it’s a bad idea to RAID your SSDs, unless you’re running Windows 7.

You should prevent defragmentation programs from running on SSDs—they’re not necessary and can actually degrade performance. Windows 7 will automatically disable defrag, but you’ll need to turn it off manually in XP or Vista.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to properly maintain an SSD on OSX today. OSX doesn’t support the TRIM command and there aren’t any OSX-native tools for Intel drives. The only way to restore like-new write speeds on a Mac is to backup your drive, format it, then restore from your TimeMachine backup. If you frequently write large files, you’ll definitely notice the performance hit. For that reason, it’s not a great idea to buy a SSD to upgrade your MacBook Pro today.

Will Smith is the Editor in Chief of Tested, a new site for people who love technology. Recently at Tested, he’s talked about Apple’s first netbook, shown you how to disassemble a Flip camera, and tested condoms to see if they make good waterproof cases for gear.

Memory [Forever] is our week-long consideration of what it really means when our memories, encoded in bits, flow in a million directions, and might truly live forever.

The US Patent & Trademark Office just published Apple’s latest trademark application for “Magic Trackpad“—and, looking at a bit of history, we think it could be one of two new products.

Possibility #1

Back in July 2009, Apple was granted a patent on their multi-touch Trackpad. However, many elements of the patent were left out, including advanced infrared imaging and optical emitters which could, in essence, make your Trackpad know when you were trying to type or trying to gesture (while opening the door for all sorts of other gesture tracking possibilities across much of your laptop’s work surface).

So the Magic Trackpad could be the next Trackpad for MacBooks.

Possibility #2

But the other, more enticing rumor, was one sourced from John Gruber back in October—that Apple could be introducing a “Wildcard I’m-Not-Sure-I-Really-Believe-It-Myself Out-There Rumor…Some Sort of Mentioned-Nowhere-Else-But-in-This-Very-Headline Multi-Touch Trackpad Gadget for Desktop Macs.”

Not so long ago, another Apple trademark was uncovered called the “Magic Slate”—many believe it to be the Gruber-described device. After HP and Dell both started coining the term “slate” around CES, I wonder if “slate” fell out of vogue, meaning the “Magic Slate” became the “Magic Trackpad.”

Taking a look at the actual Trackpad trademark filing, we must admit, the longshot standalone desktop trackpad feels like a decent fit:

International Class 009: Computers; computer software; computer operating system software; computer utility software; computer hardware; computer peripherals; scanners; touchscreens; keyboards; computer mice; trackballs; trackpads; touchpads; light pens; joysticks; game controllers; graphics tablets; digitizers; cables and connectors; flash memory drives; USB drives; solid state storage devices; barcode readers.

One thing’s for certain, if a device could actually cover every one of those categories in full, it most certainly would be something magical. [Patently Apple via Macrumors]