The new 13-inch MacBook Air is Apple’s katana blade: thin, durable, powerful, sleek. But does it have enough mettle to be your weapon of choice? Abandoning the metaphor: can you ditch your MacBook Pro? More »
Really, TSA? Are you honestly so stoked to disappoint? If you’ll recall, the American Transportation Security Administration got up close and personal with a first-generation MacBook Air after wrongly assuming it was an Apocalypse-bringer, and even after adjusting rules so that iPads, netbooks and other smaller electronics could fly through carry-on screening equipment without being unpacked, we’ve still heard of (and personally experienced) occasions where agents have demanded that tablet PCs be ran through naked. If there’s a lesson to learn here, it’s that the TSA is consistently inconsistent, and you’re probably better off putting everything you own in a separate grey bucket for the sake of covering your bases. The same applies to Apple’s new 11.6-inch MacBook Air, which is cleared to undergo TSA scanning while packed under the aforesaid amended rules. In theory, you shouldn’t have to remove it from your backpack as you struggle to reach your gate, but if we had to guess, we’d say you’ll be ask to take it out and re-run it if you try. But hey, you’re only being victimized and scrutinized in the name of security, so it’s all good. Trust us.
11.6-inch MacBook Air cleared to remain packed through security, but we’d remove it anyway originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 10:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The MacBook Air has never exactly been a simple product to review. Since the laptop’s launch back in the heady days of 2008, we’ve always considered it a niche, high-end product and much less a mainstream system. Originally, the wafer-thin (and somewhat underpowered) laptop sold for a painful starting price of $1,799, and had its fair share of problems. Well, we’ve come a long way from Apple’s original play, with two all-new models of the Air. The first is an update to the standard 13.3-inch model priced at a significantly cheaper $1,299, while the newest entrant to the MacBook family is a tiny 11.6-inch model that’s nearly the size of an iPad — and not wildly more expensive, starting at $999. Of course, over time the market for laptops of this type has gotten quite crowded, with a slew of ULV-based thin-and-lights that offer lots of options for lots of budgets. Do the new MacBook Airs have enough to take on a crowded market, or have they been bumped out of the game altogether? Read on for the full Engadget review to find out!
Gallery: MacBook Air (13-inch) hands-on
Gallery: MacBook Air (11.6-inch)
Continue reading MacBook Air review (late 2010)
MacBook Air review (late 2010) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Continue reading TechRestore offers MacBook Air matte screen replacements for $249
TechRestore offers MacBook Air matte screen replacements for $249 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Oct 2010 15:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The entire world saw the 13-inch MacBook Air exposed to the elements before it was announced on stage, but its 11.6-inch younger brother is just now getting the teardown treatment. iFixit tore the tiny machine asunder, and found even more miniature battery packs nestled in its 0.68-inch-thick frame. Like Apple’s previous Air, the components here are proprietary, and the 2GB memory module’s actually soldered to the board — some tradeoffs had to be made for miniaturization, we suppose, and we can’t deny the result is a beautiful machine inside and out. On the plus side, the Toshiba solid state drive seems to be modular, so there’s some modest upgrade potential there if you can find a supplier of the mini-SATA boards. Still, kids — don’t try this at home.
New 11.6-inch MacBook Air ripped to pieces, exposing proprietary parts originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Oct 2010 17:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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by Chris Foresman, Ars Technica
At long, long last, the Macbook Air has been updated. But if you were hoping for enough CPU muscle in the new models to keep a bunch of Flash-addled webpages from bringing the entire portable to its knees, then you’re going to be sorely disappointed — the Core 2 Duo is still with us in the new models. In fact, the 11-inch Macbook Air actually trails its predecessor in clockspeed, while the 13-inch model hasn’t changed at all.
Given that Apple really went all-out to upgrade the rest of the Air package, the choice of a geriatric CPU is a giant slap in the face to Intel’s latest portable processor options. Apple looked at Arrandale, Intel’s 32nm CPU with a northbridge/GPU combo integrated into the same package, and said, “No thanks, but do you have any more of the really old chips?” Ouch.
We hate to say we told you so, but we told you so — twice, even.
When Intel unveiled the Arrandale ULV parts for ultraportables a few months back, it was obvious that they were not destined for the Macbook Air. The problem wasn’t so much the CPU part of Arrandale — even though the ULV variant is indeed deficient in the cache and clockspeed departments when compared to the Core 2 Duo — the problem is the GPU.
The multicore GPU integrated into the NVIDIA 320M handily spanks the (admittedly improved) Intel integrated graphics glued onto the Core i-series processors. And it’s also compatible with OpenCL, something Intel has yet to support in its IGPs. Apple argued that the improved graphics power of the 320M was more important than improved CPU processing power when designing the recent 13-inch MacBook Pro update — that same logic (though you may disagree with the decision) still applies here.
That’s not the only problem. The dual-chip packages are considerably larger than the small-outline packages for the low-voltage Core 2 Duos originally introduced on the first MacBook Air. Even with the integrated northbridge and GPU, Arrandale processors still require a separate controller. The combination simply couldn’t fit on the MacBook Air’s minuscule logic board. Instead of giving up room to shoehorn in updated processors, Apple instead chose to improve the MacBook Air’s battery capacity. With seven hours of promised life without any need for an external battery, it can be argued that this is a useful trade-off.
Finally, we have to consider the 11-inch MacBook Air. While its bigger brother offers a 1.86-GHz or 2.13-GHz CPU, the smaller sibling is left with just 1.4-GHz or 1.6-GHz options. The reason for the difference here is simple: thermal design. The slower processors clock in at just 10W TDP (7W less than those used in the 13-inch models) making it much easier to cool the inside of the tiny 11.6-inch casing.
The combination of Core 2 Duo processor and NVIDIA 320M graphics is more powerful than the Atom and Intel IGP combo used in notebooks of similar size. While some comparable ultraportables use newer Arrandale chips in them, most also cost significantly more than the revised MacBook Air models. Apple decided to trade maximum performance for increased battery life and portability and still offer a lower price than the previous generation. Whether that tradeoff is worth it (and we’ll be checking this as we review the new models) is up to users to decide.
This story originally appeared on Ars Technica.
Photo by Brian X. Chen / Wired.com.
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Sure, Apple’s “Back to the Mac” press conference was all about software and a manila envelope or two, but Cupertino also sent out a silent love letter to its MacBook Pro lineup. Specifically, the 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro laptops can now be configured with a 2.8GHz Intel Core i7 processor, up from the 2.66GHz model they were limited to before, for the primo price of $200 more. That’s a pretty penny to pay for a simple 140MHz boost, but base clockspeed is only part of the story — this is almost certainly the Core i7-640M that Intel owned up to just last month, which can turbo to a lap-scorching 3.4GHz under load. If you feel like buying one, do be a dear and let us know for sure?
[Thanks, Steven H.]
Apple quietly updates MacBook Pro with optional 2.8GHz Core i7 processor originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 20:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We just spent some quality time with the new 13-inch MacBook Air, and it certainly seems like a worthy upgrade. It definitely feels significantly bigger than the 11-incher, and we noticed the function keys are standard MacBook size, as opposed to the shrunken ones on the 11. We also noticed that it was seriously instant-on — we popped the lid open and closed several times while taking photos, and it was ready to go the second we opened it. We’ll have more impressions and pics in a few, stay tuned!
Update: Video after the break!
Gallery: MacBook Air 13-inch hands-on!
Gallery: MacBook AIr 11 and 13 head to head!
Continue reading MacBook Air (13-inch) first hands-on! (update: video!)
MacBook Air (13-inch) first hands-on! (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 16:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Look, all we can tell you is that this is one of the tiniest, thinnest, most lust-worthy laptops we’ve ever seen. We’re taking a deeper look at the device right now, but for the time being, enjoy the gallery below!
Update: Video after the break!
Gallery: MacBook Air (11.6-inch)
Gallery: MacBook AIr 11 and 13 head to head!
Continue reading MacBook Air (11.6-inch) first hands-on! (update: video!)
MacBook Air (11.6-inch) first hands-on! (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 16:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Amusingly enough, you know what’s missing from the new MacBook Air models? Adobe Flash Player. While preloaded on Apple’s past hardware, out of the box here it just says missing plugin, with no click to install option. To be fair, Flash doesn’t come standard on a lot of machines, even for Windows, but we wonder if past models will continue to ship out with Adobe’s plugin, especially once OS X 10.7 becomes de facto. It’s not like Adobe was feeling the love from Steve anyway, and you can still install Flash yourself — we did, and are happy to report the Air plays 720p video great. We were too bandwidth-challenged at the time to try 1080p for real, so we’ll have to let you know about that later.
MacBook Air: all substance, no Flash originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 16:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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