Hasta La Gadget!

CUPERTINO, California — Apple on Wednesday released a major upgrade for its mini notebook, the MacBook Air, splitting it into two sizes.

The MacBook Air will come in two flavors: a 13.3-inch model and an 11.6-incher. They both will come thinner and lighter than their predecessor, with improved battery life that’s similar to the iPad’s, the company said.

“We asked ourselves what would happen if a MacBook and an iPad hooked up?” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said. “It’s one of the most amazing things we’ve ever created: It is our new MacBook Air, and we think it’s the future of notebooks.”

Hands-On With the New MacBook Airs

“The Airs are mighty light,” Wired’s Brian X. Chen notes in his initial report. “Immediately you’ll notice that launching an app is extremely fast on both of these notebooks, thanks to the usage of flash storage.”

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Coupled with mobile-inspired enhancements to the computers’ operating systems, such as a planned Mac App Store (due to launch in 90 days) and multitouch enhancements for the next version of Mac OS X, aka “Lion,” the new MacBook Air models show that Apple is trying to redefine the PC market the same way it has tackled the tablet and smartphone markets.

Instead of merely selling hardware, the company seems to be positioning itself as a vertically integrated vendor of mobile devices, selling hardware and software, as well as controlling the marketplace through which customers purchase software.

“We think all notebooks are going to be like this one day,” Jobs said.

Despite its position as an underdog in the PC industry, the Mac has shown rapid growth relative to Windows-powered machines in recent years. According to an NPD Group retail sales report cited by Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook, Apple dominates the premium end of the PC market: For instance, 91 percent of $1,000+ computers sold in June 2009 were Macs. And in Apple’s latest Q4 earnings call, the company reported record-breaking sales of Macs and iPhones, resulting in its most successful quarter ever.

It also suggests that Apple is far from ready to cede the PC market to the likes of HP, Dell and Acer.

“Although the bulk of its revenues come from mobile products Apple still considers Mac a critical business,” said Avi Greengart, an analyst with research firm Current Analysis.

Cook claimed that one in five PCs sold in the United States are now made by Apple — a claim sure to be contested by other PC makers. Recent reports by IDC and Gartner show that Apple’s U.S. market share is slightly above 10 percent. That is higher than it’s been in years, but just half of what Apple is claiming.

NPD confirmed the 20 percent figure to Wired, which comes from its retail tracking service, but noted that it applied only to a single month: August, 2010.

The MacBook Airs will include flash storage, 802.11-N Wi-Fi and a Core 2 Duo processor. Apple increased the size of the battery to provide five to seven hours of battery life when surfing the web over Wi-Fi, and 30 days on standby time like the iPad.

The models start at $1,000 and begin shipping today.

See Also:

• Rumor: Apple to Introduce 11.6-Inch MacBook Next Week
• New MacBook Pro: 10-Hour Battery, Hi-Res Screen, i7 CPU
• New MacBook Air Will Come in 11 and 13-Inch Flavors
• Netbook Sales Shrivel as Apple Rolls Out iPad
• Apple Still Oblivious to Netbook Opportunity

Photo: Brian X. Chen/Wired.com

The iPad and iPhone have hogged the media’s attention for months, but Apple is preparing to turn the spotlight onto its Macintosh computers in a news conference Wednesday.

Just what can we expect? Apple observers are exchanging whispers about new notebooks and a preview of the next Mac operating system. Here’s a quick rundown of what Apple is likely to unveil at the presser.

New MacBooks

Multiple independent publications received tips about major upgrades for Apple’s ultrathin notebook, the MacBook Air. Rumor has it that the Air will come in two different sizes — 13.3 inches and 11.6 inches — and come with an even-thinner unibody enclosure.

The internals could be even more interesting. AppleInsider claims the Air will include flash storage, which would theoretically enable extremely fast boot times and “instant-on” capabilities. Cult of Mac adds that the Air will have a bigger battery providing 8 to 10 hours of battery life.

These rumors seem plausible given that a bigger battery would follow the trend of Apple integrating built-in batteries into its other MacBooks, which get about 10 hours of battery life. Flash storage and instant-on capability on a notebook would be a logical next step following the iPad.

Publications haven’t been tipped off about new MacBook Pros, but it’s likely we’ll see incremental upgrades for these notebooks as well: They were last upgraded about six months ago, and on average the MacBook Pro gets refreshed every seven months.

Mac OS X Lion

Apple’s press invite includes an image of a lion, so it’s fairly obvious part of the event will provide a sneak peek on the next-gen Mac OS, code-named Lion. Our friends at MacStories received a tip that OS X will abandon the current aqua-based scroll bars in favor of iOS’s translucent gray scroll bar, which disappears whenever you’re not scrolling.

Also, a “Quick Look” feature will enable you to get a pop-up view with some details about a file that you select with the Spotlight search tool, according to MacStories.

That can’t be all there is to it. We’re guessing that OS Lion will introduce features such as instant-on capability, and some significant performance boosts for the entire Mac family.

Wired.com will report live from Apple headquarters Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. Pacific time. Stay tuned for the news.

See Also:

• Steve Jobs Unveils Newer, Sexier Aluminum MacBooks
• Rumor: Apple to Introduce 11.6-Inch MacBook Next Week
• New MacBook Air Will Come in 11 and 13-Inch Flavors

More rumored details of a new 11-inch MacBook Air are trickling in. This time, the rather comprehensive list of new features comes from ex-Wired.com editor and Cult of Mac boss Leander Kahney, and even includes some guesses at the price.

According to Kahney’s “well-placed source”, there will be two versions of the new MBA announced this coming Wednesday, a redesigned 13.3-inch model and an all-new 11.6-inch model. Both will be faster and less under-powered than the current sleek-but-slow MacBook Air.

Here’s the list: A bigger battery will give 8-10 hours of use, which is
similar to what is already claimed for the MacBook Pro. The case will be thinner, and will replace the current curves with a “boxier” unibody, looking more like the iPhone 4 than the old MBA.

The lone USB-port will be joined by another, on the other side of the machine, and I’m guessing that this means that the drop-down door will be ditched – it always seemed a little awkward anyway. These ports will be joined by a Mini DisplayPort port.

Inside, RAM is now upgradeable, and the models will ship with 2GB and 4GB depending on size. The SSD, too, will be upgradeable, and storage can be supplemented with an SD card in a new slot on the right-side of the machine.

Kahney is more skeptical of his sources reports of pricing, which puts this hot machine into direct competition with the MacBook. The numbers are $1000 for the 11-inch and $1,100 for the 13-incher. This does seem too low.

But what of form factor? The Cult of Mac post features the mockup above, but I’m guessing that it may be more similar to an iPad with a keyboard attached. The current, full-sized Bluetooth aluminum keyboard from Apple is around an inch and a half wider than the iPad, which has a 9.7-inch screen. Something this size, without the keyboard “bezel” around Apple’s other notebook keyboards, would marry well with a larger iPad-style screen.

Another guess would be that there won’t be an SSD, but instead the storage will be similar to that found in the iPad, which currently maxes out at 64GB. Add an SD-card and that’s not a bad idea. True or false? We only have to wait until Wednesday and all will be revealed.

New MacBook Air: Bigger Battery, Sharper Case [Cult of Mac]

Illustration: Cult of Mac/ Dan Draper

See Also:

• Rumor: Apple to Introduce 11.6-Inch MacBook Next Week
• Tiny MacBook Air Clone Riles Gadget Writer
• Chinese MacBook Air Knockoffs Actually Look Awesome

Image via SonyStyle.com

Are you intrigued by touchscreen, tablet-style media players, but don’t want to give up anything — and I mean anything — from your desktop PC? The refreshed high-end Sony Vaio L is pricey and heavy, but it’s packed to the gills.

Yesterday, Sony announced its holiday-season refresh of the Vaio line of notebook computers (barring the 8″ notebook-not-a-netbook Vaio P, which was updated in May).

The 24″ let’s-call-it-an-all-in-one-notebook-’cause-even-my-lap-isn’t-that-big Vaio L is packing a quad-core Intel processor, a 2TB hard drive, a capacitative touchscreen with true HD resolution, a webcam (well, yeah), an NVidia graphics card with 1GB video-dedicated RAM (on top of the 8GB of regular memory), and (most significantly) a Blu-ray read/write drive.

It’s got Sony’s own touch-friendly media management and editing suite, and also comes with Windows 7 Home Premium, a wireless keyboard and mouse, and a remote control. The whole thing costs $2200 (already on backorder), and the part with the screen weighs 27.6 lbs — about the same as an old 24″ iMac.

So it’s a portable computer, in the sense that you can pick it up and move it from one part of the house to another, but you can’t exactly hold it in your hands. But if your complaint about Apple, Android, or Windows 7 touchscreen tablets has been that “they don’t even have ____,” this Sony is your answer.

If you don’t want all that, you can also get an entry-level Vaio L with “only” a half-TB of storage and no Blu-Ray on clearance for less than $1300. But that might feel a little like driving a Lexus without power windows.

See Also:

• Sony Vaio P Gets Accelerometer, Touchpads, 3G
• Sony Vaio TZ150
• Sony Vaio SZ Premium Model
• Sony Launches 'World's Lightest' 8-Inch Notebook (Not a Netbook …
• Touchscreen PCs Prompt Interface Innovations
• Report: Google Working With Intel, Sony on TV Project

According to Best Buy Chief Executive Brian Dunn, the iPad has replaced as much as half of all laptop sales. Further, the little tablet is also slowing TV sales, despite the manufacturers’ desperate push to shift 3-D sets.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Dunn said that sales are slowing in general on bigger gadgets, and that the hot products are the iPad, e-readers like the Kindle, and digital cameras. Instead of upgrading televisions, many people are sticking with the ones they own and spending the cash on iPads and other things they don’t already have.

But the biggest surprise is that 50% figure. It’s an internal, Best Buy estimate, but proves what we at Gadget Lab thought all along: that Mom and Pop would switch from cheap, unreliable and hard-to-use laptops and buy the iPad instead, an intuitive device which covers 90% of their computing needs. When the iPad gets a FaceTime camera (and hopefully a video-capable version of Skype) then the only people buying laptops will be those who need the horsepower for work.

Over on Fortune.com, Philip Elmer-DeWitt cites unrelated figures from Morgan Stanley showing that notebook sale growth has been steadily slowing. The bank’s analyst takes a more cautious conclusion, stating that “tablet cannibalization” is at least partially responsible for the decline. Since Apple has been the only significant tablet maker on the market for most of the past five months, that really means “iPad cannibalization.”

These crazy iPad sales are taking their bite out of Windows market-share, too, not the Mac’s. Mac sales, which are mostly notebook sales anyway, continue to grow every quarter. This means that people are dropping Windows for the iPad. With the lack of any viable Windows-based iPad competitor, Microsoft should be getting very worried indeed: after all, the bulk of its business comes from bundling its OS with commodity hardware — the exact hardware that Best Buy has seen drop in sales by half.

Retailers Turn to Gadgets [WSJ]

Photo: Yutaka Tsutano/Flickr

See Also:

• Netbook Sales Shrivel as Apple Rolls Out iPad
• What the iPad Means for the Future of Computing

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