Items tagged with MacBook Air
Ever since Apple announced last month that it would be leaving Intel by the wayside to produce its own Arm-based "Apple Silicon", the rumor mill has kicked into overtime about the company's plans. So far, the only "confirmed" aspect of Apple's near-term product plans is that the first Arm-powered Mac will arrive before the end of 2020. However, DigiTimes alleges that there will in fact be two Arm Macs launching this year. According to the report, the 13-inch MacBook Pro (which has previously been rumored) will now be joined by a 13-inch MacBook Air in late 2020. The report goes on to add that Apple's total shipments of Macs is expected to increase to 16-17 million units for the year...
Read more...
Apple is notorious for high prices and rare [big] discounts on its notebooks, such as the MacBook Air. When discounts are seen on Apple hardware, Apple fans typically rejoice, and anyone considering upgrading should catch this deal which is available at both Amazon and B&H. Computer shoppers can get the latest Apple MacBook Air 13-inch notebook with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD storage with a discount of $99.01. That makes the retail price at Amazon $899.99 after the 10% discount. Amazon lists the MacBook Air as in stock and ready to ship as of writing available in gold, silver, and space gray. Apple MacBook Air at Amazon - $99.01 off at $899.99 Amazon shoppers wanting the same MacBook Air...
Read more...
Here we are again, folks; the latest chapter in the ongoing "will they or won't they saga" of Apple's inevitable transition to Arm processors for its Mac computers. Today, we're receiving additional information that Apple's Arm conversion will start in 2021, and it comes from a very reliable source. That source is Mark Gurman, who says that the first Mac Arm chip will be based on Apple's upcoming A14 Bionic SoC destined for the iPhone 12 family of processors. Like the A14 Bionic, the Mac-centric processor will be built on TSMC's 5nm process node and will have a total of 12 cores. 8 of them will be high-performance cores (codename Firestorm), while 4 will be efficiency cores (Icestorm). For...
Read more...
Apple was forced to add user-facing battery health functionality in iOS 11.3 for its iPhones after it was found throttling performance on devices with "well worn" batteries. This battery management feature now allows you to see what percentage of your max capacity is available, and if your performance is currently being crippled due to an old battery (usually at 80 percent or less capacity). Apple is bringing similar functionality to Macs with a feature that will be called Battery Health Management according to The Verge, and will be found in Energy Saver Preferences within Settings. The purpose of the feature is to prevent premature aging of the batteries inside MacBooks, which...
Read more...
Apple might consider itself to be a company that produces premium hardware that is a notch above garden-variety PCs on the market, but the company has had its fair share of high-profile hardware/design failures in recent years. The most embarrassing stain on Apple’s reputation in recent years is no doubt the troublesome butterfly keyboard, which proliferated throughout the company’s entire MacBook family for four years. Now, it appears that Apple is admitting to another design defect with its hardware, and this time it involves the Retina MacBook Air laptops. In this instance, the anti-reflective coating can wear off or “delaminate” from the display. Once this happens,...
Read more...
Apple's New, Cheaper MacBook Air Gets Intel Ice Lake Boost, Doubles Storage, And Adds Magic Keyboard
Apple has refreshed its popular 13-inch MacBook Air entry-level laptop, and there's a lot to like about this new model. Apple has seemingly addressed nearly every complaint about the previous generation with some very useful upgrades. For starters, Apple has tossed the unreliable and hated (by nearly everyone) butterfly-style keyboard mechanism in favor of the Magic Keyboard found in the 16-inch MacBook Pro (which uses a scissor-style mechanism). Not only does this result in longer key travel, but it should also make the keyboard more reliable in the long run. Apple also upgraded the hardware inside, equipping the new 2020 MacBook Air family with 10th generation Intel Ice Lake processors....
Read more...
Slowly but surely, Apple is moving on from using keyboards with a flawed butterfly mechanism, and outfitting new products with scissor switches like the ones it used on MacBook Pro models prior to the 2015 redesign. As such, it's expected that a couple of upcoming products—a new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air—will implement a so-called "Magic Keyboard" as well. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo outlined his predictions in a research note to investors. According to his note, Apple will release new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models in the second quarter of 2020, both with Magic Keyboards, which is how Apple dubs the return to scissor switches (it has a better ring to it, we suppose). His prediction...
Read more...
The hits just keep coming for Apple and its butterfly keyboard design that debuted back with the 2015 MacBook. A U.S. District judge nixed Apple's request to have a class action lawsuit brought against it over keyboard issues dismissed. As we have discussed on numerous occasions, the keyboards have been plagued with reliability issues, including keys that become stuck or fail completely after regular use. In some cases, a single speck of dust is enough to "kill" a key, resulting in an expensive keyboard replacement. Over the years, Apple has made refinements to the keyboard -- including the use of a silicone membrane to prevent debris from entering the key mechanism...
Read more...
It has been a crazy week so far, thanks to Amazon's 48-hour Prime Day sales event that spurred other retailers to follow suit with discounts of their own. As the dust settles, you can still score a deal on a 2019 model MacBook Air. Should you, though? That depends on how you feel about the downgraded SSD speeds in the newest models. The refreshed MacBook Air features a 13.3-inch display with a 2560x1600 resolution, and is powered by an Intel Core i5-8210Y, a 1.6GHz dual-core Amber Lake CPU with integrated UHD Graphics 617. It also comes standard with 8GB of LPDDR3-2133 RAM and 128GB or 256GB of SSD storage, as it pertains to the models that are on sale. Here is how they are priced on Amazon......
Read more...
After letting its entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro languish for the past two years without any major updates, Apple is finally "making it rain". Just in time for Back to School season, the base 13-inch MacBook Pro is gaining a number of features previously reserved for its more expensive siblings. Standard equipment now includes a True Tone display, the T2 security chip and the Touch Bar (which includes Touch ID). The last addition might be sad news for those Apple fans that hate the Touch Bar (admittedly, it's more of a gimmick than actually being useful) and love the traditional function keys on the top row. Apple has also updated the internal hardware, as the previous "old hat" 7th generation...
Read more...
Apple may be getting rid of a pain point for laptop buyers by doing away with the problematic butterfly keyboard found on its MacBook models, starting with the MacBook Air. Nothing is set in stone, but if Apple does ditch the butterfly keyboard, it could ease the frustration for both buyers and Apple store employees, who have been tasked with performing accelerated next-day repairs. The butterfly key mechanism found its way to MacBook models starting in 2015. Some customers reported premature failures, ultimately sparking a petition for a recall in 2018, followed by a class-action lawsuit. While Apple has maintained that only a small number of MacBooks have been affected, the lawsuit alleges...
Read more...
Good news if your 2018 model MacBook Air is giving you trouble—Apple has discovered an issue with the logic board and has instructed to employees at Apple Store locations as well Authorized Service Providers to fix affected units at no charge. If you own an affected model, you should receive an email from the company. That is not a guarantee, of course, but Apple is sending out emails to customers who own a potentially affected MacBook Air. According to Apple, the issue with the logic board is present on "a very small number" of 2018 MacBook Air models. It is not clear what the exact problem is or what the symptoms might be, only that an issue exists, according to an internal document that...
Read more...
Apple just can’t seem to get it right when it comes to the keyboards on its MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro family of laptops. Even though the company is currently on the third-generation of its “butterfly key” keyboard design, customers are still complaining of premature failures. With that being said, the process of replacing a defective keyboard is not a simple one, and requires removing the whole top panel of the notebook (which includes the integrated battery). Not only is it time extensive – currently requiring a few business days for the machine to be shipped off-site, repaired, and then sent back – but it is an expensive repair (for Apple) as it’s...
Read more...
Keyboards aren’t an unknown quantity in the PC realm; we’ve been using them to input data into our computers for decades, and Apple seemingly was at the top of its game with keyboard design for its notebooks – that is until the 2015 MacBook and 2016 MacBook Pro redesigns occurred. A new report from The Wall Street Journal’sJoanna Stern indicates that Apple still has not exorcised its keyboard demons. Stern is already experiencing key failures on her new MacBook Air, which was redesigned late last year. That’s a relatively short span of time to begin seeing hardware failures on a brand-new piece of hardware. Stern rather interestingly highlighted...
Read more...
After years of letting its popular MacBook Air languish without any meaningful updates, Apple finally updated the ultra-portable notebook late last month. While the overall wedge-shaped chassis is familiar, the new MacBook Air features a completely redesigned inner layout. Given that the new 2018 MacBook Air is now shipping to customers, it should come as no surprise that the teardown experts at iFixit have put the laptop on the operating table. What they found is that the MacBook Air is using Apple's third-generation butterfly key mechanism for the keyboard. While the keys have far less travel than what traditional MacBook Air users are familiar with, it does at...
Read more...
It's only been a few days since Apple unveiled its refreshed MacBook Air notebook keeping the thin profile and sporting a Retina Display, Touch ID, and 8th generation Intel Core i5 processors among other tweaks. A few days later the first benchmarks for the 2018 MacBook Air have turned up on Geekbench giving us an idea of what the updated hardware inside the machine means for performance. The Air in these benchmarks is called out as having a 1.6GHz Intel Core i5-8210Y CPU and 16GB of RAM under the hood. The Geekbench scores for the machine show a single-core score of 4248 and a multi-core score of 7828. Those benchmark scores are better than the previous generation MacBook Air could muster...
Read more...
The rumors were true; Apple has just unveiled an all new MacBook Air and it looks like well, a MacBook Air. The redesigned model continues with the tapered design of its predecessor, but chunks the old USB ports and DisplayPort connectors in favor of two Thunderbolt 3 ports. In addition, the massive aluminum bezel around the 13.3-inch Retina Display has also been removed; instead, the display glass extends from edge-to-edge and the bezels are now much smaller (50 percent smaller, in fact). While the previous MacBook Air weighed in a 2.96 pounds, Apple has managed to shave even more weight off its successor, which comes in at 2.75 pounds. If you were a fan of the old MacBook Air's keyboard, we've...
Read more...
What is Apple brewing up? The company recently sent out invitations to members of the media for their October 30th event in Brooklyn, New York. The media invites featured various Apple logo designs and promised that “there’s more in the making”. The October 30th event will likely feature other Apple products besides iPhones and Apple Watches, which were unveiled last month. There have already been a number of leaks for a new iPad Pro, and it is expected to resemble the iPhone X thanks to the removal of the home button, thinner bezels, and a TrueDepth camera system that will incorporate Face ID. It is also rumored that the iPad Pro will be available in 11- and 12.9-inch display...
Read more...
Apple isn't exactly hurting for money with a market cap of a trillion dollars, making it the most valuable company in the world. It still wants more and to get its next trillion dollars in worth, Cupertino is looking to roll out some new products and among those are allegedly AR glasses in 2020 and an Apple Car in 2023. While we aren’t sure if those rumored products will actually launch, a pair of products that have been needing an update for years may finally be getting some new hardware. Rumors are flowing that Apple is set to finally update the long stale and underpowered Mac Mini desktop computer and the MacBook Air. Reports indicate that the new MacBook that is inbound will look similar...
Read more...
Apple's original MacBook Air was one of the progenitors of the "ultrabook" movement and doubled down on the use of SSDs (albeit at an enormous price premium). The second-generation model debuted in late 2010 and became a model for lightweight design while at the same time making SSDs standard across the board. Unfortunately, not much has changed with regards to the MacBook Air's design in the past 7 years, while its competitors have upped their game considerably. According to a new report, volume production of a true next-generation MacBook Air will have to wait until the second half of 2018 instead of the second quarter. The delay means that the MacBook Air could be ready into time for...
Read more...
Early this month notable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo published an investor note that claimed Apple was at work on a new lower cost MacBook Air. Analyst Jim Hsiao has now published research that says Apple will ship a large number of the new entry-level notebooks this year, but they won't be lower cost. Hsiao says that Apple will move 4 million units of the new MacBook Air in 2018. While Kuo didn’t offer any pricing details in his previous note, Hsiao believes that the new MacBook Air will sell for the same price as the current entry-level Air, or perhaps even a bit more. This means we are looking at a refreshed entry-level machine, not necessarily a lower cost notebook. The price remaining...
Read more...
There's a lot of buzz about Apple's upcoming media event in which it's expected the company will introduce the next generation of its iPhone line, presumably the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, and perhaps another Apple Watch as well. Ah, but handsets and wearables aren't the only devices on tap. Apple is said to refreshing its other products too, including its iPad and MacBook systems.Though the tablet gold rush is now a thing of the past, Apple is working on software and hardware upgrades to its and iPad Pro slates. Apple's looking to reverse a trend of nine straight quarters of declining iPad sales, and part of that will include making improvements to its Apple Pencil, a stylus-like tool for iPad...
Read more...
