Tech & Accessory News
OWC recently announced new 16GB memory upgarde kit for Apple latest 2011 MacBooks consisting of two 8GB DDR3 1333MHz RAM. This of course, will cost you a whopping $1,600, yes you can buy a second MacBook for that kind of money. The maximum memory upgrade offered by Apple is 8GB of RAM and OWC also offers a 12GB upgrade kit consisting of one 8GB module and one 4GB module for $880. The kits are available now.
As all the rumors have been saying, the Macbook Pro's are going to be updated. This was true, there is defiantly a lot of changes. Instead of going with an NVIDIA GeForce GT GPUs they have now switched to AMD's Radeon HD GPU which are more powerful. The Macbook Pro does not have the rumored 16GB SSD 'boot drive' as a standard option. Intel has launched there new 'Light Peak' platform on the Macbook Pro's. It is right next to the USB ports and looks like a mini display port. This is a multipurpose connector that can transfer data up to 10Gbps but we will half to see what the real bench marks are. Also the iSight cameras have been updated to 'FaceTime HD' camera which is supposbly wide screen and much better resolution. The trackpads have been scaled up a little bit accross all the models. Also last thing is that all CPU's have been upgraded to Intel's 'Sand Bridge', lets just hope there not the defective ones.
There have been tons of rumors floating around about Macbook Pro refresh with updated hardware, but that was mostly about Intel Sandy Bridge processors. There has now been another 'rumor' floating around that the new MacBook Pros are going to have a SSD drive 8-16GB boot drive that will only house OS X, applications and system files. This would be pretty cool since this might be using the same instant on that the Macbook Air has and this would also give a nice pep to the Macbook Pros. All the other data would be stored on a separate hard drive inside the system. Another 'rumor' is that the Macbook Pro's is larger trackpads. supposable this could open to easier, and more options for complex gestures. We will hopefully see sometime this week if any of these rumors are true, and if a new Macbook Pro refresh is true. Hopefully it is since its follows Apple's refresh timeline.
Apple is known for its 1 year refresh cycle of its MacBook Pro lineup. Apple last updated the MacBook Pro almost 1 year ago with brand new Intel Core i5 and i7 processors. This year, Apple has been rumored to be updating the MacBook Pros with the latest Intel Sandy Bridge processors which are said to be a significant improvement over last years upgrade.
It has been reported (and confirmed) that the new MacBook Pros will be released this week on Thursday, February 24th. So if you’ve been wanting to buy a new MacBook Pro, I recommend waiting a week.
With Apple's return to the Mac after the mountain of mobile devices announced, it is meant to be a huge announcement. Starting at 10 am PST tomorrow, and the invite sent out to media last week, caused the entire internet to explode with predictions of what Apple is going to announce, and here is mine.
For starters, if you look at the invite above, you can see a Lion behind the Apple logo, which probably means that the next version of Mac OS will be announced as Mac OS 10.7 Lion, as all recent versions of Mac OS are named after big cats. Main features of the new version of the new Mac OS that have been floating around are touch screen support, drastic speed increases and subtle UI changes to stuff like the dock and the menu bar. The reason that touchscreen is in there, is because Apple has filed several patents about touchscreen iMacs and MacBooks, and this would be a great time for Apple to include some parts of iOS into Mac OS, i.e. the touchscreen aspect. Call me an Apple fanboy, but I cannot see what drastically new features Apple could add, as I think it is as good as it can get, yet we will find out tomorrow.
In terms of hardware, the rumours about the long overdue update to the MacBook Air are picking up again. These rumours are saying that the new MacBook Air will be smaller with a 11.6" screen, a new version of SSD that is similar to a stick of RAM that is supposedly really fast and even slimmer profile. There are also some rumours of the MacBook and the MacBook Pros being updated, but I don't think that will happen as the Mac laptops got updated around April, and the MacBook family usually have a refresh cycle of around 9-10 months. Alike the laptops, I do not think that the desktops will get updated as they got their refresh this summer.
So, not long to wait until we find out so stay tuned to the live blogs like Engadget's for all the latest stuff coming out of Cupertino. However, it is still not clear if Apple will be streaming the event itself, like the iPod event, so get ready for the Lion to come out of the cage.
Apple has just posted the live stream page. Check it out here.
Yes your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. Apple is holding an event that is not about a mobile device! Weird huh? Anyway, what should you expect from this event? Well I presume Mac OS 10.7 Lion, hence the Lion in the background. No word on features but expect the usual speed increases and other stuff that is under the hood that we don't care about. In terms of hardware, I would put my money on a long over due update to the Macbook Air. Rumours say a 11.6" screen, more USB ports and a HD iSight camera. But, per usual nothing is certain till Jobs announces it on stage. And talking of the event, it starts at 10am PST on the 20th of October and hopefully it will be live streamed like the last Apple event.
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