Apple Released Update To Enable PowerNap On 2011 and 2012 MacBook Airs

PowerNap is one of the new function included in OS X Mountain Lion. This feature was introduced at this year’s WWDC and allows your Mac update software, receive email and perform other tasks even when the system is in sleeping mode.

Apple lists all capabilities of the new feature on this support page. Capabilities include Reminder and Contact changes, syncing Calendar, receiving new Mail, Mac App Store updates, Time Capsule backup and more.

PowerNap is supported only on MacBook Airs released in 2011 and 2012 as well as on 2012 Retina MacBook Pro. The feature should move over to additional Apple’s laptops as the company makes a transition to flash storage. Build-in SSD is one of the requirements of the PowerNap technology.

Today Apple released a firmware update required to enable this feature in the 2011 MacBook Airs, while the update for new MacBook Pro with Retina display is “coming soon”.