News tagged ‘MacBook’

As far as we know, Apple pushes out a refreshed iMac every 8 months and a major update every 27 months. The last major update was in October 2009 and the last refresh was in July 2010. So, the iMac lineup is due for a refresh this March.  The update will up-to-date the iMac, prepare it for Mac OS X Lion. Moreover, Apple is expected to start bringing the MacBook Air Solid State Drive (SSD) modules to the rest of the Mac family, will add the new Intel’s microarchitecture Sandy bridge to improve graphics and resolution on the 21.5" and 27" displays. Adding this option to the iMacs will improve the readability. Perhaps, Apple will also add an anti-glare option to their iMac display offerings. This will be a minor update, with a major one expected sometime around January 2012.

After Apple has unveiled its financial results for the first quarter of 2011 it became obvious that in terms of revenue the company replaced Nokia and became the largest mobile phone maker in the world.

Recently Nokia reported that its Devices & Services division earned $9.7 billion, but that includes global sales of all the company's handheld mobile computers, including smartphones, tablets and non-smart feature phones, and also a broad range of Ovi-branded services that include email, music and app store.

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Yesterday Apple reported its best quarter in the company's history. That what numbers tell and Apple's CEO Steve Jobs said at the beginning of a conference call:

“We had a phenomenal holiday quarter with record Mac, iPhone and iPad sales. We are firing on all cylinders and we’ve got some exciting things in the pipeline for this year including iPhone 4 on Verizon which customers can’t wait to get their hands on.”

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This week U.S. Patent and Trademark Office made public another patent application from Apple. It is entitled "Touch Sensing Device Having Conductive Nodes" and reveals a new way of creating new capacitive touchscreens that allow to make devices even thinner than before.

It is noted that existing capacitive sensing technology works very well, but it can be further improved, and not only to make devices thinner, but also to achieve better results in power saving and therefore battery life.

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Another note to investors was posted by Chris Whitmore from Deutsche Bank, where he indicates that Apple had sold more iPads and Macs than it was previously expected. The demand for the iPhone didn't also slow down, though rumors on CDMA-enabled version of the device could cause that.

These holidays Deutsche Bank visited more than fifty stores to find that there were lines and crowds of people who would like to buy the latest iPhone, and Apple was prepared for that.

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Apple has announced that it will publish its earnings for the first fiscal quarter of 2011 (forth quarter of 2010) and host a conference call regarding the release on Tuesday, January 18th at 2:00 p.m. PT. The conference call will be streamed live, audio-only, on Apple’s website. A link to the webcast will be provided in the following weeks. During the conference call we’ll hear about the sales of the new MacBook Airs and iOS devices’ performances in the holiday season and get chance to listen to Steve Jobs’ thoughts again.

2010 has been a terrific year for Apple. Apple released the new MacBooks, new iMacs / Mac Minis and Mac Pros, the iPhone 4, the iPad. Not to mention the new & improved Apple TV, iOS 4, Retina Display on the iPod touch, the fiscal results….overall, it’s been a good year. YouTube user tszheichoi has posted a look back at all the exciting moments of Apple in 2010.

This Wednesday Toshiba had experienced the power outage at Fab 3 and Fab 4 in the city of Yokkaichi, Japan. This caused an immediate shutdown of the NAND chip production at the plant. Though as of 15:00 on Friday facility became fully operational again, it is believed that such a force majeure may result in a 20% reduction in the sales of NAND flash in the next two months. Toshiba hasn't given official word on that information yet.

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Five years ago, Apple was selling the iBook G4 which evolved from the original iMac. The iBook released mid 2005 got 1.33 or 1.42 GHz PowerPC G4 processors, 12.1 inch or 14.1 inch display, weighted 4.9 lbs (2.2 kg) (smaller version) or 5.9 lbs (2.7 kg) (larger version). Both models had 1024x768 screen resolution and were 1.35 inches (3.4 cm) thick.

Apple's latest laptop, the 11.6 inch MacBook Air, is equipped with  1.4 or 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, weighs just 2.3 lbs (1.04 kg) and is only 0.68 inches (1.7 cm) at its thickest.

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On Wednesday Apple released a MacBook Air EFI firmware update 2.0 to resolve issue with display. The update is recommended for all new 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air models and requires Mac OS X 10.6.5. It addresses problems where the MacBook Air is unresponsive or displays just a black screen after booting or waking. Despite scattered reports of issues with the MacBook Air, the laptop has continued to sell well, especially the 11-inch model. Analysts tracking retail activity on Black Friday found that the 11-inch MacBook Air was "flying off the shelves" and a "customer favorite."

Download the MacBook Air EFI firmware update 2.0

Ticongera Securities analyst Brian White provided another update for investors while touring the Far East. In his note he says that iPhone 4, iPad and 11-inch MacBook Air are the most difficult products to purchase in China.

Local carrier China Unicom cannot fulfill almost a third of preorders, and people wait for their devices for around two months. That creates wide growth opportunities in China, and White says Apple's interest in this market is definitely positive.

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This week the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office released another pile of Apple's patent applications that reveal the company’s interest in further improving of its technology of keyboard backlights. It is said in the documents, that though current keyboards have a light feedback, for example, when the "Caps Lock" is enabled, more informative keyboards would be more beneficial for users.

"Most conventional keyboards lack the ability to convey complex information to a user (such as, for example, more information than just whether the CAPS lock key is on). And while some conventional keyboards may include backlit keys, conventional keyboards with backlighting do not offer the ability to dynamically control lighting schemes for each of the keys individually based on interaction from the user."

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On Tuesday Apple revealed the patent application, which depicts a laptop that slides into tablet. On the shots above you may see how the standard laptop with a traditional keyboard, body, display frame and display might be transformed into a tablet by sliding the display across the keyboard. The patent relates to scrolling operations but it does not depict real convertible laptop to tablet form factor. The idea of the patent was expressed by Apples CEO Steve Jobs while the presentation of the new MacBook when he wondered what would happen if a MacBook and an iPad hooked up. So this patent with a touchscreen and a keyboard, laptop and tablet configurations reveals implementation of this idea and possibility of integration between the two products.

Apple seems to have grate plans for 2011. So, we’d summarized all rumors and official statement, and formed the following list, which shows Apple's plans for the new year:

• Lion OS;
• Mac App Store;
• iPad 2
• Implementing of Light Peak optical interconnect technology developed by Intel to replace such things like USB, DisplayPort and HDMI. In future, the technology has the potential to reach speeds of 100Gbps. it is also requires smaller connections and thinner cables;
• New model of MacBook Pro notebooks equipped with Intel's Light Peak, 512 GB of SSD storage, without an optical drive. These MacBook Pro's will last longer, run quieter and be lighter and more power-efficient;
• Apple-branded Blu-ray player/burning device which is also capable of burning standard optical media such as DVD or CD;
• Subscription service via iTunes, which would be focused on video services.

According to sources close to component makers for Apple’s computers, the company ships around one million MacBooks per month in Q4 2010. Part of the new MacBook Airs is accounted to 20-25% of the volume. In the first three quarters of 2010 Apple sold about 6.88 million units, and its global notebook market share rose from 3.7% in the first quarter to 5.2% in the third. Apple’s market share in the US market surged from 6.7% to 12.6%. So, it looks like 2011 will be an interesting year for Mac users. Moreover, Apple plans to open the Mac App Store, update the MacBook Pro line and launch new OS X Lion.