World of Apple

MacBook Air SMC Update 1.0 - 551KB

The SMC Update fine tunes the speed and operation of the internal fan.

iPod shuffle Firmware 1.0.4

The iPod shuffle firmware 1.0.4 delivers enhanced support for the new 2GB shuffle as well as fixing unspecified bugs.

Intel will next quarter introduce several new high-speed solid state drives (SSDs) including a new 160GB; double the capacity of the current drive used in the MacBook Air.

The new drives are expected to be 2.5-inch drives as well as 1.8-inch, the latter being compatible with the MacBook Air.

Intel’s NAND chief Troy Winslow also told News.com that the new Intel drives will boast transfer rates far superior to any existing offers.

With new competition, drive speeds will jump. Currently, the fastest SSDs from companies like Samsung approach 100MB/second for reading data. “What I can tell you is ours is much better than that,” Winslow said. Hard drives typically read data at about half this speed

The chief also added that the entire product line will include SATAII interfaces, delivering up to 3Gbps.

Finally the price of SSDs is expected to drop considerably over the next few years. It costs upwards of $1000 to use an SSD in a notebook these days but by 2010 this price could be reduced to just $200.

“Price declines are historically 40 percent per year,” said Winslow. “And in 2009, a 50 percent reduction, then again in 2010.

Finally Winslow highlighted the increasing role SSDs are playing in the server market due to the ability to accelerate performance more than sixfold when compared to even the highest performing traditional hard drives.

Winslow said that Intel recently did a video-on-demand demonstration where it streamed 4,000 videos simultaneously. Just to do the streaming (not to store the video), it took 62 15,000 RPM (very high-performance) hard drives, he said. “We were able to replace those 62 hard drives with 10 SATA (SSD) technology drives,” he said.

Ars Technica reports on some homegrown research about the MacBook Air.

When the MacBook Air was released in January this year it was widely considered to be a very niche product and likely to head down the same road as the Cube. But Ars’ investigations show that initial sales of the Air are very promising.

The site first quotes that the online Apple store in some markets is predicting 5-7 business days for MacBook Air deliveries; Amazon is also reporting to be shipping orders on or after March 16th.

One Best Buy source told the site that stock has been pretty thin.

Moving onto brick and mortar stores, the site found out that Apple stores around Boston garnered a motto over the weekend: “no Air for you.”

Apple Stores in Cambridgeside, North Shore, Burlington and Natick were completely out of stock with employees from some stores stating that demand has been “extremely high” with some customers paying extra for the SSD model which remains in stock at most locations.

Reports from flagship stores in San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles state that the Air is out of stock but is coming in on a daily basis.

Even at the flagship store on Regents Street, London stock is said to be selling out the moment it is in.

Apple is currently offering a MacBook Air stock checker for Apple Stores across America for those not willing to take a chance of just turning up at their local store.

Mtron has announced that they have developed a 128GB 1.8-inch solid state drive (SSD) with a ZIF-type interface, the drive is 100% compatible with the MacBook Air and will ship in April of this year.

Mtron’s new SSD with Single Level Cell (SLC) Flash memory supports PATA (ZIF-type) interface and has a maximum reading speed of 120MB/s and writing speed of 100MB/s, which is more than 6 times faster than the current 1.8 inch HDD. Therefore when it’s used in laptop PC and UMPC, it delivers much faster performance than desktop. Mtron also released 1.8 Inch SSD with Multi Level Cell (MLC) Flash memory, which provides maximum memory capacity of up to 128 GB along with a maximum reading speed of 110 MB/s and writing speed of 40MB/s.

It is unknown at this time whether Apple will add this drive to the MacBook Air build-to-order system but the drive will certainly be capable of adding to a MacBook Air.

Pricing for the drive is not currently available.

Mac Rumors forum member desenso has posted an unboxing video of his new MacBook Air.

Michigan Avenue Apple Store, Chicago sets up the MacBook Air displays

All Apple Stores across the U.S. are expected to have MacBook Air units on display starting today (Friday 1st) but many do not have stock to begin selling.

Mac Rumors posts photos of some Apple Stores setting up displays and MacBook Air units .

Finally, iFixit has posted a very detailed disassembly of the MacBook Air, during the process iFixit noted the following:

• Hard drive swap is possible
• iFixit expects 3rd party batteries will be available soon

Most MacBook Air purchasers are seeing that their online orders are turning to shipping status with the majority expected to arrive Friday, but a minority of those are seeing units turning up on their doorsteps today.

UneasySilence.com offers a nice selection of unboxing photos of the MacBook Air.

Ars Technica has also received a MacBook Air, and compliments Apple on the slim packaging.

Over at Mac Rumors discussions are picking up as some Apple Store begin to put MacBook Air units on sale, one user has managed to get some hands on experience with a SSD model; something even the media have been unable to so far.

Apple has published a new section to its support site dedicated to the MacBook Air.

The support reveals the methods users will need to use when troubleshooting their brand new MacBook Airs.

Due to the battery being sealed in Apple has had to come up with a solution to reset the SMC; simply by holding the power button.

The support site all reinforces disappointments about the capabilities of the Remote Disc function, the feature cannot be used to play DVDs or CDs; a support document confirms that a USB CD or DVD drive is absolutely essential for Boot Camp: though the Air can boot or install Mac OS X over a network, neither Windows XP nor Vista can recognize anything but a USB drive.

Apple also cautions those wishing to install Mac OS X over a wireless connection that the process won’t work with WEP encryption. Owners must either use WPA or switch off security altogether to install the software.

Other discoveries made in support articles are:

• Some audio devices may not fit the headphone jack due to the small space of the swivel out hatch.
• Using the ethernet adapter is recommended when using the Migration Assistant.
• In hot conditions the MacBook Air throttles or stops one CPU core to reduce heat, possibly causing 3D performance issues.
• Apple has published a user guide (PDF) noting that the systems mono speaker is under the keyboard and the display should not be opened past 125-degrees.

Apple has today announced that the MacBook Air is now shipping and most deliveries are expected to begin tomorrow.

In the press release Apple also wrote that the Apple TV update which was announced two weeks ago at Macworld has been delayed another two weeks.

Apple also announced that the new Apple TV® software update, which allows users to rent high definition movies directly from their widescreen TVs, is not quite finished. Apple now plans to make the free software download available to existing Apple TV customers in another week or two.

Multiple media outlets are beginning to receive Apple review models of the MacBook Air.

The units are the standard 80GB, 1.6GHz model, Gizmodo, Engadget and Macworld have so far received theirs.

The innards of a MacBook Air

Some early notes from across those sites:

• Gizmodo offers many size comparison images of the MacBook Air
• Remote Disk limitations; can’t play DVD media, can’t burn a CD, can’t listen to a music CD
• Engadget offers benchmarks against MacBook, MacBook Pro, and iMac.
• Gizmodo offers further “real world” benchmarks
• Common USB 3G modem fails to fit in MacBook Air

Gizmodo is the first site to open up the MacBook Air, offering a video and a selection of images.

Some of the first reviews of the brand new MacBook Air have begun to appear in the mainstream press.

Wall Street Journal (Walt Mossberg):

• beautiful, amazingly thin computer, but one whose unusual trade-offs may turn off some frequent travelers.
• It’s impossible to convey in words just how pleasing and surprising this computer feels in the hand. It’s so svelte when closed that it’s a real shock to discover the big screen and keyboard inside.
• while the MacBook Air will be a perfect choice for some travelers, I can’t recommend it for all.
• In my standard battery test, where I disable all power-saving features, set the screen brightness at maximum, turn on the Wi-Fi and play an endless loop of music, the MacBook Air’s battery lasted 3 hours, 24 minutes. That means you could likely get 4.5 hours in a normal work pattern, almost the five hours Apple claims.
• But the MacBook Air has another downside: its screen height. Because of the larger screen, the lid stands higher when opened than on most other subnotebooks. So it isn’t as usable as some competitors when the seat in front of you in coach on a plane is reclined.
• If you value thinness, and a large screen and keyboard in a subnotebook, and don’t watch DVDs on planes or require spare batteries, the MacBook Air might be just the ticket.

Newsweek (Steven Levy):

• The Air is a lithe sheath of aluminum so slim that it can slide under my office door.
• Did I mention that it’s really skinny? When I slip it in the sleeve of my backpack where my six-pound MacBook Pro usually travels, the pocket still looks empty.
• The Air shines most, of course, when it’s out in the open–on an airplane seatback tray, on a conference table, beside your latte in a Starbucks and on your lap when you’re sprawled on the sofa.
• Bonus: the Air doesn’t run as hot as Apple’s other laptops–it’s actually possible to work for an hour with the device on your lap without the feeling that your fertility is at stake.
• These omissions are troubling–especially to someone in a down-turning economy deciding whether to spend a premium sum for a computer with subpremium storage. Still, simply using the MacBook Air, as I’m doing right now in writing this review, is rather copasetic.
• The things that Apple left on were the ingredients for a quality computer. And did I mention how thin it is?

USA Today (Ed Baig):

• The skinny — the word can’t be emphasized enough —
• But with too few ports, a sealed battery that you can’t replace on your own and no built-in CD/DVD drive, Air is not the ideal laptop for everyone.
• And while battery power is impressive, it pooped out in my tests well short of the best-case, five-hour scenario Apple has been touting.
• As with all new Macs, Air has the latest virus-resistant OS X Leopard operating system. (It puts Windows Vista to shame.)
• Air does not come with the built-in ability to connect to a speedy wireless data network run by various cellular carriers. Jobs told me last week that Apple considered it but that adding the capability would take up room and restrict consumers to a particular carrier.
• Air’s battery life is decent. I got about three hours and 40 minutes as I surfed the Web, used Remote Disc and wrote. The battery died an hour sooner when I watched The Cooler, but I made it through the movie. On a long flight, it would be nice to carry a spare, but unfortunately you can’t replace a battery yourself.