The 2011 MacBook Air refresh headed to an Apple Store near you

 

Start your credit cards gentlemen…

The order has been placed. An unnamed Concord Securities Analyst has confirmed to 9to5Mac that Apple has put in its order of 380,000 Sandy Bridge-powered MacBook Airs. The order is comprised of 11.6 and 13.3-inch models, all with Intel Core I processors and Thunderbolt ports like the recent MacBook Pro refresh.

The source has also confirmed both models will use the on-board Intel 3000 HD in lieu of discrete graphics. If the MacBook Pro 13-inch model is any indication, the Nvidia graphics of the current generation MBA should offer slightly improved benchmarks. Expect the 2011 MacBook Air to launch in late June or early July.

via Cellfanatic

Orbital’s Time Machine configuration addon for Windows Home Server

Here’s a great little write up from Terry Walsh over at We Got Served regarding an up coming free addon for Windows Home Server 2011 to take the pain out of setting up a mac to think that your home server is an Apple Time Capsule…

You probably already know that Windows Home Server 2011 is partly compatible with Apple Macs, courtesy of a Mac Connector, which installs a version of the Launchpad on the desktop. Orbital Backup Configuration extends the Launchpad with a new option, which launches a configuration wizard to create the necessary plumbing required so you can direct your Time Machine backups to your home or small business server.

via We Got Served.

Testing an SSD upgrade on the latest MacBook Pro’s

Here’s a great write up about the benifits of saving cash buying the latest processor and instead invest in an SSD, this is a similar approach I took when switching to the mac (although it was also about the weight saving carrying around a 13inch macbook pro before the new Air turned up).

So, is it worth the extra cost? In their testing of several MacBook Pro configurations (one 13-inch with the upgraded 128GB SSD, one with a standard 5400-rpm drive, and a couple of others), Macworld found that:

The SSD upgrade made the 13-inch MacBook Pro boot faster, in 20 seconds versus 38 seconds (of note, the 13-inch MacBook Air with flash storage booted in 15 seconds)

SSD also enabled the MacBook Pro to outperform a model with a faster processor, at least in disk-intensive tests: the 13-inch 2.3GHz Core i5 MacBook Pro with SSD was 8% faster than the 2.7GHz Core i7 MacBook Pro with a 500GB 5400-rpm HDD.

I would strongly encourage any designer to make the jump, it makes a huge difference with photoshop and general OS activities and it’s super simple to change over (once you get the right tools and pull out the dozen screws Apple over engineer it with!)

via Gizmodo

Apple adds speedier SSDs to latest batch of MacBook Airs

An interesting little titbit around Apple change supplier from Toshiba to Samsung for their Macbook Air SSD storage, which seems to have delivered a nice little performance boost. Could this be a foreboding of a Core i5 update to the Air in June?

Anandtech has run some speed tests on the two blade SSDs and found that the original Toshiba device with the model number TS128C has a read speed of 209.8 MB/second and a write speed of 175.6 MB/second. That’s slower than the newer Samsung SSD with the model number of SM128C. The Samsung SSD has read speeds of 261.1 MB/second and a write speed of 209.6 MB/second.

While that read/write speed increase isn’t astonishingly faster, it is noticeable in real-world use. It’s also important to note that Anandtech can’t confirm that the newer SSD is manufactured by Samsung, but it is likely that is who makes it since Apple has used Samsung SSDs before and because the performance of the SSD matches Samsung’s 470 Series of blade SSDs.

via tuaw.com

Final Cut Pro X preview screens

High res previews of the new Final Cut application, via Photographybay

Apple reveals Final Cut Pro X

Apple finally revealed the latest version of Final Cut Pro yesterday, called X. It comes in pure 64bit form, enabling support for more that 4gb or ram as well as as revamped UI…

Final Cut Pro X comes with a slew of new features, including advanced people and shot detection, automatic audio cleanup and “range-based keywording,” which gives video editors the ability to apply keywords to specific portions of a video. The new Final Cut Pro also sports a feature that prevents audio and video tracks from being pushed out of sync by accident. Photography Bay also reports that Final Cut Pro X will come with feature that automatically matches color between two clips.

The best part by far will be that Final Cut Pro X will be available for download via the Mac App Store in June for $299, a substantial reduction from Final Cut Studio’s $999 price tag.

via Mashable

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