MacBook Air in 2013

The good news is that all models of Macbook Air are having same processor and they have a 11 or 13 inch screen. Hence deciding how to select a MacBook Air is little bit confusing here we are going to give you some to choose a best suited model for you.The four models of MacBook Air 2013 differ only in the size of the screen and the amount of storage and all of them have the same processor (Intel Core i5-4250U 1.3GHz) and the same graphics chip (the Intel HD Graphics 5000). Hence it is not possible to choose one model over the other based on performance, and all are all the same in this regard. This parameter has nevertheless lost importance over the years. The MacBook Air has always been powerful enough for most everyday tasks like web browsing or office. For several generations, they may even face more intensive tasks: many users logically make MacBook Air their primary system. Of course, a MacBook Air will never be a gamer machine, but the new graphics chip allows them to run more than games from iOS or older titles. Of course, a MacBook Air will never be a graphics workstation, but it does not have major problems with Aperture or Lightroom on the ground. And of course, a MacBook Air is always a great "digital typewriter." If however you are looking for maximum power in a small footprint, take a look at the processor option. Core i5 is then replaced by a Core i7-4650U 1.7GHz able to climb to 3.3 GHz peak and therefore face Xcode, larger photos in Aperture or even footage in FCP X. For the first time, this option offers the good qualities of the MacBook Air: the price-performance ratio remains the same (12% more expensive, you get a machine 12% faster) and autonomy remains excellent.


The screen size is now more than ever a key factor in choosing a MacBook Air, since all are of equal configuration, it is not quite the same thing with an 11-inch MacBook Air and a MacBook Air 13 inches. The 11-inch MacBook Air is obviously more mobile, smaller and lighter than 13 inches. Its screen has a higher than the MacBook Pro 13-inch (1366 x 768 px) definition, but its 16:9 aspect ratio is a bit narrow in height. It is a little less comfortable and first made for the road with eight hours of battery life. However, do not forget that you can connect a MacBook Air to an external display (Thunderbolt / DisplayPort or HDMI / DVI / VGA via adapter). The MacBook Air 13-inch is a little more traditional: a full size keyboard and trackpad are as comfortable as those of the MacBook Pro. And a screen 1440 x 900 pixel is defined as the 13-inch MacBook Pro! It is a machine and all terrain use. It actually takes the place of the iBook or MacBook in the role of the machine quite capable, but no frills, at a reasonable price and with exceptional battery life of 12 hours.

While most of the MacBook Pro and iMac come with 8 GB of RAM, the MacBook Air comes with 4 GB of RAM. Apple sells its very expensive RAM, but you have no choice but to buy from it: the MacBook Air RAM modules are welded. Maybe if your budget is limited, choose staffing memory than storage. The SSD MacBook Air anyway narrow and require the use of external storage, so as to make the most economical choice and more beneficial in the long term. Again, you can never increase the RAM of the MacBook Air, then you will have no trouble to change his cap SSD or to add an external drive. Some probably expect Apple may finally decide to build the MacBook Air with a Retina display. It is true that the integrated graphics solutions make anything possible today, but this time Apple has special autonomy (up) and the price (down). Furthermore, the Retina large screens still suffer from problems of production and quality that still differs a little MacBook Air.

Top Reasons to Buy an Ultrabook or Macbook

The trend has been there. Laptops were getting thinner and thinner as consumers demanded products which are more lightweight and could comfortably fit in most of our bags .However consumers did not want machines that compromised performance over convenience, something two companies, Intel and Apple were able to achieve.

Intel developed the Ultrabook while Apple developed the Macbook and later the Macbook Air. These types of laptops can be considered to be notebooks, only slightly larger in size, thus named subnotebooks. Unlike Laptops, ultrabooks and the Macbook air do not have optical disk drives like the CD/DVD/Blu-ray disk drives and usually have only one Ethernet port and in some cases ,none. These features are removed to make the ultrabook and the Macbook as thin as possible. However, the performance of these subnotebooks is the same as of any laptop with most ultrabooks and Macbooks operating with i5 and i7 intel processors and with RAM reaching a maximum of 8GB just like most laptops. Ultrabooks and Macbooks differ in the sense that ultrabooks are manufactured by various manufacturers under the patent of Intel. The most popular ultrabooks are those of Samsung, Asus, Toshiba and Sony. Macbooks, now replaced by the Macbook Air are manufactured by Apple Inc. Although both machines run on Intel processors, the Ultrabook run on Windows while the Macbook use Linux.

There are several reasons why one may consider buying an ultrabook or a Macbook air:

Portability - This is probably the reason why they were invented in the first place. While laptops can be carried around in a suitcase, you can't toss most of the current laptops into your bag and even if you can, you only make the bag 6 to 7 pounds heavier. Most ultrabooks and Macbooks are only 3 pounds in weight and thin enough to fit in any bag.

Long Battery life - Most ultrabooks and Macbooks have at least 4 to 5 hours of battery life maxing out at 9 hours which is similar to the current battery life of most laptops. This is because today’s much smaller processors do not suck as much juice as previous versions.

Several concerns have been brought forward on whether ultrabooks and Macbooks can operate as fast as Laptops. This mainly depends on the kind of work being performed. For those into high end gaming, complex graphic design and editing movie videos, ultrabooks may not be up to par but for everything else, the ultrabook and Macbook will perform just as well as any laptop.

The absence of the CD/DVD drive is usually an upset to many. However, most of what we used to watch on DVD can now be streamed or downloaded from the internet and the storage of information has long since shifted to flash drives. However, for those who still love watching DVDs or Blu-ray Disks, there are external CD/DVD drives hat are thin and easy to carry around with your ultrabook or Macbook without adding any bulkiness to the subnotebook. As for the Ethernet port, most ultrabooks do come with a single Ethernet port, however if you intend to buy one which doesn't have one ensure that there is reliable Wifi in your area. An Ethernet port however other important functions other than cable internet thus it is usually recommended that one buys an ultrabook that has an Ethernet port.

Overall, if you want the speed and performance of a laptop without the bulkiness that comes with it, an ultrabook or a Macbook is a viable investment.


Harvey Norman Singapore offers great deals on Apple Macbook Pro and Apple Macbook Air models in 11-, 13-, and 15-inch sizes. They also offer a wide range of ultrabook models from top brands like Acer, Toshiba, Lenovo, Samsung, Asus, Sony, and HP.

MacBook Pro Retina and MacBook Air Prices Lowered

Apple has adjusted its notebook range Retina and the MacBook Air, changing some elements of their configurations and some prices. For Retina it involves both the 13 "released in October that the 15" June. This step has taken to make these machines more accessible to the wide spread community. Even its price was criticized at the time of their launch more particularly for the 13”. These price reductions definitely mitigate the reproaches. The actual tariff revision involved was not included for its phones. The Mac sales had declined to 15.2% as compared to the same quarter of the last year. This may be added possible reduction in the price and in the upstream production cost of these screens and their new arrival in the portable pc’s. the similar news about laptops could not be expected before this summer until the new arrival of Intel processors.

The price of 13 "MacBook Pro Retina starts from 1499 € instead of 1749 € with its Core i5 2.5 GHz and 128 GB SSD. Following model is € 1,699 instead of € 2,049 with 256 GB SSD and a sees its new processor frequency from 2.5 GHz to 2.6 GHz (Turbo Boost to 3.2 GHz instead of 3.1 GHz). Such adjustment of the family 13 "comes about five months after marketing.

The 15 "Retina always uses around a Core i7 processor with four cores. Its frequency from 2.3 GHz to 2.4 GHz for the first model and 2.6 GHz to 2.7 GHz for the most powerful. Model high end 15 "also takes 8 GB of RAM for 16 GB offer price fell to € 2199 and € 2799 instead of € 2279 and € 2899.

SSD options have also become more accessible, 256 GB, 512 GB and 768 GB are now at 200 €, 500 € and 900 € instead of 300 €, 800 € and 1300 €.

Note that one of the two MacBook Pro 15 " (standard screen), the top model at 2.6 GHz, has disappeared from the catalog ... or almost. In the state there are only 2 , 3 GHz to 1799 € instead of 1879 €., but by going into options include everything needed to make a custom machine (RAM, SSD, CPU and storage type). By configuring the laptop to find the Version removed, we gain a little less than 50 € on the old tariff.

Testing MacBook Pro 13 "2.7 GHz Core i7" Thunderbolt "(early 2011)

With the update to its line of MacBook Pro, Apple has not done in half measures: while the Core 2 Duo stagnated since 2009, the top model of MacBook Pro 13 "is now equipped with an Intel Core i7 processor with the highest frequency ever seen in a Mac with this diagonal screen, 2.7 GHz.

A small MacBook Pro with large processor

Little or nothing distinguishes this MacBook Pro 13 "Core i7's Core i5 little brother, the exterior design to its HD camera FaceTime through its port Thunerdbolt, we had the opportunity to describe in detail in our test MacBook Pro 13 "2.3 GHz Core i5" Thunderbolt ". Processor and graphics chip, meanwhile, are quite different.

Which MacBook Air and Mac mini 2011 to choose? - II

If the distinction between the different models of Mac mini may be fairly clear, the thing is more subtle with the MacBook Air: you can not directly oppose 11 "and 13", with two very different uses. This question is to be removed: the 11 "ultra-mobile but a little less independent, the 13" not necessarily much harder to transport and more autonomous. Both are thin, lightweight, have a screen with a resolution thrust, and are very comfortable to use thanks to its SSD.

Which MacBook Air and Mac mini 2011 to choose?

MacBook Air and Mac mini Mac are two very different, but the lines pose the same problem: four machine on one side, three on the other configuration options with a shovel ... was soon to hesitate between two models, even after they scanned sheet in detail, even after reading tests MacGeneration. Here are some items to help you choose. 

What is a pro for Apple?

The release of Final Cut Pro X two weeks ago illustrates the ambiguous relationship that maintains Apple with its business customers. A number of long-time users of Final Cut Studio felt "betrayed" by Apple considering that this version had many gaps and it was more like Final Cut Express, the light version of Final Cut Pro, only to the last.

Apple, the term "Pro" has been overused. It has been widely used in its products including its line of computers. There is one side, the Mac Pro and MacBook Pro, and the other, the iMac, the MacBook Air, MacBook and Mac mini. Although the Mac Pro may be a special case, none of these machines, however, is intended for a specific audience. Thus, the MacBook Air, originally designed for the executive wanting a lightweight and compact machine, does the same professionals that the happiness of students, for example. But what does the term Pro then?

These are not the interpretations that fail to tell the truth. Ken Seagall, the term Pro simply changed their meaning in the term of the Cupertino Company over time. He cites as evidence the Pro section of Apple.com, which has not been revised since ... 2009. On this page, we have customer testimonials types of Apple: the war photographer, editor professional music producer, journalist ultramobile ... All are unique to fully exploit the Apple solutions and to have an almost unlimited IT budgets. In this design as a professional with the creative core target, Apple has moved to a definition a little less "ambitious" or perhaps less cliché. According to Ken Seagall, the term Pro at Apple now means "high performance model" whereas before it meant that it was something designed for professionals with extremely demanding requirements well above those of mortals.

This new service has to be the merit of being clear and involve more people. You use "up" your computer and its tools, you are a professional. This definition also is probably not denied by Sachin Agarwal, who has worked for more than 2002 to 2008 on Final Cut Pro. It is somehow the same opinion as Ron Brinkmann, the former head of Shake, which recently said that Apple did not care professionals. The market "Pro" as such is too small for Apple. The segment of interest above all is that of the professionals. This word is the fusion of the words "professional" and "consumer" (general public), a much wider segment in which Apple can better express them.

Sachin Agarwal said that when he was at Apple, the purpose of Final Cut Pro was not to engage in a race to the functionality, but to offer a powerful product, easy to use and much cheaper than the competition. To some extent, with Final Cut Pro X, Apple has entered a new phase. Left to sacrifice some features, the video tool is more affordable (at all points of view) than its predecessor.

Testing the 27 "iMac" Thunderbolt - part III

Intel also provides the chipset of the iMac, a Z68 Series 6, replacing the P67 which had experienced numerous problems in the launch of the platform Sandy Bridge (SATA performance degradation). This chipset manages Smart Response, a new technology to use a SSD (up to 64 GB) as a cache for the hard drive, like the hybrid discs as the Seagate Momentus XT. Apple does not use this function: the SSD and hard drive of the iMac appear as two completely separate volumes. They are both connected to SATA III, allowing them to express themselves to their full potential.

The potential for the SSD is 240 Mb / s maximum throughput of 160 Mb / s of average flow. It's good but not dazzling, especially the hard drive of 1TB provided by Apple (a Western Digital Caviar Black 7200 RPM SATA III and 32 MB cache) is doing very well. The high density of its platters, SATA III interface and 32 MB cache allow it to reach speeds of around 120 Mb / s, with a fine linearity over large files.

Overall more efficient, the SSD, arranged in housing behind the SuperDrive, takes advantage of two areas: its access time and noise level. Fast, fast, fast, these are the three adjectives to describe what DSS quick fix on the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, it is also on the iMac. While the scratch disk and is sometimes responsible for a certain delay, the SSD can boot the machine in a few seconds (12-14), forget the color wheel of death, and fluid in general operations, all in a royal silence accentuated by the presence of discrete fans.

(Cont.)

No rewards from Apple at WWDC 2011

On the occasion of every WWDC, Apple presents awards for the best applications running on its OS. To claim the Apple Design Awards this year, Mac applications will necessarily figured on the Mac App Store.

At the edge of Mac OS Leo, although Apple operates a "Back to the Mac", the name of the conference in October which had unveiled the new Mac Book Air and Mac OS X 10.7.

Back to Mac in effect as if they had been set aside at WWDC 2010, they reappeared this year. "The future of Mac OS" will be announced, but it's also the Apple Design Awards of trophies rewarding the best applications of the year, the Mac is again under the spotlight.

The Design Awards were for the first time, forgot the applications for Apple computers last year. The symbolic impact of this predation was strong enough, some blaming Apple to lose interest.

"The error" is corrected for the WWDC 2011 as the Design Awards reward software for iMac, MacBook and company. But a new sine qua non has emerged to claim the title of best Mac application: be on the Mac App Store.

This condition, however, force the developers to make their exclusive application to the Apple Store. They are always free to offer their product for download on their own site. But to win an Apple Design Award, it is necessary that the software is available on the App Store for Mac.

The decision is somewhat surprising fact; there is a way like another to push developers to cozy up to the Mac App Store. The Cupertino Company is pushing its paperless shop for a while; the disappearance of the boxes in the Apple Store seems on track, while Mac OS Leo could be downloaded from the online store of the company Steve Jobs.

iMovie on the iPad to fast some Mac computers

Chaten Tim from App Advice decided to test performance of the application iMovie and got quite surprising results. It turns out that if you are looking for a good and fast workstation for video processing "in the field, it simply must pay attention to iMovie to iOS, designed specifically for the latest generation iPad 2.

Tim wanted to see how the work mobile iMovie handles mounted in apple tablet dual-processor Apple A5, as well as to compare the performance of this program with desktop applications for Mac OS X, which he ran on different machines Mac. For their tests, he took a set of files, went to the nearest retail Apple Store and had similar tests on all drainage computer models, except for Mac mini. And the results surprised all of his expectations.

In the first trial, Tim pinpoint how many minutes will take up a two-minute test clip, shot on the fourth-generation iPod touch, for each selected for testing apple device. Became the winner of the iPad 2 coped with the task in just 25.5 seconds, but the "intergalactic Mac Pro took 56.5 seconds on it.

The second test is to change the encoding speed is the raw video clips in 720p. Again iPad 2 surpassed the rest of the large family of Apple products with the result in 1 minute and 56 seconds, just 3 seconds ahead of the iPhone 4. Time of the fastest and ultraportable Mac Pro was 2 minutes and 15 seconds, while most 17" MacBook Pro cope with the task in 2 minutes and 20 seconds.

Naturally, the third test was the most difficult one. Tim has worked well over the video in all versions of iMovie, added background music, captions and a variety of images in the beginning and end of the roller. Of course, with coding at 720p a roller processed most quickly mastered "the older brothers iPad 2: The clear winner was the 17 "MacBook Pro with a score of 1 minute and 48 seconds, the second place finish Mac Pro (2 minutes exactly), and now perform this operation on the second generation apple tablet took a little more time - 2 minutes and 5 seconds. Of course, there are some important nuances also.

iPad, MacBook Pro: minor revisions until something better?

Apple Store closures expected to succeed at a steady pace in the coming days. The ball will start today with the arrival of new MacBook Pro. In terms of innovations, this new range is presented as an incremental update, which should be distinguished by the adoption of SSD arrays, generalized processor Core i and the arrival of the famous port Thunderbolt. But to iLounge, the best is yet to come. The next generation expected for 2012 should be a major revision with significant changes in terms of design. One thing is certain, it is not shortage of ideas to Apple (read: The future of the MacBook keyboard but will not with sensors).

But the most interesting revelations concerning the iLounge iPad 2. Lately, there have been lots of rumors going in all directions; some left waiting for this model would be commercially available in June, while others argued that the initial production of tablets is less than expected.

For iLounge, there is some truth behind these rumors, and Apple has had to readjust his plans.

The site cannot say whether Apple would respond to the problems encountered, we have the right to a minor revision of the device until better in the fall. iLounge mentions the possibility of an iPad 1.5 which could still be called iPad 2 but did not have all the features originally planned for this model. The Cupertino Company would deal with production problems in the short term and give a little air. To our colleagues, the situation resembles that Apple had known at the launch of the iPod touch 3G, whose camera was withdrawn at the last minute due to production problems.

Thunderbolt also a great price

LaCie has announced a product but not its price, which will perhaps not trivial, especially in the SSD version of the Little Big Disk. "We will have SSD-based products with prices that will match the performance (ndr, implied, consequential, ndr). They will be adapted for video pros, and the general public as a vast majority will not buy Little Big Disk SSD. However it also provides a model 1 TB Hard Drive 7200 RPM, in order to consolidate its presence in the market, but it will not be exclusive. Being supported by Intel and Apple should see this technology become affordable or fall into the norm. "

He cites as an example the case of the USB 3 still expensive three years ago and found today in all the ads on hard drives big government "We wanted the Little Big Disk lock on that is the definition of a MacBook Pro. It does work on other products Thunderbolt. We can not say when it will arrive today, but it will happen fairly quickly. It has been said quite clearly is a technology in which we believe and what album is the first in a family to come. "

Finally, given the willingness to invest in Thunderbolt LaCie, it would almost paris for expansion cards for the Mac Pro today. The manufacturer has already exist with 3 USB, FireWire, eSata. Here too LaCie is silent, but we feel that the idea is on the table.

Time is money

Erwann Girard described the scenario that far videographer filming outdoors or in studio and had to return their Mac Pro's rush to unload on a rack and then mount her work "With a MacBook Pro 17" has become a powerful machine and the Little Big Disk storage was extremely fast. It obviously does not terabytes as in a server room, but it was up to 500 GB SSD and chaining these products can be achieved tera with excellent performance. "

There are also those clients who need to transfer large volumes of data, this task could be moved at certain times of day may be carried out on the field "From the time the computer takes the road, the interface no longer an obstacle to the preservation, one can imagine that given incremental backup will take a few seconds where it took two hours. We have customers who spend their lives moving data. An advertising agency that delivers a project, as 500 GB or 1 TB of data to put on a hard drive which then sends the customer, and I'm not talking about post-production boxes that merely this. Here we will transfer 1 TB in 20 minutes instead of eight hours with USB 2. That increased efficiency, it will change the customs. "

When the user, it should take advantage of any transparent manner Thunderbolt "Apple has worked hard to make the experience good, one branch and the volume goes up, there is nothing special. It was the ease of use of USB or FireWire with superior performance to that of Fibre Channel, and robustness comparable. It was a little the best of both worlds. Personally it is something that speaks to me, when I joined I took care of LaCie products racks with Fiber Channel 4 Gbp / s 12 or 24 TB and there were performances that were worse compared to of Thunderbolt and two SSDs! When you put things into perspective we have many advantages, an association between consumer and professional characteristics. "

The fact that Thunderbolt is based on these relatively mature "mini DisplayPort connector is known as PCI Express, PCI and it's video, it's tough, no surprise, we're on the known "(LaCie has three professional displays equipped with a DisplayPort socket, ndr). The possibility also to chain the elements, which as a convenience to limit the (re) connections when multiple returns with his laptop, one cable will connect the machine (s) disc (s) drive (s) and screen.

The possibility of Thunderbolt back to its origins, that of a fiber optic cable rather than copper is not excluded but there is still work to do and it raises other problems, "It's not buried, Intel has not closed the door on that idea, but it is not on the agenda. There is such physical frailty of the fiber that makes it unsuitable for use by the general public or for use on the ground. It is found rather in the server room, where the branch once and where they do not touch anymore. ".

LaCie interview: "Thunderbolt can change the way we work"

Supports reported Thunderbolt can still be counted on the fingers of both hands. Among the few partners of Intel and Apple have shown that products include LaCie. The French manufacturer will launch this summer a hard drive "nomad" has two connectors Thunderbolt, the Little Big Disk. It will be offered in three versions, one with two SSD totaling 240 GB or 500 GB and 1 TB grind this time using standard hard drives at 7,200 rpm. LaCie yet refuses to give a price, but at least for the SSD it may be salted, "the high performance" modestly prefers to say the manufacturer. Which should gradually expand its range of products compatible Thunderbold.

More generally, this new connection could well upset certain habits installed in customers. This is one of the promises made by Erwan Girard, Business Unit Manager at LaCie. it deals with professional products, and as the Thunderbolt.

Birth of a partnership

LaCie's commitment goes back to the beginning of the presentation of Thunderbolt, then called Light Peak "We did a lot of technological monitoring to identify technologies that could make the difference in years to come. We also have a professional clientele who demand large storage capacity and performance. As he has used during his lectures, Intel made some demos of products with technical partners capable of developing an ecosystem around its new technologies. It was in the loop pretty quickly. The connection was interesting for us and in turn Apple was looking for people able to offer hard drives with the launch of their new machines.

Choosing the Little Big Disk

LaCie has a wide enough range of disk drives, but the choice to take the format of the Little Big Disk (already available with eSATA + USB + FireWire) won the light engine provided by Apple to launch Thunderbolt “The vector of this technology for now at Apple's MacBook Pro. It's a mobile solution, extremely powerful, rather for professionals creating content such as video artists and photographers. With 10 Gbp / s we thought we could do video editing on the move, transfer video at high speed. "

LBD-Thunderbolt_key

The differential speed promised by Thunderbolt is compared to existing solutions such as LaCie comes to rely on a few changes in clients' "We must realize that the Thunderbolt is faster than Fibre Channel is an optical technology used mainly in racks . We will find for example in many production companies to ensure a very high rate between a mounting station and a storage array. It was a bit ultimate technology to three weeks ago ... "