There’s a mixture of engineering and design magic that goes into making the 2012 iMac look so much slimmer than its predecessors. While the last-gen model had blunt edges, Apple has taken a leaf from the MacBook aesthetic and pared the edges down to a narrow taper of only 5mm: although the back actually bows out to accommodate the electronics, a casual glance makes it look like a significantly narrower computer than before.

There’s a downside to that design decision, however, which is that you lose the integrated optical drive. Given Apple’s trajectory with regards optical media as a whole – ditching DVD burners from the MacBook Pro and pushing digital media hard on the iPhone and iPad, with no interest in Blu-ray as a stopgap – that’s no great surprise, but we can see it being more of a frustration to desktop users than their mobile counterparts. It’s particularly annoying if you’d got into the habit of using your iMac as an all-in-one DVD player, since the sizable displays make for excellent kitchen, bedroom, or study sets. That being said, Apple does offers a USB SuperDrive for $79 should you need it.

Still, what Apple has accommodated is probably of more interest to most users, and the 2012 iMac doesn’t demand a sacrifice in performance for the design. The basic processor in the 21.5-inch is a 2.7GHz quadcore Core i5, with a 2.9GHz Core i5 and a 3.1GHz Core i7 both options; the larger, 27-inch iMac which will arrive in December starts off with the 2.9GHz Core i5, with a 3.2GHz Core i5 and 3.4GHz Core i7 optional. 8GB of DDR3 memory is standard across the board, though it’s only on the 27-inch model that you can upgrade it yourself; if you want the maximum 16GB in the smaller iMac you’ll need to pay Apple to install it for you (the 27-inch can be specified with up to 32GB).

All-in-one computing used to mean average graphics performance, but Apple has opted for a range of NVIDIA GeForce chips to keep things moving on-screen. The entry-level 21.5-inch gets the GT 640M with 512MB of dedicated GDDR5 memory, with the more expensive spec version stepping up to the GT 650M. Keeping the 27-inch ticking over is the GTX 660M, with 512MB, while the GTX 675MX with 1GB and the GTX 680MX with 2GB, are the higher-spec options. It’s early days, but the performance we’ve seen from both CPU and GPU has been silky smooth.

There were some hopes for Retina-class graphics on the 2012 iMac, but instead things stick with the same 1920 x 1080 (21.5-inch) and 2560 x 1440 (27-inch) resolutions of before. The panels themselves are different, however, using the same innovative full optical lamination as seen on the iPhone and iPad though boosted up to desktop scale. In short, Apple takes a thinner LCD and bonds it directly to the cover glass, doing away with the traditional 2mm gap in-between (which Apple says reduces glare and reflections up to 75-percent, though if you’re working with the sun directly over your shoulder, it can still get a little annoying) for a picture that looks almost like it’s swimming on the very surface of the display.

In short, this is a long-anticipated update that promises to run as fast on the outside as it looks slick on the outside. We’ll be putting the new 2012 iMac through its paces in time for the full SlashGear review, but until then enjoy our full hands-on gallery.

What is a fusion drive? This is an all-in-one solution for old fashion hard drives, as well as SSD. This gives you from 1 to 3TB of space, and a 128GB solid state drive in one easy to use solution. This enables extremely fast performance, without hindering the users space options.

“Fusion Drive is an innovative new storage option that gives customers the performance of flash storage and the capacity of a hard drive. It combines 128GB of flash with a standard 1TB or 3TB hard drive to create a single storage volume that intelligently manages files to optimize read and write performance. Fusion Drive adapts to the way you use your iMac and automatically moves the files and apps you use most often to flash storage to enable faster performance and quicker access.”

As you can see above. Apple’s new Fusion Drives fuses together the best of both worlds for an easy all-in-one solution. What’s even better is all of this happens automatically. With Mac OSX it will automatically recognize the most used apps and move them to the Fusion Drives SSD for faster performance. The performance jump having the OS on a SSD is a massive improvement, and using a fusion drive to achieve the best of both worlds is an awesome and welcomed edition. More details following soon so stay tuned.

Earlier this month we mentioned the 13-inch model was on track for this year, but now it’s official. While the news is just dropping we have a few quick specs to share with everyone. This 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro comes with a 13-inch 2560 x 1600 truly impressive HD display. Being the second highest resolution laptop available. Apple’s 15-inch being the first.

Compared to the previous 13-inch MBP, the Retina MBP is just .75-inches thick, 20% thinner than the previous generation. It’s an entire pound lighter than last years, being just 3.75 lbs. You’ll get USB 20, USB 3.0, HDMI out, Magsafe, SD card reader, and 7 hours of battery life. All while being thinner, lighter, but way more pixels.

Apple’s going over all the details as we speak but options include Intel’s new dual-core i5 or i7, HD 4000 for graphics, WiFi, BT, 8GB Memory, and all models come with SSD flash storage. No old-school slow hard drives here. Stay tuned for more details. Oh and these are shipping TODAY starting at $1699.

This update ties together with the iPhone and iPad versions of the app, Tweetbot now ready for the whole Apple universe. This update brings on the Twitter timeline for your desktop with single or multiple window view as well as column view, whatever you do so desire. This app has inline media preview – this working with several kinds of media such as photos and videos from multiple 3rd party networks. If you’re getting too much of a good thing from people you’d rather not hear from as much as you do, you can block and report users for spam and/or mute users, hashtags, clients, and keywords, too!

This release includes the ability to save tweet drafts for future publishing and to use lists as timelines, too. You can create a list of co-workers and friends and set it separate from the rest of your feed – or just make one for the comedians in your life. You can make sure you’re looking good to the rest of the world from this app as well, with the ability to edit your Twitter profile and avatar right from the Tweetbot app.

You can see what’s popular around the world with both local and worldwide trends support, following the hashtags as well as the keywords that you might never otherwise be seeing, right near your doorstep. We’ll be having a more in-depth look at this app later today – if you want to grab the app right this minute, you certainly may. You can find it the Mac App Store under “Tweetbot for Mac” and you will indeed be dropping no less than $19.99 for it – believe it or not!

Essentially it’s like cover flow but on steroids. iTunes has been completely revamped and the entire user interface is basically one giant grid. iTunes has seen a few rather small changes as of late, but today’s announcement is a major one. iOS, OSX, and Windows will all be seeing a completely new iTunes. Do I see iTunes widgets in OSX?I think I do!

Itunes will be completely redesigned. They’ve said more than once the user interface will be very simplified and dramatically different. They’ve improved performance across the grid too — which should make everyone happy. Then there’s previews while browsing. You’ll be able to continue to hear a preview before you purchase while you continue to browse your favorite artists.

The new tour info for artists looks wonderful too. Add in a little of iOS-like icons and you get a full calendar view of your favorite artists tour dates. Go Bruce Springsteen! We’ll continue to update once we hear more on the new iTunes, but Apple stated “late October” for the new and improved version. Stay tuned!

Design

Apple saved its design news for the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display, and outwardly there’s almost nothing to distinguish this updated MacBook Air from its predecessor. That’s arguably no bad thing, though; given the Air is still one of the more distinctive and good-looking ultraportables out there.

The wedge-profile remains, with ports split between the left and right edges. Our 13-inch review model has power, a USB 3.0, headphone socket and microphone on the left side and Thunderbolt, a second USB 3.0 and an SDXC card slot on the right; the 11-inch MacBook Air lacks the SDXC slot.

The one noticeable change from the 2011 Air is the power connector, with the 2012 model using the same MagSafe 2 port – slimmer and wider – as the new MacBook Air. That means you’ll need a $10 adapter to use older power supplies with the new notebook.

Open the lid and there’s the same bare display, with no glass cover-layer on top, as well as a backlit keyboard and large mutlitouch trackpad. At 0.68-inches at its thickest when closed, and 2.96 pounds (2.38 pounds for the 11-inch), the Air remains one of the lightest and most portable notebooks on the market.

Specifications

With the exterior for the most part unchanged, it’s the internal components in the 2012 MacBook Air that have seen the biggest changes. As with the new MacBook Pro line-up, Apple has switched to Intel’s 3rd-Gen Core processor range, with the 11-inch starting out with a 1.7GHz dualcore Core i5 (with up to 2.6GHz Turbo Boost) and the 13-inch starting with a slightly faster 1.8GHz dualcore Core i5 (up to 2.8GHz Turbo Boost). Both have a Core i7 upgrade option, a 2.0GHz dualcore Core i7 with up to 3.2GHz Turbo Boost.

Each model uses Intel HD Graphics 4000, the onboard GPU paired with Ivy Bridge processors. Unlike the larger MacBook Pro there’s no discrete graphics option, and you can only drive one external display, not two. For most mobile users that’s probably an acceptable compromise in the name of portability and battery life, though if you plan on doing any HD video editing – or, indeed, gaming – then the limitations of the HD Graphics 4000 chipset will soon make themselves clear.

Otherwise there’s 4GB of 1600MHz DDR3L memory as standard – double that of the 2011 model – with 8GB a $100 upgrade. Storage starts at 64GB of flash memory on the entry-level 11-inch and 128GB on the entry-level 13-inch, with the option to double that on each for $100 or $300 respectively. A 512GB upgrade is also on offer, though it’s expensive at $500 or more. It’s worth bearing in mind that, thanks to the soldered RAM and the proprietary flash storage system, upgrading your MacBook Air is near-impossible, so it pays to make sure you’re happy with the specifications when you first order.

Memory benchmark

The other key change over the last-gen Air is the new webcam, stepping up to a FaceTime HD camera running at 720p 1280 x 720 resolution. The 11-inch Air runs at 1366 x 768 resolution, a good choice given the size of the panel, while the 13-inch comes in at 1440 x 900. There’s no word on when – or indeed if – we’ll see Retina Display versions of the Air, nor when Apple might switch to IPS panels which have broader viewing angles.

Performance and Software

Performance in an ultraportable form-factor is always going to be a compromise with power consumption and portability, but Apple and Intel are confident that Ivy Bridge strikes the best balance yet. Our review unit runs the 1.8GHz dualcore Core i5-3427U with the standard 4GB of memory.

In Geekbench, a synthetic test of processor and memory performance, the new MacBook Air scored 6,743. That’s more than 1,000 points higher than the 2011 1.7GHz Core i5 also with 4GB of memory and, perhaps even more interesting, 400 points more than the 2010 MacBook Pro running a Core i7 processor.

MacBook Air 2012

MacBook Air 2011

We then turned to Cinebench, a test of 3D rendering and OpenGL that demands the best of both processor and graphics components. The MacBook Air scored 2.56 points for CPU and 16.41 fps for OpenGL, unsurprisingly lower than machines with discrete GPUs. Still, the flash storage and high-speed low-voltage RAM showed its worth in xbench testing, with the Air scoring 347.67: that’s just 143 points short of the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display.

In practical terms, our usual load of multiple browser windows (each with many tabs), email app, multimedia playback and image editing ran with no issues on the updated Air. Intel quotes a 60-percent improvement in graphics performance from the new GPU, and we did find iMovie exported HD video clips faster than the last-gen model. It took 15-minutes and 28-seconds to import an 8-minute long 1080p video while exporting the same video took 33-minutes and 35-seconds in our testing. In comparison to the new MacBook Pro Retina display, importing the same video took 12-minutes and 5-seconds and exporting only took 20-minutes and 48-seconds. That being said, if you’re planning on doing a significant amount of video processing, we recommend looking to a notebook with a discrete GPU (we highly recommend the new MacBook Pro with Retina display) or alternatively equipping the Air with an external video processing dongle such as from Elgato.

At launch – and for the next few weeks – the new MacBook Air runs OS X Lion. However, buyers are guaranteed a free update to OS X Mountain Lion when it launches in July.

Battery

Apple quotes the same 7hr runtime for the 13-inch MacBook Air as before, or up to 5hrs from the smaller 11-inch version. In our testing, with brightness set to 50-percent and WiFi and Bluetooth turned on, continuous browsing (loop test), we were able to stream a 2-hour long video once while playing a looped video for a total of 6-hours and 18-minutes before the battery ran out.

Wrap-Up

There will undoubtedly be some disappointed that the Retina Display hasn’t made it to the MacBook Air range yet. It’s true that the massively pixel-dense display is one of our favorite features of the new MacBook Pro, but for the moment it’s an expensive addition. In contrast, Apple has actually reduced the price of entry to the MacBook Air club, with the 11-inch starting at $999 and the 13-inch at $1,199.

That’s no small achievement for a machine that delivers not only extreme portability but the sort of performance that, only two years ago, would’ve demanded a top-spec MacBook Pro. The addition of USB 3.0 and an HD webcam addresses two of the most common feature requests, and there’s minimal impact on runtime despite the more powerful processors.

With the PC industry throwing every ultrabook it can come up with at the market in the hope of scoring a win, Apple has done exactly what it needs to with the MacBook Air. Faster, more flexible and cheaper, it presents the strongest challenge from an Air model to-date. That’s certainly enough to leave it as our choice of ultraportable notebook. [Visit Apple for details and videos]

Design

A little evolution, a little revolution. Apple has a track record of making significant design decisions, particularly when it comes to dropping “old” technology from its products or adopting new, and the reworked MacBook Pro with Retina Display is no different.

At first glance, then, it’s familiar from the persistent design of the previous model (which stays on sale, of course, with updated Ivy Bridge processors and NVIDIA graphics). None of the Air’s wedge-like taper, with new Pro instead resembling a flattened version of before. Both base section and lid have been trimmed to get the thickness down to 0.71-inches, with some casualties along the way.

Most obvious of those is the optical drive. Just as Apple led the way in ditching the floppy drive from its desktops years ago, now the DVD burning SuperDrive has been relegated to external (and optional) peripheral. Priced at $79, it connects via USB and works with not only the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display but the MacBook Air and Mac mini. As design decisions go, it’s one not only do we think most will approve of, but that fits in perfectly with Apple’s growing emphasis on digital content delivery.

The other sacrifice is an ethernet port, now dropped in favor of a second Thunderbolt port. This leaves the new MacBook Pro reliant on wireless connectivity, unless you think ahead and bring the new $29.99 Thunderbolt to gigabit ethernet adapter. Expecting that to be included in the box is, perhaps, over-ambitious, even with a new flagship notebook, but it’s something we imagine most users Pro may find themselves needing at some point, and is a little tougher to stomach than the absent optical drive.

While it may look like a flatter Pro of old, Apple has in fact done some significant reworking to achieve the 4.46 pound notebook. Half of the ports – the two Thunderbolt, a USB 3.0 and the 3.5mm headphone socket, along with the redesigned MagSafe 2 connector – are on the left, while a second USB 3.0 along with HDMI and an SDXC card slot are on the right. Long-time Apple watchers will have noticed some unusual additions there, and indeed the MacBook Pro with Retina Display breaks some conventions.

HDMI is a welcome inclusion, as is the much-requested upgrade from USB 2.0 to USB 3.0 (Apple bucks convention and keeps its USB ports white, rather than the blue we’ve seen on PCs). Thunderbolt’s huge throughput and a growing number of adapter cables – not to mention native peripherals – means the two ports can turn their hand to many things, not least Mini DisplayPort, DVI, dual-link DVI and VGA, with a FireWire adapter due in July. It’s worth noting that, although there are potentially three display connections, the new MacBook Pro can only support two external monitors (at up to 2560 x 1600) plus its own Retina Display panel.

The MagSafe 2 connection – which, as in MacBooks from before, uses magnets to hold the power plug in place and thus shouldn’t drag your notebook off the desk if you stumble over the cord – has grown wider and flatter. It’s the only way Apple could accommodate it in the new design – the last-gen MacBook Air has the old style, but can fit it because of the blunter-edged wedge profile – which means if you want to use an existing power supply you’ll have to throw in a $10 adapter. Apple has also returned to its older cable style, with the cord sticking straight out of the plug.

It’s inside that the biggest changes have taken place. The new MacBook Pro with Retina Display is resolutely not intended to be opened up by the end-user, and Apple has used that disclaimer to squeeze in components with a focus on space-saving rather than subsequent accessibility. Much of what heft is left is battery, with the 95-watt-hour li-poly pack considerably larger than the 77.5 Wh of the previous-gen model. As in the MacBook Air, neither RAM nor SSD are user-upgradable, with the former soldered to the mainboard.

Cooling has become something of an obsession among Apple’s engineers, and the new MacBook Pro is evidence of a new strategy for both quiet and effective heat dissipation. Air is sucked in through the hinge section and then funneled through to gills on the sides of the notebook, driven by a newly-designed asymmetric fan with unevenly-spaced impeller blades. That unusual blade design, Apple says, helps to reduce the tonal impact when the fans are spinning.

In practice, it’s a different type of noise to before: not necessarily quieter, but less intrusive. You still hear the fan spool up when doing heavy-duty processing, such as video exports, and the base can become warm – though not hot – to the touch at those times, but it cools again quickly.

The large glass trackpad and black, backlit keyboard are as on the previous model, and just as easy to use: the former is silky-smooth and responsive, and the latter provides a good amount of travel and spring.

Specifications

Just as with the old-style MacBook Pro, the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display has Intel’s 3rd-gen Core i7 Ivy Bridge processors inside. There are two spec models, the entry level at $2,199 with a 2.3GHz quadcore (supporting up to 3.3GHz Turbo Boost and paired with 6MB of L3 cache) and a $2,799 version with a 2.6GHz quadcore (supporting up to 3.6GHz Turbo Boost and with 6MB of L3 cache). The latter can optionally be upgraded to a 2.7GHz quadcore (with 3.7GHz Turbo Boost and 8MB of L3 cache) for an extra $250.

Standard memory is 8GB of 1600MHz DDR3L, with $200 doubling that to 16GB. It’s a decision you’ll have to make at point of purchase, too as Apple solders the RAM to the mainboard. The entry-level machine has 256GB of flash storage, and cannot be upgraded, while the more expensive model comes with 512GB by default and can be bumped to 768GB for an extra $500. Again, the nature of Apple’s hardware design means it’s an option that needs to be picked from the start. All in all, a fully-spec’d out new MacBook Pro with Retina Display – with the fastest chip, most memory and biggest SSD – comes to $3,749.

Apple has changed its graphics allegiances again, moving back to NVIDIA and outfitting all versions of the new MacBook Pro with the GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory. There’s also Intel HD Graphics 4000 with automatic switching between the two GPUs depending on graphical load.

Above the screen there’s a 720p-capable FaceTime HD webcam, while Apple has a new pair of custom speakers under the machined grills. Despite the space constraints, they sound surprisingly good; no subwoofer, but no bass weakness either, and they’re room-filling at maximum volume.

Meanwhile the dual microphone array uses beam forming to focus on the user speaking rather than ambient noise, and we could tell the difference on Skype calls in noisy environments. the system should also be a boon when dictation arrives with Mountain Lion next month. Finally, there’s both WiFi a/b/g/n with dual-band 2.4/5GHz, and Bluetooth 4.0.

Retina Display

Make no mistake, the Retina Display of the new MacBook Pro is the notebook’s pièce de résistance. Running at 2880 x 1800, it delivers four times the standard resolution of the previous Pro, and is finally capable of showing iOS developers a full-size preview of apps for the new iPad. Apple’s “Retina” branding refers to whether the human eye is capable of individually-distinguishable pixels at a typical user-distance, hence this 221ppi panel getting the label while not matching the 264ppi of the new iPad or 326ppi of the iPhone 4S, each of which are expected to be held closer to your face.

It’s not just core resolution that makes the screen special, though. Apple has used an IPS LCD panel with LED backlighting, which means broader than usual viewing angles – the quote is 178-degrees, and in practice we could sit off to the side of the new MacBook Pro and see graphics and text with no odd colors or other glitches – and some particularly inky blacks.

The redesigned lid section does away with the cover glass as well, which Apple says not only reduces thickness but helps cut out glare. It’s the same approach as we’ve seen on the MacBook Air, and according to Apple it’s good for a 75-percent reduction on the sort of reflections that can make using a previous-design Pro frustrating. In practice, while not entirely glare-free, there’s nonetheless a noticeable improvement.

Combined, then, it’s the finest display on a notebook we’ve seen. Icons are so clean and crisp as to look printed; photos and video are beautifully engaging. Switch between the MacBook Pro with Retina Display and its regular predecessor and the difference is night and day: if the pixelated “crunchiness” of the iPad 2 screen became a frustration after you used a new iPad, then expect much the same response with the new MacBook Pro.

There is one issue, though it’s not necessarily one that Apple can directly address. Applications must support the Retina Display with suitably high-resolution graphics, and if they don’t it’s a recipe for visual disaster. Apple’s own Mail, Calendar, Address Book, Safari, iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, Aperture and Final Cut Pro are all Retina-optimized, but most third-party apps aren’t, and the difference between them is brutally obvious.

Apple uses a similar scaling-up system for non-Retina apps as on iOS, which means you get software that’s usable in terms of on-screen size (rather than tiny) but blurred and pixelated. It’s not only native software that suffers, but webpages in browsers other than Safari: FireFox and Chrome are distinctly underwhelming in how they render sites, with text and images each looking like they’ve had a run-in with a dot matrix printer.

Photoshop and AutoCAD were among the third-party titles name-checked as working on Retina updates during the WWDC keynote this week, and no doubt there are hundreds of others bringing their apps up to speed, but for the moment it’s a reminder that life on the cutting-edge comes with some usability compromises.

Performance and Software

Thin the new MacBook Pro may be, but that doesn’t mean Apple has compromised on performance. The new processor and graphics options present the biggest advantages over the MacBook Air, if you’re trying to balance raw power with portability, with no question that this is a capable desktop-replacement.

Our review unit, the 2.6GHz quadcore Core i7-3720QM with 8GB of RAM, scored 12,970 in Geekbench, a synthetic test of processor and memory performance. That’s more than 2,000 points more than the 2011 MacBook Pro running Intel’s 2.2GHz Core i7-2720QM Sandy Bridge chip.

MacBook Pro with Retina Display (mid-2012)

MacBook Pro 15-inch (early 2011)

We then turned to Cinebench, which benchmarks both processor and graphics performance with a mixture of 3D rendering and OpenGL tests. It provides a solid overview of how a system will handle intensive tasks such as video processing and gaming.

The new MacBook Pro scored 5.74 CPU points, putting it ahead of a last-gen 3.2GHz Core i7, and only really bested by eight- and twelve-core alternatives such as Intel’s workstation-focused Xeon (as you’d find in the Mac Pro). It managed 34.30fps in OpenGL testing.

In a disk speed test of the new flash storage, the Pro managed 306.6 MB/s write speeds and 448.0 MB/s read speeds. Finally, in Xbench the new notebook scored 490.43 points.

In practice, there proved little we could do to trip the new MacBook Pro up. Apps load with alacrity, on-screen and ready for action even before the icon has finished its bouncing, and playing back Full HD video – something you can do in a window at full resolution, given the pixels on offer – while simultaneously browsing and rendering video in iMovie didn’t see the notebook miss a beat.

Memory speed test

Xbench performance test

At launch – and for the next few weeks – the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display runs OS X Lion. However, buyers are guaranteed a free update to OS X Mountain Lion when it launches in July.

Battery

Despite a battery that’s 23-percent larger than before, Apple is quoting the same seven hour runtime estimate for the new MacBook Pro. That’s likely down to the extra power consumption of the Retina Display, but in our testing we still exceeded Apple’s predictions.

With brightness set to 50-percent, we were able to browse in Safari over a WiFi connection for almost 8 hours and 10 minutes. Obviously if you take advantage of the processor or graphics potential for gaming, multimedia editing or other system-intensive tasks that number will shrink dramatically, but conversely those with more humble needs such as word processing should find they can extend it even further by turning off the wireless.

Wrap-Up

It’s worth noting that Apple didn’t describe the new MacBook Pro as its “Retina Display” upgrade to the previous Pro: instead, it referred to the notebook the company’s best ideas for the next-generation of Pro. That’s because there’s more to it than all those extra pixels. Apple has polished, trimmed and pared away at its flagship to bring it resolutely up to date with the leading edge of the computer ecosystem.

While it may command a $400 premium over an entry level old-style MacBook Pro, that’s not quite a fair comparison. Spec-up a regular 15-inch Pro with 8GB of memory, a 256GB SSD and the highest resolution display possible (1680 x 1050) and you’re looking at $2,499: a full $300 more than the entry-level Retina Display version but still offering fewer pixels.

A more likely question is new MacBook Pro or MacBook Air. The Air is undoubtedly more portable again than the new Pro, but it loses out on the Retina Display, the discrete GPU and the second Thunderbolt port. The new MacBook Pro also has more memory as standard, and faster processors. In short, if your primary use is browsing and document editing and you’re frequently carrying your notebook, the Air is a solid choice, but we’d still lean toward the Pro for its superlative screen.

That’s perhaps little surprise. In the end, though the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display is more than just the sum of its screen, the inescapable truth is that any other notebook feels dreary and last-gen in comparison. Just as switching from Retina on a new iPad to another tablet feels like stepping back in time, so the new MacBook Pro’s  display feels like what computing really should be. Priced at the top end of the market it may be, but for multimedia professionals, developers and those that covet the cutting-edge, the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display is the new gold standard. [Visit Apple for details and videos]

MacBook Pro with retina display-Every Dimension-commercial

MacBook Pro with Retina Display Specs

[UPDATE: MacBook Pro with Retina Display review]

As you might have guessed, hands-on it’s a combination of the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air we’re already familiar with. The shape is a flattened Pro, trim at 0.71-inches thick, without the Air’s tapered profile; however, the weight falls somewhere in-between. It’s not as light as the true Apple ultraportable, but then neither does it have a 13-inch or under display.

Hands-on Video

And that display is definitely something worth having. The new Retina Display on the MacBook Pro is to the new iPad’s screen as the third-gen tablet was to the iPhone 4S: a stunning step up in what we’ve come to expect from our computing tech. It sounds crazy, but the panel just looks more “real”, more authentic somehow than the typical Pro resolution, with the absence of individually discernible pixels sanding away at the impression that you’re looking at a computer screen.

There are a couple of obvious compromises to be made, the absence of a dedicated ethernet port the one most likely to frustrate owners initially. Apple offers a gigabit ethernet adapter as a paid accessory, just as with the Air, which is another thing to remember in your bag. The change in MagSafe connector, too, is a potential frustration to anyone with a collection of existing power supplies: again, not backward compatible unless you buy a $10 adapter.

The ports you do get are – for the first time on a portable Mac – an HDMI port and two USB 3.0, the latter now conveniently split between both sides of the notebook. Dropping the optical drive has meant Apple can space things out more evenly, rather than gathering all the connections on the left panel, which means you can now plug in even bulky USB drives without having to dangle them from extension cables. Losing the ethernet port has been countered with a second Thunderbolt port.

Apple was keen to highlight that the new MacBook Pro is what it believes is the next evolution of the notebook: more than just a new version with a clever screen or a slimmer body. Those charms will take a little longer to pick through, however, so enjoy the hands-on gallery and we’ll be putting the MacBook Pro through its paces for the full SlashGear review!

Hardware

Outwardly, there’s little to differentiate this year’s MacBook Air from its predecessor. Apple still offers two sizes – an 11.6-inch with a 1366 x 768 display and a 13.3-inch with a 1440 x 900 display – starting from $999, but the entry-level processor is now Intel’s 1.6 GHz dual-core Core i5 rather than the older Core 2 Duo. The lowest price Air has 64GB of flash storage and 2GB of 1333MHz DDR3 RAM, while the $1,199 higher-spec version keeps the 11.6-inch display but increases storage to 128GB of flash. It can also be upgraded to 256GB as well as boosting the processor to a dual-core 1.8GHz Core i7 and the RAM up to 4GB.

The 13.3-inch MacBook Air, meanwhile, starts at $1,299 with a 1.7GHz dual-core Core i5, 128GB of flash storage and 4GB of RAM. The $1,599 version has 256GB of storage, and can be upgraded to the same dual-core 1.8GHz Core i7 of the smaller Air. Both sizes come with Intel HD Graphics 3000, sharing either 256MB or 384MB (model depending) of the main RAM.

Standard connectivity consists of two USB 2.0 ports – one on each side – along with a MagSafe charging port, headphone socket and Thunderbolt (more on which later). The 13.3-inch MacBook Air has an SD card reader as well. Both versions have WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0, along with stereo speakers, an omnidirectional microphone and a FaceTime webcam. Unlike on the MacBook Pro and iMac, however, this isn’t a 720p-capable FaceTime HD camera, so you’re limited to VGA-resolution video chat (just like the iPhone 4 and iPad 2); still, it was capable of decent video and still images, even in relatively low-light conditions.

Display and Keyboard

Apple’s 11.6-inch MacBook Air split opinion, with some finding its compact display to be simply too small for everyday use, while others marveling at its portability. The 1440 x 900 resolution on the 13.3-inch model may demand a subsequently larger chassis – an inch wider, at 12.8-inches, and 1.38-inches deeper, at 8.94-inches – but the extra pixels are very welcome whether you’re browsing, working on a Word document or watching video.

The panel itself is bright and crisp, and lacks the glossy glass panel laid over the top of MacBook Pro displays. That makes it trickier to wipe away fingerprints, but less frustrating in direct sunlight. Viewing angles are very broad.

Back when Apple redesigned the MacBook Air last year, one of the glaring omissions was the backlit keyboard. Happily that has been rectified in the 2011 range, with the keys automatically lighting up and adjusting their illumination according to ambient levels. There are dedicated keys to manually adjust it if you prefer.

Although it may seem a gimmick initially, the backlit ‘board can make a big difference when you’re working in low-light environments. If you’ve ever angled your laptop screen so as to see which key is which, then the MacBook Air’s keyboard will appeal. The keys themselves have slightly shallower travel in comparison to those on the MacBook Pro, but are pleasantly clicky in use. Underneath is still the same large multitouch trackpad.

Thunderbolt

Like the MacBook Pro and iMac (and the new Mac mini announced alongside this latest refresh) the MacBook Air gains Thunderbolt connectivity in 2011. Using Intel’s “Light Peak” technology, the connection supports up to 10Gbps bi-directional data, and can be used not only as a Mini DisplayPort (with the same socket, meaning you won’t have any issues with your old LED Cinema Display) but as a high-speed way to attach external drives, RAID arrays and other peripherals. With the right adapter cable, you can use it as an ethernet port or FireWire 800.

Thunderbolt accessories are in short supply today, though that situation should improve as the year progresses. Thanks to the port and Apple’s new Thunderbolt Display, though, the MacBook Air should come into its own as a mobile/desktop hybrid. When the new screen goes on sale, Air owners will be able to hook up with a single cable and get three more USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 800, gigabit ethernet and another Thunderbolt for daisy-chaining, as well as 27-inches of monitor real-estate.

Software and Performance

The new MacBook Air comes preloaded with OS X Lion (SlashGear review), Apple’s latest version of its Mac platform. Borrowing some of the concepts from iOS on the iPad, and introducing new multitouch gestures, Lion also builds on the previous Air’s fast-standby abilities with Resume that reopens your apps exactly as they were when you closed them last.

Full-screen apps can now be switched between with three-finger swipes, and Apple has flipped the default “Natural” scrolling system so that, like dragging a page around on the iPad, it’s inverted to OS X Snow Leopard’s default. That takes a little getting used to, but can be turned off in the settings. There’s also tap- and pinch-to zoom support.

The previously separate Dashboard, Exposé and Spaces have now been pulled together into Mission Control, and we found ourselves more likely to use the multiple desktop spaces now that they were easier to keep track of. That will particularly help on the smaller 11.6-inch Air. Similar to iOS is Launchpad, a grid arrangement of all of your apps that can be organized into pop-up folders. We particularly liked AirDrop, a simple file-sharing system that automatically discovers physically nearby OS X Lion users and offers a straightforward way to drag & drop files between them.

In addition to the more fundamental changes to the OS, there are some alterations to the pre-loaded software. Mail has borrowed heavily from the email client on the iPad, with a cleaner UI and new “widescreen” view that works very well with the (optional) conversational message layout. The iLife suite – iPhoto, iMovie and Garageband – has been updated to support full-screen use, while Safari 5.1, iChat, iCal, Photo Booth and FaceTime are all preloaded. Finally, the Mac App Store offers access to a growing catalog of Apple and third-party software.

Our review unit is the 13.3-inch model with the standard Core i5 1.7GHz processor and 4GB of RAM. We ran Geekbench, a synthetic test of processor and memory performance, and the MacBook Air scored an impressive 5,705, considerably higher than the 2,178 scored by the 11.6-inch Core 2 Duo model we reviewed in October last year. In fact, it comes surprisingly close to the 6,309 scored by 2010′s Core i7 MacBook Pro (though obviously lags well behind the current-gen MacBook Pro).

In practice, that makes for a slimline ultraportable capable of the sort of tasks you’d have turned to a regular notebook for last year. Apps open and switch swiftly, multitasking is handled without complaint, and things you might have shied away from on the last-gen model – processing audio or video clips, for instance – are far more realistic on this new machine. Even more impressive is that this is from a chip only halfway through the range: there’s the dual-core Core i7 on offer for those wanting even more power.

Battery

Apple suggests Air users should see up to five hours runtime from the 11.6-inch model and up to seven hours from the 13.3-inch. That’s based on the company’s own internal testing, wirelessly surfing between 25 sites with brightness at 50-percent.

In practice, we managed around six hours of mixed browsing, some audio playback and a few YouTube videos, with brightness set at 50-percent. Obviously if you spend more time working on documents rather than online, you could probably stretch the MacBook Air out beyond the seven hour point.

Wrap-Up

It’s difficult to argue with the 2011 MacBook Air. Apple has taken our main criticisms of the previous model – backlit keyboard, faster processors – and addressed them neatly, without detracting from battery life, portability or style. The addition of the Thunderbolt port and the upcoming Apple Thunderbolt Display should turn the ultraportable into a legitimate desktop alternative, too.

An integrated 3G/4G WWAN option is one of the lingering absences, indeed across all of Apple’s notebook range, and we’d love to be able to get online with the Air no matter what the WiFi hotspot situation. Meanwhile, the top-capacity flash drivers are expensive, though such is the price you pay for supporting instant-on and month-long standby times.

In short, that difficult decision between prioritizing portability and performance has pretty much been made for you: the MacBook Air grants you both. Build-quality is reassuringly strong, speed and performance are sufficient for most users, and the ability to drop the Air into a bag and hardly notice it’s in there is a huge advantage. In 13.3-inch form it’s a little more expensive than the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro (and you get a slower processor, less storage and no optical drive), but we’d wager the Air could still hold its own. Altogether, the MacBook Air remains our ultraportable of choice.

Hardware

The basic premise is the same: an amazingly clear, bright and vivid IPS LCD display – either 27-inches running at 2560 x 1440 resolution, like our review unit, or 21.5-inches running at 1920 x 1080, slotted behind a sheet of glossy glass and then into a minimalist aluminum chassis. Ports are neatly lined on the lower left hand corner of the rear panel, with only a slot-loading 8x SuperDrive dual-layer DVD burner spoiling the sides. The whole thing is lifted by a neat stand – complete with a cable-guide hole – with 17W speakers along the bottom edge and an integrated microphone. New to this generation is the FaceTime HD camera, more on which in a moment.

Ports are broadly the same as before, so you get audio in/out, four USB 2.0, a FireWire 800, two 10Gbps Thunderbolt ports on the 27-inch iMac (just the one on the 21.5-inch version) and gigabit ethernet. There’s also WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, an infra-red port for use with Apple’s media remote (sold separately), and an Apple Wireless Keyboard as standard; this time around, iMac buyers can pick between the Magic Mouse or the Magic Trackpad.

Thunderbolt – née Intel Light Peak in partnership with Apple – made its debut on the MacBook Pro earlier this year, a high-speed connectivity standard hoping to replace not only USB 2.0/3.0, FireWire and eSATA, but display connections too. Using the same connector as Mini DisplayPort – meaning you can plug in either a Thunderbolt peripheral or an external display – it supports daisy-chaining of up to six devices per port, with enough bandwidth for simultaneous display of six uncompressed HD videos. Hardware using Thunderbolt is still in short supply – high-performance storage and multimedia interfaces are expected later this year – but the iMac 27′s twin ports does mean that, for the first time, you can hook up two external displays and spread your OS X desktop across three screens (if you have the physical desk space and the wallet to support it, naturally).

The real changes aren’t visible externally, but they’re what really make the new iMacs special. Quad-core Intel Core i5 processors are now standard across the range, with the entry-level 21.5-inch model getting a 2.5GHz Core i5, the high-end 21.5-inch version and the entry-level 27-inch model stepping up to 2.7GHz, and our high-end 27-inch iMac packing a 3.1GHz Core i5. A Core i7 quad-core is an option on both high-end preconfigs, while 4GB of 1333GHz DDR3 memory is standard; that can be upgraded to either 8GB or 16GB depending on model.

Graphics, meanwhile, are courtesy of AMD’s Radeon GPU line-up, with a Radeon HD 6750M 512MB chip at the low end of the range, the two middle models getting Radeon HD 6770M 512MB GPUs, and our review unit having AMD’s Radeon HD 6970M with 1GB of GDDR5 (with 2GB of GDDR5 an option). Storage is 1TB of 7,200rpm HDD on all but the smallest, low end iMac, with the remaining three also being offered with up to 2TB of HDD and an optional secondary 256GB SSD. Our review unit didn’t have the SSD, but the promise is significantly quicker boot times, zero noise and OS X performance.

FaceTime HD

FaceTime is Apple’s new brand for video calling, introduced on the iPhone 4 and since spreading to the iPod touch, iPad 2 and most recent MacBook Pro. On the 2011 iMac it gets a shot of 720p HD, shooting and recording video at 1280 x 720. Using the preloaded FaceTime app – and a free Apple account – you can make and receive video calls between each of the devices. It’s worth noting that only the MacBook Pro and iMac support 720p FaceTime calls; calls to the iOS devices are limited to VGA resolution.

While not the only video calling system around – obviously the FaceTime HD camera will work with third-party apps like Skype, as well as recording clips in OS X’s PhotoBooth app – FaceTime is one of the simplest. Apple has said it eventually plans to open up the system to third-party developers, allowing for cross-platform chats, but that’s yet to happen.

While the FaceTime HD webcam on the MacBook Pro is suited to a single user, Apple has used a wider-angle lens on the iMac and so more people can be seen at the same time. That’s useful if you’re holding a group video call: you can comfortably sit three adults in-frame and the quality is strong enough so that they’re not a blurry mess.

Software

OS X Snow Leopard is pre-installed, though Apple’s refreshed operating system, OS X Lion, is expected sometime this summer. Snow Leopard includes iTunes, Mail, Safari, iCal and other core apps; there’s also iLife, which bundles the latest versions of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand and iWeb.

New software is easily accessible thanks to the Mac App Store, which brings the same simplicity from the iOS App Store on the iPhone and iPad over to the company’s desktop and notebook computers.

Performance

Apple’s performance claims don’t lack promise: up to 70-percent faster and with up to three times the graphics performance thanks to the new AMD chips. Obviously that depends on what configuration of new iMac you’re using, and which older version you had. Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors are the second-generation of the so-called “Nehalem” chips, adding integrated graphics onto the die for faster video encoding/decoding, as well as an onboard memory controller to cut down on lag.

Needless to say, everyday performance is complaint-free. OS X boots swiftly and apps load with no delay. You can have multiple browser windows open while simultaneously playing HD video, ripping CDs and doing other tasks.

In terms of benchmarks, we started out with Geekbench, a synthetic test of processor and memory performance. The Core i5 3.1GHz iMac scored 9149, with particularly strong scores in processor categories. In contrast, last year’s iMac – with a 2.93GHz Core i7 processor, then the most expensive CPU option – scored 10,099, less than 1,000 points more. Considering our 2011 review unit isn’t the fastest iMac Apple offers, that’s an impressive showing, not least when you consider the previous-gen model we tested came in at a hefty $2,799.

We then turned to Cinebench, which measures the iMac’s CPU threading performance and the performance of the GPU using OpenGL. As the Geekbench results would suggest, the Core i7 CPU of the 2010 iMac helped it stay slightly ahead of the 2011 Core i5, though only by a minor amount: the old iMac scored 4.98 points, while the new iMac managed 4.61 points.

What Cinebench did show is the power of the upgraded graphics. The old iMac – with a Radeon HD 5750 GPU – managed 30.73fps in the OpenGL graphics testing, while the new iMac managed 36.51fps. Again, it’s important to note that ours isn’t the maxed-out iMac; Apple offers the Radeon HD 6970M 2GB GDDR5 video card as an option, which will improve graphics even further.

In the real-world, that adds up to faster video processing in iMovie, faster image editing in Photoshop, and the potential for hardcore gaming (which the beautiful 27-inch display is particularly well suited to).

Pricing and Value

Apple’s updated iMac faces competition from two main sides: all-in-one PCs running Windows – and often offering touchscreen interfaces – and MacBook Pro notebooks used with a standalone 27-inch Apple Cinema Display. On the PC side, Windows 7 based all-in-ones are generally cheaper than the 2011 iMac, which starts from $1,199 for the entry-level 21.5-inch model and climbs to $1,999 for our high-end preconfig 27-inch iMac. It’s difficult to find a 27-inch alternative, however, which leaves the iMac in somewhat rarified company.

For users thinking of switching between portable and desktop use, pairing a MacBook Pro – which, as we found in our review of the Core i7 Sandy Bridge based 2011 models, offer performance comparable to a desktop computer – with a 27-inch Cinema Display is a tempting option. It’s more expensive than the all-in-one iMac, however, with the cheapest MacBook Pro being the $1,199 13-inch Core i5 model, while the cheapest Core i7 starts from $1,499. Apple’s 27-inch LED Cinema Display comes in at $999, though is yet to be updated to support Thunderbolt. That means you can only hook one up to a MacBook Pro, unlike the triple-display support of the 27-inch iMac.

The Mac Pro is, of course, another possibility, though an even more expensive one. The entry-level Mac Pro is $2,499, and then you’re looking at $999 for a standalone Cinema Display. On the positive side, it’s more extensible and upgradable than the iMac, with space for several internal drives and the possibility to upgrade the graphics card.

Wrap-Up

Like an all-in-one, PC or Mac, the iMac has limitations around upgradability. Swapping out the RAM, hard-drive and optical drive are possible, if you don’t mind removing the LCD, but while the CPU and GPU can theoretically be changed, it’s a process the complexity of which will likely dissuade most home users. A regular desktop chassis is always going to be readily upgraded.

Still, there’s no shortage of power in the iMac as it stands, and while upgrading may become an issue years down the line, today it offers a compelling combination of performance, style and convenience. The absence of a touchscreen is a blip compared to some PC all-in-ones, but arguably desktop OSes – whether OS X or Windows – are still yet to prove the value of adding in touch. Apple’s ongoing refusal to consider Blu-ray does leave you reliant on either an external drive or an all-digital media setup which, given the 27-inch iMac makes for a tempting TV replacement in a bedroom or office, may be another drawback. Similarly, the absence of an integrated TV tuner open leaves you with USB models hanging off the rear ports.

Nonetheless, it’s hard not to be charmed by the 2011 iMac’s combination of swift processors and capable graphics. The aesthetic may not have changed in a generation or two but is still arguably well ahead of the plastic PC pack, and the price – although in the premium space – reflects the components, the quality of the display and, yes, the Apple cachet. This isn’t the all-in-one for buyers on a budget, and shopping around for regular desktops may find you equal or greater performance for your money, but the 2011 iMac is a polished update to one of the best machines on the market today.

Related: iMac core-7 (mid 2010) review

iMac  (mid 2011)

Adobe is bringing “creative applications” to PlayBook, most likely giving the PlayBook real cache with professionals, a market it is targeting. CS 5.5 is shipping today with support for PlayBook apps out of the box.

And for those who want to use their PlayBook to, well, play…Angry Birds is now confirmed for the slate.

After a short downtime for the Apple Store this morning, the Apple iMac refresh was unveiled: with Thunderbolt, Sandy Bridge and FaceTime HD. In other Apple news, OS X Lion is getting iOS-style uninstalls for software downloaded from the Mac App Store.

Google’s new update for Android is now officially named (though we suspected it before). The new name? Ice Cream Sandwich. Apparently, just “Ice Cream” would be too similar to “Froyo”. Other Android news, the T-Mobile G2X gets an early update to Gingerbread.

The Viewsonic Viewpad 10 takes the leap from Android 1.6 to Android 2.2.

Amazon tablet rumors have abounded, and now we hear that Amazon might be planning an Android tablet with an E Ink Hydis FFS display for release later this year.

LG has unveiled two new super-slim laptops, the P430 and the P5390.

And here is what can happen when you are really, really, really into your 3DS.

First, Firefox has been redesigned with a new look that places web content on the center stage. App tabs are still at the heart of the interface, but Mozilla has also introduced a cool new Panorama feature which makes it easier to navigate multiple pages. It has enhanced the JavaScript engine to speed up both start up and page load times, up to six times faster than the previous version. Security wise, Firefox provides fortified security features like Do Not Track and Content Security which gives users greater control over their personal data and protect it from being used online.

Firefox also introduces the “Awesome Bar,” which is designed to make it easier to move to another webpage tab without opening duplicate tabs. Panorama takes tabs and drags and drops them into a group interface to manage them with greater ease. The new JavaScript Engine employs the JägerMonkey JIT compiler, enhancements to the existing TraceMonkey JIT and SpiderMonkey’s interpreter in concert to make page for greater speed and performance of Web apps and games. HTML 5 support is native to Firefox as well, with hardware acceleration for enjoying high definition videos on the web, 3D graphics, offline data storage and incorporates touchscreen interface support.

And now, when a plugin like Adobe Flash crashes, users won’t have to restart Firefox. Users can simply reload the page to restart the plugin. There’s also improved support for CSS, Canvas and SVG for web developers who want to keep their web sites on the cutting edge. There are also over 200,000 add-ons available continuing Firefox’s tradition of making the browser fully customizable and a personal experience. Users can download Firefox 4 at GetFirefox.com.

[via Mozilla Blog]

Hardware

At first glance, there’s little to differentiate this new MacBook Pro from the model it replaces. Apple has kept the unibody aluminum chassis, backlit keyboard and broad, glass multitouch trackpad, and the glossy display is the same 1440 x 900 resolution and 15.4-inch size. At first glance, even the ports look the same, thanks to Thunderbolt – more on which later – sharing the same form-factor as Mini DisplayPort.

We can’t complain too much, though. First off, Apple’s MacBook Pro notebooks offer some of the best industrial design around, pairing high-quality materials, high build quality and good looks into something the generally plastic-shelled PC market still can’t better. The 15-inch MacBook Pro tips the scales at the same 5.6 pounds as its predecessor, and measures a reasonably slimline 0.95-inches.

Second, and more important, is the considerable refresh that’s gone on inside the aluminum casing. Sandy Bridge is the order of the day here, with the 13-, 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pro models all getting processors from Intel’s 2011 range. The 13-inch starts off with a Core i5 as standard (and Core i7 as an option) but the 15- and 17-inch models both pack Core i7 chips from the off. In our review unit, the higher-specified standard configuration, that means Intel’s 2.2GHz Core i7-2720QM. 4GB of DDR3 1333MHz memory is the minimum, with 8GB a factory-fit option.

Graphics have undergone a significant change as well, with NVIDIA’s discrete GPUs replaced by AMD’s Radeon 6000 Series paired with Intel HD Graphics 3000. Apple has obviously deemed Intel’s integrated GPU sufficient for the 13-inch MacBook Pro, but the 15- and 17-inch models have a choice of the AMD Radeon HD 6490M (with 256GB of GDDR5 memory) on the entry-level MacBook Pro 15 or the Radeon HD 6750M (with 1GB of GDDR5 memory) on the higher-spec 15-inch and as standard on the 17-inch.

As in the 2010 range, OS X automatically switches between integrated and discrete graphics depending on your activity. For basic web browsing and document editing, then, the MacBook Pro will default to the low-power, energy-frugal Intel HD Graphics 3000 chipset; start gaming, or doing video processing in iMovie, and the AMD Radeon GPU will kick in. There’s no need to log out and back in again to switch, as with earlier dual-GPU configurations.

Storage begins with 320/500/750GB hard-drives, depending on size and SKU, all running at a somewhat disappointing 5,400rpm. Faster, 7,200rpm HDDs are optional, as are SSDs up to 512GB. The slot-loading 8x SuperDrive is still present, while ports include gigabit ethernet, FireWire 800, audio in, audio out, an SDXC memory card slot, MagSafe power and, of course, Thunderbolt. Wireless options include WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; there’s still no integrated 3G option. A microphone is hidden under the left speaker grille, and there’s a new, 720p FaceTime HD webcam above the screen, more on which later.

Software

Apple may be previewing Mac OS X Lion, but these latest MacBook Pro notebooks still come with Snow Leopard pre-installed. There’s also the usual iLife ’11 suite, consisting of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb and iDVD. The Mac App Store is pre-loaded, for access to a broad catalog of third-party software, as is the freshly-out-of-beta FaceTime for Mac app for holding video calls with other Mac owners as well as iPhone 4 and iPod touch users.

Performance

All the hardware changes would be for nothing if the new MacBook Pro’s performance didn’t stand up, but that’s most definitely not the case. We started out with Geekbench as usual, a synthetic test of processor and memory, and the difference between the 2011 model and its mid-2010 predecessor was dramatic. The new MacBook Pro scored 10,932, while the Core i7-620M 2010 machine – running at 2.66GHz, and with 4GB of RAM – scored 6,309. That’s a more than 70-percent boost in stepping up to the quadcore model.

We then turned to Cinebench, which benchmarks both CPU and graphics card performance, using a mixture of 3D renderings and OpenGL tests. It gives a good overview of how capable a computer will be at system-intensive tasks like video processing and gaming. Again, we compared the mid-2010 MacBook Pro with the new 2011 model.

Unsurprisingly, the new notebook outclassed its predecessor across the board. The four individual cores of the 2011 model scored higher in CPU testing, and the overall CPU performance was more than twice what the older model could manage. As for graphics, in the OpenGL testing the 2010 MacBook Pro managed 17.27fps, while the new model achieved 35.42fps.

Finally, we looked to xbench, a combination of CPU, GPU, memory and drive testing. Again, the quadcore processor and fast RAM made short work of the 2010 notebook, with xbench’s CPU, thread and memory tests coming out 14-percent, 68-percent and 71-percent higher respectively. Graphics, too, were comprehensively higher, with the 2011 MacBook Pro scoring on average 37-percent higher across xbench’s various GPU tests.

In fact, the only element really holding the new MacBook Pro back was the hard-drive, its 5,400rpm speed proving underwhelming. xbench recorded sequential uncached write speeds of 111.13 MB/sec and read speeds of 28.56 MB/sec with 4K blocks, and write speeds of 83.25 MB/sec and read speeds of 77.54 MB/sec with 256K blocks. Random uncached write speeds reached 1.47 MB/sec and read speeds of 0.42 MB/sec with 4K blocks, and write speeds of 29.06 MB/sec and read speeds of 24.36 MB/sec with 256K blocks.

Contrast that with the speeds recorded from the third-party Samsung 470 Series SSD (review) in our 2010 MacBook Pro test unit, and the limitations of a traditional HDD become clear. In both sequential and random reads and writes, the SSD thoroughly bests the HDD: sequential write rates reach as high as 234.52 MB/sec (with 4K blocks) while read rates manage 210.36 MB/sec (with 256K blocks). The boost to random read/write performance is even more dramatic, the faster and more responsive SSD making a strong argument for bypassing HDDs altogether. Overall, with the standard-fit HDD the 2011 MacBook Pro scored 222.31 in xbench – versus the 312.47 of the SSD-equipped 2010 notebook – but that increased to 413.91 when we installed the SSD into the new model.

High benchmarking figures are one thing, but it’s real world performance that makes the difference – and convinces someone whether or not to upgrade. We tested the 2011 MacBook Pro with high definition video exporting in iMovie, and the improvements are considerable. Exporting a 720p clip lasting 1m 31s on the new notebook took 1m 41s; in contrast, the 2010 notebook (with the SSD) took 3m 03s. When we switched the standard HDD for an SSD in the new MacBook Pro, that slimmed the export down to just 1m 33s.

We then ran the same test, with the SSD still installed, on the same clip but exporting at 1080p, and the 2011 MacBook Pro took 2m 55s. It’s worth remembering that this is merely the final export process; the 2011 model also imported raw footage quicker than its predecessor, and was faster making cuts and edits as we modified clips.

FaceTime HD

Apple introduced FaceTime, its proprietary video calling system, with the launch of the iPhone 4, and since then it has spread to the fourth-gen iPod touch and, most recently, to OS X. With FaceTime HD, Apple marks the transition to a higher-resolution webcam, supporting 1280 x 720 video. It’s certainly far clearer and crisper, a noticeable step up from the previous generation of MacBook Pro.

FaceTime HD makes the most sense between new MacBook Pro owners, given they’re the only ones who will actually see the HD part. Previous-gen notebooks had VGA resolution iSight webcams, so won’t be able to send (but will be able to see) 720p video, and the iPhone 4 and latest iPod touch each have VGA front-facing cameras themselves. We’d expect Apple to remedy the latter in future updates, and the iPad is expected to get a front-facing camera itself in its imminent refresh.

Thunderbolt

Arguably the most interesting feature of the new MacBook Pro is, frustratingly, the one we can’t currently test. Thunderbolt is Intel’s production name for Light Peak, the high-speed connectivity standard that hopes to replace USB, FireWire and various video ports along with way. Promising 10Gbps of bi-directional communication, along with 10W of bus-power and the ability to daisy-chain in strings of up to six peripherals, Thunderbolt makes its debut on the 2011 MacBook Pro line.

For the moment, though, the Thunderbolt port will generally only see Mini DisplayPort connectors plugged in: there simply aren’t any Thunderbolt peripherals out there yet. It’s backward compatible with your existing Mini DisplayPort hardware, so a current Apple LED Cinema Display will hook up without adapters required, but we’ll have to wait until later in 2011 for the first Thunderbolt hardware. That’s going to include external storage – LaCie, Promise and others are talking about RAID arrays, and Apple has shown us a dual-SSD high performance external drive targeted at video professionals – as well as A/V interfaces.

From what we’ve seen in private demonstrations with Apple, however, Thunderbolt has no shortage of promise. A 5GB file moved from the MacBook Pro to a Promise Pegasus RAID in a matter of seconds; meanwhile, the notebook could pull four, uncompressed HD video streams from the RAID, then push that back out down the same Thunderbolt pipe to an LED Cinema Display. In effect, there’s 20 Gbps of bandwidth to play with – 10 Gbps for DisplayPort video and 10 Gbps for PCI Express data – with this particular demo pulling at around 7 Gbps from the RAID and then pushing at around 6 Gbps to the monitor. Apple tells us that, theoretically, a single Thunderbolt connection could drive two 27-inch LED Cinema Displays simultaneously. Since there’s no daisy-chain Thunderbolt connection on the current Cinema Display line, however, they’d either need to be updated or users have a desktop hub.

Battery Life

As with previous iterations, the 2011 MacBook Pro range features integrated, non-user-replaceable batteries. However, it also marks a change in how Apple measures runtime estimates. Traditionally, manufacturers have promised the longest figures possible, leading to usage expectations far beyond what notebooks can actually achieve in everyday use.

Apple’s switch, then, is to a more realistic model of testing, or what the company is calling “wireless web testing.” That involves setting the display brightness to 50-percent and then browsing “25 popular websites” over a WiFi connection until the MacBook Pro expires.

The result is a shorter estimate, on paper, compared to previous generations of notebook, but one, which is more in keeping with what owners can legitimately expect. Apple suggests 7 hours is reasonable, and we’ve found that to be pretty accurate. The previous-generation model was rated at up to 9 hours using Apple’s old-style testing, but we found 7 hours was a likely maximum in regular use.

With an HD video on looped-playback in the background, we exported seven 1m 31 second 1080p HD videos, import and edited numerous images in iPhoto, then browsed and wrote emails over WiFi; brightness was at 3 bars for around 45 minutes and then at 50-percent for the remainder of the time, until the notebook shut down after 3 hours and 15 minutes. It’s still relatively early days for the new MacBook Pro, and so we’ll revisit battery life after some more real-world testing over the next week or so.

Pricing and Value

The new 2011 MacBook Pro line starts at $1,199 for the entry-level 13-inch, though that rises to $1,799 if you want a 15-inch model. Our review unit – with the 2.2GHz CPU, 750GB 5,400rpm HDD and AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1GB graphics – is $2,199. The single 17-inch pre-configuration is $2,499. Making like-for-like comparisons with Windows notebooks is difficult, since availability and pricing for models using the 2011 Core Series processors isn’t expected until mid-March at the earliest. Still, we’d expect Apple’s machines to command a small premium though in return offer currently exclusive features like Thunderbolt connectivity.

As ever, there are a few points to bear in mind. Those replacing a previous-gen MacBook Pro won’t be able to carry across any RAM upgrades, since the new model uses faster chips than the older versions, and Apple charges $200 for an extra 4GB. Still, with the right screwdriver head it’s relatively straightforward to open the base panel and swap out the memory for a third-party 8GB upgrade.

While that bottom panel is open, it’s worth considering an SSD. One of the more common questions we’re asked is whether a solid-state drive makes for a practical and worthwhile upgrade in a notebook, and our answer is generally yes – as long as you can afford it. There’s obviously a penalty involved in terms of both price and capacity; Apple’s official SSD upgrades, for instance, are $200 for 128GB, $600 for 256GB or a whopping $1,200 – the same as a brand new 13-inch MacBook Pro – for 512GB. In comparison, the entry-level 15-inch machine comes with 500GB of regular HDD storage as standard (for a frustrating $100 you can upgrade that to a faster, but identically sized, 7,200rpm version).

Nonetheless, there are cheaper third-party SSDs out there, and they make a significant impact in performance and durability. A set of spinning platters preserving all your vital files is always going to be a potential liability, and while SSDs aren’t immune to data loss, they’re more resilient to the sort of knocks and bumps most laptops suffer in daily use. With some strategic data management and an external drive, road-warriors can generally work around the capacity limitations and benefit considerably from the speed boost.

Wrap-Up

Make no mistake, this is a dramatically faster MacBook Pro than its predecessor, and the bulk of the credit must go to Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors. The combination of the quad-core CPU, fast memory and capable AMD Radeon GPU adds up to a notebook that’s adept at media editing and should turn its hand to gaming as well, if that’s your priority. Apple’s 7 hour battery estimates obviously won’t hold up if you’re doing heavy-duty video processing, but the Intel integrated graphics hold up their end of the bargain and give the new MacBook Pro some legs when it comes to everyday tasks like browsing, email and Office apps.

Thunderbolt makes another speed promise, but it’s too early to tell what impact the new connection will have. Even when peripherals using the port are on the market, they’ll be of primary interest to media editing professionals with high expectations and deep pockets. Most everyday users will probably still be satisfied with the speed USB 2.0 or FireWire 800 offers, and prove unwilling to spend what first-gen Thunderbolt hardware costs. That said, each new port technology has to start somewhere, and Apple has proved at-times ruthless in its adoption of cutting-edge standards. You can bet the company has an eye on ditching FireWire, USB and the others in favor of Thunderbolt, just as it did before with parallel ports, serial ports and floppy drives.

The 2011 MacBook Pro range, then, does a solid job of building on the strengths of its predecessors while also introducing new functionality and speed. The Sandy Bridge processors make a compelling argument, and the dual graphics mean the notebook has a double life as a hardcore media cruncher and an everyday machine capable of lasting most of a workday on a single charge. Factor in OS X’s usability, strong build quality, and the future-proofing Thunderbolt provides, and the 2011 MacBook Pro adds up to a near-perfect speed demon beautifully wrapped up in a timeless chassis. Rating: We’re working out our metrics for rating so please check back for details. [visit Apple MacBook Pro website for more details]

MacBook Pro 15-inch (early 2011)

MacBook Pro 15-inch with ThunderBolt Unboxing video:

During last year’s contest, Google Chrome was the only browser undefeated but with this additional cash prize and added publicity it is likely that more hackers will seriously take this to task. Details of the Google Chrome contest are as follows:

On day 1, Google will offer $20,000 USD and the CR-48 if a contestant can pop the browser and escape the sandbox using vulnerabilities purely present in Google-written code. If competitors are unsuccessful, on day 2 and 3 the ZDI will offer $10,000 USD for a sandbox escape in non-Google code and Google will offer $10,000 USD for the Chrome bug. Either way, plugins other than the built-in PDF support are out of scope.

Other web browser targets for this year include the latest release candidates of Microsoft Internet Explorer, Apple Safari, and Mozilla Firefox. Each browser will be installed on a 64-bit system running the latest version of OSX or Windows 7.

[Via ZDNet]

Rumor has it that the build concentrates on developments to the new Mac App Store, AirPort, Bonjour, SMB and Graphics Drivers. According to Apple Insider, additional updates will be unlikely as Apple is focused on the Mac OS X 10.7 Lion scheduled for release this summer.

[Via: Apple Insider]

Now there’s a mini documentary (released yesterday over at FastCoDesign,) by A Small Mammal production for Digital Science, directed by John Pavlus, and in it you can see how this device works! In an interview done for the post on FastCo, Carol had the following to say: “The Mechanism is interesting to me because people think of these astronomical predictions only being possible with sophisticated NASA computers. But to realize that someone actually built a mechanical machine to do that 2000 years ago is pretty impressive — and figuring out to to do it myself in Lego is fascinating too.”

Take a peek at the documentary here, and marvel at how to create a 2000 year old device, we but have to reach out our hands and pluck from a collection of read-made childrens toys to construct it. All hail the modern world.

[Via FastCoDesign]

You can have this sassy lady constructed, tested, and shipped to your door in less than a week if you’d like, and I imagine any smooth player from the streets would definitely like. I’m obligated to say by my Apple-loving self that a similar device running OSX would sell off the shelves in an instant. Think about the price comparisons! Cheep!

[Via ChipChick]

The first-generation MacBook Air polarized opinion more than most of Apple’s products. Fans praised its ultra-slim design and ruthless omission of anything not in keeping with its mobility ethos; critics derided its performance, minimal port selection and premium price. By the time the 13-inch unibody MacBook graduated to MacBook Pro status, the Air had been relegated to a very small niche.

The new MacBook Air announced as Jobs’ “one more thing” at the company’s otherwise OS X focused “Back to the Mac” event this week, pulls the range back up to date. By standardizing integrated batteries, bulky SSD (by today’s standard) replaced by NAND flash storage, and the latest low-voltage CPU and GPUs – all technologies that were either too new, too expensive or too unrefined at the first Air’s launch – Apple has successfully rebooted their ultraportable without necessarily stomping on other MacBook and MacBook Pro models in the process.

MacBook Air Solid State Flash Storage

Hardware

Two MacBook Air sizes are available, a 13.3-inch 1440 x 900 replacement for the original and a new 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 version. For the first time, Apple has picked 16:9 widescreen aspect panel for the 11.6″ and 16:10 for the 13″ MacBook Air. Both use Intel Core 2 Duo processors (1.86GHz or 2.13GHz on the larger model, 1.4GHz or 1.6GHz on the smaller) and have 2GB of 1066MHz DDR3 memory as standard (or 4GB as a $100 option), together with integrated batteries that Apple reckon are good for up to 7hrs wireless browsing on the 13.3-inch or 5hrs on the 11.6-inch. They also use new, slimmed-down NAND flash for storage; 128GB or 256GB on the larger model, and 64GB or 128GB on the smaller.

MacBook Air Design

Apple’s decision to use Intel’s previous generation of processors, the Core 2 Duo line, rather than the newer Core i3 and i5 chips we’ve seen on the MacBook Pro is most likely down to the GPU flexibility it allows them. By avoiding the newer chips, they’re free to stick with NVIDIA’s discrete graphics – in this case the GeForce 320M, which borrows 256MB of the Air’s main memory – which are good enough to support both the built-in display and an extended desktop of up to 2560 x 1600 resolution.

Gone, too, is the previous Air’s hinged port door; the 2010 MacBook Air spreads its connectivity across both sides, with more options than were offered before. This 11.6-inch model has a MagSafe power port, USB 2.0 port, headphone jack and microphone on the left and a USB 2.0 and Mini DisplayPort on the right; the 13.3-inch version adds an SD card reader as well. A webcam, which is even thinner than the one on iPhone 4 – now rebranded as a “FaceTime camera” – is built into the wafer-thin MacBook Air display, for video calls, though the screen itself lacks the glossy glass layer of the MacBook Pro line, to save on weight.

Weight is obviously a big deal when it comes to ultraportables, and Apple has been pretty ruthless with the new MacBook Air’s design. The full unibody aluminum chassis – with base and screen sections each crafted from a single, machined chunk of metal – measures 11.8 x 7.56 x 0.11-0.68 inches in the case of our 11.6-inch review unit; the 13.3-inch Air is broader and deeper (12.8 x 8.94 inches) but no thicker. Line the notebook up with an iPhone 4 at the front edge, and the two are almost exactly the same thickness. The MacBook Air is a beautiful, solid and eye-catching design, and feels premium all over.

Keyboard and Trackpad

Open the wafer-thin lid and there’s a full-sized keyboard complete with function key row. The latter are the 11.6-inch MacBook Air’s main concession to size, being thinner than their 13.3-inch counterpart’s. Unfortunately, backlighting appears to have been a casualty of the update, and it’s something we miss from the rest of Apple’s range. Key feel is on the clicky side, though not unpleasantly so, and travel hasn’t been too significantly curtailed by the shallow keyboard tray.

MacBook Air Multi-Touch

Despite their success with touchscreen technology on the iPad and iPhone, Apple is convinced touchscreen notebooks aren’t usable. Instead they squeeze in an oversized, multitouch trackpad as on other models: it’s slightly smaller than what you’d find on, say, a 15-inch MacBook Pro, but it’s responsive and easy to use, and of course perfectly integrated with OS X’s two-, three- and four-finger gestures.

Performance

The previous MacBook Air was most comfortable browsing and playing video, but Apple is positioning the 2010 model as more of an all-round machine. Still, the updated CPU and GPU do at least stand a better chance for more mobile graphics crunching. We ran Geekbench on our test unit, an entry-level 11.6-inch Air with the 1.4GHz processor and 2GB of memory, and it scored 2178. That’s actually a couple hundred points less than the previous-gen 1.86GHz Air we reviewed in 2008, though it’s worth noting that model was selling for a huge $2,499 compared to the $999 of today’s version.

More importantly, perhaps, is how the CPU and GPU work together, and we have a real-world example to illustrate it. We took a quick day trip in and out of San Francisco this week to meet with HP; knowing that the story was going to be under embargo, we wouldn’t really need a laptop since we woudn’t be processing videos and images until we got back. As such, no need for the usual MacBook Pro, right? The obvious device of choice to take on the road is the iPad.

MacBook Air Mac Meets iPad

Had we taken the iPad, it would have been a disaster. Why? Leaks and a broken embargo forced HP into releasing the story far earlier than expected. In this case, instead of carry a Core i7 15″ MBP weighing nearly 5lbs, we had a lightweight yet very capable machine for processing 720p videos, images and writing up articles, and that’s exactly happened. In between waiting at the airport, meetings and while on the airplane, we were able to write, process hands-on video and edit images.

Using iMovie ’11, we were able to import an 11-minute 720p video clip in AVCHD format in roughly 4 minutes. Editing was a breeze with the large glass trackpad and writing was not an issue with the full-size keyboard. Meanwhile iPhoto ’11 made short work of the image processing. All we really missed on the 11.6-inch MacBook Air was the SD card slot. Luckily we had an external memory card reader, though we were also able to hook up a phone with a memory card slot and transfer files over from microSD that way. Processing the 10 minute 25 second video at 720p took just under 51.54 minutes. That’s certainly longer than your Core i7 Mac Pro, but considering the portability of the Air it’s a lot easier to forgive the longer than usual processing time; it’s also worth remembering that we were running off battery power, which means the CPU would be underclocked as per Intel’s power-saving systems. On mains power, it would be quicker.

As soon as we landed, we discovered the embargo had been lifted and we were all set to go. Hook up to Verizon’s MiFi or jump on the airport’s WiFi, upload images, videos and publish the articles. In a highly competitive environment, it’s always best to be prepared and, in order to do that, you have to have the right tools.

Battery

Part of being the right tool is offering reliable battery performance, and we’ve been impressed with how the 2010 MacBook Air handles power. As we’ve seen from the teardown, most of the Air’s interior space is taken up with battery packs; Apple claims the 11.6-inch version is good for up to 5 hours of wireless use or up to 30 days standby (using a new caching system that takes advantage of the fast SSD). With our mixed use of WiFi, video and image processing, watching two TV shows and then working on articles, the MacBook Air was still suggesting we had 45 minutes of battery life left. During all that time, while the ultraportable isn’t fanless, it was still almost silent; meanwhile it barely got warm despite the processor load. It’s worth mentioning that, by spreading the battery packs across the notebook, Apple has created a very well balanced machine that sits nicely on the lap.

Wrap-Up

As with its predecessor, there are some compromises to be made with the new MacBook Air though. While the ultraportable has both WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR as standard, there’s still no integrated 3G option for mobile broadband. The omission of an SD card reader on the 11.6-inch model is frustrating, too. Perhaps more importantly, Apple solders the MacBook Air’s RAM to its mainboard, and the SSD is a proprietary component; that means later upgrades aren’t going to be easy. Stepping up to the 128GB 11.6-inch MacBook Air is $200 more than the 64GB version, at $1,199, while the 13.3-inch models are $1,299 for 128GB or $1,599 for 256GB. Budget $100 to double the RAM to the maximum 4GB.

Compared to the previous-generation MacBook Air, the new model is undoubtedly a bargain. Better looking, better performance and with longer battery life, Apple’s ultraportable has come into its own now that the technology has caught up with the Cupertino company’s ambitions. If you were tempted by the old model but put off by its limited performance and runtimes, this new version addresses that.

A more frequent question is likely to pit the MacBook Air against the iPad, and while we still like Apple’s tablet, it’s undoubtedly limited in its functionality. The new Air, meanwhile, is a fully-fledged notebook wrapped up into a slim, lightweight package, with the quick-start accessibility of the iPad along with the flexibility of OS X. It’s especially enticing if you’re already an iPhone 4 owner.

The MacBook Air is not the laptop for every user. Those looking to frequently edit HD multimedia will find its ULV processor limiting, while the downside to the speed and frugality of its flash storage is reduced capacity versus the 320GB and 500GB HDDs we’re seeing as standard on rival machines. Still, it’s not intended to be the notebook for all seasons. The upcoming Mac App Store will further blur the line between MacBook Air and iPad functionality, without giving up OS X in the process, but even as it ships today there’s plenty to appeal about its extreme portability and surprising degree of usability. As with the previous MacBook Air, the style will win hearts in the Apple Store; what makes the difference is that the day-to-day experience is strong enough to win over your head and wallet, too.

Unboxing MacBook Air 11.6″

Our review unit slots into the middle of the updated Mac Pro range, with two of Intel’s 2.4GHz quadcore Xeon E5620 CPUs, 6GB of 1066MHz DDR3 memory and an ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB video card. With a 1TB 7,200rpm hard-drive it comes in at $3,499 – for $1,000 less you can have a single 2.8GHz Xeon quadcore and half the memory, while for $1,500 more there’s the dual 2.66GHz hexacore Xeon flagship. Still no Blu-ray – not even the option – so it’s a standard 18x SuperDrive, four PCI Express 2.0 slots, five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire 800 ports. Networking options include two-gigabit Ethernet ports, Bluetooth 2.1 and WiFi a/b/g/n.

There’s no shortage of graphics choices, either: the Radeon HD 5770 has Dual-Link DVI port and pair of Mini DisplayPort connectors. As for audio, there’s a digital optical input and output, plus analog in/out on the rear panel, and a headphone socket on the front (along with two each of the FireWire and USB ports). We’d love to see USB 3.0 or even eSATA there too, but sadly Apple hasn’t seen fit to install them in this particular Mac Pro generation.

Take off the side panel – an easy task with the flip-up (and lockable) latch on the back – and Apple’s unusual interior layout is revealed. Everything is sectioned off, with the processors and memory at the bottom in a pullout tray, the PCI Express 2.0 slots in the middle, and then the four 3.5-inch hard-drive bays slung above. Each bay has a drive carrier that a standard SATA 3Gb/s drive clips into, before slotting – cable free – into place. Our review unit had a single 1TB drive, but you can specify up to 8TB of traditional HDDs or up to four 512GB SSDs and an optional RAID controller for drive redundancy (RAID levels 0, 1, 5 and 0+1 supported).

Slick design, a sensible layout and plenty of ports are no use at all if the core system doesn’t hold up its end of the bargain, and happily the 2010 Mac Pro is capable of some serious crunching. We performed some of our benchmark testing natively in OS X, and then other elements in Windows 7 Ultimate running in either Parallels or Boot Camp. It’s common for Mac Pro owners to spend at least part of their time in a dual-booting or multimode environment, depending on the software tools they’re reliant on, and so we felt this would give a more balanced view of the desktop than OS X figures alone.

We started out with Geekbench, a synthetic test of processor and memory performance. Tested natively in OS X 10.6.4 Snow Leopard (with the latest patches and updates installed), the Mac Pro scored 14,378. In comparison, a 2009 Mac Pro – with a single Xeon 2.66GHz processor but 12GB of DDR3 memory, a configuration costing roughly the same as the machine in today’s review – scored 9,600.

We then booted into Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit using Boot Camp, and the Mac Pro scored 11,451. Loading Windows in Parallels – which allows you to run both Mac and PC apps at the same time – saw a Windows 7 Geekbench score of 6,017, while scores using VMware ranged from 5563 to 6017. It should be noted that these virtualization scores were calculated when Parallels and VMware were running in four core mode; although they scored higher when using all eight cores, that leaves no resources for the host OS and isn’t advisable in real-world applications.

In contrast, Lenovo’s hefty ThinkStation C20 workstation, with its 8GB of DDR3 memory and dual 2.66GHz Xeon X5650 processors scored 19,565 in Windows 7 Professional. You pay considerably for those extra 5,000 points, however, considering the ThinkStation C20 is a $6,774 machine (almost double what Apple is asking for this Mac Pro).

We then turned to PCMark Vantage, which runs in Windows 7 rather than OS X and rates a system across seven categories (Memories, TV and Movies, Gaming, Music, Communications, Productivity and HDD) and then a final score. We tested the Mac Pro three times in all, using Boot Camp, Parallels and VMware, and had pretty consistent results across all batches. In Boot Camp, using the full 6GB of RAM, the PCMark score was 8,377, with particularly strong scores in Communications and Gaming.

In Parallels, with 4GB of the RAM assigned, the system scored 8,689 overall, with Communications and HDD ahead. Finally, in VMware, the PCMark score was 8,066 with Music and HDD leading the way. It’s important to remember that, in both virtualization setups, the software is emulating hardware so the GPU performance is less than when running a native OS. The Mac Pro fell behind the C20 by 1,400-2,000 points in these situations, but it’s still an impressive showing considering both the price difference and the fact that the PCMark testing was done in the Apple machine’s non-standard OS.

Day to day, then, there’s little you can throw at the Mac Pro and expect to slow it down. We processed HD video while watching different content, browsing with multiple tabs in several windows, and with several other apps running in the background, and we couldn’t get the Apple desktop to break a sweat. It’s hard to imagine the everyday user that would require such a machine; most would likely be better served with an iMac, given that model’s cheaper price and brilliant IPS display. Still, the absence of USB 3.0 and Blu-ray – on both iMac and Mac Pro – does still rankle a little, given rival PCs have offered both for some time now.

If you’re involved in frequent video, audio or image editing, however, or any sort of CAD or other processor-intensive application, then the Mac Pro deserves serious consideration. Strong performance not only in OS X but when running Windows 7 – particularly in Boot Camp – offers the best of both worlds for the platform agnostic, and while the Mac Pro’s upfront sticker price may seem high, compared to native Windows machines of similar build construction it’s actually surprisingly competitive. For those who want the very highest performance, the dual hexacore Mac Pro is an expensive option, but this midrange model arguably delivers the best balance of crunching power and price.

As well as the processor, memory and solid-state storage, there’s an ATI Radeon HD 5750 GPU with 1GB of its own GDDR5 memory and an 8x SuperDrive DVD burner. Still no Blu-ray option, of course, and no USB 3.0 ports either; instead Apple gives you four USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 800 port, audio in/out (each combining analog and digital), gigabit ethernet and a Mini DisplayPort that, on this larger iMac, also functions as an input for hooking up your MacBook Pro. On the side, as well as the slot-loading optical drive there’s an SDXC memory card reader (backward compatible with SD/SDHC cards, naturally) while inside there’s WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. The latter is used with the bundled Apple Wireless Keyboard and Magic Mouse; the Magic Trackpad launched alongside the new iMacs is an optional extra.

While all-in-ones may not be particularly known for their upgrade potential, Apple has made great use of the 27-inch iMac’s internal space. The SSD is an option, but so is pairing a regular hard-drive with a solid-state counterpart, each occupying its own internal bay. The 27-inch model comes with a 1TB, 7,200rpm HDD as standard: you can upgrade that to 2TB or swap it for the 256GB SSD, or combine either HDD with the SSD. That could be useful for digital media pros looking for the system speed an SSD brings together with the relatively cost-effective storage a traditional HDD delivers. At this stage, you can’t combine two SSDs, however.

Our wish-list for the iMac gets smaller with each iteration, and right now is pretty much limited to Blu-ray, USB 3.0 and eSATA. Given Apple’s general antipathy toward the former, it looks unlikely that the company will include Blu ray any time soon; instead they’re betting on digital delivery through iTunes. USB 3.0 and eSATA are trickier: Apple helped lead the way in ditching legacy connections, which might lead you to assume they’d also be at the forefront in these faster ports, but so far there’s no sign.

Everything is wrapped up in what’s perhaps the slickest chassis in Apple’s line-up today, a smooth unibody aluminum expanse with a simple one-legged desk stand. Opt for the included wireless peripherals and a WiFi network connection and you can hook up the iMac with a single cable, for power, which snakes neatly out through a purposefully cut hole in the leg. Up front, most noticeable is the 16:9 aspect 27-inch IPS LCD panel, running at 2560 x 1440 resolution with 375 cd/m2 brightness and 1000:1 contrast ratio. Hidden behind the glass bezel is an iSight webcam, a microphone and an IR port for use with the optional Apple remote, while underneath are stereo speakers each paired with a 17W amp.

The display remains a key selling point for the iMac, being bright, color-rich and having very broad viewing angles. Think of it as the desktop’s equivalent of the iPhone 4′s Retina Display; only a few PC manufacturers offer LCD displays that can compete, and it’s rare to find one integrated into an all-in-one machine. Obviously the iMac is at home with movie playback in Full HD, though of course with the absence of Blu-ray you’re limited to digital content downloaded or side-loaded in 1080p HD resolution. Standalone media performs well, with the iMac’s speakers belying the absence of a dedicated subwoofer; thanks to the digital audio output it’s straightforward to add a 2.1 or 5.1 surround sound system too.

With its superlative specifications, though, it’s likely content creation rather than consumption that iMac buyers prioritizing this particular model would be occupying themselves with. It’s certainly easily capable when it comes to processing video, audio and images. At the risk of getting geekier, though, there are some good reasons why this is the best iMac to-date.

We ran Geekbench, a synthetic test of processor and memory performance, and the quadcore iMac scored a massive 10099 points. In contrast, last year’s Mac Pro – with a quadcore 2.67GHz Xeon processor and 12GB of memory – scored 9600. The current generation entry-level iMac – with a Core i3-550 dual-core running at 3.2GHz is scoring around 6700 in Geekbench; the machine positioned at the same point in Apple’s range late last year scored just 4,650. More importantly, perhaps, is the increase in L3 cache, with the 8MB in the new iMac matching the old Mac Pro (the old iMac lacked L3 cache completely). Put simply, the L3 cache is used as a high-speed store for data being processed: the more you have, the faster the computer can crunch through whatever it is you’re working on. Meanwhile the FSB (Front-Side Bus) is the same 4.80GHz on the quadcore iMac as it is on the old Mac Pro: that’s the speed of the pathway between CPU and Northbridge, and a potential bottleneck if it’s not high enough.

When you start factoring that performance increase in with Apple’s pricing, the new iMac’s appeal gets even greater. First off, consider that – without the SSD – you’re getting Mac Pro (i.e. flagship) performance, plus a brilliant 27-inch display, for less than you’d pay for the current entry-level Mac Pro with a quadcore 2.8GHz Xeon ($2,199 versus $2,449). On top of that you’d need to pair the Mac Pro with a display; the 27-inch LED Cinema Display, using the same panel as the iMac we’re testing, will be $999 when it arrives next month.

Now, the Mac Pro obviously has some benefits of its own: the four hard-drive bays, faster SuperDrive, speedier CPU options and greater connectivity, for a start. For most users though, balancing high performance with price, the iMac’s combination of a slimline form-factor, huge amounts of processing power and integrated display will likely hit the sweet spot that previously only an entry-level Mac Pro would’ve filled.

From that perspective, the $2,799 of our review unit ($2,199 if you opt for the 1TB HDD instead of the SSD) starts to look a whole lot more reasonable. Yes, it’s overkill for most, but that’s why the 27-inch Core i3 version (at $1,699) is on offer; that model itself delivers around 45-percent more performance (as measured by Geekbench) than its predecessor. Factor in the quality of the display, design, construction and usability of OS X, and the iMac is not just a fitting flagship but a well-rounded alternative to traditional workstations. For all those reasons it comes highly recommended. Feel free to drop me questions in the comment section or visit  apple.com/imac for more details.

iMac Mid 2010 Core i7 Specification

At first glance you could be mistaken for thinking the new Mac mini looks pretty much the same as its predecessor; in fact there are plenty of differences. Rather than the plastic shell of before, Apple have switched to CNC machined aluminum like their unibody MacBook Pro notebooks. It’s also lower and wider than the computer it replaces, but by shifting the power supply brick internally the overall footprint is less. Bar the Apple logo on the top and the slot-loading DVD drive up front, the unibody shell is clean and clear; all of the ports are at the back.

It’s the port selection that marks the new Mac mini’s other great departure: Apple has finally dropped the DVI socket and replaced it with an HDMI output (alongside the existing Mini DisplayPort). You lose a USB 2.0 in the process – it’s down to four – but also get an SD/SDHC/SDXC card slot along with the FireWire 800, gigabit ethernet and audio in/out (which double as both analog and digital). Inside there’s WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR as standard.

In one fell swoop, Apple has given home entertainment users a super-straightforward machine that takes seconds to set up. Plug in the power cord, hook up via HDMI to your HDTV (the connection carries audio as well as video), and pair a Bluetooth keyboard/mouse set – not included, and of course you can use USB 2.0 peripherals too, though the Mac mini obviously works great out of the box with Apple’s own keyboard and mouse – and you’re ready to go. Not only does this new model use 25-percent less power than its predecessor (about as much in normal use as a regular lightbulb, in fact), it’s also incredibly quiet: 14dBa at idle means it’s likely to be overwhelmed by background noise in all but the most mausoleum-like of environments, and even when active we could hardly hear it running.

That’s a surprise, given Apple hasn’t really stinted on the specifications. Standard is a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo CPU with 3MB L2 cache and 1066MHz frontside bus, paired with 2GB of RAM and a 320GB hard-drive; options include a 2.66GHz CPU, up to 8GB of RAM and up to 500GB storage. Incidentally, the Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server – which replaces the optical drive with a second hard-drive – comes as standard with the 2.66GHz CPU and 4GB of RAM, along with two 500GB 7200-rpm hard drives built in.

We ran Geekbench on the Mac mini, a synthetic test that measures processor and memory performance. Altogether, it scored 3550, around 100 points less than the similar architecture and processor in the current-generation 13-inch MacBook Pro (which, it’s worth remembering, starts at $1,199). That’s respectable for a small-form-factor desktop, and well in excess of what we’ve seen from Atom-based nettops.

Graphics on both models are courtesy of NVIDIA’s GeForce 320M, which shares 256MB of the main memory. That means it’s unlikely to be a gamers’ dream machine, but can still pump out up to 2560 x 1600 resolution over Mini DisplayPort or 1920 x 1200 via HDMI (an HDMI to DVI adapter is included in the box, or you can buy a Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter separately). Still, it happily crunched through the test video files we processed in iMovie – part of the included iLife suite Apple preload, as well as iPhoto, GarageBand and other apps – though took a little longer than the heftier CPU/GPU combos in the MacBook Pro line.

Thanks to OS X and iLife there’s plenty that you can do with the Mac mini out of the box, including use it as a media center. We’re disappointed that Apple didn’t bundle their infrared remote in the box – it’s a $19 accessory – since it works so well with Front Row, the company’s sofa-friendly UI that offers easy access to iTunes music, iPhoto photos, Movies and DVDs. Saying that, we’ve a feeling many Mac mini owners will look to third-party HTPC apps like Boxee, which add in features like internet streaming audio and video access (such as YouTube), on-demand content and, platform depending, premium pay-per-view TV episodes and films. We’d love to see Apple turn their attention to Front Row and boost its online abilities, but judging by their attitude to Apple TV they seem content to leave the niche to independent software vendors.

While you might assume the Mac mini was a relatively closed box when it comes to user upgrades, you’d not be entirely correct. Upend it, twist off the circular base-plate and you can easily access the two RAM slots so as to upgrade the memory (something we’d recommend doing yourself, since Apple’s factory-fit upgrades are, as ever, on the expensive side). Unfortunately the easy access ends there: if you want to switch out the hard-drive, for instance, you’ll need to get out the screwdrivers and set aside a fair chunk of time, since Apple has had to perform some origami to get everything to fit.

So, is the Mac mini the perfect second-computer, lounge media machine or MacBook alternative? It’s certainly a strong contender, though there is aspects, which we wish Apple, had addressed along with the new chassis and HDMI addition. An eSATA port is the most obvious one, though Apple point to their FireWire 800 port as an alternative, and for that matter we wouldn’t have argued with USB 3.0 rather than 2.0. It’s entirely likely that Mac mini users will be plugging in ever-increasing external hard-drives, and so boosting the interfaces accordingly would seem like a sensible plan. The Cupertino company’s consistent refusal to add a Blu-ray drive is also a pain, given the Mac mini’s obvious HD abilities.

Still, we’re big fans of the Mac mini in its current form. Yes, the price has seen a roughly $100 boost over the last-gen model, but if you consider a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter is currently around $35, plus the CPU and GPU boost, and throw in the SDXC card reader too, that doesn’t sound like too bad a deal to us. At $699 we’d certainly pick it over the white entry-level MacBook for home use, and it would make for an ideal family PC in the living room: showing multimedia content one minute, browsing the internet the next. If you’ve already amassed a huge Blu-ray collection – rather than, say, HD-quality digital content – then the absence of a suitable optical drive may be a deal breaker, but the majority of people will find a whole lot of their boxes ticked by, ironically, a very small Apple box.

Mac mini unboxing and walkthrough video:

According to MG Siegler over at Techcrunch, he’s corroborated some of the main details with several sources, although like every other piece of juicy news, this also should be taken with a grain of salt.

This is one of the problems I have with the iPad – the iPhone OS is limited in the sense that it can only run stripped down apps ported from the iPhone/iPod Touch, and even further development solely for the iPad still would reek of such.  With some version of the Mac OS X, an Apple tablet could be more than a half-baked idea, as it is now with the iPad. [via everything iPad]

TechCrunch dug a lot deeper and found other iSlate domain names registered around the world.  The United Kingdom is a big market for Apple – Mark Monitor also manages the iSlate domain name islate.co.uk. It’s the same company that also manages the iSlate domain names iSlate.jp and iSlate.cn, while in France iSlate.fr is managed by a Paris-based IP property attorney firm called Wilson & Berthelot. This company named Mark Monitor as the technical contact for the islate.fr domain name.

The plot thickens with the iSlate trademark here in the United States. Back on November 21, 2006 a company called Slate Computing filed for a US word mark for ‘ISLATE’. Interestingly, it’s roughly the same time frame of when the last three islate-related domain names were registered.

Computers; computer software, namely, database management software, electronic mail and messaging software, Internet browser software, paging software, database synchronization software, software for accessing, browsing and searching online databases, software for creating spreadsheets, tables, graphs and charts, software for organizing and analyzing data, software for word processing, software for creation and display of presentations including text and graphics, software used for image editing, image processing, image acquisition, image file management, image viewing, image sharing, and the creation of documents incorporating images, software for use in developing websites, software to help users create, edit, organize, search, transfer, publish and subscribe to weblogs, blogs, podcasts, web broadcasts and news and information feeds on global and/or local computer and telecommunications networks, software for use in authoring, downloading, transmitting, receiving, editing, extracting, encoding, decoding, playing, storing and organizing audio, video and still images, software for authoring digital content, software for personal information management, software for DVD authoring, software for the electronic storage and retrieval of electronic calendar files, software with clock and alarm clock functionality, telephony management software, character recognition software, application development tool software for personal and handheld computers, software for the redirection of messages, Internet e-mail, and/or other data to one or more electronic handheld devices from a data store on or associated with a personal computer or a server, and software for the synchronization of data between a remote station or device and a fixed or remote station or device; computer operating system software; computer utility software; computer peripherals. notebook computers; laptop computers; tablet computers; computer servers; handheld computers; mobile computers; hard drives; audio speakers; speakers for computers; radios; cameras; video cameras; telephones; mobile telephones; personal digital assistants; electronic personal organizers; electronic notepads; blank magnetic data carriers; computer gaming machines; microprocessors; memory boards; computer monitors; keyboards; computer input devices, namely, touch screens, styluses, mice, trackballs and shuttle dials; computer cables; modems; printers; computer accessories, namely, computer battery chargers, battery packs, docking stations, adaptors, computer wired and wireless remote controls, audio headphones and earphones, and replacement parts for all the aforesaid goods.

Everything is pointing to an Apple iSlate. If rumors are true, the announcement could come as early as January 26th, 2010.

Our iMac is the entry-level 27-inch model, with a 2560 x 1440 16:9 display, 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of DDR3 memory and a 1TB 7,200rpm hard-drive. On the side there’s the same 8x SuperDrive as its predecessor, while graphics are courtesy of an ATI Radeon HD 4670 with 256MB of dedicated memory. Connectivity includes four USB 2.0 ports, a single FireWire 800, Mini DisplayPort (which also supports video input; more on that later), audio in/out and gigabit Ethernet, along with WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR.

That’s the standard specification for the 27-incher, and it’s shared by the top-spec standard configuration of the 21.5-inch iMac. That smaller desktop has a 1920 x 1080 LCD and loses the Mini DisplayPort input functionality, while the entry-level model gets a 500GB 7,200rpm hard-drive and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256MB graphics. As for the top-spec 27-inch iMac, deliveries won’t start until November, whereupon buyers will get a 2.66GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor or, as a cost-option, a Core i7 chip.

You’d have to search hard to find somewhere to critique Apple on the new iMac’s build-quality and design. The black plastic back panel of the old model has gone, replaced by a gently curved aluminum plate and flush-mounted ports, and the black glass extends right to the very edge like a high-end HDTV. Newly notched out just below the DVD drive is an SD card slot, something we’re particularly glad to see given how media-centric the iMac is. Speakers are hidden under the bottom edge, and like the 24-inch Apple Cinema Display they manage to put out a surprising amount of sound. That, Apple tells us, is thanks to having more chassis room to fit better drivers in, each powered by a 17W amp. With a WiFi network connection and the included Bluetooth keyboard and Magic Mouse, the iMac can truly be a one-cord computer.

As we’ve seen with recent displays on Apple’s desktop and mobile range, their choice of panels keep getting better. In addition to native 16:9 widescreen, making them ideal for movie content, they use in-plane switching (IPS) and LED backlighting; the payoff is incredibly vivid color, huge viewing angles and impressive contrast. That given, it’s all the more frustrating that Apple don’t include – or at least offer as an option – a Blu-ray drive with the iMac. The 27-inch model, particularly, would make for the perfect HD workstation, both for consuming and producing high-definition content, and Apple’s ongoing reluctance to step up from the ageing SuperDrive is increasingly bizarre. iTunes, to be fair, offers 720p downloads, but that’s still not the 1080p quality the screen is crying out for.

We expected a strong showing from Geekbench, and the 27-inch iMac didn’t disappoint. An overall score of 4650 was bolstered by strong processor floating-point performance (6618) but held back by memory bandwidth (2253). It’ll take a shot of Nehalem to bring the iMac up to Mac Pro standards, however; the 2.66GHz Xeon Mac Pro we reviewed a few months back scored almost twice as highly as the iMac in Geekbench, suggesting that hardcore A/V and 3D editors would do best to save up for the more potent desktop.

Still, for the sort of home movie editing, photo processing and iTunes video playback that most iMac users will be doing, the standard configuration should be sufficient, and of course there’s the upcoming Core i5 and i7 models to pacify the performance crowd.

Apple’s switch to standard wireless peripherals is a welcome one, and the Magic Mouse is particularly intriguing. An attempt to bring Apple’s much-vaunted multitouch control from the MacBook and MacBook Pro trackpads to the desktop, while the whole of the mouse clicks down as with the previous Mighty Mouse, the trackball has been replaced with a touch-sensitive surface. The entire top of the Magic Mouse, roughly from the Apple logo upwards, has the same sort of touch sensors as a trackpad does, recognizing single and two-finger touch and gestures. As well as differentiating between left and right clicks, the Magic Mouse supports 360-degree scrolling, two-finger swipes to move between pages, and clicking with one finger while using a second to scroll so as to select large quantities of text.

There’s no pinch-zooming, however, which seems less of a loss than you might expect since trying to fit two-finger gestures onto the surface of the mouse while at the same time gripping it isn’t 100-percent intuitive. Still, that’s easily made up for by the support for single-finger “flicks”, which optionally offer momentum-style scrolling as on the iPhone (you can turn it off and have proportional scrolling instead, though you’ll need to delve into the system settings to do so; there’s no way to quickly switch between). It’s also worth noting that those who prefer the battery-free simplicity of wired peripherals can choose them individually as no-cost options during the Apple order process, including a choice of wired keyboard with and without numeric keypad.

Frustrations with the iMac are few and far between, to be fair; though considering the premium price they’re worth flagging up. Aside from the Blu-ray issue – which admittedly could be solved with a USB Blu-ray drive, but is hardly in keeping with the iMac’s minimalist aesthetic – we also wish Apple had fitted a TV tuner or at least offered it as an internal option. That way the iMac really could replace a standalone HDTV in a kitchen or bedroom. As it is, like Blu-ray you could use a USB tuner but it’s an extra hassle when rival PCs often integrate TV as standard.

Our other complaint comes down to taste, and as with the MacBook Pro series it relates to the iMac’s highly glossy display. There’s no option to choose a matte-finish panel, and given the sheer expanse of glass to work with it’s likely you’ll see a fair amount of reflections. The IPS-aided viewing angles did mean we could tilt the iMac, preserve image quality and avoid all but the most intrusive of reflections, but, again, we’d at least like the option of a matte display. Still, Mini DisplayPort input (when the correct cables go on sale) and the ability to have two full webpages on-screen at once makes for a convincing argument, and to be honest the iMac’s display is hard to critique.

Picking the iMac, then, is one part brain and one part heart. Apple have taken a capable computer and clad it in one of the best all-in-one designs to-date, matching it up to an eye-catching and entrancing display and paired it with intuitive, attractive peripherals. At $1,699 upwards for the 27-inch iMac (the 21.5-inch starts at $1,199) it’s not a cheap purchase, but Apple’s recent financial report has shown that there are plenty of people willing to pay a premium for high-end design and the aesthetic ease of OS X. For those buyers, this latest-generation iMac is unlikely to disappoint.

Best Buy tossed the Samsung Instinct HD online confirming its most important specs in the process. The phone will sport a 5MP camera that can play and record HD video along with Wi-Fi and lots of social networking. We found out early in the week that Apple’s latest OS, Snow Leopard, will ship on August 28 for $29. Bill Gates should be ashamed.

Shuttle swiped some of the team form ECS a while back and it looks like the new employees are going to be working on a netbook for Shuttle. That is just what we need, another netbook on the market. Speaking of another netbook, Nokia whipped its new Booklet 3G out this week with a promise of 12 hours of run time per charge.

The Nokia N97 Mini was reviewed early on Tuesday and the verdict was the keyboard is horrible. That may as well be the kiss of death for the smartphone. Asus’ new Eee Top nettop computers were confirmed as coming to the U.S. with the ET2002T and the ET2203T coming with some very nice features like NVIDIA Ion.

Nintendo filed a patent application on a new football controller this week that looks really weird. From the line art, it looks like you plug your remote and nunchuck into it. I wonder how long it will take for someone to put a football through their TV when this thing hits market. Sony let it slide this week that they are still losing money on the PS3 Slim from a hardware perspective. The motion controller spawned from Project Natal is due to hit market in 2010 as well.

Elecom unveiled a cool SSD this week that has 16GB of storage in a design so small it plugs directly into the internal SATA port on your mainboard. It looks like you have to give up any ports beside it though thanks to the fat drive. HIS launched a new HD 4890 iCooler x4 video card this week that is overclocked and has a unique cooling solution. I wondered if putting the heat back into the chassis would cause any issues for the other components of a computer using the card.

Corsair unveiled a new SSD with 256GB of storage called the X256 with seriously fast read and write speeds Tuesday. The SSD will support TRIM for Windows 7 reducing unneeded delete cycles to prolong the drives life. Samsung’s Omnia 2 was spied on the Samsung mobile website sporting a Verizon logo. Details are scant, but we know it has a 3.7-inch screen with AMOLED tech.

Motorola announced that it will be holding an event on September 10. The event is expected to be the unveiling of the Sholes and Morrison handsets thanks to the Android drawn on the logo. Sony finally offered up a real competitor to the Kindle this week with the unveiling of its first 3G eReader with a 7-inch touchscreen at $399.

A rumor tipped up Wednesday that has the cheap, plastic MacBook getting an update and possibly a lower price tag. That would be a welcome addition to the Apple line. It’s almost disgusting to see cool gadgets gutted and filmed for our enjoyment. The Sony PS3 Slim was torn down and snapped Wednesday and it was almost enough to make the gaming geeks cry.

I talked about the new PocketDock Wednesday that allows you to charge your iPod or iPhone with a plain USB cable rather than the Apple cord you typically use. It also has a 3.5mm output to connect to your home stereo. We also saw a new external Blu-ray player perfect for netbooks this week sporting both USB and eSATA interfaces. The power sipping optical drive gets all the juice it needs from the USB port.

Sirius XM unveiled the XM SkyDock for iPhone and iPod touch. The dock turns the iPhone into a touchscreen controller for satellite radio programming and keeps the phone charged up. The Super USB mobile phone charger showed up this week and charges all sorts of devices at once, it reminds me of a Swiss army octopus.

Thursday we showed off the official video of the slick new Nokia N900 along with its Maemo 5 operating system. This may be Nokia’s best chance to fight RIM and Apple on even ground. We found out that Apple will be having an event on September 9 and while what they will be showing off is unknown, we suspect it’s the iPod devices with cameras to go along with all those leaked shots of iPod cases.

Thursday Microsoft officially confirmed the rumored price cut on the Xbox 360 Elite. The console price dropped to $299 to combat the new PS3 Slim selling at the same price. The PS3 seems to be the better deal with the Blu-ray player in it to me. Navteq issued a study this week that claims using a GPS with traffic data can save drivers four days per year of sitting in traffic. That’s four more days you can spend at the office.

I ran across an external laptop battery later in the week that promises to work with 10,000 different laptop models. The battery claims to be good for about three more hours of use. TiVo filed a lawsuit in an East Texas court against Verizon and AT&T over DVR patents. The court is that of the judge that ruled against Nintendo and other big companies in recent patent suits.

Sony unveiled several new DSLR cameras this week, all of which can store to SD and SDHC cards. The cameras are due in October with the most expensive one selling at $950. Logitech’s new Squeezebox Touch was spotted running wild Friday with accessories showing up on the Logitech website. The thing looks a lot like the Harmony tablet style remotes to me.

Yet another iPhone blew up this week in France leaving the teenage boy using it with a headache that lasted about two days. I bet he had to replace his tightie whities too and just didn’t mention that part. What’s with all the European explosions? Altec Lansing brings back the 80′s with a new style boom box called the MIX Boombox sporting all sorts of digital media docks and inputs. I could totally see the thing sighting beside a cardboard dance floor while dancers spin around on their heads.

The Nokia N900 went on pre-order in Germany and Italy Friday at 599 EUR. There is no word on pricing and launch date for other countries yet. We posted up reviews of the new Nokia E52 and E55 mobile phones Friday. We liked the E52 better than the E55.

Another week has come and gone and another week in review in the history books for your perusal. Till next week!

Ease of installation

There’s a lot to be said for an OS upgrade that makes reliability its initial promise, and we had no issues installing Snow Leopard – a roughly 30 minute endeavor – on any of our test machines. OS X 10.6 also leaves your existing apps and data untouched – though we’d argue that such behavior is an expected aspect rather than a boasting point these days – together with being designed to seamlessly pick up the install baton at a later point should your first attempt be interrupted. It’s hard to imagine that people might attempt to upgrade their MacBook while running on battery only, but some will and they – together with those interrupted by power cuts, burst fuses and similar – can rest assured that Snow Leopard will resume without data loss. Incidentally, while Apple require 5GB of free space for the install process as a whole, Snow Leopard in fact frees up a total of 7GB previously used by Leopard once the update is complete.

Dock, Finder and Preview

The most obvious changes once Snow Leopard is installed are, arguably, those you’ll spend most time interacting with on a day-to-day basis. The Apple Dock, Finder and Preview features all get an overhaul, each intended to make navigating files and applications more straightforward. Exposé has become more measured in its layout, following a grid rather than displaying previews into any available gap, and has allowed Apple to permit sorting either alphabetically (Command-1) or by application (Command-2). We’re particularly enamored with the new Dock Exposé feature, where clicking and holding an application icon in the Dock spreads all open windows of that app out; you can then click the required window or hover over with the mouse, hit the Space bar and see a full-sized preview.

Pop-outs and quick-views have also been supercharged, with the stacks now permitting scrolling and folder navigation while in grid-view; meanwhile dragging a file from a stack or from the Finder to, say, the Mail icon will automatically pull up an Exposé view of open Mail windows, streamlining the attachment process. It’s helped in no small way by the overhaul to Finder itself, something which Apple say has been a ground-up rewrite based on the Cocoa framework but all you and I need to know is far better equipped to deal with the masses of files and the prevalence of media we now stuff our computers with. Icons can be made bigger and, at 512 x 512 pixels at their maximum, are four-times the resolution of those in Leopard; more importantly each is far more interactive, with QuickTime movies playing and PDF/Office documents viewable.

It’s a system that, overall, enables you to spend less time Command-Tabbing or navigating through folders in Finder, as well as allowing you to bypass waiting for apps to load simply to preview a document or video and make sure it’s the one you wanted. As a strategy it could so easily have been scuppered by lagging preview generation or sluggish thumbnails, but in fact despite the extra content being shuffled behind the scenes it’s actually considerably faster than we’re used to from Leopard. Similarly speedy is the newly fettled Preview app, and while we’re not sure whether it quite tallies with Apple’s claims of JPEG opening being 2.3x faster or PDFs loading 1.4x faster, it’s certainly a quicker viewer than before. Importantly, you can also do more with it once its opened, whether that be transferring out information – columns in PDFs are now respected by text highlighting, and in fact Preview has a far more intelligent attitude to page layout – or editing and annotating it. A new annotation toolbar may not sound like much, but it shaves seconds off diving through the Tools menu when you’re marking up a file.

Safari 4

Snow Leopard’s browser is the one part of the upgrade where we’re having some deja-vu, and that’s because Safari 4 has been available in beta form since February and as a full release since June. What’s different is that it’s native 64-bit now, which adds up to an instant speed boost. Apple quote 50-percent faster JavaScript performance in Safari 4 on a Snow Leopard system, and while it’s tough to measure that sort of improvement in normal use we did find that sites loaded more quickly and threw up fewer JavaScript errors than we’ve seen previously.

Otherwise it’s the same Safari 4 that you likely know from before, with Top Sites automatic thumbnail previews based on frequency of visits, full history search with Cover Flow browsing, and a multifunction address bar which offers search results, bookmarks and history entries. Apple also quote fewer crashes thanks to plug-ins being kept separate from the core Safari program though, as with any current browser we’ve played with, heavy use can still result in an unexpected shut-down. Still, Safari 4 does a decent job of then reopening lost tabs – properly shared across whichever windows held them – once you restart.

Exchange

As Apple didn’t shy from pointing out at their last WWDC keynote, Exchange might be a Microsoft creation but with the advent of Snow Leopard it’s only OS X that includes support for the enterprise functionality out of the box. Mail, iCal and the Mac Address Book have all been upgraded to support Exchange, which for the uninitiated is Microsoft’s hosted messaging, calendar and contacts system that’s commonly used by businesses. The additions mean that features like calendar invitations, synchronized notes and tasks, Global Address Lists and automatic sync of messages, contacts and appointments are all integrated with Snow Leopard’s standard application set, rather than demanding you buy specific software.

Setup proved straightforward, with Snow Leopard supporting Autodiscovery for those Exchange Server 2007 systems that have it enabled. The general look of Mail and iCal is unchanged, they simply now integrate Exchange information alongside personal accounts; calendars, for interest, can be shown altogether or individually, while Exchange shows up as a new entry under Mail’s Inbox heading. Notes and tasks are also handled in Mail, as are server folders, and of course Spotlight searches and Quick Look previews work just as well on Exchange messages as they do on personal ones. The Address Book retains its simplistic three-column layout, only with Exchange listed as a new group; you’re also able to create custom address groups, which are then synchronized back to the server.

Beyond that, it works just as you’d expect from an Exchange system, and it leaves us wondering exactly what sort of market Microsoft Outlook might arrive to when it launches in late 2010. The combination of Mail, iCal and Address Book – not to mention their integration with OS X – makes the extra functionality Outlook provides a tough sell, though we imagine most users will acquire it as part of a full Office installation rather than as a standalone product. Still, there’s now no reason why third party applications are required merely to clinch Exchange compatibility.

64-bit

The switch to 64-bit in Snow Leopard has prompted no small amount of confusion, with some naively suggesting that it means existing 32-bit applications won’t be compatible with the new update. To best understand how the changes impact on software, you need to understand how OS X Leopard managed memory: it had a 32-bit system, application library, KEXT and extensions, but supported the 64-bit UNIX subset. It also used Physical Address Extensions (PAE), so as to get around 32-bit systems limit to no more than 4GB of RAM and instead allow the system as a whole to address up to 32GB. However individual applications are only able to access up to 4GB at a time using PAE.

In Snow Leopard, more of the OS layers are natively 64-bit than before. It has both 32- and 64-bit application libraries, together with a 64-bit system, kernel, KEXT and drivers. While not all the drivers out there are 64-bit compatible as yet, Apple have worked hard with Snow Leopard to add in sufficient 32-bit backward compatibility so as not to fall foul of the same issues that plagued Microsoft’s Windows XP 64-bit on its launch. Development tools for creating 64-bit drivers have been available for years, which Apple hope will mean that only a tiny subset of drivers will be unavailable when Snow Leopard first installs. They’ve also been more upfront about that fact than, say, Microsoft’s 64-bit OSes are during an upgrade: OS X 10.6 presents you with a list of any incompatible hardware or applications (whether through lacking drivers or by virtue of being known to cause errors) when you kick off the install.

Now you could argue that Apple have an easier time of it, given that Microsoft are dealing with dozens of big-name PC builders and thousands of smaller outfits, whereas the Cupertino driver team have a much tighter rein on the hardware of each Mac system that goes out the door. For the end-user, though, the politics of the situation aren’t generally of interest: like with Safari 4′s speed boost, the takeaway impression is how well the platform performs, at least in terms of the native applications that Apple provides. Finder, Mail, Safari, iCal and iChat are all built with 64-bit code, like all the major system apps in Snow Leopard, but that’s not to say your favorite third-party application will be ready to take advantage of 64-bit.

Grand Central Dispatch and OpenCL

Snow Leopard natively supports a further two elements which promise improved performance, one that better handles the multi-core processors currently available and continuing to reach the market, and another which unlocks existing hardware for a computing boost. The former is Grand Central Dispatch (GCD), and like its station namesake suggests, it’s all about handling multiple simultaneous events. Rather than leaving thread management to individual applications, which can result in either thread-hungry software (which refuses to let go of threads, even when no longer in use) or software ill-designed to take advantage of modern processors, GCD puts control directly at OS level.

By making it a common element across the platform, Apple is encouraging developers to produce not only simpler code but code that takes better advantage of what modern processors have to offer. In addition, a single application no longer requires optimization to run at its best on, say, both a high-end Mac Pro workstation and a less-powerful MacBook Air. Meanwhile other applications benefit because no one single program is allowed to monopolize and retain all of the system’s resources: GCD promises to reclaim them and continue sharing them out as needed.

As for unlocking your existing hardware, that’s the job of OpenCL. Based on the principle that the latest GPUs found in notebook and desktop video cards are capable of much more than mere video processing, general purpose compuation that has now been adopted by AMD, Intel, NVIDIA and others, and which allows Snow Leopard to take advantage of processing capability present in the GPU. In compatible applications – which, as Apple point out, only need to be tweaked so that their most performance-intensive elements support OpenCL – Snow Leopard can offset some of the CPU’s load onto the GPU, and speed up tasks overall.

Performance

Native 64-bit support, GCD and OpenCL certainly promise a lot on the page, but Snow Leopard in its fledgling form only partially delivers. The issue is not what Apple have achieved but what’s left for their software partners to now produce: versions of their applications which take advantage of the 64-bit environment and the benefits of OpenCL. Of Apple’s own quoted performance boosts – the 2x faster wake from sleep, 1.8x faster PDF icon refresh, 1.8x Snow Leopard initial backup, 2x mail performance and 2.3x faster JPEG opening – it’s only really the PDF icon refreshes and the initial Time Machine backup that were notably different.

This is, we feel, one of those incremental speed increases that are good for a system but goes relatively unnoticed in the longer term. We’re never going to argue with faster, better-optimized code, but nor do we see anybody sitting marveling at the speed at which Snow Leopard now runs. Heavy-duty machines with masses of RAM and users doing system-intensive crunching – such as media editing or 3D graphics – will eventually be a different story, but they’ll need applications coded especially to take advantage of the new systems. As it stands, Snow Leopard has plenty of promise, but anybody expecting their machine to run twice as fast after installing it – something, to be fair, Apple never promised – will go away disappointed.

Core Location and iChat

iPhone and iPod touch users will already be familiar with Core Location, or at least the benefits of it, using the position of known WiFi hotspots to triangulate the current position of your Snow Leopard system. As on the iPhone, Core Location works best – or at least is at its most accurate – in built-up, metropolitan areas where there are plenty of hotspots from which to work. Snow Leopard makes only minor use of Core Location – automatically changing time zones is its most obvious application in the update – leaving the true implementations up to third-party developers. It remains to be seen whether location-awareness will be as big a hit on notebooks as it is growing to be on mobile devices.

Meanwhile iChat, Apple’s faithful instant messaging and video chat client, sees an update in Snow Leopard that aims to reduce router incompatibilities. It also increases the maximum resolution in iChat Theater – to 640 x 480 – while simultaneously cutting the bandwidth requirement by a third. While that might sound like an unnecessary effort when broadband speeds continue to increase, it did mean we were able to hold high-resolution, stable and pretty much artifact-free video calls while on a cellular 3G connection. We were even able to hold similar conversations via an EDGE connection, though we had best results when scaling down the resolution somewhat.

QuickTime X and HTTP Streaming

With Snow Leopard comes QuickTime X, and a further blurring of the lines between content consumption and content production. Like the iPhone 3GS’ basic video editing tools, now QuickTime X offers the ability to trim footage by dragging the ends of the thumbnail timeline into place. As we said in our iPhone 3GS review, this isn’t going to supplant any serious editing from taking place – there’s no way to splice clips together, nor slice content from the middle of the footage – but it’s welcome flexibility when you merely want to get a clip trimmed and emailed as soon as possible. With that in mind, QuickTime X’s “Share” button – which swims into view with the rest of the nicely animated control bar – now offers one-click uploads to MobileMe and YouTube, together with preset conversions to iPod, iPhone and Apple TV-friendly formats. We only wish Apple had added the ability to introduce your own preset settings, for those users who lack an Apple PMP in their pocket.

QuickTime X also supports the standard HTTP Streaming protocols, a new system that promises to not only accommodate various data rates but also bypass the sort of firewall or proxy server issues that can affect other streaming systems. It works by cutting the stream into a number of small HTTP downloads, organized by an initial M3U playlist; at any one time there are multiple streams encoded at different bitrates, to suit differing speeds of connections. It’s a clever system, but so far a fledgling one: Apple intend to propose it as a new internet standard for streaming media, but they’re only at the early stages so right now it’s very much a work in progress.

Finally, Apple have included a screen recording tool in QuickTime X, that allows you to record on-screen activity to create tutorial videos or the like. Alternatively, it can be flipped to record audio or video from a Mac’s webcam and microphone. These features work well, but we would have liked a straightforward way to annotate such clips with text and other graphics, as commercial screen recording apps often offer.

Universal Access

Usability tools for those with disabilities tend to start and end with text-to-speech, large fonts or magnifiers, so it’s to Apple’s credit that they’ve worked on bringing universal access up to speed with the other functionality Snow Leopard offers. Key among these is the latest version of VoiceOver, which is now coupled with the large trackpad on recent MacBooks to speed up navigation and interaction.

The trackpad now represents the active window on-screen, and tapping it prompts Snow Leopard to vocalize the control or feature at that point; alternatively you can scrub across the window with your finger, and hear the items listed as you cover them. Touching a single point jumps to the item at that point in the active window, while flicking with a single finger shifts between items sequentially. VoiceOver also works in Safari 4, reading out webpages together with creating on-the-fly spoken summaries that highlight what links, tables and other elements are on the page. Finally there’s also native support for over 40 models of Braille display, including those that connect via Bluetooth, and the ability to link up to multiple Braille displays at once.

VoiceOver is not exactly quick if you’re used to seeing your display, but compared to standard text-to-speech systems it’s a real boon. What makes the difference is the control over what’s verbalized, putting the user at the helm of the interaction rather than forcing them to wait until the computer gets to the area of interest. We’re nowhere near qualified to fully cover Snow Leopard’s usability advances – nor judge them – but there’s plenty here which shows promise.

File Quarantine technology

Snow Leopard enhanced the “File Quarantine” technology for detecting malware that was initially introduced in Mac OS X Tiger and later added into Leopard. File Quarantine works with files that have been downloaded using Safari, iChat and Mail and puts up an alert on their first use.

In Snow Leopard a mechanism was added to check for known malware signatures and display a user alert dialog. In these cases, rather than just advising the user that the file is an application, Snow Leopard provides a warning that the file contains known malware and suggests that the user move it to the Trash. For example, File Quarantine will detect application containing malware automatically. This is another example of the refinements users will find in Snow Leopard. Signatures of new malware will get updated via Mac OS X’s software update technology preventing the potential spread of known malware.

Also, since Safari 3.2, Safari checks to see if a site you are visiting is known to be fraudulent site distributing malware or is known to be a phishing site, and then warns you if it is.

Other features

As with any software update there are various minor changes to be discovered, and like Snow Leopard’s more obvious evolutionary difference the common theme is streamlining everyday use. There’s the ability to change Spotlight search boxes, for instance, to default to your current folder or the most recent search location, and the Services menu is clearer now that it only shows those options contextually linked to the opened app or selected content. Printer drivers now automatically update, both upon initial installation and then periodically after, and there’s now scanner integration with Preview. One of the smallest changes could save some of the most frustration, too, now that Ejecting discs and external drives has not only been made more stable but now tells you what app might be preventing their proper removal.

Snow Leopard gets more energy efficient when it comes to file sharing, too, with a new version of Apple’s Bonjour service discovery protocol that takes advantage of Airport Extreme or Time Capsule hardware you may have. Rather than keeping a computer turned on permanently, in the vague expectation of perhaps needing a file shared on it, the Apple networking hardware can use Bonjour to wake the Mac whenever a file is actually needed, sending it back to sleep afterward.

Another useful feature is “text substitution”, something which many are familiar with from word processors like Microsoft Word, but that have now been integrated system-wide in Snow Leopard. At its most basic, text substitution automatically reformats symbols such as the copyright ‘c’ or fraction characters; however it’s also user-customizable, so that you can have your initials auto-expand to your full name, for instance, or oft-repeated phrases triggered by a certain shorthand code. In collaboration with the integrated spell-check and Snow Leopard’s new thesaurus – the Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus, 2nd Edition – it turns OS X’s basic TextEditor into a surprisingly proficient (and of course free) word processor that could well be sufficient for undemanding users.

Value

As we mentioned under installation, Snow Leopard not only adds new features but also frees up hard-drive space in the process, loosing around 7GB according to Apple’s calculations that previously Leopard demanded. Now, 7GB of extra space is unlikely to dissuade those who were already planning a hard-drive upgrade, but if you’re using a MacBook Air with a 64GB SSD then you’ve just freed up a ten-percent chunk of your entire capacity.

There’s also a lot to be said for an upgrade that costs just $29 ($49 for a five-machine “Family Pack”, or as part of the $169 “Mac Box Set” which also includes iLife ’09 and iWork ’09, and is being targeted at OS X Tiger users), especially when you consider that Microsoft’s next significant update will be priced at considerably more. It would be naive to directly compare Snow Leopard with Windows 7 – the latter is a significant OS change, after all – but it’s a testament to OS X’s usability and functionality that, in terms of where each leaves their respective users, 10.6 is all that’s really necessary to keep the platform competitive.

To play Devil’s Advocate, you could argue that Microsoft releases its Windows updates – which Snow Leopard in some respects resembles except has more powerful technologies – free, rather than charging for them. However it’s worth considering that you’d pay more than $29 to get an Exchange-compatible email app for Leopard, or that QuickTime Pro – which QuickTime X encroaches on in more than a few areas – currently costs almost a dollar more than the update to OS X 10.6. Value is generally a tough thing to judge, given it so often depends on an individual’s attitude to money, but we think we’re safe in saying that Apple have put out a relative bargain in Snow Leopard.

In all, it’s for the larger part an evolutionary upgrade, but in the best possible way. The tech industry is so used to looking for revolutionary change that we sometimes forget that shiny new paradigms bring with them hours – or longer – of learning how to do things in the new system. In contrast, Snow Leopard demands no retraining for its headline functionality, and delivers its invisible changes with minimal day-to-day fanfare. At $29 it’s frankly a no-brain decision for OS X Leopard users; that’s why we’re calling it the bargain of the year.

Still curious about Snow Leopard? Check out what SlashGear columnist Michael Gartenberg reckons about Apple’s latest version of OS X.