Who’s the MacBook Air for?

Apple avoided the netbook market but instead made a strong play in ultraportables, phasing out its cheapest MacBook range in favor of the slimline MacBook Air line-up. The 11.6-inch model, from $999, has the humblest specifications – you have to squeeze your data into just 64GB of drive space in the cheapest unit – but a combination of Ivy Bridge processors, a standard RAM bump to 4GB in 2012, and the use of speedy flash storage not sluggish traditional hard-drives keeps things moving with alacrity. Meanwhile, the 13.3-inch version, from $1,199, offers more screen space for those willing to accommodate a little extra heft.

Already, the Air has found itself a loyal and loving audience with road warriors. Its sturdy unibody aluminum construction and light weight – along with a battery that, in 2012 form, can be coaxed into delivering Apple’s promised 7hrs from the 13-inch version – makes it ideal for anybody who spends their time on the move and in their browser or Office apps, tasks the specifications are more than capable of handling.

The fly in the ointment is graphics. Space and power constraints mean the Air is left with only Intel HD Graphics 4000 to keep the pixels crunching. You can plug in a single external display, but not two like with Apple’s more powerful – and expensive – notebooks, and if you’re looking to do any serious gaming then the lack of a discrete GPU is going to seriously hold you back.

Why should I opt for the MacBook Pro with Retina Display?

If the MacBook Air is a compromise in portability and performance to meet a price, then the MacBook Pro with Retina Display skews that balance to emphasize portability and performance at the cost of a hefty price. Starting at $2,199, you could have two Airs for the same money, though the specifications reflect that hefty step up.

The instant appeal – so important it gets a specific mention in the unwieldy name – is the Retina Display. Apple’s panel offers a total of 2880 x 1800 resolution, but according to the settings can resemble a regular MacBook Pro display but with deliciously smooth icons, graphics and text, or even replicate a 1080p panel with up to a fourfold increase in detail over your HDTV. If you work on high-res graphics in Photoshop or process Full HD video – or, indeed, if you create new iPad apps, and need to see them full-resolution in their entirety – then the Retina Display will make a significant difference to your daily use.

However, by making some decisions about what to leave out of the MacBook Pro with Retina Display, not just what to include, Apple has produced its next-generation of Pro notebooks. The optical drive is gone, with the ensuing space used to slim down the chassis as a whole and tweak the ports. There are two Thunderbolt ports now, not one, though you lose the gigabit ethernet and will need a Thuderbolt-to-Ethernet adapter ($29) if you want to get online the wired way.

More shocking – for Apple – is the concession to include both USB 3.0 and HDMI. Neither are connections that Apple showed any inclination of adopting on its notebooks, despite frequent requests. A total of two external screens can be hooked up – though neither can actually be driven at Retina Display resolution – and of course Thunderbolt can be daisy-chained for extra peripherals.

I do frequent video editing, which should I go for?

The obvious option is the Retina MacBook Pro. It has both the Intel HD Graphics 4000 of the Air and a discrete NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M GPU with 1GB of its own memory, automatically switching between the two depending on graphical load. That means plenty of power for crunching through high-definition video or, indeed, playing the odd game.

Still, if you’re a casual video editor then there’s a workaround you could consider. We know more than a few technology writers – some on the SlashGear team included – who use an Elgato Turbo.264 HD Video Encoder dongle with the MacBook Air to speed up the process of exporting HD video from iMovie and other apps. In effect an external GPU that you plug into a USB port, it can near-halve the processing time and, at $99.95, is a darn sight cheaper than stepping up from the MacBook Air to the MacBook Pro with Retina Display.

What about the regular MacBook Pro?

Apple has left MacBook Pro buyers with a choice: the new, Retina Display equipped model with its thinner chassis and extra ports, or the previous design of the Pro, with the same Ivy Bridge Core i7 options but fewer ports, a bulkier design and the inclusion of a DVD burner. If you want a 13-inch MacBook Pro then the old design is your only choice – right now there’s no 13-inch Retina model – and similarly both the 13- and 15-inch original versions are the cheaper starting points to the flagship range.

The “old school” feel isn’t limited to the optical drive, however. As well as a “regular” display – 1280 x 800 or 1440 x 900, depending on size – the storage uses an old-fashioned HDD too, from 500GB. Platter-based drives have the advantage in capacity and price, and are definitely cheaper per-gigabyte than flash storage as Apple uses in both the Air and the Pro with Retina Display, but they’re also slower and more susceptible to bumps and knocks.

In short, if you still make regular use of an optical drive, with CDs or DVDs, or if you want to store a significant quantity of data on your notebook itself (and don’t have the budget for a vast SSD) then the regular MacBook Pro is worth considering.

I’ve heard bad things about repairability…

We left out one final, very significant difference between the two MacBook Pro variants in the last section: how easy they make it to repair or replace internal components. Both the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro with Retina Display sacrifice such factors in favor of reducing bulk.

So, both has memory soldered directly to the mainboard, rather than added using a more traditional clip like the regular MacBook Pro, meaning that if you don’t opt for Apple’s offer of a RAM upgrade at point of order, you’re stuck. Similarly, the flash storage – though removable – is of a proprietary design and, even, different between Air and Pro models. Don’t expect to simply drop in a newer, bigger SSD if you have an urge for more space.

Those are the common planned upgrades; there’s also the matter of repair. In the new Pro, Apple has opted to glue down the battery packs – sandwiching in the trackpad cable in the process – and the vast majority of the components are unique to the new Retina Display model. Even that eye-catching screen itself could present a real headache should something go wrong. Apple shaved away bulk by bonding together the glass and aluminum, meaning that any breakages will probably demand the whole lid be replaced.

The questions, then, are how many people actively upgrade their notebook and how many attempt to repair it themselves. Apple will undoubtedly be watching the buying patterns for the old and new designs very closely, to see what compromises the public is willing to make.

I just want a cheap Mac notebook, which is best?

If price is your sole guiding star, and you’re insisting on an Apple logo on your new notebook, the MacBook Air is the cheapest step onto the ladder. it’s priced from $999 for the 11.6-inch model; the 13-inch starts at $1,199, which is coincidentally the same as the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro (the last-gen design with an optical drive, not a new Retina Display version).

Deciding between those two depends on what you plan on doing with your laptop and how much data you think you’ll be saving on it. The Air has a slower, 1.8GHz processor, versus the 2.5GHz Core i5 in the Pro; the Air also gets a 128GB SSD, faster but smaller than the 500GB traditional hard-drive in the Pro. Both have 4GB of memory and Intel HD Graphics 4000, along with a battery rated for up to 7hrs. The Air is slimmer, lighter and more portable, while the Pro has the benefit of a built-in optical drive.

Of course, it’s also worth considering Apple’s refurbished MacBook range, available direct through the company’s online store. Offers there vary according to what stock Apple has on hand – all wiped clean, tided up and sold with a warranty – but at time of writing there are 11.6-inch 2011 MacBook Air models available from $759 and 13.3-inch 2011 MacBook Pro models from $929. They’re roughly 15-percent savings from list prices.

Wrap-up

If it’s a case of “needs” not “wants” then, for most users, the MacBook Air will be more than sufficient to do all they ask from a computer. The ultraportable has set the benchmark by which rivals are judged, and though we’d love some extra graphical grunt, the Ivy Bridge upgrade has kept the Air ticking along nicely for most of the general use-cases, albeit perhaps with some well-considered accessories.

Tech purchases don’t just come down to pure need, however, and there’s little denying the MacBook Pro with Retina Display’s capacity to inspire lust and admiration. It’s an expensive indulgence but, if you’re a video or photo editing pro, then there’s undoubtedly huge benefits in getting more detail on your screen at any one time. It’s also worth noting that, if you spec out the ostensibly cheaper last-gen design MacBook Pro to the same memory and storage, it’s actually several hundred dollars more than its Retina Display cousin.

If you can afford it – and you can accept that you’re unlikely to be tinkering under the hood any time soon – then the Retina Pro is a hugely potent machine with plenty of strengths. We’ve laid them all out, along with benchmarks, in the full SlashGear review. For the rest of us, the 2012 MacBook Air is a viable alternative while we wait for Apple to broaden its Retina applications.

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

Have a peek below at the video and don’t forget to keep your audio on – there’s no way in heck you’re going to be able to keep all of this information packed in your mind with visuals alone. Then for those of you who actually do want to go a bit more in-depth, we’ve got so much coverage of this event – and the devices it revealed – that you’re going to flip your lid, starting with the Apple WWDC 2012 Keynote Round-Up and fabulous MacBook Pro 2012 15-inch with Retina Display Hands-on – fresh out of the box!

From here you’re going to want to hit up our massive [WWDC 2012 portal] and see the timeline below for additional reactions and in-event updates as they came down this week. Let us know if you prefer to have the news strewn out for you as it was in the full-length WWDC 2012 Keynote video or if you’d rather have the rapid-fire action that you see above. We enjoy both!

Passbook

Outside of Apple’s own version of Maps, the app known as Passbook is the one trump card, so to speak, that Apple will be able to tout for this new system over Android. What it consists of is basically a wallet containing many (and eventually nearly all, we can suppose), of your gift cards, airplane tickets, movie passes, and more. Inside this one central location you’ll find every scannable code you’ll need to get trough your day – Starbucks of course jumped right in on this situation from the start as well.

Google currently has just as many solutions for this situation as any smart device should be expected to, but with Apple taking command of this virtual wallet situation with a simplified interface and several big-name groups onboard right from the start, the market will adapt quickly. Expect your wallet to be a whole lot lighter soon – in a good way!

Google’s current wallet situation requires NFC to work, and because NFC is not a system that’s been widely adopted yet in any sense of the word, you can expect Passbook to be much more of a success right out of the box than Google Wallet‘s NFC-based functions have been since their inception.

Shared Photo Streams

It appears that Apple has revealed a bit of functionality that, on the surface, seems pretty cool: tap a photo in your Photo Stream, tap the Share button, and select your best buddies who also have Apple devices to share that photo with. This is called Shared Photo Streams, and Android users know it to be such a simple ability that it’s basically unfathomable that Apple products didn’t have it built-in from the start. On the other hand, there is a perfectly unique ability that both operating systems haven’t quite latched on to yet.

That ability is one that includes a simplified syncing of albums between different users. What Shared Photo Streams should be, and what we’re sure many people watching in the audience this week at WWDC 2012 thought it was, was a way for users to take photos and have those photos show up on friends’ devices automatically. While we’ve got the ability to sync albums between devices now, all with the same account of course, we’ve not yet seen a way to allow friends to see the same album built-in to an Android or an iOS device.

Accessibility and Guided Access

In iOS 6 comes Guided Access, a function which allows users to cut off access to large portions of a device while they’re allowing another user to access it. This means that if you’ve got a game, for instance, that your little cousin wants to play on your iPad and you don’t want him to get at anything other than the game, you can work with Guided Access to keep him out. Turn your hardware buttons off, turn your motion control off, turn your touch off – probably you won’t want to do all three at once, but still – that’s powerful.

Check out the rest of our WWDC 2012 keynote news in our gigantic WWDC 2012 keynote round-up, and hit the Timeline below to continue your iOS 6 adventures as well!

What Notification Center does is to take every alert, update, and message you might be getting in all of your preferred applications and ties them all together in one location. This center for notifications exists as a list as well as a set of pop-ups which disappear after a short set of seconds after they’ve been initiated. Users working with OS X Lion already have some of this functionality in place now, with only the option to close the Notification bubble right now rather than having it able to be closed or Shown.

Each Notification bubble is able to preview the content it’s alerting you about, this including for example: a Twitter mention, a software update, or an email. Your Notification Center list appears with a title for each application and an X in the corner of that title to get rid of all updates at once. If you’ve got no Notifications, you’ve got no Notification Center at all! Clicking a Notification here from your list will bring you to the application it originated from.

You can arrange your Notification Center in whatever order you want it to appear, and you can choose which applications give you Notifications and which do not. A simple swipe from right to left on your trackpad will bring you to your Notification Center, with the opposite gesture pushing the list away once more. Simple stuff!

Check out the Timeline below to see more OS X Mountain Lion updates from this week’s keynote at WWDC 2012, and get prepared for the update soon!

Apple’s forte in the past few years has been the close integration of its physical devices and the way users interact with them, the consistency of iOS and OS X. While Android, Windows Mobile, and Windows all spread their loyalty across multiple OEMs, Apple’s range is a members-only club of which only the Cupertino firm itself has access.

Sure, that can be limiting if the devices on offer don’t quite appeal to you – if you want a large Android phone and none of HTC’s appeal, then Samsung, Motorola or plenty of others will likely have something instead; if you want a bigger iPhone then it’s tough luck – but Apple’s blockbuster last few quarters and surging sales numbers would seem to suggest it’s not struggling to find buyers. Not for nothing is the iPhone, iPad and MacBook the de-facto suggestion among many tech aficionados when asked to recommend a straightforward device for a less-geeky friend or family member. “It just works” may be a cliche – and sure, there are still the occasional crashes and glitches – but the consistency makes for a straightforward learning curve for new users.

So what of WWDC 2012? A key theme this year was independence, though nobody at Apple refered to it specifically. Just as the rumors suggested, Apple further cut its dependencies on Google in the shape of a homegrown Google Maps alternative; the search giant has made great strides with Android, and the feeling inside Apple seems to be that giving it any greater footprint on the iPhone is an unnecessary accommodation.

Meanwhile, Facebook support has been integrated heavily within iOS 6, an olive branch to the social network after Apple picked Twitter for its iOS 5 social push. Make no mistake, though, this is Facebook integration on Apple’s terms, and Mark Zuckerberg may well find that in supplanting the functionality of the Facebook iOS app with native methods, Apple in fact wrests back some of the control around how phone and social site play together.

Hardware independence is a little trickier: Apple’s software engineers can cook up new code far easier than they can construct, outfit and productively run a semiconductor fab to replace that of Samsung, for instance. It’ll take a few more generations before Apple is in a position to shed its excess reliance on its Korean arch-rival. You can bet that plans for that are on the long-term roadmap, though – Apple already designs its ARM-based chips, after all – and the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display shows Apple at its finest: cherry-picking the best and combining it into a device that makes rival notebooks look frankly archaic.

Even with baby steps on that journey, though, the tight structure of Apple’s software ecosystem – complete with legions of developers, a tiny subset at WWDC this week, all operating for the most part happily within the company’s rules and guidelines – gives it no small strength in an increasingly crowded and competitive marketplace. That’s an enviable position to be in, and one which presents a considerable challenge to Microsoft, Google and others moving forward.

Catch up with all the Apple news from WWDC at our Apple Hub

Other than that, details really are scarce. TomTom put out a simple two sentence press release, saying only that the company “ has signed a global agreement with Apple for maps and related information,” and that “No further details of the agreement will be provided.” It seems that Apple doesn’t want its new partner saying too much about exactly what has been licensed.

If you missed all the excitement yesterday, Apple completely overhauled and redesigned the Maps application. Google’s services are no longer required, with 3D mapping handled by Apple’s acquisition of C3 Technologies. Turn-by-turn navigation has also made the grade, and local searches can also be performed. Everything can be controlled either manually or by using Siri, giving you a hands-free experience when driving. Make sure to check out all the details from yesterday’s WWDC right here.

Featured: So, all of our featured stories today were related to this week’s major Apple show. Here’s a great wrap of the day’s news – Apple WWDC 2012 keynote round-up. And we go hands-on and eyes-on with a couple of the major products we saw today. First up – Macbook Pro 2012 15-inch with Retina Display hands-on. And then there’s this – Next-gen Macbook Pro with Retina eyes-on.

More WWDC Stuff: Yes, it’s true. We are all out for Apple’s major annual trade show today. It’s most of our coverage today. So let’s get right to it – Mac Pro 2012 gets stealth update. And moving on, for something not hardware related, we have this – Passbook app revealed at WWDC 2012. And finally, we’ll look at one final thing from this show. There’s much more, but here is one of the more interesting things we found – iOS 6 adds photo stream sharing feature.

[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!

iOS 6

First for you mobile-minded folk out there, it’s time to get real about the next version of Apple’s mobile operating system iOS 6. This upgrade is available for developers today but will be coming later this summer for everyday average users. You’ll find Guided Access to be one of the brand new abilities of iOS 6 with UI-disabling features coming with it. Another new app is Passbook, complete with your cards and tickets for movies, airplanes, coffee shops, and more.

You’ll be doing a whole lot more Photo Stream sharing with iOS 6 as well as FaceTime over cellular on the fly! Of course Apple wouldn’t have started any of this without first telling us about how amazing iOS 5 has been and how widely it’s been adopted thus far – the same goes for the iTunes App Store – explosive!

Facebook Integration

Perhaps one of the most important distinctions iOS 6 will have from its predecessors is the fact that it has deep Facebook integration. This integration will spill over to OS X Mountain Lion as well, but it’ll be extremely noticeable here in the mobile operating system world first and foremost.

Apple Maps

Apple has truly come on in a big way with their Google-Maps-ending Apple Maps software which includes turn-by-turn navigation, 3D viewing of buildings, and a whole lot more. This will without a doubt give Google a run for its money – even if Google did make a valiant pre-release effort this past week.

Siri

The personal assistant known as Siri will be coming to several new countries around the world and will also be pushed to the iPad 3, aka the iPad 3rd Gen with Retina display. Siri will also be upgraded to include several new features including sports scores very soon.

MacBook Air

The MacBook Air lineup has been refreshed with 3rd Generation Intel Core processors, both of them i5 or i7 Ivy Bridge. This upgrade also has you gaining a USB 3.0 port (which of course is also backwards-compatible with USB 2.0), a Facetime camera with a new 720p quality to it, and 8GB of RAM inside with 512GB of flash storage. These ultra-thin, ultra-light models will continue to be the most portable notebooks in the Apple range.

MacBook Pro 2012 refresh

Keep it all straight and notice this: there is a MacBook Pro 2012 refresh lineup as well as a brand new MacBook Pro model with Retina Display. We’ll go ahead and call this refresh the “classic” MacBook Pro while the Retina version is one section down. This Classic refresh includes Intel Ivy Bridge processors, for starters, keeping the optical drive that was rumored to be dropped, and comes in at a price that’s slightly cheaper than the Retina model as well: 13-inch for $1,199 or 15-inch for $1,799.

New MacBook Pro with Retina display

The New MacBook Pro with Retina display brings not only a high-definition display that’s to be envied by all your past-generation MacBooks, but upgraded hardware all around as well. There are new air vents at the sides of this device, there’s a new thinner “MagSafe 2″ port for power, and you’ve got both a thinner and lighter notebook than any MacBook Pro before. It can even roll out with Diablo III with no trouble at all, imagine that! This notebook sits between the MacBook Pro 2012 refresh and the MacBook Air for thickness and offers a slightly more powerful option for those of you looking for the sweetest notebook on the block.

We’ve had our own eyes-on look at the Next-Gen MacBook Pro with Retina quality display under a glass case thus far and will see it much closer up soon enough.

Meanwhile you can order this notebook starting today and starting at $2199 – with upgraded models adding on several hundred dollars to that price.

OS X Mountain Lion software and Applications

While there weren’t too many things in OS X Mountain Lion today that we hadn’t seen before in our own hands-on preview, we did see a swath of new options that will have the whole hardware range looking mighty good when they’re upgraded this summer. This upgrade will include AirPlay Mirroring and 1080p streaming to TV as well as integration with the thus-far mobile-only Game Center ecosystem.

For your web browsing needs you’ll be checking out the brand new Safari complete with Unified Search, iCloud Tabs, and Tab View as well. The application and software integration known as Power Nap was revealed as an always-active bit of silent-doer for tasks you’d otherwise have to do while your computer is fully awake.

Apple has also brought on a tiny bit of Siri (though it’s not quite called that yet) to OS X Mountain Lion with Dictation and iCloud integration will be larger than ever, and not just in your browser window this time around.

You’ll be able to pick up Mountain Lion for just $19.99 USD in July if you feel so inclined – and if you’ve purchased one of the devices revealed today, you’ll be getting the upgrade for free – 200 features and counting, so they say!

After-event Updates

After the keynote was over, it became apparent that several news bits did not make the big event cut. The first of these was the dropping of Apple’s 17-inch MacBook Pro from the big lineup. Next you’ll find the Apple AirPort Express update to be bringing a new form factor and set of abilities. The iPad has gotten a new iPad Smart Case and the mighty mighty desktop hero Mac Pro has been pushed up the hill incrementally as well.

Stay tuned to our WWDC 2012 portal for all the news as it continues to pop up through the day and through the week as well – Apple updates galore!

For starters you’ll want to check out our WWDC 2012 Portal for full coverage, then if you must head to Apple.com and watch their keynote video you can do that too. The video is where you can relive all the iOS 6, OS X, and Siri magic as it was announced earlier today.

While a large part of the event was all about hardware. Specifically the amazing new Next-Gen MacBook Pro Retina, they had tons and tons of iOS 6 features to show off — around 200 are new but they only showed a few. Siri went international, and even arrived for the iPad. The MBP 17-inch and Google Maps both got axed by Apple, and we have full wrap-ups coming soon. Again, you can watch the entire WWDC 2012 keynote video online now by clicking here. Stop by our official Apple Hub to get your information and technology overload. Will you be buying the new MacBook Pro?

This updated device brings on a complete hardware redesign and allows the AirPort Express simultaneous dual-band Wi-fi. It looks one whole heck of a lot like the Mac Mini or the Apple TV now, and works with the same frequencies it had before, 2.4GHz and 5GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi, but can now work with both at the same time. Also this device works with two ethernet ports for wired connections and works with the same USB 2.0 and 3.5mm headphone jack as in previous models.

This refresh of the AirPort Express will cost you the same amount as previous versions have at $99 and is available from the Apple Store online right this second. Grab it immediately, and check the rest of our WWDC 2012 coverage through our giant WWDC 2012 portal all week long!

Apple has very quickly and quietly removed their large 17-inch model from the shelves and from here on out will only be offering the Pro in 13 and 15-inch flavors. What isn’t to love about the new MBP though right? It’s thinner, lighter, faster, stronger, higher resolution, and has some impressive graphics under the hood with the new NVIDIA GT650M GPU.

Apple’s Next-Gen MacBook Pro is your best option, and you can see our eyes-on coverage here, or video below. With a retina-powered 2880 x 1800 15.4-inch screen do you really need anything bigger? If so just grab one of those 30-inch Cinema Displays. While we aren’t surprised by this move, or particularly sad, it is interesting to see one of the first to offer the 17-inch widescreen option leave it behind so quick.

For more details on the Next-Gen MacBook Pro enjoy the eyes-on video below, then head to our Apple Portal for full coverage.

[via Apple]

If you order this case online you’ll get a free laser engraving, and should you feel the need to replace the Smart Cover you’ve got now, you’ll be glad to know that the colors are exactly the same shades they are currently. This case not only protects the back of your device, it’s also extremely thin so as to allow full access for all of your ports and your camera, and you’ve got the Apple showing through on the back as well.

This case will be available from the Apple online store immediately if now soon and comes in only one configuration – you won’t have to specify if you’ve got an iPad 2 or 3 for this purchase. Check out the rest of our Apple WWDC 2012 updates throughout the day through our gigantic WWDC 2012 portal and take a peek at one massive wave of Apple goodness!

The Mac Pro 2012 will have these processors updated over the two 6-core 2.93GHz Intel Xeon X5670 processors it has been working with for a couple of years and will begin at just $2,499 from the Apple Store today. This version has a 3.2GHz single quad-core Intel Xeon W3565 processor, while upgrades can go up several thousand dollars and can bring two Westmere-EP E5645 chips at 2.4GHz. This upgrade was certainly not mentioned in the main chute this week as it’s certainly not the jump that the MacBook Pro Retina display upgrade nor is it on-par with the software magic shown in iOS 6.

What it does present, on the other hand, is a tower that’s certainly powerful in its own right even though it’s not had a real significant upgrade for a couple of years. Head to the Apple Store today to pick up the new model and check out the rest of our WWDC 2012 news through our giant WWDC 2012 portal!

Apple showed us a lot today. From the all new Siri, Safari improvements, their new maps (without Google’s help), and even accessibility options like guided access.. Below you’ll find plenty of details on all of that and more. From the first version in 2007 to today iOS has seen significant changes and tons of new features with every iteration. The picture below shows the progress as it has grown. They detail everything over at Apple.com/ios6.

Today while on stage at WWDC 2012 Apple announced that iOS 6 will be available for the iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Apple TV later this fall, and that developers can get in on all the juicy new improvements starting today — right this minute with their iOS 6 developer preview, as well as the Safari 6 preview too. The deep integration of Facebook and all new Siri features are a few of my favorites but you can learn more about all of them from the links below, or head to our Apple Hub for everything else.

On top of that, there’s tight traffic integration, which will show live views of traffic jams and incidents. In addition to that, there’s a big new feature: turn-by-turn navigation, one that iOS has been sorely missing ever since Google first introduced the free function on Android. Not only that, but the app will intelligently work out the best route for you depending on traffic conditions, even while you’re still driving. You simply tap a button to map out the route, and the info is pulled down from Apple’s servers and applied automatically. Everything can be controlled from the lockscreen too.

Apple has also tied the navigation system into Siri, so you can the voice assistant for directions and have a full route laid out for you without performing additional taps. Ask Siri if there’s a gas station along the route, or how long there is left on the trip, and she’ll reply accordingly. Another big feature that Apple has shown off is “Flyover”, very similar to what Google showed off in the form of 3D maps and again confirming the rumors. Apple is building 3D models of buildings and landscapes, allowing users to view them in a vector-based mode that renders in real-time.

The new Maps app will be included for free with iOS 6 when it’s made available this Fall.

In a demonstration of the application, one instance showed a baseball game ticket, another showed a cash card for Starbucks. Another showed a remaining balance for your Apple Store account, while another showed off an Amtrak ticket. This application has your device pulling up each individual brand name ticket when you move nearby one of those stores or locations, all of this very location-based.

“The best way to get all of your passes and tickets together in one place.” – Apple on Passbook

This application will certainly be appearing with iOS 6 and will be on the next iPhone as well as very possibly the current legacy devices as well. As of now it appears that Passbook will only be on the iPhone, but we’ll see! Stick around all day for more Apple WWDC 2012 news through our WWDC 2012 portal as well as our life feed!

The new feature will show up as an additional tab in the Photos app. You simply select the the new cloud tab and choose whatever photos you want to share and who you’d want to share them with. You can also edit the share settings afterwards through the Photo app.

Your friends can comment on the photos directly within Photo Stream. The photos can also be viewed via iPhoto and Aperture, as well as on Apple TV and on Windows.

Siri is now really big on sports, restaurants, and movies. You can ask Siri to pull up sports scores, schedules, as well as summary sheets on each player. Siri has also expanded its functionality in restaurant searches. It now brings up Yelp reviews and integrates OpenTable so that you can easily book a table after you’ve found the restaurant you want.

Siri also now integrates Rotten Tomatoes reviews and access to trailers when you do movie inquiries and also shows time listings and whether they are in 3D. Additionally, Siri can now open apps.

Previously, anyone wishing to place FaceTime calls over 3G had to do so either via WIFi hotspot or using jailbreak tweaks, but it looks like the rumors have panned out. Anyone will be able to make FaceTime calls over 3G networks on any carrier without any issues, and if you have an iPad that means FaceTime over 4G too.

Naturally, the service does use a sizable chunk of bandwidth in order to send video and audio to the receiving party, so it could eat into your limited data plan quite quickly. Still, it’s nice to have the option and choose when to use it rather than not have it all. FaceTime over cellular connections will be available with iOS 6 when it’s made available soon.

Siri will be doing a lot more for users in the coming weeks. Apple briefly teased an eye-free user experience in-car with multiple partners from GM, Audi and more but for now we’ll get into the daily stuff. Apple has partnered with Yelp and Rotten Tomatoes, and will even be able to alert you on the score of the NBA Finals or your favorite sport. With game score updates, highlights, notifications and more this will truly become an assistant we all want.

Siri will also finally be going international. For those that have been patiently waiting its arrival we are happy to announce it will be available with iOS 6. The picture from the gallery below should give you an idea on where to expect Siri in the coming months. With support for English, Italian, Mandarin for Taiwan, Cantonese for Hong Kong, Mandarin and Cantonese for Mainland China, plus Korean for Korea they’ve truly gone full stream. It’s safe to say Siri is no longer in beta with iOS 6.

We have plenty more details coming up shortly regarding Siri, including the fact that you can now launch apps with ease — like: Play “Temple Run” or Open “Twitter”, even send tweets while driving and more. Stay tuned and be sure to follow our liveblog!

In addition to the tight OS integration, Apple has added Facebook support for Siri. By opening up the relevant APIs in iOS 6, any app found in the App Store can also integrate with Facebook seamlessly so users can update without having to jump into a separate app. You’ll also be able to “Like” apps and see what apps your friends like too.

Facebook integration is a pretty major feature, one that you’ll be able to look forward to when iOS 6 is made available in the near future. Be prepared for an onslaught of apps and new uses for the integration.

Next Apple spoke on how 140 million iMessage users existed, and how 1 billion messages were sent every single day. Out of the top 100 social apps, Apple noted that they had 84 of them working with Notification Center, and that 7 billion notifications were being sent per day. The Game Center was shown to have 130 million accounts with 67 of the top 100 games adopting it. Twitter showed 10 billion tweets inside iOS 5 alone.

This has all lead to the next big gun: iOS 6 for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. Stick around as we continue our liveblog as well as our WWDC 2012 portal all day long! Check out our live feed at http://live.slashgear.com/ and stay tuned!

Mountain Lion is said to bring over 1,700 new APIs, including new iCloud features, Dictation support, Game Center, and a new AirPlay Mirroring mode. In addition, Power Nap will help update all your Macs at night when they’re not being used.

A new Safari is also included, which is said to sport faster JavaScript and browser benchmarks scores than any other shipping browser, and there’s a new sharing feature which makes transferring files all the more easier. Again, all new Macs will get a free update to Mountain Lion, and the update will cost $19.99 for everyone else.

But besides streaming audio and video content from your Mac to other AirPlay-enabled devices, the introduction of Game Center on OS X Mountain Lion, also means that games can be streamed or mirrored. With AirPlay and Game Center now integrated into the Mac, users can play against other Mac users or even iPhone and iPad users.

With this integration, Apple can push more multiplayer games that work across both OS X and iOS so that users can play against each other whether they’re on a Mac computer, an iPhone, or an iPad. Apple demoed the fun in action on stage at WWDC 2012 with a racing game.

Game Center for Mountain Lion will feature Mac to Mac support, as well as cross-platform support between Macs and iOS. On stage at WWDC, Apple demoed how two players could compete in the same game across an iPad and Mac. Amusingly, the company had its own fake version of The Stig from popular motor program Top Gear, dubbed Racer OS X.

If you made use of Game Center on iOS, expect to get even more use out of it now that it’s made the jump across to Mountain Lion. It’ll be interesting to see what cross-platform titles Apple and third-parties can cook up in the near future to leverage the service. Expect it to be included with Mountain Lion when it’s released next month.

First we’ll start with iCloud Tabs – it syncs your tabs across devices. Press the button and you can see what tabs are open on your iPad with ease. This will sync across all iOS devices. Then we have unified search just like iOS devices all inside the search bar on Safari, sort of like Google Chrome.

Then the next new feature we are excited to see and have is Tab View. Being able to access tabs across multiple devices is a good trick, and we’ve seen similar actions with Chrome and Android. Now users will be able to see, sync, and follow tabs across multiple devices all wirelessly — including bookmarks and history. Work all day on your MacBook and then suddenly have to run? Sync with Tab View to your iPad or iPhone and continue right where you left off.

Again make sure to follow along at our liveblog for all the details as they come in, or hit our Apple Hub for all the latest coverage.

Apple’s Power Nap will be working completely silently – as in you wont see or hear it unless you want to – and will be what Apple calls “power efficient.” This application will be available on the MacBook Air 2nd Gen as well as the MacBook Pro with Retina Display right out of the box. The Retina display MacBook Pro is also known as the MacBook Pro 2012, though there is also a MacBook Pro 2012 refresh out right now as well.

Have a peek at our timeline below to make sure you’re up to date on everything Apple from WWDC 2012 and stick with us in our live feed as well. Head to the WWDC 2012 portal and see our http://live.slashgear.com/ page to rock and roll all morning and afternoon long.

The company didn’t give up too much information, or even spend a lot of time on a demo, but did say that it was “simple” and worked just about anywhere in the OS, including third-party apps. Presumably you’ll need an internet connection in order for it work, just like Siri on the iPhone.

But hey, did you really need a Dictation demo? If you’ve used Siri, then you can probably guess the accuracy that the standalone Dictation feature will have on the new MacBook Pros. In any event, the feature will be included with Mountain Lion when it’s released, so make sure to check it out.

Mac OS X Mountain Lion will also be getting three new apps, which include Messages, Reminders, and Notes. These apps will integrate your documents with the iCloud. Other apps that will also suppor the iCloud, include Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. Apple will also be furnishing developers with an SDK to hook their third-party apps into the iCloud as well.

As an example of the iCloud integration into OS X Mountain Lion, Apple demonstrated the Messages app. It lets you respond to messages you receive on your iPhone, directly via your Mac computer. Documents can also be easily dragged and dropped to the iCloud for easy access on your Mac or iOS device.

The MacBook Pro with Retina display comes with 256GB of flash storage, comes packed with 1GB GeForce GT 650M as well as 8GB of RAM, and is environmentally friendly to boot! This notebook range is hitting up several areas on the environmental checklist Apple has outlined including items such as it being Arsenic-free, ENERGY STAR 5.2 certified, PVC-free, BFR-free, having Mercury-free glass, and being Highly recyclable.

This notebook has a Retina quality display, is ultra-thin, and is made to replace any and all MacBooks in the past. Of course it wont be released alone, bringing with it a family of MacBook Pro classic models and the MacBook Air 2012 refresh as well. See 3rd Generation Intel Core Ivy Bridge processors on all fronts, USB 3.0, and Thunderbolt ports coming from all directions too!

UPDATE: Apple has just released information on two models, configured-to-order:

The 15-inch MacBook Pro is available with a 2.3 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.3 GHz, 8GB of memory and 256GB of flash storage starting at $2,199 (US); and with a 2.6 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.6 GHz, 8GB of memory and 512GB of flash storage starting at $2,799 (US). Configure-to-order options include faster quad-core processors up to 2.7 GHz, up to 16GB of memory and flash storage up to 768GB.

Have a peek in our timeline below to see all the details on this massive release and make sure to continue to follow along in our WWDC 2012 portal as well as with our live feed at http://live.slashgear.com/ – check it out!

Apple is introducing the MagSafe 2 which is a slimmer version of the original MagSafe. That’s great for the new MacBook Pro design, but it also means that if you were hoping to use your old MacBook Pro power adapter as a backup you won’t be able to.

Besides the MagSafe 2, Apple a Thunderbolt port, USB 3.0 port, and a headphone jack on the left side of the new MacBook Pro. On the right side, there’s an SD card slot, HDMI port, and another USB 3.0 port.

Apple say that the display is the world’s highest resolution on a notebook, and work was specifically undertaken to try and reduce glare on the display by up to 75%. On top of that, it has a higher contrast ratio than the average laptop display, as well as excellent viewing angles.

The design is very familiar to the current MacBook Pros, maintaining a constant case design instead of the taper on the airs. The next-gen MacBook Pro still makes room for plenty of horsepower, with an option for a Core i7 quad-core processor up to 2.7Ghz, 16GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GT 650M GPU. On top of that, it can be configured for up to 768GB of SSD storage. In terms of ports, there’s two USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, Thunderbolt, an SD card slot, and a new MagSafe 2 adapter, which has a reduced size over current offerings.

Apple also reworked the internals of the machine in order to pack as much inside a slim a chassis as possible. The company says trying to drive the display on top of the raw specifications proved a challenge, but they added extra batteries to make it happen. The next-gen MacBook Pros are rated for up to 7 hours of battery life, and 30 days of standby time. Finally, Apple has included a FaceTime HD camera, dual microphones, a backlit keyboard, and “the best stereo speakers” the company has ever put into a notebook.

The base model of the next-gen MacBook Pro will come with the Retina display, a 2.3Ghz quad-core Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of SSD storage for $2,199. It begins shipping today.

Both the 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air units are available today, shipping today and available for purchase today that is. The 11-inch model has a lovely 1366 x 768 pixel resolution display, while the 13-inch model has 1440 x 900 pixel resolution up across its face. The 11-inch model comes with an i5 processor and upgrades in flash storage between 64 and 128GB and prices range between $999 and $1099.

The 13-inch model comes with a dual-core i5 processor inside and has either 128GB flash storage or 256GB, with prices ranging between $1199 and $1499 USD. Both of these models will be just 2.96lbs heavy while the 11-inch models will be ultra-light as well at 2.38 lbs. Head to the Apple store soon to pick yours up!

Also be sure to continue following along with our main news feed here via the WWDC 2012 portal as well as through our livefeed at [http://live.slashgear.com/]

The new MacBook Airs not only get Ivy Bridge processors up to the 2GHz dual-core i7, but also get up to 8GB of memory, and 60 percent faster graphics. They also get 512GB of flash storage with 500MBps read speed, about twice as fast as the current Air models.

Additionally, Apple is adding USB 3.0 to its MacBook Airs in addition to USB 2.0. There will also now be a 720p FaceTime camera and the notebooks still comes in either an 11-inch or a 13-inch model.

The 11-inch starts at $999 with a 1.7GHz dual-core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, Intel HD 4000 graphics, and 64GB SSD. The 13-inch starts at $1,199 with a 1.8GHz dual-core i5, 4GB of RAM, and 128GB SSD. And they’re both shipping today.

It looks like all of those leaks from this morning were quite accurate. Talks of 512GB SSD options, USB 3.0, 720p front facing facetime cameras and more. Some of more detailed specs include: Ivy Bridge processors again, up to 2.7Ghz quad-core i7 options, plus up to 8GB 1600MHz memory and NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M GPU with up to 1GB of memory. Those NVIDIA Kelper graphics should really give things a boost. Do I smell more gaming?

Hey, look Apple just mentioned optical drives. It looks like this refresh the MacBook Pro will still have optical drives (DVD’s and such) and won’t go all cloud and USB. Obviously we have tons more coming soon about the MacBook Air, and hopefully the Mac Pro so stay tuned. Developing…

Cook spoke on how Apple had “written checks for over $5 billion dollars for you guys” in 120 countries around the world. It was announced that 32 countries would soon be added to the iTunes App Store world, with Apple’s ultimate goal still remaining the same.

“Despite these numbers, what we do together is much more important than any numbers could reflect. Our goal has always been to do great work, and make a difference in other people’s lives. Nothing makes us happier than to see devs around the world using our hardware and software to share their latest and greatest ideas.” – Cook

Cook then rolled a video which showed how apps on Apple products are changing the world (we’ll have that video for you imminently as well here as soon as it’s available.) This video showed how one man created an app using GPS to allow blind individuals move through the world, while another, Srini Swminathan from Mumbai let the audience know that an anatomy app made for Apple products was changing the way he did business in the classroom.

All of this leads to the future of Apple’s software world here at WWDC 2012 – stay tuned as we bring it to you LIVE from our live feed as well as through our WWDC 2012 portal all day long!

For those of you just tuning in, head to our timeline below to get up-to-date on no less than a whole batch of rumors and leaks that have just appeared in the past 24 hours! There’s no lack of excitement surrounding this event, especially since it’s set to not only bring on new software, but a set of new hardware options as well.

What you’ll find today is that you’ll have a new computer, a brand new operating system on your mobile devices like your iPad, iPhone, and possibly even your iPod touch, and you’ll find that the software you’ve got on your still-fabulous desktop machines will be upgraded to a whole new level of connectivity! This may well be the incoming tide of mobile connected to desktop that we’ve been waiting for! Stay tuned as this even starts in less than 20 minutes!