Cupertino, California - Apple recently introduced the latest of its MacBook Air laptop line, simultaneously providing a sneak peek at the evolution of the Mac operating system. Other highlights included a new version of the multimedia software packet iLife.
The updated MacBook Air will, in the future, be sold with 11.6 and 13.3-inch displays. According to Apple, neither will employ what have, until now, been standard hard drives with rotating magnetic plates. Instead, data on these laptops will be transcribed onto solid state discs (SSD).
So far, SSD has proven to be smaller, faster, more robust and more expensive than traditional drives. The ones in the new MacBook Air's will come in sizes of 64, 128 or 256 gigabytes (GB). The first MacBook Air's, introduced in 2008, came standard with an 80 GB hard drive, but buyers had the option of a 64 GB SSD.
Since Apple has again opted to forgo an optical drive with the MacBook Air, the laptop, which comes in an aluminum housing, is especially thin, measuring only between 0.3 and 1.7 centimetres thick.
Computing power is provided by a dual core processor (Intel Core 2 Duo) with 1.4 or 1.86 gigahertz in the standard package. The smaller laptop weighs 1.06 kilograms, the larger version comes in at 1.32 kilograms. Depending on the size of the SSD, the smaller MacBook Air can cost 999 or 1,149 euros (1,398 or 1,605 dollars). The larger version goes for 1,299 or 1,599 euros.
The new operating system, Mac OS X Lion, is slated for release in the summer of 2011. New additions anticipated include the incorporation of a version of iOS, which runs mobile devices like the iPad. That should allow gesture controls via the trackpad or a full-screen mode for programmes.
At the same time, Apple will open an app store for Macs where developers can offer up their own programmes. Facetime, a video telephony service, which went active on iPhones in June, should be accessible soon via laptops. A test version is already available.
0 yorum:
Post a Comment