MacBookAir2013
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How would you change the 13-inch, mid-2013 MacBook Air?
Meet the new boss, broadly the same as the old boss. Except this variation of Apple's thin-and-light mobile PC was packing Haswell, Intel's power-sipping wonder chip, capable of giving the 2013 MBA its 12-plus-hour battery life and nippy speed. When we sat this down in front of Tim Stevens' hands, his only gripe was that the device was lacking a retina display, although we're probably still a year or two away from that taking place. Still, we imagine plenty of you out there picked up one of these devices, so why not hop on the forum and tell us if you'd have taken a MacBook Air with a four-hour battery life in exchange for some pixel-dense goodness.
Laptop deals of the week: 2.26.14
If that aging laptop is giving you problems, you might just want to take a peek at the collection of discounted machines that we've compiled after the break. There are Windows, Mac and Chromebook options at a range of prices, so there's surely something to satisfy those OS preferences. Heck, most of the group consists of current-gen offerings too, so you can upgrade without having to settle. If there are other laptops you have your eye on that we haven't included here -- join us and add them to your "Want" list. Every time there's a price cut in the future, you'll get an email alert!
GoToMeeting issues with MacBook Air camera persist
Since the launch of the latest MacBook Air, Citrix GoToMeeting users on the new machines have not been able to use their onboard webcams. The latest edition of the MacBook Air was released on June 10, 2013. On June 11, Apple put up a support page addressing an issue with the FaceTime HD camera not working with some applications. This issue has been around for quite some time. Much to the chagrin of many GoToMeeting users, other video chat programs -- Skype, FaceTime and Google Hangouts -- have released updates or already worked with the new MacBook Air. But those services don't offer the same security and features that GoToMeeting offers. It's a good program for video conferencing, which is why some users are getting frustrated about the lack of any clear timeframe as to when the issue will be fixed. The only public information available about the issue is a thread on the GoToMeeting community page, which was started on June 25. On June 28, a GoToMeeting Community Leader made a post blaming a change in the MacBook Air's video driver and said there was no timeframe available for fixing the issue as it would require an update to the GoToMeeting endpoint. On July 16, a community member received an email response about the issue from Citrix. Hello Robert, Thank you for contacting Citrix Global Customer Support. At this time there has not been an announced ETA on when an updated version of GoToMeeting is to be released to address this issue. We apologize for any inconvenience with this. Your comments are valuable and have been forwarded on to our Development Team to be considered for a future enhancement. We encourage you to continue providing us information about your experiences using GoToMeeting as we are constantly seeking ways to enhance and improve our product. Thanks again for taking the time to write to us with your suggestion. Thank you, Adrian Iglesias | Coordinator, Global Customer Support Citrix | Online Services Division http://www.citrixonline.com On July 18, August 5 and August 22 the same Community Leader as before responded, each time with the same basic message. At this time, no ETA is available and developers are aware of the issue. We've reached out to Citrix for a comment as to the status of an update. In the meantime, you can follow the community thread about this issue here.
2013 Macbook Air update fixes flickering screen and WiFi, available now
If you've been experiencing unstable WiFi as well as flickers while Photoshopping on your new mid-year MacBook Air, Apple's got you covered. The tech giant reports that the patch addresses the aforementioned issues cropping up in "rare instances," as well as a bug that causes audio levels to jump around during video playback. The software update -- 1.0, if you're interested in the details -- is available from Apple Support in the links below.
New MacBook Air woe: unstable volume settings
The recently updated Haswell-based 2013 MacBook Air is an incredibly popular line of laptops, but has unfortunately had its share of birthing pains. First, users complained of not being able to connect consistently with WiFi networks. Now Apple support boards are filling with complaints about volume settings that vary all over the map while watching videos. According to a post on Macworld UK, other apps affected with the issue include Chrome and QuickTime. The post quotes one user who complained that volume fluctuated while watching videos, with another saying that the fluctuations only happen when volume is at a middle setting and are nonexistent at either high or low volume levels. As with the WiFi issue, it's quite probable that the sound problems will be fixed soon through a patch in a future version of Mac OS X 10.8 or perhaps through a MacBook Air-specific firmware update.
This week on gdgt: PlayStation 4, MacBook Air, Google Now
Each week, our friends at gdgt go through the latest gadgets and score them to help you decide which ones to buy. Here are some of their most recent picks. Want more? Visit gdgt anytime to catch up on the latest, and subscribe to gdgt's newsletter to get a weekly roundup in your inbox.
CNN Money happy with MacBook Air battery life
CNN Money reporter JP Mangalindan recently got his hands on a review unit of the new 11-inch MacBook Air and he has good news to report. As a longtime Air user Mangalindan's major criticism of his old 2011 model was its skimpy battery life. While Apple said the 2011 Air was capable of five hours of life, Mangalindan experienced closer to three hours before he was out of power. Based on his experiences with the 2013 review unit however, it appears the Air's battery problems have been solved. The review unit is an 11-inch MacBook Air with a 1.3GHz dual-core i5 processor, 4 GB of RAM and 256 GB of flash storage. Over the course of his basic testing, Mangalindan was able to get eight hours of battery life with WiFi on, multiple apps running, the brightness turned up and the keyboard illuminated. Now granted this is a brand-new unit, so as time wears on that battery life will drop. But that's still an incredible amount of juice for such power-intensive use settings. Mangalindan will have a full review later this week, but head over to CNN Money now to check out the rest of his first impression.
