MacbookAir2011
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Apple delivers update to bring Power Nap feature to 2011, 2012 MacBook Airs
Amidst all the Mountain Lion excitement from yesterday, a few members of the Apple crowd were inadvertently forgotten -- yes, we're talking about 2011 / 2012 MacBook Air and Retina MBP owners looking for some extensive Power Nap action. Luckily for most of them, however, the Cupertino behemoth's quickly acted, outing a solution that'll see the efficacious napping feature make its way onto the aforementioned generations of MacBook Airs. Unfortunately, not all is good news, as that pixel-packed MacBook Pro will have to wait it out on the sidelines a little longer, with Apple saying an SMC update is "coming soon." Sound good? You'll find the download on the company's support page, linked down below to save you more troubles. Update: According to MacRumors, Apple's pushed out an SMC update to Retina MacBook Pros that enables the Power Nap feature on these machines. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Engadget's holiday gift guide 2011: laptops
Welcome to the Engadget Holiday Gift Guide! We're well aware of the heartbreaking difficulties surrounding the seasonal shopping experience, so we're here to help you sort out this year's tech treasures. Below is today's bevy of curated picks, and you can head back to the Gift Guide hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the holiday season. Let's get this out of the way: a laptop is an intimate gift. Even if you were to get away with paying just $400, it's a lot to spend on even your spouse (ten years is the netbook anniversary, right?). Not to mention, your lucky giftee will be spending more time with it, perhaps, than they do their friends, families and pets. At the same time, the selection is nothing if not overwhelming, and if you were to make a spreadsheet tallying prices and specs, you'd notice an uncomfortable similarity across different brands. So, we rounded up some of the best we've seen -- everything from all-purpose notebooks to Ultrabooks to high-end dream machines. If you're thinking of pulling the trigger, hop past the break for a few ideas and the (very brief) low-down on the trade-offs you'll be making.
OWC unleashes Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G SSD, peps up your 2011 MacBook Air
So, you've got a 2011 MacBook Air, and you say its SSD's read / write speeds are letting you down? Well, Other World Computing would be happy to quell your woes with its SandForce-equipped Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G. The company's latest storage upgrade steps things up from its 3Gb/s versions, promising to get your tasks zooming with consistent speeds of "over 500MB/s" (achieved by utilizing the '11 Air's SATA Revision 3.0, 6Gb/s bus). The 120GB variant will set you back a wallet-thinning $350, while 240GBs will cost you a whopping 600 bones -- hey, no one ever said performance like this comes cheap. They're available now from OWC, and you'll find full details in the PR past the break.
Engadget's back to school guide 2011: laptops
Welcome to Engadget's Back to School guide! We know that this time of year can be pretty annoying and stressful for everyone, so we're here to help out with the heartbreaking process of gadget buying for the school-aged crowd. Today we're getting down to the very important business of helping you sift through laptops, and you can always head to the Back to School hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the month. Be sure to keep checking back -- at the end of the month we'll be giving away a ton of the gear featured in our guides -- and hit up the hub page right here! Ah, laptops. Some of us received our first notebooks the summer before college if not later. But times have changed and we're sure for many of the kids reading this freshman year is just an excuse to upgrade from the clunkers that carried them through high school. Either way, this one's pretty much mandatory -- unless you're a serious gamer who insists on a desktop GPU for marathon sessions of CoD: Black Ops, you're going to need a laptop for pounding out last-minute term papers in the library, taking notes in class and posting incriminating photos on Facebook. The problem is, the market's overrun with laptops that purport to be just perfect for the back to school set. They can't all be worth your money, though, so we whittled the list down to a handful of choices for each budget -- and if you're lucky you'll get your very own HP Pavilion dm1z for the pretty price of, well, nothing. Simply leave a comment below to be entered to win, and check out our giveaway page for more details. So wipe off the glasses, grab your clicker, and get ready to jump past the break for a top-level overview of this year's picks for back to school.
Engadget Podcast 250 - 07.29.2011
Yes yes, y'all: it's the Engadget Podcast. We're brimming this week, as usual, with the low down on what's going down with all the new stuff. We've got the killer combo of lots of streaming news and a dearth of optical drives. We've got shaky earnings calls translating into big deals on the floor at Best Buy. And boy, do we have a little bit of Android news? We do! It's all here, as usual. Enjoy.Host: Tim Stevens, Brian HeaterGuests: Dana Wollman, Richard LawlerProducer: Trent WolbeMusic: Beethoven's 5th02:24 - Mac mini review (mid 2011)03:20 - Editorial: Apple's officially over the optical drive, for better or worse09:16 - MacBook Air review (mid 2011)16:10 - Netflix adds Mad Men in the US today, CBS content in Canada and Latin America later16:34 - Amazon Prime Instant Video is adding CBS TV shows, including all of Star Trek17:50 - Amazon strikes movie streaming deal with Universal, adds 'Fear and Loathing' to free shipping24:17 - The Engadget Show - 023: We tour a headphone factory, talk record labels, and look at They Might Be Giants' favorite gadgets25:36 - Nintendo posts earnings, drops 3DS from $249 to $169 August 12th, current owners get 20 free games28:47 - Logitech CEO steps down after money losing Q1, Revue price slashed to $9937:15 - Toshiba Thrive review39:52 - HTC Status review44:46 - Windows Phone 7.5 Mango in-depth preview (video)46:20 - HTC CFO says it's time to 'figure it out' with Apple48:52 - Two more fake Apple Stores spotted by officials in China, two get the smackdown50:40 - Listener questionsHear the podcastSubscribe to the podcast[iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes (enhanced AAC).[RSS MP3] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in MP3) to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically.[RSS AAC] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in enhanced AAC) to your RSS aggregator.[Zune] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune MarketplaceDownload the podcastLISTEN (MP3)LISTEN (AAC)Contact the podcastSend your questions to @tim_stevens.Leave us a voicemail: (423) 438-3005 (GADGET-3005)E-mail us: podcast at engadget dot comTwitter: @tim_stevens @bheater @danawollman @rjcc
Apple refreshes MacBook Air with Sandy Bridge, Thunderbolt, and backlit keyboards
They say Apple updates its products like clockwork, releasing something new at the same time in the same place every year. Not so with MacBook Airs anyway. The outfit's gone and freshened up its 13-inch and 11-inch ultraportables -- the second such update in nine months. Although the industrial design hasn't changed much since the last generation, both models step up to Sandy Bridge Core i5 and i7 processors, Thunderbolt ports, backlit keyboards, and, of course, OS X Lion. The 11.6-inch flavor starts at $999 with 64GB of solid-state storage, 2GB of memory and a 1.6GHz Core i5 processor. The higher-end of the two configurations costs $1,199, with the extra two hundred dollars doubling your RAM and storage. The 13-inch Air, meanwhile, starts at $1,299, with a 128GB SSD, 4GB of RAM, and a 1.7GHz Core i5 CPU. Step up to the $1,599 model and you'll get a 256GB SSD instead. Regardless, you're looking at Intel HD 3000 graphics across the board, along with FaceTime webcams, two USB ports (plus an SD slot on the 13-inch version), 802.11n WiFi, and Bluetooth 4.0. The two differ when it comes to resolution and battery life: the 11-incher has a 1366 x 768 panel and is rated for up to five hours of battery life, whereas the 13-inch model has a 1440 x 900 screen and promises up to seven hours of juice. As for that 1.8GHz Core i7 CPU, it'll set you back an extra $100 on the 13-inch version, and $150 for the 11-inch version. Whichever size you choose, it's only an option for the higher-end configuration. Hit the source link to peep the specs and buy one, if you're so inclined. %Gallery-128755%
