GigaOM » MacBook Air

The reviews are in: Everybody loves the new MacBook Air’s battery

Erica Ogg — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:16:01 +0000

There was only one new laptop launched at WWDC this year and there wasn’t very much new about it. The 2013 MacBook Air looks basically the same as it has for a few years: same thin silver package, same rounded corners, same clicky black keys. But people who’ve been using the new Airs — the 11-inch, starting at $999 and the 13-inch starting at $1,099 — say don’t let that sameness fool you. There’s a huge difference that you can’t see: super-long battery life.

Here are the main conclusions from the best reviews out there:

The Verge spent time with the 13-inch Air and puts it this way: “13 hours and 29 minutes. That’s all you really need to know — that’s how long the new MacBook Air running Safari lasted running The Verge Battery Test, which cycles through a series of websites and images at 65 percent brightness.”
Fortune tried out the 11-inch version and was quite happy though has one quibble: ”A week with the new 11-inch MacBook Air has convinced me that Apple’s hardware upgrade—minor as it may seem—will still be enough to convince some to upgrade or buy one for the first time based on excellent battery life alone. It doesn’t achieve 9 hours in-between charges with everyday use, but 8.5 hours of Web browsing is pretty close. And while I wish Apple would offer a build-to-order option for a higher-resolution screen—the current 1,366 x 768 resolution is really starting to feel cramped—it’s a small omission on an otherwise excellent device.”
CNET is effusive about the battery (but strangely knocks it for not having a touchscreen): “It’s easy to say that this new version of the 13-inch MacBook Air is a modest step forward, with no physical changes to the exterior, and still no higher-res display, touch screen, or HDMI port. The battery life is a very big deal, however, and when you couple that with a $100 price cut on the base model, down to $1,099, the 13-inch MacBook Air is, despite not being the newest design on the block, still one of the most universally useful laptops you can buy.”
PC Magazine got the 13-inch to last 15.5 hours, but also noted this: “The downside of the lower-clocked processor is that the MacBook Air is a bit slower on the multimedia benchmark tests (Handbrake and Photoshop CS6), where it lags the Windows systems with faster-clocked Core i5 processors. On the flipside, the MacBook Air is still two to four times faster than Intel Atom-powered Windows 8 slate tablets on the Handbrake test, and those Atom-powered tablets can’t run the Photoshop CS6 test at all.”

For our take on the announcements made at WWDC 2013, be sure to listen to the special edition of The GigaOM Show podcast:

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ICYMI podcasts: Connected pets, 7 years of GigaOM and boosted battery life on MacBook Airs

Kevin C. Tofel — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 14:00:31 +0000

Although Apple isn’t the topic of our GigaOM Chrome Show, we did refer to it quite a bit on this week’s episode. The newest MacBook Airs use the Intel Haswell chips we’ve been hoping for in new Chromebooks so know we know what kind of battery life boost to expect. Two new extension recommendations are available in the show, as well as talk about a $35 Chrome media streaming solution.

Can your dog help advance the Internet of Things? Ben Jacobs of Whistle thinks so and explains to Stacey Higginbotham how vets, researchers and pet owners can take advantage of data from devices worn by pets.

Lastly, our GigaOM Weekly Wrapup podcast recaps seven years of blogging as GigaOM celebrates another birthday. There’s more information on the PRISM saga and even a little gaming news: Did Sony turn the tables on Microsoft at this year’s E3 gaming convention?

(Download the GigaOM Chrome Show)

(Download the GigaOM Internet of Things podcast)

(Download the GigaOM Weekly Wrapup podcast)

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WWDC 2013: Apple overhauls iOS design, shows off MacBook Airs and Mac Pro (roundup)

Tom Krazit — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 19:27:44 +0000

During its first major event of 2013, Apple used its Worldwide Developers Conference to show off sweeping changes to the design of its flagship mobile software, iOS. iOS 7, which will be released this fall, is “the biggest change to iOS since the original iPhone,” CEO Tim Cook said while introducing the new software alongside several Apple executives.

Cook and crew also used the event to show off new Mac concepts, including a battery-friendly revamp for the MacBook Air and a futuristic cylinder-type design for the Mac Pro, its last remaining professional desktop product. Our coverage from Monday’s event follows below, and we’ll update this post as more stories emerge from what appeared to be a pivotal event in the history of iOS.

Live blog: Apple’s WWDC 2013 keynote
With next-gen Intel chip, new Apple MacBook Air provides all-day battery life – Intel’s Haswell chip has a new home today: You can find it in the latest MacBook Air laptops from Apple, now available. Apple promises 9 and 12 hours of battery life on the two models.
Soon you’ll be able to read iBooks on your Mac – Apple debuted iBooks for Mac at WWDC in San Francisco Monday. The desktop app will be available as part of the launch of OSX Mavericks this fall and will allow purchasing as well as reading.
Apple shows off major design overhaul for iOS 7 – Apple announced changes on Monday to iOS 7 at the company’s WWDC conference in San Francisco. The company has revamped and refreshed the overall design and feel of the operating system.
Apple launches iTunes Radio streaming music service to compete with Pandora – Apple is launching its own music subscription service dubbed iTunes Radio to compete with Pandora. The service will be free and ad-supported, with an ad-free toer for iTunes Match subscribers.
Much iOS 7 design inspiration came from others but Apple elegantly puts it all together – Watching the iOS 7 debut I couldn’t help but notice design cues from Android, HTC, Microsoft and even Palm. In some ways these have caught up to Apple in terms of design, but Apple is best at putting the pieces together.
iWork in iCloud: How it may affect my syncing strategy – Between Office 365 and Google Docs, Apple really needed a way for Mac users to edit documents online using Apple’s own programs. Which is why it announced iWork for the cloud.
The GigaOM Show Special: Apple’s all new iOS 7 and more from WWDC – Look! Up on the WWDC stage! It’s an Apple keynote — and we round up everything Cook and Co. had to say on this special edition podcast.
After years of neglect, Apple will finally upgrade core apps with iOS 7 – Besides overhauling the look and feel of iOS 7, some of the core iOS apps Apple offers on the iPhone got major updates. And some new features will seem strikingly familiar to some third-party app makers.

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With next-gen Intel chip, new Apple MacBook Air provides all-day battery life

Kevin C. Tofel — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 18:03:40 +0000

Apple revamped its MacBook Air lineup on Monday, saying that new devices will run on Intel’s 4th-generation Core processor called Haswell. The new chips will boost battery life 40 percent, bringing the 11- and 13-inch laptops to 9 and 12 hours of run-time on a single charge.

Apple also boosted the internal storage on the 11-inch model, which now has 128 GB of flash storage for $999. For $100 more, customers can opt for a similar 13-inch MacBook Air with the same storage capacity. Both have 40 percent faster graphics and 802.11ac Wi-Fi, which increases both the range and speed of compatible networks.

Apple says the new MacBook Air models are available today, once the Apple Store re-opens. That indicates that Apple worked out a deal with Intel in advance to become one of the first customers to buy the new Haswell chip in bulk. Intel just formally announced Haswell earlier this month at the Computex event.

A “sneak peek” of the upcoming Mac Pro was also shown at WWDC. The cylindrical computer is packed with the latest tech, including a new Intel Xeon chip, faster flash storage and, thanks to dual workstation GPUs from AMD, support for multiple 4K displays.

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Planning a BYOD strategy on the move

Cormac Foster — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 07:55:47 +0000

How does a business go about implementing a new BYOD strategy when the wheels are already turning? However you slice it, hitting a moving target is more work than starting from square one, but you can maximize return by locking down three key steps.

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Apple lowers price on 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, MacBook Air

Erica Ogg — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 14:06:26 +0000

Just four months after Apple introduced its first 13-inch notebook with Retina display, the company has bumped up some of the specs while lowering some prices on its notebooks. On Wednesday, Apple announced that it is slashing $200 off its base model 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. The 128GB version will now go for $1,499. The slightly bumped-up 256GB version will also be dropped down to $1,699.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display isn’t getting a price adjustment, but Apple has thrown in a slightly faster 2.4 GHz processor, while the highest-end version now has a 2.7 GHz processor and 16 GB of memory. In addition, The 13-inch MacBook Air with 256GB of storage is now priced at $1,399. Overall, Apple made is a bit less expensive to upgrade to higher capacity storage, like 512GB and 768GB, by about $200 to $300.

Apple says the new models will be available starting Wednesday in Apple’s retail stores, at authorized resellers and on Apple’s website.

The Mac was a particular sore spot in the company’s quarterly results posted last month, as Apple sold about a million or 22 percent fewer during the last quarter of 2012 than it had during the same quarter in 2011. Apple officials blamed the unavailability of new iMac models until the end of the quarter.

This story was updated at 6:41 a.m. PT with additional detail about flash storage updates.

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How better tech makes for a lighter CES 2013 gear bag

Kevin C. Tofel — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 15:39:24 +0000

I vividly remember my first International Consumer Electronics Show. It was 2006 and I was working with the talented Engadget team. I had no idea what to expect simply because one can’t imagine a million square feet of electronics in the Las Vegas Convention Center. Oh, and don’t forget the private meeting spaces at practically every hotel up and down the Vegas Strip. I’ve run three marathons and I swear those 26.2 mile jaunts were easier than the annual geek pilgrimage known as CES.

What I remember most, however, is how much I toted around with me during those early shows. This is my eighth consecutive journey to the show and I’m taking far less this year. That’s good for my back and my feet, of course, but the more interesting point is that we can do so much more with fewer, more capable mobile devices.

Some of my 2006 memories include trying to find electric outlets at every possible venue, for example. Why? Because my Toshiba M205 TabletPC was only good for two or three hours on a charge. Today we have tablets that run for 10 or more hours; double if you add a keyboard accessory with integrated second battery.

Smartphones of the day were clunky beasts, although my XV6700 with Windows Phone and QWERTY keyboard served me well enough the first iteration of EVDO for mobile broadband. Fallback was the obscenely slow 1xRTT that was barely good enough for email. And the “huge” 2.8-inch screen boasted a 320 x 240 resolution that is outshined by even the cheapest feature phones of today!

I remember capturing video back then with a heavy camcorder that might get an hour of recording time on a single charge. Fast forward a few years and I switched to a very compact high-definition camera, then to a Flip camera and this year, I left the video camera at home. There’s just no need for it when you consider most smartphones today double as an HD video camera and weigh even less.

I could go on and on, but you get the picture. (See what I did there?) As a result of our more connected, smaller, lighter and yet more powerful mobile devices, I’m taking less than ever to CES. Everything fits in a small backpack that’s meant to hold a 13-inch computer; and when I say everything, I mean everything: Charging cords and small accessories too. Here’s a rundown of my gear bag this year:

Computer: 13-inch MacBook Air (late 2010 model) This skinny device still runs for at least 6 hours on a single charge, which is very important since outlets can be scarce or fought over at CES. I’ve used this machine for blogging since I bought it, although for the past six months, it has generally collected dust as I moved my work effort to a Samsung Chromebook. I really wanted to take the Chromebook. Why take the Air then? One key reason: Video editing is still far easier and faster on the Air than via a web-based method on the Chromebook. And connectivity — a near-necessity for Chromebooks — is highly variable during CES.

Communications: Apple iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy Note 2. I could certainly get away with one handset, but I like to have a backup because the airwaves get jammed up good when 150,000 CES attendees are vying for the same phone service. I have an AT&T SIM in the iPhone and a T-Mobile-compatible SIM (through Straight Talk) in the Note 2. Both can act as hotspots if needed. I’ll use these for tweeting from the show, sharing pictures, managing my schedule, and trying to check email as time allows.

Video: Apple iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy Note 2. I don’t see the need to add the extra weight and the battery anxiety of a handheld video camera these days. Will I miss the optical zoom of my dedicated shooter? Maybe, but most video I share from CES involves close-up looks at gadgets. Hopefully, this choice to leave behind the video camera isn’t a mistake.

Still images: Canon S95 point-and-shoot. I considered leaving this behind as well since both phones are more than capable of capturing usable images. The S95 rivals the size and weight a playing card deck, however, and it provides the optical zoom that my phones don’t have. This can be handy for the massive press events where a “good seat” is still 30 meters or more from the stage. The camera was one of my favorite gadgets of 2010 and is still a super performer.

Accessories. Again, I’m taking the less is more approach. I have one small 3,000 portable battery with a USB output, so it can recharge either of my handsets. I have two USB cables: One for the Note 2 and one for the iPhone. A spare battery for the Canon and the required charger are with me. And, of course, the power cord for my MacBook Air.

That’s it. Everything fits in the old Booq bag I bought in 2005 for my Toshiba TabletPC. Compared to my first few CES events, this amount of gear is probably one-third of what I used to take in terms of weight and bulk. It’s all because of how far the mobile industry has advanced in terms of hardware, software and cloud services. Everything is lighter, runs longer, has faster connectivity and has more capabilities than ever before.

As I get older, I doubt I’ll make it through eight more CES events. It will, however, be interesting to watch the devices and services evolve during that time. Who knows: Maybe by CES 2021, the show will come to me via virtual reality instead of me trekking across the country and up and down the Vegas Strip!

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Meet Phorce: A powerful smart bag for smartphones and Macs

Kevin C. Tofel — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:55:35 +0000

Need a laptop bag that charges your Mac or various USB devices such as smartphones and tablets? I’ve seen a few of these before, but none have had their own application to check the bag’s battery or alert you if you leave the bag behind. That’s exactly what Phorce brings to the table in a new Kickstarter project. Making the bag even more attractive is how it can morph from backpack to messenger bag to briefcase.

PHORCE will cost $219 for the USB model and $299 for a Mac version once the early bird discount deals are gone. Here’s a detailed look at how it works:

Inside the Phorce is a 54 Whr battery, which certainly adds a little weight to carrying around. But one of the biggest challenges we have yet to overcome with mobile devices is the power supply, as battery technologies haven’t changed all that much in the past few decades. So I’d be willing to tote along a spare power pack; in fact, I often do as I always buy a spare battery for devices when I can. And when I can’t, I tend to use a portable universal type battery system.

To give you an idea of the battery capacity, Phorce can add 4 hours of run-time to a 15-inch MacBook or 7 hours to a MacBook Air, for example. If you opt for the USB model, you can recharge an iPhone 8 times, a Galaxy S III 6 times, or full-sized iPad once. That new iPad mini can be charged 2.5 times with the Phorce. There’s also a mobile app or iOS and Android that uses Bluetooth to pair your smartphone with the Phorce bag. With it, you can see how much juice is still available or be alerted when you (and your phone) stray too far from the Phorce. The bag has 3 USB ports for charging and can be recharged in about 4 hours.

As if that weren’t enough, the bag itself is impressive. Basically, you can carry it in three different configurations based on how you attach the straps. Need a briefcase bag with handles? No problem. Prefer a backpack? Yup, you can do that too. Or change it to a messenger bag for over the shoulder travel. And the bag can expand an additional 240 cubic inches with one zipper pull.

If the project raises $150,000 or more — which won’t surprise me based on what I’ve seen so far — Phorce will be funded. As always with Kickstarter projects, you’re investing in a mini startup project, not necessarily a product itself, so keep in mind that the product itself could change slightly.

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Work media tools in 2012 and beyond

stoweboyd — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:15:48 +0000

Welcome to the fast-growing world of work media, a new class of social tools based on the principles of open social networks like Facebook and Twitter but oriented to the specific needs of businesses and professionals. This report provides a brief synopsis of the business context for work media technologies, with special attention on how businesses are confronted with a set of disruptive forces and how they are responding by heading in new directions, which we call disruption vectors. Work media is an element of those vectors, and work media products will be judged based on their utility therein.

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Retina Display brightens Apple’s profits

Rags Srinivasan, management consultant — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 19:00:27 +0000

If you’re like me you ordered the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display, and you’re anxiously tracking its shipping status. What does this new product mean for Apple? How about another $1 billion in pure profit.

Apple made a gross margin of $18.5 billion just in the last quarter. If you peel back the layers and look at how its different product lines contribute to this margin, you will find its MacBook lines account for $1.65 billion.

Apple’s profit from MacBook lines declined from 2011 to 2012, and the average selling price (ASP) of MacBook line dropped by $40.

It may not sound like much, but at 47 percent unit margin, that number meant $52 million in forgone profit. All because their product mix changed from selling higher priced MacBook Pros to lower priced MacBook Airs and 13-inch MacBook Pros.

That is about to change with its new product refresh, especially with the MacBook Pro with Retina Display. Let us do some math.

What can we say from distribution of sales between the different MacBook versions from the $1,245 ASP numbers? For simplicity, let us treat the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro as one category with an ASP of $1099, and the 15-inch MacBook Pro as another category with an ASP of $1799. Solving for these numbers tells us that the 15-inch MacBook Pro accounted for less than 23 percent of MacBook units sold. In other words, three in four MacBooks sold are either MacBook Airs or the 13-inch version.

Shifting more of the sales to the higher priced MacBook Pro is one clear way to increase profits. Enter the new 15-inch MacBook Pro with its $2,199 price tag and two compelling value propositions — 256GB SSD (solid-state drive) and Retina Display.

For $400 more, customers get both 256GB SSD and Retina Display. And if anyone should insist on getting just SSD, they can pay $500 more instead of $400 more. That is the decoy option put in place just to make the 15-inch retina display far more attractive than it would have been by itself.

By design, the Retina Display is not available in the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro. This way, those who want the insanely-high screen resolution will have to pay up at least $2,199 to get it.

This clever price discrimination will result in two positive effects on the units sold. One, some who would have settled for a MacBook Air or the 13-inch MacBook Pro will upgrade to the $2,199 MacBook Pro. Two, it will push some who preferred the 15-inch MacBook Pro to the $2,199 version with Retina Display. The net result is a higher ASP than the current $1,245 number. Even if one in ten customers of first category and one in five in the second category upgrade to Retina Display, Apple will see the MacBook ASP go up to $1,363.

If Apple sees no change in total number of units sold from the current quarter, this ASP bump will still result in a minimum additional profit of $200 million. If you include net new purchases and higher percentage up-sells, this number could easily become $1 billion in additional profit.

That is one amazing and magical product.

Rags Srinivasan is a management professional who specializes in product strategy and strategic marketing. He is currently working on big data products. He blogs at Iterative Path and tweets at @rags.

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