RUMOR: 15-INCH MACBOOK AIR LAUNCHING Q1 2012

Apple is reportedly planning to launch a brand new 15-inch MacBook Air in the first quarter next year. A new report from DigiTimes cites unnamed sources from within Apple’s parts suppliers in claiming that Apple will launch a completely refreshed MacBook Air lineup in early 2012. Consisting of 11.6-inch, 13.3-inch and 15-inch models, the new Air line of MacBook laptops is already in the early stages of production according to the report.

DigiTimes also says Apple will drop its pricing on current MacBook Air laptops before the new models launch some time next quarter.

APPLE LAPTOPS CAN BE HACKED TO EXPLODE

Apple’s newer MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro notebooks have a security flaw that can allow hackers to remotely prevent the batteries from charging. Better yet, hackers can exploit the same flaw and remotely cause batteries to explode. Apple laptops’ new “smart” battery technology is intended to provide added control over power management, and it does just that. Unfortunately, it also gives hackers added control because the microcontroller chip that ships in recent Apple laptops can be accessed remotely using a default password shared by each and every notebook.

Charlie Miller, the security expert who discovered the vulnerability, plans to showcase the flaw next month at the Black Hat security conference. There, Miller will show that he is able to access the battery controller remotely and cause it to refuse a charge, or even heat up until it catches fire and explodes. “These batteries just aren’t designed with the idea that people will mess with them,” Miller told Forbes last week. “What I’m showing is that it’s possible to use them to do something really bad.” Thankfully, the security expert also intends to showcase a fix for the flaw, which Apple will hopefully implement as soon as possible.

MACBOOKS IN SHORT SUPPLY, POSSIBLE REFRESH COMING

We've already seen the MacBook Pro sporting new specs, and heard rumblings of a MacBook Air refresh coming soon, and now reports of dwindling supplies of Apple's great white hope have the internets abuzz over a possible MacBook upgrade.AppleInsider did a little digging earlier today, and found that major online retailers, including Amazon, and at least one brick and mortar store were either running low or completely out of the last of the MacBooks. A similar fate has befallen stock of the Mac mini, inviting speculation that both machines will likely pop up post-Lion.

ADOBE CEO ENDS FEUD WITH APPLE, SIDESTEPS POOR ANDROID FLASH PERFORMANCE ISSUE

Speaking at yesterday's D9 conference in Palos Verdes, California, Adobe head Shantanu Narayen confirmed that he and Steve Jobs have reached an unofficial armistice, bringing an end to their prolonged war of words. According to the CEO, Apple's Flash issues stemmed from the company's "business model," rather than any legitimate concerns over quality. "It's control over the app store that's at issue here," Narayen said, implying that Flash's wide-ranging platform compatibility may not have jibed with the Cupertino ethos. He went on to remind moderator Walt Mossberg that developers can still use Adobe's AIR software to get their products to the App Store, adding that his company is looking forward to the rise of HTML5 and "actively contributing" to its development.

Mossberg, meanwhile, seemed to blindside Narayen when he brought up Flash's poor performance on Android devices. "I have yet to test a single one where Flash tests really well," the columnist claimed. "I'm sorry, but it's true." Narayen sputtered a bit, before pointing to the BlackBerry PlayBook as an example of the progress that Flash has made. When Mossberg reminded him that the PlayBook doesn't run on Android, the CEO not-so-subtly sidestepped the question by emptily declaring that Adobe's mission is simply to provide people with the best tools to create content. Apparently satisfied with this non-answer, Mossberg changed the subject back to Apple, allowing Narayen to wax poetic about their new truce.

MACBOOK AIR BUGS ADDRESSED IN OS X 10.6.5

Earlier this month, BGR reported Apple was working on fixes for a string of troublesome MacBook Air bugs. The issues were widespread, and they involved a variety of problems with display flickering, fading and discoloration when affected notebooks woke from sleep. Internal documents revealed by BGR suggested that the problems would be addressed by an upcoming software update and as expected, OS X 10.6.5 appears to have resolved the bugs described in those documents. Apple also issued a new support document on the matter. While Apple’s description of the issues does not appear to encompass all of the problems reported earlier this month, we have confirmed with several affected users that these bugs no longer occur on their devices. [BGR]

ADOBE TESTING 'OPTIMIZED' VERSION OF FLASH FOR MACBOOK AIR

Adobe is currently testing an "optimized" version of Flash for the MacBook Air in hopes of mitigating whatever battery life or performance problems Flash might be causing on the device. Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen told Engadget of the company's plans during the Web 2.0 Summit on Tuesday, noting that Adobe now has a new MacBook Air in its labs for the testing.

Ars Technica contributor Chris Foresman's review of the device, noted that upon installing Flash, the battery runtime was cut by as much as 33 percent. Adobe has vehemently denied that Flash affects the MacBook Air's battery life in any way. Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen stated at the recent Web 2.0 conference "when we have access to hardware acceleration, we've proven that Flash has equal or better performance on every platform."

The fact that Adobe is working on a MacBook Air-optimized version of Flash indicates that the company is aware that there's room for improvement.

NEW MACBOOK AIRS HAVE GRAPHIC ISSUES

Now that the talk of just how shiny and nice looking the new MacBook Air is has settled down, reality is hitting a few users who decided to invest in the first batch of hardware.

The video below gives you all the evidence required to realize there is a problem with either the graphics chip or the graphics driver in the MacBook Air, and it is apparently happening on both 11″ and 13″ models.

The description on that video reads as follows:

The Air suddenly froze, cutting Bluetooth connection to my Magic Mouse (even after I restarted…I had to re-connect manually), and the screen started flickering like crazy. The only thing I was doing at the time was reading MacRumors forum threads and looking at MBA sleeves to buy – no YouTube or anything was open at the time. Only iTunes was open in the background.

You can’t see it well, but the flickering consisted of tiny green/red/maybe blue lines, kinda like when an old TV gets static.


A forced shutdown with the power button seemed to resolve it; closing the lid to make it sleep failed.

A patch is already available from Apple for other issues (unresponsive system during iMovie use and wake from sleep), but the flickering screen is a new issue. When and what triggers it is unknown, it seems to be random.

If you are experiencing the problem with your MacBook Air, or want to know more about it, then there’s a discussion thread about it on the Apple forums. [Geek]

RUMOR: APPLE UPDATING MACBOOK AIR WITH 11.6" SCREEN

Apple Insider is citing sources from Taiwan that state an 11.6" backlit LED display will headline the update to the Macbook Air.  DigiTimes is reporting that Quanta has an order to build half a million 11.6" screen size "Macbooks" for 2010. [Apple Insider][DigiTimes]