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.

APPLE INITIATES MACBOOK BOTTOM REPLACEMENT PROGRAM

Per Apple’s support document, they will now fix the issue with the rubber bottom on the white unibody MacBook coming off due to issues with glue. This applies to any MacBook purchased between October 2009 and April 2011. The program is available free of charge via your local Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Providers.

A self service is available as well where you order a replacement bottom case kit online. The free kit includes a new bottom case, screws, a Phillips head screwdriver and instructions explaining how to remove the bottom case and install the new one.

The MacBook Bottom Case Replacement Program covers the affected MacBooks for two years from original purchase date, Apple says. They will also issue a refund if you have paid for a repair or replacement due to this issue. The program does not extend your standard warranty in any way.

APPLE TO INTRODUCE NEW HIGH SPEED CONNECTION TECHNOLOGY

According to a source at CNet, Apple is expected to announce a new high-speed connection technology soon. Intel has been working on a technology called Light Peak for years and recently said the initial version would be based on copper, as practical realities dictate more conventional technology.

Apple is expected to adopt this technology in the near future--but likely use a name other than Light Peak, a source familiar with this aspect of Apple's plans said. Intel has said in the past that the first products using Light Peak should appear in the first half of 2011.
When Intel initially demonstrated Light Peak at its developer conference in 2009 it used a machine running Apple's Mac OS X.

It is not known if Light Peak will make it into the Macbook Pro refresh (rumored to be coming February 24th) or make its debut later.

Light Peak was originally touted by Intel as the holy grail of connector technology: a single replacement for the myriad cables that connect to monitors, external drives, scanners, printers, and anything else that plugs into a computer. But Intel--and Apple--may be targeting more specific connection protocols, at least initially.

Light Peak is significantly faster than even USB 3.0, carrying data at 10 gigabits per second in both directions simultaneously. Connection speeds will not be affected by the transition to copper, according to Intel.

Sony is also expected to be an early adopter of the technology.

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.

APPLE EVENT ROUNDUP

Apple held their annual Mac event today titled 'Back to the Mac'.  A number of exciting things were announced. Read the recap below.

iLIFE '11:
Upgrades to all components including iMovie, iPhoto and GarageBand.
     iMovie - a bunch of new tricks to help regular people do advanced video editing.  The audio editing gets closer to Final Cut Pro in terms of precision of editing clips.  With built-in adjustment controls you can adjust audio volume very easily for the whole range or a user specified clip, just by dragging a bar up or down.  The ability to add voice-overs has been added as well.  Special effects have been greatly enhanced.  Apple calls them one-step effects and it allows the user the ability to add things like instant replay and flash and hold easily.  iMovie now includes the ability to create trailers.  By defining the "actors" in the story and using a storyboard feature to layout the trailer, iMovie is able take that information and create a trailer using a dozen or so templates.

     iPhoto - a new full screen mode has been added to allow more detailed views of photos.  Users can create enhanced slideshows as well as emailing directly from the app using a very iPad like interface.

     GarageBand -  two new features will definitely make your band sound more professional and help fix those pesky mistakes.  The first is Groove Matching.  This allows the user to make the music more in-sync.  By picking one track to sync with, all the other are automatically synced to that one track, kind of like Autotune for your tracks.  The second feature is Flex-Time which lets the user fix timings in songs.  If your guitar player plays a bit too long at the end of a song, you can use Flex-Time and shorten his track to end with everyone else.  Some new guitar and piano lessons have been added as well.

New Macbook Air:

Apple debuted not one but two new Macbook Airs an updated 13.3 inch and a new 11.6 incher.  Both have unibody construction.  They each have Core2Duo processors and Nvidia GeForce 320M graphic chips.  FaceTime cameras will be included as well.  Both are priced at just under $1000.

    13.3 inch - Will have a full size keyboard and multi-touch trackpad.  The screen has a 1440 x 900 resolution and it weighs just 3 pounds.  Battery life is being touted as 7 hours of active use and a month on standby.  Only one flavor with this bigger Air, a 1.86Mhz processor with 128GB of storage.

     11.6 inch - The new Air is smaller and weighs just 2.9 pounds.  It will also have a full size keyboard and multi-touch trackpad.  Battery life is a bit less than its bigger brother coming in at 5 hours of active use and 30 days of standby time.  The smaller Air is running a 1.4Ghz Core2Duo processor and has 64GB of storage, though you can upgrade to 128GB for approximately $200 more.  The storage is interesting on this smaller Air in that it is neither SSD or and HDD, but an SSD card, much like RAM, that is flash.  This makes for near zero boot times.  

OS X Lion:

The update to the current OS X will launch in Summer 2011.  It will include some elements of the iOS like an app store and springboard, renamed Launchpad.  Apple is going full-screen mode with most applications, especially iLife '11.  Windows aren't going away though.  Apple is hoping that this approach will simplify the way people use computers and does away with the clutter of multiple windows.  This is very similar to the way consumers are use to using the iPhone, iPad and iTouch devices. 

Mission Control will be introduced in Lion.  It is basically and updated Expose integrating the Dock, Dashboard and views from open apps, both windowed and full screen.  Launchpad works just like Springboard on the iPad.  It shows all the applications you have installed and uses pages to to display them and swipe gestures to navigate.

The Mac App Store is another big introduction to Lion.  It works just like the iOS App Store.  When a user purchases an app, the Mac will automatically install it in Launchpad.

Full Screen Mode

Mission Control

Launchpad

Launchpad Folders View

APPLE HOLDING 'BACK TO THE MAC' EVENT OCTOBER 20TH

It is time of the annual Mac event held by Apple.  This year's theme will be 'Back to the Mac'.  This event will definitely cover hardware, so a new iMac is probably going to be debuted along with new MacBooks.  Rumor has it the iMac will get a touchscreen display.

Software won't be left out and we expect to see new iLife software introduced as well.  Apple has intimated they will discuss the next version of OS X.

TGG will post a wrap up of the event as soon as possible, so come back next Wednesday to see the highlights. [Engadget]

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]