At today's WWDC keynote in San Francisco, California, Apple announced new 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Airs, which have been designed with battery life in mind. As expected, the new Airs use Haswell processors that offer enhanced performance and significantly improved battery life, but feature no cosmetic changes.
With the new Haswell processors, The 11" MacBook Air will now have nine hours of battery life while the 13" MacBook Air will have a stunning 12 hours of battery life.
In addition to Haswell processors, the new MacBooks feature 802.11ac compatibility, with support for the "Gigabit WiFi" 802.11ac specification. Gigabit WiFi offers speeds up to three times as fast as existing 802.11n wireless networks.
The 11" MacBook Air starts at $999 with a 128GB hard drive and the 13" MacBook Air with a 128GB hard drive starts at $1099. Apple's MacBook Airs are available today from Apple's Online Store and at retail locations.
Related Roundup: MacBook Air
Buyer's Guide: MacBook Air (Buy Now)
Top Stories
Apple Acquires Weather App Dark Sky
Apple has acquired weather app Dark Sky, Dark Sky's developers announced today. Dark Sky is one of the most popular weather apps on the App Store, known for its accuracy and storm warnings.
Our goal has always been to provide the world with the best weather information possible, to help as many people as we can stay dry and safe, and to do so in a way that respects your privacy.
There is no ...
Seemingly Unreleased Version of Logic Pro X With Live Loops Appears on Apple's Education Site [Updated]
Update: Apple has replaced the Logic Pro X image with an older version. Original story follows.
A seemingly unreleased version of Logic Pro X has appeared on Apple's education site, as spotted by a Reddit user. The image from Apple's education products page shows a 16-inch MacBook Pro running Logic Pro X, but with a familiar interface that looks extremely similar to GarageBand's Live Loops ...
Bloomberg: Apple's 5G iPhone Still on Schedule for Fall Launch, But Future Products Could Be Delayed
Apple's 5G iPhone is still on track to launch within the company's typical annual fall release schedule, according to a new Bloomberg report on filed on Monday.
Signs are that Apple's Chinese-centric manufacturing -- of which Hon Hai is the linchpin -- is slowly getting back on track. The next iPhones with 5G wireless capabilities remain on schedule to launch in the fall, partly because mass...
Case for Upcoming Low-Cost iPhone Shows Up at Best Buy With Alleged April 5 Stock Date
Apple has a new low-cost iPhone in the works, which is supposed to be launching sometime in the first half of 2020. Given the ongoing situation in the United States and other countries, it's been unclear if the device is going to launch within the planned timeline, but there are signs that it could be coming soon.
We started seeing cases for the new low-cost iPhone back in early February,...
Testing Brydge's New Pro+ Keyboard With Trackpad for iPad Pro
Well ahead of when Apple introduced trackpad support in iOS 13.4, Brydge announced an iPad Pro keyboard with a built-in multi-touch trackpad. We have one of Brydge's new Pro+ keyboards on hand, and thought we'd check it out to see how it works with Apple's new 2020 iPad Pro models.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The Brydge Pro+ keyboard is similar in design to...
Apple's Work on New Upcoming Products Progressing Normally as Employees Adjust to Telecommuting
Apple's development of upcoming products is progressing as usual despite the fact that Apple employees around the world are working from home, according to a new report today out from Bloomberg.
Apple is still working on new versions of the HomePod, Apple TV, MacBook Pro, budget iPads, Apple Watch, iPhone, and iMac, all of which could be released "as early as later this year" and have been...
Apple Releases ProRes RAW Beta for Windows
Apple today released ProRes RAW for Windows in a beta capacity (via Mark Gurman), with the software designed to allow ProRes RAW and ProRes RAW HQ video files to be watched in compatible applications on Windows machines. According to Apple, the software will let the files be played within several Adobe apps: Adobe After Effects (Beta) Adobe Media Encocder (Beta) Adobe Premiere...
2020 iPad Pro Teardown Provides Closer Look at LiDAR Scanner and Confirms Incremental Update
iFixit today shared a video teardown of the new iPad Pro, which Apple unveiled earlier this month. iFixit found that most of the internals of the 2020 iPad Pro are the same as the 2018 model, confirming that the device is a relatively incremental update.
The most notable new feature seen inside the new iPad Pro was the LiDAR scanner, which measures the distance to surrounding objects up...
Apple Configurator 2 Updated With New Features, Including Support for Restoring Firmware on 2019 Mac Pro
Apple Configurator 2 has been updated to version 2.12 with several improvements, including support for restoring firmware on the 2019 Mac Pro.
The release notes:• Added support for restoring firmware on the 2019 Mac Pro
• Allow access to websites using TLS 1.0 and 1.1
• VPN: Configure Provider Designated Requirement for Custom SSL connection type
• VPN: Configure network options for ...
U.S. Government Using Mobile Ad Location Data to Track Compliance With Curbs on Movement
The U.S. government is using smartphone location data from the mobile ad industry to track people's movements amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Local governments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have received the anonymized data about people in areas of "geographic interest," with the aim being to create a portal of geolocation...
Top Rated Comments
(View all)Very disappointed with such minor updates! :-(
Almost twice the battery life, almost twice the graphics power, and 802.11ac? I wouldn't call that necessarily minor. What were you expecting? Built-in coffee maker?EDIT: For some reason I considered almost 50% being twice the graphics power; but nonetheless, quite the improvement! Especially compared to my Sandy Bridge GPU.
Very disappointed with such minor updates! :-(
are you serious? this is one of the largest jumps in battery life i've ever seen.
Seriously this is one of the largest single generation jumps in battery-life we've ever seen and on Apple's ultraportable line where you need all the battery-life you can get. I was expecting 10hrs for the 13-inch and that was my optimistic guess. I'm a little disappointed that it appears 8gb is still only a BTO option but considering a redesign was not expected I think this update is fantastic.
Now I'm wondering if I should sell my current MBA while I can still get a good price or just stick with it since I just bought it 6-months ago...hmmm...
Also for all the retina whiners. The fact that apple just dropped the price (again) for the MBAs basically killed any hope of retina coming to this machine as it is currently branded. They will continue to make the rMBPs thinner and lighter and if you want retina buy those machines.
Almost twice the battery life, almost twice the graphics power, and 802.11ac? I wouldn't call that necessarily minor. What were you expecting? Built-in coffee maker?
Twice the graphics power I don't think so and who is going to be using that 1GBps wireless connection anytime soon? I was truly looking forward to this and let's be honest it was a let down.
What an anti climax.
We knew Haswell would be in, but that is it, better battery life.
tut
that's all many of us wanted. look at the battery size differences between the classic and retina macbooks... it's an ultralight. if you want high-res get the 13" retina.
i don't understand the complaint - seems like a no brainer to me
do you think there will be a BTO to upgrade the display to 1080p. This is very sad if it is still the old display resolutions. That is like so ancient by today's terms.
I'll take the battery life over the retina display any day. Great design decision.