The New MacBook Air Promises “all-day” Battery life

Apple WWDC 2013 (Worldwide Developers Conference) was officially held in San Francisco, on June 10. Besides the updates of iOS and Mac OS X, it also upgrades the new Mac hardware series products, including the MacBook Air and Mac Pro.

Firstly, let’s look at the MacBook Air. There is no doubt that the biggest lightspot of all upgrades in Mac family is the new system OS X Mavericks and the Intel fourth generation 22 nm Haswell processor. Unfortunately, considering kinds of complicated factors such as the slim type, portability, battery life, battery capacity and heat dissipation, the unibody MacBook Air is not equipped with the retina display.

It is just a week since the Intel Haswell processor has officially launched which mainly improved power efficiency and reduced power consumption so as to promote the battery life of laptops. The Haswell processor upgrades the graphics to the Intel HD 5000. This is reported to be 40 percent faster than the HD 4000 used in most laptops today.

The most significant improvement in the new MacBook Air is the extended battery life due to the Haswell processor which improves twice the GPU performance and 40% CPU performance. Apple is quoting 9 hours for the 11.6-inch model compared to 5 hours in the previous model and 13 inch MacBook Air battery life from 7 hours up to 12 hours. At the same time, there is a built-in latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi module that has speed up three times. Using the latest flash memory, it is faster than 5400 – RPM laptop hard disc up to 9 times, even more increase 45% than the previous generation MacBook Air flash speed.

Previously the Airs shipped with 64 GB or 128 GB before installing the operating system and core apps. Both the new 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch Airs ship with 128 GB or 256 GB in the standard retail configurations. The highest optional storage capacity is big enough to 512 GB. Thus one concern some users had about storage space on the base model has been taken away.

The new MacBook Air does all the major computing tasks with ease, feeling like it is always ready for whatever you throw at it. We cannot deny with a robust operating system and app support, it has already been an ultraportable laptop but not a versatile one. The biggest function vacancy in multimedia is the Blu-ray compatibility. Although mentioned by users for many times, Blu-ray support has still not been on the schedule. Mac Blu-ray Player is the right software when you are looking for solution which could perfectly play Blu-ray Disc, Blu-ray ISO files and Blu-ray folders with ultrafast loading and super high quality on Mac. Only equipped with this unique Blu-ray media player can you easily enjoy an up to 1080p high-definition quality video and best-in-class DTS5.1 system output audio entertainment on your new MacBook Air for 8 or 10 hours stably and continuously. By the way, the new released OS X 10.9 is also perfectly supported by this MacBook Air Blu-ray Player.

If you want a machine with the biggest numbers on the spec sheet, look elsewhere. But if you want something that makes your life easier, and is always there for you, it’s hard to look beyond the MacBook Air.

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Apple Debuts New MacBook Air Without Retina Display

At its WWDC keynote this week Apple unveiled iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks that caught all the eyeballs. By contrast, Apple just launched only a brand new desktop Mac Pro and the updated MacBook Air, as well as introduced a new generation of AirPort Time Capsule.

Externally there’s no visible difference between these 2013 models and the previous MacBook Air machines. They look the same, weigh the same and have the same screens, keyboard, trackpad and ports. Besides, there are still 11″ and 13″ two versions available. What disappointed us is that the rumored Retina Display doesn’t appear on the new MacBook Air though many media and insiders predicted that Apple would launch the MacBook Air equipped with retina display. There must be some reason in it, so let’s find the answer.

 Power consumption is the primary problem

First of all, the problem is the battery life. Equipment including iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro possess retina display only with absence of MacBook Air. According to the analysis of Sweta Dash who is the research and strategy director of HIS agency, power type should be the biggest impact factor.

“Compared with the last generation, the battery capacity of Apple’s new MacBook Air almost doubled. While in case retina display cames, the increase in battery capacity will have no effect on battery life. For an ultrathin laptop the battery itself is a redundant.” Sweta Dash said.

Performance perhaps unable to meet demand

Under this situation, the hardware condition of the MacBook Air itself is not very suitable for using a retina display either. For example, if the 13-inch retina display is used, the resolution will subsequently upgrade to 2560 x1600 which absolutely needs better graphics support. Although the integrated Intel 4000 series of MacBook Air also can drive high resolution display, the disadvantage will expose in the use of large software or games, resulting in weaker experience.

Discrete Graphics is necessary to solve the problem of display, which also involves the problem of battery life. There is no doubt that the battery capacity needs improvement. Discrete graphics plus battery need extra body space, I’m afraid the internal space of the MacBook Air is not big enough to hold the discrete graphics and battery. It makes sense in new iPad. Because of the power consumption increasing, in order to maintain 10 hours of battery life, Apple had to increase the power of the new iPad with retina display, finally giving rise to the overall thickness increased.

IGZO technology is not mature

It seems that a technology from Japan named IGZO display could solve this problem, but for now, this technique is still very immature to apply to the laptop. IGZO is the abbreviation of indium gallium zinc oxide and amorphous IGZO material is used as the channeled material in the new generation of thin film transistor technology. It is Hosono from Japan Tokyo Institute of Technology that first put forward the application of IGZO materials into TFT industry. Afterwards, Sharp Corp. firstly realizes the mass production of IGZO-TFT in Japan. At present, the material and technical patents are mainly owned by Japanese manufacturers.

There is great possibility that this technology will enable both high resolution and low power consumption, thus companies including Samsung and LG are trying hard to research and develop their own IGZO technology. While, at present, the cost is still high, so it still needs quite a long time to increase technical maturity which means a lot to Apple. If now IGZO technology is applied to MacBook Air, correspondingly the price will improve. Once equal with the MacBook Pro, it must be very detrimental to Positioning Differentiation of Apple products.

Whether retina display or not, it doesn’t make too much difference in Blu-ray playback due to Blu-ray itself has already could guarantee an HD video experience. But the precondition is to make Blu-ray Disc/ISO available on Macbook Air with MacBook Air 2013 Blu-ray Player which is the world-class first and top-notch Blu-ray Player software. As a professional media player, Mac Blu-ray Player not only plays Blu-ray movie on Mac, but also plays DVD movies, videos (1080P HD video included) and audios for people to get cinematic movie experience at home.

So, the idea is too early for those MacBook Air users looking for use of Retina display. I believe sooner or later, Apple will launch MacBook Air laptop with Retina display, but at least for now, this will not become a reality within this year basically.

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The Revamped iOS 7 Breathe New Life into Your iPhone

Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the WWDC 2013 keynote presentation this week that iOS 7 is the biggest change to the mobile platform since the iPhone was introduced five years ago which means your iPhone and iPad might never look the same come this fall. So what’s going to be happening to your phone? Here are several our favorite new features.

First Hands on with iOS 7

Most notably, iOS 7 ditches the classic iOS look for a flat a very white user interface. Boasting a cleaner design, smoother layout, plus that “skinny jeans” retro font, Apple’s new iOS 7 shows that icons are flatter, brighter, and almost appear to float above the screen. But you still get the familiar grid of icons, pull-down notification tray and more.

Locking and unlocking the iPhone display with a fade-in/fade-out effect, which seems to combine a fade effect on the screen itself as well as a change in screen brightness. At the same time, the new Slide to Unlock message on the lock screen is just there by itself, no more next to a button with an arrow.

System improvements

FaceTime isn’t just for video chats anymore. The new iOS 7 will allow people to make audio-only voice calls using the FaceTime app via a Wi-Fi connection. Another cool new feature is an update to the App Store that allows users to search for popular apps based on location. So let’s say you’re in an exhibition hall, you can search and find apps relevant to that particular place.

Your Calendar app’s icon has long been able to show today’s date directly, but the Clock app’s icon has eternally been stuck at 10:15 since the first version. iOS 7’s advances in battery life have at last brought the Clock app to life, which means you only have to glance at its icon to see the time.
In iOS 7, you switch to another app still in the same way by double-tapping the home button, but get a new interface showing you what is happening in your app. You will see a card of the main screen of the apps you are running. You can tap to switch to it or swipe it up to close it.

Another small addition may save huge time digging through the settings menu. It appears control center in iOS 7. Swipe up from the bottom of the phone then you will see a new set of easy-access control buttons. You can easily access your Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Airplane mode toggles and adjust the brightness and volume. You can also turn on Apple’s new built-in flashlight.

Photos and video improvements

There are loads of new camera and photos features. In the Camera app there is a brand new interface, which lets you apply filters right to your photo. The era of face-tagging and photo-maps is over, replaced instead with Moments and Collections. The new iOS 7 also provides a differing way of organizing photos in the Camera Roll. Instead of just by when they were taken, it now allows you to organize them by geotagged location. You can also arrange your pictures by year and get an overview of a particular year with tiny images. It’s much like the organizational features available in Apple’s desktop iPhoto app.

If you love shooting high frame-rate video, you’ll love Apple’s new camera app, which purportedly shoots video at 60 frames per second.

Siri’s new tricks

As for Siri, the app has matured with a new voice and a new brain now and users will also have the ability to change the voice between male and female. New highly quality voices in both male and female will initially be available only in English, French, and German, but Apple plans to add more over time. It has a new interface that hovers over the home screen rather than slides down on top of it. That’s not all. However, Siri is also getting a bunch of new features and integration with other web services such as Bing, Wikipedia and Twitter. You could even give it a bunch of new commands such as adjusting the brightness of your display, enabling Bluetooth, giving directions or playing a voice mail. The service will also be finding its way to cars in 2014.

Featuring a radically overhauled interface, new Control Center, transparent animations and more, iOS 7 will be available for the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, the iPad 2, iPad third and fourth generation, the iPad mini and the iPod touch fifth generation. Same as the new iOS 7, a software named Mac Blu-ray Player also brought a summer carnival to all of your Apple machines including iOS devices. All Blu-ray Disc, Blu-ray files, and Blu-ray folders (BDMV folders) can be perfectly played on MacBook Pro, Air, Mac mini, iMac, Mac Pro with OS X 10.5 to 10.8, even the new launched 10.9. Almost all kinds of video, audio and photos stored in your devices could be played with it. Similarly, Mac Blu-ray Player is easy operated with friendly user interface and layout, as well as Multilanguage environment. After adding DTS 5.1 audio system, you could enjoy a super high quality of stereo output with the up to 1080p HD video.

We have enjoyed what we have seen of iOS 7, for sure. While clearly, there’s a whole bunch of interesting new stuff hidden away for us to discover when it actually ships this fall.

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The Rumored New Products and updates Launch at WWDC 2013

2013 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will be officially kicked off on June 10, San Francisco. For Apple fans across the world this is an occasion when they expect Apple bosses to make policy announcements, software updates and many other important things. According to the related media revealed, this WWDC will give priority to the software, which means new iOS 7 and OS X 10.9 will be the leading role of the convention.

In October 2012, Apple Scott Forstall quit office, instead Jonathan ivey(Jony Ive) who is the industrial design director of Apple took over his position in charging of the iOS and OS interface design. With Ive’s touch on iOS 7, people can expect it with a more flat design this time, rather than the “skeuomorphic design” Apple has been favoring for long years.

Meanwhile iOS 7 may deeply integrate photo-sharing site Flickr and Vimeo video web site to offer users more convenience. In addition, Apple may improve the user experience to ensure a more efficient use of iOS. For example, according to 9 to5mac reported, iOS 7 lock screen will be changed and the notification bar at the top of it may access by a more convenient gesture. Notification center will also include more window widgets panel that can make the weather and news information more intuitive for people.

It is also predicted that Siri function will be improved. Since added Siri function in iPhone4S, Apple has been constantly perfecting its functions of which the latest version is booking a Fandango tickets. In D11 conference, The CEO Tim cook said Apple will expand the offer for application programming interface (API) to developers, which means that developers will have the opportunity to add Siri function to their developed applications. This will be a very big change.

Another great OS that is going to be showcased is none other than Apple OS X 10.9. The next OS X version will be something further exciting thanks to the “continued integration between iOS and OS X, through apps and services, like iCloud and some of the same design concepts. According to internal sources, OS X 10.9 will mix together more iOS core functions but without too much changes on interface. It is rumored that OS X 10.9 will add more "advanced user" functions. In the most recent version, Apple makes some applications like iPhoto, iMove and its system more convenient for new users to use, but at the same time ignores the needs of senior OS X users. Therefore, it is reported by 9 to5mac, the new version of OS X would add more advanced functions including Finder labels and TAB browsing mode, etc. Siri is likely to be ported to OS X in some way.

Earlier Cook has confirmed that the new iOS 7 and OS X 10.9 system are something surely going to be showcased at WWDC. So how about the hardware? For a couple of months we have been hearing that Apple might introduce new MacBook Air and Macbook Pro. The new MacBook Air may use Intel Haswell processor and improve 50% battery life. It is reported that the new MacBook Air computers will be equiped with an HD front-facing camera, improved microphone system and a faster 802.11ac wireless network chip. The new line of MacBook Air is expected to get Retina display variants also, following the path of MacBook Pros last year.

In terms of the MacBook Pro, Guo Mingchi said, despite the launch of MacBook Pro based on the Retina screen, Apple will not give up the old MacBook Pro screen, which is opposite to what he predicted before. Guo Mingchi thinks, it still has market advantage, especially 13 inches products.

The reason that we pin so much expectations on the hardware updates and improvements is we desire extremely to get terrific experience from it. While nothing about Blu-ray capacity is mentioned among multifarious reports which disappoints all the enthusiastic Apple and Blu-ray fans. Fortunately we still have other choice to make our beloved Blu-ray Disc play on Mac. Lately, Macgo Inc updates its featured product- Mac Blu-ray Player to V2.8.8 which fixed the issue of crash and “Failed to open Blu-ray Disc”. With this great media tool, you’ll never be caught in the frustrated dilemma while playing.

“Where a whole new world is developing” is the influence that Apple generates on us while a new Blu-ray world on Mac is the surprise that Mac Blu-ray Player brings about.

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