A modified version of OS X 10.7.3 has been tested with an unreleased Intel Core i7 Ivy Bridge chip, giving a first indication of how Apple's next-generation Macs will perform.
The 13- and 15-inch varieties of Apple's next-generation MacBook Pro, which will drop the optical disc drive for a thinner profile, are said to now be in production.
Apple's new 15-inch MacBook Pros will be thinner than current models but thicker than a MacBook Air, and will feature Intel's latest Ivy Bridge Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs when they launch next month, according to a new report.
Rumors of a larger 15-inch MacBook Air continue to surface, with the latest claim suggesting Apple is gearing up to launch a larger ultraportable notebook in April.
Apple's next-generation low- and mid-range MacBook Pro models will not feature dedicated graphics cards, and will instead rely on Intel's integrated Ivy Bridge graphics due to production issues with Nvidia, according to a new report.
Apple this week issued a pair of firmware updates, resolving a flickering graphics issue in late 2008 15-inch MacBook Pro models and addressing a hanging graphics issue on iMacs.
New 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros with a thinner and lighter design are expected to launch in April "at the soonest," with an initial shipment of just under a million units.
Intel's next-generation Ivy Bridge processors, sized at 22 nanometers and expected to appear in Apple's updated Mac lineup, will become available eight to 10 weeks later than originally planned, one company official has said.
The combined total of iPad and MacBook shipments in the fourth quarter of 2011 gave Apple a whopping 26.6 percent share of the mobile PC market, nearly tripling the share held by second-place HP.
A pair of Apple's largest authorized resellers this week are offering a handful of incentives on sales of new Macs that translate to the most aggressive instant savings on MacBook Pros and Mac minis seen so far this year and prior, including a 2.2GHz 17-inch MacBook Pro for $1815 and 2.3GHz Mac mini for $529.
The newly released beta of Messages for OS X contains support for double-pixel resolutions, offering more evidence that Apple is working on high-resolution Retina Displays for future Mac hardware.
Intel is rumored to have warned its partners that mass shipments of its next-generation Ivy Bridge processors, which are expected to make their way into Apple's Mac lineup later this year, will not begin until after June, though a "small volume" of chips will reportedly go out in early April.
While most of its rivals are struggling to match innovations Apple pioneered with its first MacBook Airs over three years ago, the Mac maker this year is hoping to further distance itself from the competition with a pair of radically redesigned professional offerings that will set the tone for the next wave of notebook computing.
Apple on Tuesday released several EFI firmware updates for its 2010 Macs to enable the Lion Internet Recovery feature to the older machines.
Consumer electronics maker Samsung has voiced its goal of becoming the No. 1 notebook maker, but it will run up against rival Apple and its hot-selling MacBook lineup on its way to the top.
This year, Apple's Mac OS X platform turned ten years old, launched the 10.7 Lion reference release, introduced the Mac App Store and iCloud, and delivered a series of new Macs boasting fast, flexible Thunderbolt connectivity and speedy new Sandy Bridge processors.
Intel is rumored to release a total of 25 new 22-nanometer Ivy Bridge processors on April 8, 2012, signaling a potential launch window for Apple's next generation of Macs.
Apple could build new notebooks that are even smaller and lighter than current battery-powered devices by switching to fuel cells for power.
Prices and inventory of hard disk drives lineup appear to have bottomed out and begun to recover from the devastating flooding in Thailand, with no sign of a significant impact on Apple.
Apple supplier and manufacturing partner Pegatron said 61 workers had been injured as a result of an explosion at a subsidiary's metal casing factory in Shanghai, China.
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AppleInsider Staff
Sam Oliver
Neil Hughes
Katie Marsal
Josh Ong
Kasper Jade
Daniel Eran Dilger
Slash Lane
