MacBook Air rumor roundup: More RAM, bigger SSD, launch next week

[FeralKitty]

From TUAW (http://www.tuaw.com/2011/07/14/macbook-air-rumor-roundup-more-ram-bigger-ssd-launch-next-wee/):

AllThingsD's sources also confirmed the widespread rumors that the MacBook Air will feature a return to backlit keyboards, a Thunderbolt port, and more powerful "Sandy Bridge" processors from Intel. The new MacBook Air is also rumored to have its base RAM and SSD capacity bumped up, with 128 GB now the baseline capacity and 4 GB the new minimum RAM.

Read more... (http://www.tuaw.com/2011/07/14/macbook-air-rumor-roundup-more-ram-bigger-ssd-launch-next-wee/)

Big bump in specs, but the price point will apparently be the same. I hear that Apple is even lowering some international prices for the Air, so this may be an even bigger bargain for other countries.

*wishes his iMac had an SSD...*

[FeralKitty]

The new MacBook Airs (http://www.apple.com/macbookair/) are available now. As expected, the models come with a big bump in specs, and feature OS X Lion.

[FeralKitty]

From 9to5Mac (http://9to5mac.com/2011/07/21/new-macbook-air-shipments-already-topping-500000-units/):

It seems the refreshed MacBook Air (http://9to5mac.com/2011/07/20/apple-store-is-back-up-with-new-sandy-bridge-mac-minis-macbook-airs-and-cinema-display/) that came to light yesterday is bound to become another smash hit for Apple. According to (http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20110720PD222.html) trade publication DigiTimes, shipments of the latest MacBook Air from the supply chain already topped half a million units in June, the volume expected “to remain strong throughout July and August”. If shipments remain at this level, Apple could ship at least a million and half units of the third-generation MacBook Air during the September quarter:

The sources estimated that Apple’s MacBook series sales will reach 13-14 million units in 2011 and may even reach 15 million units, while adding that Apple is the only vendor that has provided a full shipments forecast to the first quarter of 2012 as the IT industry is being rather conservative about the overall demand in the second half of 2011.
Read more... (http://9to5mac.com/2011/07/21/new-macbook-air-shipments-already-topping-500000-units/)

[FeralKitty]

From Cult of Mac (http://www.cultofmac.com/apples-new-macbook-airs-beat-some-high-end-macbook-pros-in-early-benchmark-tests/105562):

Apple’s latest lineup of MacBook Air ultraportables are not only significantly faster than their predecessors, but thanks to those new Core i5 and i7 processors, they also beat the high-end 2010 MacBook Pro in early benchmark tests.

According to the Geekbench benchmarking tools, the late 2010 13-inch MacBook Air, with its 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, scored 2681; while the 11-inch model with its 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor achieved 2024.

Whereas, tests carried out by Laptop magazine reveal the latest 13-inch MacBook Air earned an impressive Geekbench score of 5860 — an improvement in performance of over 100% on last year’s model. The 11-inch model was the most impressive, however, jumping from just 2024 last year to 5040 — a 149% increase.

With numbers like these, Apple’s latest 11-inch MacBook Air rivals its 2010 high-end 17-inch Core i7 MacBook Pro, according to Electricpic (http://electricpig.co.uk/2011/07/20/2011-macbook-air-benchmarks-are-amazing-outperforms-all-2010-macbook-pros/):

To put these benchmarks into perspective, the 2010 17-inch 2.67 GHz Core i7 MacBook Pro scored 5423. For £849 the 11-inch MacBook Air offers a benchmark on par with last year’s £2099 17-inch MacBook Pro.
Read more... (http://www.cultofmac.com/apples-new-macbook-airs-beat-some-high-end-macbook-pros-in-early-benchmark-tests/105562)

[FeralKitty]

Amazon is currently offering $50 off on the Macbook Air (http://astore.amazon.com/pinata-20/detail/B005CWIN1E). With free shipping, and no sales tax, this is currently the best online offer for Apple's most mobile Mac.