Category: Apple

Apple is currently selling a lot of notebooks, and its more than a little confusing. Long gone are the days of a more simple product matrix, when the line between what was for consumers and what was for professionals was more clear.

Three out of the five portable machines on this page sport a 13-inch screen. The new MacBook is thinner and lighter than the MacBook Air. The MacBook Pro and MacBook Air actually have ports, but the Air doesn’t come with a Retina display like the MacBook Pro and MacBook.

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Glenn Fleishman:

But how likely is a cord-tripper to yank a new MacBook off a surface versus the USB-C cable coming out first? My calculations, vetted by Mack and a variety of engineers, show it’s almost certain the MacBook will move a bit or a lot unless all your stars perfectly align.

Hold on! Some math’s coming, but it’s worth it.

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As of this writing, the iOS and Mac App Stores are down, as well as the iBook and iTunes Stores. Yikes.

Update: Apple has isssued a statement on the matter:

BREAKING: Apple apologizes to users for outage that took down iTunes & other services. http://t.co/61NJWHH7pY pic.twitter.com/yZGQCRudYl

— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) March 11, 2015

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As rumored, today’s event included the unveiling of an all-new Apple portable. While the rumor mill was calling it a MacBook Air, the new machine returns to familiar ground and is just called MacBook.

(It even comes in colors, and my, the Space Gray looks good.)

Specs-wise, the machine is a 12-inch notebook with a 226 pixels per inch Retina display and an Intel Core M processor with 8 GB RAM, which allows it to run fanless. It forgoes all ports ever shipped on an Apple notebook for a single, solitary USB C port across from a headphone jack.

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Apple:

Apple Watch is so capable you’ll want to wear it all day long. So we made sure we gave it a battery that lasts all day, too. Our goal for battery life was 18 hours after an overnight charge, factoring in things like checking the time, receiving notifications, using apps, and doing a 30-minute workout. And because everyone will use Apple Watch differently, we tested several other metrics as well.

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Early last month, I visited a local jewelry store to buy a necklace for my wife. Her birthday is just a few days before Valentine’s Day, and this year I wanted to do something nicer for the occasion than usual.

I walked in wearing jeans, a plaid shirt, and sneakers, but was helped immediately by the staff. The woman who helped me was knowledgeable and helpful, and even though I spent shy of four figures, the level of service was phenomenal. We had a conversation about Merri’s likes and dislikes, and walked through some options together.

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Reminds me of this.

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As the Apple Store has grown in both popularity and scope, the Genius Bar has seen some radical changes.

In the early days, there wasn’t an appointment system or staff reserved for certain types of devices. The Genius team was just there, in the back of the store, ready to take whatever came their way.

Over time, it got more complicated. People’s names were recorded on-site, and helped in order, then appointments had to be made in advance. Things like drop-offs and same-day repairs only made life more complicated for Geniuses.

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The company has rolled out an extended repair program for 2011 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro and 2012-2013 15-inch MacBook Pros with Retina display with these issues:

• Distorted or scrambled video on the computer screen
• No video on the computer screen (or external display) even though the computer is on
• Computer restarts unexpectedly

If you have a machine of this vintage with these issues, Apple will repair the machine free of charge, even if AppleCare was not purchased.

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Tim Higgins at Bloomberg:

Dan Akerson, retired chief executive officer of General Motors Co., said Apple Inc. should steer clear of the business of making cars, though a push into automobile electronics would be a better move for the iPhone maker.

[…]

“I think somebody is kind of trying to cough up a hairball here,” Akerson said in a telephone interview. “If I were an Apple shareholder, I wouldn’t be very happy. I would be highly suspect of the long-term prospect of getting into a low-margin, heavy-manufacturing” business.

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The Onion’s take on Project Titan is pretty great.

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Yesterday afternoon, the Apple-centric corner of the Internet freaked out over a report from The Wall Street Journal that said Cupertino has “several hundred” people working on an electric car project named “Project Titan:”

Mr. Cook approved the car project almost a year ago and assigned veteran product design Vice President Steve Zadesky to lead the group, the people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Zadesky is a former Ford engineer who helped lead the Apple teams that created the iPod and iPhone.

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