iMac

image via Bloomberg

As part of the prepared statement of today’s earnings call, CFO Peter “Griffin” Oppenheimer told the audience that Lion was launching tomorrow.  In case you didn’t know.

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From 9to5toys.com:

Amazon offers the Corsair 8GB (2x4GB) PC3-10666 DDR3-1333 SO-DIMM 204-Pin Dual Channel Notebook Memory Kit, model no. CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9, for $54.99.99 with free shipping. The $10 mail-in rebate cuts it to $44.99.

The 8GB (2 X 4GB) DDR3 Laptop Memory Kit  is 1333MHz Unbuffered CL 9 SODIMM Memory 9-9-9-24 1.5V which matches recent iMac and MacBook Pro Specs.  Commenters at Amazon concur.

Got a 2009-2010 model?  Even better, save an additional $5

Apple charges 4X that for an 8GB upgrade:

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MacRumors noticed that Apple placed images of their new LED Cinema Display on their website yesterday. The leaked display looks identical to the current model, but will have a Thunderbolt port on the back to easily connect with Apple’s latest Thunderbolt machines: iMacs, MacBook Pros and Mac Pros, MacBook Airs, and Mac minis in the very near future. You can tell that these are new displays based on the unreleased model number, previously thought to be a new White MacBook that they are attached to and by the OS X Lion wallpaper.

The differentiation is important because, as Apple has warned in a previous KB article, the CD no longer has to be the end of a Thunderbolt chain of devices.  For instance, you could have an external hard drive array connected to your monitor permanently rather than having to plug into another device which would terminate at the monitor.  For MacBook Air/Pro users, this would allow the ‘power-USB-Thunderbolt’ cable to do everything, yet again.

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9to5mac partner Dealnews today publishes price trends research showing that the best time to buy a Mac might not be at launch.  Tax issues aside, even waiting a few days for Amazon and other outlets to carry new Macs can save a hundred bucks or more.

We’ll of course have any announcements, should they happen tomorrow and links to products as soon as they become available.

As always, keep an eye on 9to5toys.com for up to the minute deals on Apple products and accessories.
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Update: New MacBooks and Mac minis, not Mac Pros (yet). Full story here.

We have been expecting new MacBook Airs this week and now it appears that the ultra-thin notebooks won’t be the only new Macs this week. According to our source Mr. X, part numbers for an upgraded Mac Pro line have appeared, hinting at a release for the new line of professional-minded desktop Macs in the coming days. Here are the new MacBook Airs:

As you can see from the Apple-internal part numbers above, Apple will be releasing four new MacBook Air models. This includes two 11 inch models and two 13 inch models; both screen sizes will come in entry level and upgraded configurations. Built-to-order options (BTO) will be available as well. We expect some RAM and processor upgrades. Our sources who handled the new MacBook Air told us earlier this month to not expect any noticeable exterior changes. Speedy Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt I/O are this model’s main upgrades.

Surprisingly, it also looks like new Mac Pros are coming as early as this week. The new line was rumored to be launching in the last week of July or the first week of August, but it looks like Apple is getting them out earlier (or we just got the part numbers super early, which is unlikely). The new Mac Pros are may feature a re-designed enclosure that is both narrower and rack-mountable. A faster, 16 core model is also a possibility and Thunderbolt is an obvious addition. As expected, a new Mac Pro Server model will also debut. Here are the new Mac Pros:

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Hardware specialists over at Bare Feats ran a series of interesting Final Cut Pro X benchmarks pitting the latest Sandy Bridge-equipped iMac and MacBook Pro against the last year’s Mac Pro. The iMac system rocked a 3.4GHz quad-core Core i7 processor with 16GB of DDR3 1333MHz RAM and AMD Radeon HD 6970M graphics with 2GB of GDDR5 video memory. The MacBook Pro was a 2.3GHz quad-core Core i7 system with 8G of DDR3 1333MHz RAM and AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics with 1G of GDDR5 video memory. The 2010 Mac Pro desktop had a 3.33GHz six-core Westmere processor with 24GB of ECC DDR3 1333MHz RAM and AMD Radeon HD 5870 graphics with 1G of GDDR5 video memory.

Summing up, in two out of four benchmarks involving blur sharpen and blur directional effects the iMac came in first and the MacBook Pro outperformed or matched the Mac Pro. It is in the remaining two GPU-intensive tests – exporting a Final Cut Pro X project in H.264 (transcoding) and encoding a  Blu-Ray stream in Compressor 4 – that the Mac Pro shined. Although the benchmarks are far from conclusive, they give away the false impression of Apple favoring the newer Sandy Bridge architecture.

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We’ve heard from a few overseas sources that Apple Retail stores are planning ‘overnights’ on July 13th.  Overnights are generally where Apple refreshes store displays and trains up management on new products.  Sometimes it is big stuff and sometimes it is insignificant (at least to us).

July 13th, however, lines up with our Lion release date pretty nicely.  We’re expecting the Lion release obviously, and also some new MacBook Airs which may or may not have faster storage (but not this fast), a Sandy Bridge CPU, HD Facetime cam and Thunderbolts coming out the side.

We’ve heard some stories of backlit keyboards, 3Gs, a black option and the mythical 15-inch MacBook Air HD but they seem unlikely at this point.

Along with the Airs, there have been shortages of the White MacBooks, Mac Minis and (perhaps redesigned) Pros  — everything that doesn’t currently have Thunderbolt — so those could also see updates.  If not on the 14th, then perhaps shortly after.

In fact, MacBook Pros and iMacs with Snow Leopard pre-installed have also seen some hiccups in inventory globally so we’re thinking Apple is going to re-package those items for Lion at some point in the next few months.  Probably sooner rather than later.

Just one question?  Anyone camping out?

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We’ve been hearing reports of minor – not severe – white MacBook constraints as early as last week. The white MacBooks are not even close to as constrained as the MacBook Air and the Mac mini – which is in fact constrained as well – but the process leading up to a product refresh is booting up. Now, we’ve discovered that Best Buy is marking the $999 white MacBooks as “backordered” in their systems.

This is the same system that currently marks the constrained Mac minis as “backordered,” as we reported two weeks ago. Looking deeper into BestBuy’s online store, the major Apple reseller is quoted new white MacBook shipments between July 15th and July 27th. We’re not saying that this backordered status means a refresh for the MacBook, as this can just be indicative of Apple loading OS X Lion – rumored to be launching in mid-July – on to the consumer notebooks. More after the break:

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As with just about any new Apple product release, iFixit has torn apart the Thunderbolt cable. Why a boring cable?  iFixit has revealed that the new Thunderbolt cable actually has active chips inside, making transfers  faster.

We found two Gennum GN2033 chips in the connector, one on each side. They were flanked by other, much smaller chips that surely added to the cable’s cost: two chips labeled S6A 1JG on one side, and chips labeled 1102F SS8370 and 131 3S on the other. Of course, there were tons of little resistors (providing impedance as needed) all around the larger chips.

Thunderbolt’s release on MacBook Pros and iMacs should be followed by new Macs coming soon. Inside the cable chip housing below
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New MacBook Airs are right around the corner and just about everyone is expecting to see a Thunderbolt port, FaceTimeHD and Sandy Bridge processors.  Apple could even update storage and RAM pricing.

But what else could these new Airs have under the hood?  Put your answers below and any additional items in the comments.

Following the Thunderbolt firmware update for Macs, Apple has published three new support documents pertaining to the new $49 Thunderbolt-to-Thunderbolt cable released Monday, using Thunderbolt with Boot Camp and Windows 7 and some tricks to get the best performance from Thunderbolt. Here’s what you need to know…

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If you have a Thunderbolt Mac, you’ve got an update waiting for you in Software Update.  We’ve done some rummaging around in the update files (thanks Pacifist!) and as you can see below, only 3 machines get update.  Nothing from the future just yet.
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Following a report from earlier this week that claims that Apple is gearing up to launch a new Mac Pro in late July or early August, a reliable source tells 9to5Mac that Apple has referenced a mid-2011 Mac Pro in multiple internal documents. This, of course, is reference to an unreleased Mac Pro. Apple has not upgraded their professional desktop Mac since July 2010. Additionally, these internal documents are said to tout four new core Mac Pro models: 6 cores, 8 cores, 12 cores, and for the first time, 16 cores. This is likely in addition to some custom configurations.

If these internal documents jibe with what Apple will be soon releasing, Mac customers will be able to get their hands on a super-fast 16-core Mac. In addition to these specifications, we hear that Apple has already begun the process of assembling product manuals for the new Mac Pro, corroborating previous claims of a late July or early August launch. Our sources could not confirm if the new rack mountable design, which we detailed, will make its way into the 2011 model.

On a final note, a certain Apple executive has reportedly said the following in an email we’ve seen:

“Apple is investing heavily into Mac Pro”

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Image via Sean Percival

Our spidey sense has been tingling over the past few weeks on this “Late May, 10th anniversary meeting”  we’ve been hearing much about.  Today BGR lays the groundwork for such an event:

• There’s an overnight shift planned for around 10-15 individuals at each Apple Store to work from late Saturday all the way through mid-Sunday.
• During the overnight shift, it’s going to be required that employees lock cell phones in the main office. They will also have to sign an NDA with Apple.
• There are a wide variety of roles, we’re told, for the overnight shift. This includes all visuals staff, a manager, a business team member, a few Genius team members, one back-of-house employee, and a few generic Apple specialists.
• Apple stores have apparently already received hardware to install, and are expecting more hardware to come on Friday or Saturday. All materials that Apple stores have received have been instructed to be under lock and key until after close on Saturday night.
• Apple employees will be putting up black curtains at all stores so that people walking outside cannot see inside.
• Employees have had to download gigabytes of data from Apple corporate labeled, “training” in a password-protected zipped folder that won’t accessible to managers or anyone else until Saturday afternoon.
• Lastly, all Apple retail stores have mandatory meetings on Sunday, May 22nd. Most meeting are scheduled for the morning, but there are evening meetings as well.

Additionally, MacStories is reporting that the normal Sunday evening meeting has been moved to the morning.
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via some Dutch Dude who didn’t have any issues installing an SSD in the Hard drive Bay

According to a blog post at OWC, the new iMacs have a temperature sensor in their hard drives which will restrict replacing with non-Apple hard drives.

For the main 3.5″ SATA hard drive bay in the new 2011 machines, Apple has altered the SATA power connector itself from a standard 4-pin power configuration to a 7-pin configuration. Hard drive temperature control is regulated by a combination of this cable and Apple proprietary firmware on the hard drive itself. From our testing, we’ve found that removing this drive from the system, or even from that bay itself, causes the machine’s hard drive fans to spin at maximum speed and replacing the drive with any non-Apple original drive will result in the iMac failing the Apple Hardware Test (AHT).

Here’s the thing though:  What if you order an iMac without a hard drive?  One iMac option is just the SSD which is mounted on the optical drive?  Perhaps there is a way to disable fans altogether and thats what ships with SSD-only iMacs?

Clearly some more investigative work is necessary.

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COMPUTERWORLD: Apple is making Macs more touch-friendly when touch makes sense. Magic Trackpad is the touch interface for desktops, but how long will it be until we see the Mac keyboard replaced by a touch-sensitive, intelligent device? What would it do?

Read more

Apple  generates more column inches of coverage than any other firm on the planet. Love or loathe, millions worldwide are fascinated by what happens in Cupertino — and that’s probably why the company is now one of the biggest in the world dominating the smartphone and tablet industries.

What follows are some of the most essential titles any Apple watcher should read and own if they really want to build up their understanding of the company.

We’ve been watching Apple at work and play for a long, long time. We consider these to be the key titles to help boost understanding of the history and philosophy of the company.

We know that Mac website editors across the planet have a few books forever in the shelf behind their desk, and we figured it would be of some interest if told you which books they are.

So, whether it’s to satisfy your own curiousity, or for a Christmas or birthday present for an Apple fan, we think you really can’t go wrong with any one or all of these titles. Read on…

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Apple’s product naming is easy to love.

Apple’s recent success in the technology market is, of course, the result of several factors. The solid hardware, the meticulously maintained and simplified software, and a fantastic retail show from the store floor to the unboxing of its products. They have a total user experience that no one has yet been able to touch.

Something that isn’t talked about much, however, is quite basic: Apple’s product naming strategy. No other company puts as much effort into distilling and simplifying their product naming.

You’ll even notice that when referring to their gadgets, Steve Jobs and other Apple employees refer to them as “iPod” or “iPhone”, not “the iPod” or “the iPhone”. Taking out the definite article anthropomorphizes these products, likening them to a friend or pet.

Because of this, it’s easy to get your head around Apple’s array of products. Just four basic product lines – Macintosh, iPod, iPhone and AppleTV – and not much else besides a few accessories, software and services that Apple sells.

For iPhone and AppleTV, that’s all you need to know. The only other classification information for these two product lines is the memory space. iPhone 8GB, 16GB. AppleTV 40/160GB. Easy.

For iPods and Macs, there are a few more variables. But nowhere will you find confusing model numbers in the product lines.

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1996, he slashed everything that wasn’t profitable and moving forward, simplified the Apple lineup. Gone were the many different clones, the Power Macintosh 8500/180s, the Newton MessagePad 2100/Emate 300 and the Powerbook 1400, 2400 and 3400.

In came the PowerMac G3, the iMac, the Powerbook G3 and then later the iBook, MacPros, MacBooks and MacMini. iPods are no different: Shuffle, Nano, Classic, Touch; no numbers, just names.

Contrast this with Nokia, which sells its solid N-series phone lineup from N70 to N96. Ask all but the most hardened geek what differentiates each one and you’ll get little more than a confused expression. How about the Toshiba G900 or the Samsung F700? – both great phones with forgettable names. It’s hard to have a relationship with an anonymous number.

How about a network product from Linksys or Dlink? My NAS is a Dlink DNS-323 but it doesn’t do domain naming. I love the Linksys WRT54G router line for its hacktasticness, but it’s hard to even identify. The software I use to run it is called DD-WRT. Is that, wert?

Apple calls its wireless product Airport. It has for years. When it adds more features like a Gigabit Ethernet hub and USB hard drive support, it becomes Airport Extreme (I know “extreme” is oh so tired – but stick with me here). The smaller, portable model? Airport Express. Non-techies can get this.

Or how about PC Manufacturers like Dell, HP and Sony, which offer models like the VGN-PR2 or the XPS 420. It’s hard to endear yourself to an XPS-420 unless your name is R2-D2 or C3PO.

Certain other tech companies have had success with real names. The LG Chocolate. The Samsung Blackjack. Motorola’s RAZR, KRZR, etc. But these are the exception rather than the rule.

With the success that Apple has had with its simplified naming strategy, it is a wonder that more technology companies aren’t copying such an obvious success and persist in confusing and alienating their customers.