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MacBook Air

700 'MacBook Air' stories October 2010 - November 2013
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In 2008 Steve Jobs introduced the first ultra-thin, lightweight MacBook Air by dramatically sliding it out of an inter-office envelope. The idea of a dramatically thin, lightweight, and fully functional laptop continues on.

MacBook Air M3 15-inch deals

The MacBook Air is “the default Mac” – the one you should buy if you’re not sure which model you need.

Table of contents

History

The MacBook Air was launched in 2008 as a premium 13-inch model, billed as the world’s thinnest laptop. It was dramatically revealed by Steve Jobs sliding it out of an office envelope.

In 2010, it was joined by an 11-inch model. By 2011, that had become the entry-level MacBook, replacing the plain MacBook in the lineup. Its combination of affordability, portability, cuteness, and suitability for most people’s computer usage saw it become a hugely popular machine with everyone from students to senior business execs.

The 11-inch MacBook Air was discontinued in 2016, leaving only the 13-inch models.

In 2018, we saw the first major update to the then-elderly design. This gave the machine a Retina display, Touch ID, USB-C ports along with a design refresh with smaller bezels, a slimmer form factor, and lighter weight.

In 2020, the MacBook Air was one of the first three machines to make the switch from Intel processors to Apple Silicon in the form of the M1 chip. In 2022, it was joined by an M2 model.

MacBook Air Specs

The 2020 M1 MacBook Air is powered by an 8-core Apple M1 chip, comprising four performance cores and four efficiency cores. It’s available in two almost-identical versions, one with an 8-core GPU, the other with a (chip-binned) 7-core one. The machine is available with either 8GB or 16GB of unified memory. SSD storage options are 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB.

The 2022 M2 MacBook Air has a 10-core GPU option, up to 24GB of unified memory, and up to 2TB of SSD storage.

Pricing

M1 MacBook Air (2020) pricing starts at $999 for the 7-core GPU with 8GB unified memory and 256GB SSD.

M2 MacBook Air (2022) pricing starts at $1199 for the 8-core GPU with 8GB unified memory and 256GB SSD.

The machine can be specced up as far as 16GB unified memory and 2TB SSD for $2,049.

Lower prices may be available from Apple’s official Amazon store.

MacBook Air Review

In our video review of the machine, we described it as game-changing.

There is very little negative to say about these MacBooks. Apple has taken a design like the MacBook Air, which it more or less perfected with the early 2020 refresh, and made it 10 times better. This is no hyperbole. These M1-powered MacBooks are such a huge improvement in performance and battery life with virtually no negative baggage. I can’t see myself ever wanting to go back to an Intel-based laptop […]

If I was using an Intel-based MacBook Air, I wouldn’t even consider using a machine with such little memory to handle my day-to-day creative workflow, but Apple’s implementation of unified memory cannot be compared 1:1 with typical RAM configurations.

Basic day-to-day usage is relatively unaffected by the amount of RAM, or lack thereof. The MacBook Air is competent with only 8GB of RAM even when running lots of apps simultaneously, even with a dozen Safari windows, and even when swapping out to the SSD […]

I can attest to the fact that these MacBooks have incredibly long battery life, so much so that it was honestly hard to believe initially. I was able to use my MacBook Air for a full workday, writing, browsing the web, chatting on zoom, and editing video and photos, and the machine was only at 50% by the end of the day. I woke up the next day, and did several hours of zoom video calls and web browsing, and the machine finally gave me a warning to plug in when it reached 10%

Unlock your Mac by knocking on your iPhone with the new ‘Knock’ app

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Nov 5 2013 - 9:01 am PT
50 Comments

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyX8FfSKg04

Knock uses a combination of an iPhone app (currently offered at an introductory price of $3.99)  and a Mac app (available for free at Knock’s website) to enable unlocking of your Mac, wirelessly, by just knocking the back of your iPhone.

It’s a surreal experience. After a couple of minutes of initial setup, you lock your Mac and rap the back of your paired iPhone twice. Your Mac unlocks. The app doesn’t even have to be forefront on your phone, although it does have to be ‘open’ in the multitasking tray. In fact, your phone doesn’t even have to be unlocked. When it senses the Mac is near, a notification appears on the lock screen instructing you to knock. There are some nice UI touches too. For instance, echoes of the ‘sound wave’ appear on OS X’s lock screen in real time as you knock. It’s a subtle visual indicator that the system is actually working.


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New Haswell MacBook Pro teardowns beautiful but prove almost non-repairable by mortals

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Oct 25 2013 - 5:16 am PT
23 Comments
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MacBook Pro 13

Teardowns of the new  13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models reveal lots of shiny technology, but with the machines following the construction lead of the MacBook Air, it’s no surprise to see IFixIt giving both models low scores for repairability. The extreme difficulty in removing both battery and trackpad mean both models get even worse scores than the Air, at just 1 out of 10.

As with the Air, RAM is soldered directly to the logic board, so if you think you may need more in the future, take a deep breath and pay Apple’s price for the 16GB upgrade as there is no way to upgrade it later. IFixIt also draws particular attention to the difficulty of replacing the battery,

The lithium-polymer battery is glued rather than screwed into the case, which increases the chances that it’ll break during disassembly. The battery also covers the trackpad cable, which tremendously increases the chance that the user will shear the cable in the battery removal process.

More details and photos below the fold … 
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Pixelmator 3.0 FX released: adds layer styles, ‘Liquify’ warping tools, Mac Pro and Mavericks optimizations

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Oct 22 2013 - 2:37 pm PT
1 Comment

Today, the team behind Pixelmator has released the latest version of their app, version 3.0 FX. As before, the app is available on the Mac App Store for $29.99. The update brings a slew of changes to the already popular image editor, especially considering version 2.2 was only released a few weeks ago. 9to5Mac has had access to a preview copy of the update for a few days … so read on for a full walkthrough of the changes.

The headline feature for Pixelmator 3.0 is the addition of layer styles. Layer styles apply effects such as strokes, fills, shadows and reflections to the entire layer in very few clicks. More importantly, these changes are non-destructive — they affect the layer, not the canvas pixels themselves. This means layer effects can be undone and manipulated without changing the underlying image data. In fact, layer styles can even be copied to the clipboard and duplicated across layers.


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Apple releases Flash Storage Firmware Update 1.1 for mid-2012 MacBook Air, launches replacement program for affected drives

Avatar for Mike Beasley Oct 17 2013 - 4:33 pm PT
18 Comments
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Apple has released a firmware update for the mid-2012 MacBook Air. The update attempts to resolve an issue that affects 64 GB and 128 GB models sold between June 2012 and June 2013. Apple says that the problem could lead to data loss. As this is a serious issue, the company has agreed to replace any affected drives that are unable to be updated. If the update installer detects that your drive is one of the models needing to be replaced, it will direct you to a page on Apple’s website that will allow you to obtain a replacement … 
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Coming from Apple in 2014: 12-inch Retina MacBook, sharper iPad, cheaper iMac?

Avatar for Mark Gurman Oct 12 2013 - 4:30 pm PT
38 Comments
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According to typically-reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, Apple has a slew of new products in the works for 2014. The analyst has summarized his expectations for these new products in a new research note, and has also reaffirmed some of his previous claims for products in Apple’s pipeline for the rest of Fall 2013…


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How-to: Mark up and caption images using Preview on OS X

Avatar for Sarah Guarino Oct 12 2013 - 9:00 am PT
5 Comments
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Preview is a built-in Mac application that has many features that doesn’t get a lot of press. One of them is the ability to place a caption inside the body of the image. Another is to mark up images to remove confidential information. If you double click on an image outside of a photo editor like iPhoto or Aperture, it opens in Preview and can be edited.


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Questionable analyst roundup: 10M home automation iWatches? 12-inch MacBook Air and much more

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Oct 11 2013 - 4:40 am PT
4 Comments
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Home automation image: insideci.co.uk

There are a couple of analyst rumors doing the rounds at present that are best described as … questionable.

First, we have Brian White claim (via VentureBeat) that the key focus of the long-rumored iWatch is as a control for home automation systems.

As an Apple supplier, our contact offered insight into the “iWatch” and described this potential new device as much more than an extension of your iPhone but as a multi-purpose gateway in allowing consumers to control their home (i.e., heating/cooling, lights, audio, video, etc.)

You may recall that Mr White is a man who likes his remotes: he predicted back in April that the Apple HDTV (which he always claims is going to be released in the next quarter or two) would be controlled by an iRing … 
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Apple to hold fiscal Q4 earnings conference call on Monday, October 28th

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Oct 7 2013 - 2:56 pm PT
5 Comments

Update: Live webcast will be at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq413

Apple will hold its quarterly earnings call to announce results on October 28th, as noted on Apple’s investor website. Typically, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer will read prepared statements about the company’s performance, before opening the call to a question and answer session for analysts. The call will begin at 2PM Pacific / 5PM Eastern time. Apple will publish a press release reporting their results about half an hour before the call is due to begin.


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Major update to VLC for Mac adds 4K support, improved MKV support, interface improvements and more

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Sep 26 2013 - 5:57 am PT
8 Comments

VideoLAN has released version 2.1 of its popular open source video player, VLC. The update — codenamed “Ricewind” — brings new audio processing to the app, to improve both processing performance and audio fidelity. There is full support for surround sound outputs in addition to new effects and many new supported metadata formats for audio.

On the video side, the app has ported the OpenGL output to OpenGL ES, making ports to iOS and Android much easier. Notably, VideoLAN says that VLC is now ready for Ultra-HD content (otherwise known as 4K). The app update has also focused heavily on improving MKV compatibility, including better seek performance and subtitle metadata support.


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Pixelmator pushes 2.2.1 update, modernizes file format for significant performance gains

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Sep 24 2013 - 8:01 am PT
3 Comments

Pixelmator has pushed a point update to the Mac App Store. Despite its minor bump in version number, the update brings a lot of helpful changes. The timing is ‘intriguing’, as it coincides with Adobe’s announcement of a new version of Photoshop Elements from this morning.

Pixelmator quotes a 2x performance improvement when saving documents, as a result of a move to a new file format. For instance, when saving to iCloud, Pixelmator can now push small deltas of what has changed between saves, rather than saving the entire image every time. This speed up is noticeable in use, with projects saving nearly instantaneously on a Retina Macbook Pro.


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Apple releases OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5 with Mail, WiFi, screensaver fixes

Avatar for Mark Gurman Sep 12 2013 - 1:07 pm PT
22 Comments
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Following an extensive period of betas for developers, Apple has publicly released OS X 10.8.5. The update is available from the Mac App Store Software’s Update section and is recommended for all users on OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.4.

The OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.5 Update is recommended for all OS X Mountain Lion users. It improves the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac. This update:

  • Fixes an issue that may prevent Mail from displaying messages
  • Improves AFP file transfer performance over 802.11ac Wi-Fi
  • Resolves an issue that may prevent a screen saver from starting automatically
  • Improves Xsan reliability
  • Improves reliability when transferring large files over Ethernet
  • Improves performance when authenticating to an Open Directory server
  • Addresses an issue that prevented a smart card from unlocking preference panes in System Preferences
  • Contains the improvements included in MacBook Air (Mid 2013) Software Update 1.0

The build number for the public release is 12F37, which is a single build over the most recent beta. Apple has also issued RAW Camera Compatibility updates and a new version of Safari. Later next month, Apple will release OS X 10.9 Mavericks.


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Glui review: Screenshotting for OS X made a delight, not a chore

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Aug 30 2013 - 9:36 am PT
6 Comments

Put plainly, Glui is a screenshot and annotation tool; a utilitarian application. It does not evoke charm, but it doesn’t really need to. What Glui does need to offer is a functional yet efficient workflow and, on this front, it delivers. In use, I never feel like the app is getting in my way.

The activation shortcuts are bound to Shift+Cmd+5 and Shift+Cmd+6 by default to match OS X’s native screenshot shortcuts. These actions select either a rectangular screen region or one window, respectively. With the region mode, the screen cursor changes to a crosshair (which shows x,y pixel coordinates) and the region is chosen by dragging your mouse to create a rectangle. With the window mode, the cursor changes to a camera icon and you simply click on the window you wish to capture.

Although the process is very similar to how OS X’s built-in screenshot features work, it is not identical. For instance, in Glui, window screen grabs do not include the accompanying drop shadow as they do in OS X’s implementation.


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9to5Toys Last Call: Bluetooth home/car adapter $15, MacBook Air 11″ Haswell $899, Cut The Rope goes free, more

Avatar for Aug 29 2013 - 3:00 pm PT
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From 9to5Toys.com:

A large majority of the deals we cover each day come from a variety of ‘Daily Deal’ websites or are so popular that they don’t even last 24 hours. We know you can’t be at your computer every second, so we’re going to round up the best deals each day to make sure you have a fair shot at the deals you want. Be sure to follow 9to5Toys.com so you never miss a deal... Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+.

SOLD OUT XtremeMac InCharge adds bluetooth audio to your home or car for $15

MacBook Air 11.6″ 1.3GHz i5 Haswell/128GB/4GB $899 shipped (Reg. $999)

Game/App Deals: Amazon end of summer sale up to 80% off, Cut The Rope: FREE (first time EVER!), and more

Other great deals we love:

Freebies:

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9to5Toys Last Call: Haswell MacBook Air discounts up to $200, Monster Gratitude/urBeats headphones, Canon wireless printer, games, more

Avatar for Aug 16 2013 - 3:00 pm PT
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From 9to5Toys.com:

A large majority of the deals we cover each day come from a variety of ‘Daily Deal’ websites or are so popular that they don’t even last 24 hours. We know you can’t be at your computer every second, so we’re going to round up the best deals each day to make sure you have a fair shot at the deals you want. Be sure to follow 9to5Toys.com so you never miss a deal... Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+.

Today’s Featured deals:

Best Buy knocks up to $200 of new Haswell MacBook Airs, .edu prices start at $799.99

Monster Headphones: Gratitude In-Ear Headphones $60, urBeats by Dr. Dre $59 shipped

More Apple Deals:

Other great deals we love:

Storage Deals:

    • Western Digital 1TB My Passport $59
    • Western Digital 2TB My Passport $100
    • Seagate My Backup Plus 1TB $60
    • Seagate Expansion 3TB USB 3.0 $100
    • Seagate Expansion 4TB USB 3.0 $140
    • Toshiba Canvio 760GB USB 3.0 $50
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9to5Toys Last Call: $120 Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 (PC/Mac), $72 External Blu-ray player/writer, apps/games, more

Avatar for Jul 19 2013 - 3:00 pm PT
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From 9to5Toys.com:

A large majority of the deals we cover each day come from a variety of ‘Daily Deal’ websites or are so popular that they don’t even last 24 hours. We know you can’t be at your computer every second, so we’re going to round up the best deals each day to make sure you have a fair shot at the deals you want. Be sure to follow 9to5Toys.com so you never miss a deal... Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+.

Also check out the latest 9to5Mac Happy Hour to hear the latest 9to5Toys segment. During the show, there’s a mention of $50 video conversion software currently available for free and the VPN service proXPN.com available at a 20% discount.

Today’s Featured deals:

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Software for Mac and Windows (Boxed Version) $120 Shipped

Samsung 6X USB External Slim Blu-ray/CD/DVD reader/writer $72 Shipped (Reg. $98)

Other great deals we love:

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Want more battery-life from your MacBook? Close some tabs

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Jul 19 2013 - 7:20 am PT
0 Comments

Gizmodo pointed us to some research carried out by someone who must be the poster child for having too much time on your hands: he decided to measure the amount of power a MacBook Pro uses for each tab open in a browser. The answer, in case you were curious, is 0.19 watts per tab in Safari or Chrome.

There is some point to it, though: the experiment showed that having 100 tabs open reduces battery-life by around an hour. While I doubt that many of us have quite that many tabs open at any one time, it does suggest that when you’re trying to eke out as much usage as you can from a battery, closing unnecessary tabs will buy you at least a little more time.

Best Buy slashes new Mac prices w/extra savings for students; Haswell Airs start at $849

Avatar for Seth Weintraub Jul 18 2013 - 3:50 pm PT
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From 9to5toys.com:

Best Buy is having a significant College Student sale this week on MacBook Airs, Retina/Pros and iMacs and Students or anyone with a .edu email address get another $100 off the sale prices signing up here. For instance, the entry level Haswell MacBook Air is now $949 and another $100 drops it down to $849, the lowest price we’ve seen by $100.

Haswell MacBook Air prices:

  • MacBook Air – 11.6″ Display/4GB Memory/128GB Flash Storage:$949.99-$100 students=$849.99 ($150 off)
  • MacBook Air – 11.6″ Display/4GB Memory/256GB Flash Storage:$1139.99-$100 students=$1039.99 ($170 off)
  • MacBook Air – 13.3″ Display/4GB Memory/128GB Flash Storage:$1,044.99-$100 students=$944.99 ($155 off)
  • MacBook Air – 13.3″ Display/4GB Memory/256GB Flash Storage:$1,234.99-$100 students=$1134.99 ($165 off)

Retina MacBook Pro prices:

iMac Prices save $100 across the board and another $100 for students = $200 savings starting at $1100

The MacBook Student $100 off promotion starts today, and will end July 27.
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Apple releases software update for new MacBook Air to fix Wi-Fi, audio & Photoshop bugs

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jul 18 2013 - 3:42 pm PT
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Apple just released a software update for the mid 2013 MacBook Air that addresses rare issues related to wifi connectivity, audio playback, and Photoshop:

This update fixes an issue that in rare instances may cause an intermittent loss in wireless connectivity, an issue with Adobe Photoshop which may cause occasional screen flickering, and an issue which may cause audio volume to fluctuate during video playback.

Last month, we reported that Apple started investigating reports of Wi-Fi issues on its new MacBook Air and some customers even received replacements.

The 3.35MB MacBook Air (Mid 2013) Software Update 1.0 is available to download now.

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9to5Toys Last Call: $40 Waterproof Bluetooth shower speaker, $329 MacBook 2.13 GHz/4GB RAM/160GB HD (Refurb), software/games, more

Avatar for Jul 18 2013 - 3:00 pm PT
0 Comments

From 9to5Toys.com:

A large majority of the deals we cover each day come from a variety of ‘Daily Deal’ websites or are so popular that they don’t even last 24 hours. We know you can’t be at your computer every second, so we’re going to round up the best deals each day to make sure you have a fair shot at the deals you want. Be sure to follow 9to5Toys.com so you never miss a deal... Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+

Today’s Featured deals:

SOLD OUT Hipe waterproof Bluetooth shower speaker $40 Shipped (Reg. $100)

SOLD OUT White 13.3” MacBook 2.13GHz/4GB RAM/160GB HD/Superdrive (refurb) $329 Shipped

Best Buy slashes new Mac prices w/extra savings for students; New Airs start at $849

Other great deals we love:

  • New! Game/App Deals: Prince of Persia Retro: FREE, Ocarina 2: FREE, PC digital downloads, more
  • New! RapidWeaver 5 Mega Bundle – Themes, Stacks, and Plug-ins $80 (Reg. $700)
  • New! Marvel Blu-ray Bundle (X-Men 1-3, X-Men First Class, Wolverine, Fantastic Four 1-2, Daredevil, Elektra) $60 Shipped
  • New! Etronic 12W Dual USB car charger: $4.50 shipped (Reg. $30)

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9to5Toys Last Call: $140 iPod Touch 16GB 4th gen, $450 iPad 16GB WiFi 4th gen, $150 Samsung 250GB SSD, app/game deals, more

Avatar for Jul 15 2013 - 3:00 pm PT
0 Comments

From 9to5Toys.com:

A large majority of the deals we cover each day come from a variety of ‘Daily Deal’ websites or are so popular that they don’t even last 24 hours. We know you can’t be at your computer every second, so we’re going to round up the best deals each day to make sure you have a fair shot at the deals you want. Be sure to follow 9to5Toys.com so you never miss a deal... Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+

Today’s Featured deals:

Apple Deals:

Sold out iPod Touch 16GB 4th gen. (white/black) $140

iPad 4th gen. w/ Retina display 16GB WiFi (white/black) $450

Sold out Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5″ SATA III Solid State Drive (SSD) $150 Shipped (Reg. $250)

Apple 13″ MacBook Air 1.3 GHz i5 Haswell, 128GB SSD, AC WiFi $1,045 (Reg. $1,099) or 256GB $1,235 (Reg. $1,300)

Other great deals we love:

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Customers reporting volume fluctuations when playing videos on latest MacBook Air

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Jul 10 2013 - 4:31 am PT
0 Comments

Customers on the Apple Support Communities forum are reporting fluctuating audio volumes when playing videos on the new mid-2013 13-inch MacBook Air in a thread which has attracted 83 replies.

The problem seems to be a system issue rather than app-related, being reported in iTunes, QuickTime, VLC, Hulu, Vevo and when watching web videos in both Safari and Chrome – but doesn’t seem to affect all videos. It has also been reported that the issue persists when running Mavericks …

Several customers report that Apple is keen to get hold of affected machines so that it can identify the cause.

tbrumleve wrote: After being contacted by an AppleCare rep today, they do not yet have a fix. They are very interested in getting a hold of the affected hardware, and are willing to send a replacement immediately.   However, they cannot guarantee it won’t have the same problem.

This is the second issue to reportedly affect the new MacBook Air, after widespread reports of wifi problems. In that case, Apple issued an update to the wifi software. However, 83 posts in a thread live for several weeks suggests that while the audio issue is affecting a significant minority of machines, it is likely less prevalent that the wifi issue.

Thanks, Aikiharvey.

Boston University files lawsuit against Apple for patent infringement

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jul 3 2013 - 7:03 am PT
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According to a report from the BostonHerald, Boston University is the latest to sue Apple for patent infringement claiming several Apple products use technology covered by its 1997 patent for highly insulating monocrystalline gallium nitride thin films. The university filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts yesterday listing Apple’s iPhone 5, iPad, and MacBook Air as infringing devices.

“Defendant’s acts of infringement have caused and will continue to cause substantial and irreparable damage to the University,” BU alleges in its complaint.

The highly technical patent, which can be viewed on the USPTO’s website, was originally awarded in 1997 and lists computer engineering professor Theodore D. Moustakas as its inventor. BostonHerald notes that the university has also used the patent in cases against Samsung and Amazon, and “plans to illustrate that at least one other company pays a licensing fee to use the component in question” during its case with Apple:
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