MacBook

When Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPhone in 2007, he made much of the fact that other smartphones of the time had physical keyboards. That was, he said, an inflexible approach when you didn’t need a keyboard all the time, and where the optimal keyboard layout may depend on which app you’re using.

The same argument could be made for a laptop, but while an on-screen keyboard is fine for small amounts of typing, it can never replace a physical laptop keyboard – unless it could act and feel like a real one. And that’s what Apple tackles in a new patent application …

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Griffin has announced a new dock today, called the USB-C Docking Station. This offering comes in space gray, with a square footprint to expand your I/O.

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Digitimes is reporting that Apple will release a brand new ‘entry-level’ 13-inch Retina MacBook in June, with a lower cost than the current 12-inch MacBook. According to the report, the 13-inch MacBook will feature a 2560×1600 panel, with a 226 PPI density – the same as the 13-inch MacBook Pro.

This sounds like a compelling product, with better specs at a significantly cheaper price. The report says the 13-inch Retina MacBook will be priced around the current MacBook Air’s $999 price tag.

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A 2016 patent from Apple has been made public this week, and it imagines a keyboard that’s more resistant to debris and crumbs As noted by The Verge, this patent was filed back in 2016, but only now has become public information..

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A new report today shares the forecast that Apple will be making even more moves to offer some of its products at more affordable prices this year. The new products to allegedly receive even lower price tags include both MacBook Air and a new HomePod. Meanwhile, another report today suggests that a new iPad Pro with Face ID could show up as soon as June at WWDC — earlier than others expect.

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At CES 2018, Satechi has announced another new USB-C accessory on the heels of unveiling its Smart Dual Charging Station for iPhone and Apple Watch yesterday. The “Type-C 75W Multiport Travel Charger” offers 2 – 2.4A USB-A ports, 1 – QC 3.0 USB-A port, and 1 – USB C port at a fair price.

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All of the buzz is surrounding the launch of the iPhone X, but Apple has quietly launched a new leather sleeve accessory for the 12-inch MacBook. The Leather Sleeve for 12‑inch MacBook, which looks very similar to the Leather Sleeve for iPad Pro, is available in either Saddle Brown or Midnight Blue.
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CalDigit is no stranger when it comes to producing peripherals for the Mac. In particular, the California-based company has concentrated on Apple’s laptops with USB-C and Thunderbolt. The CalDigit AV Pro 2 is its latest such product: an external storage solution wrapped in a high-grade aluminum enclosure.

CalDigit has merged external storage with a USB 3.0 hub to create a product capable of providing three things of interest to MacBook owners — access to more storage, additional USB ports, and charging up to 30W. Have a look at our video walkthrough as we unbox and go hands-on with the CalDigit AV Pro 2.
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Industry players, such as Microsoft, have arrived in Hong Kong this week for Qualcomm’s 4G/5G Summit, an annual event to strategize and discuss trends and technology developments.

One of the topics of surefire interest revolves around Microsoft’s upcoming ARM-powered Windows 10 laptop. In a glimpse into its battery life potential, Microsoft’s Principal Group Program Manager for Connectivity Partners, Pete Bernard, told Trusted Reviews that he only needs to “charge it every couple of days or so.”

Having multi-day battery life on a real, full-featured laptop would indeed, as Bernard puts it, be a game-changing innovation. Yet, when you consider how much better Apple’s custom-designed silicon is compared to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips, the possibilities for an ARM-powered Mac become all the more desirable.
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It can be tricky to clean debris out from under Apple’s latest butterfly keyboards found on its MacBook and MacBook Pro models (or any keyboard for that matter). While it’s more difficult for crumbs, dust, etc. to creep your underneath Apple’s butterfly keys, the downside is when stuff gets stuck, it’s tough to clean it out.

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When I first wrote about using solid state drives (SSDs) to radically improve the performance of older Macs, high-capacity SSDs were just beginning to become affordable. Replacing a Mac’s 500GB or 1TB hard drive with a same-sized SSD required at least $250 back then, but the benefits were tremendous: even an aging machine became markedly (5x) faster, silent, and — unexpectedly — more fun to use. All for much less than the price of a new Mac.

Today, high-capacity SSDs are more affordable than ever. Replacing your old 500GB hard drive with a same-sized SSD from a reputable manufacturer costs only $150, while 1TB drives are under $330, each $100 less than only a couple of years ago. Once unthinkably huge 2TB and 4TB SSDs are now commonly available, too, albeit at eye-watering prices.

With this week’s release of macOS High Sierra, Apple has officially made SSDs its preferred Mac storage solution, introducing the new APFS standard to further optimize SSD performance over Fusion and traditional hard drives. So this is a perfect time to revisit the topic of SSD upgrades; if you held out before, now’s the time to jump in!

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OWC has unveiled the latest addition to its lineup of expansion docks for MacBooks with the new USB-C Travel Dock. Pocket-sized and priced affordably, USB-C Travel Dock adds two traditional USB-A ports, an HDMI port, and an SD Card reader over a single USB-C connection.

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Intel has today launched its 8th generation of U-Series Core Processors that could find their way into Apple’s future MacBooks. These newest chips will provide up to a 40% boost in computing productivity and more for laptops and 2-in-1 devices.

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TrendForce’s latest global laptop shipment report, seen by us, says that MacBook shipments grew by a healthy 17.1% in Q2, helped in large part by sales of the updated 12-inch MacBook.

The growth boosted Apple’s market share from 9.3% to 10%, bringing it very close to challenging ASUS for the #4 slot behind HP, Lenovo and Dell …

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One of the many slots in MacBooks that has disappeared over the years is the security slot. For anyone who doesn’t remember these from the pre-Retina machines, this was a small horizontal slot into which you could insert a T-shaped security lock attached to a cable.

You ran the cable around something solid like a desk leg, fed it back through a loop and then inserted the lock into the slot on your Mac. Locking it would twist the T-shaped element 90 degrees, securing it in place.

It wasn’t the highest security in the world – cable locks can be easily snipped with hand croppers – but it protected against opportunist snatch thieves in places like libraries and coffee shops. As of the Retina MacBook Pro, however, Apple removed the slot …

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Apple’s decision to move completely to USB-C was met with mixed reactions following the unveil of the redesigned MacBook Pro models last year, with the removal of MagSafe charging a notable point of contention. We’ve seen a few third-party companies aim to bring magnetic charging, but they’ve generally had their limitation.

A new solution from accessory maker Vinpok, however, aims to solve everyone’s problems…

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