books

Surprise, surprise -- after a year's dry spell, new hardware from Apple is causing an unusually high amount of interest in people selling off their old Macs.

That's according to gadget trade-in service Gazelle, which says the number of people wanting to sell their old MacBooks is up 8 percent from the same time last year. Perhaps not too coincidentally, this is all happening following Monday's unveiling of new MacBook Airs, which hadn't been given any hardware updates in a year.

The majority of trade-ins are older models, Gazelle's "Chief Gadget Officer" Anthony … Read more

Newly unveiled by Apple, the 2013 13-inch MacBook Air has received the teardown treatment from the folks at iFixit, who gave out low ratings on the ability to repair and upgrade the laptop.

At its WWDC keynote on Monday, Apple revealed several enhancements to its 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air ultrabooks, including a faster solid-state drive, an upgrade to Intel's fourth-generation core processor, increased battery life, and support for 802.11ac Wi-Fi.

On the outside, the new MacBook Air is virtually the same as its predecessor. But a peek at the innards of the 13-inch version uncovered the new tech. … Read more

Love that battery life in the new MacBook Air? Well, that's one reason Apple didn't go Retina this time around, according to an analyst.

The iPhone, the iPad, and the MacBook Pro all have Retina displays, why not the MacBook Air? Power consumption is probably the most important factor, according to Sweta Dash, senior director of display research & strategy at IHS.

"Apple almost doubled the battery life [with the new MacBook Air]. You can't do that with a Retina display" in an ultrathin laptop like the Air, she said.

Not at the moment at … Read more

It may look the same outside, but the MacBook Air got overhauled on the inside.

In the case of the solid-state drive (SSD) and graphics, it's a major overhaul.

SSD: Apple appears to be one of the first to stick a PCI Express (PCIe) SSD in a thin laptop. And that makes a huge difference, according to Anand Shimpi of Anandtech.

"This is a huge deal, totally the future. And pretty much all other notebooks announced at Computex still use [Serial ATA]. Apple did the right thing here," Anand said in response to an e-mail query.

Running … Read more

It's hard to imagine, but Apple's MacBook lineup has been turned on its head. As of right now, the highest-priced MacBooks are a technological generation behind the least expensive MacBooks, making for shopping confusion if you're about to invest in a new system from Apple.

The cause of the confusion is this. At WWDC 2013, Apple introduced laptops updated to the latest generation of Intel Core i-series processors. These fourth-gen chips are also known by the code name Haswell, and they promise improved performance, better integrated graphics, and greatly boosted battery life. These CPUs were launched earlier … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple's new MacBook Airs look better than before, but they don't reach for the stars.

OK, so I'll admit: having a potential 12-hour battery life is incredible. It's a very big deal indeed. But the new 2013 MacBook Airs unveiled at Apple's WWDC keynote weren't revolutions of design, or even of features. They're another well-polished upgrade step to an already excellent laptop that's becoming as familiar in form as an iPod or an older MacBook Pro.

To be honest, there was more on my wish list. Primarily, this.

Higher-res … Read more

The Bible: Free Book for Kids is a good app, with solid production values and fun, colorful presentation of classic stories; but it is often bogged down by its trial limitations. With too many ads and upgrade buttons onscreen, combined with often confusing menus and options, it could easily become a frustrating experience for the young children it is designed to entertain.

The Bible: Free Book for Kids presents many major stories of the Bible in colorful, narrated, and animated vignettes that can be played, read aloud, or narrated by the app. This provides a number of ways by which … Read more

The Amazon Kindle has officially landed in China.

On Friday, both the Kindle Fire HD tablet and the Kindle Paperwhite e-reader popped up for sale on Amazon's Chinese Web site. The Fire HD tablet costs 1,499 yuan ($244) for the 16GB version and 1,799 yuan ($293) for the 32GB version, while the Paperwhite e-reader costs 849 yuan ($138).

The Kindle devices will also be sold locally through Suning and Tesco Shi, two retail chains in China, according to Chinese news site Sina Tech. Chinese consumers will be able to find the Kindles at stores in Beijing, Shanghai, … Read more