Mac

We knew new MacBooks were on their way sooner or later, and anyone who held back to buy a new model (myself included) found themselves rewarded with an across-the-board set of updates.

I had my own wish list for what I wanted to see in the next MacBook, and surprisingly, many of my requests were met...in the Retina Display MacBook Pro.

Aside from that exciting and extremely expensive $2,199 machine, however, Apple's new lineup of MacBooks doesn't differ all that much from last year's lineup. Unless you want to spend north of $2,000, your Apple upgrade path for laptops involves choosing either an Air or a thicker Pro.

The future of Apple's MacBook Pros looks to reside in that newly designed Retina Display model, whether you like it or not. If that's the case -- and in the future these redesigned Pros become the core of Apple's product line -- here's what I'd want to see.… Read more

If you want a MacBook Pro with a Retina Display, your current options are limited to a single 15-inch size. However that might not be the case in a few months time.

AppleInsider today relays a note from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI, who suggests that Apple is about three months from running up production on a 13-inch model of its new, top of the line MacBook Pro.

Kuo suggested that the smaller machine was originally intended to debut alongside the 15-inch version Apple unveiled on Monday, but that things didn't come together in time.

The information is similar … Read more

The broad mainstream future of Thunderbolt is in question, but there's no doubt it's already useful for people with heavy computing demands.

With hundreds of gigabytes of high-resolution digital photographs and a smaller but still bulky collection of video, I'm one of them.

To supply fast external storage for my Dell laptop, for a few years now I've relied on eSATA -- an external version of the SATA standard used to connect hard drives inside computer chassis. It's functional but prickly: the external drive must be powered on before the computer, sleep and wake can … Read more

Intel believes Thunderbolt will remake mobile computing by endowing laptops with a high-speed, versatile port.

To match Intel's mainstream ambitions for Thunderbolt, though, Intel will have to prove to hardware designers and to consumers that it's got compelling advantages over the alternatives. Today, those are chiefly USB (Universal Serial Bus) and HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface. Tomorrow, another challenger could arrive in the form of PCI Express Cable, and it's got a strong ally in PC giant Hewlett-Packard.

Getting new input-output technologies to catch on is particularly hard because I/O standards only succeed with support from both … Read more

To some, Thunderbolt is just a port on the side of a MacBook, a mere check-box on a feature list.

But to Intel, the high-speed communication technology is an ambitious attempt to do something that only happens every decade or so in the computing industry: rewrite the rules of how people plug stuff into their computers.

Thunderbolt arrived in 2011 with the potential to bring the flexibility of a tower computer to something as compact as an ultrabook. And it's got a bright future in premium and professional products, as events this week show.

First, Apple's new Retina display-equipped MacBook Pro … Read more

One line I've made a point to throw into numerous launch stories about the iPhone and iPad is how nobody is having trouble getting their hands on one of Apple's computers the first few days it's out.

Right now, you can't say the same about the company's newest notebook.

The top of the line MacBook Pro, with its Retina Display and $2,199 starting price tag, is a hot item. Apple announced it at its annual developers conference on Monday and went put on sale immediately, but boy is it tough to get one.

If … Read more

Another year, another WWDC keynote in the bag.

In case you missed it, Apple this week refreshed its notebook lineup, priced OS X Mountain Lion, and took the wraps off iOS 6, which will be released in the fall. There were other things, of course, but those three were the biggies.

Now that the dust has cleared, it's a good time to look back at the top rumors that made the rounds ahead of the event, and see how they panned out.

Rumor: MacBooks with "Retina" displays The so-called Retina Display is a marketing term for … Read more

Despite some reports to the contrary, there isn't much new in the latest Mac Pro update. After Apple added a "new" tag to the Mac Pro on its Web site yesterday and some people complained, the company quickly took down the tag, according to MacRumors.

Now, CEO Tim Cook is saying that more extensive updates won't happen until "later next year."

Hints of this first came when the machine wasn't even mentioned during Apple's presentation at WWDC yesterday. Then when the "new" tag appeared on its Web site, a member … Read more

The sudden disappearance of Apple's 17-inch MacBook Pro laptop after yesterday's WWDC keynote provoked split opinions on CNET. Photographers and videographers will weep, some said. The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display has more pixels and will be a great replacement, said others.

Whichever way you slice it, potential suitors of the 17-inch Pro suddenly find themselves looking for a new partner. Alas, here's what you'll soon discover: most 17-inch laptops on the Windows side are "gaming laptops," built clunky, bulky, and leaning toward power over battery life.

(Note: yes, commenters, I agree. Of all Windows laptops, the HP Envy 17 would probably be the closest match. HP still sells the 17-inch version, and it costs as little as $1,249 on HP's website. However, we haven't reviewed the current 17-incher: for the closest equivalent, see our review of the HP Envy 15.)

Here are the closest equivalents we've reviewed at CNET, but you'll rapidly realize that none of them perfectly match what the Pro offered.… Read more