notebooks

One pleasant surprise from the past couple of months has been the number of good-to-great laptops we've reviewed that can be had for $1,000 or less. That price range is usually Compromise City, with cheap-looking systems that may have decent CPUs, but skimp on a lot of other stuff. And, of course, no one wants to be seen in the coffee shop with a hunk of molded plastic while every other table sports a metal MacBook.

Whether you're gearing up for the fall semester or you're just ready for a pre-Windows 8 upgrade, the systems below all strike a good balance between price, design, and features.… Read more

While you're waiting for OS X Mountain Lion to download, don't forget to update your other Mac apps, including Safari, Aperture, iPhoto, and iMovie.

The Safari update is more substantial, while the other programs are getting a handful of new features and fixes.

Note that, for now at least, Safari 6 is only available on Macs running the new Mountain Lion operating system update. There is currently no upgrade path if you're using Windows or a previous version of OS X. The product page on Apple's Web site says, "The latest version of Safari is … Read more

Apple buyers looking for a smaller and less expensive Retina MacBook Pro may soon get their wish.

A 13-inch MacBook Pro is expected to join its larger 15-inch cousin this September, according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Sharing an investors note with AppleInsider, Kuo said that the new laptop would offer consumers an "attractive" alternative to the non-Retina 13-inch MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air due to the higher-resolution screen.

The analyst believes the unit's appeal will be enhanced by its combination of low power consumption and smaller form factor. And for more budget-conscious buyers, the … Read more

Online game retailer Steam is running a big summer sale right now, which makes it a great time to build out your Mac OS X game library, thanks to heavy discounts on some recent and not-so-recent games.

As we've noted previously, the Steam sale "offers daily deals, multiple random flash sales, and a unique community choice vote where voters choose on the next heavily discounted game (which revolves every eight hours)." While most of the games on sale are Windows-only, there is a healthy selection of Mac games. But more importantly, those Mac games are significantly less expensive than they are on Apple's own Mac App Store. … Read more

The iPad and its fellow tablet brethren will take over the mobile PC market by 2016, says a new report from NPD DisplaySearch.

Starting in 2016, tablet shipments will overtake those of notebooks, followed by an even wider gap the following year.

Tablet shipments are expected to reach 416 million in 2017, up from 121 million units this year. In comparison, notebook shipments are projected to grow to 393 million in 2017, up from 208 million this year, according to the report.

Mature markets are and will be a key trigger for tablet sales. North America, Japan, and Western Europe … Read more

Business customers ordering a new Retina MacBook Pro could face a hefty wait time.

Several recent buyers ordering the new notebook through Apple's enterprise channel revealed an increased delay to MacRumors. E-mails sent to customers from Apple stated that due to an unexpected delay, the MacBook Pro will not be shipping by the date they were quoted.

One e-mail published by MacRumors pointed to a new shipping date on or before July 25, as great as a month from the initial order. That contrasts with the original projected wait time of 7-10 business days.… Read more

The new MacBook Pro with Retina display has many noteworthy features, from a unique 2,880x1,800-pixel screen to new Nvidia graphics to large SSD storage options. But, the most surprising may be the multiple video outputs -- something not seen on a MacBook before now.

The last several generations of MacBook have had either a mini-DisplayPort or combo Thunderbolt/DisplayPort jack. HDMI has been on our most-wished-for lists for years, so Apple finally adding HDMI (which is found on pretty every other current laptop) is a big move, especially when combined with a second Thunderbolt port.

The initial review of the Retina Pro … Read more

The Retina Display MacBook Pro may have bumped into its first technical issue.

Some owners of the new laptop are posting messages at the Apple Support Communities complaining of an image persistence problem in which an image remains on the screen for several minutes after it should have faded away. As noted by AppleInsider, the lasting image is obvious only on light backgrounds and persists for around five minutes before it disappears.… Read more

Seeing all the attention (and unexpectedly lavish praise) heaped on Microsoft's just-announced Surface tablet reminds me of all the great Windows tablets I've tested and reviewed over the years.

Wait, that's not right. The vast majority of Windows-powered tablets I've tried have been terrible. Some hit minimum levels of functionality, but nearly all were underpowered, lacked touch-centered software, were too expensive, or had terrible input hardware.

It's interesting to note that many of these examples date from the pre-iPad era. Once Apple's tablet hit the scene, there was a sharp drop-off in Windows tablets. … Read more