Our Long national nightmare is over. Tim Cook just announced a new MacBook Air with a Retina display. Closed, it has the same wedge design as the old one. Open, it looks a lot like the 12″ MacBook.
The MacBook Air name remains in tact. There was some speculation by pundits that Apple might take this opportunity to change the name. When the laptop was first announced, it was far from the mainstream product it eventually became. It was a specialty product for the thin n’ light category. Today, Apple has two products in that category. So that aspect of the product line remains confused.
Along with the Retina display, Apple gives the new Air two USB-C ports. They are both on the left side. They come at the expense of traditional USB ports. There are no longer any notebooks in the Apple line with traditional USB.
The lack of USB ports will necessitate a trip to dongle town for non-Pro users. While not entirely unexpected, it will be a major shift as most accessories are still USB. Those devices will still work. But they will require a dongle.
In a somewhat surprising move, Apple is keeping the old MacBook Air around at $999. The new one with 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage with a dual-core Intel Core i5 running at 3.6GH will start at $1,199.
Mac mini
Also retaining its old name, a new Mac mini made an appearance. It has the same body style as the one it replaces, but with a darker space gray finish.
Connectivity is much improved with four USB-C ports and 2 USB ports. It maintains gigabit ethernet and HDMI. While there are two fewer traditional USB ports, Apple did not remove the connectors entirely, making the machine much more versatile than before.
Needless to say, the new mini is far more powerful than the previous one. Even so, that was a pretty low bar seeing how old the previous mini was. It would have been difficult to find parts that were older and slower.
That said, the mini now uses desktop parts if not the most powerful. The base model at $799. Comes with a quad-core Intel Core i3 with 128GB. As a stand-alone computer, this is probably not the one you want. The step up comes with a more respectable 6-core Intel Core i5 and 256 SSD storage. It starts at $1,099. Both machines can be further configured.
Both products can be pre-ordered today, and arrive on November 7.
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