On July, 20 Apple announced that its MacBook Air was updated with next generation processors, high-speed Thunderbolt I/O technology, a backlit keyboard and Mac OS X Lion, which Apple started selling also yesterday.
With up to twice the performance of the previous generation, flash storage for instant-on responsiveness and a compact design, the MacBook Air starts at $999 (US) and is already available for order in stores.
“Portable, affordable and powerful, MacBook Air is the ultimate everyday notebook,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “MacBook Air features our most advanced technology and is an ideal match for Lion, especially with its new Multi-Touch gestures, full-screen apps, Mission Control and Mac App Store.”
MacBook Air is available in 11- and 13-inch models both featuring aluminum unibody enclosure and measures only 0,11-inches at its thinnest point and 0,68-inches at its thickest. Flash storage allows MacBook Air to turn on instantly and deliver fast data access, improved reliability and incredible energy efficiency. The 11-inch model weighs 2,38 pounds and provides up to 5 hours of battery life, while the 13-inch weighs 2,96 pounds and provides up to 7 hours of battery life.
The latest Intel Core i5 and Core i7 dual-core processors make new MacBook Air up to twice as fast as the previous generation. The small genie also features Intel HD Graphics 3000 and offers up to 4GB of faster 1333 MHz memory.
Thunderbolt I/O technology provides great expansion possibilities to MacBook Air users. Through a single cable, users can connect to high performance peripherals and the new Apple Thunderbolt Display, the ultimate docking station. Thunderbolt can easily be adapted to support legacy connections such as FireWire and Gigabit Ethernet.
MacBook Air comes with a ‘smart’ full size backlit keyboard, which automatically detect a change in ambient lighting and adjusts the keyboard brightness for any environment; and an innovative glass Multi-Touch trackpad that supports Lion’s new Multi-Touch gestures such as momentum scrolling, tapping or pinching user’s fingers to zoom in on a web page or image, and swiping left or right to turn a page or switch between full screen apps.
The new MacBook Air meets Energy Star 5.2 requirements and achieves EPEAT Gold status.
Mac OS X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system with more than 250 new features. The OS is available as a download from the MacApp Store for democratic $29,99. Some of the new features in Lion include: new Multi-Touch gestures; system-wide support for full screen apps; Mission Control, an innovative view of everything running on your Mac; the Mac App Store, the best place to find and explore great software, built right into the OS; Launchpad, a new home for all your apps; and a completely redesigned Mail app.