KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a very good track record in predicting Apple's product plans, has issued a new research report outlining his expectations for Apple's 2013 product launches. Kuo believes that Apple will focus its launches on the third quarter of this year, with a number of updates throughout the company's various product families.
[Source: MacRumors - Click here to read the full story]
This evening, Apple began offering refurbished Retina MacBook Pros at the online Apple Store at significant 15% discounts, yielding savings of over $500 on high end models (below). 15-inch Retina MacBooks normally retail at $2200 but we’ve seen them as low as $2,000 (which is also the EDU discount price).
Apple refurbished products are packaged and look like new and come with the same one year of AppleCare. See all of the best prices on Apple Products on our Apple product pages.
MacRumors points to a WeiPhone.com forum thread [Google translation] this morning that purports to show details of a new iMac. The poster’s brother-in-law apparently works in the factory that builds the new Macs, and he snapped the above picture on his cell phone. The design was verified by iFixit to be similar to the internals of a current iMac with the plastic radio-transparent circle on the rear.
On the iMac, the poster says:
[Source: 9to5Mac - Click here to read the full story]
If a 56-page discussion thread on the Apple Support forums is any indication, there appears to be a problem with some MacBook Pros with Retina displays. The Retina displays with the issues show image retention and burn-in; others do not.
TUAW reader Joe K. sent us a note about the issue, which appears to be happening to MBPs with displays manufactured by LG; other displays made by Samsung don't have the problem with image retention and burn-in, are brighter, and seem to display colors with more accuracy.
To determine the make of the Retina display installed in your MacBook Pro, Joe supplied a helpful terminal command:
ioreg -lw0 | grep \"EDID\" | sed "/[^<]*</s///" | xxd -p -r | strings -6
It's basically the same command seen on OSXDaily to check for LG screens on MacBook Airs, which will also tell you how you know if you have a Samsung or LG display. If your display code begins with "LP," it's an LG display. Mike Rose has verified that with his LG panel he sees faint ghosting of Finder windows when he goes into a PowerPoint slideshow with a gray background.
Those who own a MacBook Pro with Retina display and see this problem as described in the thread should contact their local Apple Store or AppleCare for resolution.
[Source: TUAW]
Order up a Retina MacBook Pro and you'll likely be confronted with a gravelly message about how the SSD is "built into the computer" and not user-upgradeable. As it turns out, that's not quite true -- so long as you're prepared to ignore a whole bunch of other warnings written inside the chassis itself, iFixit has shown how to remove the factory drive and now OWC has a new SSD to replace it with. The only downside is the cost: at $580, OWC's 480GB Mercury Aura Pro is actually more expensive than Apple's official 512GB upgrade. In an effort to sweeten the deal, OWC is offering those who buy before September 30th a compact USB 3.0 enclosure to make use of the freed-up drive. Alternatively, you may want to wait for prices to drop or for OWC to offer an even bigger capacity with better cost / benefits.
[Source: Engadget]
Just a little over a week since shipping estimates for new Retina MacBook Pro orders through Apple's online store saw their first improvement from 3-4 weeks to 2-3 weeks, timeframes have again been reduced. As with the previous improvement, the change has first appeared in Apple's Asia-Pacific markets, which have seen shipping estimates drop to 1-2 weeks.
Shipping estimates in Apple's other main distribution regions of the Americas and Europe/Middle East/Africa are holding steady at 2-3 weeks for the time being, but they will almost certainly see similar drops to the 1-2 week timeframe in the very near future.
Shipping estimates for the Retina MacBook Pro peaked at 3-4 weeks roughly 36 hours after the models were unveiled at last month's Worldwide Developers Conference, with estimates remaining at that level until last week's drop to 2-3 weeks. Availability at other online and brick-and-mortar retailers is also improving, in many cases beating Apple's online store estimates for stock models, but the company's online store is the primary source for customized orders.
Update: Estimates in Apple's online stores in the Americas have also moved to 1-2 weeks.
Note: The speed of delivery remains at 2-3 weeks in the UK & others parts of Europe.
[Source: MacRumors]
Since the launch of the Macbook Pro with retina display, early customers have been experiencing long waits for their deliveries. According to MacRumors…
"For the first time since its launch just over one month ago, Apple's Retina MacBook Pro has begun to see improvements in shipping estimates for new orders placed through the company's online store. The improvement has appeared first in Apple's Asia-Pacific markets, which have seen estimates move from 3-4 weeks to 2-3 weeks."
When the 15-inch retina display MacBook Pro was revealed, we all looked on in amazement. This new super high res beast from Apple was amazing. What followed was an influx of rumours and questions about when the rest of the range (including the iMac) would get the retina love.
It seems that we could be seeing a 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro as early as October 2012, according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo who recently revised his prediction from August to October.
In a recent article from DigiTimes, it seems that many big players are denying the rumours.
Rumors are that several notebook brand vendors have delayed or decreased their shipments with Apple also being named as having postponed mass shipments of a planned 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display; however, sources from upstream suppliers of Apple have refuted the rumors saying their supply status is stable.
Of course, Apple is as tight-lipped as ever. Personally, I think that the 13-inch Retina will definitely happen during 2012, as it is a natural progression. It is also very likely that these super high resolution displays will also appear in the MacBook Air at some stage and maybe even the iMac during 2013.