Behold: The Insides of New MacBook Air

by Stan Schroeder

The folks at iFixit have done it again. One day after the official launch of Apple’s refreshed MacBook Air, they tore the poor little laptop to pieces and thoroughly examined it.

The new generation of MacBook Air is almost identical to the previous one, but it has some notable differences. For example, the SSD is not soldered to the motherboard, meaning you can replace it with a more spacious one.

You will not, however, be able to upgrade RAM memory, and the entire thing is not very easy to put back together once you’ve opened it up, so you might want to think twice before doing so.

Check out iFixit’s extremely thorough teardown here.

Apple Does Away With the MacBook

by Stan Schroeder

Look carefully at Apple’s new laptop lineup. It includes the new MacBook Air, but it also lacks something — the MacBook.

Before Wednesday, Apple had three different types of laptop: the ultraportable MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro (in three screen sizes), and the budget-friendly, plastic MacBook.

It seems that Apple thinks its cheapest option is no longer necessary — or it simply didn’t sell as many “regular” MacBooks as it wanted to.

In any case, the plastic variant of the MacBook is now completely gone from the Apple Store, and Apple confirmed to Engadget that it’s been discontinued.

Now, if you want a less expensive Apple laptop, your best options are the 11-inch Air, which starts at $999, or the 13-inch MacBook Pro, which costs $1,199.

Apple To Launch Mac OS X Lion & New MacBook Air Wednesday [REPORT]

 by Stan Schroeder

Apple is preparing for the launch of the next version of its desktop operating system, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, as well as a refreshed MacBook Air. We might see these new product in stores as early as Wednesday, AppleInsider reports quoting sources familiar with the matter.

The new MacBook Air, according to rumors, is expected to come with a 128 GB SSD, 4 GB of RAM, a backlit keyboard and Lion as the operating system.

Furthermore, MacRumors reports that Apple retail stores have received golden master copies of OS X Lion, which will be installed on Apple’s demo computers on the store floors. If true, it usually means that Apple is undergoing final preparations and the launch is imminent.

During this year’s WWDC keynote Apple announced that Lion is coming this July, without specifying a date. Instead of making the new OS available in physical stores, Apple opted to distribute it only via its Mac App Store.