Apple Event Roundup: Macs
Today Apple announced held their October event, "There’s More in the Making". This was held in Brooklyn, New York. Apple announced a bunch of new products. Let us look at each of them, starting with the Macs.
MacBook Air
Back in 2010 Apple unveiled a brand new product, a very thin, very light, and all-flash laptop. They named it the MacBook Air. Since its introduction it has been the same general shape. Today Apple unveiled a brand new MacBook Air. The new MacBook Air sports an 8th Generation Dual-Core Intel i5 processor that runs at 1.6GHz. with Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz.
The MacBook Air comes with two Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports. These are both along the left side of the machine. The biggest change to the MacBook Air is the brand new Retina display, which is the first time there has been a Retina display on the MacBook Air. The display is edge to edge and has a
The MacBook Air also comes with 8GB of memory standard and 128GB of flash storage. The memory can be configured up to 16GB and the flash can be upgraded to 256GB, 512GB, or 1.5TB.
The new MacBook Air starts at $1199, which is $200 more than the older MacBook Air, which is still on sale. The new MacBook Air comes in three colors, Silver, Space Gray, and Gold. You can order the new MacBook Air today, and it will ship next week. Let us now turn to another new Mac, one that has been a long time coming.
Mac mini
The Mac mini was introduced back in early 2005. At its initial release, and with subsequent updates it was positioned as an entry-level Mac that would be great for new Mac users to bring your existing keyboard, display, and mouse and replace your old device. The Mac mini has not been updated since October of 2014, so four years old. Today, that has changed with a brand new update.
The new Mac mini has all re-designed internals. This start with the all new flash-only storage options. These options are 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB.
To go along with the flash options, there are some additional memory options as well. 8GB is standard, but you can configure 16GB, 32GB, or even 64GB of memory.
The Mac mini comes in two models, the entry level, which sports a 3.6GHz quad-core 8th Generation Core i3 processor, and the higher-end model has a 3.0GHz six-core 8th Generation Core i5 Processor. Yes, you read that correctly, a six core processor. You can configure either model with a 3.2GHz six-core Intel Core i7 processor if you want.
There is one last configurable option. The Mac mini comes with a standard Gigabit ethernet port, but you can configure a 10-gigabit ethernet network adapter that is capable of running at 1Gbps, 2.5Gbps, or 5Gbps. This option does cost $100 more, but if you need it, you can configure it.
The last new feature of the Mac mini is the case. Since its initial release the Mac mini has been Silver in color. The new Mac mini no longer come in silver, it comes in Space Gray, and it only comes in Space Gray. The new color looks really good and will be welcome by man.
The new Mac mini comes with a slew of ports. In fact it has four Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports, 1 HDMI 2.0 port, one ethernet port, one 3.5mm headphone jack, and two USB 3, traditional USB A ports. It also comes with 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0.
The new Mac mini starts at $799. You can order it today and it will ship next week.
The new MacBook Air and Mac mini are great updates to machines that have been a long time coming and will be welcome to users who are looking to upgrade their existing machines.