Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"QuickerTek has released a new MacBook Air power charger, the Auto and Airline Charger."

This seems to take care of all your power supply needs, well except for a wall plug in if you are stuck in the airport. I guess they figure you are going to haul around your regular power supply anyway, but it sure would be the ultimate power supply if it came with a wall outlet option, then I wouldn't mind too much paying the $89.95 USD price.

"Apple this past weekend released a firmware update for its MacBook Air line of ultra-thin notebooks that bundles support for a new series of replacement batteries."

This update requires Mac OS X 10.5.7 and modifies the micro-controller on the logic board. This, according to Apple, controls the power functions, thermal management, the sleep LED and the battery. Basically it makes the MacBook Air compatible with some new batteries that are coming out and will be distributed to the various repair centers. This is supposed to improve the battery life by optimally charging the cells. The update is 623KB in size and is available now.

"Ouch. Those numbers below have to hurt if you are in the market for a new high end MacBook Air. Macworld tested the new machines and found the high end 2.13GHz MacBook Air didn't perform as well as the previous high end 1.86Ghz machine with the same 128GB SSD. In fact, to them, it was noticably slower."

Makes me wonder, since I'm thinking of getting another MacBook, if the 13 inch MacBook Pro isn't the way to go. It is only about 1.5 pounds heaver with bigger hard drive and faster processor, as well as built in superdrive. I've done some weight comparisons (very non-science, lifting one then the other) in the Apple Store, and the difference wasn't all that much. But I sure like the thin factor of the Air. What would you buy if you were in the market for a laptop and having a built in superdrive wasn't a deciding factor?

"Phil Schiller kicked off today's keynote with a light update to the MacBook Pro family. All the models now include the new lithium polymer battery introduced with the 17 inch MacBook Pro earlier this year. They also have an SD-card slot in exchange for the Expresscard slot, a weird move by Apple. The Expresscard slot remains only on the 17-inch MacBook Pro. And lastly, the 13-inch MacBooks now have a Firewire 800 slot, officially making them part of the MacBook Pro family."

So there you have it, no netbook but they sure made improvements in specifications as well as pricing. The unibody MacBook is turned into a MacBook pro with the addition of the FireWire 800 port, and they drop the price down to $1,199.00 USD. The only MacBook you can purchase now is the white one, which is probably the best value of all the laptops when you compare performance. The big change is the sealed battery unit in all of them, giving the battery life a boost to 7 hours, but you lose the ability to swap out your batteries or replace them without going to an Apple Genius. Apple feels the trade off in the battery life increase is worth it, what do you think? Read more...

"QuickerTek has released its latest notebook accessory, a new external battery for the MacBook Air. The external pack powers the device while simultaneously charging the internal battery. The company claims users can achieve 12 to 16 total hours of run time, or around 6 to 10 extra hours of power."

Myfirst reaction, of course, was "How do they do this? Did Apple let them license the Magsafe adapter?" Nope, you have to have the one QuickerTek will modify for you. The battery retails for $349.95 and adds an additional six to ten hours of battery life. If you don't have a modified Magsafe, they'll sell you one for $100 or you can have yours altered for $25.

A bit pricey for some more juice, but in the end, that's a ton of time you're gaining for that long flight. If time is money, this might be the move for you.