Mac

Apple cuts MacBook Pro Retina prices, bumps specs

Apple today dropped the prices in its line of MacBook Pro laptops with Retina display while boosting processor speeds.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina now starts $1,499, or $200 less than before. The higher-capacity 256GB version costs $1,699, or $300 cheaper than the original price. The processor clock speed also gets boosted to 2.6 gigahertz from 2.5GHz.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina gets a speed boost, with the lower-end version getting its clock speed bumped up to 2.4GHz from 2.3GHz, and the higher-end version getting bumped up to 2.7GHz quad-core processor … Read more

Apple applies for image-based authentication patent

Apple has applied for a patent on the use of images to authenticate a Mac or iDevice user.

The patent application, dubbed "Image-Based Authentication," describes a method by which an image of some sort would be displayed on a Mac or iDevice screen. Aside from that image, options will be displayed asking users to correctly identify what it is. If they answer correctly, they'll be able to access the respective device. An incorrect answer keeps it locked.

According to Patently Apple, which was first to report on the patent application, Apple's filing includes an image showing … Read more

Is there an iPad Pro in Apple's future?

Microsoft's Surface Pro is apparently just what businesses want in what was formerly known as the desktop computer. If that's the case, Apple's brain trust may want to revisit the space where the Mac and the iPad intersect.

According to Forrester Research's annual survey of nearly 10,000 people around the world who use a computer to do their jobs an hour or more a day, 32 percent said they would prefer Windows over Apple or Android for their next work tablet. Currently, about 2 percent are using a Windows tablet for their work.

Forrester predicts … Read more

Rarefied Retina MacBook Pros get priced closer to earth

MacBook Pros equipped with a Retina display are not exactly priced to move. Best Buy and Amazon are trying to change that.

Best Buy, for example, is now selling the 128GB version (model MC975LL/A) of the 13.3-inch MacBook Pro Retina for $1,549.99, $150 off the regular $1,699.99 price.

Need 256GB of solid-state storage with that gorgeous Retina screen? That model (MD213LL/A) is now $1,799.99, $200 off the regular price of $1,999.99.

The pricier 15.4-inch models with 256GB and 512GB solid-state drives (MC975LL/A and MC976LL/A, respectively), also … Read more

Henge Docks offers quick and cheap MacBook docking options

If you have a laptop system, you might be familiar with the frustrations that can be involved with using it in a desktop environment where you might need to clear a space on your desk to set it up, or have it sit awkwardly to the side while you connect a keyboard, mouse, an adapter for an external display, and other peripherals.

There are several options available to help in these situations, with one that I recently outlined being the new Thunderbolt docking solutions that are beginning to enter the market. While these options reduce the number of cables to … Read more

Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which I answer Mac-related questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week, readers wrote in with questions about cleaning up a Mac to keep it optimized, external drive permission errors, increasing the number of recent documents stored in the system, and options for triple-booting OS X with Linux and other operating systems. I welcome views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: How to clean up a Mac to keep it optimized MacFixIt reader Angel asks:

How can I get … Read more

Apple to stop Mac Pro sales in much of Europe on March 1

Apple today told retailers and distributors in most European countries that it will stop selling the Mac Pro on March 1 because the desktop system doesn't meet electrical regulations.

The Mac Pro's ports and fans don't comply with a new amendment -- which goes into effect at the beginning of March -- addressing safety and electrical standards for electronics, according to Macworld.

An Apple spokesman confirmed the decision to CNET. The regulation affects the 27 countries of the European Union, which includes the U.K., Germany and France, and the four countries in the European Free Trade Association (… Read more

Vintage Mac in Lego looks good enough to use

The only thing that can top building something incredible with Legos is taking a good photo of it. Chris McVeigh does both.

The graphic and Web designer is a wizard with bricks and a lens. His latest creation marks the recent 29th anniversary of Steve Jobs' release of the original Apple Macintosh in January 1984. It's just too cute for school.

Based in Halifax, Canada, McVeigh has designed custom builds and images for Gizmodo, Esquire Malaysia, and Toronto magazine Spacing. When he first gets an idea for the classic Mac or, as seen in the gallery below, a vintage camera, he uses Lego's modeling app for designers, Lego Digital Designer.

'The advantage of starting off a project digitally is that I can play around with thousands of bricks without actually having them sitting out in front of me, which can be a problem when you have as many bricks as I do," says McVeigh, who gets his bricks from stores or online retailers. "But that said, I always seem to need bricks that I don't have with each new build." … Read more

128GB iPad should mean the end of the 64GB MacBook Air

Today's news: the iPad has hit 128GB. That's fine. But my real question is, why does the $999 11-inch Air still have only a 64GB SSD?

If you look at the world of business-targeted Windows 8 tablets, many of them have 128GB storage options...including the upcoming Surface Pro. The logic is clear, especially if you're in a business where you need to store tons of files locally and don't want to sync in the cloud. In that sense, a stepped-up storage option for the larger iPad makes obvious sense.

The real benefit of 128GB of storage, though, would be in the 11-inch MacBook Air.… Read more