Mac

Apple's new Mac Pro features a striking and quite innovative design -- instead of multiple heat sinks, there's a shared thermal core in the center that helps cool the CPU and twin GPUs at the same time.

As the fan is located right at the top of the thermal core, the Mac Pro features a large hole in its circular frame that's quite unheard of, especially when compared with your normal PC cases.

The unique design has prompted amusing comparisons to trash cans and Darth Vader, and spurred the creative Photoshopping crowd from around the world to innovate further on Apple's new machine. Click on our gallery for some of the funniest mockups we've seen. … Read more

iFixIt took a look at the guts of the new MacBook Air, as well as the new AirPort Extreme base station, which Apple unveiled at WWDC 2013. The new AirPort Extreme offers more advancements in speed, connectivity, and capacity than its predecessors and has a new design, to boot.

Instead of being squat and flat, the new design is an elongated cube that looks like a brick standing upright. Apple claims this was required to implement a major advancement with directional antennas that should extend both the range and speed of connections to wireless devices.

This new design has spurred … Read more

Newly unveiled by Apple, the 2013 13-inch MacBook Air has received the teardown treatment from the folks at iFixit, who gave out low ratings on the ability to repair and upgrade the laptop.

At its WWDC keynote on Monday, Apple revealed several enhancements to its 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air ultrabooks, including a faster solid-state drive, an upgrade to Intel's fourth-generation core processor, increased battery life, and support for 802.11ac Wi-Fi.

On the outside, the new MacBook Air is virtually the same as its predecessor. But a peek at the innards of the 13-inch version uncovered the new tech. … Read more

It's hard to imagine, but Apple's MacBook lineup has been turned on its head. As of right now, the highest-priced MacBooks are a technological generation behind the least expensive MacBooks, making for shopping confusion if you're about to invest in a new system from Apple.

The cause of the confusion is this. At WWDC 2013, Apple introduced laptops updated to the latest generation of Intel Core i-series processors. These fourth-gen chips are also known by the code name Haswell, and they promise improved performance, better integrated graphics, and greatly boosted battery life. These CPUs were launched earlier … Read more

Call it the era of the extroverted computer.

In the old days of personal computing, expansion meant using vacancies inside a computer chassis where you could plug in graphics cards and hard drives. But now, because of Apple's fondness for Intel's high-speed Thunderbolt data port, expansion means hooking up devices outside the chassis.

Connecting external devices has long been just about the only way to bring new hardware to laptops. But at its WWDC 2013 show on Monday, Apple showed that the sealed-box philosophy of the laptop is coming even to Apple's highest-end, most expandable machine, the … Read more

Apple tried to wow the world on Monday with a host of new products and services. But investors aren't likely to get all abuzz, says J.P. Morgan's Mark Moskowitz.

At its WWDC keynote on Monday, Apple served up peeks at iOS 7, iTunes Radio, a new version of Mac OS X, new MacBook Airs, and the next Mac Pro. Many of these updates will certainly appeal to Apple users. But that doesn't necessarily translate into a higher stock price or stronger sales growth.

"We do not expect investors to cheer the latest software and services … Read more

Product introductions are usually predictable, orchestrated events. Company executives in jeans stalk a football stadium-sized stage and let their products do the talking: "This is our great new product, here are the specs, and now we'll demo some of the features. It's better than anything else on the market, and it's available soon for this price in these configurations. It's really amazing."

Apple execs did their fair share of stalking the stage Monday with well-rehearsed, Steve Jobsian product intro panache, demoing alternately what they described as "incredible" and "stunning" products … Read more

The release of a 5,120x2880-pixel wallpaper image indicates that Apple could bring high-resolution Retina displays to its iMac line of desktop all-in-one computers and external monitors.

The 3.3MB "OSX_hero_2x" image shows the blue and green ocean wave that's featured in the upcoming OS X Mavericks version of Apple's operating system. Its width and height are exactly double that of of the 2,560x1,440-pixel screen on the current 27-inch iMac.

Marvin Scharle of German Web site design firm Conclurer flagged the high-res Mavericks wallpaper on Twitter.

As Apple has spread its Retina displays across … Read more

In a move similar to its release of the PowerMac G4 Cube, Apple has issued a radical new design for its upcoming replacement for its Mac Pro systems. While unique and attractive, one of the key features for the Mac Pro has been expandability so professional users can customize its hardware to meet their needs, so where does this new system's design leave us?

In order to fit the components of the system into its radical shape, Apple has had to make some changes to the system. For one, its video cards will no longer be off-the-shelf units that … Read more