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As anticipated, Apple announced an upgrade to its MacBook Air line of notebooks at WWDC this morning. The signature teardrop design hasn't changed -- the focus of this refresh is in the core of the computer.
The thinnest, lightest member of the Mac family now has more power, and the ability to last longer. The newly updated 11-inch MacBook Air starts at $1,000 for 128GB of storage, and the 13-inch starts at $1,100 for 128GB of storage. Both start shipping today from the Apple store.
The new Air boasts "all-day battery life" (Apple's words). The new Air will have an Intel Haswell ULT processor inside that improves the battery life from five hours on the 11-inch and seven hours on the 13-inch, to nine hours for the 11-inch and a full 12 hours on the 13-inch. Onstage at WWDC, Apple SVP of marketing Phil Schiller joked that we can now watch almost the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy in one sitting with the new 10-hour movie playback capabilities of the Air. Only it's not really a joke -- we actually could, and we might.
Another feature of the Haswell chip is the Iris Graphics technology. A major upgrade from the previous HD Graphics 4000, it delivers twice the 3-D performance at a 45 percent faster rate, according to Apple. That means you'll now be able to do some real gaming on the Air with the improved graphics power.
Apple added 802.11AC Gigabit Wi-Fi chips to the Air, giving it three times more speed to the machine's throughput capabilities. To go along with this update, Apple also announced two new base stations, AirPort Extreme and AirPort Time Capsule. Both sport new features like beam-forming, which sends more energy straight to an 802.11 WiFi device.
These upgrades show that Apple wants to make the Air more of a staple for all users, not just those who are buying a hyper-portable machine. The Air has been the obvious choice for people who travel a lot, or those who only need a computer for light tasks throughout the day. Now that the innards of the Air have been beefed up with a more powerful processor, faster Wi-Fi chips, and especially a real-deal battery, the Air can be a choice for people who want all the power of a standard computer, in a sleeker, lighter frame.
