Apple’s ‘Back to the Mac’ event took place today. Its emphasis was on bringing a number of features (both software and hardware) recently unveiled in devices such as the iPad to the Mac. Here is a short recap of the event:
- AutoCAD returns to Mac after an 18 year absence
- iLife 11: Same software (iPhoto ’11, iMovie ’11, GarageBand ’11) but with new features including full screen mode
- Facetime: Now available for Macs. Interoperable between different iOS devices. Beta available today.
- Preview of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion: Brings a number of iOS features over to Mac OS X: Multi-touch gestures, Mac App Store, application resumption on startup.
- Multi-touch gestures: Apple found that vertical touch surfaces do not work, hence multi-touch trackpads, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackad
- Mac App Store: Extends the App Store model to include Macs. Includes one-click downloads, free and paid apps (70/30 split with developers), automatic installation and updates. Will open within 90 days on Snow Leopard with app submissions starting in November.
- Lion will be released summer 2011.
- One more thing: What would happen if a MacBook met an iPad? Features such as Instant on, great battery life and standby time, solid state storage, and thin and light. Introducing the new MacBook Air
- A quick look at specifications: 0.68-inch at its thickest point down to 0.11-inches at its thinnest. 2.9 pounds. Unibody construction. Full-size keyboard and trackpad 13.3-inch LED backlit 1440×900 display, Core 2 Duo processor and NVDIA GeForce 320m, Facetime camera, 802.11 n Wi-Fi SSD storage only (no HDD or optical drive). Battery life: 7 hours of wireless web and 30 days of standby.
- Second MacBook Air model: 11.6-inch 1366x 768 display and 2.3 pound. Battery life: 5 hours of Wireless web
- Pricing starts at US$999 (CA$1049) for 11.6-inch model with 1.4Ghz processor and 64GB of storage and tops out with 13.3-inch 1.86GHz, 256GB model at US$1599 (CA$1649). The MacBook Air is available for order stating today.
What do you think?