The New 2013 Black Mac Pro

We expected some new hardware to be announced by Apple today at the WWDC, and so we got an entirely new and powerful Mac Pro so drastically unique that it could have easily fell out of some alien spaceship. The new 2013 black Mac Pro as we shall now call it, is a thing of bold beauty. An innovative marvel that has put Apple ahead of the industrial design curve once again. Standing just 9.9-inches tall with a diameter of only 6.6-inches, the new black Mac Pro is ridiculously more compact than its silvery aluminum predecessor. It too is made using a machined aluminum enclosure yet it's finished with a polished black finish which is a surprising first for Apple. It's also assembled in the USA. The black, polished cylindrical-shaped Mac Pro may resemble a posh trash can to some though.

But it's what's on the inside the really matters. The new black Mac Pro packs an impressive line of specs for such a compact form factor. It's twice as fast than its predecessor thanks to a 12-Core Intel Xeon CPU, and it also has new ECC memory yielding double the performance from past variants and PCI express-based flash storage that is more than twice as fast as before clocking in 1.25GBps read and 1GBps write speeds. It also features the latest WiFi 802.11ac standard, faster backwards-compatible Thunderbolt 2, dual-workstation AMD FirePro GPUs that support up to three high-resolution 4K external monitors and a host of backlit I/O. Thunderbolt 2 is used to support and transfer 4K video resolution between compatible external displays.

To keep things cool, Apple designed a unified thermal core to absorb heat from the internal hardware that surrounds it using a single, large turbine-like fan that sucks out the hot air captured by the aluminum-made core. The fan blades are designed to operate more quieter, and are similar in design to the ones Apple used to design the Retina MacBook Pro. Apple hasn't divulged over a release date or price unfortunately.

Apple Executes Their 17-Inch Quietly

Now that we've all had time to rejoice over the new Retina Display Macbook Pro, let us take a moment and remember the giant of the family, the 17 inch Macbook Pro. Without too much of a mention, Apple silently discountinued their 17 inch Pro model after WWDC. It might not have sold as many units as its smaller brothers and sisters just as we've reported, but for you professionals out there who loved your huge screen estate, we are sorry for your loss. 

OS X Mountain Lion Is Packed With New Features

WWDC 2012 had both its excitements and its disappointments. To the dismay of a lot of us, Apple’s glorious Retina Displays will not be included throughout their entire laptop lineup, but on the bright side, we have an entirely new addition: the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display. With all of its upgraded hardware, Apple just had to make it even better with improved software as well. OS X Mountain Lion will be the next big thing for Apple as it plans to improve the current OS X and include new features as well.

The basic structure and ideas for Mountain Lion seems to mirror a lot of what iOS already has to offer, creating an overall mobile experience, loaded with simple gestures and finger movements. Notifications will now alert you of incoming messages, emails, reminders and much more. An easy swipe to the right on your trackpad will bring it right up. As Apple has always strived for simplicity and ease of use, Mountain Lion is no exception. By incorporating Facebook integration, we can now post updates and statuses on Facebook directly from our Mac, without having to go back to your Facebook page.

iMessage was released to the public months back as a beta, and rightfully so. The numerous bugs and issues it had made it practically useless. With Mountain Lion, iMessage will do what it was created to do: send messages. Exactly like iMessages on your iPhone, this app will send messages to any other Apple product, as long as there is WiFi. This makes communicating with your friends so much easier as you will no longer have to stop what you’re doing on your Mac and reply with your iPhone. To make things even easier, with the help of the Cloud, all of your messages will stay updated throughout all your devices.

An interesting feature that Mountain Lion will have is called Power Nap, which allows your Mac to quietly update itself without leaving sleep mode. This seems rather convenient as it prevents you from missing an important software update or Time Machine back-up. Lastly, Dictation might be a solution to a keyboard-free experience. Similar to Siri, it translates what you say into text.

OS X Mountain Lion will be available to all users through the Mac App Store in July for only $19.99. All of these features and more can be found on Apple’s website. 

The World's Most Advanced Mobile Operating System: iOS 6

Although there were no hints as to hardware for the next iPhone, Apple did however, announce a lot of updates in their new iOS, iOS 6. Looking to give users more functionality with less hassle and inconvenience, iOS 6 definitely looks promising. With new updates and additional features, it is ready to move our generation into the post-PC era.

Siri has been rather underwhelming since her release, rarely being used except for the occasional funny response she gives when asked obscene questions. For a lot of us, Siri was just not that useful. As she was released as a beta, we shouldn’t expect too much. Now, Apple announced that they plan to give Siri an update, improving her accuracy at both responding and understanding what you want. She will be integrated with a number of apps including Yelp, Facebook, and sports news. Facebook integration will be available as well, allowing you to post right onto your profile similar to Twitter’s integration. Apple is also working with popular car companies such as Toyota, Audi, BMW, Mercedes, and others to have a “Eyes Free” feature that activates Siri with a push of a button, similar to that of Bluetooth’s “Hands-free” feature.

A major change involves Apple’s Map app, which is currently supported through Google. Wanting to break away from relying on other companies, Apple created their own in-house app that features 3D maps. Going along with its 3D functions will be GPS functionality with turn-by-turn directions. The other entirely new App iOS 6 plans to offer is Passbook, an app to store all of your tickets and information for travel so you have all of your information in one place and prevents the risk of losing any important documents.

iOS 6 will greatly improve your iOS device and will be compatible with the iPhone 3GS and later as well as the iPad 2 and new iPad. Apple plans to release iOS 6 sometime in the Fall, most likely concurrently with their new iPhone. 

Next-Generation MacBook Pro With Retina Display Announced

After months of rumors and speculations, Apple has announced the next-generation MacBook Pro with Retina display that is going to accompany Apple's original MacBook Pro lineup which has only seen spec bumps, respectively. It packs a 15-inch Retina Display that boasts deeper blacks, wider viewing angles and reduced glare with a whopping 2880x1800 resolution with 220 ppi and a thinner aluminum unibody casing at 0.71 inched thick whilst losing the optical drive just as we predicted, and weighing at 4.46 pounds. This is a redesigned 15-inch MacBook Pro that shares the same non-user upgradebale hardware as the MacBook Air lineup, only that it offers Pro powerful performance at a thinner form factor. 

Apple's next-generation Retina MacBook Pro features a quad-core Intel i5 or i7 Ivy Bridge processor, up to 16GB of RAM, and Nvidia Kepler GeForce GT 650m GPU with 1GB of VRAM. Storage is SSD-exclusive with a 256GB SSD on the entry-level with an option to go all the way up to a 768GB SSD. Battery life is rated to 7 hours, and ports include an SD card slot, HDMI, USB 3, two Thunderbolt ports, and a headphone jack. 

The new Retina MacBook Pro comes with Bluetooth 4.0, a redesigned slimmer MagSafe 2 power connector, backlit keyboard and a new ultra quite fan. Unfortunately, we're not getting a larger Multi-Touch glass trackpad this time around. Apple has also announced a FireWire 800 and Ethernet Thunderbolt adapters that will make good use of the new MacBook Pro's two Thunderbolt ports.

The entry-level Retina MacBook Pro with a 256GB SSD, 8GB of RAM and a 2.3GHz quad-core Intel i7 processor and packing the world's highest resolution display will set you back $2,199. They're shipping today.

The Redesigned 2012 MacBook Pro: WWDC Predictions

WWDC 2012 is only a day away, and we're expecting some great new things to come out of Apple. Amongst them is a newly redesigned line of MacBook Pros. Other than the obvious faster, better internal hardware specs including a Retina display, the unibody MacBook Pro is in desperate need of renovation after all of these years with only minor specs bumps. Firstly we think it's most likely that we will see a thinner unibody MacBook Pro tomorrow, but contrary to popular speculations it will not share the same slanted form factor as the MacBook Air, but instead it will be have a shaved body and thinner lid design; possibly even losing the optical drive as a result. 

A second major change in the purported new redesigned MacBook Pro we think will be a slightly wider glass trackpad making it the largest, most spacious trackpad ever to be put on a laptop. A larger trackpad area will let users spend less time repeating a swipe in order to scroll across the Retina display's massive resolution.

Lastly, our wishful thinking includes a black aluminum MacBook Pro option and new accessories like a backlit wireless Bluetooth keyboard with a black key layout. What ever WWDC 2012 holds, we will cover all the juicy news!

iOS 6 Confirmed For WWDC 2012

A new banner went up today at Moscone West ahead of Apple's June 11 WWDC event confirming iOS 6 along with a spanking new logo. We're expecting a major design overhaul and a bunch of new features, but we will know exactly come June 11.