Suit Up Your MacBook Air With Vaja's Ivolution Leather Suit Case

 

Oh yes, Vaja doesn't just make the most amazing leather cases for the iPhone and iPad, but apparently also for the ultra portable 2010 and 2011 MacBook Air. Fortunately for you, Vaja's Ivolution Leather Suit case isn't as expensive as you might think and costs only $210. That's how much some of Vaja's iPad 2 folio cases will run you like the Leather Agenda folio case clocking in at $220. Sure that's no cheap way of protecting your MacBook Air that you take everywhere with you, but it's the most stylish and luxurious way of doing so that's for sure. The Ivolution Leather Suit is only available for the 13" MacBook Air featuring Vaja's exclusive supple, floater cowhide leather, soft microfiber interior and offers full protection at a slim package without ever having to remove your MacBook Air with access to all ports at all times. 
Vaja's Ivolution Leather Suit can be customized with over 18 leather colors and trimming. As with all Vaja cases, expect to wait nearly a month for Vaja to handcraft your Vaja case and ship it out to your doorstep. Does it get any fancier than this? It might if you fancy carrying around your MacBook Air inside a vintage leather BookBook. Then yes.

Nir Schneider

Editor-in-Chief

SwitchEasy Intros SafeKeys MacBook Keyboard Covers

SwitchEasy is slowly but surely starting to out products not just for the iPhone and iPad, but also for the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. SwitchEasy's new SafeKeys are silicone keyboard covers made for 2011 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro and include the updates Lion keys for Launchpad and Mission Control. The SafeKeys keep your keyboard protected from accidental liquid spills, Cheetos covered fingers and small debris and are available now in 5 different solid colors including clear for $24.99. SwitchEasy hasn't made it clear whether these silicone keyboard covers actually let the keyboard backlight shine thru or not.

If $25 is a wee bit too expensive for you, check out our handy guide for the most affordable (and most likely less quality focused as opposed to the SafeKeys) keyboard covers money can buy.

Acer Rips Off The Macbook Air

With an earlier article that we posted about the redesigned 2011 MBA, was actually a unreleased Acer Product. The picture is Acer's rumored Aspire 3951 that looks very familiar to the MBA. It has SSD, Sandy Bridge Processor, and is also light and thin. It is almost an exact copy and paste of the MBA, though the Acer is a tad bit heavier on an electronic scale. Looks like Acer is trying to copy Cupertino's design and cash in, but this isn't the first time someone has tried to do this. The Acer Aspire is expected to cost between $770 and $960.

Some MacBook Airs Have Slower SSDs Than Others

With useful tools such as the free Disk Speed Test found in the Mac App Store, one could easily benchmark his or hers hard drive and SSD. As it turns out, Apple is still using two different models of SSDs in the MacBook Air from Samsung and Toshiba. It is reported that all Toshiba SSDs found in any 2010 and 2011 model, 11" and 13" MacBook Air, are slower than the Samsung SSDs Apple is using. Before your heart sinks to the bottom of your stomach, check to see which SSD model you've got inside your MacBook Air by going to your About This Mac - System Report or More Info under Snow Leopard - Serial ATA. If you see the Toshiba TS128C SSD model then you've got the slower SSD that's able to perform read and writes speeds generally below 200Mbps. If you're lucky, you'll find that you've got the faster Samsung SM128C SSD.

The difference in speeds may not necessarily mean that you will notice a significant difference in your day to day usage, but if it does bother you then you should try to get a replacement.

Nir Schneider

Editor-in-Chief

Apple Releases New 2011 MacBook Air With Backlit Keyboard, Thunderbolt

Some rumors were true while others were far from it. As expected, Apple has released a refreshed line of ultraportables today. Starting with the new 2011 11" MacBook Air starting at $999 (that's how much a 27" LED Cinema Display costs btw), it now packs Intel's new Sandy Bridge processor, the 1.6Ghz dual-core Intel Core i5 with an optional 1.8Ghz dual-core Intel Core i7 upgrade, 64GB SSD, 2GB of memory and Intel HD Graphics 3000. The new 2011 13" MacBook Air starts at $1,299, packs Intel's 1.7Ghz dual-core Intel Core i5 128GB SSD, Intel HD Graphics 3000 and comes standard with 4GB of memory.

But that's not all, both 11" and 13" 2011 MacBook Airs now have full backlit keyboards - A much requested hardware feature since Apple removed it from the 2010 MacBook Airs, Thunderbolt ports and they come with OS X Lion installed and ready to serve. Head on over to the source link for the full customization options.

Nir Schneider

Editor-in-Chief

Could This Be The Redesigned 2011 MacBook Air?

What looks like a totally new redesigned MacBook Air graphic has been recentely leaked in between the cracks of all the rumors that have been circling around in these recent weeks. M.I.C Gadget reports that it got a tip from a source at Foxconn, the manufacturing plant in China that produces Apple's desired gadgets, and they believe that it is the real deal. From the pic, it looks like Apple has redesigned the hinge and the external enclosure quite a bit from the current 2010 unibody MacBook Air. Further more, who ever leaked the image has also said the new 2011 MacBook Air is thinner and much lighter. It would be typical of Apple making the MacBook Air even thinner. The pic only reveals one side which shows an SD card slot and nothing else. Apple is expected to release an updated MacBook Air very soon, but a total redesign wasn't really anticipated. 

Nir Schneider

Editor-in-Chief