Posts tagged macbook air
Apple Cuts Prices For 13 Inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display and 13 Inch MacBook Air
Feb 15th
The MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro with Retina Display are two of the best computers available today. They are super thin, very fast, have solid battery life, and in the case of the Pro, has an amazing Retina Display that makes everything look great. The problem with both however has been their prices, with the 13 inch Pro with Retina Display starting at a particularly steep $1,700 and the higher spec’d 13 inch Air with 256 GB of storage (the one you’re most likely gonna want because you’re going to want since this has enough storage to last you the next few years) starting at $1,500. This week however Apple gave both the 13 inch Retina Pro and the higher spec’d 13 inch Air some nice price cuts, bringing the basic, 128 GB Retina Pro down $200 to $1,500 and the top Air down $100 to $1,400. If you use Apple’s student discount the prices are even better, with the Retina Pro dropping an extra $100 to $1,400 and the higher end Air going down to $1,349.
We really love the MacBook Pro and Air, and both are great options if you’re looking for a new computer for school. Personally, the 13 inch Retina Pro is the laptop I just upgraded to because it has that excellent portability that you find on the Air but it’s combined with the power the Pro line is known for (oh, and that Retina screen is pretty great too). Both laptops though should be more than fine if you mainly plan on using them for taking notes, writing papers and going online.
One upgrade we recommend however is getting the 256 GB hard drive for either the Pro or Air, particularly if you plan to store a lot of videos, music or photos. It is very hard to upgrade the storage on MacBooks after you buy them, and you’re going to want to make sure this thing is best suited to last for the next few years (if you plan on using your next computer mainly for notes and the internet, or have a backup hard drive for your music, photos and movies the cheaper 128 GB hard drive may work fine for you). The 256 GB 13 inch Retina Pro is now $1,700 without a student discount, $1,600 with (down from nearly $2,000 before).
The new price changes are live now on Apple’s site and you can check them out here.
Here Are Apple’s Black Friday Deals
Nov 23rd
If you’re looking for a new iPad, iPod or MacBook this holiday season you’re gonna want to listen up, as Apple just revealed their Black Friday deals. As expected there aren’t any major “doorbuster” deals to be found here, but there still are some solid discounts.
The iPad 4 has been given a $41 discount and now starts at $458 for the 16 GB WiFi model (with $51 and $61 discounts for the 32 GB and 64 GB WiFi only versions). The iPad 2 16 GB WiFi model got a $31 discount to $368, though if you want one of these we’d still recommend going with Walmart or Target’s deals instead. The new 5th generation iPod Touch (the one with the color back and 4 inch screen) has also been given a $31 discount and now starts at $268 for the 32 GB version. The older iPod Touch and new iPod Nano were each given their own small discounts, bringing their prices to $178 and $111 respectively.
The MacBook line is where the big discounts happen. Apple has taken $101 off of each of their MacBook lines– the MacBook Air, Pro and Pro with Retina Display. Of course this brings them to the same prices you could get the rest of the year if you use a student discount, with the exception being the base 11 inch MacBook Air which is now $898 (it’s usually $950 with a student discount).
Apple also dropped the prices on their iPad Smart Covers and Smart Cases, as well as for their headphones , routers and wireless mice and keyboards. And no, unfortunately there doesn’t look to be any deals for the iPad Mini or iPhone 5.
You can check out the full list over at Apple’s site here.
Back To School Deal Of The Day: Get A New MacBook Air For $849 From Best Buy
Aug 24th
Still looking for a new MacBook Air or Pro for school this year? Well then you may wanna check out Best Buy. As part of their back-to-school promotion, Best Buy is giving any current or incoming college student with a .edu email address $100 off any new MacBook. Now while that sounds a lot like what Apple is doing, it’s even better. Best Buy is doing this on top of the price you would pay for the MacBook had you bought directly from Apple with a student discount.
In other words, look at it like this. The latest, cheapest version of the 11 inch MacBook Air (with 64 GB of storage) normally costs $999, or $949 with the student discount when you buy directly from Apple. Best Buy starts the pricing for this Air at $949, and when you then add their student discount you’re down to $849. The more powerful, base model of the 13 inch MacBook Air (with 128 GB of storage) is normally priced at $1,199, or $1,149 with the student discount from Apple. Best Buy starts the pricing for this same Air at $1,139, so with this $100 student discount this Air is now only $1,039… you get the point. It’s a great deal.
To get the deal all you have to do is go to Best Buy’s Student Deals site, enter that .edu email and print the coupon. That’s it.
Now as great as this is there are a few downsides. The first is you’ll need that .edu email address, so if you’re in high school that might be hard to get (though you could ask a friend or sibling to let you use theirs). You also can’t customize the MacBooks like you could if you ordered directly from Apple’s site, and Apple also gives you an $100 iTunes Gift Card as part of their back to school deal, something Best Buy doesn’t seem to match.
Oh, and you can only use the coupon once and you have to use it in a Best Buy store and have your student ID with you. Sorry no online ordering.
But hey, $849 for the latest MacBook Air is definitely one of the best back to school deals we’ve seen this year.
More info: Best Buy Student Deals
The Teens Guide to Back to School: What You Need To Know For Picking Your Next Computer
Aug 1st
We know, we know– it feels like summer is only just beginning why are we starting to think about the next school year? Unfortunately as we all know all good things like summer must eventually come to an end and we have to return back to our regular ways of life and school– which we all know comes back way too quickly. As the back-to-school sales really begin over the next few weeks we want to help make sure you go back fully prepared, well, gadgets wise at least.
One of the toughest things today in back-to-school shopping is finding a new computer/tablet/phone that isn’t just cheap or good, but right for you and what you want and need it to do. We want to try to make this easier for you, and over the course of the rest of the summer we plan to have a whole bunch of posts and guides on good deals we see, some of our recommendations for a new computer, tablet or phone etc. In short, we’re here to help.
So with all that in mind we’re gonna kick off this back-to-school “series” with some tips on what you should look for when your out shopping for a new laptop for school and what are the basic specs that any 2011 computer you buy should have.
Apple Updates The MacBook Air– What You Need To Know
Jul 20th
If you’re looking for a new computer this back-to-school shopping season and really wanted to go with a Mac we really hope you waited. As expected, Apple didn’t just launch Lion today, but they also announced some pretty major updates to its MacBook Air that should make it a much better choice as your next computer.
We got all the details for you below, so read on.
It’s Official: Apple’s Releasing OS X Lion Tomorrow
Jul 19th
It looks like all the final pieces of OS X Lion are now finally coming into place. We knew the price ($29.99), we knew where to get it (Mac App Store), we knew the major new features to look forward to, and now we finally know that final missing piece: the date. Apple just announced that OS X Lion will be available tomorrow, July 20th, for all to download from the Mac App Store.
Apple of course hasn’t said anything about if there will also be new Macs to go along with the big release, but if there are you know that we’ll have all the info you need to know about them right here.
And for everything you need to know about Lion and what makes it so great make sure to check out our round-up post here.
OS X Lion Breakdown: Everything You Need To Know About Apple’s Next Big OS
Jul 19th
With Apple’s next big version of OS X, called Lion, seemingly set to launch any day now a lot of you want to know “what exactly is so great about Lion and what does it mean to me?” Well, we’re gonna recap everything you need to know about Lion for you right here so you’re ready for whenever it actually comes out.
Let’s get to it.
Don’t Buy That New Mac Yet– Is Apple Releasing OS X Lion and New MacBook Airs Next Week?
Jul 8th
If you are planning on buying a new Mac anytime over the next week we recommend you try to hold off until at least next Thursday. Rumors are Apple is planning some big things for next Thursday, July 14th, the day according to the latest rumors, they are expected to release the next major update to OS X, OS X Lion. We already went through everything you should be looking forward to in Apple’s next big desktop OS (for a recap see here and here), but there are also rumors that Apple is planning to update its MacBook Air (and possibly MacBook and Mac Mini) lines the same day.
As we all know, the MacBook Air is one incredible little computer with one of the thinnest designs we’ve ever seen. As we wrote last year, it’s so thin and light– while still keeping a full keyboard and great screen– that its perfect for traveling and taking to school every day. The problem with those current MacBook Airs though is that they could be a whole lot faster if they were using some of Intel’s latest and greatest Core i5 and i7 processors found in the new MacBook Pros and all modern PCs (the Core 2 Duo on today’s Airs is a few years old to say the least). Well, in this rumored update the new Airs would not just get these much faster new processors, but also an even faster Solid State Drive (this is similar to the storage found in iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads and is faster and gives the computer better battery over the traditional hard drive) and a ThunderBolt port (Apple and Intel’s next generation of USB that would make transferring files from your computer to an iPhone/iPod/backup hard drive a lot faster). Yeah these new Airs look to be ridiculously fast.
There are even more rumors that we may see a MacBook Air released at a price of $899 or $100 cheaper than the current 11 inch MacBook Air that starts at $999.
Much faster, possibly cheaper, and with Lion pre-installed? Yeah, if you’re looking to go Mac back-to-school shopping this weekend we definitely think you should wait a few more days to see if this comes out.
More info: Cult of Mac, 9to5Mac
Apple Announces Back To School Deal: Buy A New Mac And Get A Free $100 iTunes Gift Card
Jun 16th
Apple today finally took the wraps off its annual, highly anticipated back to school deal with a major new twist: the traditional free iPod Touch has been replaced with the new deal being the usual discounts on all Macs and a free $100 iTunes gift card that can be used in any of Apple’s iTunes stores (iTunes, App Store for iPhone/iPad, Mac App Store and iBookstore).
While we don’t know why Apple decided not to do free iPod Touches again this year (or even better, some discount on an iPad with the purchase of a new Mac) the deal, which runs from today, June 16th, through September 20th, is still pretty good in our opinion. Think about it, most of us have iPods– or are using our phones as our iPods– now anyway so unless you really needed a new one, getting $100 to spend in iTunes and getting apps for your new Mac can be very valuable (as Apple puts it: “so you can get Pages, Numbers and Keynote for your studies. And still have plenty left for your study breaks.”). Oh, and the brand new, upcoming OS X Lion will be free to anyone who buys a new Mac now and before whenever the official launch date is, so you don’t have to worry about buying that for $30 next month either.
Now a lot of you want to know what’s different between this new 2011 Apple back-to-school deal and Microsoft’s offer of a free Xbox 360 with any new PC $699 or higher. There actually is a lot. Beyond the fact that Microsoft’s deal is cheaper (you can buy a PC for $699 and get the free 360 whereas the cheapest MacBook– the one from last year and not the new MacBook Pros– is $899 even after the $100 discount), Microsoft’s deal is also open for any current high school or college student unlike Apple’s which looks to be only college (the official language is “college students or students accepted to college” so incoming college freshmen you’re still good. Parents of college students and teachers of any grade are also eligible so if you’ve got a sibling in college or a nice teacher you can still get in on this deal). Microsoft is also giving away more in terms of the free add-on (an Xbox 360 4 GB is $200 whereas even if you include Lion in the Apple deal you’re still at $130).
I guess what it really comes down to which would you rather game on: Xbox 360 or Mac/iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch? Let us know your pick of which deal you think is better in the comments.
Info from Apple
Apple Unveils New MacBook Airs– Is This the End of the Plastic MacBook?
Oct 20th
Apple today at their “Back to the Mac” event showed off a whole bunch of cool new products and features including the expected preview of the next version of OS X– called Lion, as well as a new iLife ’11 with all new features and enhancements to the popular Garageband, iMovie and iPhoto. And of course, they released the all new MacBook Air, now thinner than ever with a new 11.6 inch model to go with the traditional 13.3 inch one, and most importantly, a starting price of $999. Yes, that is the same $999 as the MacBook. In fact, I can definitely see this as perhaps being the white plastic MacBooks successor.
