HIGH HOPES: Will Apple launch a new MacBook Air this spring?
Production is already underway of a new ultra-light, ultra-thin 12in notebook with a Retina display, and it could be launched alongside the Apple Watch.
According to DigiTimes, which has a patchy track record when it comes to second-guessing Apple but has excellent sources in the Taiwan electronic device components supply chain, the new notebook will feature Intel's latest Broadwell processor for better performance while sipping, rather than gulping, battery reserves.
Apple has been purportedly working on a seriously updated MacBook Air for the best part of a year but has been hampered firstly by Intel -- it had to push back the release date of its new processors from 2014 to 2015 because of manufacturing difficulties -- and secondly, according to Digitimes, because of its own mass production problems. Its partners in Asia have had trouble building the new thinner, lighter device.
As well as a higher resolution Retina display, the 12in MacBook Air is also expected to have no cooling fan -- making the device smaller than the existing MacBook Air models -- and a redesigned trackpad that is larger and behaves even more like a smartphone screen, responding to taps and swipes rather than clicks. — AFP/RelaxNews 2014
