Taiwanese company Photofast has announced the first 3rd party SSD storage upgrade kit for the new MacBook Air. (via Engadget) The new MacBook Air is the first Apple laptop to use a special SSD card rather than a traditional hard drive enclosure. While the new SSD storage card allows Apple to further reduce the size of the MacBook Air's enclosure, upgrade parts are less readily available. Photofast is the first of likely many vendors who will fill this void.
Photofast plans on offering 64GB / 128GB / 256GB SSD aftermarket upgrades based on the SandForce controller. This gives 11.6" MacBook Air owners the option of upgrading to a maximum of 256GB -- a configuration not available from Apple. The upgrade promises speeds of 250MB/s for sequential reads and writes, a notable increase from Apple's offerings which bench around 150-160MB/s for the same metric. Overall performance improvements are said to be in the 30% range. In a particularly elegant twist, Photofast will allow you to convert your MacBook Air's existing SSD card into a USB storage device. This storage device then allows you to transfer your existing data over to your Mac.
Unfortunately, no pricing or availability has been announced, but we expect we'll see similar products from other companies in the near future.
Apple's website continues to state that the first vehicle models with next-generation CarPlay will "arrive in 2024." With less than three days remaining in the year, however, that timeframe is looking more and more unlikely.
It would not be entirely Apple's fault if the stated 2024 target is missed, given that it is ultimately up to automakers to roll out the software in vehicles, but it is...
Friday December 27, 2024 2:43 pm PST by Juli Clover
Even though iOS 18.1 and iOS 18.2 added multiple Apple Intelligence features like Image Playground, Genmoji, Writing Tools, and more, there are still new Apple Intelligence capabilities that we're waiting on. Apple has at least one more major Apple Intelligence update coming in 2025, and the functionality that we're expecting is outlined below.
Priority Notifications
Notification summaries...
Thursday December 26, 2024 10:35 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple this week began teasing some kind of upcoming Apple TV+ surprise that's set to happen on January 4 and January 5, telling customers to "stay tuned" and "save the date" in social media posts.
Apple's images have a tagline that says "See for yourself," but it isn't clear what Apple has planned. Some users on Reddit have speculated that Apple might be planning to launch a promotion that...
Monday December 23, 2024 6:30 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
Saturday December 28, 2024 12:03 pm PST by Joe Rossignol
Starting with iOS 18.2, released earlier this month, Apple News+ subscribers in the U.S. have access to daily sudoku puzzles in the Apple News app.
There are easy, moderate, and challenging difficulty levels for the daily puzzles. A scoreboard tracks your sudoku stats, including your total number of puzzles solved, fastest completion times per difficulty level, and more.
Sudoku is the...
Tuesday December 24, 2024 8:35 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple is expected to release an AirTag 2 next year, and a few new features and changes have already been rumored for the item tracker.
Below, we recap what to expect from the AirTag 2:
The new AirTag is expected to be equipped with Apple's second-generation Ultra Wideband chip for longer range. The chip debuted last year in the iPhone 15 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2, and Apple said it...
Sunday December 22, 2024 8:09 am PST by Joe Rossignol
iOS 19 will not drop support for any iPhone models, according to French website iPhoneSoft.fr. The report cites a source within Apple.
The report said that iOS 19 will be compatible with any iPhone that is capable of running iOS 18, which would mean the following models:
iPhone 16
iPhone 16 Plus
iPhone 16 Pro
iPhone 16 Pro Max
iPhone 15
iPhone 15 Plus
iPhone 15 Pro
...
Monday December 23, 2024 4:18 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Despite being released over two years ago, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 continue to dominate the wireless earbud market. However, with the AirPods Pro 3 expected to launch sometime in 2025, anyone thinking of buying Apple's premium earbuds may be wondering if the next generation is worth holding out for.
Apart from their audio and noise-canceling performance, which are generally regarded as...
