MacRumors

AnandTech takes a closer look at the new MacBook Pro's 2880x1800 Retina display, revealing just how well the display stacks up against its predecessor and other notebook displays and delving into the details of how it handles various resolutions.

In looking at scaling, the report explains the new slider option in System Preferences that allows users to select from a spectrum of resolutions that include not only the 1440x900 resolution in Retina quality using the full 2880x1800 pixels, but also larger desktop spaces at 1920x1200 and 1680x1050.

Retina Display MBP owners now get a slider under OS X's Display Preferences that allow you to specify desktop resolutions other than 1440 x 900. At 1440 x 900 you don't get any increase in usable desktop resolution compared to a standard 15-inch MacBook Pro, but everything is ridiculously crisp. If you're like me however and opted for the 1680 x 1050 "high-res" upgrade last generation, this won't do. Thankfully Apple offers 1680 x 1050 and 1920 x 1200 scaling options that trade a bit of image quality and performance for added real estate.

AnandTech's report also describes how Apple's display design has done away with the cover glass that in some circumstances suffers from significant glare on the standard non-Retina MacBook Pro. Phil Schiller noted during the keynote introduction that glare has been reduced 75% from the previous MacBook Pro, and AnandTech calls the Retina MacBook Pro's glare "remarkably close" to that seen on an earlier-generation matte MacBook Pro.

Comparing color and contrast, AnandTech discovered that the Retina MacBook Pro's display has remarkably improved black levels, which help compensate for slightly lower brightness. Contrast is also excellent, making for crisp and vivid content display.

As with Retina displays on iOS devices, Apple automatically scales text to display at the crisper Retina resolution, but it is dependent on apps using Apple's text rendering. AnandTech notes that Google Chrome currently uses its own text rendering engine and is thus unable to take advantage of the sharper text available in Safari.

Finally, the report takes a look at how games handle the Retina display, with Diablo III taking full advantage of the 2880x1800 display as touted by Apple during the keynote. Some games are able to see the full resolution while others are limited to the "non-Retina" resolutions topping out at 1920x1200, but it seems reasonable to believe that over time game developers will be building in support for the ultra-high resolution of the new MacBook Pro.

The teardown experts at iFixit are currently in the process of taking apart the new 13-inch MacBook Air released yesterday, and while the machine appears to be only a minor update to the previous model, there are undoubtedly some changes that are worth noting.

The most notable change so far is with the solid-state storage. Apple has tweaked the connector design on the MacBook Air's integrated flash storage, making current replacement and upgrade modules from third parties incompatible with the latest models. Other World Computing has also noted this difference and indicated that they are working "full steam ahead" on launching new Aura Pro Express SSDs compatible with the 2012 MacBook Air. Apple announced at WWDC that it was using new 500 MBps SSDs in its MacBook Air, and the new connector design is likely to accommodate the faster data transfer capabilities.

Beyond the SSD, iFixit has found very few changes to the MacBook Air. The new models incorporate Apple's thinner Magsafe 2 standard that the company developed as it has sought to find ways to continue reducing the thickness of its notebooks. The new MacBook Air obviously also incorporates Intel's latest Ivy Bridge processors and new 1600 MHz RAM, as well as USB 3.0 support, but these upgrades have yielded very little in terms of changes to the machine's internal layout.

iFixit's teardown is still underway, so there may yet be more news to come, and we will update this story with any additional discoveries of note.

Among the many software updates Apple has been pushing out associated with yesterday's keynote announcements, Thunderbolt Software Update 1.2 is a relatively minor 537 KB download offered to provide support for the company's new Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter. The adapter is intended for use with Thunderbolt-equipped MacBook Air models and the new Retina MacBook Pro, which do not come with an Ethernet port built in due to their thin designs.

But as noted by TidBITS, the update seems to be causing major problems for a number of users, with some users' machines being rendered unable to boot.

Although it’s unclear if all Thunderbolt-equipped Macs are affected, a number of people have reported that installing the update causes a variety of strange boot-related problems (kernel panics, getting stuck at the gray boot screen, “Unexpected error” messages, and more). Regardless of the details, in each case, it seems that the Mac is rendered unusable, even thunderstruck. I’ve now heard from some people for whom the update did not cause any problems, but it’s still unclear what the difference may be between those who are and are not suffering boot failures.

The report notes that the issues can be fixed by reinstalling OS X Lion, although that is certainly not a desirable step for most users to have to take. Consequently, it seems advisable for users to avoid installing this update until the cause of the issues can be identified and Apple can introduce a revised version of the software.

As noted by Cult of Mac, Apple has removed references to the Messages for Mac beta that the company released for OS X Lion in mid-February to provide a preview of the functionality coming in OS X Mountain Lion.

There’s still a Messages for Mac link at the bottom of Apple’s Downloads page — as you can see below — but again, it just redirects to the Mac OS X page, where a Messages beta cannot be found.

It’s likely that Apple is now happy with how beta testing has gone, and that it has already prepared a final release that will launch alongside Mountain Lion in July.

Apple has not removed the download entirely, however, as it is still accessible via direct download (63.8 MB). It is unknown how long Apple will continue hosting the download, but text strings found within the app earlier this year suggest that the app itself will expire once OS X Mountain Lion is released and Messages will be a Mountain Lion exclusive.

Apple announced yesterday that OS X Mountain Lion will launch in July and be priced at $19.99 through the Mac App Store. Users of Snow Leopard and Lion will be able to upgrade to Mountain Lion for the same price.

Users of the Messages beta for Lion have complained of a number of issues including crashes and problems with syncing across devices, failure to send, and disappearing messages. Many have been hoping for an update to address some of these issues, but it appears that Apple is focusing its Messages efforts on the final version it plans to include with OS X Mountain Lion.

While Apple announced at yesterday's introduction of the MacBook Pro with Retina display that the new models were shipping immediately, those who failed to move quickly to place their orders have seen shipping estimates quickly lengthen. Early estimates came in at 5-7 business days yesterday before moving to 7-10 business days and finally settling late yesterday at 2-3 weeks.

The same 2-3 week estimate appears to apply to all configurations and customizations on the new Retina MacBook Pro, and the company is not yet offering in-store pickup options on the new machines. Limited stock is making its way to Apple's retail stores, but those looking to customize their orders or guarantee availability with online ordering for pickup are currently left out.

Apple's new non-Retina MacBook Pro and MacBook air models remain in stock for immediate shipment through the Apple online store, with customizations pushing those models out to 1-3 or 3-5 business days depending on the options chosen.

Verizon today announced the launch of a new "Share Everything" pricing structure designed to allow users to share monthly data allotments across multiple devices. The plan, which is rolling out on June 28, includes unlimited voice and messaging across all devices, with an overall data cap and number and type of devices being the only differentiating factors among pricing tiers.

Each device carries a base monthly access charge ranging from $10 for a tablet to $40 for a smartphone. A single data charge is then applied on top of that base amount, starting at $50 for 1 GB and ranging up to $100 for 10 GB. Mobile hotspot functionality within the data cap is also included at no extra charge.

Compared to Verizon's existing plans, the new Share Everything plan appears to represent a solid value even for single-device customers interested in unlimited minutes and texting, but less so for other customers.

Under Verizon's current pricing, a customer would pay a total of $120 per month for unlimited minutes ($70), unlimited messaging ($20) and 2 GB of data ($30). Adding mobile hotspot functionality costs an additional $20 but increases the total data cap to 4 GB.

With the new Share Everything plan, a customer would pay $100 per month for the same service: $40 smartphone access and $60 for unlimited minutes and messaging and 2 GB of data. With mobile hotspot functionality included at no additional charge, stepping up to the 4 GB plan would cost just $10. In addition, a user could add an iPad to his or her account for just $10 per month with no contract requirement, as long as it was drawing from the same data allotment as the user's phone.

The plans are not as good of a deal for users with packages of lower numbers of minutes. A user with 450 minutes, unlimited messaging and 2 GB of data would pay $90 under current plans, compared to $100 under Share Everything, although the new plan does offer mobile hotspot at no additional charge. Current plans also offer a range of messaging options from pay-per-use up to unlimited, allowing lower-use customers to cut their monthly bills even further.

As the balance of smartphone usage shifts increasingly toward data and away from voice minutes, carriers are seeking to simplify the voice and messaging aspects of their plans to focus on data allotments as the primary differentiator among their plans. The shift is a reversal from the previous model in which customers selected from a number of options for voice minutes and then received unlimited data for a set monthly charge. In addition to Verizon, AT&T has also expressed its preference for this new model, while Sprint, the third major iPhone carrier in the United States, has indicated that it remains committed to its unlimited data offerings.

Apple today announced the winners of its annual Apple Design Awards at WWDC. Winning developers receive a MacBook Air, an iPad, an iPod touch, and the Apple Design Award cube trophy as well as a special ADA lanyard.

For apps to be eligible for ADA nomination, they must be distributed via the Mac or iOS App Store. This year's winners come from a range of genres, encompassing everything from games to education to art to music:

iPhone

Jetpack Joyride
National Parks by National Geographic
Where’s my Water?

iPad

Paper
Bobo Explores Light
DM1 the Drum Machine

Mac

DeusEx: Human Revolution
Sketch
Limbo

Student

Little Star
daWindci

Apple has included additional information about the apps and what made them stand out on the Apple Design Awards page.

Two years ago, as part of the focus on iOS at WWDC 2010, Apple did not include Mac applications in the Apple Design Awards competition. With OS X again playing a prominent role Apple's lineup and the Mac App Store gaining momentum, Mac applications returned to the ballot in 2011.

ADA winners in 2011 included Cut the Rope, Pixelmator and djay.

According to New York Times technology columnist David Pogue, Apple still believes in desktop Macs, including both the iMac and the Mac Pro.

The Mac Pro in particular has raised the ire of some Apple fans because it has been several years since the last update, and the update today was extremely minor.

Pogue writes:

Many Apple observers also wonder if Apple thinks that desktop computers are dead, since not a word was said about the iMac and Mac Pro. An executive did assure me, however, that new models and new designs are under way, probably for release in 2013.

Updated Xeon E5 chips were released in March, but the Mac Pro update released today strangely didn't include them.

The company late last year was reportedly "questioning" the future of the Mac Pro line, examining whether it should continue offering the professional-level workstation as sales have declined amid a continued shift toward notebook machines and specs that had gone stale while waiting for Intel to release updated processors. With Pogue's post today, however, the future of the Mac Pro seems slightly more assured.

Thanks Susan!

Update: A MacRumors reader writes in to share an email he received from Apple CEO Tim Cook after he asked about the future of the Mac Pro:

Our pro customers are really important to us...don't worry as we're working on something really great for later next year.