MacRumors

AppleInsider notes that MacBook supplies have become "severely constrained" at a number of third-party retailers, suggesting that Apple may be drawing down stocks ahead of a refresh.

Specifically, Amazon, MacConnection, On Sale and J&R are all out of stock. In addition, inventory of the entry-level portable is low at DataVision.

In addition, one of Europe's largest distributors is completely out of stock of the white MacBook, and lists no estimated time of arrival for new shipments. Sources indicated that this is unusual, but not necessarily a sign that the current model will be discontinued.

Shipping estimates for orders made through Apple's online stores around the world remain at "within 24 hours", suggesting that the shortages have not yet extended to Apple's own distribution channels. But shortages at third-party retailers are frequently the first indications of Apple preparing to release updated models.

As noted in our Buyer's Guide, Apple is well overdue for a MacBook refresh as judged by its usual update cycle, having last updated the MacBook in May 2010.

Rumors of updated MacBooks have been essentially nonexistent, although the Machine will presumably make the shift to Intel's Sandy Bridge platform and include Thunderbolt support. And while no specific timeframe for an update has been offered, the line is clearly one of many including the MacBook Air, Mac Pro and Mac mini that are due for an update. Apple has been said to be holding new hardware launches until OS X Lion is ready, and so we may see a flood of new releases once the operating system debuts next month.

Update: AppleBitch reports that Best Buy's online store and Amazon UK are also currently out of stock of the Mac mini. While the shortages are not as widespread as seen with the MacBook, they could be early signs of a drawdown for that line as well, which was last updated in June 2010 with a new design.

Many customers have been waiting for Apple to begin shipping its long-rumored updated MacBook Airs, bringing a significant performance improvement to the line with the incorporation of Intel's Sandy Bridge platform. A number of reports had pegged the release for the June-July timeframe, but the June dates are essentially out of the picture now and Apple has been said to be holding the release until it can offer OS X Lion preinstalled on the new machines.

Chatter is now beginning to coalesce around a mid-July launch, and we've been hearing that Apple may be planning a MacBook Air launch for the third week of the month. AppleNApps seems to agree, with several sources there reporting that Apple plans to release the new MacBook Airs alongside OS X Lion on Tuesday, July 19th.

Sources have indicated to AppleNApps that Apple has an internal launch date of July 19th for Mac OS X Lion and a refresh of the MacBook Airs. This is the target date under which the company is currently operating, though both sources are indicating that things can change. Our sources have just seen indications, and can’t be entirely certain, but if everything goes according to plan there will be a new MacBook Air shipping with Lion starting July 19th.

That would coincide with Apple's earnings announcement for the quarter just ending, providing the company with enticing discussion fodder for the conference call.

9 to 5 Mac also reports that it has been hearing Thursday, July 14th in the "rumblings" regarding a launch for Lion and new MacBook Airs, adding to the increasing consensus of a release right around the middle of the month.

Apple has quietly posted a FAQ for Final Cut Pro X in response to the many questions and criticisms. (via 9to5Mac). The FAQ appears not to be linked from Apple's main site, and has not yet been publicized.

Final Cut Pro X is a breakthrough in nonlinear video editing. The application has impressed many pro editors, and it has also generated a lot of discussion in the pro video community. We know people have questions about the new features in Final Cut Pro X and how it compares with previous versions of Final Cut Pro. Here are the answers to the most common questions we’ve heard.

The FAQ mirrors some of the same issues addressed in David Pogue's article with responses from Apple product managers, but also gives a few more specifics.

Regarding importing from Final Cut Pro 7, Apple says that due to the many changes there was no way to "translate" old projects without losing or changing data. So, Apple suggests that users continue to use Final Cut Pro 7 for existing projects.

As for Multicam editing, Apple again promises that "it will" support it. The "next major release" will provide "great multicam support".

Another feature they promise will be coming is export of XML. They say they "know how important XML export" is to their users and expect to add it to Final Cut Pro X. A set of APIs will be released in the next few weeks so that 3rd party developers can access the "next-generation XML in Final Cut Pro X". Similiarly, OMF, AAF and EDL support should become available through 3rd parties once the API is available. One third party solution is already available for OMF and AMF export.

Finally, assigning audio tracks for export is promised for a "summer" update which will "allow you to use metadata tags to categorize your audio clips by type and export them directly from Final Cut Pro X."

Final Cut Pro X was released just last week, but was met with significant complaints due to missing features. The rest of the FAQ provides some more details that may be of interest to professional video editors.

Former Shake product designer Ron Brinkmann weighs in on Apple's Final Cut Pro X release. The latest release of Apple's video editing software has received much criticism from professionals due to absent features. Brinkmann was on the original team that developed Shake image compositing software prior to Apple's acquisition of the parent company. Brinkmann continued to work at Apple from 2002 until 2007 as Shake Product Designer.

As Brinkmann explains, Shake was "entrenched in the top end of the visual effects industry" with most major motion pictures of the era using Shake in some fashion. After Apple acquired Shake in 2002 there was concern about the company not willing to cater to the market, and sure enough the entire software was end of life'd a few years later. Brinkmann bluntly sums up Apple's attitude towards professionals:

And back then the same questions were being asked as now – “Doesn’t Apple care about the professional market?”

In a word, no. Not really. Not enough to focus on it as a primary business.

Brinkman goes on to explain that there are maybe 10,000 "high-end" editors in the world while the market for an easier to use more casual product is "at least an order of magnitude larger". The market size, however, isn't necessarily the only reason. Brinkmann offers an interesting anecdote about how the high end market tends to be 90% driven by product requests from the big customers. Apple doesn't work that way:

After the acquisition I remember sitting in a roomful of Hollywood VFX pros where Steve told everybody point-blank that we/Apple were going to focus on giving them powerful tools that were far more cost-effective than what they were accustomed to… but that the relationship between them and Apple wasn’t going to be something where they’d be driving product direction anymore. Didn’t go over particularly well, incidentally, but I don’t think that concerned Steve overmuch… :-)

Apple's hierarchy is also described as one in which easily demo-able features tend to be easier to promote within the organization. He goes on to say that in the case of FCP, Apple would rather introduce more easy to use features for the broader audience even if it means pushing out some items for high end editors.

Still, he is complimentary of Apple's products and describes them as an "incredible bargain in terms of price-performance", but that "if you’re really a professional you shouldn’t want to be reliant on software from a company like Apple." In the end, he says "your heart will be broken. Because they’re not reliant on you."

While Apple may be working to quickly add new and restored features to Final Cut Pro X, EOSHD reports (via The Next Web) that Apple has begun issuing refunds to at least some customers complaining through the company's customer service channels.

Here is an example of one such email a disappointed pro received from Apple:

"Moving forward, I understand that you are not satisfied with the app "Final Cut Pro". I can certainly appreciate you would like a refund, and I would be more than happy to help you out with this today. In five to seven business days, a credit of £179.99 should be posted to the credit card that appears on the receipt for that purchase.

Please note that this is a one time exception because the iTunes Terms and Conditions state that all sales are final."

A thread in Apple's discussion forums reveals a number of other users who have successfully received refunds for their Final Cut Pro X purchases, although some customers have had to make several requests as part of their conversations with Apple support staff before being granted refunds.

Apple does not have a blanket return and refund policy for App Store applications, although the company has reportedly been required by law to offer one in Taiwan. Apple does offer refunds on a case-by-case basis, however, with customers having reported success gaining refunds for accidental purchases and other extenuating circumstances.

Earlier this week, we mentioned that the first Thunderbolt-equipped peripherals had briefly appeared on Apple's online store earlier this month, although they carried shipping estimate of several weeks out and were quickly removed.

Those products have returned today, with a set of four Thunderbolt-equipped RAID storage systems from Promise making their debut in the store and shipping within 24 hours. The new Thunderbolt RAID systems include the Promise Pegasus R4 in 4x1TB ($999) and 4x2TB ($1499) capacities and the Promise Pegasus R6 in 6x1TB ($1499) and 6x2TB ($1999) capacities. The R4 offers bandwidth of over 500 MB/sec, while the R6 offers over 800 MB/sec.

In order to provide connections to the drives, Apple has also released a new $49 Thunderbolt cable.

Thunderbolt technology supports blazing-fast data transfer with two independent channels of 10Gbit/s each. Use the Apple Thunderbolt cable to connect your Thunderbolt-equipped peripherals to your new iMac or new MacBook Pro.

Apple Thunderbolt cable can also be used for Target Disk Mode between two Macs that support Thunderbolt, or to use a new iMac as a display for a MacBook Pro equipped with Thunderbolt.

The new Apple Thunderbolt Cable is sold separately from the Promise Thunderbolt RAID systems, and ships within 24 hours.

Sony just announced a new ultra-thin 13.1" notebook that integrates Thunderbolt in a unique way. Sony is offering a "Power Media Dock" which is an expansion module that connects to the laptop via an optical cable.

Featuring high-speed I/O data transfer based on the architecture codenamed ‘Light Peak’, Power Media Dock boosts graphics performance while adding numerous extra connectivity options. It includes an optical drive for even greater business productivity and satisfying HD entertainment. The module comes supplied with a stylish design-matched stand.

The notebook itself only contains an Intel HD Graphics 3000 GPU, while the external dock contains an AMD Radeon HD 6650M with 1GB of Video RAM. This allows the computer to gain extra graphics capabilities when connected to the dock. The dock can drive up to 3 additional displays beyond the notebook's own screen. As noted by ThisisMyNext, Sony's solution seems to be proprietary and based around a USB 3.0 connector as previously reported.

The possibility of such an external GPU has been discussed many times on our forums, and Sonnet previously announced an external PCIe 2.0 expansion chassis that would allow customers to add PCI expansion cards over Thunderbolt. It has been pointed out however that Thunderbolt's available bandwidth is much lower than required by high end video cards, so this will only help in certain scenarios. Still, this shows some possibilities for expansion docking products for the MacBook Air or Mac mini after they get upgraded to Thunderbolt.

One item of interest regarding last week's Mac OS X 10.6.8 update reveals that Apple has enabled TRIM support retroactively for solid state hard drives shipped in Apple-produced configurations. TRIM is a feature that allows solid state drives (SSDs) to automatically handle garbage collection, cleaning up unused blocks of data and preparing them for rewriting, thereby preventing slowdowns that would otherwise occur over time as garbage data accumulates.

Support for TRIM has been included in OS X Lion since its early developer builds, but Apple has apparently decided to push the feature out to Snow Leopard users as well. The new native TRIM support does appear to limited to stock Apple drives, as users who have installed third-party SSDs into their machines have reported that TRIM is not enabled by the update.

Mac OS X 10.6.8 also appears to have brought graphics improvements that have been most apparent to gamers. According to one set of benchmarks, Mac OS X 10.6.8 outperforms Mac OS X 10.6.7 in many measure of graphics performance, sometimes by a significant margin.

User reports in the MacRumors forums and the Steam forums similarly point to significant improvements in graphics performance under real-world conditions. A number of users has actually reported significant declines in graphics performance with Mac OS X 10.6.7, so improvements with the new Mac OS X 10.6.8 are certainly to be welcome.

Update: To clarify Apple's TRIM support, the new MacBook Pros released in February shipped with a special build of Mac OS X 10.6.6 that included TRIM support for Apple SSDs. But that TRIM support had not been extended to all SSD-configurable Macs until the release of Mac OS X 10.6.8 last week.

Update 2: A number of users of pre-"Late 2010" MacBook Air models have reported that Mac OS X 10.6.8 does not enable TRIM on their machines.

Late last week, Apple released Beta 2 of iOS 5 to developers. The new release added a number of small features to the previous beta, including the activation of Wi-Fi sync.

One small but notable additional feature that we've been made aware of is the addition of upcoming calendar events on the Notification Center.

Apple's Notification Center is a centralized view of all your push notifications and widgets. A simple swipe from the top of the screen brings the notification center into view. See this video for the Notification Center in action in both portrait and landscape mode.

In the latest beta, Apple has also included calendar events for the upcoming 24 hours in the view, so you can see easily see your calendar appointments at a glance. There are no settings yet to adjust how far in advance you can see your events. Apple has announced it will be releasing iOS 5 to the public this fall.