In our review we said:

… The user interface of Affinity Designer for Mac is everything you’d expect from a modern app. While there is instant familiarity with the workspace from Illustrator, the user interface is more beginner friendly and is very intuitive. The software takes a more visual and gesture based approach rather than features being hidden deep inside menus.

Apple has published their own review of the app on its Awards page and the company echoes our views:

… This is an excellent example of what a state-of-the-art Mac app should be …

Affinity Designer is optimized for Retina Display and OS X Yosemite, and has a flexible and intuitive user interface that’s highly contextual, offering you the tools you need when you need them … Affinity Designer is localized in German, Spanish, French, and English, and is a modern, well-designed, highly capable, and extremely responsive design tool that’s a perfect match for today’s latest generation Mac hardware.

The developers of the app, Serif (Europe) Ltd., are extremely elated with this recognition but they didn’t forget to thank their fans for its success.

This is the stuff of dreams, and we want to thank Apple and all our fans that have made this a reality for us.

Affinity Designer is making great progress with regular updates that improve existing functionality and offer new features. The latest update supports Force Touch trackpad on the MacBook and MacBook Pro. With the new technology users can use pressure sensitivity to paint on the canvas.

We are very happy for Affinity Designer and look forward to future updates and wish them great success.

Congratulations!

Affinity Designer for Mac is now available for a 20% discount to celebrate the award.

Apple will showcase the next major release of OS X during WWDC 2013 keynote event and according to a new report OS X 10.9 will focus on power-user features. OS X 10.9 has been widely reported to be internally codenamed as “Cabernet” which won’t bring a complete UI change to the operating system but will improve the overall performance and functions of the OS.

In a new report 9to5 Mac details the upcoming features of OS X 10.9 highlighting tags and tabbed browsing mode in the Finder. A new version of Safari is also reported to be in the works that will feature a “redesigned backend for improved page loading, speed and efficiency”. Another pro-user friendly feature that could be introduced is the ability to open different full-screen apps in a multiple monitor setup.

The report further details a new multi-tasking system for OS X that could be similar to iOS and also bring app pausing for background apps to OS X. This could bring more efficiency, performance and battery improvements to the MacBook lineup.

Siri for OS X has been rumoured to be in the works since the introduction of speech dictation in OS X Mountain Lion. The report suggests that it’s possible that Apple may launch Siri only on next gen products.

Apple’s WWDC 2013 press release also clearly mentioned that the company will showcase “advances in software technologies and developer tools” which suggests that we will see a preview of Xcode 5.0 as well.

Last year, Apple previewed Mountain Lion before WWDC and then released it in July. This year due to management shakeup in the iOS department the teams from OS X were brought over to work on iOS and thus the company had to push the OS X 10.9 preview to June.

It will be interesting to see if Apple would still launch OS X 10.9 in July or if it will push the release of iOS 7 and OS X 10.9 to later this fall.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) has officially begun its sales for the holiday season, introducing this year’s Holiday Gift guide. AAPL creates a Holiday Guide every year, and rounds up a list of products and accessories from both Apple and other companies that would make good gifts for the holidays.

The company updated its online store with the new 2012 Holiday Gift Guide, putting the iPad mini at the top of the list under “iPad Gifts”, likely because of its lower cost, which would be perfect for parents looking to spend less this holiday season. Other products in the holiday gift guide include the iPhone 5, iPod touch, iPod nano, full-size iPad, Apple TV, and MacBook Air.

All of these products were upgraded at different times in the year, the first time in over 2 years that all of the company’s product were refreshed with a new model, including the full sized iPads record two refreshes in one year. Apple is just beginning to introduce deals for the holiday season, as the company will also reduced prices for its lineup for Black Friday on November 23rd.

Last year, Apple offered $101 off of all of its Mac products, except the Mac mini, as well as $41-$61 off on the iPad, over $21 off of the iPod touch, and $11 off of the iPod nano.

Apple will likely do the same price discounts for this year’s lineup, but may not include the iPad mini as part of the iPad discounts because of its lower than average cost.

{Via MacRumors}

During Apple’s media event in San Jose this past Tuesday, the company announced a new 13 inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display. Alongside the arrival of the Retina Display, Apple has also eliminated the optical drive and slimmed down the device, also including flash storage instead of a traditional hard drive.

On Wednesday, Apple posted the first television ad for the device, called “Colors” on the company website as well as the company’s YouTube account. The ad was originally shown off during the Apple media event, and showed off some of the apps that can be run on the device, including Mail, Final Cut Pro, Aperture, and iTunes. The ad begins with a hand moving quickly through the apps, and working on different projects. The narrator then reads:

Introducing the new 13″ MacBook Pro.

With the stunning Retina display.

For the pro in all of us.

With Apple Inc. (AAPL) “iPad Mini” media event scheduled for October 23rd, reports about pricing for the new device are beginning to appear online. Over the weekend, 9to5Mac reported that the iPad Mini would be priced at around $329 for an entry level WiFi only model. That is a $170 difference from the full sized WiFi only model. According to the report, there will also likely be two higher capacity models, which will be priced at $429 and $529 respectively.

As with the full sized iPad, a $130 premium will also be applied for Cellular models of the iPad Mini, boosting the prices to $459/$559/$659. Apple is widely expected to unveil the smaller 7.85 inch version of the iPad at the event, which is also expected to arrive with the new Lightning connector, alongside a tweaked full sized iPad, a 13 inch Retina MacBook Pro, and perhaps even updated models of the iMac and Mac Mini.

With the new iPad Mini set at a lower price, Apple will be able to compete with leading ebook readers such as the Kindle from Amazon. Apple already carries a wide variety of books and publishers through its iBooks service and pairing it with a smaller and slimmer iPad would be optimal for customers looking to read books on their iOS device.

{Via MacRumors}

Early last week, Apple Inc. (AAPL) shipment estimate for the Retina MacBook Pro improved to 1-2 weeks. On Thursday, the estimate continued to show improvement, moving up to less than a week, with AAPL’s online store estimating that the 2.3 Ghz and 2.6 Ghz configurations of Retina MacBook Pro will be shipping within 5-7 days.

As noted by AppleInsider, alongside the updated ship times, Apple has also gone ahead to allow users to configure the Retina MacBook Pro to add 512- or 768-gigabyte SSDs to the base model, 2.3 Ghz quad-core i7 Intel Processor. These latest shipping estimates are a result of Apple increasing manufacturing of the MacBook Pros and catching up with the initial demand for the product. During Apple’s Q3 earnings call, CEO Tim Cook estimated that Apple would catch up with the backlog of of demand in August, and has done exactly that.

Apple’s Retina MacBook Pro brings the company’s revolutionary Retina Display, introduced with the iPhone 4 to the MacBook line. Apple in the past has been successful in improving shipping time with many of its new launched products, including the iPhone 4S and the new iPad, which experienced extreme demand during the first weeks of release.

On Friday, AllThingsD reported on new statistics about the widespread use of Apple’s newest OS X update, Mountain Lion. The report mentioned that roughly 48 hours after the public release of OS X Mountain Lion, about 3% of total web traffic is coming from the latest Mac software.

Analytics firm Chitika conducted the research to come to this conclusion, estimating that Mountain Lion’s web traffic percentage increased from 0.25% before the public launch. This was likely the developer previews of Mountain Lion running prior to the release.

Moreover, based on Apple’s June 2012 announcement that there are currently 66 million Mac users in the wild, we can infer that 2.11 million Mac users downloaded OS X Mountain Lion in the past 48 hours,” Chitika said. “Using this figure, if we assume that 90 percent of these users paid to upgrade, OS X Mountain Lion generated $38 million in revenue for Apple in the past 48 hours.

It is unclear exactly how this compares to last years installation figures, which brought in one million downloads of OS X Lion on the first day of release.

With Retina Macbook Pro sales still increasing steadily and the company’s Up to Date program running, many users are either buying the MacBooks with Mountain Lion preinstalled or getting the update for free. OS X Mountain Lion brings key features to the desktop platform and blurs the lines between its mobile counterpart, iOS. Features such as Notes, Reminders, Notification Center, iCloud, and Dictation make OS X very similar to iOS.

{via MacRumors}

We recently reported that Apple Inc. (AAPL) was opening their new Barcelona Retail Store on Saturday at 10:00AM. The wall outside of the Passeig de Gràcia store consists of Gaudi-influenced design, with iOS icons arranged to resemble the modernista style of the popular Catalan architect. On Thursday, Cult of Mac was given access to take photos of the interior of the Passeig de Gràcia store.

Although the initial photographs of the exterior hinted at a very artistic interior, it now appears that the design is unchanged from Apple’s other retail locations and uses the same typical stone, wood, and metal designs. This latest location in Barcelona has a grand three floor structure, consisting of a full fledged theatre, a range of product displays, as well as a large Genius Bar.

On the ground floor of the Barcelona Apple Store, about half of the available floor space is taken up with iPhone and iPad displays, spread across twelve tables in three rows. The other half of the floor is taken up by various models of MacBooks, with only a single table devoted to iMacs.

Higher up, the glass staircase leads to the Genius Bar, as well as an in-house theater.

In the basement is where Mac and iOS accessories are stored, which Apple retail employees are now hard at work filling the shelves.

Apple’s Passeig de Gràcia location is the company’s second store in Barcelona and eighth and most recent retail store in Spain and opens at 10:00AM on Saturday, July 28th.

{via MacRumors — Image Credit: Cult of Mac}

Apple’s next version of OS X, Mountain Lion came out early Wednesday, adding over 200 new user features including Messages, Notification Center, Notes, and iCloud. Alongside some of the iOS like features introduced in the update, Apple also released a new feature via a firmware update in OS X 10.8 called Power Nap. PowerNap was previously announced at Apple’s WWDC 2012 and allows any Mac running the feature to receive email, update software, and syncing the calendar while the computer is sleeping.

Apple released a support document, highlighting the full abilities of OS X Mountain Lion. Full features of the update include: Syncing Mail, Calendar, Contact and Reminders as well as downloading software updates and Time Capsule backups. The Power Nap feature is currently only available on Mid-2011 Macbook Air and beyond as well as the new 2012 Retina MacBook Pro, both of which operate on SSDs (Solid State Drive).

Flash storage is a requirement for the feature as it can operate faster and more efficiently, using less power. The update was brought to 2011 MacBook Air via a firmware update and is expected to appear on the Retina MacBook Pro, likely through another firmware update.

{via MacRumors}

Apple Inc. (AAPL) introduced their new Retina MacBook Pro during the company’s annual WWDC conference and since then has begun shipping the new device to all of its retail stores, as well as making it available for purchase online. About a week ago, the shipping estimate for the Retina MacBook Pro improved to 2-3 weeks. Since then, the shipping estimate has improved to 1-2 weeks.

This is typically the amount of time an in-demand product takes to ship after being on sale for several weeks. Apple’s other products, such as the iPhone 4S, and iPad also carried a similar shipping estimate upon release. This recent improvement to 1-2 weeks originally occurred in the Asia-Pacific market but is also spreading to other markets around the world, including the US, Europe, and Africa. The shipping estimates were at 3-4 weeks roughly 36 hours after the initial introduction.

Shipping estimates continue to improve around the world as Apple continues to increase manufacturing and output and the initial burst in demand slows a bit. In a few weeks, it is likely that the shipping estimate will improve to a week or less on both the online stores and in Apple’s brick and mortar stores, with the online store giving users the option to customize the Retina MacBook Pro with better specs.

During Apple’s Q3 earnings call Apple CEO Tim Cook estimated that the company would be able to catchup the huge backlog of demand sometime in August.

{via MacRumors}

Apple Inc. (AAPL) products have been evaluated by the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) for many years now, and a number of their products introduced were rated EPEAT Gold for staying in accordance with green practices. On Friday, AAPL notified EPEAT that they will be withdrawing their products from environmental rating because of design constraints. In an interview with CIO Journal, EPEAT CEO, Robert Frisbee explained Apple’s reasons for pulling their products from being rated.

They said their design direction was no longer consistent with the EPEAT requirements,” Frisbee said. The company did not elaborate, Frisbee said. “They were important supporters and we are disappointed that they don’t want their products measured by this standard anymore.”

EPEAT requires the products they rate to meet certain criteria, such as being able to recycle parts of the product as well as being able to disassemble the product. Apple’s recent design changes on the Retina MacBook prevent users and other 3rd party handlers from tampering with the battery. Apple replaced the previously accessible battery door with a solid piece of aluminum and customized screws.

As a result, Apple’s MacBooks no longer qualify for EPEAT’s evaluations. The “design direction” referred to in the report may also be shed light on Apple’s next generation of Mac computers, which may or may not use products that would meet EPEAT’s criteria. iFixit explained some of the criteria in a response to Apple’s decision to withdraw from EPEAT’s rating.

“According to my EPEAT contacts, Apple’s mobile design direction is in conflict with the intended direction of the standard. Specifically, the standard lays out particular requirements for product “disassemble-ability,” a very important consideration for recycling: “External enclosures, chassis, and electronic subassemblies shall be removable with commonly available tools or by hand.”

Currently, Apple’s iPhone and iPad are not certified by EPEAT and as a result are not affected by Apple’s decision to withdraw its Mac products. There is speculation that this decision may affect Apple financially. At this point, it is unclear if Apple will run into any issues, however, it is interesting to note that the U.S government does require 95% of all electronic purchases to be EPEAT certified.

{via MacRumors}

Apple’s Retail stores are a window of the company to its customers, and a large part of the store’s atmosphere are the Genius’ and the Genius Bar. The efficient setup allows employees to easily help customers and form an orderly process to address issues that customers face with their products.

According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Best Buy is now changing the design of their Geek Squad Solutions Center to operate similarly to a Genius Bar, with customers sitting in front of a wood table and employees addressing their issues face to face as opposed to taking the device and repairing it behind closed doors.

The company is currently testing a prototype store in Richfield, Minn., with the new Solutions Central table. The prototype stores also allow customers to buy products from employees walking around the store with a device to ring up the sale, similar to Apple’s current checkout process.

Best Buy interim chief executive, Mike Mikan called the newly designed stores, “Best Buy 2.0”. Best Buy, with this new design is attempting to make customers the focal point of the store which it hasn’t really enforced in the past as opposed to stocking as many products as possible.

Best Buy stocks numerous Apple products, including the iPod, iPhone, and iPad as well as MacBooks and sells almost as many devices as Apple does in their own stores. Best Buy’s Apple-like design will attract more customers and surround them with enough knowledge to make a purchase in-store, and not just use the brick and mortar location to test the product and then purchase online. Best Buy has not yet announced when the design will begin to be implemented, but will likely do it if it receives a positive response from the prototype stores.

{via AppleInsider}

Apple’s Retail Stores have been increasing in numbers all over the world and with millions of customers visiting each store, the company is devising new ways to organize and help each of them. Each retail store is expected to generate profit, and with Apple’s “open” format, the visitors who come in to check out Macs, iPods, and iPhones are the customers. According to a report from ifoAppleStore, Apple is testing out a new layout for the Genius Bar to create more space and allow one genius to help more customers at the same time. The Genius’ would use iPads to access records and set up customers as opposed to the MacBooks that bolted onto the bar. An image of the new Genius Bar shows a 10 foot long counter with stools on both sides and is now moved 15 inches from the rear wall of the store.

According to the report, this is done to allow the employees to move to either side of the table. As a result, Genius’ can now likely switch customers easily, and in any situation can move them to another section of the table if necessary. Cables and electronics set up for the Bar are visible below the table, and drawers for the equipment and replacement supplies are still located in the rear wall. The drawers are part of the wall, as they are now and stay out of the way, until a product needs to be taken out. With this new design, Apple will now be removing the popular kids section and will enlarge and revamp many stores to accommodate space.

Earlier this year, Apple replaced the iMacs in the Kids section with the iPad, and will likely now move the entire kids section near the iPad tables. The Bar, turned 90 degrees, allows smaller stores, in malls and other locations to accommodate, more tables and more product displays. The new redesign fits in nicely with Apple’s push to make their stores more mobile and efficient. In the past, Apple set up employees with iPods and iPads for ringing up sales, replaced glass information cards with iPads, and created personal setup tables for helping a customer and getting them out of the store in as little time as possible.

{Via ifoAppleStore}

During Apple’s annual WWDC2012 conference, the company introduced the next generation of MacBook Pro. The new MacBook Pro features a retina display, the same type of screen currently found in the iPhone and the new iPad 3 as well as a new thinner design, faster processors and more hard drive space.

Apple recently released a television commercial called “Every Dimension” highlighting the design and screen of the Retina MacBook Pro. The ad shows a Retina MacBook Pro and fast forwards through a series of apps being used on the notebook. The ad then ends with a single line that reads:

The radical new MacBook Pro with Retina display. Innovation in every dimension.

Apple appears to have adopted a similar design for the commercial from the MacBook Air ad after its most recent redesign. The ad uses an all black background and centers the MacBook directly in the middle, and ends with a simple line that describes the product.

The ad aired on a number of channels in the United States, including the NBA Finals which is clearly Apple’s strategy for reaching a wide range of customers. The Retina MacBook Pro is currently available in the Apple Online Store and has a ship time of 3-4 weeks.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) acquired rights to LiquidMetal Technologies to use in their products back in 2010, but did not utilize the company, except to make a small SIM removal tool for the iPhone 3G. A number of reports have people speculating that AAPL would be redesigning the next generation iPhone 5 with LiquidMetal technology.

However, in a report published by Business Insider, one of the inventors of LiquidMetal alloy, Atakan Peker revealed that Apple will not be using the futuristic metal for at least another two to four years. Peker also mentioned that Apple may use the metal in some smaller aspects of its products, as they did with the SIM removal tool.

Q: I’ve heard rumors that future MacBooks from Apple could use Liquidmetal casing, what would that be like? Is it likely to happen?

A: Given the size of MacBook and scale of Apple products, I think it’s unlikely that Liquidmetal casing will be used in MacBooks in the near term. It’s more likely in the form of small component such as a hinge or bracket. A MacBook casing, such as a unibody, will take two to four more years to implement.

If Apple is to utilize this new technology and decides to use it in one of their major products, they might first use it in smaller consumer products such as the iPod Shuffle, or perhaps the Nano, then move onto larger and more high demand products such as the iPhone and iPad. It’s important to note that Peker does not have actually have any solid references when suggesting this delay in LiquidMetal usage.

However, Peker does believe that Apple will revolutionize some of its products with the metal, utilizing its strength and durability to match the solid feel of some of its unibody products, such as the MacBook Pro.

{via MacRumors}

Apple has replaced the popular iMacs at the kids section of the Apple Store with iPads. First noticed by iMore, Apple appears to be taking a more compelling approach to drawing in kids and essentially starting them off with a product that a number of children are familiar with.

Apple Stores have been using iMacs in the kids section for quite some time now, loaded up the screens with kid friendly applications and games. Apple’s strategy behind replacing the iMacs is an excellent way for the company to appeal to a younger generation and build relationships with their future customers.

Apple has also replaced the display cards next to products with iPads, as well as the Macbook Pros at the Genius Bar previously, the kids section being the latest change. Apple may also look into replacing the Genius Bar registration computers with iPads.

The iPad is no doubt the future of Apple’s line-up and will be leading Apple into a whole new era of portable computing. The iPad is slowly becoming a bigger part of the daily operations of Apple’s retail stores.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) MacBook Pro model has been around for quite some time now, serving as the perfect combo between a consumer and pro product, in accordance to the vision of late CEO and Chairman of Apple, Steve Jobs. AAPL introduced MacBook Pro in 2006, and replaced the Powerbook G4, launching the Cupertino company into a wave of success for many years to come.

In recent weeks, rumors have been floating around the web that suggest Apple is going to drastically redesign the MacBook Pro and introduce a design very similar to that of the MacBook Air.

On Monday, Ming-Chi Kuo with KGI Securities, predicted that Apple may discontinue the 17 inch MacBook Pro indefinitely. Kuo noted that declining shipments from Apple were the main cause of speculation. It is very likely that Apple may discontinue the high end Pro, possibly because of the high price tag, and the company’s obsession with making their products thinner and lighter.

Kuo has a solid track record, previously indicating the discontinuation of the 13.3 inch polycarbonate MacBook, which was phased out of Apple’s product line and educational offerings last July. Apple’s redesign of the MacBook Pro, and discontinuation of the 17 inch model shows Apple’s dedication to simplify their product lineup and keeping the original vision for their products, making them more portable without sacrificing usability.

{via AppleInsider}

A recent report from ElectricPig claimed that according to a Mac accessory manufacturer Apple Inc. (AAPL) could release a new 15 inch Macbook Air as early as this April.

And what is coming? If you take our source’s word for it, a 15-inch MacBook Air with ports on both sides, no optical drive and no ethernet cable.

While our source wasn’t certain that this would completely destroy the Pro (he also stated that Apple might hold on to the 17-inch model, which would make sense for the sizeable audience of professional editors out there), he was fairly sure that the shakeup will happen in April. To that end, our source’s company’s got its manufacturers on standby to be able to make and ship a new product lineup inside of 90 days.

The source has been rumored to be involved in MacBook Air docking solutions. Rumors about a new MacBook Air model have been around for quite some time. AAPL is also expected to update the processor inside the MacBook Air with the new Ivy Bridge processors. 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models are expected to shed some weight and thickness and feature the same thin-form factor of the MacBook Air.

Chip availability has been a reason for concern with the MacBooks shipping on time, with Apple unable to finalize their line until Intel provides the new Ivy Bridge platform. It is also unclear as to whether Apple will run traditional mobile chips as found in the current MacBook Pro or ultra low power chip.

If Apple releases a 15 inch Macbook Air in April, the Cupertino company could be looking at boost in sales. The design of Apple’s MacBook line up has stayed virtually unchanged for the past two generations, aside from a minor update to include the Thunderbolt port.

Reflection Review for Mac

If you have an Apple TV and an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad running iOS 5 then you’ve been able to mirror your device on to your HD TV via Apple TV for some time now. Now, you can also mirror your iOS device to your Mac thanks to Reflection, a $15 app that can be purchased from the developers web site.

Once you’ve installed Reflection app onto your Mac and have it running you are ready to go with no additional app required on your iOS device you can start mirroring your device to your Mac immediately.

The process is the same as mirroring your device elsewhere, simple double-tap the home button, swipe twice to the right to reveal the volume control and the AirPlay button. After pressing the Air-Play button you’ll see your MacBook listed as one of the devices to mirror too and with that selected and the mirroring option enabled your device will appear on your MacBooks screen.

Only one device can be mirrored at a time and you can’t actually control the device via your Mac, but for grabbing screen shots or recording your iOS device it’s ideal. The results are very responsive too with little or no lag between anything you do on the device being reflected on the screen.

Reflection will automatically adjust the orientation of the screen as you rotate the physical device or you can force either landscape or portrait mode. You can also go full-screen and hide all other windows as well as controlling where the iOS device’s frame is shown or not.

The app works flawlessly and while it would be great if you were able to manually re-size the image mirrored image to suit your needs and even have built in screen capture capabilities it’s still a great bit of software.

If you are a developer, reviewer, blogger or just like showing of the cool stuff you can do with all your Apple hardware then Reflection is for you. The app works painlessly and very easily, and it’s also great for taking advantage of those games that utilize AirPlay for multi-player gaming such as Real Racing 2 and Gangster Rio without the need for an Apple TV.

What we like:

• One simple install
• Fast and Responsive
• Full screen mode
• Mirror games and videos

What to know:

• No ability to manually scale the screen
• No built-in screen capture functionality

Apple’s App Store was released to the public in 2008, and started off with only a handful of apps. The App Store has since grown to become one of the largest online services in the world, suppling millions of iOS users with fun and intuitive applications. On Friday, Apple’s App Store finally hit the 25 billion downloads mark, making it the highest number of apps ever downloaded.

The winner of the promotion, who has not yet been announced, will be awarded a $10,000 gift card valid for App Store, Mac App Store, or any other iTunes Store content. Apple has conducted similar promotions in the past, for the App Store and iTunes Store and offered a range of products from iPod touch to Macbook Pro. The prize for 25 billion downloads is a $10,000 giftcard for online purchases with no hardware.

Apple has approved a total of nearly three quarters of a million apps for the App Store, with over 550,000 of them currently available in the store.

After its introduction in 2008, it took roughly two and a half years to reach 10 Billion downloads, and another six months to 15 billion downloads. With the latest 25 billion milestone, the iTunes Store acheived over 10 billion of the 25 billion mark in only 8 months, the fastest downloading period ever for the App Store.

The winner of Apple’s App Store promotion is expected to announced in the coming week once the company has verified the results and contacted the winner.

{via Mac Rumors}

Steve Dowling, a spokesman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, said today that the purchase had been made, while declining to elaborate. The statement confirmed a December report from in the Israeli newspaper Cacalist.

“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” Dowling said in a telephone interview.

A credible purchase price has not been revealed, but reports suggest that Apple paid anywhere from $400-500 million for Anobit. It is also reported that Anobit operates key flash memory controllers for the iPad and iPhone. It can be assumed that Apple acquired Anobit for control over the in-house production of iPhone and iPad flash memory.

Apple currently develops its own low power A5 chip in house, but acquires parts from other companies such as Samsung. With Anobit, Apple would have far more control over speed, production, and manufacturing of the flash memory for both iOS devices and Macbook Air.

{via MacRumors}

Apple has planned to launch a major sale across Asia in celebration of The Year of the Dragon, something that is rarely seen and not done regularly by Apple. The sale will begin on January 6, but will last only for the day in Apple Stores in China, Japan, and numerous other Asian countries.

Apple is not currently disclosing details on what the sale offers, however, it may be similar to Apple’s Black Friday sales in the US with minor discounts on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, as well as models of Macbooks and other smaller products.

Customers in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines are eligible for Apple’s one-day sale, which the company is calling ‘Red Friday’, offering a range of accessories, gadgets and software — as well as some Apple Store exclusives.

Apple has seen major growth and adoption of its products in Asian markets, particularly in China, and is looking to expand its reach by conducting sales and announcement of products internationally around key dates in the Asian calendar. It is very interesting to see Apple’s personal approach to sales in numerous countries, by including holidays and popular culture of Asia as opposed to a more corporate approach to sales.

Apple’s establishment in the Asian markets has witnessed substantial growth over the past few years and continues to grow as the company expands the number of retail stores and online availability in more countries.

{via TiPb}

According to a new report published by MacRumors Apple could be working on a 15 inch ultra-thin MacBook Pro model. While the report is not clear whether it would be branded as MacBook Air or MacBook Pro; TUAW claims that it would most probably be a Pro version.

MacBook Air has been a huge success for Apple and the product lineup has been evolving well in terms of price and features. The latest models feature the new Sandy Bridge chips, Thunderbolt technology and even a backlit keyboard. Air is a perfect product for anyone who considers “portability” the most important factor when selecting a notebook.

MacBook Pro models were updated in February to feature new chip and thunderbolt technology too however, the overall design hasn’t seen any changes since the introduction of unibody MacBooks.

Apple has always tried to make its next gen products thinner and more efficient than its predecessor. So, how will Apple change the MacBook Pro lineup? It’s not very hard to guess that the next gen MacBook Pro models could leave behind the optical drive and include flash based memory. This will allow Apple to considerably reduce the thickness and weight of the notebook and even give better performance in tasks like start up and waking from sleep.

MacBook Air now has a large install base and users love the product even though it lacks an optical drive. It’s widely known that Apple considers Air to be the future of MacBooks. As software distribution has become digital for the Mac with Mac App Store and we already buy or download songs from online stores the need for optical drives is greatly declining.

Considering the fact that Air is a successful product it’s very easy to imagine that MacBook Pro without an optical drive wouldn’t be a huge problem. It’s also important to consider that Apple wants to address the “mass audience” and most people would probably have no issues without an optical drive.

With Mac OS X Lion, iCloud and iOS 5 Apple is paving the way for a true digital world where our dependency on physical media is continuing to reduce. Of course MacBook Pro would be able to borrow optical drives of your iMac or you could get an external optical drive.

The new ultra-thin MacBook Pro model could finally bridge the gap between extreme portability and power. Apple can once again prove that thinner, lighter doesn’t mean less-powerful machines and they have already done that with the iPad 2. The new iPad is 33% thinner but still packs in the dual-core A5 chip, two cameras and a gyroscope.

What do you think about the ultra thin MacBook Pro? Would you consider buying a “Pro” product without an optical drive? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

According to people with proven track records who would be in a position to know, the new product launches are set to occur later this week. Specifically, one person said the products would be released on Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.

Rumors have also suggested that the new MacBook Air models will contain a minimum of 128 GB solid state drives and 4 GB of RAM, and will also include a return of the backlit keyboard. This will allow Apple to continue their push for more reliable and feature rich portable products.

Apple has also been rumoured introduce new Mac mini and an updated LED Cinema Display. Apple has yet to announce any updates on new products and has not yet updated their website to reflect any new information about Mac OS X Lion or any other hardware refreshes. Stay tuned, we’ll keep you updated.

{via MacRumors}

The web has been abuzz with rumours of new Macbook Air and Mac Pro models. With newly released images on Apple’s website, and some clearing up of part numbers, it is clear that the part number for the Macbook, is actually a part number for a Thunderbolt LED Display.

MacRumors spotted images of the display on Apple’s Online Store, and identified it in the URL as the “MC914″ part that had been previously thought to be a new MacBook.

The display looks identical to those on sale available online and in retail stores, however, the screen depicts promotional images of Mac OS X Lion. The MiniDisplay Port on the back of the LED display will be replaced with a Thunderbolt port and will support up to two displays on one Macbook, enabled with Thunderbolt.

A number of images have also been released, revealing details about Apple’s hardware plans. In the gallery images, a Mac Mini is hooked up to a new LED display, confirming that any new Mac Mini hardware will possibly retain the same form factor. The Mac Pro in the images also shows the same hardware design, although it was rumored to feature a redesign. Apple will continue to use images of the old Mac Pro in promotional galleries, until they update the Mac line and redesign the Mac Pro.

Apple has yet to formally release a statement on any of the promotional images, hardware redesigns, Thunderbolt technology in the LED display, or prices.

Would you buy an LED Display with Thunderbolt technology? Do you think it is worth the money to upgrade?

{via MacRumors}