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iFixit Tears Down 2011 MacBook Pro

iFixit didin’t waste any time and, shortly after the release of the new MacBook Pros, tore down a 15” model to see the changes performed by Apple in this revision. It turns out, not much. Most changes are visible in the logic board (quad-core processor, AMD GPU, Thunderbolt chip) and in the way the battery is attached to the laptop.

A few notes from the teardown below.

Battery life decreased from previous generations, as Apple is performing more accurate tests with more realistic estimates (their tests include Flash installed while browsing the web):

No pentalobe screws;

iFixit thinks Apple made some improvements to wireless performance under the hood;

Broadcom BCM4331 chip.

The RAM in this machine is PC3-10600 RAM. That’s the same RAM used in the 2010 revision of the 21.5” and 27” iMacs, but different from earlier Apple laptops. PC3-10600 RAM is backwards compatible with the PC3-8500 RAM in older MacBook Pro Unibody machines, but you can’t use PC3-8500 RAM in this machine

The wireless card bracket is aluminum, rather than the plastic in previous revisions. Perhaps this change was made for thermal reasons, as a visible pink thermal pad is used to transfer heat from the board to its aluminum bracket.

Holy thermal paste! Time will tell if the gobs of thermal paste applied to the CPU and GPU will cause overheating issues down the road.

Rumor: iTunes In The Cloud Will Let You Backup Your Music Collection, Stream It

At a shareholders meeting yesterday, Apple clarified its position on the massive data center they’ve been building in Maiden, North Carolina confirming that launch is set for a Spring 2011 and it will to host the iTunes and MobileMe services. Many, however, have speculated in the past months whether the move of iTunes to the cloud would bring a new way of streaming songs and albums sold in the iTunes Store through a monthly subscription, or an easy-to-use way of uploading your personal media to the cloud.

According to a new report by the Financial Times, the iTunes online service will simply function as a backup solution for your music collection, which will be available over the internet on all Apple devices.

Apple, which rocked digital music services such as Pandora, Rdio and MOG last week by announcing plans to keep 30 per cent of all revenues from subscriptions taken out through its App Store, has clarified its plans for using remote storage, known as the cloud, according to several music industry executives.

More than a year after buying Lala, a cloud-based digital music service, Apple is now looking to use the cloud mainly to allow users of its iTunes store to back up their collections and access them from any Apple device.

One person with knowledge of Apple’s plans said the company did not want to undermine the market that it dominates for paid downloads, likening its plans for the cloud to “insurance”.

Rumors surfaced in the past weeks suggested Apple was working on a new version of MobileMe that would work as a “locker” for your personal media, stored in the cloud and accessible from all your Mac and iOS devices. Such a system would not compromise Apple’s lead in the digital music distribution market, but would let users upload their music to an online service always available. In the meantime, Google is rumored to be finalizing the details of its Google Music service for Android devices, and European company Spotify is reportedly nearing a U.S. launch after closing deals with major music labels. Spotify lets you stream any song available in the service’s online library through a monthly Premium subscription; it appears at this point that Apple is building the exact opposite, a cloud service that will let you backup / stream the songs and albums you already own.

References of a “MediaStream” service found in the iOS 4.3 SDK suggested Apple might be working on a new platform to allow users to stream their media from the cloud to iOS.

Milestones

Today is Thursday, February 24, 2011. Today has been full of Apple news everywhere, especially here at MacStories. Today Federico, Cody, Graham and myself have been chugging hard on rumors, announcements, first looks, previews, etc. You name it, we’ve probably done it. With that said, lets talk about today some more.

Milestones, what are they and what do they mean to us? Well, to MacStories it means forward progress, growth and evolving. We are celebrating 5000 posts as I write this now. It also means birthdays and achievements. Today is Steve Jobs’ 56th birthday and look at what he has accomplished in his lifetime.

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Engadget’s Hands-On With The New MacBook Pros

The folks at Engadget got their hands on a new MacBook Pro, a $2,199 configuration with 2.2GHz quad-core i7, AMD Radeon HD 6750M, 750 GB hard drive, 4 GB of RAM. The machine “clocked a preliminary GeekBench score of 9647”. Unfortunately, they can’t test Thunderbolt devices right now:

We just got our new 15-inch MacBook Pro review unit, and although it looks almost exactly the same as the previous MBP, it has that fancy new Thunderbolt icon on the side, which ought to make I/O nerd hearts flutter the world over. Unfortunately, there aren’t any Thunderbolt peripherals on the market yet, so we can’t really test the new connection yet, but we can report that backwards compatibility with Mini DisplayPort performs as advertised and that all of our display adapters worked without issue – the first time we can ever remember Apple switching a standard and not requiring all new dongles.

They saw a demo with a prototype Promise RAID unit, however:

We also watched a 5GB file transfer in just a few seconds – all very impressive, but we’re definitely anxious to try some of this stuff ourselves once Thunderbolt devices start shipping sometime in the spring.

This is why Thunderbolt will (sooner or later) change the way we think of desktop connectivity.

MobileMe Retail Boxes ‘Move To Trash’, Free Version Soon?

Back on February 7, we posted that an Apple initiative was to eliminate their retail box inventory. Today, Apple is notifying resellers that the company is discontinuing the retail box version of MobileMe, moving completely toward digital sales. Existing stock will continue to be sold while supplies last. MobileMe has also been removed from the ‘Configure’ page options when you buy a new Mac.

If you didn’t already know, boxed versions of MobileMe only have an activation code (no DVD) and Apple’s famous promo materials. The main reason they offer a retail box is to have a physical MobileMe product in-store for visibility (and the artwork on the box isn’t too shabby either).

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What Is Thunderbolt?

Thunderbolt technology is what was Intel’s Light Peak. It’s not an Apple technology, but rather the culmination of Intel’s handiwork in combination with Apple’s mini DisplayPort. While Light Peak was developed to work over fiber (literally for light speeds), Thunderbolt is implemented over copper. Despite this, you’re still getting bi-directional (in and out as they say), 10 Gbps connection over a cable, plus a 10 Watt feed so you can power heavy equipment on the go (you don’t get that with USB). For comparison, your current USB 2.0 devices only get 480 Mbps through the cable! With this technology, you can drive multiple inputs including monitors, workstations, and audio equipment without a bird’s nest under your desk.

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BGR: iOS 4.3 GM Next Week, Build 8F190?

Boy Genius Report claims Apple has finalized the code of iOS 4.3 and a GM build with version number 8F190 should be available in a few days, perhaps next week. We’ve heard Apple was set to release this build weeks ago, but major issues were found in Bluetooth connectivity, AirPlay and camera roll, among others.

One of our Apple sources has just informed us that it looks like Apple has finalized the code for its upcoming iOS 4.3 release. The build, we’re told, is 8F190 for those keeping track.

At this point it seems clear that Apple will announce the availability of the GM build at next week’s media event, where the next-generation iPad will be unveiled as well. The iPad 2 is rumored to run an updated version of iOS 4.3 with FaceTime and Photo Booth enabled.

OS X Lion Apps Require Xcode 4.1 [Update: Released]

So, Apple released the first developer preview of OS X 10.7 Lion today. While we’re updating our post with all the details as they come in, we have noticed on the developer website that Xcode 4.1 will be required to build apps for Lion.

You will need to build and compile your apps for Lion using Xcode 4.1 Developer Preview. This version of Xcode is only for developing and testing your apps for Lion. Continue to use Xcode 3.2.5 on a Snow Leopard partition if you plan to submit Mac or iOS apps to the App Store.

The new build of Xcode isn’t available yet, the Dev Center is under heavy traffic right now, but we’ll keep you posted as Apple releases Xcode 4.1 to developers. Read more

Apple To Preview Lion & Lion Server: Features AirDrop, New Mail [Updating]

Businesswire has lit up with a pair of Apple press releases, one of them being a developer preview for OS X Lion. Mission Control and Launchpad are the prominent features we’ve heard about in the past, and Apple is talking about new gestures to zoom in on web pages and switch between full screen apps. More notably is an overhaul of Mail, and other new Mac features you’ll find after the break.

Update: Apple has updated their Mac OS X Lion page to reveal some of the upcoming features. There’s a lot to sort through, and we’re digging into the details.

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