Apple releases Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" and refreshes Macbook Air, Mac mini

I'm not an Apple fan by any means, but as a Mac user I thought of sharing this.

Lion is being offered for $29. I'll most probably buy it next month.

Both Mac mini and Macbook Air have been refreshed. They sport Sandy Bridge processors now. Earlier Macbook Air had nVidia GT 320M, now it only has Intel HD 3000 which is slower. GT 320M in the Mac mini has been replaced by AMD HD 6630M. So, basically you won't find any nVidia dGPU in Apple products now.

The white Macbook has been silently discontinued.

Some features are nice... like ASLR & sandboxing in Safari, TRIM support in SSDs & 128-bit encryption in Filevault (although world is moving towards 512-bit).. I'd say, it's better late then never..

Mac Mini is costly right now, 45k.. that's too much..

I just dont understand why Apple products are costing so much? Their laptop edges are sharp as a knife. Maybe by next gen MAC books come out we can cut vegetables with it.

ico said:
GT 320M in the Mac mini has been replaced by AMD HD 6630M. So, basically you won't find any nVidia dGPU in Apple products now.

This is actually kind of good

Here's an indepth review of mac osx 10.7 lion by anandtech.

hellknight said:
Mac Mini is costly right now, 45k.. that's too much..

well, I consider it nothing more than a portable desktop. Compared to laptops for 45k, it is fine if you ask me. But you know Apple na, premium is always there.

The only thing worth getting is Macbook Pro. It is actually class apart from the rest of the laptops available in the market.

T

^^
seen that news in a Apple Fans blog and our old mod "Goobimama's" blog post!!!

ico said:
well, I consider it nothing more than a portable desktop. Compared to laptops for 45k, it is fine if you ask me. But you know Apple na, premium is always there. The only thing worth getting is Macbook Pro. It is actually class apart from the rest of the laptops available in the market.

Yeah.. the thing is that, it gets costly due to our import duties.. it costs $599 in the US which is around INR INR 26600 but it costs almost double here.. 13-inch Macbook Air is good at 74k though.. But still, Macbook Pro baseline beats it hands down..

Update :- Mac Mini has an awesome price now. 34k with Intel HD 3000 & 45k with AMD 6630M.. Now, this is simply amazing..

The Apple Store (India) - Mac Mini

T

^^
but HDD is 5400rpm drive only !

Should have been bundled an SSD heck even a 64GB one.

R.I.P macbook

I was looking for a lightweight laptop. Macbook Pro is a tad bit too heavy. Macbook Air is a tad too expensive and low on power.

Anyone knows how much the new Macbook Air is for in India?

^^ wait for AMD A8-3500M laptops. Superior battery life compared to Intel Sandy Bridge laptops and the built-in IGP can actually be used for gaming. Although the processor is Core 2 Duo class. They should come for cheap.

^How long is the wait? As of now, Sony Vaio S looks best for me. I was waiting for the Air refresh, but it is hardly impressive.

Vaio S: 13.3", 1.72 kg, Sandy Bridge, 320 GB HDD, 4 GB RAM, HD6470M. Beats the Macbook Pro 13-inch (2.04 kg, HD3000, SB, 320 GB, 4 GB) on most counts, equal proccy and HDD.

^^ A8-3500M notebooks are already selling in the US. No idea when they'll be available here.

No USB 3 in any Apple product. Another reason to not buy the Air. I think I will go for the Vaio S.

^ they have Thunderbolt which has loads of bandwidth. USB 3.0 will be possible in future through it.

Yeah I know that. But no Thunderbolt products in the market. I have a USB 3.0 HDD lying around.

^^ You should wait for llano based notebooks. The battery life is almost an hour more than intel. Their cpu's are previous gen but powerful enough for all tasks. The on-die gpu is the difference maker and is powerful than a 6470.

Better wait for that and you'll get a terrific deal.

Hmm..cool. But I don't see any reason to upgrade my hackintosh to Lion. It's a serious pain in the ass starting all over again from scratch. Anyway, ico, you might as well want to write a review or something later when you buy it.

N

Things I haven't liked in OSX Lion
1. Depressing gray login screen which cannot be changed
2. Launchpad doesn't have a convenient shortcut key
3. Old three-finger vertical swipe for page up/down is gone.. worse, its the same as four-finger swipe.
4. Four-finger sideways swipe used to bring up task list, now it just toggles between desktop and dashboard

Even I am thinking of going the hackintosh way using an Intel-based laptop. $29 is cheap for an OS.

^^ I guess hackintosh can also be used in amd laptops as well if they support sse4, sse4.1 instruction set.

Well well. The US price for the Macbook Air 13-inch is $1299 (Rs 58k). India price is Rs 74k.

It looks like a great option at 58k TBH. Why this huge disparity in prices.

T

^^
Customs and duties, and taxes and mad government policies that we have..

Krow said:
Well well. The US price for the Macbook Air 13-inch is $1299 (Rs 58k). India price is Rs 74k. It looks like a great option at 58k TBH. Why this huge disparity in prices.

Taxes.

And a US student will get MBA 13" for like 53-54k plus $100 to spend on the Mac App Store. Absolutely fantastic deal.

I think I am going to apply to a US University soon.

T

^^
Hmmmmm......

Krow said:
Well well. The US price for the Macbook Air 13-inch is $1299 (Rs 58k). India price is Rs 74k. It looks like a great option at 58k TBH. Why this huge disparity in prices.

Get it from Singapore. Apple offers international warranty.

ico said:
Get it from Singapore. Apple offers international warranty.

How? I don't know anyone in Singapore.

Does Apple offer international shipping too?

noob said:
Things I haven't liked in OSX Lion
1. Depressing gray login screen which cannot be changed

interesting! never thought about the gray login screen even using mac for last 2yrs