MacBook

At retailers, Apple's 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro has found a happy medium between a fire sale and Apple's official pricing.

Online retailers like MacMall and MacConnection are selling Apple's smallest Retina MacBook for $1,499 -- with a bonus.

That price gets you a 256GB solid-state drive -- a step up from the $1,499 model that Apple offers with a 128GB drive.

And that 128GB model is even cheaper at MacConnection, which now appears to have settled on a less drastic discount of $1,399 after practically fire-selling it earlier this month for $1,299.

Why … Read more

We're happy to announce the return of our Always On tortured gadget sweepstakes! This time 'round, our severely beaten (but not entirely broken!) MacBook Pro 13-inch with Retina Display is up for grabs.

While it's not exactly "usable" as it stands now, the thing is a champion. After trying our absolute hardest to destroy it (i.e. dropping it out of a bulldozer, giving it a nice fountain shower, and smothering it with a 1,400-pound boulder), the fact that it even turns on makes it deserving of a new home. Preferably somewhere that's nowhere … Read more

It's a sad occasion when a laptop is stolen. All that money, time, and personal data just disappear into the night. This is the Tumblr story of a boy and his stolen laptop. Dom Deltorto lives in London. In early February, he says, someone broke into his flat and made off with his MacBook Pro and his iPad.

Deltorto was prepared for just such an incident. He had installed Hidden App on his laptop, a program that tracks the laptop's location and sends back images of the thief. However, Hidden App still needs to be connected to the Internet to work. After more than a month of radio silence, Deltorto reports that his MacBook suddenly came online, but it wasn't in a place where he could just call the London police and have them recover it.… Read more

Even with recent price cuts, the Retina MacBook Pro is still plagued by inventory problems, according to an Asia-based report.

Component suppliers in Asia have not seen a major increase in orders, forcing Apple to sit on unsold inventory, according to a report in Digitimes.

That won't come as a surprise to U.S. retailers who have already indicated that the 13.3-inch Pro isn't selling as expected. Last week, the base 13.3-inch Retina MacBook Pro model plunged temporarily to $1,299 at MacConnection, a whopping $400 off its original price.

The model debuted at $1,699 … Read more

It's safe to say that upon our arrival at American Soil and Stone, we thought the MacBook Pro 13-inch with Retina Display's fate was pretty much sealed. With so much equipment capable of tearing down a house around, the MacBook's chances of survival were slim to none. However, after an epic onslaught of perhaps the heaviest artillery we've ever thrown at a gadget, we were shocked at the computer's toughness.

While it's currently in the ICU, you guys will have the chance to give it some TLC, and hopefully nurse it back to health. … Read more

Despite Apple CEO Tim Cook having knocked the idea of a convertible MacBook-iPad hybrid device, the company has filed a patent application for just that. The proposed patent, titled "Wireless display for electronic devices," was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office today.

The application describes a computer display that is removable from its base -- basically a convertible laptop. But, what's different about this idea from other convertibles made by other companies is that it has wireless display technology. That means the device could be charged wirelessly.

Here's how Apple describes it in … Read more

A number of owners of Apple's mid-2010 MacBook Pro who have upgraded to OS X 10.8.3 are noticing that systems with dual graphics cards will automatically switch to using the more powerful discrete graphics chip regularly, even when using non-graphics intensive applications like Google Chrome, Dropbox, and Growl. This does not result in crashes or other interruptions in workflow, but it does increase the drain on the systems' battery and result in a shorter working time when not connected to AC power.

The 2010 MacBook Pro has had its fair share of graphics-related issues, including black-screen output … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which I answer Mac-related questions e-mailed by our readers.

This week, readers wrote in with questions on fixing a stuck locking mechanism for a MacBook lid, the inability to boot to or otherwise use the Recovery HD partition in OS X Lion and Mountain Lion, and tackling nonspecific slowdowns in OS X. I welcome contributions from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: Stuck locking mechanism for a MacBook lid MacFixIt reader Dominic asks:

The 13.3-inch Retina MacBook Pro has plunged to $1,299 at one retailer, a whopping $400 off its original price.

The model debuted at $1,699 in October. But it didn't take long for Apple to cut the price to $1,499 in February after widespread discounting from retailers such as Best Buy, Fry's Electronics, and MacMall.

Today we have new low, courtesy of MacConnection: $1,299.

It's obvious now that the original pricing on the Retina MBP was a miscalculation by Apple. And the additional $200 discount at MacConnection may indicate that $1,499 may … Read more