Apple : In Depth: MacBook Pro 2012 release date, news and rumours

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In Depth: MacBook Pro 2012 release date, news and rumours Posted: MacBook Pro 2012 release date, news and rumours When it comes to Apple these days, most eyes are on its hugely popular iOS devices, but the company continues to innovate with Macs, notably the super-thin MacBook Air laptops. However, while those svelte computers offer portability, they lack the sheer grunt of their MacBook Pro siblings, which are overdue for a revamp. As ever, the rumour-mill is buzzing about what Apple will unveil as the next-generation MacBook Pro, but the consensus appears to be: thinner, faster, and with a screen to die for. A thinner MacBook Pro with no optical drive While you might imagine Apple would make the MacBook Pro resemble its Air line, the latest rumours suggest that's not the case. Slashgear reckoned the case will remain much as it is in the current models, but the space will be used differently: the optical drive will be removed, the battery will be increased in size, and SSDs for boot drives would become standard (possibly Samsung's fast 830 series, according to 9to5Mac). 9to5Mac also said in May that Apple would ditch the optical drive, but thought it would nonetheless reduce the MacBook Pro's thickness a little, but the case won't taper like the Air's. Developer Marco Arment added that Apple could ditch the glass in front of the display in favour of glossy plastic, like in the Air, to save on weight. MacBook Pro 2012 gains USB 3, loses FireWire The 9to5Mac report said the 2012 MacBook Pro will be the first Mac to sport USB 3, offering three ports. Other ports include one each for charging, audio in, audio out and an SD card slot, and two for Thunderbolt. The new MacBook Pros will ditch Ethernet and probably also FireWire. Arment explained that will be down to the thinness of the case not providing enough room for those ports, and quipped: "Expect video pros to complain." MacBook Pro to gain a Retina display As reported by AppleInsider and others, DigiTimes was naturally first to claim the MacBook Pro would sport a Retina display, boasting a resolution of 2880-by-1800 pixels on the 15-inch model. This would, it said, differentiate the laptop from those made by other brands. An Ars Technica report in March added fuel to the fire, having unearthed double-sized images within OS X Mountain Lion. Interestingly, the 9to5Mac report added Apple might ditch pixel-based resolution settings with the new MacBook Pro, instead using descriptions such as 'big', 'small' and 'optimal'. However, CNET put a spanner in the works by noting relevant displays already exist but are $100 more than those Apple currently uses. The Cupertino giant will save some money by ditching an optical drive and using its massive cash pile to secure displays for the cheapest possible price, but the question is whether the MacBook Pro will nonetheless see a price-rise in an increasingly competitive market. Ivy Bridge processors in the MacBook Pro According to Bloomberg the 2012 MacBook Pros will run on Intel's Ivy Bridge processors with Nvidia graphics. According to the previously mentioned 9to5Mac report, this combination is "perfect for a high-end professional notebook", and will boost performance while also potentially improving battery life. MacRumors in May appeared to confirm this rumour with a report on Geekbench database updates that included a 'MacBookPro9,1' entry. The relevant model was running OS X 10.8, had a 2.7 GHz processor, and its score was 12,252, compared to 10,500 for the corresponding current MacBook Pro processor. No 17-inch MacBook Pro - at least for now In a MacRumors report on Retina display costs, Eric Slivka noted that the issue of the 17-inch model was 'unaddressed', not least because it would require a display of 3840-by-2400, which could mean a massive price-hike. In the report, Slivka suggested the 17-inch model would, as usual, simply lag behind the rest of the line in terms of updates, although in an earlier article he cited a research analyst that said the 17-inch model would simply be quietly discontinued, in order to streamline the range. MacBook Pro 2012 release date According to the Bloomberg report, the new MacBook Pros will be unveiled at WWDC 2012, starting June 11. Typically, Apple gets its kit on to the store extremely quickly after such announcements, and so it's possible you'll be able to order a new MacBook Pro this month. As reported by 9to5Mac, Amazon appears to be banking on this being the case, having just added laptops and netbooks to its US trade-in program. However, Cult of Mac reported in late May on a DigiTimes story regarding supply chain 'havoc'. Massive orders from Apple during the industry's "slow season" means demand reportedly cannot be met for a 'possible' July release. Still, you know, it's DigiTimes, and so chances are Apple's already had its MacBook Pros shipped out, and is now just waiting for everyone to open their wallets. Expect the next-generation MacBook Pro to be thinner, faster and lovelier than this current model

Tutorial: OS X and iOS backup: the ultimate guide Posted: OS X and iOS backup: the ultimate guide We increasingly rely on our Macs, iPhones and iPads to store all of our personal data. Everything from holiday photos to contacts, financial records and movie projects are kept on our Apple devices. And for the most part, this is fine. The problem arises however when something unexpected happens. A computer crash, a phone dropped in the sink or a theft, for example. It's always been important to keep regular backups of your data but these days it's inexcusable not to do so, especially since Apple has done everything it can to make the process as easy as possible for you. iOS devices Let's start with backing up your iOS device, since a phone is perhaps more likely to be stolen or dropped than a Mac. This applies to iPads and recent iPods as well, since they all use a variation of the same operating system. The first thing to do if you haven't already is to upgrade to iOS 5, which anyone with an iPad, iPhone 3GS or newer can do for free. There's a very good reason for doing this, and it's that iCloud is integrated into the system. iCloud is Apple's backup system for iOS devices, and every user gets 5GB of online storage space, which can be upgraded if you need more. Your account is linked to your Apple ID and when you set up your device for the first time, you will be asked if you want to use iCloud (you should answer in the affirmative). iCloud for iOS is designed to be almost invisible, and once activated it will back up your device's data and settings whenever it is plugged into the power, locked and connected to a Wi-Fi network. This is the situation most people's phones are in when recharging at home, so you don't have to do anything special to make it happen. If you go into Settings > iCloud on the device, you can turn iCloud backup on if it's not already on, and view and manage your storage levels. 5GB should be enough for most people, as contacts and emails don't take up a lot of space. If you start to back up photos and apps you might start to run low on space, though there is the option to selectively include or exclude these things from a backup. There's even a Back Up Now button to do a backup manually, and if you have more than one device you'll see them all listed in this section. iCloud is also used to host things like Photo Stream, which automatically uploads all photos taken on one device and makes them available on your others, if it is switched on. It's a brilliant 'fire and forget' backup solution because it works by itself, and if you get a new, replacement device you can restore all the data from the old one down from the cloud by linking the new device to your Apple ID. iTunes backup Another way to back up your iOS devices is to connect them to your Mac using their USB cable and waiting for them to pop up in iTunes, then right-click on the device and choose Back Up and also Transfer Purchases to copy downloaded apps, movies, music and books. This creates a local, physical copy of the data from the device, which some people like to have as it doesn't rely on being online. You can also choose to sync the device wirelessly with your Mac, which has much the same effect, only it doesn't require a USB cable to be connected. If you go to the Summary tab in iTunes for your device, you will see the option to back it up either locally or to iCloud. The two are not mutually exclusive, so you could perform a local backup of a phone for example, then switch to iCloud for all subsequent backups. One particularly good thing about iCloud backup is that it doesn't matter where you are, as long as you are on a wireless network. So you can still back up while you're on the road or on holiday, without needing access to your Mac. Imagine an unfortunate situation where your phone or iPad was stolen: as long as you had backed it up recently, you could restore everything back onto a new one wirelessly. Mac in the cloud So you've switched on iCloud for your iOS device, but what about your Mac? If you're on OS X 10.7.3, you can use iCloud there too. In System Preferences you can go to the iCloud tab and enter the same Apple ID you used with your other devices, and access the same iCloud storage account. You'll see the option to turn on backup for Mail, contacts, calendars, bookmarks and documents and data. The last option backs up documents created with Apple's iWork apps, though not documents created with third-party apps. The idea is that by activating these, you can maintain the same settings across your Mac and all your iOS devices. So if you add a bookmark on your Mac, it will appear on your iPhone. Add a contact to your iPad and after the next backup, it's on your Mac. You can be selective too, so you could for example choose not to back up mail from your Mac, but to back up everything else. iCloud is excellent but it doesn't deal with more substantial backups for your Mac, it's really more of a synchronisation tool. Luckily, Apple provides Time Machine, a powerful backup system that is a part of OS X 10.5, 10.6 and 10.7. Again, it's so simple to use that there's no excuse not to use it and to risk losing data in the event of an emergency. Time Machine not only creates full backups of your system, it also works incrementally, so that only files that are new or altered since the last backup will be copied. This saves a lot of time and disk space, and avoids the unnecessary duplication of data. Time Machine can back up to any hard drive, so it's worth investing in an external USB 2.0 model with a decent capacity of 500GB or so: these are surprisingly inexpensive. Simply connect the external drive, go into Time Machine's preferences and specify the drive as a backup drive. Choose any items that you want to specifically exclude from the backup (perhaps downloads that you are going to delete soon) and then press Go. On first run, Time Machine will create a full backup of your entire Mac, right down to the system level. In the event of a catastrophe, you can simply boot this or another Mac from the system DVD or use Lion Internet Recovery, connect the backup drive and choose to restore the whole system back to your Mac. This is a much more comprehensive backup technique than burning to DVD. Why? Because it takes a working snapshot of the whole system. If you ever need it, and people sometimes do, a full Time Machine backup is a lifesaver. It works with any hard drive but Apple makes the Time Capsule, a combined high speed Wi-Fi base station plus a large hard drive, which is designed to work seamlessly with Time Machine. The advantage it has is that it works wirelessly, so your backups can be performed automatically in the background without you needing to connect a separate hard drive. Imagine backing up several Macs in a house to one, centrally located wireless backup drive. This is what you can do with Time Capsule. Back to the future There are quite a few Macs still out there that are not running OS X 10.5, which is the first version that included Time Machine. For those users, most of whom are on 10.4, as well as for anyone who prefers an alternative to Apple's own tools, there are other ways to back up your Mac. Carbon Copy Cloner, available free from www.bombich.com, has evolved into a very capable backup solution, with many more options than Time Machine. On one level, it's able to create complete, bootable backup disk images of your entire system - great for taking snapshots. Let's say you have a Mac working beautifully but want to try a major system upgrade. Taking a copy of the working system means that in the event of a disaster, you can easily revert back to it. It's also a handy tool for installing the same setup on lots of Macs at once, which IT admins often have to do. Get the system working on one Mac, create an image then distribute it across a network. Carbon Copy Cloner is also adept at incremental backups, and like Time Machine only backs up files that have changed since the last backup. It also supports scheduling so it can run without you having to tell it what to do, and has the ability to back up across the internet. Another excellent third-party Mac backup tool is SuperDuper!, which is available from www.shirt-pocket.com. Drag and drop On a more basic level, you can simply drag and drop folders from your Mac onto external hard drives or burn them to DVD using the Finder or a dedicated utility like Toast. This doesn't do any clever version checking like Time Machine, but it's quick and easy, and lets you perform a quick 'safety' backup without including any files that you may not need to back up. It's common practice amongst professionals to regularly duplicate a folder of work to a new drive while a project is ongoing, just for peace of mind. Even something like a power cut which causes your Mac to suddenly shut down can cause loss of data, and if it's been a day since your last Time Machine backup, you might lose all of today's work. You probably shouldn't let backing up take over your life, but it's good to be on top of it nonetheless. Alternative services There are alternatives to Apple's iCloud for the Mac too, though none which integrate at a system level, even though many do have dedicated apps rather than needing to be run from a browser. Some of the best include Backblaze, Carbonite, Livedrive, Mozy and CrashPlan, and they all work in broadly similar ways. There's also Dropbox, which isn't technically a backup solution, though you can use it as a limited kind of backup tool. These online backup services are generally fairly inexpensive and offer differing levels of free and paid storage, plus 'watch folders' to upload data automatically, and the ability to restore files and folders back to your Mac. They often also have companion iOS apps so you can synchronise data across your devices. Online backup is still limited compared to local, hard drive-based backup, where you might have backups running to hundreds of gigabytes; and online systems are better suited to files, pictures and media than backing up entire systems. Between all these backup options there's sure to be one that suits you, so make sure you're backed up and up to date today! How to use iCloud to back up your iOS device 1. Turn it on Go into your device's Settings app and locate the iCloud section therein. If you activated iCloud during setup of the device, it should already be on. If not you can switch it on from here. You will need to be on a wireless network to complete the next steps. 2. Choose components From this menu you can choose what to back up and what to omit (if anything). Most things use relatively little space, though Photo Stream can use up more if you have a lot of photos. Find My iPad/iPhone is great if you're prone to losing things. 3. Manage Storage Tap the Storage and Backup option and you'll be taken to a new section. At the bottom there's a Back Up Now button which you can tap to force a backup. You can also switch iCloud backups on or off from this screen. The totals at the top tell you how much space you have left. 4. View the details Tap the Manage Storage option to be taken to a screen showing the devices associated with your Apple ID, along with how much space they're using. Any iWork-compatible documents that have been backed up will also be shown. 5. Change the settings Tap a device to load its backup plan. The most recent backup is shown at the top, and the total backup size online. Underneath is a list of apps in size order, largest first. You can see I have chosen to omit some of the larger ones. 6. Select apps Tap Show More Apps and you'll see a list of apps on your device, and you can choose to set each one to back up or be left out. Apps can be re-downloaded in emergencies, though you may lose settings if they were not backed up.

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