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A price cut of $680 is offered on the refurbished Mac Pro with a 2.8GHz Intel quad-core Xeon processor, 3GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive, now priced at $1,819. Save 24 percent off the list price of the refurbished Mac Pro with a 2.4GHz 8-Core Xeon processor, 6GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive, now $2,649.
The Thunderbolt Display is only available in low quantities at Apple resellers, notes AppleInsider. Amazon, J&R, and MacConnection are out of stock, though companies like Best Buy, B&H, and MacMall still have units. Apple's online store continues to have the monitor ready to ship in 24 hours.
Third-party retailers are beginning to run out of Apple's 27-inch Thunderbolt Display, notes AppleInsider. Amazon, MacMall, and J&R are all indicating that they're completely out of the monitor. Such stock-outs are typically a sign that Apple is about to update a product, which may be a necessity in the case of the Thunderbolt Display.
Apple is now shipping a slightly different SKU of the Thunderbolt Display to first- and third-party retail stores, 9to5Mac says it has learned. Recently Apple was reported to have retired the original part code for the monitor, MC914LL/A, in favor of MC914LL/B. Because Apple hasn't made any announcements, it's unclear what might be different.
Some users of Apple's Thunderbolt display and the new 2012 MacBook Air line have discovered that after a few hours use, the display's speakers distort, crackle, and emit a static noise. There are no permanent solutions, and temporary fixes include disconnecting the Thunderbolt cable and replugging, or changing output methods away from and back to the display's speakers. Apple has no official response on the issue as of yet.
New NPD DisplaySearch data has shown that Samsung and Apple have been in a mostly unstated rivalry for the desktop LCD market. Samsung has the worldwide lead for 24-inch and larger LED-lit displays at 34.7 percent, knocking Apple out of the top spot it held in 2010. In the US, while Apple was down from an absolute majority of 53.3 percent, it was still on top at 26.2 percent to Samsung's 24.3.
At Apple's online store this week save on refurbished iPads, iMacs, and more. Refurb. iPads are now available for as little as $299 for the 16GB iPad with Wi-Fi, or save $130 on the 16GB iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G, now $399. A range of iPad 2 models include the 32GB iPad 2 with Wi-Fi + 3G, now $579 after a $150 price cut, and the 64GB iPad 2 with Wi-Fi + 3G, which has also seen a $150 price cut down to $679.
Today at Apple's online store save on refurbished MacBook Pros, iPads and more. The 13.3-inch MacBook Pro with a 2.4GHz Intel dual-core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive is now $1019 after a $180 price cut. Save $540 on the refurb. 15.4-inch MacBook Pro with a 2.2GHz Intel quad-core i7 processor, 4GB of RAM and a 750GB hard drive, now $1659. Or for $1719, after a $580 price drop, is the 17-inch MacBook Pro with a 2.53GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive.
This week at Apple's online store save on refurbished iMacs like the 21.5-inch iMac with a 3.06GHz Intel Core i3 processor, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive, now $929 after a $170 price cut. A $340 price cut is available on the refurb. 27-inch iMac with a 3.1GHz Intel quad-core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive, now $1659.
At Apple's online store today save on refurbished iPods, iMacs and more. The 8GB iPod nano in green, pink, yellow, blue, silver or black is available for $99 after a $30 price cut. For $119, after a $30 price cut, is the 16GB iPod nano in pink, silver, black or blue. A $120 price cut can be found on the refurb. 64GB iPod touch, now only $249.
Just weeks after announcing its first Thunderbolt hard drives, Western Digital appropriately brought the offerings to show off at the Macworld iWorld expo in San Francisco. Electronista took a close look at several of the company's My Book Thunderbolt Duo drives, which were daisy chained to a Thunderbolt display.
The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has given Apple a total of 13 patents today, covering a wide range of topics from the design of the Thunderbolt Display to the (at the time) revolutionary interface for managing lists in iOS. The latter is an important patent that may be leveraged in future litigation, as most other smartphone competitors have copied it fairly closely in their own implementations. Apple was also given a patent for its now-discontinued Bluetooth headset.
Samsung has introduced a high-end display, labeled the Series 9 monitor, that will be displayed next week at CES in Las Vegas. The panel appears to be aimed at Apple's Thunderbolt Display and similar monitors, matching the 27-inch panel size and 2560x1440 resolution.
HP rounded out its CES introductions with a trio of Compaq displays. The 23-inch L2311c Notebook Docking Monitor takes its cue from Apple's Thunderbolt Display and uses USB 3.0 or 2.0 to feed both the display, Ethernet, a webcam, and four USB ports through one cable, whether it's a Windows PC or not. A separate power connection can charge any HP-made notebook that uses up to 90W of power.
Late this afternoon, Apple issued a fix for a fan noise issue that affected a small number of Apple Thunderbolt Displays in a firmware update labeled version 1.1. The 942KB file launches automatically once installed in the Utilities folder and shows on-screen instructions on going through the firmware update procedure. This is the first update specifically for Thunderbolt Display devices, though an earlier patch was issued for Thunderbolt-capable Macs generally in June.
Black Friday may be over, but online deals are continuing through the weekend. Save 60 percent on the Kensington iPad 2 KeyFolio Pro performance case with wireless Bluetooth keyboard, which has dropped from $100 to $40 with free super saver shipping. Save $50 on the Apple 27-inch LED Thunderbolt Display at PCConnectionExpress.com, now $960 with free shipping.
Intel is hoping to formalize a standard for docking on ultrabooks with Thunderbolt ports, leaked internal notes demonstrate. The implementation would combine the Thunderbolt port with a wider companion dock connector to handle other forms of data, such as Ethernet or USB, VR-Zone said. To keep the Ethernet connection alive for Intel's vPro remote management or for Windows 8's Connected Standby mode, however, the docking port would need to have direct access to the Ethernet chipset inside.
Many of Iomega's Mac-oriented storage products merely ship pre-formatted for HFS+, but the new Mac Companion has been entirely designed with Apple's computers in mind. The housing is shaped to match the footprint of an iMac or Cinema/Thunderbolt display, while FireWire connections and a 2.1 Amp USB port complement Apple's computers and iOS devices. In our full review, we explore the Mac Companion's functionality as a storage device and connection hub.
Apple's 27-inch, $1,000 Thunderbolt Display has been torn down by the iFixIt team. No special tools were needed to take the screen apart, with suction cups, Torx T6 and T10 screwdrivers and spudgers all that's required. The team was impressed by the easy disassembly process and gave the monitor an 8 out of 10 repairability score.
Apple has posted a trio of new software updates, the most important of which are Thunderbolt-related. The Thunderbolt Display Firmware Update fixes unspecified stability problems with Apple's latest product, and apart from the monitor requires a Mac running either OS X 10.6.8 or 10.7.1. A new Thunderbolt Software Update for Snow Leopard is required to use the Thunderbolt Display with the OS, and also fixes compatibility issues with other Thunderbolt devices. A matching Lion update was released late last week.
A new Apple support document reveals restrictions on daisy-chaining the Thunderbolt Display, which is finally shipping to online buyers. Because Thunderbolt supports speeds up to 10Gbps, the obstacle to chaining multiple monitors is less networking than the video hardware in the connected Mac. The MacBook Air can only run one Thunderbolt Display, Apple notes.
Belkin used the added limelight of the Intel Developer Forum to show off a prototype of a Thunderbolt dock intended primarily for Mac owners. Just called the Thunderbolt Express Dock, it has much of the same expansion of Apple's Thunderbolt Display without the requisite screen. A single cable feeds out gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800, three USB ports, and another Thunderbolt port for adding more devices to a chain.
Apple late Monday posted MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 2.1 (3.99MB). The fix supports beliefs the Thunderbolt Display is shipping and fixes compatibility issues between the current-generation Air and the new display as well as performance when it's used for Thunderbolt Target Disk Mode. Lion Recovery should also be more reliable.
Details have surfaced Tuesday that Apple should be delivering the Thunderbolt Display to stores this week. Both official Apple stores and third-party chains should have the 27-inch screen soon, MacRumors said. Online pre-order customers haven't received shipping notices yet, but Electronista has heard of shipping estimates of September 15.
Apple has identified a narrower shipping timeframe for the Thunderbolt Display, a check of the company's online store shows. The monitor is now listed as shipping in two to four weeks. When it was originally announced in late July, the peripheral was only slated to launch sometime within 60 days.
An investigation into the new MacBook Air's internals has revealed that Apple is using a new, relatively untested Thunderbolt chip. Nicknamed Eagle Ridge, it has two 10Gbps bidirectional lanes (40Gbps) where the Light Ridge chip in the iMac, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini has a full four. The part tracked down by AnandTech can only drive one display over Thunderbolt but is also much smaller and most likely cheaper, a key to fitting it into even the 11-inch, $999 Air.
Apple today introduced an updated Mac mini, representing its smallest and cheapest desktop system. Configurations are based primarily on dual-core Core i5 or Core i7 processors, paired with either integrated or AMD Radeon HD 6630M graphics; the CPU in a server configuration is a quad-core Core i7. Custom orders can further include options like a 7200rpm hard drive, a 256GB SSD, and/or up to 8GB of RAM. All models now include a Thunderbolt port, which can be used to connect compatible monitors and/or storage peripherals.
