Apple Store down as new MacBook Air, Mac mini specs leak
updated 07:25 am EDT, Wed July 20, 2011
Apple Store goes down for new Lion Macs
Apple has taken down the online Apple Store ahead of both Lion as well as new Macs. The update will likely be to add Lion details and art for every Mac in the store but is now believed by sources to include the new MacBook Air as well as Mac minis. The new Thunderbolt LED Cinema Display should be part of the update as well.
Last-minute sources have partly bucked expectations of a baseline upgrade. The 11-inch Air should still start off with 2GB of RAM and a 64GB SSD but should have the anticipated 1.6GHz Core i5, which should be a major leap over the 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo despite the small clock speed boost. A higher-end stock spec will upgrade to 1.7GHz and a 128GB SSD but, for the first time, make 4GB standard on an Air. A custom-order version should bring a 1.8GHz Core i7 and 256GB of space, the first time an 11-inch Air can match better 13-inch configurations.
The 13-inch Air's updates aren't expected to be as aggressive but will keep the price low. It should start off with a 1.7GHz chip, a 128GB SSD, and 4GB of RAM. A higher end model will only upgrade to 256GB of space. Custom-ordering will be necessary for the 1.8GHz Core i7 but won't change other details.
Mac mini updates should lean unusually heavily on the processor, according to tips. A base edition should still come with just 2GB of RAM, but will reportedly leap to a 2.3GHz Core i5 and a larger 500GB hard drive. An upsell version should bump the processor to 2.5GHz and double the RAM.
The Mac mini server edition will be the most radical update. Apple should outfit it with the dual-drive 1TB storage and 4GB of RAM of today, but it's said to have a quad 2GHz Core i7 inside, presumably to improve its parallelism for server tasks. A jump of the sort will not only represent the first quad-core Mac mini but the first time Intel's highest-powered mobile processor will be in the small form factor desktop.
Prices for both the MacBook Air and the Mac mini weren't yet available but may be the same as for their ancestors, which started at $999 and $699 respectively.
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Joined: Jul 2011
Lion is out
As of 7:43 AM Lion is on the App store. I did have to do a search for it, it was not on front page.