I love the retina display on my iPad, but I'm not in a rush to see a MacBook Air with one. The iPad feature I'd like most to see migrate to the MBA is double-digit battery life. Since a battery can be charged overnight, getting more that 12-14 hours of life essentially makes it infinite. Then it becomes something we don't have to think about, much less worry about.

So, I'm hoping the rumors are right, and Apple adopts the Haswell chip and all the other changes needed to get an impressively long battery life. And since I don't normally use my laptop for cutting bread, I wouldn't mind if Apple offered a bit thicker EL (Extended Life) model with a larger battery. Just keep the price reasonable.

The one other change Apple needs to make is to quit having rip off prices for RAM in models whose memory can't be upgraded. As I recently told an Apple Store salesman, the 4 Gig that ships with a stock MBA isn't enough long term, and yet Apple expects me to pay $100 just to raise that 4 Gig to 8 Gig. "I can get four times that--16 Gig--from third very reputable third parties."

When buying means getting ripped off, I don't buy. Needed policy change: For products that can't be upgraded, charge market prices for memory.

Originally Posted by Inkling

I love the retina display on my iPad, but I'm not in a rush to see a MacBook Air with one. The iPad feature I'd like most to see migrate to the MBA is double-digit battery life. Since a battery can be charged overnight, getting more that 12-14 hours of life essentially makes it infinite. Then it becomes something we don't have to think about, much less worry about.
So, I'm hoping the rumors are right, and Apple adopts the Haswell chip and all the other changes needed to get an impressively long battery life. And since I don't normally use my laptop for cutting bread, I wouldn't mind if Apple offered a bit thicker EL (Extended Life) model with a larger battery. Just keep the price reasonable.
The one other change Apple needs to make is to quit having rip off prices for RAM in models whose memory can't be upgraded. As I recently told an Apple Store salesman, the 4 Gig that ships with a stock MBA isn't enough long term, and yet Apple expects me to pay $100 just to raise that 4 Gig to 8 Gig. "I can get four times that--16 Gig--from third very reputable third parties."
When buying means getting ripped off, I don't buy. Needed policy change: For products that can't be upgraded, charge market prices for memory.

Getting ripped off from a factory RAM upgrade from crApple has ALWAYS meant "getting ripped off".... What do you mean?? That is the tradition, you don't like it?.... You are not supportive of crApple then. :lol:

This article is such a "Duhhh", wonder why I even bother. The next platform will be the rMBP to get. If you have purchased the rMBP of this generation, you really need to get the 2.7 upgrade, it really makes a difference. The 2.3GHz version is really dragging it's feet in these machines that it makes them resemble the 2010-2011 MBPs in CPU performance.

A speed-bumped retina sounds great to me. Apple just introduced the revolutionary new retina MacBook design, so obviously they are going to fine-tune it rather than throw it out and create a brand new laptop again already.

I held off on the 15" retina when it first came out, because I was hoping for a cheaper 13" model. Well, the 13" model came out, but it isn't any cheaper! I know this sounds silly, but now I feel like the 15" retina is already a little old for me to consider buying it. So an updated model would be perfect.

The Air is getting a new processor architecture but it's remaining mostly unchanged? I'm not sure the Intel engineers that spent years designing those chips would see their new Haswell CPU as "mostly unchanged."

It's worth noting that the retina MacBooks run on ultra low voltage RAM, which is considerably more expensive even when you shop around than regular SO-DIMMs.