RUMOURS & NEWS
Word on the grapevine about future Apple kit
Apple says the 2020 MacBook Airs are twice as fast
Apple has published the names and images of the winners of its Night mode photography competition, which it launched in January to promote the camera smarts in the iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max.
Thousands of people worldwide took part in the competition, but only six images from China, India, Russia and Spain made the final cut.
The winners – Konstantin Chalabov, Andrei Manuilov, Mitsun Soni, Rubén P Bescós, Rustam Shagimordanov and Yu ‘Eric’ Zhang – will have their photos featured in a gallery on Apple’s website, on its Instagram page and on billboards globally. Crucially, each photographer will also receive a licence fee for their work – something Apple was upfront about this time after being criticised by
Boost speeds of between 3.2GHz and 3.8GHz (depending on configuration), plus 80% better graphics performance. Both should help make performing photo and video editing tasks much easier and more satisfying. They should give a welcome boost to Apple Arcade gamers too.
Happy typing
Elsewhere, the new MacBook Airs are largely unchanged from their predecessors. That means you get a 13.3in LED-backlit Retina display with a native resolution of 2560x1440 pixels, Touch ID with Apple’s T2 Security Chip, a roomy Force Touch trackpad and two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports. Intriguingly, the 2020 MacBook Airs can now also support displays offering up to 6K of resolution, including Apple’s own Pro Display XDR, and boast improved stereo professional photographers over its 2019 ‘Shot on iPhone’ campaign.
Night mode is a feature of the iPhone 11 series that combines the use of a larger image sensor with AI to produce high quality captures in low light. speakers too. A new three-microphone array promises better sound quality during those all-important FaceTime calls to friends and family.
Most welcome, though, is the new Magic Keyboard. Borrowed from the 16in MacBook Pro introduced last year, it ditches the unreliable and shallow butterfly-switch mechanism used on the 2019 MacBook Air (and the still current 13in MacBook Pro) and replaces it with a more robust scissor-switch system offering 1mm of key travel. The difference that makes is much bigger than it seems – we found the Magic Keyboard on the 16in MacBook Pro actually makes typing on an Apple laptop enjoyable again. Something that wasn’t always true of the much-criticised butterfly-switch versions.
The 2020 MacBook Airs are available in the same Space Grey, Gold and Silver finishes as before and are available now.
Also getting the upgrade treatment is the 2020 Mac mini, which now boasts twice as much storage – the £799 base model now has 256GB of solid-state storage (up from 128GB), while the stepup £1,099 model gets a 512GB SSD.