Apple will hold a special media event next Wednesday to reveal its latest offerings in the Mac space, which may include new MacBook Airs, a preview of Mac OS X 10.7, and an unveiling of iLife and iWork '11.
Set to kick-off at 10:00 am Pacific time on Wednesday, October 20th in the Town Hall on Apple's Cupertino Campus, the event doesn't come as a surprise. Just one week ago, AppleInsider hinted that such a gathering was in the cards when it outlined expectations for the Mac maker to overhaul its MacBook Air line, inventories of which dried up over the last several weeks.
MacBook Air
Persistent rumors out of the Far East have suggested Apple is gearing up to overhaul the MacBook Air line with a newly designed 11.6-inch display, creating a more aggressively priced notebook for students and the business traveler. Those reports claim that Apple plans to ship around a half-million units before the end of the 2010 calendar year. The current MacBook Air sports a larger 13.3-inch display.
Rumors of a MacBook Air with an 11.6-inch display first cropped up in July. It was said the redesigned hardware will be even slimmer and lighter, and will be powered by an Intel Core i-series ultra-low voltage processor.
There's also been a mixture of chatter regarding a much cheaper, thinner 11.6-inch Apple notebook that would weigh as little as 2.7 pounds due to the possibility of new carbon fiber unibody construction, though AppleInsider cannot confirm any of those reports with any degree of certainty, nor can it confirm somewhat related rumors that such a model would coincide with Apple's reported plans to adopt the latest microprocessors from AMD into some of its Mac models. Instead, those reports are highlighted here simply for the sake of completeness.
iLife and iWork
In addition to the introduction of a new MacBook Air, Apple's iLife suite of digital lifestyle applications and its iWork suite of productivity software are also due for a revamp. The last update to both offers came in January of 2009.
At least one recent discovery has suggested that a iLife '11 refresh will be written entirely in 64-bit code, will include a rewritten iWeb, and will drop the iDVD application. It has also been suggested that the software will be launched for iOS devices, like the iPhone and iPad.
Source: AppleInsider
