Kasper Jade of AppleInsider is reporting that the new range will increase in value because of increases to standard memory and storage components. This is on top of Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors which will be powering the laptops.

Ming-Chi Kuo, analyst from Concord Securities has said that industry checks have found that Apple is not ordering MacBook Airs with 2GB of RAM anymore. The company is now placing orders for its 11.6 and 13.3-inch models which will have 4GB of RAM as standard. This will improve performance of the units which will have Mac OS X Lion pre-installed.

The same checks hinted that the 64GB models will be replaced with 128GB and 256GB versions as standard. Recent reports of the SSD drives being soldered to the logic board have been rubbished, so the drives will remain pluggable.

With regards to the Sandy Bridge processors Apple have chosen for the range, Kuo pointed to three specific Intel ultra-low voltage chips. Based on the checks it is thought the Core i5-2467M (1.6GHz), i7-2637M (1.7GHz), and i7-2677M (1.8GHz) will be the chips Apple will be using. Each of them only consumes seventeen watts, which is ideal for the slim Air and can support up to 8GB of memory.

Kuo has a good track record in predicting Apple’s new products, and was the first to mention the 11.6-inch MacBook Air. Meanwhile other manufactures are finding it hard to compete with the current range of MacBook Airs. Focus Taiwan is reporting that the thin and light Ultrabook prototype promoted by Intel Corp is not yet ready to boost notebook demand this year. This has been put down too high prices of the components.

Last month at the Computex trade show Intel and Asustek revealed the ultra-thin laptops which were equipped with Intel’s next gen chips, and was codenamed Ivy Bridge. Intel said the chip brings better power efficiency with increased responsiveness and enhanced security.

Daiwa Securities Group in Taipei said the Ultrabook is just an old trick but with a new name. This was because Intel was cutting the prices of its low voltage processors again, and will help major OEM’s premium models become the mainstream.

But for the Ultrabook to compare with the MacBook Air it still needs other more advanced and also expensive components. This includes the likes of solid state drives, metal casings, ultra thin panels, polymer batteries, and high density interconnect. It will come even harder for rival companies if the new standard features do come with the new MacBook Air.

Kasper Jade from AppleInsider is reporting that the new models will allegedly begin next month and be ready for release in June. The latest version of the Air sold a lot of units when it was first released, and consumers bought double the amount of Airs compared to MacBook Pros.

But once Apple bought out the refreshed lineup of MacBook Pros, sales of MacBook Airs dropped by 51% during the first quarter of 2011. This may have something to do with consumers seeing the new Pros and waiting to see what Apple would do.

An analyst from Concord Securities, Ming-Chi Kuo, has made checks with suppliers and system builders close to Apple’s supply chain. Kuo claims that the new MacBook Air will begin mass production towards the end of May, and should also have the same Thunderbolt high-speed I/O technology which is now found in the MacBook Pro.

Are you waiting for a refresh before buying a MacBook Air?

Daniel Eran Dilger of AppleInsider is reporting that Chris Foresman of Ars Technica, has found that the new MacBook Air has better battery life without Flash following testing. Loading up various web pages in Safari the battery lasted for a full six hours, once Flash was installed and the same sites loaded battery life dropped to four hours.

Foresman wrote “Flash-based ads kept the CPU running far more than seemed necessary.” When Flash is not installed, websites normally display static ads instead of Flash content, doing away the need for processing power being constantly demanded by the Flash rendering engine.

As Flash ads are consuming up to 33 percent of the battery potential, it’s no surprise Apple seem not to be interested in installing Flash on devices with smaller batteries such as the iPhone. Use the link to read the full article.

According to this report from Apple Insider, user messages are now starting to mount up on the official Apple support boards, all of which are related to the company’s new 11-inch and 13-inch late 2010 Macbook Air models.

Problems listed include faulty logic boards, flickering display screens, kernal issues and even some reports of systems freezing up. It is important to note that Apple has already released a patch update for the new models shortly after release, but users are still complaining that their problems have not been solved.

Apple has yet to officially respond to the claims, but if they start becoming more apparent, then it is only a matter of time until they are forced to release another patch.

First of all, can any of you confirm that the problems listed above are happening on your new Macbook Air? This could help to determine whether this is a problem affecting all new Macbook Air models, or just an isolated issue affecting a small minority.

We’ll update you if we hear from Apple.

The hands-on review comes to us courtesy of BGR, who have also offered a gallery of screenshots of the new model as well as their first impressions.

Like most reviews you’ll probably read for the 11-inch, the dimensions of the new model are a view to behold and if you didn’t own one of the previous Macbook Air models, you’ll be amazed at how light the device actually feels in your hands.

BGR mention some slight concerns over the low-spec processor (1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo), but from the brief time that they had with the device, they said that they didn’t have any performance issues which is a good thing.

For those of you who are now thinking 14-15-inch tablets are just too big, the new 11-inch Macbook Air could well tempt you into a purchase – the premium price remains a barrier for most though.

Check out their thoughts and the photos in the link above. Have any of you bought one already?

As reported from Apple Insider, the stream will be available on Apple.com in a few hours time, and just like their previous iPod event, it will only be available for iOS devices and on Mac computers running Safari on OS X 10.6.

This means that those of you without an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad will not be able to watch a live stream, unless someone takes the Apple’s stream and redistributes it of course.

Apple were also keen to point out that their stream will be broadcast using “industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming” technology, meaning that the quality is likely to be top notch for those tuning in on mobile devices.

What are your thoughts on this? Are non-Apple device users upset about this, or are you happy to tune into a live blog? You can see our live stream and live blogs roundup here.

The old Air models could only muster a standard 5-hour battery life, and although that is fine for some of you, others definitely think there is room for improvement.

Apple has answered the prayers of Macbook Air users, and have allegedly upped the ante to bring us 8-10 hours of battery life along with a new size of 13.3-inches and a 11.6-inch netbook version aswell.

Although nothing is official yet, the new Macbook Air is almost certain to be much lighter than its previous weight of around 3lbs. Made from aluminium, the unibody enclosure will have a much straighter and boxier design, almost reminiscent of the iPhone 4.

We also expect the new wave of Air’s to come with two USB ports, and an SD card — but no hard drive and 2GB of RAM that will be upgradable if needed. Graphics come from Nvidia, who will provide Apple with a GeForce 320M.

Basic processor options start at 2.1GHz (with 2GB RAM) and 2.4GHz (with 4GB RAM) with the 13″ model to start at around $1,100 and the 11″ model coming in at around $999.

Although this is pure speculation for the time being, don’t expect the rumors to be too far off the mark. We unveiled what is thought to be an early prototype of the new Macbook Air that you can see here. Probably best to save the speculation until the Back to the Mac event is underway.

Will you be purchasing a new Macbook Air? If so, what size and spec would you go for?

Source: i4u

As reported from Apple Insider, a new picture apparently showing the inside body of a new 13.3-inch Macbook Air model was obtained by Engadget, and is thought to be a picture of an early prototype.

It has been rumored that the one of Apple’s new Macbook Air models will come without a hard disk drive and also without a conventional SSD drive. According to Apple Insider, it will instead come with a ‘high-capacity’ Solid-State drive and extra space for the battery.

They also state that the new Macbook Air models will come with USB ports on the sides, an SD card reader and a Mini DisplayPort.

Check out the picture below and let us know your thoughts on it. Would you prefer a Macbook Air without an HDD? Don’t forget that Apple’s Back to the Mac event is on Wednesday – full details on that here.

As reported from Apple Insider, the news comes after retailers such as Amazon, MacMall and MacConnection have all sold out of the low-end 1.83GHz MacBook Air model, which is obviously not a coincidence if you think about it.

Don’t forget that the retailers listed above are authorized Apple resellers, so you can put a safe bet on that a new model refresh is on the way.

Furthermore, sources close to Apple have indicated that stock of the low-end model listed above won’t be available until Oct 12-16 at the earliest. Could we be seeing new models on the Apple store between these dates?

What are your thoughts on this? Would you be interested in a new 11.6-inch Macbook Air?