MacRumors had previously reported that the new NVIDIA-based MacBooks and MacBook Pros showed dramatically less CPU usage when playing back H.264 content. The conclusion was that Apple had enabled the use of hardware acceleration for H.264 video playback. H.264 is the video format that Apple encodes all iTunes video content and movie trailers in, so any improvements in playback would benefit a large segment of customers.
Click to enlarge, Left: 1st Gen, Right: 2nd Gen
Based on early testing, it appears that the 2nd generation MacBook Air also delivers performance improvements during playback of H.264 video. One important additional advantage, however, is that this also appears to dramatically decrease heat production in the thin laptop. One of the early complaints about the original MacBook Air was related to overheating during video playback.
Forum member NC MacGuy performed side-by-side H.264 playback testing of a 1st generation 1.6GHz MacBook Air and a 2nd generation 1.86GHz MacBook Air and found a 10 degree difference in temperature between the two models. The lower temperature reflects the fact that the 2nd generation MacBook Air's processor was running at a lower clock speed (800Mhz) than that of the 1st generation (1.4GHz). The new MacBook Air was presumably able to further throttle the CPU speed down since the GPU was now handling much of the H.264 playback.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has high expectations for Apple's first foldable iPhone.
In his Power On newsletter today, he said the foldable iPhone will be "the most significant overhaul in the iPhone's history."
"iPhone 4, iPhone 6 and iPhone X were clearly a big deal, but this is a whole new design," he said.
Like Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 7, the foldable iPhone will reportedly open up like ...
iOS 26.5 is now available for developers, and while it doesn't include any new Siri capabilities, there are some major changes for the European Union, and smaller tweaks for features available worldwide.
Suggested Places
In the Maps app, there's a new "Suggested Places" feature that recommends locations to visit based on trending places nearby and recent searches. When Apple launches ads in ...
Apple has been celebrating its upcoming 50th anniversary by hosting surprise performances and other events around the world over the past few weeks, and now Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has revealed details about the company's grand finale.
In a social media post, Gurman said Apple's celebrations will conclude this week with a finale at its Apple Park headquarters for employees.
A special...
Apple on Monday unveiled the iPhone 17e and an updated iPad Air, but it is not finished yet. Apple promised "a big week ahead," and it is expected to announce additional new products this Tuesday, March 3 and Wednesday, March 4.
The most likely possibilities for Tuesday include updated 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, and higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro...
Apple today announced refreshed MacBook Air models featuring the M5 chip and a higher base SSD capacity.
The M5 chip in the MacBook Air features a 10-core CPU, with what Apple calls the world's fastest CPU cores. It offers configurations with up to 10 GPU cores with Neural Accelerators in each core, delivering up to 4x faster performance for AI tasks than the MacBook Air with the M4 chip.
...
Wednesday March 4, 2026 6:17 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple is now accepting pre-orders for all of the new products that it announced this week. Everything can be ordered from the online Apple Store following the debut of the new low-cost MacBook earlier this morning, with deliveries starting on Wednesday, March 11.
Here's a list of what you can order now, with pricing details included.
MacBook Neo - The 13-inch MacBook Neo has an A18 Pro...
