In what is the lowest price we’ve ever seen, Apple’s MacBook Air (2019) with AppleCare is $800 off for two days only, bringing the premium model that’s loaded with upgrades down to $1,149 with the extended protection plan.
Rock bottom price on MacBook Air + AppleCare
Update on Oct. 1 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern: The initial allotment of this aggressive offer is now sold out.
The kit features Apple’s Mid 2019 13-inch MacBook Air with a 1.6GHz Core i5 processor, 16GB of memory and a spacious 512GB SSD. The Space Gray model originally retailed for $1,699, but B&H is knocking $550 off the sytem itself and throwing in free AppleCare (a $249 value), bringing the total savings to $800 off (sold out).
This exclusive $1,149* price (deal expired) is available only at AppleInsider for two days only using the special activation instructions below. According to our 2019 MacBook Air Price Guide, which tracks deals across leading Apple resellers, this is the most aggressive offer available on the Air. And since the ultraportable laptop tends to be used when traveling or as a family machine, you’ll have added peace of mind with the AppleCare protection plan, which extends warranty coverage to three years.
Shoppers can also extend the savings even further with no interest financing for 12 months with the B&H Financing Card. Or save on sales tax on orders shipped to qualifying zip codes with the Payboo Card. The latter is a great option if you’re willing to pay the balance in full right away.
(*) Activation instructions
To take advantage of the savings, you must shop through this special pricing link from a laptop or desktop. We apologize, but the offer cannot be redeemed in mobile apps at this time.
Even more Apple deals
AppleInsider and Apple authorized resellers are also running additional exclusive deals on hardware that will not only deliver the lowest prices on many of the items, but also throw in bonus discounts on AppleCare, Office 365 and more. These offers are as follows:
Microsoft on Thursday announced a new affordable laptop, the Surface Laptop Go, which starts at $549. It’s a compelling option for people at home right now who need a new computer and don’t want to spend a lot of money.
This is Microsoft’s attempt to get new products out to consumers before the busy holiday shopping season — it also announced a tiny update to the Surface Pro X tablet from last year. Oddly, unlike in most recent years, Microsoft didn’t announce a whole bunch of new products.
There’s still no news on its regular Surface Pro tablet/laptop hybrid, for example, and it didn’t update its Surface Studio 2 desktop computer or provide an update on its delayed Surface Neo device.
But the Surface Go seems neat. It’s the smallest full-sized laptop Microsoft has launched, with a 12.4-inch display compared to the 13.5-inch screens it used on Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 3 last year.
You don’t get a whole lot for that price, though. While the entry-level model comes with the latest Intel Core i5 processors, it also ships with just 64GB of storage and 4GB of RAM. That might be fine if you just want to surf the web, but you should plan to spend more to upgrade to at least 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM so you can install and run more apps at the same time.
Still, it’s a move by Microsoft to try to undercut competitors like the MacBook Air, which starts at $999 but offers more far storage and a more premium design. The Surface Laptop Go is made out of plastic with an aluminum coating, while Apple’s models are all aluminum.
The Surface Laptop Go is available for pre-order now and will be in stores beginning Oct. 13.
The second beta of iOS 14.2 introduces the new Emoji 13 characters that Apple previewed earlier this year as part of World Emoji Day. New emoji options include ninja, people hugging, black cat, bison, fly, polar bear, blueberries, fondue, bubble tea, and more, with a list below. Faces – Smiling Face with Tear, Disguised Face People – Ninja, Person in Tuxedo, Woman in Tuxedo, Person…
As Tim Cook’s Apple heads into a brave, new ARM-powered world of macOS, it has to make a decision about legacy support and older hardware. If you want to see how that’s going to work out, just watch the MacBook Air over the next year or two.
NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 30: Tim Cook, CEO of Apple unveils a new MacBook Air during a launch event at … [+]the Brooklyn Academy of Music on October 30, 2018 in New York City. This is Apple’s first full upgrade of the laptop in three years. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)
Getty Images
What made the MacBook Air stand out in 2008 is now passé in 2020. The ‘Air’ is still seen as a machine that is ‘thin’, and there are countless thin laptops in the world. If you pick up the MacBook Proyou’ll find a laptop that is 1.56 cm thick. The MacBook Air is 1.61cm. Yes it has the taper to the front edge unlike the constant depth of the Pro, but is a small wedge enough to justify the Air moniker?
Personally I don’t think so, and from what we have learned from the supply chain, Apple is of a similar mind. When the ARM-powered macOS laptops pop up later this year, the machine built around power and performance will be the MacBook Pro, while the machine built around lightweight and ultraportable computing will simply be known as MacBook.
There is no place for the MacBook Air in the brave new world. Apple is taking the popular laptop brand and tearing it down with the belief that a stronger forest will grow in its place.
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But there is one area where the MacBook Air is an important indicator of macOS’ future. And that’s how Apple treats the existing customer base. There are rather a lot of MacBook Airs in the wild, and they continue to be sold through Apple Stores both to consumers and especially into the education department.
These machines will need to be supported by Apple for a number of years at an operating system level. Apple’s Product Environmental Report for the MacBook Air states that “Apple assumes a four-year period for power use by first owners. Product use scenarios are based on historical customer use data for similar products.” I would hope that Apple continues to support the MacBook Air for at least those four years.
The question will be just how expansive that support will be. The next version of macOS – Big Sur – will run on the Intel-based machines, and you would expect the usual support cycle of a year of updates. Beyond that, it gets a bit more interesting. Offering support could stretch from little more than patching security vulnerabilities, right through to keeping the next our years of macOS intel compatible until the mic-drop in 2024.
This is why the MacBook Air is the future of Apple in miniature. First up, the product itself is being ruthlessly cut from the main portfolio to make way for something new. Secondly, in the short term it will continue to be supported. Finally, it’s going to die in the long term. Apple has made no concrete statements on how long that support will last; everyone is left looking at environmental reports, relying on a historical data point from sixteen years ago, or reading tea leaves.
Apple is happy to abandon the past and push consumers to new hardware. The iconic MacBook Air will always have a place in history (as will the manila envelope Steve Jobs pulled it out of when he literally revealed it to the world), but its time is past.
The “Air” line of MacBooks keep all the convenience and quality-of-life upgrades that have landed in the more expensive MacBooks, like 4 million pixel retina displays and fingerprint Touch ID access, but it’s all crammed into a smaller, lighter model. The MacBook Air is 2.8 lbs, compared to the MacBook Pro’s 3.02 lbs. With 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, the Air might not let you run Adobe After Effects with the lightning quickness you want, but you’ll be able to indulge in basic photo manipulation and most other consumer-level computer work with ease.
For more computer literate people, this comes with SSD storage, with all the extra speed and reliability that entails. There’s also a backlit keyboard, a 10th-generation Intel Core i3 processor, and two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports, as well as a new battery that can last up to 11 hours (according to marketing materials).
Basically, this is a fully functioning computer shoved into a case with the size and portability of a Chromebook, which is sort of incredible on its own. We’re not sure how long this deal will last; all we know is there’s never been a better one. (Okay, fine, we know it was once $899, instead of $899.99, but we’re not sure that two-thirds the price of a pack of Jolly Ranchers is a deal-breaker when you’re buying a laptop).
Hearst Newspapers participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.
Joshua Sargent is an editor for Hearst Newspapers. Email him at josh.sargent@hearst.com.
Month-end deals on Apple hardware offer savings on budget-friendly devices, from a 2020 MacBook Air for $899 to closeout deals on Apple Watch styles and Mac mini computers.
Month-end Mac and Apple Watch deals
June savings offer up cash discounts on Apple hardware, with the deals below delivering the lowest prices on new and closeout models. Shopping for a 2020 MacBook Air with the new Magic Keyboard? Save $100 instantly at Amazon and B&H, with MacBook Air prices as low as $899.
Those that prefer desktop computing can also save $120 on the 2018 Mac mini at B&H with free expedited shipping within the contiguous U.S. Limited supply is available at the reduced price and the deal may sell out or change at any time.
Rounding out our list of Apple deals for June 29 is a fresh markdown on the Apple Watch Series 3 at Amazon. Now priced at $169 for the 38mm GPS model in your choice of Space Gray Aluminum or Silver Aluminum, this deal reflects a $30 discount of Apple’s $199 MSRP. It’s also $10 cheaper than the previous low price at Amazon last week.
2020 MacBook Air deals
Mac mini for $679
Apple Watch on sale for $169
Apple Watch 3 (38mm, GPS) Space Gray Case, Black Sport Band: $169($30 off)
Apple Watch 3 (38mm, GPS) Silver Case, White Sport Band: $169($30 off)
AppleInsider and Apple Authorized Resellers are also running additional exclusive deals on hardware that will not only deliver the lowest prices on many of the items, but also throw in bonus discounts on AppleCare, Office 365 and more. These offers are as follows:
Amazon-owned Woot has just slashed $410 to $500 off Apple’s 2019 13-inch MacBook Pro, bringing refurbished units down to as low as $889.99 for the rest of today.
Flash MacBook Pro deals end today
The flash sale hosted by Woot is valid today only, and features a $410 to $500 instant discount on Apple’s Mid 2019 13-inch MacBook Pro. Considering the standard model originally retailed for $1,299, the $889 discounted price offers significant savings in addition to free standard shipping for Amazon Prime members.
According to Woot, these models are refurbished by Apple, but do not come with an Apple warranty. Instead, the 2019 configs are backed by a 1-year Woot limited warranty and packaged in a generic white box. This allows for aggressive savings of up to $500 off original MSRP.
2019 13″ MacBook Pro discounts
2019 13″ MacBook Pro (1.4GHz, 8GB, 128GB, refurb): $889.99($410 off)
2019 13″ MacBook Pro (1.4GHz, 8GB, 256GB, refurb): $999.99($500 off)
Exclusive deal on 2019 MacBook Pro in new condition
Additional Apple deals
AppleInsider and Apple Authorized Resellers are also running additional exclusive deals on hardware that will not only deliver the best prices on many of the items, but also throw in bonus discounts on AppleCare, Office 365 and more. These offers are as follows:
HP ENVY 13 Intel 10th Gen Core i7-1065G7 Quad-core 13.3″ 4K Touch Laptop with 512GB SSD for $699.99 at Best Buy (list price $999.99)
Dell New XPS 13 9300 Intel 10th Gen Core i5-1035G1 Quad-core 13.3″ 1920×1200 Laptop for $944.99 at Dell (use code: SAVE10 – list price $1099.99)
Dell New Vostro 15 7500 Intel 10th Gen Core i5-10300H Quad-core 15.6″ 1080p Laptop for $764.09 at Dell (use code: STAND4SMALL – list price $1498.57)
Dell Inspiron 15 5000 Intel 10th Gen Core i7-1065G7 Quad-core 15.6″ 1080p Laptop with 512GB SSD for $674.99 at Dell (use code: STAND4SMALL – list price $799.99)
Dell Vostro 13 5000 Intel 10th Gen Core i7-10510U Quad-core 13.3″ 1080p Laptop for $899.09 at Dell (use code: STAND4SMALL – list price $1427.14)
Dell Latitude 15 3500 Intel Core i3-8145U 15.6″ 1080p Win10 Pro Laptop for $498.84 at Dell (use code: STAND4SMALL – list price $1034.85)
Alienware m15 R2 Intel Core i7-9750H 6-core 15.6″ 1080p Gaming Laptop with RTX 2070, 512GB SSD for $1619.99 at Dell (use code: SAVE10 – list price $2113.98)
Alienware m17 R1 Intel Core i7-9750H 6-core 17.3″ 1080p Gaming Laptop with RTX 2070 Max-Q, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD for $1607.39 at Dell (use code: SAVE10 – list price $2044.99)
Dell G7 15 Intel Core i7-9750H 6-core 15.6″ 4K OLED Gaming Laptop with RTX 2080 Max-Q, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD for $1799.99 at Dell (list price $2784.98)
Lenovo ThinkPad X390 Intel Core i5-10210U Quad-core 13.3″ 1080p IPS Laptop for $749 at Lenovo (use code: SECRETDEAL – list price $1369)
Lenovo ThinkPad X280 Intel Core i5-8350U Quad-core 12.5″ 1080p Touch Laptop for $769 at Lenovo (use code: CLEARMORE – list price $2079)
Lenovo ThinkPad T490 Intel Core i5-10210U Quad-core 14″ 1080p IPS Laptop for $999.99 at Lenovo (use code: WEBSPECIAL – list price $1469)
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 7 Intel Core i5-10210U Quad-core 14″ 1080p Laptop for $999.99 at Lenovo (use code: CLEARMORE – list price $2629)
HP Pavilion 15z Touch AMD Ryzen 5 3500U Quad-core 15.6″ Laptop for $559.99 (+$60 for 1080p Display) at HP (list price $679.99)
HP 15t Intel Core i7-10510U Quad-core 15.6″ Laptop for $599.99 (+$50 for 1080p Display) at HP (list price $799.99)
HP Pavilion 15t Intel 10th Gen Core i7-1065G7 Quad-core 15.6″ Laptop with 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD for $779.99 (+$130 for 1080p Touch Display) at HP (list price $1129.99)
HP ENVY x360 Intel Core i5-1035G1 Quad-core 15.6″ 1080p Touch Laptop for $799.99 at HP (list price $849.99)
HP Pavilion x360 15t Touch Intel Core i7-10510U Quad-core 15.6″ 1080p Touch Laptop with 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD for $929.99 at HP (list price $1249.99)
HP OMEN 15 Intel Core i7-9750H 6-core 15.6″ 1080p 144Hz Gaming Laptop with RTX 2070, 16GB RAM for $1286.99 at HP (Select “Core i7 9750H + NVIDIA RTX 2070” (+$160) and “15.6” 144Hz IPS 1080p Display” (+$70) and use code: 10GAMERSPRING – list price $1669.99)
ASUS VivoBook 15 AMD Ryzen 3 3200U Quad-Core 15.6″ 1080p Laptop for $299 at Walmart (list price $349)
ASUS VivoBook 17 AMD Ryzen 7 3700U 17.3″ 1080p Laptop with Radeon RX Vega 10, 12GB RAM, 512GB SSD for $549.99 at Best Buy (list price $599.99)
ASUS TUF A15 AMD Ryzen 7 4800H 8-Core 15.6″ 1080p Gaming Laptop with RTX 2060, 512GB SSD for $899.99 at Best Buy (list price $999.99)
ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS 14″ 1080p Laptop with RTX 2060 Max-Q, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD for $1349.99 at Best Buy (list price $1449.99)
Razer Blade 15 Intel Core i7-9750H 6-core 15.6″ 1080p 144Hz Gaming Laptop with GTX 1660 Ti, 16GB RAM for $1099.99 at Amazon (list price $1599.99)
Ultimate Ears MEGABOOM Bluetooth Wireless Speaker for $74.99 at Dell (list price $249.99)
Sony WF-SP700N Wireless Noise Cancelling Sport Earbuds for $90.99 at Amazon (list price $179.99)
Klipsch T5 True Wireless Earphones for $89.99 at Amazon (list price $199.95)
TaoTronics TT-BH090 Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling Over-Ear Wireless Headphones for $39.99 at Amazon (Clip $10 Coupon and use code: AEDZL2QY – list price $69.99)
A slow Mac is a frustrating Mac. We’ll show you how to make it run faster.
Óscar Gutiérrez/CNET
Has your once shiny and speedy Mac lost a bit of speed? If you are seeing the spinning beach ball more frequently as your Mac struggles to keep up, then it’s time to perform a bit of maintenance to put a little pep back in its step.
In a previous version of this article, I recommended that you replace your MacBook ($1,700 at HSN)‘s traditional spinning hard drive with a solid-state drive (SSD) and add more RAM, but those two maneuvers have become outdated. For starters, MacBooks for the better part of the past decade have featured SSDs so you likely already have one unless your MacBook is ancient. Secondly, MacBooks in recent years feature RAM and SSDs that are soldered to the motherboard, making user upgrades all but impossible. Therefore, the following five tips will help speed up your Mac without replacing any of its hardware.
Before we begin, allow me a word of caution: back up your data before diving in. For Macs, it’s easy. Grab an external drive and run Time Machine. With your Mac’s drive freshly backed up, you may proceed.
Free up storage space
Sometimes, all your MacBook needs is a data cleanup. The more crowded its SSD becomes, the slower it will run. You can check out how much free space remains on your MacBook’s drive by clicking the Apple logo in the top left, select About This Mac and then click the Storage tab. If you are approaching maximum capacity, click the Manage button to free up some space. Here, you’ll see four recommendations for reclaiming free drive space.
Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET
The first lets you use iCloud to offload files, photos and text messages. You can move all the files stored on your desktop and Documents folder from your Mac’s drive to iCloud. And you can store full-resolution photos in iCloud and keep what Apple calls “optimized” versions on your Mac that take up much less space.
If you snap lots of photos with your iPhone ($699 at Apple), using the iCloud Photo Library is probably this single biggest space saver for your Mac. Keep in mind that you will likely run up against the free 5GB allotment on iCloud and begin to pay for space on Apple’s cloud. Upgrading to 50GB will cost you $0.99 a month, and the two bigger plans offer 200GB for $2.99 a month or 2TB for $9.99 a month. It’s cheaper than buying a new Mac.
The second option lets you optimize storage for the TV app by removing downloaded movies and shows after you watch them. The third option automatically cleans out the trash, removing items that have been sitting in the Trash for more than 30 days. The last option, Reduce Clutter, lets you review large files, downloads and unsupported apps and manually delete those you no longer need.
Perform some First Aid
Next, let’s clean up the applications you are keeping. When you install an app on your Mac, the piece of software arrives as part of a package of files, including permissions that tell MacOS which users can do what things with specific files.
Over time, these permissions can get changed, resulting in your Mac lagging, freezing or crashing. Repairing these disk permissions, in the most basic terms, amounts to shuffling and re-dealing these permissions so that they return to their rightful place.
If your Mac acts like it needs a nap every afternoon, when you are at the height of multitasking, there is an easy way to see which of your open applications is using the most system resources. Open the Activity Monitor by searching for it with Spotlight (keyboard shortcut: hold down the Command button while pressing the spacebar).
The numbers you’ll see are constantly fluctuating, but they show you the amount of CPU and memory resources each app is using. Take a look at both the CPU and Memory tabs to see which apps are using the most resources. Maybe you’ll start using Safari instead of Chrome, for example, if you see Chrome eating more than its fair share of system resources.
Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET
Reduce login items
If your Mac is slow to boot up, the problem may be that there are too many applications to open at startup. It’s likely you never set them to launch at startup — they launch by default.
Go to System Preferences > Users & Groups and then click on the Login Items tab to see a list of the apps that open when you boot your Mac. Highlight the apps you don’t want to open at startup and click the minus sign below the list of apps.
Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET
Keep current with MacOS
Apple releases new versions of MacOS as free upgrades, so there is no reason not to stay current. New versions of MacOS contain performance enhancements and security improvements to keep your Mac running smoothly and safely. To install updates automatically, go to System Preferences > Software Update and check the box for Automatically keep my Mac up to date.
Using the Advanced button, you can choose whether to download updates automatically or also install them, too. There’s also an option to update the apps from the App Store automatically.
