Apple updates MacBook Air firmware to address display issue
Apple issued a MacBook Air EMI firmware update Wednesday, resolving an issue where the ultra-thin laptop boots or wakes to a black screen or becomes unresponsive.
MacBook Air EFI firmware update 2.0 is recommended for all 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air (late 2010) models and requires Mac OS X 10.6.5. The update addresses a "rare issue" where the MacBook Air is unresponsive or displays just a black screen after booting or waking.
Apple launched the redesigned MacBook Air in October at its "Back to the Mac event." As predicted by AppleInsider the Mac maker released an 11.6-inch version of the ultra-portable notebook and abandoned mechanical hard disk drives in favor of custom solid state storage.
Apple chief Steve Jobs described the product's design approach as an attempt to build the result of a MacBook and iPad hook-up.
"We?ve taken what we have learned with the iPad?solid state storage, instant-on, amazing battery standby time, miniaturization and lightweight construction, to create the new MacBook Air. With its amazing responsiveness and mobility, it will change the way we think about notebooks," said Jobs.
On the day of the revamped MacBook Air's unveiling, Apple released a software update for the product, resolving a problem where the MacBook Air became unresponsive after waking from sleep when an external display was connected.
Shortly after the release of the MacBook Air, reports emerged that users were experiencing problems ranging from faulty logic boards to display issues. One issue, detailed on an Apple support thread, involved a flickering or frozen screen. It is not clear whether Apple's EFI firmware update specifically addresses this issue.
Despite scattered reports of issues with the MacBook Air, the laptop has continued to sell well, especially the 11-inch model. The $999 11.6 MacBook Air's ship times slipped from within 24 hours to 1-3 business days in the first week after its release.
One analyst predicted in October that Apple will sell 700,000 units of the MacBook Air over the holiday quarter.
Analysts tracking retail activity on Black Friday found that the 11-inch MacBook Air was "flying off the shelves" and a "customer favorite."
MacBook Air EFI firmware update 2.0 is recommended for all 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air (late 2010) models and requires Mac OS X 10.6.5. The update addresses a "rare issue" where the MacBook Air is unresponsive or displays just a black screen after booting or waking.
Apple launched the redesigned MacBook Air in October at its "Back to the Mac event." As predicted by AppleInsider the Mac maker released an 11.6-inch version of the ultra-portable notebook and abandoned mechanical hard disk drives in favor of custom solid state storage.
Apple chief Steve Jobs described the product's design approach as an attempt to build the result of a MacBook and iPad hook-up.
"We?ve taken what we have learned with the iPad?solid state storage, instant-on, amazing battery standby time, miniaturization and lightweight construction, to create the new MacBook Air. With its amazing responsiveness and mobility, it will change the way we think about notebooks," said Jobs.
On the day of the revamped MacBook Air's unveiling, Apple released a software update for the product, resolving a problem where the MacBook Air became unresponsive after waking from sleep when an external display was connected.
Shortly after the release of the MacBook Air, reports emerged that users were experiencing problems ranging from faulty logic boards to display issues. One issue, detailed on an Apple support thread, involved a flickering or frozen screen. It is not clear whether Apple's EFI firmware update specifically addresses this issue.
Despite scattered reports of issues with the MacBook Air, the laptop has continued to sell well, especially the 11-inch model. The $999 11.6 MacBook Air's ship times slipped from within 24 hours to 1-3 business days in the first week after its release.
One analyst predicted in October that Apple will sell 700,000 units of the MacBook Air over the holiday quarter.
Analysts tracking retail activity on Black Friday found that the 11-inch MacBook Air was "flying off the shelves" and a "customer favorite."
Comments
I for one will enjoy this because my 11" has never been "instant on". It is slower than my 13" MBP which is FAST, like all the Mac's before it being ready for a login when opened so I really never understood the "instant on" thing.
The ?instant on? Apple?s site and Jobs refers to is what typically was ?hibernation? mode, not simply ?sleep? mode.
For instance, when your system is in hibernation mode the contents of the RAM are written to a file of that size on the system storage drive. When you awake the machine this file is written to the RAM. This is faster than restarting and maintains all your apps as they were, but it still takes several seconds to read from the drive and write to RAM on all but the new MBAs. That?s the difference with new MBAs.
should be "or becomes unresponsive."
headline is "or becomes responsive."
should be "or becomes unresponsive."
It is correct in the "story" view but has yet to update in the forum.
The ?instant on? Apple?s site and Jobs refers to is what typically was ?hibernation? mode, not simply ?sleep? mode.
For instance, when your system is in hibernation mode the contents of the RAM are written to a file of that size on the system storage drive. When you awake the machine this file is written to the RAM. This is faster than restarting and maintains all your apps as they were, but it still takes several seconds to read from the drive and write to RAM on all but the new MBAs. That?s the difference with new MBAs.
I understand. However, my MBP 13" has always been faster in either situaiton. Update installed and we shall see now after a few days how fast it wakes. The first test went well. It came up within a second. I consider that normal. Use to, it was a 3 - 5 second process to see the login window from a wake from sleep. Egads!
I for one will enjoy this because my 11" has never been "instant on". It is slower than my 13" MBP which is FAST, like all the Mac's before it being ready for a login when opened so I really never understood the "instant on" thing.
well you are right in saying that because even my pbook 12" was almost instant on, but I guess the air takes that to a new level, and it does by saving a few seconds, or even miliseconds.
I for one will enjoy this because my 11" has never been "instant on". It is slower than my 13" MBP which is FAST, like all the Mac's before it being ready for a login when opened so I really never understood the "instant on" thing.
I've had no problems at all in the 7 days I've been using my new 11". And it is blazingly fast, especially when compared with my original MBA (February 2008).
The EFI took a few seconds more than 2 minutes to install...including reboot. Incredible.