Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G SSD upgrade boosts MacBook Air speed more than 3X

If you really want to turn your new MacBook Air out, OWC is offering up a new SSD upgrade option that promise up to 4X read/write performance (>500MB/s) over Apple’s factory installed SSDs. The SSDs, priced at $350 for 120GB and $600 for 240GB use a Sandforce 2200 controller.

    • Tier 1/Grade A Toggle Synchronous NAND
    • SandForce 2200 Series Processor
    • Offers nearly 4x factory SSD capacity.**
    • Compatible with 2011 MacBook Air
    • Utilizes 6G SATA bus in 2011 MacBook Air to deliver over 500MB/s data rate performance

In other OWC news, they mention that yesterday’s MacBook Pro update fixed lingering issues with the 6GB SATA port on the MacBook Pros (not to be confused with the 3GB Optical port.)

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iPhone 4S Review

Backing up claims of a next-generation iPhone with an iPhone 4-like form factor, Macotakara claims that Apple is set to debut an iPhone 4S with an ARM Cortex-A9 and an 8 megapixel camera. The ARM Cortex-A9 is the CPU foundation for Apple’s customized A5 processor in the iPad 2. The iPad 2′s A5 is a dual-core chip, but the report is unsure if the iPhone 4S version is dual core. Sources told 9to5Mac last month that Apple is already testing an iPhone 4 with an A5 chip with high-profile game developers and it is likely that the iPhone 4S’s A5 will be dual-core.

The report also says backs up claims of an iPhone with dual-mode support for CDMA and GSM networks. This has long been expected since our discovery that the Verizon iPhone 4 carries a Qualcomm Gobi chip; a chip that supports both CDMA and GSM networks. The unique part about the report’s claim is that it says the iPhone 4S will feature an integrated SIM card system. That means the card is not user replacable. Apple was rumored to be working on an integrated SIM feature for future devices, but this claim has since been shot down.

The report also adds that a full iPhone revamp – iPhone 5 – is expected in spring 2012. This may mean that Apple has not just changed their iPhone release cycles to September; the September new iPhone thing could just be a 2011 thing. That’s great news for anyone holding out for an all-new design.

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