Apple plans to release a new MacBook Air this year with USB 3.1 interface

In the early morning of January 7th, Beijing time, according to the US technology blog 9to5mac on Tuesday, Apple internal sources revealed that the company plans to release a new MacBook Air notebook product in mid-2015. This product will abandon standard configurations such as full-size USB ports, MagSafe adapters and SD card slots in order to provide users with a thin and light body and high-definition display.

Sources at Apple have provided details about the new model, which would be Apple's first major move into mobile Mac computing since the launch of the Retina MacBook Pro in 2012, the report said.

Sources say the 12-inch MacBook Air will be significantly smaller than the current 13-inch model and even slightly narrower than the 11-inch model. The new 12-inch MacBook Air will be about a quarter inch narrower than the 11-inch model, but will be a quarter longer.

In addition to the new design on the front, the entire unibody of the new model has been redesigned, from the keyboard to the trackpad to the speakers. The model adopts the design of the 12-inch PowerBook launched by late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs more than a decade ago, that is, the keyboard covers the entire width of the machine from edge to edge. In addition, the entire keyboard has been carefully redesigned, making each key closer together, in order to make the machine as narrow as possible.

Apple has also changed the position of some function keys and simplified the arrangement of the arrow keys, which is also to make the keyboard as narrow as possible without affecting the overall usability. In addition to the keyboard, the trackpad has also been changed. The trackpad of this new model is roughly the same width as the 11-inch MacBook Air, but it is obviously slightly longer and almost touches the bottom of the keyboard. In addition, the new trackpad will not have the click effect of the current and previous MacBook model trackpads, which is consistent with previous market rumors. This is to reduce the thickness to a minimum.

The new 12-inch MacBook Air is much thinner than the current 11-inch model, with a teardrop-shaped design that gets thinner from top to bottom.

The upcoming new model is so thin that Apple employees are rumored to call it the "MacBook Stealth." To improve portability, Apple has not only made design changes to the trackpad and speakers, but will also use a new USB Type-C port that is smaller and supports faster transfer speeds, making it more powerful than the USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports on existing models.

According to the latest rumors, this new MacBook Air will start shipping in mid-2015, likely around the time of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Other reports say the new model is close to production.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.