It hasn’t been too long since Apple launched its eighth major release of its operating system, the Mac OS X Lion, but the company is already seeing over one million purchases and downloads. Available through the Mac App Store for USD$29.99, the company says that this is the fastest selling Apple OS in its history.

It’s not that surprising anyway that Apple can manage to sell so many copies of its latest OS every time it’s released, as a sour Windows user who can’t afford to upgrade to a newer version of Windows because they’re so expensive, Apple’s operating systems are so affordable. The Lion comes with 250 new features for its Mac devices such as Multi-Touch gestures, system-wide support for full-screen apps, Mission Control – an innovative view of everything running on your Mac, the Mac App Store, Launchpad, and a completely revamped Mail app.

“Lion is off to a great start, user reviews and industry reaction have been fantastic. Lion is a huge step forward, it’s not only packed with innovative features but it’s incredibly easy for users to update their Macs to the best OS we ever made.” – Philip Schiller, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing, Apple.

Do you notice anything above? New MacBook Air, new Mac Mini, and the Mac OS X Lion screen. But there’s also something missing. Looks like Apple may have dropped one important product from its store during today’s new product rush. It seems as if there may indeed be some meat to those recent rumors that the company is doing away with its white plastic piece of laptop goodness — at the very least, the thing is nowhere to be seen in its current online lineup. Apple has confirmed that the MacBook has, in fact, been discontinued. However, while the notebook will be discontinued for individual consumers, Apple will continue to make it available to educational institutions. Is the MacBook Air overshadowing its elder sibling, or is Apple up to something else?

The Mac mini is yet another Mac to be updated with Intel’s Sandy Bridge CPUs and Thunderbolt. The Mini saw its last update on June 15th 2010 so a refresh was widely expected and also a bit overdue in Apple’s traditional product lifespan cycle. There are no major chassis changes to the new Mac mini (sans the missing CD/DVD slot). Like the previous generation, there are three models: two consumer variants and a server. The Mac mini lineup has been like this since late 2009 when the server model was first introduced.

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Along with today’s MacBook Air and Mac mini updates, Apple has also updated their 27” Cinema Display. The display now goes by a new name: the Apple Thunderbolt Display (ATD). As the name implies, the display now features Intel’s new Thunderbolt interface, which Apple has heavily adopted in all new 2011 Macs. The ATD is world’s first commercially available Thunderbolt display and the second Thunderbolt device, the first one being Promise’s Pegasus enclosure.

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For ‘developers’ willing to shell out $99 for an annual membership in Apple’s group of Mac OS app creators, Lion is old news already. But the rest of you can finally download Apple’s latest operating system — Mac OS 10.7 — by hitting up the App Store on your Snow Leopard (10.6.8)-equipped Mac, assuming it’s powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, i5 or i7 processor.

The 4GB download could take over hours pending your Internet speed, even on a high-speed connection it may still take an hour, but once you have the installer in hand the upgrade process itself should be complete in about 20 minutes. As Apple previously announced, those with slower connections can also download Lion at an Apple retail store, and the company’s also now revealed that it will be offering it on a USB thumb drive as well, which will be available through its online store later this August for $69.

Those that are going to buy the new MacBook Air and Mac Mini will have them preloaded so don’t worry. Oh, and if you’ve bought a new Mac lately that has a purchase date after 6 of June, you can also redeem your free Mac OS X Lion from Apple’s redemption program.

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Finally, the highly anticipated update for the MacBook Air has arrived. No ARM processors, no new looks, just some speed bumps, Disney bolts, and trendy backlit keyboard. But that’s good, because that’s what we like about the MacBook Air. Oh yeah, Lion’s tagging along this time!

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According to “people with proven track records who would be in a position to know”, Mac OS X Lion and new MacBook Airs will arrive on Wednesday.

Both AppleInsider and 9to5 Mac claim that Mac OS X Lion will debut Wednesday after an overnight marketing fiesta in Apple retail stores. AppleInsider sweetens the pot by suggesting the new Sandy Bridge, Thunderbolt MacBook Airs will join OS X Lion at its big coming out party on July 20.

Trustable news? Well, get ready your credit cards, cause I know you don’t care!

[Apple Insider via 9to5mac]

Thanks to a leak on Apple’s own website, there’s evidence that Cupertino’s readying a formal introduction of Thunderbolt to more devices. Keen eyes from MacRumors have spotted products on the site now sporting OS X Lion backgrounds, notably, what appears to be T-bolt connected Cinema Displays. The images showing the hook-up no longer appear to be listed, but the dual-setup above sure looks nifty. Considering Lion’s got about two weeks left to rear its head and meet that July release, we’d surmise it won’t be long until you’ll be able to opt for a similar rig. Someone please tell Apple to include an anti-glare option ASAP!

SOURCE via Mac Rumors

We have heard that Apple has been testing prototypes of their MacBooks powered by ARM processors, but it seemed that it’s not as simple as we think. According to the ever-present “source with knowledge of the matter,” Taiwanese chipmaker, TSMC is gearing up to supply Apple with its next generation mobile processors.

Wait what? But we thought it’s supposed to be ARM? This round of speculation also comes just one year after TSMC began construction on its new $9.3 billion foundry, and teamed up with ARM — the brains behind Apple’s A5 processor.

Well, according to the apparently credible anonymous source, TSMC has already begun trial manufacturing on the chips and “has got all the authorization and details ready.” As you may already know, Apple’s current supplier of its A5 CPU is Samsung, and relations between the two have been rocky (at least in court). Of course all parties have declined to comment, which lands this report squarely in the grapevine for now.

SOURCE via Reuters

Did you know that your second-gen Apple TV has a Bluetooth radio hidden inside it? Wait, scrap that, did you know your second-gen Apple TV in fact can run 1080p contents? Right, let’s get back at the Bluetooth radio issue. Until now, the only way to access it was with a little jailbreaking and some command line chops. That could all be changing though, with the release of iOS 5 this fall. 9to5Mac pulled some interesting code from the latest developer beta of iOS indicating that support for Bluetooth keyboards is coming to the Apple TV and, potentially, the ability pairs other devices as well. In addition to making search without the iPhone remote app far less painful, a keyboard is an essential part of bringing apps to the tiny media box — something that has been rumored would happen for quite some time. It’s possible these capabilities will only be unlocked on some unannounced third-gen streaming device, but we’re hoping this will bring a little life to our still reasonably new iTunes boxes.

SOURCE via 9to5mac