Apple updates: Retina display MacBooks and much more

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference is always an event to watch for exciting new product announcements. And this time, again, they have not let us down at all and revealed a number of great product updates.

Amongst others there will be a new MacBook Pro with a super high resolution Retina Display and USB 3.0. They also showed off the upcoming OS X Mountain Lion operating system for Mac as well as the next OS version for iOS devices, iOS6. An update to the Airport Express wireless router was announced too, together with a new iPad Smart Case, one that now covers both the front and back of the iPad.

New: MacBook Pro with Retina Display

This will be the lightest and thinnest MacBook Pro ever produced. It weighs just 2kg and features an ultra-high resolution 2880 by 1800 pixel, 220ppi, 15.4-inch Retina Display. Photographers will appreciate the fact that the screen should be much less reflective than the older models with glossy screens!

For connectivity the new MacBook hosts 2 x USB 3.0, HDMI, 2 x Thunderbolt and a headphone port and it supports 802.11n Wi-Fi as well as Bluetooth 4.0. Notably absent are an Ethernet and Firewire800 port. If you need those you can use the (new) adapters that connect these interfaces to the MacBook using the Thunderbolt port. An SD/SDHC/SDXC slot on the other hand is still present.

The new model can hold up to 16GB storage with up to a quad-core Intel i7 processor running at up to 2.7GHz. SSD storage option of up to 768GB can be ordered as well.

More information on Apple's website.

Updated: MacBook Pro 13-inch and MacBook Pro 15-inch

The 13 and 15 inch MacBook Pros have been refreshed and also include USB 3.0 as well as other improvements. Interestingly, the MacBook Pro 17-inch seems to have been discontinued.

More information on Apple's website.

Updated: MacBook Air 11-inch and MacBook Air 13-inch

The new MacBook Air models also get USB 3.0, and now feature a dual-core Intel i7 processor running at up to 2GHz as well as faster Graphics. Storage options are now up to 8GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage.

More information on Apple's website.

New: OS X Mountain Lion

Apple's next major version of the OS X operation system, Mountain Lion, is to ship in July as an App Store download for $19.99 (or the equivalent in your local App Store). New features include voice dictation in any application and better social media and iCloud integration.

More information on Apple's website.

New: iOS 6

Coming fall will see the next major update for Apples operating system for mobile devices. iOS6 will have improvements to Siri voice recognition and dictation, a new Maps app (not using googlemaps any longer), Facebook integration, and much more.

More information on Apple's website.

Updated: Airport Express

The new AirPort Express supports simultaneous dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi, transmitting at both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies at the same time. Meaning that no matter which band your wireless devices use, they’ll automatically use the best available band for the fastest possible connection.

More information on Apple's website.