Apple announces next-generation 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display, ships today for $2199

Apple has just announced the next-generation Macbook Pro with a retina display. It goes along the rest of the Macbook line, but Apple is looking foward with this model: removing the optical drive to enable a laptop that's only 0.71 inches thick. The premiere feature, however, is clearly the Retina Display, which packs a a 2880 x 1800 screen into 15.4 inches, which adds up to 220 ppi.The new Macbook weighs under 4.5 lbs, making it the lightest Pro laptop Apple has ever produced. Phil Schiller called it "the most beautiful computer we have ever made." Its beautiful on the inside as well, with a quad-core Intel i5 or i7 processor, up to 16GB of RAM, and an Nvidia Kepler GeForce GT 650m GPU. Naturally, Apple is focusing on flash storage instead of a traditional hard drive, and will offer it with up to 768GB. Battery life is rated to 7 hours, and ports include an SD card slot, HDMI, USB 3, two Thunderbolt ports, MagSafe 2 and a headphone jack. It also has two microphones. Connectivity includes 802.11n for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0, but so far Apple has unfortunately not made mention of 4G connectivity being built-in. As with other Macbooks, it features a backlit keyboard and a Multi-Touch trackpad. Those hoping to swap in their own SSDs should probably look to the more traditional Macbook Pros — Apple notes that "By not purchasing standard parts, we can create a product that's more elegant and more efficient." That said, during the Keynote Apple showed off some of the design and manufacturing behind the next-gen Macbook Pro, including asymmetrically-placed fans for quieter operation. The new MacBook is shipping today, starting at $2199 for a model with a 2.3GHz quad-core i7, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. NEXT GENERATION MACBOOK PRO LIVEBLOG PHOTOS

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