My MacBook Air 11″ has been creaking a lot lately when I pick it up, the noise has gradually increased and I finally discovered the reason why: loose screws. I’m not sure what caused the screws to become loose, but I do bring my MacBook Air almost everywhere with me so this could be a gradual loosening from constant use and movement.

The solution is obviously to tighten them up again, but Apple now uses a more unique screw type, the pentalobe, which prevents your average household screw driver from working. Luckily you can buy a Pentalobe screwdriver on Amazon for $5 to a buck and considering they work on the iPhone 4 and MacBook Air, it’s not a bad purchase. The expense is further justified by the fact that it’s very hard to replace a single screw, so if you lose one you’d have to have to spring $50 for a full set from a company like iFixIt, who also sells the Pentalobe screwdriver for about $13 (image up top is from them too).

Moral of the story here: if you hear creaky sounds and squeaks coming out of a MacBook Air when it’s picked up, check the screws.

Can’t turn on your MacBook Pro or Air’s keyboard backlighting? No it’s probably not broken, it’s most likely the light sensor. If the ambient light sensor on MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models detects too much light, the keyboard illumination will disable itself and refuse to turn on, showing the above locked image instead.

You can force the keyboard illumination to turn back on by covering up this ambient light sensor, which is located directly to the left of the iSight/FaceTime camera on MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models:

If you look carefully at that area on the screens border, you’ll see tiny perforations where light is detected. Covering the sensor will enable the backlit keys to turn on, usually instantly, and you can then adjust the backlight as usual with the F5 and F6 keys.
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The middle of the Amazon Rainforest is probably the last place you’d expect to see a brand new MacBook Air, but that’s exactly what Chief Almir of the Surui people is using in his fight to protect the Amazon. The internet, a partnership with Google, and Apple’s flagship ultraportable MacBook Air, have enabled the chief to track the tribes territory and report illegal logging of their homelands:

His partnership with Google, which began in 2007, has enabled the tribe to create an online “cultural map” of the Surui with stories from the tribe’s elders that are uploaded onto YouTube, as well as a geographical map of their territory created with GPS — equipped smartphones from Google. In 2009, Google employees taught the Surui to use cell phones to record illegal logging on their land. Tribal members can now take photos and videos that are geo-tagged and immediately upload the images to Google Earth. Law-enforcement officials can no longer claim ignorance of the problem when evidence of the deforestation is publicly available online.

You can see a great video below showing more Mac use in the jungle, and the full photo, which was taken by Ivan Kashinsky and used in the story on FastCompany about some of the most creative people in business for 2011.

I find this interesting and impressive for a number of reasons, but focusing on the Apple aspect, it’s remarkable in and of itself that a MacBook Air has ended up in the depths of the Amazon jungle, let alone in the midst of the immense tropical heat, moisture, and humidity, and has become a tribes computer of choice.

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How’s this for a workstation? This telecommuting MacBook Air 11″ features a one-of-a-kind BMW laptop stand and charging station (get it, the motorcycle?), officially earning this submission an award for the ‘nicest MacBook Air Stand’. Try not to miss the view of Monument Valley either, what an awesomely unconventional Mac setup!

Thanks for sending this in Ulrich!

Sure, the MacBook Air 2011 can’t drive dual displays through Thunderbolt, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have two or even three external displays powered by the ultra portable if you get creative. The focus is on the MacBook Air here, but you can apply all of these solutions to any other Mac too.
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One of the more exciting features of the new MacBook Pro 15″ and 17″ and iMac series is that you can use dual external displays by daisy chaining them via the Thunderbolt port. Unfortunately, this ability is lost on the 2011 MacBook Air, due to the weaker Intel HD 3000 graphics chip and a stripped down Thunderbolt controller.

This was noticed by Anandtech, who points out the lightweight Thunderbolt chip, called Eagle Ridge, only supports a single DisplayPort channel compared to the dual channels in the larger Light Ridge chip:

Eagle Ridge is available in two form factors (normal and SFF) and is effectively half of a Light Ridge chip. That means you only get two Thunderbolt channels and one DP output. Apple used the small form factor version of Eagle Ridge in its new MacBook Air to cut cost and save on motherboard real estate.

While this may affect some purchasing decisions and direct a few users to the MacBook Pro line instead, not all is lost. The 27″ Thunderbolt Display with it’s whopping 2560×1440 resolution is a giant on it’s own and should be more than adequate to meet the needs of most users looking for external displays with their MacBook Air. Plus, Apple is openly advertising the Thunderbolt display as a docking station of sorts for the MacBook Air, since it brings FireWire, three additional USB ports, Ethernet, and a FaceTime HD camera.

And really, when we consider the heaviest MacBook Air is 2.9lbs and the benchmark performance is through the roof, can we really complain much?

In the market for a brand new ultralight Core i5 MacBook Air? Amazon is selling the 2011 base model 11.6″ model at a 5% discount, bringing the price down to $949.99 with free shipping included.

MacBook Air MC968LL/A 11.6-Inch Laptop (NEWEST VERSION) – $949.99 from Amazon

Specs of the base 11.6″ model include: 1.6GHz Dual Core Core i5 Processor, 2GB RAM, 64GB SSD, Intel HD 3000 graphics, backlit keyboard, Mac OS X Lion preinstalled

The 2011 MacBook Air benchmarks show just how fast these ultra portable Macs are, with the 2011 series coming in 2x faster than the 2010 models they replaced.

The first benchmarks for the MacBook Air 2011 refresh (released alongside Lion) are rolling in, and they show that the Intel Core i5 processor in both the 13″ and 11″ variation are screamers. How fast? Well, just check out the Geekbench scores, which for both models are at least double the speed of the 2010 Core 2 Duo’s they replaced. In fact, the new MacBook Air’s are so fast that the speed of the new 1.7GHz Core i5 13″ model is faster than the 2010 MacBook Pro 17″ that was a 2.6GHz Core i7, as ElectricPig says:

To put these benchmarks into perspective, the 2010 17-inch 2.67 GHz Core i7 MacBook Pro scored 5423. For [$999] the 11-inch MacBook Air offers a benchmark on par with last year’s [$2499] 17-inch MacBook Pro.

Undoubtedly some of the speed increase is due to the ultrafast SSD, but it also shows the new Intel Core i5 contained within the 2011 MBA refresh is a screamer.
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If the prospect of installing Mac OS X Lion isn’t your thing, you can try running Chromium OS on the MacBook Air instead. Chromium OS is the open-source version of Google’s Chrome OS, which is an operating system based almost entirely around the Chrome browser – you boot directly into a browser, and that’s basically it.

All hardware works with the exception of Bluetooth, but all the brightness, sound, trackpad, WiFi, and it is said to install on both the MacBook Air 11″ and 13″ models, and possibly even nVidia based MacBook and MacBook Pro’s. The major caveat? You lose OS X, so don’t expect to dual boot here.

We haven’t tested this ourselves and you’ll want to be sure you backup Mac OS X before proceeding because it’ll be overwritten. If you’re brave enough to give this a try, you’ll need a compatible MacBook Air, a 2GB+ USB stick, and the Mac OS X USB Installer key that comes with the MacBook Air.

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Update: Apple has confirmed the release date of Lion as July 20. MacBook Air ETA is yet to be determined.

Sick of 10.7 Lion and MacBook Air release date rumors yet? Us too, but as we enter into the second half of July we’re running short on time for OS X Lion to be released this month as expected. The good news is that when Apple sets a date, they almost always meet it (ignore the white iPhone 4), and the better news is AppleInsider says they have received word that Wednesday, July 20 at 8:30am ET is the magic time:

According to people with proven track records who would be in a position to know, the new product launches are set to occur later this week. Specifically, one person said the products would be released on Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.

A Wednesday release is slightly earlier than what WSJ’s AllThingsD reported last week, placing a “Thursday or Friday” timeline for the new hardware and software.

Refreshed MacBook Airs are said to include Intel Sandy Bridge Core i5 and i7 processors, 4GB of RAM standard, a starting storage capacity of 128GB SSD, and a return of everyones favorite backlit keyboard. It remains to be seen what GPU will be bundled with the refreshed MacBook Air, but most analysts expect it to be the Intel HD 3000 chip.

The same AI report says that Mac OS X 10.7 Lion was delayed slightly due to logistical issues with distribution through the Mac App Store, in addition to some unexpected problems with the Resumes feature. The GM build of Lion was released on July 1.