Their new MacBook Airs are now equipped with newer Sandy Bridge chips, Thunderbolt ports, and backlit keyboards. The 11-inch model includes a 1.6GHz Core i5 processor, 64GB of solid-state storage, 2GB of RAM, and starts at $999. The slightly larger 13-incher starts at $1,299 and includes a 1.7GHz Core i5 chip, 128GB of storage, and 4GB of RAM. Both variations have Intel HD 3000 graphics on board, as well as FaceTime webcams, two USB ports (SD slot on 13-incher), and of course the speedy Thunderbolt ports.

The Mac Mini line has received a similar internal upgrade with the addition of Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt. The base model starts at $599 and includes a 2.3GHz Core i5 CPU, AMD Radeon HD graphics, 2GB of RAM, 500GB of hard-drive storage, and Turbo Boost 2.0, which allows you to easily overclock to 3.4GHz whenever you’re using resource-intensive programs. Apple also released a server version, which will cost you $999 and includes a Core i7 processor and has Mac OS X Lion Server on board.

Mac OS 10.7 Lion is now available in the Mac App Store and is ready to be downloaded and installed onto your Snow Leopard-equipped machine for only $29.99. Upgrading to Lion requires that you have an Intel Mac with a Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, or Core i7 processor, and at least 2GB RAM and 4GB of hard drive space. You also need to have Mac OS 10.6.8 Snow Leopard installed before you can upgrade to Lion.

In other less-known Apple news, the company also rolled out an updated version of their 27-inch display that comes packing with Thunderbolt, built-in 2.1 speakers, and an HD FaceTime webcam. There’s also a FireWire 800 port, Ethernet, three USB ports, MagSafe charging for your MacBook, and a single DisplayPort that’s capable of daisy-chaining six devices. Oh, and did we mention that the display rocks an awesome 2560 x 1440 resolution?

If you have a keen eye, you might have also noticed while surfing the online Apple Store that the infamous white MacBook is now kaput. It looks like no more plastic for Apple.

The post Apple Updates MacBook Air and Mac Mini; OS X Lion Released first appeared on Techerator.

Once I logged in, the app was an absolute breeze to use and setup. CloudPull did its job perfectly. Once you download the app, there is no installation to go through. Instead, you just navigate to your downloads folder and drag the CloudPull app into your applications folder.

When you launch CloudPull, you will be asked for the username and password to the Google Account that you would like to back up. Enter your information and look below to find a few check marks that let you choose which Google services you would like to back up to your computer from the following list: Docs, Reader, Calendar, and Contacts.

Once you’ve submitted your choices, the app begins to work automatically, pulling all of your files from Google’s cloud and saving them into the app. From there, you can keep them stored within the app, which means they are saved in the following location by default:

[code lang=”bash”]

/Users/(Your Home Folder)/Library/Application Support/CloudPull/backups/

[/code]

Or you have the “Restore to file…” option that lets you save specific files to your hard drive in a location of your choosing.

Additionally, there is the Preferences panel which is accessible from the top menu bar: CloudPull > Preferences. In this area of the program, you can add multiple accounts that you would like backed up (as shown below).

There is also the Advanced tab where you can set a specific folder that you would like to have your items automatically saved. I changed mine to my Documents folder, for example, and created a “Google Back Up” folder within it so that it would be more accessible. The Advanced Tab is also where you can change the frequency of back ups, as well as the length of time that you’d like to store outdated files. Another option you have is to toggle whether or not you want CloudPull to start automatically when you first sign in to your computer and whether or not you’d like it to run in the background.

I highly recommend the CloudPull, especially if you don’t completely trust Google with all of your important stuff. It does exactly what it says it will and it does it very, very well.

The post Back Up Your Google Docs, Reader, Calendar and Contacts with CloudPull for Mac first appeared on Techerator.