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Many customers have been waiting for Apple to begin shipping its long-rumored updated MacBook Airs, bringing a significant performance improvement to the line with the incorporation of Intel’s Sandy Bridge platform. A number of reports had pegged the release for the June-July timeframe, but the June dates are essentially out of the picture now and Apple has been said to be holding the release until it can offer OS X Lion preinstalled on the new machines.

Chatter is now beginning to coalesce around a mid-July launch, and we’ve been hearing that Apple may be planning a MacBook Air launch for the third week of the month. AppleNApps seems to agree, with several sources there reporting that Apple plans to release the new MacBook Airs alongside OS X Lion on Tuesday, July 19th.

Sources have indicated to AppleNApps that Apple has an internal launch date of July 19th for Mac OS X Lion and a refresh of the MacBook Airs. This is the target date under which the company is currently operating, though both sources are indicating that things can change. Our sources have just seen indications, and can’t be entirely certain, but if everything goes according to plan there will be a new MacBook Air shipping with Lion starting July 19th.

That would coincide with Apple’s earnings announcement for the quarter just ending, providing the company with enticing discussion fodder for the conference call.

9 to 5 Mac also reports that it has been hearing Thursday, July 14th in the “rumblings” regarding a launch for Lion and new MacBook Airs, adding to the increasing consensus of a release right around the middle of the month.

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Apple has quietly posted a FAQ for Final Cut Pro X in response to the many questions and criticisms. (via 9to5Mac). The FAQ appears not to be linked from Apple’s main site, and has not yet been publicized.

Final Cut Pro X is a breakthrough in nonlinear video editing. The application has impressed many pro editors, and it has also generated a lot of discussion in the pro video community. We know people have questions about the new features in Final Cut Pro X and how it compares with previous versions of Final Cut Pro. Here are the answers to the most common questions we’ve heard.

The FAQ mirrors some of the same issues addressed in David Pogue’s article with responses from Apple product managers, but also gives a few more specifics.

Regarding importing from Final Cut Pro 7, Apple says that due to the many changes there was no way to “translate” old projects without losing or changing data. So, Apple suggests that users continue to use Final Cut Pro 7 for existing projects.

As for Multicam editing, Apple again promises that “it will” support it. The “next major release” will provide “great multicam support”.

Another feature they promise will be coming is export of XML. They say they “know how important XML export” is to their users and expect to add it to Final Cut Pro X. A set of APIs will be released in the next few weeks so that 3rd party developers can access the “next-generation XML in Final Cut Pro X”. Similiarly, OMF, AAF and EDL support should become available through 3rd parties once the API is available. One third party solution is already available for OMF and AMF export.

Finally, assigning audio tracks for export is promised for a “summer” update which will “allow you to use metadata tags to categorize your audio clips by type and export them directly from Final Cut Pro X.”

Final Cut Pro X was released just last week, but was met with significant complaints due to missing features. The rest of the FAQ provides some more details that may be of interest to professional video editors.

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Former Shake product designer Ron Brinkmann weighs in on Apple’s Final Cut Pro X release. The latest release of Apple’s video editing software has received much criticism from professionals due to absent features. Brinkmann was on the original team that developed Shake image compositing software prior to Apple’s acquisition of the parent company. Brinkmann continued to work at Apple from 2002 until 2007 as Shake Product Designer.

As Brinkmann explains, Shake was “entrenched in the top end of the visual effects industry” with most major motion pictures of the era using Shake in some fashion. After Apple acquired Shake in 2002 there was concern about the company not willing to cater to the market, and sure enough the entire software was end of life’d a few years later. Brinkmann bluntly sums up Apple’s attitude towards professionals:

And back then the same questions were being asked as now – “Doesn’t Apple care about the professional market?”

In a word, no. Not really. Not enough to focus on it as a primary business.

Brinkman goes on to explain that there are maybe 10,000 “high-end” editors in the world while the market for an easier to use more casual product is “at least an order of magnitude larger”. The market size, however, isn’t necessarily the only reason. Brinkmann offers an interesting anecdote about how the high end market tends to be 90% driven by product requests from the big customers. Apple doesn’t work that way:

After the acquisition I remember sitting in a roomful of Hollywood VFX pros where Steve told everybody point-blank that we/Apple were going to focus on giving them powerful tools that were far more cost-effective than what they were accustomed to… but that the relationship between them and Apple wasn’t going to be something where they’d be driving product direction anymore. Didn’t go over particularly well, incidentally, but I don’t think that concerned Steve overmuch…

Apple’s hierarchy is also described as one in which easily demo-able features tend to be easier to promote within the organization. He goes on to say that in the case of FCP, Apple would rather introduce more easy to use features for the broader audience even if it means pushing out some items for high end editors.

Still, he is complimentary of Apple’s products and describes them as an “incredible bargain in terms of price-performance”, but that “if you’re really a professional you shouldn’t want to be reliant on software from a company like Apple.” In the end, he says “your heart will be broken. Because they’re not reliant on you.”

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Released earlier this month by newPCgadgets, the iPad 2 Display Dock claims to replicate the Apple retail store iPad 2 experience by offering a clear acrylic display block for the latest iPad, holding the device at an angle in a sleek enclosure for ease of interaction.

In addition to the iPad 2, the dock also contains an upright docking station for holding an iPhone or iPod touch.

Now you can dock your iPad 2 and iPhone just like the professionals do at the Apple Store. The new iPad 2 Display Dock is designed out of high-quality clear acrylic and provides the optimum viewing angle for your iPad 2 while also docking your iPhone (or iPod).

Priced at $74.95, the iPad 2 Display Dock may not be for everyone, but it is an interesting product that appears to do a decent job of replicating the clean lines and aesthetics of Apple’s own product displays.

Google today announced the launch of Google Swiffy, a new Google Labs effort to produce a tool capable of converting Flash content to HTML5 for display on non-Flash devices such as the iPhone and iPad.

You can upload a SWF file, and Swiffy will produce an HTML5 version which will run in modern browsers with a high level of SVG support such as Chrome and Safari. It’s still an early version, so it won’t convert all Flash content, but it already works well on ads and animations.

Google has posted a small gallery showing examples of Flash content converted to HTML5 by Swiffy.

Earlier this year, Adobe released its own Flash-to-HTML5 converter known as “Wallaby”. Neither Wallaby nor Swiffy is yet able to handle advanced Flash animations for such content complex interactive games, but both companies are obviously looking for ways to make it easy to move Flash content onto non-Flash devices. As Google notes in its Swiffy FAQ, Wallaby is designed to produce editable code by reusing some of the Flash elements in the HTML5 result, while Swiffy’s focus is simply on presentation and yields a less-editable final product.

Over the weekend, we noted that one of the new features in the second beta of iOS 5 released to developers on Friday was the addition of native-style momentum scrolling for web apps, a key feature that will enable web app developers to easily make their apps feel much more like regular iOS applications.

Daring Fireball now points to this demo from @cpojer showing off how the new CSS property can be implemented on a web app. While the demo will only function properly for those with iOS 5 Beta 2 installed, it does show the momentum scrolling and an implementation of the “pull to refresh” functionality that has become increasingly common on native iOS apps.

While Apple may be working to quickly add new and restored features to Final Cut Pro X, EOSHD reports (via The Next Web) that Apple has begun issuing refunds to at least some customers complaining through the company’s customer service channels.

Here is an example of one such email a disappointed pro received from Apple:

“Moving forward, I understand that you are not satisfied with the app “Final Cut Pro”. I can certainly appreciate you would like a refund, and I would be more than happy to help you out with this today. In five to seven business days, a credit of £179.99 should be posted to the credit card that appears on the receipt for that purchase.

Please note that this is a one time exception because the iTunes Terms and Conditions state that all sales are final.”

A thread in Apple’s discussion forums reveals a number of other users who have successfully received refunds for their Final Cut Pro X purchases, although some customers have had to make several requests as part of their conversations with Apple support staff before being granted refunds.

Apple does not have a blanket return and refund policy for App Store applications, although the company has reportedly been required by law to offer one in Taiwan. Apple does offer refunds on a case-by-case basis, however, with customers having reported success gaining refunds for accidental purchases and other extenuating circumstances.

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Earlier this week, we mentioned that the first Thunderbolt-equipped peripherals had briefly appeared on Apple’s online store earlier this month, although they carried shipping estimate of several weeks out and were quickly removed.

Those products have returned today, with a set of four Thunderbolt-equipped RAID storage systems from Promise making their debut in the store and shipping within 24 hours. The new Thunderbolt RAID systems include the Promise Pegasus R4 in 4×1TB ($999) and 4×2TB ($1499) capacities and the Promise Pegasus R6 in 6×1TB ($1499) and 6×2TB ($1999) capacities. The R4 offers bandwidth of over 500 MB/sec, while the R6 offers over 800 MB/sec.

In order to provide connections to the drives, Apple has also released a new $49 Thunderbolt cable.

Thunderbolt technology supports blazing-fast data transfer with two independent channels of 10Gbit/s each. Use the Apple Thunderbolt cable to connect your Thunderbolt-equipped peripherals to your new iMac or new MacBook Pro.

Apple Thunderbolt cable can also be used for Target Disk Mode between two Macs that support Thunderbolt, or to use a new iMac as a display for a MacBook Pro equipped with Thunderbolt.

The new Apple Thunderbolt Cable is sold separately from the Promise Thunderbolt RAID systems, and ships within 24 hours.

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Over the weekend some newly leaked AT&T documents generated some interest about references to possible LTE-based iPads. iFans first wrote about the possibilities. The references, however, were rather vague and the dates were also in question. One of their own forum readers dug into the data further and found that the iPad references had nothing to do with LTE-support.

AT&T is migrating its’ iPad users (and actually has) to this new data billing infrastructure before its’ LTE launch – hence, “pre-LTE”. A lot of the information in the leak revolves around the core network – billing integration, new load balancers and other hardware in a datacenter (Bothell, Washington to be exact), as well as some information about their first LTE network deployment (in Redmond and surrounding areas) to start in July as a test LTE network.

He quotes the relevant segments in the leaked documents and sums it up: “they’re moving iPad traffic first over to this new billing and traffic shaping platform.”

So, no, the documents don’t give any evidence that AT&T is testing LTE-based iOS devices. Apple is certainly working on LTE support in the future, but previous rumors have placed them well into 2012.

Sony just announced a new ultra-thin 13.1″ notebook that integrates Thunderbolt in a unique way. Sony is offering a “Power Media Dock” which is an expansion module that connects to the laptop via an optical cable.

Featuring high-speed I/O data transfer based on the architecture codenamed ‘Light Peak’, Power Media Dock boosts graphics performance while adding numerous extra connectivity options. It includes an optical drive for even greater business productivity and satisfying HD entertainment. The module comes supplied with a stylish design-matched stand.

The notebook itself only contains an Intel HD Graphics 3000 GPU, while the external dock contains an AMD Radeon HD 6650M with 1GB of Video RAM. This allows the computer to gain extra graphics capabilities when connected to the dock. The dock can drive up to 3 additional displays beyond the notebook’s own screen. As noted by ThisisMyNext, Sony’s solution seems to be proprietary and based around a USB 3.0 connector as previously reported.

The possibility of such an external GPU has been discussed many times on our forums, and Sonnet previously announced an external PCIe 2.0 expansion chassis that would allow customers to add PCI expansion cards over Thunderbolt. It has been pointed out however that Thunderbolt’s available bandwidth is much lower than required by high end video cards, so this will only help in certain scenarios. Still, this shows some possibilities for expansion docking products for the MacBook Air or Mac mini after they get upgraded to Thunderbolt.

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