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Apple reportedly working on 12-inch Retina MacBook and 4K display for release this year

Apple reportedly working on 12-inch Retina MacBook and 4K display for release this year

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Apple's OS X Yosemite is coming this fall, so it should be no surprise that the company is readying new hardware to go along with it. 9to5Mac reports Apple's current projects include a 12-inch MacBook featuring a pixel-dense Retina display and "a much thinner and slightly lighter aluminum body." The report says it's unclear whether the upcoming laptop will fall under the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro branding; there's a chance it may earn a new name altogether. Rumors about such a device are nothing new, as the MacBook Air's display is perhaps the only weak point in a laptop that Apple recently put back in the spotlight with a new ad campaign.

Cupertino hasn't forgotten about desktop users, either. 9to5Mac claims Apple is working on a 4K display, though admits it's not certain whether this will be a standalone monitor or something that instead finds its way into a future iMac all-in-one. These high-res Macs will be positioned "as a selling point for OS X Yosemite," according to the report -- once they eventually ship, that is. 9to5Mac says current plans call for both computers to be released in the third or fourth quarter of this year, not long after Yosemite's debut. The new OS is tentatively slated for release in late October, 9to5Mac says. (You can sign up for Apple's beta right now.) But hardware constraints could push the Macs designed to showcase Yosemite into 2015.