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Apple unveils new MacBook Air, gives Mac Pro sneak peek

The new MacBook Air, with up to 12 hours of battery life in the 13-inch model, goes on sale Monday, while the Mac Pro will hit the market later this year.

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Shara Tibken was a managing editor at CNET News, overseeing a team covering tech policy, EU tech, mobile and the digital divide. She previously covered mobile as a senior reporter at CNET and also wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. Shara is a native Midwesterner who still prefers "pop" over "soda."
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Watch this: Apple unveils new MacBook Air with improved battery life

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Apple on Monday updated some models of its PC line with faster processors and improved battery life.

During a keynote address at the company's developers conference, Phil Schiller, Apple's head of marketing, unveiled a couple of new versions of the MacBook Air laptop and also gave developers a sneak peek of an updated Mac Pro desktop PC.

The new MacBook Air models are available Monday and start at $999. They include Intel's fourth-generation Core processor, dubbed Haswell, as well as a faster Wi-Fi known was 802.11ac.

Battery life is an area with significant improvement. The 11-inch MacBook Air now has nine hours of battery life, up from five in the previous generation, and the 13-inch will have 12 hours, up from seven in the earlier model. Apple didn't mention a possible Retina MacBook Air.

The Mac Pro, meanwhile, will include a new Intel Xeon processor and come standard with dual AMD workstation discrete graphics processors. It also will support 4K, ultra high-definition displays out of the box, and the system is only one eighth the volume of the earlier Mac Pro.

"Can't innovate anymore, my ass," Schiller said during the keynote address at WWDC.

The Mac Pro will be available later this year and will be assembled in the U.S.

Apple's new Mac Pro, which is much smaller than the current generation, will launch later this year. James Martin/CNET
Apple currently is hosting its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. Among the expected announcements is an update to its mobile operating system and a new radio service.

Several computers in Apple's Mac line have been due for an update. The Mac Pro, one of Apple's most expensive products and one favored by creative types, hasn't had a full-blown update in years. And an annual update for the MacBook Air also has been expected.