Apple unveils new MacBook Air laptops, iLife '11 software suite

In a Wednesday media event, Apple Inc. released a new lineup of MacBook Air laptop batteries and the 2011 version of the company's iLife software suite. The "Back to the Mac" event also included a preview of Apple's forthcoming Mac OS X Lion operating system, to be released in mid-2011. Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the new products at the Cupertino, California event, saying the company has "been inspired by the work [it has] done on the iPad, and [it wants] to bring it back to the Mac." Apple has plans to import more features of its iOS mobile operating system to the Mac OS X operating system. Jobs announced today that the "Lion" release to OS X, which is scheduled for release next summer, will include more support for multitouch and a desktop version of the company's App Store. Jobs also announced that a beta version of FaceTime, Apple's IOS video calling application, would be available for OS X users immediately. "Lion brings many of the best ideas from iPad back to the Mac, plus some fresh new ones like Mission Control that Mac users will really like. In his keynote address Wednesday, Jobs announced the release of Apple's iLife '11 software suite, which includes the iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand programs.