14 DAY TRIAL // Along with the release of its new Mac OS X version, namely 10.8 Mountain Lion, Apple announced the availability of a series of updated software for it, including MacBook Air SMC Update.
The new release for this app brings along Power Nap support for users running OS X v10.8 or later, along with a series of improvements for the OS X v10.7.4 devices.
In fact, there were two different flavors of the SMC Update made available for download, namely 1.5 for MacBook Air (Mid 2012) computers and OS X v10.7.4, and 1.6 for all MacBook Air (Mid 2011) computers. The latter is also recommended for OS X v10.8 or later machines.
Power Nap, which was officially introduced at WWDC 2012, provides Mac computers with the possibility to continue to perform various tasks while sleeping.
“The MacBook Air (Mid 2011 and 2012) and MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012) running Mountain Lion can use Power Nap,” Apple notes. However, the required SMC update was not yet released for MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012).
Some of the main functionality available through Power Nap includes receiving email messages, updates to contacts list (for changes made on other devices), calendar updates and invitations, and updates to notes that have been modified on other devices.
Additionally, Power Nap can perform other tasks, including:
- Reminders. Reminders updates with any changes you may have made on another device. - Documents in your iCloud account. iCloud pushes any edits you made to a document to your Mac notebook. - Photo Stream. Your Photo Stream updates with new photos from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. - Mac App Store updates. Your Mac notebook can download updates from the Mac App Store. - Time Machine backup. Your Mac notebook can back up while it sleeps. - Find My Mac. Locate a lost Mac notebook even when it’s sleeping. - VPN on demand. Corporate email updates securely. - Configuration profile. Macs in managed environments can receive configuration profile updates.
As soon as a user connects the portable Mac machine to a power source, Power Nap can start downloading software updates, perform backups with Time Machine, Spotlight indexing, or download software from the Mac App Store.
Apple also explains that all these actions are performed silently, with no sounds or lights being turned on on the Mac machine. Moreover, the company explains that users can easily switch Power Nap on or off in the Energy Saver pane of System Preferences.
Power Nap is turned off by default when running on battery, and it will close itself if the user turns it on, but the battery power drains under 30 percent. Additional info on Power Nap can be found on this knowledge base article on Apple’s website.
OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion can be found on Softpedia via this link. The latest MacBook Air SMC Update releases (v1.5 and v1.6) are available on this page.