How great is this to slip into your backpack instead of a heavy laptop? The debut of the one-pound iPad Air and MacBook Pro with sharper ‘retina’ display repeats a pattern of recent launches with improvements in existing lines rather than totally new products, and Apple shares fell 0.3 percent for the day. Apple said upgrades to its Mac operating system and iWork software suite, which compete with Microsoft Corp’s Excel, Word and other applications, will now be offered for all MacBooks and Mac computers. That brings Apple’s model of free system software upgrades on phones and tablets to the computer market, where Apple is still the underdog to Microsoft’s Windows.
