It has recently come out with retina display, upgraded performance, keyboard, touchpad, etc. and a retina display. Unfortunately apple has removed the DvD drive to reduce the thickness. The thickness of the Mac Pro retina is equivalent to the thickest point of the Macbook Air. But all those features make the price tag go above 2K.
By "new", there could be more MacBook's coming out with higher processors but that's about the only thing that will change about them. If you are worried about buying a MacBook and then a new version coming out shortly after, don't bother worrying - if you need/want one, just buy it. To answer your questions; no. At least not one with any important changes.
yes
Macbook Air.
First thing you do is save your files to discs. Next, deauthorize you account from your old computer. Then, import your files to your new MacBook. Finally, authorize your account from your new MacBook.
The Apple Products that are coming out in 2014 [a.k.a. this year] is a larger iPhone, Larger iPad, maybe an iWatch, iTV, a hybrid 2in1 macbook Air with a touchscreen, and on and on etc. including new software.
A Macbook Pro is the best new Apple laptop. Ram is something that goes inside of the computer to make it run better. But yes, any Macbook would be good for a new user.
No.
Nope, the aluminum case on the new Macbooks are unibody, so they are not just the cover. You will have to buy the new unibody aluminum macbook to have that casing.
Right now, the Macbook Pro with Retina display is the best Mac laptop. It has a 2.6GHz (or 2.8GHz) quad core i7 Ivy Bridge processor with 8GBs if RAM which can be upgraded to 16GBs of RAM . It also has a very vivid and beautiful screen, with a resoulution higher the HD tv's. The mac pro retina also has 1GB of video memory and SSD drive for speedy transfers up too 80MB/sec but it doesn't have a dvd drive.
New Macs all have the same software installed. If you are referring to Garageband (See links below) then yes both the MacBook and MacBook Pro have it installed.
Yes. In fact, it is better than some MacBook Pros.
MacBook Air