Macbook Air New laptop from apple.

[galexcd 0]

As some of you may know the macworld expo was today, and as even less of you know I work at an apple store in california, and it was quite a sight watching all the employees and customers huddled around computers as live updates from bloggers at the expo were flying in. So anyway the biggest new announcement in the keynote was the new laptop: The Macbook Air. The world's thinnest notebook.

So anyway some quick numbers for those who care: .76 inches high 12.8 inches wide 3 pounds Ports: Micro-DVI (capable of composite, s-video, VGA, and DVI video out) 1 usb port Headphone/Audio out

Here is the ad:

You can get it in an 80 gig traditional harddrive or a 64 gig solid state harddrive

 

 

The Good:

It's absolutely amazing. Those who haven't seen the ad I've linked to go back and see it. How they can fit a processor, hard-drive, memory and all that other good stuff in that tiny thing is beyond me, and your not sacrificing anything for it either. It comes with 2 gigs of memory, and you can get up to 1.8 GHz which isn't that great compared to other mac portables like the macbook pro but certainly is better than some other laptops on the market.

 

It comes with a built in iSight too which is great. When they first put them in the iMacs i was amazed that they could put a webcam in that small thing and then when they fit them in the Macbooks and Macbook pros I was even more amazed but this is the thinnest of them all.

 

Another cool feature is the multi-touch trackpad. Apple has had something similar with its other portables, with two-finger scroll, but this lets you zoom and rotate just by using your fingers on the trackpad.

 

 

The Bad:

Now as much as I love sleek ultra-portable laptops I must say this is not for me. For one thing is the lack of a cd drive. I completely understand that it was hard enough putting all of that in the laptop that thin but this just seems like a hassle to me. They have a few solutions but they are not as convenient as having a CD drive. One is an external drive that costs $99, but lugging around extra stuff defeats the purpose of an ultra thin laptop. The other is if you have another computer (mac or pc and I'm not sure about linux) you can put your cd or dvd in that drive and the macbook air can read and install software off of it. Now I besides the fact that they probably couldn't fit it in there I think I see another reason behind this. Apple (as well as almost all computer companies) are going away from physical media. They are trying to make CDs/DVDs a thing of the past. Apple announced that you can now rent movies directly from the iTunes music store. I think they want to have everything soon be streaming off the web instead of a physical copy.

 

Another annoying part is the lack of ports. It has no firewire, no audio in, no ethernet, no sd card expansion slot (or whatever those things are called) which are on the macbook pro's, and only one usb. Now the one usb is OK because if you have something that ultra-portable you don't want all kinds of devices plugged into it, but I would have liked to have seen at least a firewire port to access some firewire external drives. Although you can access one by plugging it into another computer and accessing it wirelessly this makes it much slower than firewire actually is.

 

Also, you can't access the battery. It is built in. Apple has said that batteries will cost $125 and it will be free for the battery to be replaced, but there is still the hassle of bringing it into a mac store and having the battery swapped out.

 

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SO... all in all I think this is an amazing laptop for those who want something portable. Those who are always bringing their laptop around with them and just need a computer to use on the go, even for processor intensive uses, such as some gaming and perhaps some video editing, but if you are looking for a laptop to use as a replacement for a desktop this is not it. If you have any comments go ahead and post them...

Edited January 16, 2008 by alex7h3pr0gr4m3r (see edit history)

[Dooga 0]

Apple has recently introduced the MacBook Air in MacWorld 2008. It claims to be the thinnest laptop in the world. However, I have some comments:

 

First of all, it lacks an Optical drive. While some people say that it might be a good idea to start phasing out unnecessary hardware, I think it is too early to remove the optical drive, especially since so many people still burn DVDs. You can connect a USB adapter to solve this problem.

 

Second, it has no Ethernet cable. Again, it might be obsolete, and most people use Wireless networking, some places still need the Ethernet cable. This can be solved with a USB adapter. Because of the product's curves, there aren't flat spots on the side for ports, as there are on existing Mac laptops. On the left side, near the back, is a slightly recessed space on the MacBook Air's underside with a MagSafe power connector.

 

PC World says that "at the risk of sounding obvious, the MacBook Air is incredibly light and tiny. Its looks owe a lot to the MacBook Pro and previous silver Mac laptop models, but its curved edges and tapered shape are unlike anything we've seen on a Mac laptop in a long time, if ever." It seems like the MacBook Air has focused a lot on design.

 

Also, the MacBook air has pretty low specs. It only has 1.6ghz Intel Duo Core, when most laptops are already above 2.0ghz. It has 2GB of RAM, which isn't THAT bad. It also has only 80GB of harddrive space. You can extend it with an optional 64gb SSD drive, but that costs 1000$.

 

The worst thing is that the MacBook Air costs 1799$ for the cheapest version. This is in my opinion, a large ripoff.

 

Overall, for the first day, MacBook Air has not been doing very well. Apple's stock dropped quite a few points today.

 

References: http://www.pcworld.com/article/141398/article.html

Notice from jlhaslip:

Merged per Report

[strange-garden 0]

Apple has recently introduced the MacBook Air in MacWorld 2008. It claims to be the thinnest laptop in the world. However, I have some comments:

 

First of all, it lacks an Optical drive. While some people say that it might be a good idea to start phasing out unnecessary hardware, I think it is too early to remove the optical drive, especially since so many people still burn DVDs. You can connect a USB adapter to solve this problem.

 

Second, it has no Ethernet cable. Again, it might be obsolete, and most people use Wireless networking, some places still need the Ethernet cable. This can be solved with a USB adapter. Because of the product's curves, there aren't flat spots on the side for ports, as there are on existing Mac laptops. On the left side, near the back, is a slightly recessed space on the MacBook Air's underside with a MagSafe power connector.

 

PC World says that "at the risk of sounding obvious, the MacBook Air is incredibly light and tiny. Its looks owe a lot to the MacBook Pro and previous silver Mac laptop models, but its curved edges and tapered shape are unlike anything we've seen on a Mac laptop in a long time, if ever." It seems like the MacBook Air has focused a lot on design.

 

Also, the MacBook air has pretty low specs. It only has 1.6ghz Intel Duo Core, when most laptops are already above 2.0ghz. It has 2GB of RAM, which isn't THAT bad. It also has only 80GB of harddrive space. You can extend it with an optional 64gb SSD drive, but that costs 1000$.

 

The worst thing is that the MacBook Air costs 1799$ for the cheapest version. This is in my opinion, a large ripoff.

 

Overall, for the first day, MacBook Air has not been doing very well. Apple's stock dropped quite a few points today.

 

References: http://www.pcworld.com/article/141398/article.html

I don't think the specs are THAT bad lol, but for that price, I'd want something a little better. I would only buy it if it had more than two USB ports. The thing with apple is, they get so excited about how they've designed something revolutionary and don't fix the hardware issues until they know the device is going to sell, then they release upgraded versions. Kind of reminds me of the iPhone...

[Saint_Michael 3]

Well first off what a waste of money it is as it's like giant, expensive router with limited features. Of course looking at the specs this laptop hardware design is like 5-6 years old mixed with 3 year old technology with a little bit of whats needed now. Basically what I am saying is that they have a slow processor with a dual core processor with 2Gbs of RAM that is practically needed to run any current system smoothly. However, I think with the phasing out of certain hardware I think its more along the lines of taking it out of the computer and then just connect it externally like hard drives, floppy drives, and I do believe optical drives as well. Either way I think Apple is going to get hit hard by this flop and if does become a successful machine well then kudo's for them.

[galexcd 0]

Well first off what a waste of money it is as it's like giant, expensive router with limited features. Of course looking at the specs this laptop hardware design is like 5-6 years old mixed with 3 year old technology with a little bit of whats needed now. Basically what I am saying is that they have a slow processor with a dual core processor with 2Gbs of RAM that is practically needed to run any current system smoothly. However, I think with the phasing out of certain hardware I think its more along the lines of taking it out of the computer and then just connect it externally like hard drives, floppy drives, and I do believe optical drives as well. Either way I think Apple is going to get hit hard by this flop and if does become a successful machine well then kudo's for them.

I'm not quite sure if this is going to be a flop or not. I would bet not. Alot of people just want an ultra-portable for just surfing the net, notetaking, and perhaps some other activities. It may not be for people who are gamers or graphics designers but for an average computer user I think it will be a major success.

Overall, for the first day, MacBook Air has not been doing very well. Apple's stock dropped quite a few points today.

Oh and that would have nothing to do with the mba seeing as it doesn't even ship out to the apple stores until february.
Edited January 18, 2008 by alex7h3pr0gr4m3r (see edit history)

[lemonwonder 0]

Personally, I do not like this. Once you have plugged in your USB printer, there is nothing else that you can plug in, eg.. you want photos from ur fone and u cant have both plugged in, so u have to put fotos from fone on THEN start printing em all, when it could take nearly half the time. Also, is it slow.... there no way that it could be as fast as a normal laptop. And maybe there would be issues with it being so small, is it weaker than normal ones.... I personally would go for a normal laptop. The worst con is that it doesnt have windows :)

[budsu 0]

just got the spam mail in all my mails about the mac book i dont think is that great but finally mac came up with good looking laptop

[Saint_Michael 3]

Well gee thanks for copying my topic 15 mins after I post it... And you get all the replies pshh..

I'm not quite sure if this is going to be a flop or not. I would bet not. Alot of people just want an ultra-portable for just surfing the net, notetaking, and perhaps some other activities. It may not be for people who are gamers or graphics designers but for an average computer user I think it will be a major success.

Oh and that would have nothing to do with the mba seeing as it doesn't even ship out to the apple stores until february.

Well ok I can't say it will be a major flop since it just came out, but after reading an article on yahoo a few minutes ago about why they believe optical drives will be phased out would make sense. However, I got curious and went to the website and see what kind of customizations that most likely everyone would get, and I all I have to say the price tags rival alienware computers.

 

So here what the computers will look like after customization:

 

$1799 Version

1.80GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

80GB Parallel ATA Drive @ 4200 rpm

Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive

Apple Cinema Display (20" flat panel)

Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English

Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter

Apple USB Ethernet Adapter

Apple USB Modem

Canon PIXMA iP3500m Photo Printer

Accessory kit

 

Final Price Tag $3,023.95

 

$3,098.00 Version

 

 

1.80GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

64GB Solid State Drive

Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive

Apple Cinema Display (20" flat panel)

Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English

Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter

Apple USB Ethernet Adapter

Apple USB Modem

Canon PIXMA iP3500m Photo Printer

Accessory kit

Final Price Tag $4,022.95

 

Now granted I expected these computers to be expensive but for what they offer though they shouldn't be this expensive, and the only reason why the other computer starts at $3098 is because of the SSD hard drive which is even smaller then the $1799 computer, but due to how new SSD is you can't argue about it that much. Of course I wouldn't be surprise if they pull an Iphone and drop the price in 2 months , but I know that won't happen again **crosses fingers***.

 

Personally, I do not like this. Once you have plugged in your USB printer, there is nothing else that you can plug in, eg.. you want photos from ur fone and u cant have both plugged in, so u have to put fotos from fone on THEN start printing em all, when it could take nearly half the time. Also, is it slow.... there no way that it could be as fast as a normal laptop. And maybe there would be issues with it being so small, is it weaker than normal ones.... I personally would go for a normal laptop. The worst con is that it doesnt have windows :)

You can install windows on a Mac computer

[rvalkass 5]

Finally Apple appears to have grown out of the idea of calling everything an iProduct! The name still makes very little sense, but at least it doesn't begin with 'i' and have capitalisation in the middle.

I watched Apple's video introduction to the Air this morning. To me, there are some design and usability decisions they have made that just seem ludicrous. For example, just having one USB port. That's fine if you are always on the move, but I have lots of USB devices that I have plugged in pretty much permanently, and it would be annoying having to switch between my printer, scanner, mouse, etc.

On the iBook, the slot-loading optical drive was a great move, but removing it altogether just seems stupid. Yes, there may come a point when optical drives go the way of the floppy drive, but that point is not now! The lack of an ethernet port is also a startlingly weird move. It's not as if ethernet is no longer used, or that wireless connections have caught up in terms of speed, reliability, security and ease of use. I dread to think what went on in the meetings to result in these major defects.

Also, they are doing nothing to brush off the "ridiculously expensive" label that Apple have always had over any other product. The base prices are Ł1,200 or just over Ł2,000! With hardware prices spiraling downwards, the last thing Apple needs to do is throw a Ł2,000 base price laptop into the market.

The worst con is that it doesnt have windows :)

Don't you mean the biggest advantage is that it doesn't have Windows? I have never been a great fan of the Apple OS, and the hardware/design choices they made here are just frightfully bad.

[serverph 0]

if apple leads the innovation bandwagon, what we'll all be seeing in advances in laptop technology could only be much better in the near future. i'm still waiting for bill gates' PC which is as thin as a newspaper and can be rolled up for his envisioned portability... but until this point in time, still a vaporware. at least apple trudges in the direction which will become the wave of the future in terms of computing portability. of course, cost versus features will always be highly debated, and there will be shortcomings in features and pricing which it needs to overcome. nevertheless, apple has a ready market for its products... and non-apple users will simply take notice of the macbook air. apple products are much more costly, since it is a highly respected brand, and it lends a sense of belonging with the elite mac clique which apple has fostered and nurtured through the years. any prospective buyer will have to weigh the benefits of the macbook air vis-a-vis their personal needs and see if it can meet their requirements. the biggest issue for the product is portability, and it does not fail to deliver in that respect.

 

if someone gets one for a gift, and don't want it, i can take it off your hands! i'll even pay for shipping and handling. lolz!

 

IN OTHER NEWS: Apple Introduces Manila Case—The World's Thinnest Notebook Case

[galexcd 0]

The worst con is that it doesnt have windows :)

I wouldn't consider that a con... more of a pro, but as SM said you can dual boot windows on it since its an intel chip.

Finally Apple appears to have grown out of the idea of calling everything an iProduct! The name still makes very little sense, but at least it doesn't begin with 'i' and have capitalisation in the middle.

The letter "i" first stood for internet. It came about because way back when the old first gen iMacs were so easy to connect to the internet (trust me that was a big thing at the time) because they were all in one and had a built in modem so you just plugged in the power and the phone line and your set. I think the "i" just kind of stuck, but this isn't the first product without it. None of their new intel laptops have it. Macbook, Macbook Pro, and Macbook Air

Personally, I do not like this. Once you have plugged in your USB printer, there is nothing else that you can plug in, eg.. you want photos from ur fone and u cant have both plugged in, so u have to put fotos from fone on THEN start printing em all, when it could take nearly half the time.

I'm sure if you can lug that huge printer of yours everywhere you go you can afford to cary one tiny usb hub.

just having one USB port. That's fine if you are always on the move, but I have lots of USB devices that I have plugged in pretty much permanently, and it would be annoying having to switch between my printer, scanner, mouse, etc.

Well Like I said this isn't a replacement for a desktop. It's designed to go along with a desktop computer. Plug all those accessories into your desktop!

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Also a quick note about it perhaps being a flop: The second Jobs announced it (before we even knew what it was) our apple store was getting tons phone calls asking if we had it.
Edited January 16, 2008 by alex7h3pr0gr4m3r (see edit history)

[strange-garden 0]

Personally, I do not like this. Once you have plugged in your USB printer, there is nothing else that you can plug in, eg.. you want photos from ur fone and u cant have both plugged in, so u have to put fotos from fone on THEN start printing em all, when it could take nearly half the time. Also, is it slow.... there no way that it could be as fast as a normal laptop. And maybe there would be issues with it being so small, is it weaker than normal ones.... I personally would go for a normal laptop. The worst con is that it doesnt have windows :)

That's why usb hubs were invented, honey.

[Absolute Zer0 0]

Personally, I think it looks nice, and it'd be something really fun to show off, but... I'm worried I'd break it, it looks SOOOO thin, it looks like you could snap it in half with your thumb and pointer pinched together as hard as you can! And what if you stepped on it, or dropped it, no chance it would survive those things! I'd be too scared to so much as rest my wrists on it, let alone carry it wherever I go, which, if I'm not mistaken, is the whole point of portability! Now don't get me wrong, it looks really cool! But I'm an accident magnet, and I don't think me and this computer would get along...

[Watermonkey 0]

I don't know of any consumer laptops that would reliably survive being stepped on or dropped. I own and use a Macbook Pro that's about 17 months old according to my battery health monitor, Coconut Battery, and it's puttering right along with no issues. I should add a Gig of RAM one of these days, but otherwise, I can't complain. I sure wouldn't drop it, though, and expect not to have to replace part of the casing or something else. The hard drive parks its heads when the computer detects a sudden change in velocity, though, so it'd likely survive a fall, as long as it wasn't too far. The sensor for that feature is so sensitive, someone created a small software program to detect seismic disturbances using the velocity sensor. I can watch the needle bounce when I walk around the room when running that program. Called SeisMac, I believe. The problem with Macair, for us who have limited resources, is it is dependent upon you having another computer, a whole Macintosh computer with optical drive and WIFI in order to upload software. It uses software included in Leopard to allow it to easily commandeer the optical drive of a host computer. That means, not only do you have to pay a premium for the tiny thing, you have to have another newer Mac to host it. I don't have the budget for that kind of nonsense. I'll stick to my MBP, thanks.

[rayzoredge 2]

 

Have you ever heard of the ToughBook series by Panasonic? Now that's something that I wouldn't mind owning.

 

As for the Mac Air, to me it's just another Apple product: sleek, slim, maybe innovative, and of course the thing to have because it screams out "TRENDY! FASHIONABLE! MAKE THIS A PART OF YOUR iLIFE!" One of these days I'm going to have to own an Apple, but at the same time, the price for most of their products are enough to keep me away.

 

With the Mac Air, your money goes towards the completely-flat design and the fact that it's only 3 pounds. (Then again, there are other laptops, albeit not as thin, that weigh about the same or even less.) This is the chief selling factor that Apple has going on their site... and really, that's the only thing that you should expect of this laptop for the price that you'll be paying.

 

The few things I like about this laptop that Apple has done right include the integration of components (again, design wins) and the multi-touch pad. That's unfortunately about it. Looking at the specifications for this laptop, it doesn't look like you could do much with the laptop unless you were the general consumer that does nothing much but word processing, surf the Internet, e-mail, chat, and anything else that's not too CPU-intensive. I have a computer with similar numbers as far as the processor and RAM and I can run Photoshop CS3 without too much of a problem, but using it to create movies with as simple of a program as Movie Maker (you can shoot me later ) was doable, but slow. If what Apple elitists say is true about Mac OSX and Leopard actually utilizing hardware to its full potential, I wonder to what extent that it is better. But compare a $700 tablet PC running Windows XP and Ubuntu 7.10 to a $1800 thin form factor Macintosh which may be equal to or lesser than my tablet PC...

 

We won't really talk about the price of upgrades...

 

You do the math.

 

Now, one thing worth mentioning when it comes to bumping the price up to $3098 is the 64GB SSD. Even though it is an entire $1300 just for a processor upgrade (adding 200MHz... which we all know makes a negligible real-world impact nowadays) and the SSD, it is a jump towards solid state drive technology. It is very expensive, but at the same time operates on a much larger performance boost than the traditional platter hard drives. Thus, the race with RPM dwindles down with the advent of SSD, but not until SSD becomes more affordable.

 

With the advent of new technology come new problems.

 

The way a SSD works is that it is comprised of what we traditionally know as RAM. RAM loses its data when it is no longer powered by electricity, clearing it for its next usage when the computer is turned on again. This means that there is a small rechargeable battery that constantly provides electricity to maintain the integrity of your data. The reason why SSDs are faster than traditional HDs lie within the fact that there are no moving parts. Keep in mind that, as I've learned now, SSDs are not as much faster than their HD counterparts, and combined with the right hardware, can even seem unnecessary (with the justification of price). Source

 

Also, whereas there is an average MBTF of 3 to 5 years for a hard drive, there is a wearout expectancy for a solid state drive. Apparently, it's good enough so that you won't have to worry about it, as the SSD will potentially last longer than you will live (depending on how frequently you read/write data over the life of the drive). Source

 

Another good thing about SSDs vs. HDs is the lessened power usage. (How this works out, I'm not sure... I'm guessing it takes more power to move a head around?) This figure can be up to 10% in lessened power consumption. Source

 

I don't see this going anywhere other than being the talk of the Mac community and seeing spoiled or rich kids flaunting the darn thing around high school or college. The price tag just doesn't fit with the product itself, which is underpowered for the stereotypical multimedia usage that most people know Macintosh computers "excel" at.