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First Look at the MacBook Air

redshift20 said:
Soo... a super thin laptop that does NOT have a optical drive? :rolleyes:

Who really cares? I'd rather have something 1/4" thicker that can read a DVD. Why is Apple so obsessed with thin? What I REALLY want is a laptop that I can jimmy a lock with in case I don't have a credit card handy. :confused:
Click to expand...


i rarely use the optical drive on my macbook. it just sits there causing more weight and space imo.

if it doesn't do what you want. fine. move along and stop complaining.

dAlen said:
First, to much space around screen.

Either have a bigger screen, or reduce the trimming around it to hug the 13 inch monitor. This reminds me of the 'fat' flat displays that were out in plastic version before they got a trim in the aluminum version.

People wanted a smaller footprint, and it could have happened if they just trimmed it a bit. (I am writing this on my powerbook G4 that has a nice thin trim around the monitor. I want the monitor not bulk on the side...especially if its portable.)

And how do I get my info off of my firewire DVD drive...oh, come on Apple, you pushed the fire wire standard...I wonder if its powerful enough to do any form of video editing, if so, firewire...firewire...firewire...ooops, forgot about that.

If it is truly a wireless machine that they claim it to be, they should have dumped the USB along with it. ;)

Peace

dAlen

not to mention I dont have anything that is wireless...not even a cellphone.
So I suppose I am still waiting for the macbook pro updates. :)

What is the big deal about 3lbs vs. 5lbs...not that much of a difference...not really.
Click to expand...

i agree with the firewire, should've included it, but oh well.

and two pounds is a lot when you're on a bike. or walking around downtown. or on a plane.
 
Who cares about the battery.

First off... if there is a problem with the battery and you have an Apple store nearby they can probably do a replacement same day. And that's if there's a physical problem with the battery.

Second off... It won't be long before one of the 3rd party guys comes out with a secondary battery that plugs into magsafe port to power this thing if you need extended play.

5 hours is a long time.

I've been on 10 hours flights and lemme tell you... I try and spend about 8 of them sleeping. And if I can't sleep? 5 hours is plenty long enough.

I think this is a fair trade off. However... if you don't live near an Apple store I'd be wary because of the prospects of mailing it in. So far, every repair I've needed has been handled same day or overnight (if I showed up after 5pm) by a local store, including full logic board replacements.
 
how can a site devoted to mac computers have soooo many people on complaining about an awesome new technology that we've just been introduced to??

so it's not YOUR perfect machine for everything YOU want to do. get over yourselves.

it's thin, it's fun, and it's revolutionary.

lets just enjoy it! :apple:
 
Battery

Well, I was pretty much all set to buy one, rationalizing in a twisted way.

However, no user replaceable battery is ABSURD and STUPID.

I will not get one just for this reason.

Jobs has created another Cube. A great form factor that no one will buy.
 
When you go this thin there are always compromises:

RAM expansion slots take up space
Battery housing and latching mechanism take up space
Optical drives aren't thin enough
Big ports like FireWire and Ethernet take up space

Apple decided to go for broke and make the thinnest, sexiest machine on the planet right now so some things had to go.

So, it's a toss up: you want thin you need to live with the engineering compromises, you want power and flexibility then you need a bigger housing.

The price is seems is pretty good considering what they've been able to achieve in terms of features. I never expected a backlit keyboard in something so thin! Apple's been able to reduce the size of the iSight to make things fit in such a slim display (I'm sure the move to LED backlighting helps here as well).
 
Feverish Flux said:
Sealed non user replaceable battery?

Soldered on RAM?

No ethernet jack?

$1799?

No thanks. :rolleyes:


It's an expensive, disposable toy.
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Ethernet jack doesn't bother me since it's got a dongle, but no RAM upgrade and no user replaceable battery are deal killers for me, unfortunately. That being said, it's a brilliant piece of tech and they'll sell a lot of them. But I really do need more than 2 gigs of RAM. Virtualization requires more.
 
redshift20 said:
Soo... a super thin laptop that does NOT have a optical drive? :rolleyes:

Who really cares? I'd rather have something 1/4" thicker that can read a DVD. Why is Apple so obsessed with thin? What I REALLY want is a laptop that I can jimmy a lock with in case I don't have a credit card handy. :confused:
Click to expand...

For $1799 you can get a faster 2.2GHz MacBook Pro with a much bigger 15.4" LED-lit display, with a DVD-R Superdrive, FireWire 800 AND a dual-link DVI port for driving a 30" display...with that nVidia 8800 card...

I just don't see the point in plunging the money for this one- it is a nice looking toy though.

Edit. Oh, and gigabit ethernet too :)
 
PDE said:
I think this seems like a great travel companion for light work. It definitely isn't an all-round multi media/communications center though:

- lack of ethernet port
- mono speaker -yuck!
- not replaceable batter - what were you thinking?
- Heat problem! I don't need to try one to know.


Otherwise light, beautiful and the multitouch will be marvelous.
Click to expand...


Oh, come on.

I'm not even a fan of the thing. But I highly doubt heat will be an issue. It has a 37W battery. My Asus W3J pulls ~20watts on battery.

For this thing to last 5 hours, 37W/5 = 7.4W. I'm quite sure they can passively dissipate 7.4W across a surface area of 8.94inx12.8in. I'm pretty sure it'll be alright.
 
redshift20 said:
Soo... a super thin laptop that does NOT have a optical drive? :rolleyes:

Who really cares? I'd rather have something 1/4" thicker that can read a DVD. Why is Apple so obsessed with thin? What I REALLY want is a laptop that I can jimmy a lock with in case I don't have a credit card handy. :confused:
Click to expand...

If you really need the DVD drive soldered onto your laptop, go with a Macbook or a MBP. Not a tough decision really. I don't think I've used my MBP's drive for a few months, and only then it was to burn a CD for a friend.
 
"Bowl" design reduces battery life?

From what I can see in the pics, designing the Air like a "bowl" cuts out on battery life. If it was more like a wedge, you could fit a larger battery. Especially with lithium polymer (as opposed to lithium ion), that can be made in near any shape. That would make me 3x times happier about the air. I am guessing that a wedge shape wasn't aesthetically pleasing though. Also, it might be harder to make a tool to punch out a wedge at those small dimensions.

Off topic, I applaud the removal of the optical drive. With the advent of online movie rentals now, and the cheap cost of USB sticks, I see no need to have an optical drive.
 
Firewire?

PlaceofDis said:
i agree with the firewire, should've included it, but oh well.

and two pounds is a lot when you're on a bike. or walking around downtown. or on a plane.
Click to expand...

What firewire device would you honestly want to plug into this thing? A camera? Sounds like you need a MacBook Pro. FireWire is a high performance need, not a portability one.

This thing doesn't have a fire wire for the same reason as an iPod. Let's face it, this is an iPod Laptop. A very nice one.

I just don't know if I like the price.
 
WardC said:
For $1799 you can get a faster 2.2GHz MacBook Pro with a much bigger 15.4" LED-lit display, with a DVD-R Superdrive, FireWire 800 AND a dual-link DVI port for driving a 30" display...with that nVidia 8800 card...

I just don't see the point in plunging the money for this one- it is a nice looking toy though.

Edit. Oh, and gigabit ethernet too :)
Click to expand...

The MBP is $1999, not $1799.

Superthin laptops usually run around this price, or even more. I think it's pretty fair.
 
Any word on an Apple PCMCIA adapter for wireless broadband cards

Without wireless broadband, this very pretty machine seems to be a non-starter for a lot of business users - myself included. Apple makes no mention of an adapter on their site so sadly it looks like any adaptors will be third party add-ons for the time being. Has anyone heard of any Apple plans for one?
 
I would have said I was the target market for this (2x powerbook 12" user, moved to macbook but wants a more polished machine) but I'm not interested.

The UK price is ridiculous (£1200 = $2400!, $4050 for the SSD!!), and the lack of firewire (I need it for external disk and audio interface), decent hard disk options and size of the bezel (the machine is the same size as a macbook) tip the balance.

I guess I'm wrong about being the target. I'll wait for the MBP update, there will be a small one of those (I know, unlikely). :)

Oh well.
 
Looks great, not sure how useful it is... it currently doesn't meet my needs (like the iPhone or AppleTV interestingly enough).

Seems odd, but there's nothing Apple I'd really say I'd want now (except for the Mac Pro I just ordered).
 
numbsafari said:
What firewire device would you honestly want to plug into this thing? A camera? Sounds like you need a MacBook Pro. FireWire is a high performance need, not a portability one.

This thing doesn't have a fire wire for the same reason as an iPod. Let's face it, this is an iPod Laptop. A very nice one.

I just don't know if I like the price.
Click to expand...

oh i would just want it for a fw external. not a camera at all. FW is so much faster for transfers that i'd prefer to use it. and i understand why its not there, and its okay. but it would've been nice. probably would've been nice to have too for an external burner, imo. or two USB ports.

the price is reasonable, considering the work put into it and the size. go look at how much sony's ultra portables cost. they're not cheaper
 
I love the design, wish the keyboard was silver instead of black but overall I love the design...not sure about the performance and I definitely wanted more than 80 gigs for this...I looked at the specs and it seem not to have the apple remote ...anybody got any ideas why??? I hope they would update their macbook line also. After all I may buy my first mac..
 
I like it. I'd buy it if I had money to spare. All the things you guys are whining about are a non-issue for me. If you want user expandability get a desktop, not an ultra-portable.
 
Interesting thought: I have an iPhone and even though the connectivity could be better it does all my mobile communication quite well. I think this makes the kind of laptop I'd want different...ie. I'm less likely to want a machine that's been limited this much.

If I didn't have the iPhone I'd probably be a lot more tempted and overlook some of the limitations.
 
Great Design but way too Expensive

This is just going to be like the Apple TV

for $200 more you can get a Macbook Pro

Macbook Air is limited in Power and Expandability.

5 hours of usage and no replacable battery.

Macbook is a better deal

Sorry to say this is like the Palm Folio
 
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