First Look at the MacBook Air

[ZLurker]

Nice idea, i can see lots of people having to take out Applecare (how much will that be!!) just for a simple reinstall that you could do by yourself!

If you dont have faulty hardware, i think you can do a clean install from a borrowed cd/dvd drive on wifi.
I have asked about this earlier in this thread but I got no answer yet.

 

[captain kaos]

If you dont have faulty hardware, i think you can do a clean install from a borrowed cd/dvd drive on wifi.
I have asked about this earlier in this thread but I got no answer yet.

As someone else said the the wi-fi might be switched on early on the install process so it might work over wi-fi. Lets hope thats the case eh!

 

[takao]

You're referring to a wired ethernet, which operates faster than 802.11b/g wireless, which are also affected by other radio signals which impede its ability to transfer at consistent data rates.

Only recently have wireless networks got up to sufficient speed to provide a reliable data stream from a CD or DVD drive. Try installing something from a shared optical drive over 802.11b wireless from 5 years ago. Good luck.

well that was not the point .. my comment was directed towards "and second by debuting this "Remote Drive" function, which Lenovo certainly doesn't offer." which simply said is wrong

oh and i have also installed software through G networks already wirelessly ... the problem isn't raw bandwidth mostly but the increased latency for each individual file

 

[Derwood]

If you ask me...

...I think the reason that this last MWSF keynote has caused such a flurry of empassioned responses is simply this: the product line-up as it now stands is really quite confusing, and there are an increasing number of inexplicable incongruities across the various Mac models and devices.

For the sake of staying on topic, lets restrict the discussion to the notebook line-up.

Apple have constructed a line-up where the most easily upgradeable model is their consumer notebook: the MacBook. RAM upgrades are a cinch, an HD replacement/upgrade is too. Both can be done in a matter of minutes. And, when the time comes, it's easy enought to get a replacement battery. All, without invalidating your warranty or causing problems with any extended AppleCare you might have (just so long as you're careful with any upgrades you do).

While the MacBookPro packs a whole host of advantages over and above what you get with your MacBook (2 size options, Hi-Res display option, backlit non-chicklet keyboard, dedicated GPU, ExpressCard slot, FW800 and, if you want to pay for it, a CPU that's a smidgen faster than your top-end MacBook), but it's a darn sight more tricky to upgrade the HD, and if graphics or gaming aren't your focus then perhaps that narrows the margin a little between the two products. Hmmm... and if you want a Pro in a form factor less than 15", well, simple fact is: you can't have one. Not even with the introduction of...

The MacBookAir. Harumph! I'll put my hands up right from the off and admit that there are probably considerations relevant to the target demographic that are totally wasted on me. It isn't a MacBook or an MBP. That much is for certain. While I think the cries of "Cube 2" might be a little premature, I find the feature set absolutely bewildering.

No Firewire on an Apple notebook: immediately knocks out those who might want an ultra-portable for on the move audio/video editing. Strategically, with USB 3.0 on the horizon and the prospect of the regular-as-clockwork interface wars between that and whatever the next flavour of Firewire turns out to be, it seems a little shortsighted. Fair enough, USB 2.0 is ubiquitous by comparison but even so... for the future of Firewire this is not sensible positioning.

Coupling a 4200rpm drive with a Core2Duo processor? Putting the cart before the horse: I just can't believe it's worthwhile having an 800mhz frontside bus, 2gb ram, and either a 1.6 (...6?) or 1.8 (...3?) ghz Core2Duo being served by a 4200rpm drive. Doesn't make sense. If you want the best performance out of the processor you've got to bite the bullet and pay the premium for SSD. I just can't help thinking that if the commitment was to a 1.8" drive @ 4200rpm that there wasn't a more sensible processor pairing on offer that might have allowed them to price the device more competitively and at the same time better distinguish that this is not a Pro-level machine. Which it isn't.

Soldered RAM with no expansion options and 2gig as standard. So we're not dealing with Santa Rosa here, am I right? I would have thought that if you're prepared to offer a bleeding edge SSD drive option at a premium of £800, that you might also be prepared to offer a 4gig option to go with that and the faster CPU. Odd.

It's priced at Pro-level but they've retained the huge border that graces the MacBook line. It's backlit but it's also chicklet style like the MacBook. It's a mess of contradictions: it's fast (CPU) but it's slow (4200rpm), it's small (thin) but it's big (footprint), it's consumer (MacBook stylings and integrated GFX) but it's Pro (Aluminium and price).

I'm conflicted. I like it, but I don't like lots about it. I sort of understand it as a conceptual exercise but I don't like that they are competing on that level (they aren't pioneering the wedge-style notebook design, does Apple really need to prove that they can build the thinnest one?)

Without wishing to make a judgement on likely the success or failure of MacBookAir, I would say that without reservation this is one of the most befuddling product releases in Apple History.

My tuppence worth, Derwood

 

[Cloudane]

Sorry if this has been mentioned before but I just thought..... how are you supposed to restore the OS if something goes wrong? Does it come with recovery discs? Does the "remote disc" function work on boot via the EFI thingy (holding option key)? Just curious. I'm also wondering how you'd go about doing First Aid on the HDD.

 

[jhande]

But the ironic thing is this:

Apple's website asks you if you want to want to add Final Cut Express to your MacBook Air order....but there is no Firewire port. Oops.

Ouch! Double not good. I hope that is going to be deleted from the site.

 

[balamw]

as far as I know the Time Capsule is only a client to a WiFi network.

"Expand or create a high-speed network for any home, office, or classroom."

http://www.apple.com/wifi

B

 

[R0ck-Ch1ck]

That notebook is so thin, it almost looks like paper!?

Forgive me if this is a n00b question, but where the hell are the USB/power slots on that thing!?

Crap for games!

<runs and hides>

All macs are crap for games, apart from maybe WoW.

 

[chatin]

All airbook class devices floatin in The Cloud!

Apple has just ushered in a new airbook class of ultra-portables!

With the crowded skies in the wireless G spectrum (only about 24 devices can use this band in the same general vicinity) the Airport Extreme is a must have! While not as fast as firewire the Time Capsule makes for an awesome landing pad.

Liked the hanging product at MWSF. Conveys a message that The Cloud is where all the airbook class devices will be landin!

 

[zoozx]

This product will be dropped in a year and a half and replaced with a small foot print mac book.
This is the cube that a truck ran over.
Disappointing when there are so many other more important improvements in the product line needed.

 

[myeggsareboiled]

Pissing Contest

I have to be honest, I am a mac fan, but the MBA seems to be apple indulging in a bit of a pissing contest with sony (viao being the 2nd prettiest laptops around). Shame, cos I love sony and apple......

Next Viao 1 nanometre thick??

Still, would buy one if I was loaded.

 

[Lomaxfairchild]

Probably reiterating what many have said, but why on earth didn't they put more effort into reducing the footprint rather than obsessing about the thickness?

1/4" difference in the thickness is not going to stop it fitting in any bag. An extra inch on the length would.

I'm guessing a lot of potential customers for the Air will be women (my gf wants one at least) and whether or not it will fit in a Prada handbag will be an important factor!

 

[iStefmac]

Anyone care to explain why the solidstate hd carries such a premium? And for a lesser capacity?

Is this based solely on the reliability of solid state compared to pata?

------

Honestly I think every aspect of this device is perfect for its intended purpose, except the lack of a removable battery. Laptop batteries suffer the worst abuse of any rechargeable battery. How is this thing going to be an ultra portable if u cannot even guarantee it wont die on you in the field? (w/ any other laptop u can guarantee this simply by carrying a backup, fully charged, battery)

Then again, with my last Mac Book Pro, I never once encountered a situation where my laptop battery was dead AND had no access to power. Power is everywhere.

 

[iStefmac]

Still, would buy one if I was loaded.

Ditto.

Any one who appreciates the amount of time and effort than must have gone into the design of this thing would want one.

Just not a practical laptop in my opinion. Too limited.

 

[rhpenguin]

By the by, Mac OS X (Tiger and Leopard) can easily be installed on a Sony, Dell, Toshiba or any other laptop that uses standard Intel parts. Buy a copy of the OS, then get yourself to osx86project.org. You'll have the best of both worlds with BOTH the hardware and sodftware you want. (yes, I know its a violation of Apple's EULA but do you really think the software police are going to do a home invasion based on this!). Besides, you've paid Apple for the OS. If you're like me, you'll gladly buy Apple hardware when Papa Steve starts to let you decide how you want your hardware configured again. Don't be a lemming. THINK DIFFERENT!

If you put an Apple sticker on your laptop (like I did) its technically an "Apple branded machine" at that point so your technically inside the EULA and can legitimately install OS X on your generic hardware. Unless it changed between 10.4 and 10.5.

I currently have 10.5 on my Eee and T40. Also my desktop thats in my sig. Runs brilliant.

 

[Ryan T.]

Again, most of the people who buy MBA's are not going to have it as their sole computer, meaning that short of buying an external drive, they could easily use the Remote Drive feature for something like an OS reinstall.

But seriously, from a comment like this, you'd think that Apple was the first company to release a machine without an internal optical drive.

Again, do you think Lenovo ThinkPad X61 owners are left helpless when they have to do an OS reinstall because their machines don't come with optical drives either?

And as I mentioned above, Lenovo's own solution is a drive bay that costs $100 that requires you to also buy a $200 docking bay, although you can just as easily buy your own $99 USB drive from somewhere else to use.

Frankly, Apple has gone farther; first by just offering the $100 drive directly without requiring an additional $200 add-on, and second by debuting this "Remote Drive" function, which Lenovo certainly doesn't offer.

But seriously, if the ThinkPad X61 and its owners can deal with it, and the X61 is one of the most popular and praised ultraportables on the planet, I think people will figure this out with the MBA as well.

One thing to remember here is that Lenovo uses the hidden partition for system restores. You never need any physical media to reinstall or repair your OS.

 

[takao]

If you put an Apple sticker on your laptop (like I did) its technically an "Apple branded machine" at that point so your technically inside the EULA and can legitimately install OS X on your generic hardware. Unless it changed between 10.4 and 10.5.

I currently have 10.5 on my Eee and T40. Also my desktop thats in my sig. Runs brilliant.

how is 10.5 running on the Eee ? (i guess you did some ram upgrade)

 

[darngooddesign]

1.8" Drives will get faster and larger now that there is more of a market for them; if you think no one else is going to cut size with this method you are naive. Same was true for the stock 4200rpm drives Apple put in their previous laptops.

PS. The shared graphics in the MacBooks is dog-slow for anything real, but you guys bought them regardless.

 

[Slip]

Anyone care to explain why the solidstate hd carries such a premium? And for a lesser capacity?

Is this based solely on the reliability of solid state compared to pata?

No it's due to the high cost of flash memory at those capacities. It's the same reason the iPod touch is as much as the classic even with a fraction of the memory (and yes, it is due to the multitouch display etc as well)

PS. The shared graphics in the MacBooks is dog-slow for anything real, but you guys bought them regardless.

It's not really. Yes it can't really handle gaming but for all of the fancy OS X effects it handles it fine.

 

[MacGuffin]

It's pretty -- what Apple isn't? -- but it's also weak and overpriced.

With the yucky res of a toy Macbook, the beauty's a little too skin-deep.

 

[seamus73]

i think for all of the developers out there (or anyone looking for something more powerful), you have to look at this as a prototype. For my part, I'm excited to see Apple learn from this and gradually start to offer solid-state drives in the Pro line. It'll probably happen much sooner now that they've broken the ice with this model.

 

[darngooddesign]

It's not really. Yes it can't really handle gaming but for all of the fancy OS X effects it handles it fine.

OSX effects are not anything real. I'm talking about things like redrawing large photoshop files. You might as well have bought a refurbed MBP because it would give you far more bang for the buck then your MB. You would have paid a little more but you would have gotten far more for it.

See how silly that sounds?

Sounds just like the people who say you should just get a MB instead of a ultraportable MacBook because of the bang for the buck. You want super thin and light, you're going to pay for it.

 

[Hmm]

Probably reiterating what many have said, but why on earth didn't they put more effort into reducing the footprint rather than obsessing about the thickness?

Reducing the footprint would make the screen smaller. From the presentation, it seems that they specifically wanted to avoid making a small screen.

 

[darngooddesign]

I have to be honest, I am a mac fan, but the MBA seems to be apple indulging in a bit of a pissing contest with sony (viao being the 2nd prettiest laptops around). Shame, cos I love sony and apple......

Next Viao 1 nanometre thick??

Still, would buy one if I was loaded.

You like the pissing contest of making a large laptop? Yeah we see how quickly Apple dropped the 17".

 

[surferuke]

air boasts physical dimensions vs functionality

i thought the current buzz words were: "3G", "tablet", "wireless", "touch screen", "increased flash storage" and even "wireless sync" or even "wireless powerup". my cousin paul was hoping for the "tablet" while i was hoping for "iphone 2". we knew they were both unlikely to be released at MWSF, but these products or features would have tapped new customers while moving forward, technologically speaking. the air only seems to boast physical dimensions, not functionality. let's see what blossoms on the apple tree come springtime.