A 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo is not a bad chip by any means. Of course it won't be as fast as the ones in the MacBook, but it's still far better than even the fastest Pentium/Core Duo chips.
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First Look at the MacBook Air
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1998 called. They said, "Hey, you got that statement wrong... it's FLOPPY DRIVE, not OPTICAL DRIVE!"
By the way, when I can fit 8 GB on a $50 flash drive (and it'll be half that in 4-6 months), yeah, I don't need a CD/DVD drive. wtf would I need one for?!?! This is a great computer for anyone that already has a desktop at home and needs a laptop on the road. I'm buying one. If it's not for you.... great. That doesn't mean it's not for a lot of other people. What you need isn't the same as what I need.
And the GPU is the same "Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor with 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory" found in the current MacBooks. Which isn't too bad as far as integrated graphics go.
B
Please take a look at the Windows side. Many laptops without optical drives are available and will continue to be available.
Not everyone wants an optical drive built in.
I would venture to say that most people with desktop models will do the same.
I've had my PB15 for 5 years and have only burnt maybe 4-5 CDs and DVDs over that period of time.
No - the MacBook is a much more versatile machine. Besides, even white macs are on the way out now (BOO! BRING EM BACK) so it will look even cooler and different than it does now, especially to PC users.
Besides, the money you save (dunno what it is in $) can be put towards PS3, booze or toward college fees for next year.
Don't forget your education rebate whichever you buy!
Liberal arts or hard science? If you're going into one of the sciences, your textbooks will be heavy. If you have plans for medical or law school, they get heavier still. Every pound and every tenth of an inch does count...and I went to school well before 5.5 pound, 1" MacBook Pros. They especially engineer law casebooks so that that last one is just a quarter-inch too big for your bag.
If you're not balking at the price (and I assume you're not, since you're looking at ultraportables generally), then there's no reason not to. Those two and a half pounds do make a difference when they're on your shoulders multiple times a day, every day.
Even a regular MacBook is much thinner and lighter than my school laptop ever was, and it's a lot cheaper. But you really don't gain much, other than some cash...and if you're paying with scholarship or financial aid money, maybe not even that.
These notebooks are faster and more powerful than G4 PowerBooks, which people to this day use for pretty demanding work. You won't be coming close to that; even Photoshop will run fine. It's always remarkable to see people suddenly forget that most people don't have cutting edge specs, and a 2002 PowerMac much slower than this handles just fine. Hell, an 800MHz XP machine works just fine for most people...and look what a 300MHz iPhone can do.
This is my first post on the MBA, and I find a lot of points made on it so amusing!
For me it is the perfect notebook, that is it [ok fixed battery is annoying]
I have previously sold my macbook and MBP, due to weight issues alone.
I have a new Imac [bought with the same amount of cash I sold the MBP for
] so what do I need a high end processor, dvd burner, large screen, all the connections for.........
The MBA is designed for people like me. Out and about, require basic internet / email, pages etc and maybe the odd time need to access something a bit more powerful but not for hours on end. I never really once required the power of the MBP nor used the superdrive once when out.
I can't think of a better, more suited computer.
It is obviously a crap computer for someone who either is cheap, needs lots of power or only can afford one computer. If that is you, get another computer and quit moaning. It is boring..............
For me it is the perfect notebook, that is it [ok fixed battery is annoying]
I have previously sold my macbook and MBP, due to weight issues alone.
I have a new Imac [bought with the same amount of cash I sold the MBP for
] so what do I need a high end processor, dvd burner, large screen, all the connections for.........The MBA is designed for people like me. Out and about, require basic internet / email, pages etc and maybe the odd time need to access something a bit more powerful but not for hours on end. I never really once required the power of the MBP nor used the superdrive once when out.
I can't think of a better, more suited computer.
It is obviously a crap computer for someone who either is cheap, needs lots of power or only can afford one computer. If that is you, get another computer and quit moaning. It is boring..............
No need for rudeness.
Personally I'm none of those things (cheap, needs power, can only afford one computer etc) but what I do need, and many others legitimately have pointed this out, is a real ultraportable. Even though the 12" powerbook wasn't one it worked out ok for many on that front.
However, to those who are just moaners, I'll let you carry on insulting them. Every 'new product' thread has them and they possibly deserve it
MacBook Air, with a 2Ghz Mac Mini?
Maybe Apple should do a special offer with a MBA and a decent spec Mini. For everyone other than power users and gamers, I would say thats a match made in heaven.....
Maybe Apple should do a special offer with a MBA and a decent spec Mini. For everyone other than power users and gamers, I would say thats a match made in heaven.....
Whilst it's true that CDs are long overdue a death (though don't count on it especially with PCs, which *still* often have floppies sitting in them), DVD is still a fairly useful capacity. It still takes a long time to transfer 4.7GB over wireless or worse still the internet (and bandwidth doesn't come free, last I checked it was working out at something like £1/GB?!)
Optical drives in general are far from dead. We have BlueRay next which is massive. Optical discs remain the cheapest and most convenient way to store large amounts of data on a long term basis and I can't see that changing any time soon. There's certainly a case for excluding them from ultra-portables, but they have a loooooong life ahead of them on the desktop.
P.S. those who want a *real* ultra-portable and aren't fussed about OS X should check out the Asus Eee. You can buy 6 of them for the price of the MBA, too.
Optical drives in general are far from dead. We have BlueRay next which is massive. Optical discs remain the cheapest and most convenient way to store large amounts of data on a long term basis and I can't see that changing any time soon. There's certainly a case for excluding them from ultra-portables, but they have a loooooong life ahead of them on the desktop.
P.S. those who want a *real* ultra-portable and aren't fussed about OS X should check out the Asus Eee. You can buy 6 of them for the price of the MBA, too.
the world in 2058
(and Microsoft... wasn't it the company who said that the iPhone wouldn't sell, and the Zune would?)
I really can't see why you should get so agitated and call people names: most people here agree with you-though I don't.
Is it possible you read 2 or 3 comments out of several hundreds and concluded that it represented the whole thread? I suggest you go towards the beginning of the thread, where you shall finds lots of people repeating "THINNER is NOT a FEATURE!!!!" , and listing all the missing feature which make the MBA a piece of crap, with all the things you like: insults, caps, and lots of "!". That should keep you happy.
Oh, and if you have more information about the world in 2058 according to Microsoft, please share it. I love a good laugh.
Unless you meant 4-5 typed 40-50 by mistake, you're very naive if you think anyone can predict what the the technology will be like in 40 or 50 years.
(and Microsoft... wasn't it the company who said that the iPhone wouldn't sell, and the Zune would?)
oh, Microsoft and others have never copied Apple in the past. Never. (oh, and i DID notice the word impossible, it was in big caps.)
Never happened in the past. It's not as if they had invented personal comptuers (i.e a computer with its own screen and keyboard ) or popularised the mouse and the desktop metaphor..oh, but they DID, actually !
repeat, repeat, reapeat. If you can't prove it, repeat it.
euh, wasn't that months, or even years later? And different chips meant that comparisons were hard to make (more mhz did not always meant more speed), which caused endless disputes about who is faster.
I doubt they will ever try to market it for games. And they wouldn't "make" a cd drive small enough, they don't make the parts. They just find a way to fit them in the box, with cooling system, etc., which is already an engineering feat;
mmm nice coment from someone mature enough to believe in 50 years predictions.
Well, why are you doing here, if mac people get on your nerves?
er, yes of course, Steve Jobs is the richest man (I think it's second nowdays) in the world, not Bill Gates (at this point, you might want to open a dictionary and look up the meaning of "irony"). Have a look at the prices of OS X and Vista in Europe, and tell me who is getting rich with overpriced products. (hint : one of them is 90% more expensive in Europe than in the US).
er, the iPod works with windows PC as well. You might refer to the "halo" effect theory, according to which the iPod boosted Mac sales because it improved Apple's image. I think you overestimate it. Since you're talking hardware, 6% is not so bad (the 2 biggest players are around 33% and 15%), especially since Apple does not compete in the 300$ computer category .
are we reading the same thread? I saw people getting agitated because the Macbook air had not CD drive. Then a few people commented that THEY did not use their optical drive that much, and that they could do away with it. Very few people went on saying that the optical drive was doomed. Oh, and those who did had arguments, too, other than repetition, exclamation marks and 50 years prediction from Microsoft - their own experience, or the precedent of the iMac without a floppy, for instance. They might be wrong, but they were using arguments, not just following anything Jobs says.
It will not fit??? Of course, everyone here knows it. The question is: is it worth making a laptop so thin that an optical drive won't fit? (for instance, many believe that a little thicker with an optical drive would have been better) And again, most people here were as agitated as you are about all that Apple had to get rid of in order to make the MBAir.
I really can't see why you should get so agitated and call people names: most people here agree with you-though I don't.
Is it possible you read 2 or 3 comments out of several hundreds and concluded that it represented the whole thread? I suggest you go towards the beginning of the thread, where you shall finds lots of people repeating "THINNER is NOT a FEATURE!!!!" , and listing all the missing feature which make the MBA a piece of crap, with all the things you like: insults, caps, and lots of "!". That should keep you happy.
Oh, and if you have more information about the world in 2058 according to Microsoft, please share it. I love a good laugh.
not interested at all, bit disappointed because the only seductive feature is that its thin...and that isn't even a very compelling attribute.
When talking about how apple cannot influence the future of computers, you also forgot to mention that the internet was created on a network of macs to start with. Thats why every online PeeCee has a MAC code. Even my PSP needs a MAC code to get online....
LOL. Do you know how wrong you are?
Humour is often hard to figure out on the internet.
Which one did you try? If both, how would you rate the difference in user experience?
Have I made a booboo? Just what I was led to believe, but sounds like I was sorely misinformed....
I was under the impression that the original country-wide network was created by CERN. (A European nuclear research organisation), and the network was created on applemacs.
I was however taking the piss with a MAC code, which I am well aware is a Migration Access code....
I was under the impression that the original country-wide network was created by CERN. (A European nuclear research organisation), and the network was created on applemacs.
I was however taking the piss with a MAC code, which I am well aware is a Migration Access code....
Phew!
For internet history try here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet
The internet doesn't equal the web btw. The web sits on the internet.
If that is so, then if it had a built in optical drive, (supuerdrive,) Aluminum keypads, more usb, dual link dvi, then maybe would I consider it. I bet the next revesion will include an optical drive.
There won't be dual-link DVI in any MacBook (non-Pro) anytime soon.
As for the other stuff you want, it is called a MacBook. There will never be an Air with integrated optical drive. Wake up.
What you are describing is the next MBP. Wait 6 months. Waiting for Apple hardware is what we all do. Why do you think we're all obsessed with rumours?