List of Members Waiting for their Macbook Air to Ship and Arrive and Photos!

[n0de]

The hardware debate is over. Get on with your life.

Those of us who recognize what this machine is for and are still buying it comprehend the shortfalls and have made a consious decision to go ahead and buy one.

If you want to pick a fight, please go elsewhere.

 

[Catch]

For some reason, I read MacBook Pro non-SR 2.16GHz, maily because most of the non-SR MacBooks I've met have been 2GHz or lower, of course that's because most people bought the bottom model, so sorry about that

1. Your maths are slightly eschewed. 2.16x2=4.32. 1.8x2=3.6. 4.32-3.6=0.72. The difference is, as I stated, 720MHz. There are very few, if any tasks, where the difference between a 667MT/s FSB and an 800MT/s FSB will cover this clockspeed difference.

2. You are correct. As I stated, I misread your previous post.

3. Your understanding of the hard drive industry is laughable. Yes, a PMR 4200RPM drive is probably as fast, or faster than non-PMR 5400RPM drive. However, 1.8" HDDs are comically slow. Their seek times are absolutely dreadful, and continuous disk-to-buffer transfer rates will never come remotely near a 2.5" HDD of the same spindle speed. Have you ever tried booting off an iPod? It doesn't matter how much cache you put in the drive, it will never cover such dreadful physical disk performance. Hybrid drives would probably be a tremendous improvement, but Apple aren't using those.

If you want to flame somebody, flame yourself, sir.

... all of this has got to do with Apple shipping the MBA what exactly?

Regards,

C

 

[sanford]

Sanford,

One last thing....

For your plan, since you will have all of your backups on a single drive, you NEED to buy a second drive to make occasional backups of your backup.

I know this sounds really redundant, but I have never had a USB drive last more than 2 years. I have always had machines where I had a second copy, but since your plan above indicates you do not want a duplicate copy of everything on your Air, if that one drive goes bad you will be out of luck.

Hey, that's cool news, I can sync all the non-media stuff even without the actual media present, so long as I don't tinker with the playlists, which would be by accident I suppose since the music isn't really there anyway.

Oh, I get you on the double back-up. The separate Time Machine partition helps from what I've read, but if the whole drive goes, well, the whole drive goes. The only thing that won't exist on both the MB Air and the Time Machine drive will be the iTunes library. I have a somewhat smaller USB2 drive I use to use for back-ups, but far and away plenty of space for just my iTunes library, and I've never had any problems with that drive, nor has it been much used. So, what about this: since I have a good, powered 7-port USB2 hub which under this scenario, don't laugh, will only have *three* ports on it that will always have devices plugged in, couldn't I just take that second USB2 drive, make it my iTunes library drive, keep it plugged in and powered (when the Mac isn't asleep; it spins down and goes into low-power when the host computer sleeps), then just let my current Time Machine partition on my newer back-up drive automatically back up the iTunes library on that second external USB2 drive? So that way it's hourly just like all my other data, no occasional backing up of the external iTunes library required.

 

[PieMac]

The hardware debate is over. Get on with your life.

Those of us who recognize what this machine is for and are still buying it comprehend the shortfalls and have made a consious decision to go ahead and buy one.

If you want to pick a fight, please go elsewhere.

I second this-why waste your time and our time posting to this thread? If you don't like the MBA, fine...but we didn't ask for your opinions, and your opinions have nothing to do with the subject of this thread.

 

[Azurael]

... all of this has got to do with Apple shipping the MBA what exactly?

Regards,

C

Nothing specifically to do with shipping them, anyway. Then again, at least my post regarded the MacBook Air, rather than just nitpicking others' posts.

 

[joegomolski]

Official List of Members Waiting for there Macbook Air to Ship and Arrive and Photos!

mine says delivers 2/11, 1 day less than the original order

 

[iEric]

mine says delivers 2/11, 1 day less than the original order

oh sweet they're starting to decrease days!!

not mine though.

sad, but true.

ship 02/11
del 02/21

 

[aiongiant]

good to hear if there starting to shift dates and stuff
but yea mine didn't change thougth boo

Ships by: 6 Feb
Delivers by: 18 Feb

 

[mashoutposse]

For some reason, I read MacBook Pro non-SR 2.16GHz, maily because most of the non-SR MacBooks I've met have been 2GHz or lower, of course that's because most people bought the bottom model, so sorry about that

1. Your maths are slightly eschewed. 2.16x2=4.32. 1.8x2=3.6. 4.32-3.6=0.72. The difference is, as I stated, 720MHz. There are very few, if any tasks, where the difference between a 667MT/s FSB and an 800MT/s FSB will cover this clockspeed difference.

You are wrong. Both units are Core 2 Duo, so the difference is 360MHz. Think about it: A C2D 2.16GHz is NOT 0.72GHz faster than a C2D 1.8GHz. No amount of faulty math will get around that fact.

3. Your understanding of the hard drive industry is laughable. Yes, a PMR 4200RPM drive is probably as fast, or faster than non-PMR 5400RPM drive. However, 1.8" HDDs are comically slow. Their seek times are absolutely dreadful, and continuous disk-to-buffer transfer rates will never come remotely near a 2.5" HDD of the same spindle speed. Have you ever tried booting off an iPod? It doesn't matter how much cache you put in the drive, it will never cover such dreadful physical disk performance. Hybrid drives would probably be a tremendous improvement, but Apple aren't using those.

If you want to flame somebody, flame yourself, sir.

I highly doubt Apple is using iPod HDDs in the MBA. Ask yourself why the 160GB unit from the iPod Classic isn't in there. I'm betting that they went with the highest performance drive that they could lay their hands on. MBA isn't the first laptop with a 1.8" drive; it will likely be fast enough.

 

[scottkifnw]

Truce?

I am glad we got all that nastiness out of the way, and we can all just get along.

Per the thread, my ship dates haven't changed (boo-hoo).

No to get too far off track, what is SR, and PMR that you all were writing about?

Thanks.

 

[memberako]

Would the MBA be available at the stores on Feb 6 too (Same as shipping dates)?

 

[ahaxton]

Would the MBA be available at the stores on Feb 6 too (Same as shipping dates)?

We're expecting them in stores beginning of next week.

 

[shk718]

We're expecting them in stores beginning of next week.

so here is an annoying question - but we're all thinking it - if they hit the stores before they arrive at our homes can we return the one ordered online when it comes (and buy the one in the store)?

 

[christopher3071]

Not Always

No jokes, but you won't get yours faster than someone ordering it directly from Apple for the obvious reasons.

Not necessarily, remember the iPod touch release? People were furious. People complained because COSTCO was getting touches in before the preorders arrived at people's homes and apple was giving a certain few ticked off customers up to $100 off their iPod touch PLUS free overnight shipping.. So this is not always the case that if you buy from apple you'll receive the earliest.

 

[n0de]

I think we will all be rather upset if they show up for sale in the stores before ours' ship. Why pre-order if it means you are not going to be the first on the block to get it?

Now if they go ahead and put demo units (not for sale, just for show) in the stores early to help the unsure crowd decide, that would be cool.

Don't get me wrong, if they are for sale in the stores the day mine ships I am OK, but if they are for sale a week or two before mine ships I will be pissed. Another strike at the early adopters.

 

[n0de]

More speculation -

Remember when Leapard came out and Fedex threw a screaming fit about the increase in delivery volume, phone calls, etc? I wonder if Apple is not telling us that they have shipped or providing tracking numbers until after the expected delivery date to appease the delivery company....

This would explain why those whose shipments are now "Prepared" cannot cancel our orders. This would also place the timing of delivery to either Saturday or Monday which would allow for the machines to be in the stores next week too.

Why is it that waiting for a new toy like this turns me from a 36 year old adult into a 5 year old waiting for Xmas?

 

[aiongiant]

yea i agree if theres demo units there but not for sale thats cool but that would suck if the stores get the macbook air before our pre-order ships

 

[Azurael]

You are wrong. Both units are Core 2 Duo, so the difference is 360MHz. Think about it: A C2D 2.16GHz is NOT 0.72GHz faster than a C2D 1.8GHz. No amount of faulty math will get around that fact.

Nope, it's definitely your math that's wrong. I've explained why. Each core has a 360MHz advantage over the 1.8GHz model. There are two cores, therefore the total extra clock speed of the 2.16GHz C2D IS 720MHz. OK, as far as a single thread goes, it's 360MHz faster, but how often do you run a single app at a time these days, and how many of Apple's apps are natively multithreaded anyway? I really can't see why so many of you are having trouble getting your heads round it...

I highly doubt Apple is using iPod HDDs in the MBA. Ask yourself why the 160GB unit from the iPod Classic isn't in there. I'm betting that they went with the highest performance drive that they could lay their hands on. MBA isn't the first laptop with a 1.8" drive; it will likely be fast enough.

Unless Apple is having the drives custom built for the MBA, they're slow. No two ways about it. Even if there were, there are physical constraints that mean a 1.8" HDD will never be as fast as it's 2.5" contemporaries. Same applies with 2.5-3.5" disks. My 7200RPM Seagate laptop drive reads about half as fast as my 320GB Hitachi desktop drive at the outside. Seek times are also vastly increased for the notebook drive. The only reason they're not using the 160GB model is that it's got two platters and is thus too thick for the MBA.

Apple aren't the first people to do it, but I will never understand this moronic pursuit of thin-ness. Within reason (and I don't consider 1" to be unreasonable) it's not thin-ness that makes a machine portable, it's light weight and width and depth. MBA is all about the looks and showing off the technology. It's not really any more portable than the normal MacBook. It's too much of a feature trade-off for the loss of weight too. They could have at least cut down the screen bezel to make the machine a bit smaller. It's not like a machine even has to have a screen that big to have a decent keyboard. I've never had trouble typing on a 12" machine, in fact, the 12" PB's keyboard is identically sized to the larger models.

Sony (and several other East-Asian manufacturers) have, for many years made ultraportables with built in optical drives, many of them even used proper HDDs, and they were much more portable than the MBA could even dream of being. Even my 12" PB is more portable in my opinion, and that's not really a small machine by ultraportable standards. 1/4 of an inch is nothing at the end of the day.

 

[mashoutposse]

I am glad we got all that nastiness out of the way, and we can all just get along.

Per the thread, my ship dates haven't changed (boo-hoo).

No to get too far off track, what is SR, and PMR that you all were writing about?

Thanks.

SR = Intel Santa Rosa chipset used in June 07 MBPs and November 07 MBs.

PMR = perpendicular magnetic recording; much more dense storage arrangement for data on HDDs

 

[ahaxton]

Well from talking to a few different apple stores it really looks as if next week is it. Don't really know why they don't want any exact dates. Who knows maybe you guys pre-ordered from the apple store will just wake up one day and find your package lol.

 

[n0de]

Payments being processed

Anyone else's credit card hit yet? Tele operator at my bank verified the transaction as posting today.

I will be even more pissed if I have to wait in line at the genius bar to pick mine up!!

 

[Azurael]

MacBook Air - Ultraportable MBP ORDERED

It's not really an ultraportable MacBook Pro, is it? If it was, it would have at least some of the features that give the MBP an advantage of the MacBook, wouldn't it? It doesn't have a dedicated GPU, it doesn't have a higher res screen, so I don't really know where, other than boasting, the idea that it's an ultraportable MacBook Pro comes from... Price, maybe? Backlit keyboard? (Although I wouldn't buy a machine over another for that reason - I always disabled mine on my PB because it made the keycaps unreadable in most light...)

And ultraportable is debatable too.. An Eee is ultraportable. Really, this is just a slim notebook.

Anyway, I'm obviously just making people's blood boil by pointing out what I see as the flaws of this machine, so I'll butt out now, and go back to waiting for the 12" PB's replacement.

 

[ahaxton]

It's not really an ultraportable MacBook Pro, is it? If it was, it would have at least some of the features that give the MBP an advantage of the MacBook, wouldn't it? It doesn't have a dedicated GPU, it doesn't have a higher res screen, so I don't really know where, other than boasting, the idea that it's an ultraportable MacBook Pro comes from... Price, maybe?

And ultraportable is debatable too.. An Eee is ultraportable. Really, this is just a slim notebook.

lol it was just to tick off a few people when we were "debating".
Each term is his own. I just call it an ultraportable MBP because if it wasn't for the MBA I would have bought the MBP. I don't like how the MB looks, feels, plus some of the features of the MBP I liked over the MB.

 

[n0de]

Yeah I am really hoping that the keyboard backlight is not as annoying with the black keys as it is on the MBP's silver keys...

 

[mashoutposse]

Nope, it's definitely your math that's wrong. I've explained why. Look at the very simple math a two year old could handle. Each core has a 360MHz advantage over the 1.8GHz model. There are two cores, therefore the total extra clock speed of the 2.16GHz C2D IS 720MHz. OK, as far as a single thread goes, it's 360MHz faster, but how often do you run a single app at a time these days, and how many of Apple's apps are natively multithreaded anyway?

The "720MHz" that you're defining is not the same as the numbers being used to rate the CPU. If the processors were explicitly rated 4.32GHz and 3.6GHz, then your 720MHz would be properly relevant. Saying that "the difference is really 720MHz" when the discussion is about dual core "1.8GHz" and "2.16GHz" CPUs is misleading, at best.

It's like handing me 10 Hong Kong Dollars when I ask you to lend me $10.

Think about the percentages. The difference between the 2.16GHz and the 1.8GHz is 20% (or 16.67% going the other way). Full stop. Again, no amount of faulty math will make that number bigger than it is.