If you travel a lot and use Apple products, the travel kit is worth every penny. "Ouch" over £29 sound pretty silly coming from somebody who just bought a £1200 or £2000 laptop.
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MacBook Air First Impressions and Notes
- Thread starter arn
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If you travel a lot and use Apple products, the travel kit is worth every penny. "Ouch" over £29 sound pretty silly coming from somebody who just bought a £1200 or £2000 laptop.
I suppose 
its just the usual exchange rate nonsense.
although I do usually travel with one of those fuji world adapters (mostly as it has a USB charger on it), it'd be good to just take the macbook adapter with the euro head on ready - wouldn't need to take all of them.
will probably grab one next time I'm in an apple store - might see if I can wait until they get some sleeves in too.
its just the usual exchange rate nonsense.although I do usually travel with one of those fuji world adapters (mostly as it has a USB charger on it), it'd be good to just take the macbook adapter with the euro head on ready - wouldn't need to take all of them.
will probably grab one next time I'm in an apple store - might see if I can wait until they get some sleeves in too.
I stopped by the Apple Store the other day. I agree with most other people: the Air looks stunning, a beautiful piece of technology. I played with the 1.6/80gb and found the keyboard to be comfortable and responsive. I didn't notice that sharp edge others have complained about, but I was standing at one of the display tables so my wrists probably were at too high an angle to be affected.
The multi-touch pad seemed a bit sluggish to me. Zooming in and out on a picture in iPhoto exhibited a very noticeable lag. Rotating the picture didn't work at all. (Perhaps that feature wasn't turned on in System Preferences.) On the other hand, the three finger swipe on web pages was phenomenal. I hope Apple brings this to all their laptops. Once I got used to flipping through virtual pages as I would with a real book, it seemed so natural that I wondered how I've done without it for so long. And I didn't find anything wrong with the click button below the trackpad. It's thin, but it runs the entire length of the pad. I didn't have any trouble with it.
All in all, it's an impressive machine, almost a work of art. I really wish the glass was matte instead of reflective, but this is Apple's current design trend. Maybe Power Support will make a whopping huge anti-glare appliqué for it.
ok, so having a bit of a play with it now. couple of things I don't like or aren't sure about yet (bearing in mind this is my first apple notebook)
- tap to click. I don't like this at all. Never got on with it on my old PC notebook. So I turned it off - I was getting too many phantom clicks. But I wanted 'two fingers for secondary click'. But even though that is selected, and it isn't indented below the 'tap to click' option, it seems that it doesn't work unless you have tap to click selected. Thats annoying. why not give me the choice? Especially as there is a button for click, but no button for secondary click. Does holding the mouse button/trackpad button down = secondary click in all situations? Might have to make do with that for a while.
- dock. Its too big on this small screen, I don't have enough real estate for safari etc. Wasn't an issue on my 23" imac but it is here. I've set the dock to auto-hide. Seems ok so far - what do you do on your macbooks/airs?
also, I want to condition the battery. its fully charged now. Do I just unplug the power and set the energy saver to never sleep - therefore forcing the battery down adn then into sleep? I'm at work and will be leaving soon, so I'd like to leave it to its own devices. will it auto-shutdown?
- tap to click. I don't like this at all. Never got on with it on my old PC notebook. So I turned it off - I was getting too many phantom clicks. But I wanted 'two fingers for secondary click'. But even though that is selected, and it isn't indented below the 'tap to click' option, it seems that it doesn't work unless you have tap to click selected. Thats annoying. why not give me the choice? Especially as there is a button for click, but no button for secondary click. Does holding the mouse button/trackpad button down = secondary click in all situations? Might have to make do with that for a while.
- dock. Its too big on this small screen, I don't have enough real estate for safari etc. Wasn't an issue on my 23" imac but it is here. I've set the dock to auto-hide. Seems ok so far - what do you do on your macbooks/airs?
also, I want to condition the battery. its fully charged now. Do I just unplug the power and set the energy saver to never sleep - therefore forcing the battery down adn then into sleep? I'm at work and will be leaving soon, so I'd like to leave it to its own devices. will it auto-shutdown?
1.8GHz, SSD -- Love it!
I had mixed feeling about the feature set when the Air was first announced, but I got one a few days ago -- 1.8/SSD -- and I'm very happy with it.
Performance is fine compared with my 2GHz MBP, and I had no problem fitting all the apps I want on the "little" SSD. I just can't keep my entire photo and music libraries on it, but that's no problem. It boots pretty fast, doesn't get _too_ hot, and the screen and keyboard are great. Both the keyboard and general system performance are much better than my Sony Vaio TX, which will now be sold.
My Verizon WWAN adapter (727) just barely fits in the USB port, and I have to put the computer on something to raise it up a bit since the adapter protrudes lower than the base of the computer. I guess I'll just get a 6" extender cable for USB devices that aren't an easy fit. No big deal there.
I haven't decided if I want to create a Windows partition on it. I have one on my MBP, but the kinds of tasks I use it for aren't the kind of stuff I'd likely do on the Air -- except maybe Visio diagrams for work-related projects. I'll wait and see how great the need is.
And it fits perfectly in my portfolio that I take to meetings...
I had mixed feeling about the feature set when the Air was first announced, but I got one a few days ago -- 1.8/SSD -- and I'm very happy with it.
Performance is fine compared with my 2GHz MBP, and I had no problem fitting all the apps I want on the "little" SSD. I just can't keep my entire photo and music libraries on it, but that's no problem. It boots pretty fast, doesn't get _too_ hot, and the screen and keyboard are great. Both the keyboard and general system performance are much better than my Sony Vaio TX, which will now be sold.
My Verizon WWAN adapter (727) just barely fits in the USB port, and I have to put the computer on something to raise it up a bit since the adapter protrudes lower than the base of the computer. I guess I'll just get a 6" extender cable for USB devices that aren't an easy fit. No big deal there.
I haven't decided if I want to create a Windows partition on it. I have one on my MBP, but the kinds of tasks I use it for aren't the kind of stuff I'd likely do on the Air -- except maybe Visio diagrams for work-related projects. I'll wait and see how great the need is.
And it fits perfectly in my portfolio that I take to meetings...
I keep my dock on the left side of the screen. It's not the "classic" OS X look, but it's just as usable, and far more compact. With the wide aspect ratio of the screen, vertical real estate is far more precious than horizontal, so it works very well.
Got mine this morning. Did the reinstall in the sticky and have been installing software. I do have to admit the single USB is more of a pain than I thought. Since the damn Time Capsule seems to be in limbo and I couldn't get my old, old Linksys WAP-11 to work at first, I was constantly switching between the ethernet dongle and the external superdrive. Finally got the wireless to work by disabling WEP (all that is offered) and using MAC address filtering.
But that will not be a problem for the future and I am very happy so far. Next week is a short trip and then the week after that a trip to Belgium (for the Zythos Beer Festival!) and that will tell the tale (this is my traveling computer)
Oh, its a 1.8/80 gb
But that will not be a problem for the future and I am very happy so far. Next week is a short trip and then the week after that a trip to Belgium (for the Zythos Beer Festival!) and that will tell the tale (this is my traveling computer)
Oh, its a 1.8/80 gb
I think I'm returning mine. I just can't justify the cost difference between it and the basic macbook (which is what I'd prevouisly planned to buy)
Shame because its a lovely machine but I like the look of the white macbook too, and I didn't buy this because its light and thin, but because of the gestures and better screen.
I'll take another look at the macbook first to check whether the screen is that much worse,and if it isn't too bad then the air goes back and I buy a basic macbook.
No slight on the air intended, its a lovely machine. Its just that for some odd reason I'm being sensible at the moment. Never usually happens - I want tech I buy tech. But not today.
Shame because its a lovely machine but I like the look of the white macbook too, and I didn't buy this because its light and thin, but because of the gestures and better screen.
I'll take another look at the macbook first to check whether the screen is that much worse,and if it isn't too bad then the air goes back and I buy a basic macbook.
No slight on the air intended, its a lovely machine. Its just that for some odd reason I'm being sensible at the moment. Never usually happens - I want tech I buy tech. But not today.
I bought the Air specifically for two reasons:
The LED screen, which is about 50 times better for me than the Macbook's screen.
It's three pounds.
Okay, three reasons:
It has OS X.
The LED screen, which is about 50 times better for me than the Macbook's screen.
It's three pounds.
Okay, three reasons:
It has OS X.
The LED screen, which is about 50 times better for me than the Macbook's screen.
this is the only thing giving me pause for thought. But I have an imac where I do photo editing etc, so as long as I don't do any colour critical stuff on the macbook it shoudl be enough right?
For me the MBA is more fun than I'd expected! It's leading me in new directions.....
I bought it because of the weight, the fact that it has the beautiful 13" screen and the full-sized keyboard, not to mention its sexy elegance. Since I've had it, I've done a clean reinstall -- a first-time event for me even though I have several other Macs -- and I've actually used it on my lap and while sitting around in chairs or on the bed, which I never did with my PB or my 15" MBP. There is something about the MBA which invites this! It's not a machine meant to be permanently parked in one place.....
My other machines all have Office for the Mac 2004, but rather than upgrade to the 2008 version I had already decided to switch my email client to Mail and just keep the 2004 version to use for the occasional times I need Word. I have iWork in all machines, now including the MBA. When I got the MBA this was the perfect opportunity to try out Mail and I really like it. First time I've used RSS feeds, too, and I've been having a ball setting that up as well. My little MBA has definitely been a joy to me!
I bought it because of the weight, the fact that it has the beautiful 13" screen and the full-sized keyboard, not to mention its sexy elegance. Since I've had it, I've done a clean reinstall -- a first-time event for me even though I have several other Macs -- and I've actually used it on my lap and while sitting around in chairs or on the bed, which I never did with my PB or my 15" MBP. There is something about the MBA which invites this! It's not a machine meant to be permanently parked in one place.....
My other machines all have Office for the Mac 2004, but rather than upgrade to the 2008 version I had already decided to switch my email client to Mail and just keep the 2004 version to use for the occasional times I need Word. I have iWork in all machines, now including the MBA. When I got the MBA this was the perfect opportunity to try out Mail and I really like it. First time I've used RSS feeds, too, and I've been having a ball setting that up as well. My little MBA has definitely been a joy to me!
This thing's insane
Although I've owned a succession of MacBook Pros, and have bought them for family and colleagues, I'm not an Apple Fanboy. Having said that, my new MBA (1.8/SSD) is insane. I do a lot of heavy Powerpoint work and the MBA is much faster at reading (opening) files and scrolling through long documents than my 15" MBP. There's been a lot of criticism in various forums about the MBA's (relatively) slow processor, but unless you're doing heavy duty video editing, it's simply not a problem.
As the Mac has gone mainstream, the "typical" Apple user has shifted from a graphical artist or photo editor to ordinary business folks and consumers. These buyers don't use Final Cut Pro or even CS3. Hence, processor speed benchmarks are mostly irrelevant to their buying considerations. Thus they find complaints about the MBA's "last generation" processor to be completely beside the point.
What they do like--beyond a good, serviceable computer--is a product that looks great and makes them smile every time they use it. Last night I was using my MBA in a presentation to a group of hard-bitten semiconductor executives. Afterwards, some of them came up to have a look--first time I ever saw grown men giggle over a laptop.
Apple gets this. They now have a product line that covers some of fastest, hardcore desktops on the planet, as well as some of the sexiest, coolest laptops. Horses for courses, as the British say.
With respect to the MBA, moaning about a lack of ports, a limited hard drive capacity, or the "high" price, is a bit like complaining that a Porsche 911 doesn't have a usable back seat, trunk space or a V-8 engine and costs more than a Mustang. Wrong criteria, dear friends--at least for the market segment that's going to be buying the MBA.
Other observations: After a week of use, the internal fan has yet to turn itself on. Weird, using a computer that's completely quiet. Yes, the front edge of the machine is too sharp--you need to be wearing sleeves if you're going to rest your forearms on the edge. If you can afford it, definitely buy the 1.8/SSD. The drive is demon fast and utterly silent.
Although I've owned a succession of MacBook Pros, and have bought them for family and colleagues, I'm not an Apple Fanboy. Having said that, my new MBA (1.8/SSD) is insane. I do a lot of heavy Powerpoint work and the MBA is much faster at reading (opening) files and scrolling through long documents than my 15" MBP. There's been a lot of criticism in various forums about the MBA's (relatively) slow processor, but unless you're doing heavy duty video editing, it's simply not a problem.
As the Mac has gone mainstream, the "typical" Apple user has shifted from a graphical artist or photo editor to ordinary business folks and consumers. These buyers don't use Final Cut Pro or even CS3. Hence, processor speed benchmarks are mostly irrelevant to their buying considerations. Thus they find complaints about the MBA's "last generation" processor to be completely beside the point.
What they do like--beyond a good, serviceable computer--is a product that looks great and makes them smile every time they use it. Last night I was using my MBA in a presentation to a group of hard-bitten semiconductor executives. Afterwards, some of them came up to have a look--first time I ever saw grown men giggle over a laptop.
Apple gets this. They now have a product line that covers some of fastest, hardcore desktops on the planet, as well as some of the sexiest, coolest laptops. Horses for courses, as the British say.
With respect to the MBA, moaning about a lack of ports, a limited hard drive capacity, or the "high" price, is a bit like complaining that a Porsche 911 doesn't have a usable back seat, trunk space or a V-8 engine and costs more than a Mustang. Wrong criteria, dear friends--at least for the market segment that's going to be buying the MBA.
Other observations: After a week of use, the internal fan has yet to turn itself on. Weird, using a computer that's completely quiet. Yes, the front edge of the machine is too sharp--you need to be wearing sleeves if you're going to rest your forearms on the edge. If you can afford it, definitely buy the 1.8/SSD. The drive is demon fast and utterly silent.
As always with super cool Apple products, I succumbed and bought an MBA today. I thought I wouldn't do this given that I finally found a defect-free macbook pro last summer and have been enjoying it, but the weight of the mba (and what that means when I'm lugging around lots of other stuff) is worth the drawbacks (hdd size, lack of ports, fixed battery etc). It's amazingly well put together - the best I've seen from Apple ever - and it feels just as snappy in everyday use as my MBP 2.2 and my girlfriend's macbook. Remember that just a few years ago people were using PPC powerbooks and getting along with them just fine. This is a LOT more powerful than those! The edge IS sharp, but not worse than the macbooks. Other than that the design and build is simply amazing.
I just used the remote disk function and it worked perfectly without any configuration with my macbook pro. I didn't even feel that it was that much slower than an ordinary install - great stuff. What else? Beautiful display with GOOD viewing angles and brightness. Keyboard feels great and the backlighting is, as always, really nice to use. Sound is very good for a mono speaker. The trackpad is large and the gestures are really nice although still a little limited compared to what fingerworks used to offer. The trackpad button could be a little more stable as it feels different depending on where you press, with a louder click in the middle and mushier toward the sides, but that's nitpicking.
The disk is definitely the main bottleneck and I notice it when moving folders to the mba from an external disk. I think there will be great alternatives to this one very soon and that we can swap these out then. so I'm not too concerned.
Unless something bad happens in the next few days, this is a keeper and my macbook pro is going to be sold on craigslist. It's really that good!
UPDATE: What amazes me about this machine is that when you play around with it the impression you get is that it's not really a computer. It seems too thin and light to contain anything substantial! Yet. in use it feels just as powerful as an ordinary mac portable, except with a slightly slower drive. In other words, it's easy to underestimate it and think that it's not as serious a computer as the others. I've been comparing it to my macbook pro and I realize that although it doesn't have all the connections of the pro, it can handle most things I through at it with ease. And, when I analyzed my usage I concluded that the ports I never/rarely use are:
ethernet, audio in (I use usb), firewire 800, expresscard. I've always had the pro because I love the screen, backlit keyboard and POTENTIAL, but I don't need a lot of the things it has. In that sense, the MBA is pretty perfect!
If I could wish for a few things it would be another usb port, ethernet built in and much more disk space, but a small dongle and a WD passport 320gb also works. External superdrive is perfectly fine for me and give me the option to travel light. For New York City, this is simply a great on-the-go computer. Oh, one more thing: it's the least hot laptop apple has produced in many many years. Get warm but nothing like the others.
I just used the remote disk function and it worked perfectly without any configuration with my macbook pro. I didn't even feel that it was that much slower than an ordinary install - great stuff. What else? Beautiful display with GOOD viewing angles and brightness. Keyboard feels great and the backlighting is, as always, really nice to use. Sound is very good for a mono speaker. The trackpad is large and the gestures are really nice although still a little limited compared to what fingerworks used to offer. The trackpad button could be a little more stable as it feels different depending on where you press, with a louder click in the middle and mushier toward the sides, but that's nitpicking.
The disk is definitely the main bottleneck and I notice it when moving folders to the mba from an external disk. I think there will be great alternatives to this one very soon and that we can swap these out then. so I'm not too concerned.
Unless something bad happens in the next few days, this is a keeper and my macbook pro is going to be sold on craigslist. It's really that good!
UPDATE: What amazes me about this machine is that when you play around with it the impression you get is that it's not really a computer. It seems too thin and light to contain anything substantial! Yet. in use it feels just as powerful as an ordinary mac portable, except with a slightly slower drive. In other words, it's easy to underestimate it and think that it's not as serious a computer as the others. I've been comparing it to my macbook pro and I realize that although it doesn't have all the connections of the pro, it can handle most things I through at it with ease. And, when I analyzed my usage I concluded that the ports I never/rarely use are:
ethernet, audio in (I use usb), firewire 800, expresscard. I've always had the pro because I love the screen, backlit keyboard and POTENTIAL, but I don't need a lot of the things it has. In that sense, the MBA is pretty perfect!
If I could wish for a few things it would be another usb port, ethernet built in and much more disk space, but a small dongle and a WD passport 320gb also works. External superdrive is perfectly fine for me and give me the option to travel light. For New York City, this is simply a great on-the-go computer. Oh, one more thing: it's the least hot laptop apple has produced in many many years. Get warm but nothing like the others.
PDE,
Congrats on your new MBA.
I live in Brooklyn too.
This is a great machine for running around the city.
Looking forward to summer. Free wifi in the parks.
Congrats on your new MBA.
I live in Brooklyn too.
This is a great machine for running around the city.
Looking forward to summer. Free wifi in the parks.
Should be. The colors are still the same on the Air's screen as they are on the regular Macbook's screen.
Coming from a long time Windows user I am completely blown away by my MBA.
Granted it does have some shortcomings, the Edmonton Oilers during their ruling of the NHL didnt have the best D, could have been better shorthanded, had a nicer arena to play in....get my drift. They still were Stanley Cup Champs for years and in my eyes, for my use, the MBA is tops baby.
Mine showed up at my office yesterday so I am still drooling a bit but wow. I just watched a slide show with some pics I took with an older Sony dig camera and I was blown away with how unreal the PQ is on this thing. I would hate to see the high res screen on this. I was so sick of hearing how the MBA doesnt have this and is missing that and yada yada yada. I was starting to doubt my purchase but now that its in my hot little hands
I know some people will buy a MBA and return it cause its just not fast enough or they miss their firewire port or the battery doesnt last long enough. I understand that everyone wants the 'dream' machine that does everything and maybe some day we will get that. I have to tell you that I love my MBA and I will recommend it to anyone who asks me about it and all the smiles this thing gets when its out in the public speaks volumes. I cant wait to become more familiar with Mac OS so I can enjoy it even more
I cant believe I am saying this but Windows sucks!!!!!!
I also agree with PDE.....am I really using a computer, its like holding one of the dummy phones in a cell phone store.......only this one has all the guts and kicks arse.
Granted it does have some shortcomings, the Edmonton Oilers during their ruling of the NHL didnt have the best D, could have been better shorthanded, had a nicer arena to play in....get my drift. They still were Stanley Cup Champs for years and in my eyes, for my use, the MBA is tops baby.
Mine showed up at my office yesterday so I am still drooling a bit but wow. I just watched a slide show with some pics I took with an older Sony dig camera and I was blown away with how unreal the PQ is on this thing. I would hate to see the high res screen on this. I was so sick of hearing how the MBA doesnt have this and is missing that and yada yada yada. I was starting to doubt my purchase but now that its in my hot little hands
I know some people will buy a MBA and return it cause its just not fast enough or they miss their firewire port or the battery doesnt last long enough. I understand that everyone wants the 'dream' machine that does everything and maybe some day we will get that. I have to tell you that I love my MBA and I will recommend it to anyone who asks me about it and all the smiles this thing gets when its out in the public speaks volumes. I cant wait to become more familiar with Mac OS so I can enjoy it even more
I cant believe I am saying this but Windows sucks!!!!!!
I also agree with PDE.....am I really using a computer, its like holding one of the dummy phones in a cell phone store.......only this one has all the guts and kicks arse.
Actually, they are a lot better. Hopefully the MacBook screen will be upgraded soon (and all will be offered in matte as an option for people like us photogs).
Quite Pleased
1.8GHz, 64MB SSD - quite pleased. I picked up the InvisibleSHIELD product and am very happy with the fit and look.
My one initial disappointment was drive capacity. The 64GB formats to about 55GB, and there's only about 36GB free after delivery. I mainly use the notebook to present at conferences; I speak on Windows technologies and so use VMWare Fusion. My two main VMs are 25GB together - I was starting to feel potential cramp.
Step 1 was to get the VMs under control. After a defrag, zero-out, and shrink, they're each under 5GB - they fit on a DVD+R(DL), which is a great backup to have handy at conferences.
Step 2 was to trim down the MBA. I first deleted all the printer drivers, which I'll never use on this machine. Then I deleted all the apps I'll never use on it - iLife, for example - and installed the ones I will, like Fusion and Office 2008. I also deleted a few extraneous apps/utilities that I really will *never* use, and deleted their supporting libraries (iDVD's alone is over 1GB).
Step 3 was Monolingual. After it removed all the non-Intel code from the Universal binaries, and after it removed the dozens of languages I don't speak, I have just about 44GB free. That's OS X (trimmed down as noted), Office, and Fusion - plenty of room for my VMs and any slide decks I need at the time.
Pity OS X doesn't come with a "trim down" tool of its own. I mean, the idea of Universal binaries is great, but my laptop simply will never run anything but Intel, of course, so why not ditch all the bloat? It's nice that (unlike Windows), you *can* just delete an app and be done with it; you don't have to hunt around in fifty places for pieces of it that are still lingering around. But it'd be great if OS X had some functionality to customize the footprint a bit more. I love iLife on my iMac, but I just don't need it on my laptop, so why not give me a button to get rid of it?
The printer drivers are an especial offense, because every one of them is Universal, carting around executable code I'll *never need* (and the PPC code is somewhat larger than the Intel code, too). Since it's unlikely I'll ever need to copy, say, Mail or a printer driver from my Intel Mac to a PPC Mac, I wonder why the Leopard installer couldn't just figure out the target platform and only copy the bits the platform can actually execute. Save a ton of room and possibly time, given the smaller files that would need to be copied.
But I've been delighted (after being initially hesitant) with the performance of the MBA. I can run two VMs at once (one is Win2008 x64 as a domain controller, the other running WinXP SP2), have PowerPoint open for a slide presentation, and everything is quite snappy. It runs incredibly cool and thus quieter with the SSD in there; my old MacBook got quite wound up when I put that kind of I/O load on it.
And Spaces is *the bomb* for presentations: Get PowerPoint running in one space and each VM in another, and I can switch between them more easily than I could on my old Windows machine (PowerPoint is sub-optimal with Windows' Alt+Tab trick when it's actually running a presentation). Realizing that Spaces is Leopard generally and not the MBA in particular, it's something that's made the Mac a very viable and appreciated tool for what I do.
To be clear, the MBA is *not* a full-time machine for me - I have an iMac for that. I'm not certain it *could* be a full-time machine with its limited connectivity, but I've long been a fan of ultraportables. The performance/portability compromise is one I'm firmly on the "portability" side of, and the MBA hits exactly the right balance. The full-size keyboard is a must - I have large hands - but I get the light weight and small size that I want to travel with.
1.8GHz, 64MB SSD - quite pleased. I picked up the InvisibleSHIELD product and am very happy with the fit and look.
My one initial disappointment was drive capacity. The 64GB formats to about 55GB, and there's only about 36GB free after delivery. I mainly use the notebook to present at conferences; I speak on Windows technologies and so use VMWare Fusion. My two main VMs are 25GB together - I was starting to feel potential cramp
.Step 1 was to get the VMs under control. After a defrag, zero-out, and shrink, they're each under 5GB - they fit on a DVD+R(DL), which is a great backup to have handy at conferences.
Step 2 was to trim down the MBA. I first deleted all the printer drivers, which I'll never use on this machine. Then I deleted all the apps I'll never use on it - iLife, for example - and installed the ones I will, like Fusion and Office 2008. I also deleted a few extraneous apps/utilities that I really will *never* use, and deleted their supporting libraries (iDVD's alone is over 1GB).
Step 3 was Monolingual. After it removed all the non-Intel code from the Universal binaries, and after it removed the dozens of languages I don't speak, I have just about 44GB free. That's OS X (trimmed down as noted), Office, and Fusion - plenty of room for my VMs and any slide decks I need at the time.
Pity OS X doesn't come with a "trim down" tool of its own. I mean, the idea of Universal binaries is great, but my laptop simply will never run anything but Intel, of course, so why not ditch all the bloat? It's nice that (unlike Windows), you *can* just delete an app and be done with it; you don't have to hunt around in fifty places for pieces of it that are still lingering around. But it'd be great if OS X had some functionality to customize the footprint a bit more. I love iLife on my iMac, but I just don't need it on my laptop, so why not give me a button to get rid of it?
The printer drivers are an especial offense, because every one of them is Universal, carting around executable code I'll *never need* (and the PPC code is somewhat larger than the Intel code, too). Since it's unlikely I'll ever need to copy, say, Mail or a printer driver from my Intel Mac to a PPC Mac, I wonder why the Leopard installer couldn't just figure out the target platform and only copy the bits the platform can actually execute. Save a ton of room and possibly time, given the smaller files that would need to be copied.
But I've been delighted (after being initially hesitant) with the performance of the MBA. I can run two VMs at once (one is Win2008 x64 as a domain controller, the other running WinXP SP2), have PowerPoint open for a slide presentation, and everything is quite snappy. It runs incredibly cool and thus quieter with the SSD in there; my old MacBook got quite wound up when I put that kind of I/O load on it.
And Spaces is *the bomb* for presentations: Get PowerPoint running in one space and each VM in another, and I can switch between them more easily than I could on my old Windows machine (PowerPoint is sub-optimal with Windows' Alt+Tab trick when it's actually running a presentation). Realizing that Spaces is Leopard generally and not the MBA in particular, it's something that's made the Mac a very viable and appreciated tool for what I do.
To be clear, the MBA is *not* a full-time machine for me - I have an iMac for that. I'm not certain it *could* be a full-time machine with its limited connectivity, but I've long been a fan of ultraportables. The performance/portability compromise is one I'm firmly on the "portability" side of, and the MBA hits exactly the right balance. The full-size keyboard is a must - I have large hands - but I get the light weight and small size that I want to travel with.
If you're after a speed demon, then the MBA wasn't made for you. It's an ultraportable; laptops designed to weigh less than 3 pounds are rarely speed demons. The MBA is made for people who need high portability and relatively less performance. That said, I can easily run two copies of Windows Server 2008 on it (in VMWare Fusion) along with PowerPoint, all at the same time - that's sufficient performance for me.
1 Week and still loving it
Well, I've had my MBA in use for a week (sat in my office for a week while I was out of the country) and I can say that I still love it. I have the standard configuration machine and yes, it's not nearly as fast as my MBP 2.33 with 2Gig of ram but it's fast enough to run office, cruise the web, and do my general stuff from the road. I highly recommend the the USB Ethernet adaptor as I found I needed one right away this weekend when at a new hotel with no wireless in the room. Battery life is great, much better than my MBP and screen, keyboard and track pad are all great! If you want a full featured computer without the weight then you're all out of excuses!
PS-Already sold my MBP and ordered my BodyGuardz and new WF design case!
Well, I've had my MBA in use for a week (sat in my office for a week while I was out of the country) and I can say that I still love it. I have the standard configuration machine and yes, it's not nearly as fast as my MBP 2.33 with 2Gig of ram but it's fast enough to run office, cruise the web, and do my general stuff from the road. I highly recommend the the USB Ethernet adaptor as I found I needed one right away this weekend when at a new hotel with no wireless in the room. Battery life is great, much better than my MBP and screen, keyboard and track pad are all great! If you want a full featured computer without the weight then you're all out of excuses!
PS-Already sold my MBP and ordered my BodyGuardz and new WF design case!
Good on you for being happy with the MBA, but you cannot call it a "full featured" notebook, just because it's fast enough and has a harddisk. And especially not in a post where you, yourself, mention the need to buy an ethernet adaptor.
A "full-featured" notebook with just a mini-dvi and a single usb-port, no optical drive no ethernet, no fw (okay, that's debatable – but on a mac??) come now.
A "full-featured" notebook with just a mini-dvi and a single usb-port, no optical drive no ethernet, no fw (okay, that's debatable – but on a mac??) come now.
Actually, a better way to TRULY "trim down the MBA" would have been to have done a clean reinstall of the OS, where you could then eliminate the offending items. Simply deleting programs and printer drivers isn't going to give you the same absolutely cleaned-up HD as a reinstall does.
Still missing the point
This sort of criticism is getting rather tiresome. The MBA is "full-featured" for those who don't need what the MBA hasn't got, and isn't "full-featured" for those who do. In other words, the only person who can pronounce a particular computer "full-featured" or otherwise is the individual user. This simple fact should dissuade all but the most imperious from rendering blanket judgments about the MBA's features, or lack thereof.
This sort of criticism is getting rather tiresome. The MBA is "full-featured" for those who don't need what the MBA hasn't got, and isn't "full-featured" for those who do. In other words, the only person who can pronounce a particular computer "full-featured" or otherwise is the individual user. This simple fact should dissuade all but the most imperious from rendering blanket judgments about the MBA's features, or lack thereof.
That helps deal with the nasty frameworks floating around, but you could still go back and lipo/Monolingual/Xslimmer the PPC code out of the remaining Applications. This additional, aggressive step buys you quite a bit if you have lots of apps installed; the PPC code is about 20-40% of the space in an Universal app.
There are of course, some apps that don't take nicely to having lipo done on it... don't lipo an Adobe application... and don't lipo World of Warcraft.