Thanks!! That works..... I knew they didn't forget...
get a program called lab tick it the best for light on the keyboard....
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MacBook Air First Impressions and Notes
- Thread starter arn
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get a program called lab tick it the best for light on the keyboard....
I had that happen to a Powerbook G4 a number of years ago. I had to muck with it/calibrate it manually by holding my hand over the sensor, setting brightness, and then uncovering the sensor. I don't have my MBAir yet, it's on a plane... so I can't vouch that this procedure works at all for this.
That's better than I thought. Assuming you decide to keep 10GB free for virtual memory, that leaves you with 28 GB for storing your documents, tunes, movies, pictures, etc. Not a lot by today's standards but doable.
love it but remote disc won't work
i think the machine is great. the screen is very very bright making it easier to see than my 15" powerbook. it's quick and it's LIGHT!! but...i need to install some software and the remote disc won't work. i called apple and got a guy who was excited as this was his first macbook air call. but he knew nothing. he tried emailing a "product specialist" who also couldn't help and they put me in the hold line for a specialist and i gave up after 30 minutes. will try again today but this is a huge disappointment.
i think the machine is great. the screen is very very bright making it easier to see than my 15" powerbook. it's quick and it's LIGHT!! but...i need to install some software and the remote disc won't work. i called apple and got a guy who was excited as this was his first macbook air call. but he knew nothing. he tried emailing a "product specialist" who also couldn't help and they put me in the hold line for a specialist and i gave up after 30 minutes. will try again today but this is a huge disappointment.
may be dumb question but dId you follow these instructions?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307317
Once you get the remote disc installed on your desktop, click remote disc on the air and click the upper right hand button "ask to use".
Mine worked great for installs last night from my iMac dvd Drive
no luck
thanks for the thought but after another 45 on the phone with apple, it's been determined that i have a faulty mba. so i will go get another one today but....oops there are no more in the store so i iwill have to wait. i guess this can happen with any product but it's truly a bummer.
thanks for the thought but after another 45 on the phone with apple, it's been determined that i have a faulty mba. so i will go get another one today but....oops there are no more in the store so i iwill have to wait. i guess this can happen with any product but it's truly a bummer.
Sorry to hear that :/ Happened to me with my first Mac ever, had it for four hours and when I came back from business the display adapter had decided to go haywire and garbled my screen. It was a 20" iMac Core Duo and one of the first units around so getting a replacement took a week.
"Nice".
Exceeds my expectations!
I was lucky enough to snag a 1.6/HHD in a store yesterday, and quite frankly I'm amazed. The MacBook Air really has to be experienced. It has a feel unlike any other computer--light but solid, like a precision instrument rather than a hunk of plastic. The rounded taper of the closed unit makes it wonderfully comfortable to carry. And its thinness really can't be conveyed by pictures. It's as thin as the lid of my old iBook G4--at its thickest point. The tapering makes one perceive it as even thinner, and introduces an organic warmness to counterbalance the aluminum. Quite honestly, the MBA doesn't feel like a flashy design statement. It feels like it's designed to be used ubiquitously, to be picked up and casually carried everywhere, like a magazine.
I'm a writer, and I need two things: a usably-sized, high-contrast screen and a responsive full-sized keyboard. The MBA knocks both out of the park. The backlit LED display is extremely eye-friendly, and the keyboard has a healthy degree of "travel" (depth of key depression) for ease of touch-typing. It's chiclet-style like all Apple keyboards these days, but the keys sit a tad higher than on the desktop keyboards. The black keys, which I didn't like when I saw the MBA in photos, seem just right in person.
Technosnobs can complain all they want about how the MBA can't, say, edit video on the fly. I don't care. Other machines can't do what I want to do, which is to be able to write and research productively anytime, anyplace. I can't emphasize enough how much the form factor and weight puts this computer into an entirely differently category.
A few observations:
1.) The click bar is a little small. I'm used to thumping it with my thumb, and this one requires more aiming than I'm used to. But the great workaround is to enable single-touch-as-click in the trackpad, which makes the whole trackpad into a click bar.
2.) The multitouch is more convenient than I had expected. I'm already loving the ease of moving between and within pages with simple swipes. It's different than on the iPhone, but easily mastered.
3.) The thin edge is a little too thin, as far as my forearms are concerned. I'm used to resting them on the free space of the keyboard side, but with the MBA that means you're scraping them on the edge. It's a minor irritation, and my ergonomics are probably better served by lifting them anyway.
4.) One thing I haven't heard commented on before: the MacBook Air really floats! At least, that's the impression one gets. Because of the tapering, when it sits on a surface you don't see the point of contact, so it looks like it's levitating.
All in all, I couldn't be more pleased. If you haven't snagged yours yet, know that it's worth the wait.
I was lucky enough to snag a 1.6/HHD in a store yesterday, and quite frankly I'm amazed. The MacBook Air really has to be experienced. It has a feel unlike any other computer--light but solid, like a precision instrument rather than a hunk of plastic. The rounded taper of the closed unit makes it wonderfully comfortable to carry. And its thinness really can't be conveyed by pictures. It's as thin as the lid of my old iBook G4--at its thickest point. The tapering makes one perceive it as even thinner, and introduces an organic warmness to counterbalance the aluminum. Quite honestly, the MBA doesn't feel like a flashy design statement. It feels like it's designed to be used ubiquitously, to be picked up and casually carried everywhere, like a magazine.
I'm a writer, and I need two things: a usably-sized, high-contrast screen and a responsive full-sized keyboard. The MBA knocks both out of the park. The backlit LED display is extremely eye-friendly, and the keyboard has a healthy degree of "travel" (depth of key depression) for ease of touch-typing. It's chiclet-style like all Apple keyboards these days, but the keys sit a tad higher than on the desktop keyboards. The black keys, which I didn't like when I saw the MBA in photos, seem just right in person.
Technosnobs can complain all they want about how the MBA can't, say, edit video on the fly. I don't care. Other machines can't do what I want to do, which is to be able to write and research productively anytime, anyplace. I can't emphasize enough how much the form factor and weight puts this computer into an entirely differently category.
A few observations:
1.) The click bar is a little small. I'm used to thumping it with my thumb, and this one requires more aiming than I'm used to. But the great workaround is to enable single-touch-as-click in the trackpad, which makes the whole trackpad into a click bar.
2.) The multitouch is more convenient than I had expected. I'm already loving the ease of moving between and within pages with simple swipes. It's different than on the iPhone, but easily mastered.
3.) The thin edge is a little too thin, as far as my forearms are concerned. I'm used to resting them on the free space of the keyboard side, but with the MBA that means you're scraping them on the edge. It's a minor irritation, and my ergonomics are probably better served by lifting them anyway.
4.) One thing I haven't heard commented on before: the MacBook Air really floats! At least, that's the impression one gets. Because of the tapering, when it sits on a surface you don't see the point of contact, so it looks like it's levitating.
All in all, I couldn't be more pleased. If you haven't snagged yours yet, know that it's worth the wait.
Got to play with several MBAs yesterday at my local Apple store. They're very nice machines. A few observations:
The three machines I handled were all quite warm to the touch. Not hot, but warm. But definitely warmer than the higher-clock speed MacBooks on the same table.
The HDD models were pretty darn slow to boot. Not exactly a benchmark, but at least provides some info on how the HDD performs.
The SSD model booted faster, but still slower than the black MacBook sitting right next to it.
Keyboard feels just like the MacBooks, which I like. Something to note though - the individual letters on the keys themselves were not quite as contrasty as the white lettering on the black MacBook's keys. Even in the light, they're not as easy to see as the MacBook's. Didn't get to try out the backlighting.
The big trackpad is nice, and the button has a nice, solid feel to it.
Light and slim. Oh, did I say light and slim?
The screen pops on instantly, which is interesting to see (since my laptop uses a regular CCF lamp). The screen appeared about 15-20% brighter than the MacBook sitting next to it.
Its a very slick machine. But in the end, I chose to buy a MacBook instead.
The three machines I handled were all quite warm to the touch. Not hot, but warm. But definitely warmer than the higher-clock speed MacBooks on the same table.
The HDD models were pretty darn slow to boot. Not exactly a benchmark, but at least provides some info on how the HDD performs.
The SSD model booted faster, but still slower than the black MacBook sitting right next to it.
Keyboard feels just like the MacBooks, which I like. Something to note though - the individual letters on the keys themselves were not quite as contrasty as the white lettering on the black MacBook's keys. Even in the light, they're not as easy to see as the MacBook's. Didn't get to try out the backlighting.
The big trackpad is nice, and the button has a nice, solid feel to it.
Light and slim. Oh, did I say light and slim?
The screen pops on instantly, which is interesting to see (since my laptop uses a regular CCF lamp). The screen appeared about 15-20% brighter than the MacBook sitting next to it.
Its a very slick machine. But in the end, I chose to buy a MacBook instead.
I think something must have been wrong with that MBA. There is no way a hard disk Mac boots faster than an SSD-equipped MBA. My Sony TZ boots in 45 seconds, at least 15 seconds faster than a 2.2-2.4 C2D with a conventional drive.
Just ran a few tests on both a 1.8 SSD and an iMac 2.4 in SF Apple store.
Cold-launch applications: reboot, then once the machine loads, launch two apps and time them.
Safari and iTunes (boot machine, drag itunes over near safari, click safari then itunes, time to the point where itunes window appears) --
Air: 4 seconds
iMac: 9-11 seconds
Subsequent launches (after clicking the itunes store in itunes before quitting it, so it loads that each time) -- measure to the point where the store re-loads after clicking safari then iTunes:
Air: 3.3 seconds
iMac 3.3 seconds
Reboot (click restart, time until the in-store desktop loads): iMac 1:11, Air 40 seconds.
Boot: Both just over 30 seconds (sorry, lost track of these results or I'd be more precise; they were roughly comparable).
Cold-launch four apps and wait for icons to stop bouncing (iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, and GarageBand). iMac: 44 seconds. Air: 14 seconds.
Cold-launch applications: reboot, then once the machine loads, launch two apps and time them.
Safari and iTunes (boot machine, drag itunes over near safari, click safari then itunes, time to the point where itunes window appears) --
Air: 4 seconds
iMac: 9-11 seconds
Subsequent launches (after clicking the itunes store in itunes before quitting it, so it loads that each time) -- measure to the point where the store re-loads after clicking safari then iTunes:
Air: 3.3 seconds
iMac 3.3 seconds
Reboot (click restart, time until the in-store desktop loads): iMac 1:11, Air 40 seconds.
Boot: Both just over 30 seconds (sorry, lost track of these results or I'd be more precise; they were roughly comparable).
Cold-launch four apps and wait for icons to stop bouncing (iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, and GarageBand). iMac: 44 seconds. Air: 14 seconds.
Clarification
Thanks for the post. Just to clarify: when you say you "transferred for vm" are you saying you just dragged the whole installation (Parallels and Windows) straight over to the MBA, without "installing" windows as such?
tks
Thanks for the post. Just to clarify: when you say you "transferred for vm" are you saying you just dragged the whole installation (Parallels and Windows) straight over to the MBA, without "installing" windows as such?
tks
More tests, MBP vs MBA this time:
Launch 4 apps after booting (iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand).
MacBook Pro (about 1:30)
http://qik.com/video/14849
MacBook Air (11 seconds):
http://qik.com/video/14862
Launch 4 apps after booting (iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand).
MacBook Pro (about 1:30)
http://qik.com/video/14849
MacBook Air (11 seconds):
http://qik.com/video/14862
Imovie, Idvd and Garageband were the first things I trashed on mine. Way big for small hard drive and no built-in optical. This is pretty much a Word, Mail, Powerpoint, Excel, Safari machine. It performs quite admirably with those tasks as I'm sure it was designed. It did take 12 hrs 43 minutes to use wireless migration asst. from old MB transferring 51G...
I used Monolingual to remove languages and got 3.2GB of space back. Did you just put iMovie, iDVD and GaragBand right into the trash to remove them? I know a lot of people are re-isntalling OS X on their MacBook Airs to get space back, can you just trash those apps to get the space back?
It seemed that the MBP had projects in progress that had to load. iMovie looked like it had something about snowboarding. Whereas the Air seemed to open the applications blank. iDVD simply came up with its "new/open project" screen. That might have affected the launch speed.
Screen Bezel seems a little warped
Got my MBA last night and it has been just a pleasure. I was scared about dead LCD pixels or the trackpad not clicking properly (problems I have had in the past), but like the more recent purchases I have made, this thing has really been perfect. Or nearly perfect. I noticed on the take-a-part posted on macrumors thay they bent the bezel when doing so due to the very sticky double sided tape holding the bezel down. For some reason, my bezel, immediately adjacent to the Macbook air logo to the right, has a small, very small seperation from the LCD panel. It big enough only to pass a sheet or two of paper in between, but none the less its not flush with the LCD panel as is the rest of the bezel. Does anyone else have this problem?
I know its not the LCD, when the computer is off the LCD from all angles is perfect. I can depress the bezel to push it in but I was afraid of doing damage to the LCD by pushing too hard. Its also pretty hard to notice, and you can't tell when looking head on, only when starring down the side or top of the unit. Should I bring this in to have it looked at, or just deal?
JB
Got my MBA last night and it has been just a pleasure. I was scared about dead LCD pixels or the trackpad not clicking properly (problems I have had in the past), but like the more recent purchases I have made, this thing has really been perfect. Or nearly perfect. I noticed on the take-a-part posted on macrumors thay they bent the bezel when doing so due to the very sticky double sided tape holding the bezel down. For some reason, my bezel, immediately adjacent to the Macbook air logo to the right, has a small, very small seperation from the LCD panel. It big enough only to pass a sheet or two of paper in between, but none the less its not flush with the LCD panel as is the rest of the bezel. Does anyone else have this problem?
I know its not the LCD, when the computer is off the LCD from all angles is perfect. I can depress the bezel to push it in but I was afraid of doing damage to the LCD by pushing too hard. Its also pretty hard to notice, and you can't tell when looking head on, only when starring down the side or top of the unit. Should I bring this in to have it looked at, or just deal?
JB
That's fun, I have a 17" pre-Santa Rosa C2D MBP and a 15" Santa Rosa C2D MBP, and neither has a brightness option for the keyboard backlight.
BTW, the 17" in 10.5 and the 15" is 10.4.
I just got back from the Flatiron Crossing store in CO (where they have 4 MacBook Air demo units) and noticed the same thing. The glass screen, though glossier that the matte screen of a MacBook Pro, seems no where near as glossy as the screens on the latest iMacs and MacBooks.
So now that all the stores have them i just went by my local apple store to finally check one out. So I thought i'd give me two cents. Overall, an I'm speaking objectively here, I wasn't that impressed. I liked the trackpad after i got used to it. The only thing that bothered me was the one click, I like that feature a lot, but i found that it would often execute when i didn't want it to. Worked to well I guess.
The other thing i like alot was the design. The screen is bright, the aluminum looks like its a little lighter in shade than what is traditionally used. So it looks bright. I liked the keyboard, and mostly i like the way it looked and felt when you were using it (ie open). Bright fresh, and clean. And the magnetic latch made it open effortlessly and smoothly.
What I wasn't impressed with though is it's selling point. It wasn't a compact notebook at all. Yes it is thin, but i found myself not caring about that after using it. Its as wide as any other notebook and when you open it and use it, the thinness isn't noticeable at all. Imagine the only time you would notice how thin it is, is when you put it in a bag.
My conclusion is just to wait for the design elements to be put in a MBP.
The other thing i like alot was the design. The screen is bright, the aluminum looks like its a little lighter in shade than what is traditionally used. So it looks bright. I liked the keyboard, and mostly i like the way it looked and felt when you were using it (ie open). Bright fresh, and clean. And the magnetic latch made it open effortlessly and smoothly.
What I wasn't impressed with though is it's selling point. It wasn't a compact notebook at all. Yes it is thin, but i found myself not caring about that after using it. Its as wide as any other notebook and when you open it and use it, the thinness isn't noticeable at all. Imagine the only time you would notice how thin it is, is when you put it in a bag.
My conclusion is just to wait for the design elements to be put in a MBP.
But isn't that the whole point?
Its thin and light to make it ideal to carry around with you, yet when you open it, you get a great screen and a full keyboard?
Not having a go at all as i agree with you to an extent, i just think we see it from different sides