MBA rev. soon?

[sir. mac]

Sorry if this is a really dumb question, but do all revisions of apple products come announced? To me it seems as if some revisions are silent, meaning different factories and minor changes (ie. battery change) get some kind of internal revision designation.

What I am getting at re the MBA is if its probable that after just a couple of months we could see a silent revision which smoothes out some of the kinks there seems to be with these first models (recharging times, battery time, video playback causing a lot of heat shutting down a core).

 

[MacNutty]

Rev 2

I'm betting you won't see a major revision till at least one year. You might see the 45nm intel chipsets and HD size increases later in the year but that's doubtful as well.

 

[samh004]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3)

It's possible that they could update a minor component silently to fix issues. I recall the thermal paste problem would be similar right?

 

[MRU]

Give it at least 6-8 months and we may see minor changes.

Chances are the only change we will see though is a price reduction for the SSD model as it's the only component whose price is predicted to dramatically change over the next 12 months.

But the machine has been available for about 2 weeks.... a lot of people are still awaiting delivery / fulfillment of their pre-order. REV 2 is probably not something apple are worried about right now.

Other issues may be corrected with firmware updates and software fixes yet, so let's not be jumping the gun too hastily.

 

[sir. mac]

But the machine has been available for about 2 weeks.... a lot of people are still awaiting delivery / fulfillment of their pre-order. REV 2 is probably not something apple are worried about right now.

I did not ask about revisions they will be touting on the sales-pages, aka. bigger disk, cheaper SSD etc. I was talking more about how long until they make minor adjustments. Stuff like changing the batteries to another factory or batch.

So do Apple usually make these kind of subtle changes without changing the revision (aka silent revision), and how do you find out about it? And anyone care to guess if they will change something soon for the MBA?

 

[MRU]

I was talking more about how long until they make minor adjustments. Stuff like changing the batteries to another factory or batch.

So do Apple usually make these kind of subtle changes without changing the revision (aka silent revision), and how do you find out about it? And anyone care to guess if they will change something soon for the MBA?

Selective quoting I see....

And as I said in my post

Other issues may be corrected with firmware updates and software fixes yet, so let's not be jumping the gun too hastily.

Lets see if Apple can correct the issues first with software fixes which is more than possible....

If they can not then they may correct them at factory level. But no one can proffer any more fallible information at the moment because it does not exist.

 

[sir. mac]

Other issues may be corrected with firmware updates and software fixes yet, so let's not be jumping the gun too hastily.

I hope you are right because I will be ordering the 1.6 80HDD later this week. First revisions are always a bit glitchy though, no exceptions there right?

 

[MRU]

I hope you are right because I will be ordering the 1.6 80HDD later this week. First revisions are always a bit glitchy though, no exceptions there right?

The iMac G4's were probably the only apple product I have bought that was solid from the offset.

But lets face it if they cant solve the battery and heat issues with firmwares then they are going to be facing a huge $$$ loss in replacing all those MBA's out there currently suffering from excessive charge times.

 

[jameskohn]

I would say the three biggest gripes about the MBA so far are:
1. processor power
2. hard drive capacity
3. lack of firewire for initial migration

I'm guessing that within 6 months we see a 2+ Ghz processor AND increased storage, maybe as CTO options. Firewire thing; hmmm, not so sure, but perhaps some better solution to the migration challenge.

In the meantime, loving my 1.8 SSD. It is perfect!

 

[MRU]

loving my 1.8 SSD. It is perfect!

1. processor power
2. hard drive capacity
3. lack of firewire for initial migration

So not that perfect ?

 

[diabolic]

So not that perfect ?

I think he was talking about other peoples gripes, not his.

 

[MRU]

I think he was talking about other peoples gripes, not his.

I know hence the cheeky wink

 

[jameskohn]

OK, "perfect" may have been too absolute a term. I like my new MBA, I like it a lot. As a second (third, fourth...) computer to perform business functions on the road it works extremely well. My computing experience is in no way limited by the three issues I mentioned above.

However... I must admit that there is something claustrophobic about using such a "low power" machine, especially when one is used to using some of the really powerful stuff available from Apple. This is so much more a mental state than a technical issue. My 12" powerBook still had 20Gb free on it's 60Gb hard drive after 2 1/2 years of use. I never needed more than 60Gb. There was never anything I needed it to do that it couldn't do, and of course the MBA does everything even faster/better. Especially with the SSD, there are many things the MBA does as fast or even faster than my MacPro (i.e. opening certain apps, booting up, shutting down...).

I guess it's just the difference of knowing that your computer COULD, if asked, take ANYTHING you threw at it. The MBA on the other hand, competently handles everything I realistically NEED it to do. And it does it so elegantly: As is typical of the best Apple designs, you really want to play with this thing just because it's so cool.

 

[skyrider007]

I think they'll be a Rev in 5-6 months time.

 

[zapp]

I think they'll be a Rev in 5-6 months time.

One thing I think third party vendors are already planning/ designing is a new battery for the Air. Just so I have prior art, a device that is so shaped to accommodate a larger battery but will replace the existing base plate of the macbook air in such a way to minimize the size to being only slightly larger, but able to put a battery 1.5 times the size in for increased run times with the fastening position for the new battery in approximately the same position has the original to aid in battery replacement and mimic the original battery in structure support.