More MacBook Air Details and Notes

[blindzero]

Is there any word on whether the multi-touch trackpad could just be a software upgrade for us MBP and MB users?

 

[jragosta]

Given the MBA's relatively insignificant advantages - and substantial price premium - over the regular MB, it's hard not to see it as being aimed squarely at the same demographic.

Sorry, but for someone who travels a lot, a 40-50% reduction in weight is not 'relatively insignificant'.

 

[euanmackie]

I really need some advice! Would someone please help me out?

I sold my White MacBook a couple of months before the Keynote, due to the rumors of a new MacBook! Waheyy!

Anyway, I'm not bothered about the lack of an optical drive - I am slightly worried about 1 USB port and a small hard drive. Not to mention no AUDIO INPUT!

I'm a music producer/DJ and need enough power to run Propellerhead Reason, Cubase, Logic and Serato Scratch. If this little thing has the power to do this then I WILL buy one - as lugging the fairly weighty MacBook to clubs and bars, along with a bag of vinyl is annoying.

I want to put ALL my music on an external drive anyway - including ripping all my old Vinyl - therefore all I'd have to take is the MBA, Serato and a pair of cans! That would be soooo cool, especially with such a lightweight notebook.

Soooo, will the 1.8Ghz version run Reason, Cubase & Logic well? These are the most resource intensive apps I use!

Oh, and I'm going to New York with my school on the 13th February. We are visiting the Cube Apple Store lol. Would I be able to buy one over there and take it back with me?

Are there any differences to worry about?

Thanks, Joe.

it should be fine i run thos apps on a old emac and there just as quick as a macbook. bringing it back to the uk is fine just need to pick up either a socket adapter or the travel kit by apple and it will work, there built for both powersettings, but think wisly about the MBA is it the right product for you? no audio input would kill me! and getting thru customs is fine, i was too carefull, i posted back the instruction manual and things like that and put my MBP in a old used case and walked thru, there was no one there!!! but it is breaking the law. blah blab blah! if ur under 18 i belive there might be a rule were u can get away with it !

 

[Joe2000]

it should be fine i run thos apps on a old emac and there just as quick as a macbook. bringing it back to the uk is fine just need to pick up either a socket adapter or the travel kit by apple and it will work, there built for both powersettings, but think wisly about the MBA is it the right product for you? no audio input would kill me! and getting thru customs is fine, i was too carefull, i posted back the instruction manual and things like that and put my MBP in a old used case and walked thru, there was no one there!!! but it is breaking the law. blah blab blah! if ur under 18 i belive there might be a rule were u can get away with it !

Thanks man! Yeah it is a real squeeze. I was hoping for at least a full range of I/O ports!

Well it seems like a modern laptop cube to me! But I'm a sucker for cool and will almost certainly end up taking the plunge. I wont go back to a plastic MacBook so its either mba or a mbp now.

I will be using an external soundcard and a USB hub when at home. It will almost be like a docking station. Floating laptop stand. 8-Port USB hub for all the extras. Should be fine. I will take it everywhere!

Will defo think on it though, as it is a lot of ££ to spend on a computer!

Thanks, Joe.

 

[drsmithy]

Okay, also its been like 4 years since the PB 12inch.

In that period we have saved 1.6 lbs with a bit larger of a screen, but no optical drive, no removable battery, many fewer ports.

Wouldn't a PB 12inch with the only change being an LED screen go down to like 4lbs? It would also be say 0.8 or 0.9 inches thick.

So all that engineering and 4 years of advances saved us 1lb and a touch of thickness at the price of more width and length (again if you exclude the LED).

To this day, I cannot grasp why Apple did not use the Black MacBook, specced up with a discrete video card, etc, to replace the 12" PB.

A 13.3" MBP, with a docking station, would be damn close to laptop nirvana, especially for corporate customers. WHY THE HELL DOESN'T IT EXIST !?

 

[drsmithy]

Sorry but this does not sound right. The size of the drive should have nothing to do with it.

Some areas of a disk are written more offten than others, and some areas may never get written over.

How many times a single byte can be written over before it fails to hold a value?
That is the worst case scenario and we then take it from there to a better value by projecting that only 16% (pick a number) or so of the drive would be subject to that level of activity. Then add to that the ability to move a sector and you get better numbers. But you have to start with the worst case, so the size of the drive should not be a main consideration. Most people dont write into a drive from one end to another and start again, the writes are not that distributed or random.

Sorry

Any remotely current SSD uses wear-levelling to avoid this.

This is also why the larger drive has a longer lifetime (more cells to average the writes over).

 

[NYCMacFan]

Sorry, but for someone who travels a lot, a 40-50% reduction in weight is not 'relatively insignificant'.

40%. By the way, imagine if they took an existing macbook, switched to LED, tossed out the optical drive and used an aluminum case instead.

The new machine would be about .8 thick, have the same foot print (actually a touch smaller!) and probably be just under 4lbs.

If they then put in an SSD or 1.8 HDD in place of the 2.5 HDD, chucked some ports, and then chucked one of speakers that would save as well. Starts to get close to 3.5lbs without any engineering at all and just a few parts changes.

So when you look at this MBA's engineering, its not that impressive... You could see that just incorporating the existing screens and case from the MBP saves you most of the weight.

 

[EdRossignol]

Because $3000 in the US is in our native currency. Your euro buys a lot more than a dollar does. By the way we're heading into a recession here and I believe it's risky timing for Apple to be relying on fashion items for their lineup.

You say that but, its obviously to do with UK price fixing.
Another example is Microsoft Windows Vista, where upon release it had an RRP of $249 (£127) in the United States and £249 ($487) in the United Kingdom. This makes it almost twice as expensive to buy in the UK than in America, which tax differences alone cannot account for.
Why should we pay more?
It was the same with the PS3, £435 rrp on release, almost $900.

Uk isnt looking to good since the government decided to bail out Northern Rock, £2000 per person it has cost the UK...

 

[tjmrpm04]

Now let's use these reasons for the MacBook Air:

1) The MacBook Air, far from being agile, is dramatically underpowered. It's much less 'agile" than a cheap four-seat car or a cheap, thicker laptop. It will
be much less fun to drive than a normal laptop for half the price.

What the heck are you doing with your laptop that requires "Agility?" Do you take it home at night and ride it like a pony or something? Furthermore, how do you know that it will not be "fun" to drive? Do you own a pre-release or prototype of the Air? If you have used one for more than a month (a general fair amount of time to gain a lasting impression of a product) then I apologize for doubting your opinion of the product. If you haven't, then why is it even feasible to make assumptions about the enjoyment factor of the laptop. Some people use a computer but still like to hug trees and eat organic foods because of the environmental impact, so the fact that this is one of the most Environmentally friendly laptops on the market would indeed make enjoyment factor of the Air much greater for the "Tree Hugger" market.

2) The MacBook Air's footprint is the same as a normal laptop or a "four-set car". You can't fit it anywhere you can't fit a normal laptop, except an envelope. My productivity and "driving pleasure" are SEVERELY REDUCED inside an envelope.

Holy crap!!! You are kidding me? I can't fold it up and put it in my pocket? Personally I think that is a good thing. I am a MacBook owner (not MacBook Pro) and the fact that the footprint is the same (same Screen Size and Keyboard) is a plus in my book. Again, I am not going to rush out and buy one for that fact alone but the fact that I can keep a fullsize keyboard and the 13.3" Screen is awesome. Also, since you seem hellbent on this two seater vs. four-seat car example, lets look at it this way. Say you own a BMW 7-series. But then BMW releases and additional 7-series model that runs on fuel cells so that it is more environmentaly friendly, and it weighs a fraction of the weight of your 7-series. Would you bitch at BMW because it is the same size and the other 7-series? I watched the keynote and the ad's and I don't anything claiming that the footprint was intended to be smaller. Also, how is your productivity reduced? If it is going to be, you dont have to buy one. Finally, you mention your "driving pleasure", again, what the hell are you doing with your laptops?

3) The power/weight ratio of a MacBook Air is almost exactly the same as a MacBook. Not to mention that a 5 pound laptop is hardly a great burden, the number is so small that it's irrelevant. Cutting off two pounds doesn't change anyone's experience in any meaningful way.

Ok, don't buy an Air and keep a MacBook. It seems that all the other manufacturers of Laptops think that getting under the 3 lb mark is important since that seems to be the standard benchmark for their Ultralight laptops (read ultralight not ultra-agile). Also all the other manufacturers get under the 3 lb benchmark with crowded keyboards and smaller screens.

4) The wind will blow through your hair a lot better on a thicker laptop than it will with the underpowered MacBook AIr.

Ahhhh so the blowing adds to the "driving experience". It is more pleasurable when you have a less "agile" blower!

In short, the reasons for a Miata have nothing to do with the reasons for a MacBook Air, and that's essentially because there are no reasons for a MacBook Air at all. This computer will make The Cube look like a great product success.

When the new designed MacBook Pro comes out could you write a review before you use it comparing it to the difference between a Thoroughbred and a Pony? Or maybe between a Shih Tzu and a Doberman? That would be fun wouldn't it?

Ok figured I could start the day with this and maybe it would be better than yesterday. Oh damn, forgot to warn you again iRabbit. Hopefully you were not filled to the brim with coffee prior to the read.

Have a great week people! My pearl of wisdom today is the same as yesterday....If you don't like the product don't buy it. I personally don't like Salmon but don't feel it necessary to post about the downfalls and failures in taste and texture on a culinary board.

I'm out yo'. (hmmmm not as enjoyable as yesterday's "peace out").

Thom

 

[AidenShaw]

You might want to consider that there are new rules on how many batteries you can carry with you while flying now.

The rules are at: http://safetravel.dot.gov/whats_new_batteries.html

There are limits on Lithium Ion batteries larger than 100 WHr - since even the MBP battery is only 68 WHr, so it's not affected (except that loose spare batteries cannot be in checked luggage, must be in carryon - ok to check the laptop with the battery installed, but not the loose battery alone). Even my 9 cell extended battery for my Dell is under 100 WHr - it's 85 WHr.

This new rule will affect video photographers more than computer users - many batteries for video cameras and lights are over 100 WHr.

At 5 hours usage with the network running (Apple's figures so it might be more or less)

Unlikely to be more .

A big issue is that the Core 2 Duo is actually quite a power pig when you make it work hard. My 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo Dell says that it should get about 8 hrs (with two batteries) when I start it up and leave it alone for a few minutes. If I push it (say do some compiling or photo manipulation and run some other stuff in a virtual machine) I can flatten both batteries in an hour and a half. Hint: If the fan comes on, check the battery gauge....

So even if Apple's 5 hours is honest (for the load that they put on the machine for the test), doing some work on the machine could easily cut that in half.

That means that your MBA dies somewhere over a "flyover state", or at about 11:00 during the conference morning session - and you have no recourse.

People always complain about integrated batteries but people still buy them anyway (the iPod would have been DOA if this reason actually mattered).

Three comments:

1. Ipod audio run times are 20 to 40 hours - that will comfortably last for a full day of activity. The MBA is tops 5 hours - that won't cover a flight from the west coast to Chicago, nor a day of meetings. If the true life is half that, it won't even cover the morning session, or a flight from San Francisco to Seattle. (Note that larger meetings and conferences seldom have a power strip by every seat.)
2. Your Ipod running out of juice is an inconvience, your laptop quitting can be a career limiting event
3. Many add-on battery solutions exist for the Ipod, perhaps soon one will appear for the MBA (like the APC universal external battery)

 

[tjmrpm04]

The only way into your Air through a wire is USB, so no matter what you clip onto the outside, you're limited to USB speeds. If you want to use an external mouse (not crazy at all) while the transfer is in progress, you need a USB hub, which is going to slow it down even more.

Hmmmmm.....I thought it was called MacBook "AIR", not MacBook "AIR except for the people who are pissed because they can't plug an RJ45 into it". The whole concept is about Wireless. This is designed and marketed as a Wireless Lightweight Portable Laptop. It is not to be the MacBook or MacBook Pro replacement. Apple never once said we are doing away with all prior laptops and this is your only Apple laptop option now, or was that mentioned after Randy Newman left the stage because I couldn't watch much of Randy. BTW, did you know that you cannot plug an Ethernet Cable into the iPhone or iTouch either? Shhhhh don't tell anyone they may get mad about that too.

 

[AidenShaw]

I wonder if....

The whole concept is about Wireless.

I wonder if Apple has figured out how to get good range from radio antennae enclosed in an aluminium shell....

 

[eVolcre]

Well, I didn't know which thread to post this in so this one it is.

I've been reading, analzing and thinking about the MBA for weeks now. Was I disappointed? Perhaps. But only because the hype was so huge, and some of the mockups so ... different. This, well, it's nice and small and light, but it's just another laptop at the end of the day. Fits my 'exec' needs as long as I have a heavy lifter at home. For what I do now (consulting), on the road abroad ALL the time, only one laptop to do everything I needed the screen space, the DVD player etc etc etc. But once I have a normal everyday lifestyle, I'd sell my current workhorse and pick up an iMac for home and the MBA (or the next iteration) for work. And I am NOT some crazy mac fan boy or just a star struck exec with money to waste. My machine prior to this was a 12" PB G4 which was great for grad school but once I decided to get into international consulting, I need ONE computer that can do everything and this is it

But ... and here it comes .. (I'm working in Kuwait right now BTW), I just got a call from my CEO, the Director of Network Planning AND the Director of Sales. They've all seen me around the office with my tricked out MBB17, I've tried evangelizing Apple to them, showed them OSX, showed them Parallels, how light my laptop was even when compared to their Windows 15" machines etc etc etc. Nothing worked. When the MBA came out I sent a one line email to my CEO .. the line about it being thinner than the Sony at it's thickest end and the picture.

They were sold. Forget the specs, forget the power of OSX this is one sexy 'I gotta have it' machine and people will buy it. There are now 3 MAC converts. They all have iPods, Apple TVs, iphones etc etc etc but when it comes to computing, Apple still seems 'different'.

It's a brilliant strategy. Get the sexy, some say underpowered machines, into the top execs and watch the IT departments slowly start switching to MacBook's for normal staff, MBP for people who need power and maybe even the XServe. Who knows.

I personally would buy it for logical reasons adding it to a desktop. My execs just bought it purely for sex appeal but there's a little more to it than that .. they truly don't need much power from their laptops. There were orders placed for Sony Viao ultraportables but as of an hour ago, they've switched to the MBA.

Sorry for the long post. Just wanted to share here that this machine meets people's needs and Apple just did with 'sex appeal' what I've been trying to do using logic and hands on demos for 6 months.

Oh, and BTW, even as a second machine I don't really want anything smaller than a 13", even if it has a smaller footprint. This one would let me do real work (spreadsheets, web research, documents, presentations etc) and let me type on a full keyboard. Not to mention, I allready have a briefcase. This is about as big as a legal pad right? I need to carry legal pads, contracts anyway, what good does a smaller footprint do for me?

Carry on

eV

 

[drsmithy]

Am I the only one who does this? Maybe I am.

No, you're not. This demographic is bar far the largest chunk of corporate laptop users. It's also why the small laptops by Toshiba, Dell, IBM, etc (WITH DOCKING STATIONS) are so popular.

However, the corporate laptop (indeed, the corporate customer in general) is not Apple's target market. I eagerly await the day I can get a ~13" (or even 15") MBP and an accompanying docking station, but I can't see it happening any time soon and I'm pretty sure my next work laptop will need to be a PC. Oh well, maybe I can make a Hackintosh out of it...

No compromises. The best of portable when I want it; best at the desk when I need it.

Unfortunately you still have the biggest problem with using both a laptop and a desktop - synchronising personal data between them.

 

[jragosta]

No, you're not. This demographic is bar far the largest chunk of corporate laptop users. It's also why the small laptops by Toshiba, Dell, IBM, etc (WITH DOCKING STATIONS) are so popular.

However, the corporate laptop (indeed, the corporate customer in general) is not Apple's target market. I eagerly await the day I can get a ~13" (or even 15") MBP and an accompanying docking station, but I can't see it happening any time soon and I'm pretty sure my next work laptop will need to be a PC. Oh well, maybe I can make a Hackintosh out of it...

Or perhaps this is one sign of Apple going after the corporate market. There have been a number of articles recently indicating that Apple should do more to get the corporate market. *

BTW, you are aware that you can use Windows on a Mac, right (either within Mac OS X via Fusion or Parallels or as the primary OS)? If you find that the feature set and price of the MBA is competitive, why not wipe the hard drive and install Windows if that's what you need? (In the past, I felt there were few cases where this made sense, but given the MBA's price advantage against the competition, this might be one of them).



* Looks like someone agrees with me:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=1196&tag=nl.e622

 

[canisreevus]

Someone might have already mentioned this (I didn't read the entire thread). The $129 cost for a replacement battery is for those out of warranty. If it is still under warranty, it is at no cost.

 

[50548]

Probably in 2 weeks from now you should see them showing up in the Apple stores.

I just returned from L.A. to Europe and wasn't able to find it on the Santa Monica store; but this thing is definitely GORGEOUS...everybody I talked to was impressed, even if it's not a full-blown machine but more like a companion notebook...

Apple simply raises the bar again with NO COMPETITION whatsoever in the market; this thing gonna sell like hotcakes for anyone in need of a powerful yet streamlined machine...I am gonna definitely get one when it comes to Europe...GO APPLE!

 

[AidenShaw]

but this thing is definitely GORGEOUS...everybody I talked to was impressed, even if it's not a full-blown machine but more like a companion notebook...

You didn't talk to people at Macworld, though, or me....

The Iphone is gorgeous.

On the other hand, the MBA looks like a nice update to the Dell Latitude X1. (Except that the X1 is smaller, lighter, with a full complement of ports, and a replaceable battery. The X1 is just thicker)

If you don't believe me - do a search for "macbook air" and "latitude x1", and look at all of the commentary comparing the two.

Ive is now copying old Dell designs, but the fanbois don't notice. Nice job of making it thin (at the expense of a lot of practicality), but it could easily be mistaken for an updated X1 at first glance.

 

[50548]

Unlikely to be more .

A big issue is that the Core 2 Duo is actually quite a power pig when you make it work hard. My 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo Dell says that it should get about 8 hrs (with two batteries) when I start it up and leave it alone for a few minutes. If I push it (say do some compiling or photo manipulation and run some other stuff in a virtual machine) I can flatten both batteries in an hour and a half. Hint: If the fan comes on, check the battery gauge....

So even if Apple's 5 hours is honest (for the load that they put on the machine for the test), doing some work on the machine could easily cut that in half.

Actually Apple is the ONLY company where battery life estimations are likely to be shorter than reality...just check the latest iPods and Macworld's findings...

 

[50548]

You didn't talk to people at Macworld, though, or me....

The Iphone is gorgeous.

On the other hand, the MBA looks like a nice update to the Dell Latitude X1. (Except that the X1 is smaller, lighter, with a full complement of ports, and a replaceable battery. The X1 is just thicker)

If you don't believe me - do a search for "macbook air" and "latitude x1", and look at all of the commentary comparing the two.

Ive is now copying old Dell designs, but the fanbois don't notice. Nice job of making it thin (at the expense of a lot of practicality), but it could easily be mistaken for an updated X1 at first glance.

Comparing Apples/OS X with Dells/Vista? No, thanks, this is a no-brainer... But I wasn't expecting you to support my statements anyway...there are fanboys on both sides of the fence, you know...

Replaceable battery? Who cares? If you need one after two years just buy it at Apple...I've never replaced mine for my 2002 iBook anyway.

 

[Kinetic]

Actually Apple is the ONLY company where battery life estimations are likely to be shorter than reality...just check the latest iPods and Macworld's findings...

I have to agree with you. One thing that has always impressed me is I get more or close to the battery life out of my Apple products (Powerbook, Macbook Pro, iPods, etc) that they state. Other companies always overstate but Apple's pretty much been right on.

 

[Lesser Evets]

The 'sexy cool' factor is nice.

Ultimately, for value, you have to ask what you are paying so much for.... no optical drive? Regular sized screen? Small-ish SSD? Super duper fast processor (bwhaha!)?

So it is $1800 for a mediocre notebook computer.

That is thin.

Sad. A good bauble. A nice status symbol. A mediocre product, especially at that price. It'll do well.

 

[unregbaron]

I think a lot of the negativity about the MBA is, as has already been said, people not getting the machine they wanted.

My point is that those of us on this board are already Apple converts, this new thin machine is designed to do for laptops what the ipod did for mp3 players.

It will get a whole new audience tuned into Macs and to me that's exciting and great.

 

[jragosta]

You didn't talk to people at Macworld, though, or me....

The Iphone is gorgeous.

On the other hand, the MBA looks like a nice update to the Dell Latitude X1. (Except that the X1 is smaller, lighter, with a full complement of ports, and a replaceable battery. The X1 is just thicker)

The X1 (http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/dell-latitude-x1/4505-3121_7-31320873.html) also has a dirt slow processor (I guess we know what Intel did with all those Pentium M processors instead of throwing them in the dumpster where they belong), 1/4 the RAM, just over half the maximum RAM, smaller screen, half the hard drive size, 3 hour battery life, and $200 more than the MBA. Oh, and that doesn't even mention that the X1 is no longer available and forces you to use Windows or Linux.

No wonder you advocate Windows - if you consider that to be a reasonable comparison.

Comparing Apples/OS X with Dells/Vista? No, thanks, this is a no-brainer... But I wasn't expecting you to support my statements anyway...there are fanboys on both sides of the fence, you know...

The funny thing is that he thinks the Dell X1 is comparable to the MBA - even though it's inferior in nearly every regard (except weight) as outlined in my previous post.

Amazing the depths some people will sink to to try to criticize Apple.

 

[lowbuzz]

MacBook Flair.

As in - "Hey, check out the metrosexual sportin' the macbook flair!"

No, wait... they'll already be carrying it around in their man purse.

If they take my stapler, then I'll set the building on fire.