It would have to be one hell of a thin fan. But if it doesn't, having a totally silent Mac would be near perfect for the corporate setting
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More MacBook Air Details and Notes
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It would have to be one hell of a thin fan. But if it doesn't, having a totally silent Mac would be near perfect for the corporate setting
I feel no excitement about this product. All I see is a concept that shrinks the storage size back to where we were seven years ago with the 12" PB so that we can spend the next seven years getting a hard drive the size of what we have in the MBPs into this form factor. Same with Flash memory in the iPods - we get to the stage where there is enough storage for what people want to do and then the rug is whipped from under us and we start again. And the same with processor speeds. We get a 2.x GHz into a laptop and this is cut to 1.6/1.8 GHz so that we can progress and build back up to the 2+ GHz. The same with battery life being cut too and firewire, etc. being removed as well - took a long time to get FW800 on all the MBPs.
Further, there are the inbuilt money making techniques (someone has already covered the battery issue), while the demo actually says - you don't need a DVD drive now you can download movies from iTunes. So forget all your movies you already bought - buy them or rent them again. This machine will cost you a lot of money and then cost you even more as you find you can't live without an external drive, that you can't use iMovie with a firewire camcorder. It is a machine that will restrict your options and flexibility in so many ways and this shouldn't be happening in this price bracket - give me an MBP any day, I'd even settle for an MB and keep the change.
Further, there are the inbuilt money making techniques (someone has already covered the battery issue), while the demo actually says - you don't need a DVD drive now you can download movies from iTunes. So forget all your movies you already bought - buy them or rent them again. This machine will cost you a lot of money and then cost you even more as you find you can't live without an external drive, that you can't use iMovie with a firewire camcorder. It is a machine that will restrict your options and flexibility in so many ways and this shouldn't be happening in this price bracket - give me an MBP any day, I'd even settle for an MB and keep the change.
Pointless ... why have a ultra portable version thats not fully suitable to those on the road.
Those who aren't making a big deal about it don't travel for business
I think that's the point Apple is making when it says it gets 5 hours of battery life, as opposed to the 1-2 hours PC's are getting. There's alot of business customers who have to carry an extra battery just to get 3 hours.
Yeah, I noticed that, too. I did some math:
If you assume a minimum of 100,000 rewrites, the 64GB drive will last a bit over 2.5 years with continuous writing at 80MB / sec.
(The 51 year number is what you get if you expect 2,000,000 rewrites.)
Practically speaking, even under very, very heavy usage, you wouldn't wear out the drive in 25 years, even at a limit of 100,000 rewrites.
I'm on the fence
I'm probably going to be in the market for a new notebook in the next eight months or so, and I think I might end up with one of these once they get the bugs worked out. I'm a college professor, and this seems like it would be fantastic to lug back and forth from the archives and classes, where I use Keynote extensively. I'm a little put off by the lack of optical drive and nonreplaceable battery, but something to keep in mind is that this thing supposedly will get five hours with everything turned on. Turn off wireless and dim the screen a bit, and it could conceivably get much more than that. We'll have to see how it works out in real-world application, but it's definitely got possibilities. I'm still skeptical about the lack of optical drive, but let the early adopters figure that out.
I understand why some people are upset about this, but really, there are plenty of people who would want it.
I'm probably going to be in the market for a new notebook in the next eight months or so, and I think I might end up with one of these once they get the bugs worked out. I'm a college professor, and this seems like it would be fantastic to lug back and forth from the archives and classes, where I use Keynote extensively. I'm a little put off by the lack of optical drive and nonreplaceable battery, but something to keep in mind is that this thing supposedly will get five hours with everything turned on. Turn off wireless and dim the screen a bit, and it could conceivably get much more than that. We'll have to see how it works out in real-world application, but it's definitely got possibilities. I'm still skeptical about the lack of optical drive, but let the early adopters figure that out.
I understand why some people are upset about this, but really, there are plenty of people who would want it.
If you believe that battery life, I have a bridge to sell you. Apple has a nasty habit of suggesting the battery life to be ~40% higher then it really is.
Ok, where do we start...
Yes, the keynote said you can buy/rent movies through iTunes, but no one said you had to get rid of what you had. This is exactly why Apple built in the 'Remote Disk' function specifically into the MBA and is offering an external drive (that no one is making you buy).
Having recently purchased a digital camcorder, sorry to say that firewire is on the way out as a connection. Most hard drive based or DVD based camcorders now use USB 2 as a connection - as it's standard on every PC. iMovie still works fine if you've got any of those camcorders, which again, is almost any camcorder that uses the new media formats. If you have a firewire camcorder, than than obviously this computer isn't for you. (And also, if you're doing heavy video editing; Final Cut, etc;, the only laptop that's going to cut it is a MBP anyways.)
I just find it funny how worked up people get over this. My favorite color is blue, but I'm not loosing sleep because the MBA doesn't come in blue. Take a breath everyone, it will be ok - even if this computer doesn't meet your specific needs or budget. Remember, someone else thinks it's the coolest computer ever made.
My MacBook gets close (certainly not 40% less) than advertised battery life after 1+ years. Certainly if I use it for certain activities, I'll drain the battery faster, but for what most people probably will use the MBA for (music, surfing the web, Word, iPhoto, etc) it'll probably come close to what they're saying.
As far as Apple's "nasty habit"; most reviews of iPods almost always say that Apple underestimates those battery lives.
Substitute MBP for iPod and you have everyone on MacRumors' response to the iPod Mini.
except that with the new ipods they're actually lasting LONGER than what's quoted.
https://www.macrumors.com/2007/09/16/ipod-classic-3rd-gen-ipod-nano-review-roundup/
Actually if you match the configuration and usage that is used when they come up with that number it is often fairly dead on. In fact in travel situations with wifi off you might get better times then what they quote (since it appears that the 5 hour value they quote includes wifi usage). Of course your usage model may differ and hence run times differ.
Anyway I bet it wont take long until you can get a secondary battery pack that will be connected via the magsafe connector... for those that need longer battery life. Personally I rather have that then swapping in and out battery packs which can get damaged (connectors) if not dealt with correctly (also consider recent travel restrictions on extra batteries).
Of course those traveling can more and more often these day find on board (airplane / train) power sources which can be connected to with a simple adapter avoiding the need of extra battery packs.
You are obviously new to Apple marketing. 5 hours battery life means with every possible power draining feature off (all wireless off, hard drive not spinning, screen dimmed to lowest/unusable setting, etc). And even then it only lasted 4 hours 30 minutes and 2 seconds, so they rounded up to 5 hours. On a new battery with your typical usage, expect 3 to 3.5 hours at best.
One good thing about the MacBook Air ... it makes anyone who purchased/purchases a MacBook feel like a genius. More power, greater expandability, at 40% off the MB Air price.
Not talking about the battery life of the iPod, talking about the iPhone and Macbook [pro].
Source: http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs.html
So, you are really going to tell me a 15" MBP can get 6 hours of battery life !?
Sorry ... but it doesn't happen. Even pretty much at idle you won't get more then 3-4 hours on a 15" MBP. I have gotten 4.5 hours on a 17" MBP battery doing nothing but writing a document and even that is amazing.
Yeah my 160GB iPod classic has exceeded what Apple quotes by a good 15% if not more.
when are they going to be bringing the multitouch to the macbook? I will def. buy one when that happens.
The 2G iPod Mini was the same. They claimed something like 13-15 hours battery life but iPodlounge's tests had it at 24 hours.
I think that conservative figure was the turning point from critics complaining about the wildly inaccurate old times.
Substitute MBP for iPod and you have everyone on MacRumors' response to the iPod Mini.
The iPod Minis were also cheaper and smaller in every dimension, not just the least important one.
THIS is what apple should have made...
CHECK THIS OUT:
http://www.domain-b.com/companies/companies_h/HCL_Infosystems/20080116_frugal_laptops.html
In particular, the HCL 'MiLeap' Y Series:
"The HCL 'MiLeap' Y Series, powered by the latest Intel Ultra Mobile Platform and Microsoft's Vista Home Premium operating system, weighs just 960 gm. This ultra-portable Leaptop comes with a Swivel 7'' touch screen, 80GB HDD, wireless connectivity, Data Card option, blue tooth & Ethernet network port offering full PC functionality with true internet experience on the move.
The MiLeap Top Y-Series incorporates a unique navigational pad that offers multiple navigational features such as touch screen, thumboard, stylus, keyboard, mouse and one touch buttons, making it one of the most intuitive products. It also features a Swivel 7'' display cum note pad, making it a pleasure to input using a stylus and hand writing. The Microsoft Windows Vista Home premium powered MiLeap Y series is priced at Rs33,990
Designed using the latest Intel Ultra Mobile platform- Intel processor A110 & Intel 945GU express chipset- this energy efficient lower power silicon design consumes less power, reduces thermal impact and gives an extended battery life. Both products are fully RoHS compliant with low energy footprint design. "
To tell you the honest truth, I was praying Apple would release this exact design, where you have a really small, and hence ultra-mobile laptop (similar in size to the Asus EEEpc, otherwise being thinner doesnt make it any more portable), which had a touch sensitive screen that you could swivel around use the whole thing as a tablet PC.
This computer will I believe be shipped on the 26th of January, so it will be interesting to see if it will only be sold in India, or if it will find a good international market (which I bet it will).
CHECK THIS OUT:
http://www.domain-b.com/companies/companies_h/HCL_Infosystems/20080116_frugal_laptops.html
In particular, the HCL 'MiLeap' Y Series:
"The HCL 'MiLeap' Y Series, powered by the latest Intel Ultra Mobile Platform and Microsoft's Vista Home Premium operating system, weighs just 960 gm. This ultra-portable Leaptop comes with a Swivel 7'' touch screen, 80GB HDD, wireless connectivity, Data Card option, blue tooth & Ethernet network port offering full PC functionality with true internet experience on the move.
The MiLeap Top Y-Series incorporates a unique navigational pad that offers multiple navigational features such as touch screen, thumboard, stylus, keyboard, mouse and one touch buttons, making it one of the most intuitive products. It also features a Swivel 7'' display cum note pad, making it a pleasure to input using a stylus and hand writing. The Microsoft Windows Vista Home premium powered MiLeap Y series is priced at Rs33,990
Designed using the latest Intel Ultra Mobile platform- Intel processor A110 & Intel 945GU express chipset- this energy efficient lower power silicon design consumes less power, reduces thermal impact and gives an extended battery life. Both products are fully RoHS compliant with low energy footprint design. "
To tell you the honest truth, I was praying Apple would release this exact design, where you have a really small, and hence ultra-mobile laptop (similar in size to the Asus EEEpc, otherwise being thinner doesnt make it any more portable), which had a touch sensitive screen that you could swivel around use the whole thing as a tablet PC.
This computer will I believe be shipped on the 26th of January, so it will be interesting to see if it will only be sold in India, or if it will find a good international market (which I bet it will).
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Hey I don't even like the MacBook Air, but I'm just saying MacRumors members seem to have a history of bashing new Apple products, saying the sales will be abysmal and they have been proven wrong 95% of the time.
IMHO - the best summary of the MacBook Air yet. Very well said and provides an honest and accurate assessment of the new laptop.
I'm not actually new to Apple marketing, so you should probably avoid the "obviously" line. I've been using Mac notebooks for five years now, and in my experience, I have always gotten longer than advertised performance out of my batteries. Maybe I've just been lucky, or maybe I just have energy conscious habits, but that is a fact. I used to get 5.5 hours out of my iBook with no problem. In the keynote Captain McSteve went out of his way to say that it was five hours with wifi on. He might not be lying. Obviously we have to wait until the thing comes out for real-world testing, but I think you're a bit too quick to argue that they have always overestimated battery life.
Perhaps you should try waiting a little bit before going off like that. If you want a Macbook, then fine. Just don't assume that the new machine will underperform, since it isn't even on sale yet. Wait and see what we find out when it is.