Shame on you Apple !

[KnightWRX]

It is like trying not to look at a car wreck. Several pages of posts later, and it dawns on me that for the original poster, his disappointment is real, no matter what we think.

You assume the original poster was even disappointed to begin with. Seriously, comparing a monster huge laptop or Atom equipped laptops with the MBA sounds more like someone trying to flare emotions and spawn inflammatory posts for entertainment.

You empathize too much. The OP wasn't here because he was disappointed, he knew full well about all the flaws in his argument. He banked on them.

 

[Maven1975]

I didint buy the Air this time around because I have become addicted to gaming on the go. The Air is great for what it offers, but I actually purchased my first PC in several years because Apple REFUSES to put a dedicated video card in a 13" or small laptop.

I still have an iMac at home for all of my creative needs, but Win 7 is not bad and I have been enjoying the change. The trackpads suck tho... (Sony Z)

If Apple decides to redsign the MacBook Pro's without a dedicted chip in the next revision, I will fully agree with you that Apples stance is form/looks over function. I know I am not alone here on this one. Plenty of us are looking for a smaller powerhouse computer.

I applaud Apple for finaly getting the Air to work the way it should have from Rev. B on. Unfortunately, they are now caught up in a Intel/Nvidia pissing match. It will be very interesting to see what this summer brings.

The ballls in Apples court now.

 

[gwsat]

I didint buy the Air this time around because I have become addicted to gaming on the go. The Air is great for what it offers, but I actually purchased my first PC in several years because Apple REFUSES to put a dedicated video card in a 13" or small laptop.

I still have an iMac at home for all of my creative needs, but Win 7 is not bad and I have been enjoying the change. The trackpads suck tho... (Sony Z)

I have no problem with the C2D processor and NVIDIA integrated GPUs used in the 13 inch Macbook lineup. Based on some things I have read, discrete GPUs present a set of problems not seen with discrete GPUs, primarily shortened battery life. Nevertheless, I wouldn't be surprised if an upgrade to the 13 inch MBP in the not too distant future didn't lose the optical drive and incorporate a discrete GPU. It is a shame that Intel's benighted policy of prohibiting the incorporation of NVIDIA discrete GPUs has created so many problems for the designers of Apple's 13 inch laptops.

I hear as many bad things about the Sony Vaio Z as I do good. Its specs are, undeniably, incredible but I have seen many posters to MacRumors observe, as you have done, that the Z's trackpad is significantly inferior to Apple's glass trackpad. I agree that Windows 7 is a quite decent OS. I run it in a Fusion VM on my MBA.

 

[Malsi]

You do realize it only has 5 hours because it's smaller. Because battery capacity is usually related to the size and thickness of the device.

You seriously arguing that a pint of milk can't store a gallon?!!. Did I just hear this right? You're complaining and starting a thread about this because you're trying to figure out why a 30MPG car with 1 gallon tank only goes....30 miles?


we are doomed.

I know this was posted a while back, but this just made me spit the milk I was drinking out of my nose.

 

[J&JPolangin]

I need a machine like the Timeline.

Can't justify the Air's ridiculous price and I'd struggle to use OSX everyday.

Something in a similar form for less than £500 would be ideal.

Whats the current equivalent?

Sounds like you want the Acer Timeline X 11.6" with i7 = $899 USD

 

[raynold2010]

Against my own better judgment and after unsubscribing from this thread, I came back to it yesterday morning and again this morning. I will post just this one more time to say that I am happy for you that you bought an 11 inch MBA, you won't be sorry. I would have told you so yesterday but your post failed to make clear to me at least that you had bought an MBA.

Don't worry too much about the 11 inch MBA's battery life. When I am working emails, surfing the Web, and not much else, my 13 inch MBA customarily gets at least 6 or 7 hours from a charge and if I am using it only off an on during the course of the day, I can easily go from first thing in the morning until bed time on one charge.

Battery life takes a hard hit when you are using a bunch of Flash enabled sites, particularly streaming video from, for example, Hulu or Netflix. My grandson has a 13 inch MBP. Although its battery is rated at 10 hours, if he is dong a bunch of streaming video, he can get only about 4 hours from it. I learned that lessen a couple of nights ago when I watched several hours of Netflix streamed videos on my 13 inch MBA, after first having spend about an hour on another Flash enabled site. As a result of the strain I was putting on it, my battery indicator turned red after less than 4 hours. No Macbook, MBP, or MBA, running OS X is going to have the kind of battery life that the iPad and other iOS devices will have. The upside, of course, is that a real OS X computer has the ability to do exponentially more than any iOS device. The point of this is to urge you not to be hung up on your 11 inch MBA's sometimes relatively short battery life and celebrate its many strengths. Good luck!

Thanks.

Actually, I'm using it for four things : takings notes, doing presentations with Keynote (still waiting for the new iWork !), checking e-mail et watching movies on plane / train. As for the internet, I've got my iMac. So no Flash.

What I really like is the fact i don't need a sleeve for it. No way !! I'm using a pretty simple bubble envelope - and NOBODY ever thinks about stealing it.

And the charger plug is not such a burden. I'm using it the whole day, it's been working for 6 hours without charging, so that's ok.

 

[Jiten]

I've become so accustomed to 5+ hours on my full-size MBP that to settle for anything less seems uncivilized.

I love how you relate battery life with civility.

 

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

Compared to what?

My cheap Windows laptop only has 1 hour of battery life under moderate load. Of all the things that you could bash Apple for, battery life is not one of them. Apple has long been a pioneer in improving the battery life/weight ratio of its devices at all levels from iPods to iPhones to MBPs. Obviously, the poster is just entertaining him- or herself. Thanks, Steve, for pushing longer battery life!

 

[Atamagaii]

Steve, if you read this : think battery life next time. Not hipness.

...Buy a MBP...?

 

[Dammit Cubs]

Sounds like you want the Acer Timeline X 11.6" with i7 = $899 USD

but that doesn't come with SSD. If you add your own SSD. that becomes 1299? 1399?

And then you have bloatware..... after one year it becomes a core i6, then a i5, then a i4, then a i3, then a i'm going to throw this computer away.

 

[Winni]

Sorry if there's a thread on that already, but 5 hours of battery for the 11 inch model is just plain terrible.

I was expecting something that could be a real contender to Asus EEE PC 1005 PEM (update) : 8 hours of battery life.

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/asus-eee-pc-1015pem.aspx?page=2#axzz13NdW0aBf

Of course, it's not thin ! But what is more important for you when you buy a laptop ???

For Christ sakes, what's wrong with you Apple ? I'm a big fan, but spending 1000 dollars on such a limited computer, just for the sake of looks ??? And when your battery dies, you can't just replace it yourself. Give me a break.

I'm really, really disappointed in Apple's strategy.

(Sent from my iMac)

Five hours of battery life are more or less okay for such a thin and light notebook.

The real issues with Apple's strategy are:
- Non replaceable battery (as you've pointed out)

- Non replaceable or expandable hard disk - because this thing does not even have a hard disk/SSD drive; it's basically an iPad with a keyboard

And that is where the journey with Apple is headed: iTunes/AppStore-fueled, non-expandable mobile devices that are of no use without a connection to the "Apple cloud" (or without enough credit points in that cloud).

Free and unrestricted computing in Apple land is reaching an end. If you want to own the machine and software that you've purchased, do not buy Apple hard- and software.

 

[netdog]

Sorry if there's a thread on that already, but 5 hours of battery for the 11 inch model is just plain terrible.

I was expecting something that could be a real contender to Asus EEE PC 1005 PEM (update) : 8 hours of battery life.

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/asus-eee-pc-1015pem.aspx?page=2#axzz13NdW0aBf

Of course, it's not thin ! But what is more important for you when you buy a laptop ???

For Christ sakes, what's wrong with you Apple ? I'm a big fan, but spending 1000 dollars on such a limited computer, just for the sake of looks ??? And when your battery dies, you can't just replace it yourself. Give me a break.

I'm really, really disappointed in Apple's strategy.

(Sent from my iMac)

Then maybe you should have bought the thicker Asus if it better fits your needs?

It's not like Apple has deceived anybody about the battery life of the 11".

 

[archipellago]

but that doesn't come with SSD. If you add your own SSD. that becomes 1299? 1399?

And then you have bloatware..... after one year it becomes a core i6, then a i5, then a i4, then a i3, then a i'm going to throw this computer away.

Price (although cheaper is nicer) isn't the main issue.

For me I'd pay the same to not have to use OSX!

might have to buy an Air and then sole boot Win7 but that doesn't seem right somehow.

and for me, reliability wise I haven't had an Apple machine go past 2 years without it needing major surgery.. iMac..mini etc..

had a play with a MBA in a reseller shop near me. Lovely form factor, screen and keys etc. but then I see that 1995 dock bouncing and the blurred fonts and think ...

why?

oh well, more timeline research needed!

 

[Sifta]

Just a BAD post

Sorry but you really deserve to get ripped apart for posting such a stupid point of comparison

 

[darngooddesign]

...had a play with a MBA in a reseller shop near me. Lovely form factor, screen and keys etc. but then I see that 1995 dock bouncing and the blurred fonts and think ... why?

1. The dock didn't bounce in 1995. Maybe you meant 2005, but in that case you can just turn off the bouncing.

2. PCs use different anti-aliasing than Macs. If you prefer the former you should buy a PC.

 

[entatlrg]

It's and ignorant world ... who cares ... I LOVE my 11" MBA

 

[linuxcooldude]

Free and unrestricted computing in Apple land is reaching an end. If you want to own the machine and software that you've purchased, do not buy Apple hard- and software.

To be fair, most software is only licensed to use, not actually owned. The same with music. Its been that way for a very long time.

 

[hcho3]

Just because that is how you feel, it doesn't mean that is how everyone would feel, dude.

You think average joe would want to customize everything on his/her computer?

Not everyone wants to break machines apart and hack it. Not everyone use torrent to download files and it is illegal anyway.

Please keep your opinion to yourself.

 

[Consultant]

Let's see, netbook: few minutes to start up, few minutes to sleep, few minutes to wake up, few minutes to shut down.

Oh wait, what battery life?

 

[gwsat]

Thanks.

Actually, I'm using it for four things : takings notes, doing presentations with Keynote (still waiting for the new iWork !), checking e-mail et watching movies on plane / train. As for the internet, I've got my iMac. So no Flash.

What I really like is the fact i don't need a sleeve for it. No way !! I'm using a pretty simple bubble envelope - and NOBODY ever thinks about stealing it.

And the charger plug is not such a burden. I'm using it the whole day, it's been working for 6 hours without charging, so that's ok.

when you are out and about and not in convenient proximity to an electrical outlet, you are wise to avoid Flash. I use enough Flash enabled sites that simply not installing Flash was not an option. A good compromise, one which I endorse, is to use AdBlock and FlashBlock. I use them with a Google Chrome browser but they are also available for Firefox and other browsers, too. With these little extensions Flash enabled content loads only when you tell your browser to load them. It has worked well for me. Even using Flash off and on, I haven't had to worry about battery life at all during ordinary daily use. One evening, though, when I was on the road I watched three mostly uninterrupted hours of Netflix streaming video in my hotel room, after having used my MBA for about an hour before that. Not surprisingly, I had to connect the charger about half way through the third hour of streamed video.

I did buy a very thin and light leather sleeve for my 13 inch Ultimate MBA but I like your idea of using a simple manilla envelope with a bubble liner as a sleeve. That should give your MBA a lot of protection. Also, as you pointed out, it reduces your MBA's profile as a theft target.

 

[greygray]

And I'm not going Asus, because it's Windows. And not iPad, because I need a keyboard constantly.

So what do you want? Macboobs? Yeah those sure are long-lasting, might sag a lil' over age though.

 

[raynold2010]

So what do you want? Macboobs? Yeah those sure are long-lasting, might sag a lil' over age though.

 

[Burnsey]

Go buy your crappy Asus eeeeeeeePC and enjoy its 8 hour battery life. It is clearly superior to the MBA in every way I'm sure. Shame on Apple.

 

[andiwm2003]

Good thinking old pal ! (if you're the old pal on your avatar)

5 pages to feed the troll, you girls overdone yourselves.

There are, however, a few people who tried to answer without insulting me. Those are not the fanboys obviously. Thanks to them, but even if Asus is a bad example, my point is still on : 5 hours (tops) is not enough for a "ultra..." whatever.

As for the internet psychology thing, well, everyone posting here, or even just reading it without posting is part of it. There are "fanboys", "whiners" (myself), "wise people giving advices on life", and trolls of course, which I am not, since my motivation was genuine.

As for now, I want to thanks all of you girls who made this thread a flourishing one. I'm going to class, without a MBA. Too bad Steve chose the hipness over practicality.

I thought the 13" mbp gets 8hrs battery life under real life conditions. So apple has already a product for the 8hr customers.

In order to differentiate they focussed on size and weight to appeal to a different customer group. Of course there are still other customers who want something a tiny bit larger than the 11" MBA with 10 hrs battery life. Technically possible and would certainly sell. But I guess that is what the 13" MBP will morph into in a few years. The MBA will always be the ultra thin and ultra light computer with the necessary compromises.

Aside of that you are an idiot for the tone of your mails. You could have made your points much friendlier without looking like a spoiled 13 year old who is disappointed in his birthday present.

 

[Mabyboi]

The 5 hours provided by this TINY laptop still beats almost any larger windows unit right out of the water... if you have such a problem with it, spend the equivalent you did on a MBP instead... problem solved. EVEN STILL.. carrying around a tiny wall charger isnt that big of a problem either! its winds up to be even smaller too!