what have you done with Your MB Air?

[APPLENEWBIE]

As my 20" iMac is out for repair (bad graphics chip, apparently. Under applecare. Thank god...) I am using my MBA as a substitute temporarily. Here is the setup:

USB Port: 7-port USB hub: two printers; ethernet adapter to router; 2 external hard drives - one of which has two partitions (the Superduper clone I am booted to (copy of the iMac) and the External iTunes library; one iPod sync cable; one eyeTV USB connector.

Micro DVI to VGA adaptor to external monitor.

Audio Out: External speakers.

Pretty good for three on-board ports, huh?

 

[justit]

You've made good use of your ports, a lessen many non MBA critics don't understand.

In the future, you may want to consider DVI as its much better for color than VGA.

 

[iParis]

As my 20" iMac is out for repair (bad graphics chip, apparently. Under applecare. Thank god...) I am using my MBA as a substitute temporarily. Here is the setup:

USB Port: 7-port USB hub: two printers; ethernet adapter to router; 2 external hard drives - one of which has two partitions (the Superduper clone I am booted to (copy of the iMac) and the External iTunes library; one iPod sync cable; one eyeTV USB connector.

Micro DVI to VGA adaptor to external monitor.

Audio Out: External speakers.

Pretty good for three on-board ports, huh?

That sounds pretty cool.
Pic?

 

[APPLENEWBIE]

That sounds pretty cool.
Pic?

And the only thing that doesnt seem to want to work is eyeTV for some reason... as far as a picture.... just picture a snarl of wires on a desk hooked to a very light computer.... got it?

Also, I guess it is the mini-DVI to DVI adapter... don't know my adapters very well...

And, I miscounted... it is a 9 port USB hub, so one more thing plugged in is the mouse/keyboard duo and I even have a free USB port!

 

[iBookG4user]

As my 20" iMac is out for repair (bad graphics chip, apparently. Under applecare. Thank god...) I am using my MBA as a substitute temporarily. Here is the setup:

USB Port: 7-port USB hub: two printers; ethernet adapter to router; 2 external hard drives - one of which has two partitions (the Superduper clone I am booted to (copy of the iMac) and the External iTunes library; one iPod sync cable; one eyeTV USB connector.

Micro DVI to VGA adaptor to external monitor.

Audio Out: External speakers.

Pretty good for three on-board ports, huh?

That sounds like a pretty nice setup. I just use my MacBook Air around the house and on the road with my MacBook Pro doing any heavy lifting. My MacBook Air couldn't replace my MacBook Pro, though, as all of my external hard drives use FireWire.

 

[APPLENEWBIE]

My MacBook Air couldn't replace my MacBook Pro, though, as all of my external hard drives use FireWire.

Same here. I switched both external drives to USB instead of firewire. Actually I was a little surprised that the MBA booted from the USB superduper clone. Is it true that until recently macs wouldn't boot from anything other than firewire?

 

[Cynicalone]

Is it true that until recently macs wouldn't boot from anything other than firewire?

I swear it was firewire only but I've heard of others being able to do it on the new MacBooks. I wonder when they changed it?

Anyway to answer your original question. I use my MacBook Air as a secondary computer and use my iMac's for everything at home. The Air is my constant travel companion. It's nice to know it could be a desktop replacement if it had to be.

 

[APPLENEWBIE]

I swear it was firewire only but I've heard of others being able to do it on the new MacBooks. I wonder when they changed it?

Anyway to answer your original question. I use my MacBook Air as a secondary computer and use my iMac's for everything at home. The Air is my constant travel companion. It's nice to know it could be a desktop replacement if it had to be.

I use my MBA similarly. Kind of cool to be able to do this, though.

 

[iBookG4user]

Same here. I switched both external drives to USB instead of firewire. Actually I was a little surprised that the MBA booted from the USB superduper clone. Is it true that until recently macs wouldn't boot from anything other than firewire?

I've heard of being able to boot windows from a flash drive before, so I do not believe it is a new feature.

 

[SFStateStudent]

Totally cool, but I've added the wireless keyboard and mouse while running to a 40" LCD Sony Bravia...

 

[APPLENEWBIE]

I got EyeTV to work and recorded a one hour TV show. Interestingly, running a conversion from the EyeTV recording to the AppleTV setting took nearly 2 1/2 hours, whereas the Imac does it in approximately 50 minutes. Both cores of the processor were maxed out and the fan ran at about 6000 RPM most of the time. Worked fine, however. Interesting that there is so much difference between the iMac's Invidia graphic chip and the integrated graphics on the MBA.

 

[GoCubsGo]

I use it solely as a laptop for around the house and travel. I am definitely loving this machine. I was totally against it when they first came out and still hate the name; and the fact people call it a MBA, but it is wonderful.

Tonight I am linking all my music from my NAS to it, finally saw the fans pipe up to 5400 rpm and the temp get to 74ºC . It was nice to hear the fans, albeit faint, because I wasn't sure I had any ... not that I was complaining because I also don't have heat issues.

This bad boy is heading cross country with me as well. The bag I have is far too large, but when I get home I have a new one waiting.