Apple Announces MacBook Air 1218
Apple made four announcements at MacWorld Expo: the new MacBook Air, new features for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and movie rentals via iTunes from a TV without a computer involved. The new portable gets most of the attention. It is 0.76" thick at the thickest part, tapering to 0.16". It weighs 3 pounds and has a 13.3" screen and full-size, backlit keyboard. Its Intel chip is the diameter of a dime and the thickness of a nickel. The MacBook Air will cost $1799 and up. Its storage is either 80 GB disk or 64 GB solid-state drive. 2 GB of memory. It has no optical drive (an external one is available for $99) and features a way to wirelessly use the optical drive of any nearby Mac or PC with the proper software installed.
But.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:But.... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:But.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:But.... (Score:5, Funny)
LetterRip
WTF? (Score:4, Insightful)
I love how people rave about Apple's "all-in-one" designs, yet in practice every all-in-one computer is a mess of external devices and cables. My grandma, for example, has an all-in-one iMac... with an external modem, an external floppy disk drive, and a hub... since the stupid computer doesn't have any convenient front ports for a USB flash drive.
Oh, and no user-replaceable battery? Thanks but no thanks... there are lots of other ultra-portables that I'd choose over this one.
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
I hate to 'rail' against Grandma here, but, in other people's defense, MOST people out there don't need a floppy drive, nor a modem for their laptops. Flash drives, cdroms, and wireless/ethernet seem to be the standards for today, and those all work well with most all laptops, Apple's included.
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
Face it, one is very often enough.
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Informative)
So get a bluetooth mouse. That'll leave your USB port open...
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple would reply, 'how last century'.
The answer is you don't use a wired ethernet - Xerox designed ethernet to be wireless back in the seventies, that's why it's called ethernet. Running it over wires was only ever supposed to be a short term hack while they sorted out getting the radio link working. And Apple fanbois aren't expected to be technical enough to worry about security issues.
And, of course, you don't use a flash drive. You use that wireless ethernet to access your Time Capsule[TM] [apple.com], which it seems to me was the really interesting bit of today's announcement from Apple.
So, if you're so mind-bogglingly primitive that you still think digital watches^W^W wired networks are a really neat idea, then you aren't part of Apple's target market for this machine.
Oddly enough, it's the first Apple machine I've been tempted to buy. And although I like the form factor, the thing that sells it for me it the mouse-pad gestures, which are just so much richer and more intuitive than anything we've seen before. Next job, of course, is to hack something together so that that functionality is available in Linux/KDE...
Re:WTF? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
Me? I'm not the target market, either but I used to be. The target for the Macbook Air is the road-warrior, the person who racks up enough frequent flyer miles in a year to fly to Paris for Christmas. I know, I used to be that guy and I would've killed for this device. As it was, I had a Toshiba Portege that was awesome, though underpowered even when it was state of the art. It did me perfectly, and fit like a champ in a briefcase that I could carry into the cabin of the flight. The 5 hour battery life was also more than enough for 99% of the flights I took in the mainland US, and the flights I took within Europe. The only time I would have used the laptop more would've been on an international flight... and most of them either have rather good in flight entertainment options these days, power sockets in the seats or I had my iPod.
I have a Macbook Pro which I love to death, but I have no need of a laptop like the Air in my current job or my life. I like the expandable, heavy and reliable Pro which has run like a champ for me for two years and has given me very little trouble. If I were back in the road-warrior business, I'd be all over the Air as a primary laptop for business, using home networking for the majority of my big file storage and just keeping the necessities on the Air.
This isn't an audio studio laptop... Apple has one for that; it's the Pro. It's also not a consumer laptop... Apple has one of those; the Macbook. This is one aimed at a very specific market segment; those who need an ultra-portable computer but are less than impressed with the options available elsewhere. And at 3lbs with a 13" screen, this is just an incredible piece of technology. Hell, I'd consider one of these for the geek value if I had $2K to drop on it right now. The price point and the name say it's not for the average consumer... the lack of optical, CPU speed, expandability and so forth say it's not for the A/V pro. Like every Apple product except the iPod, it's aimed at a very specific market segment... and one that's been screaming out for exactly this for a long time.
Oh, and if you want to bring issue with the lack of an optical drive... well, I have one in my Pro which I rarely use except when I'm at "home base". And if I'm at home base, what's wrong with me hooking up a USB drive to do the same? Oh, and there's a $99 external drive available as an option if it's really important.
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Informative)
"Every MacBook Air includes a micro-DVI port so users can connect to Apple's gorgeous 20-inch or 23-inch Cinema Displays to extend their desktop or connect to projectors and other displays via DVI, VGA, Composite and S-video adapters. "
Won't hook up to my 30" Cinema display, 'tho.
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:WTF? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:But.... (Score:4, Informative)
A grand for a 64G SSD drive? (Score:5, Informative)
Hard Drive
Your MacBook Air comes standard with a Parallel ATA (PATA) 4200-rpm hard drive. Or you can choose a solid-state drive that delivers faster performance and greater durability.
arrow_open.gif arrow_closed.gif Learn more Loading...
80GB Parallel ATA Drive @ 4200 rpm
64GB Solid State Drive [Add $999]
Wow. Just Wow. Transcript from http://www.macrumorslive.com/ [macrumorslive.com]
10:26 am New Ad for MacBook Air. Plays off of the ability to fit in an envelope.
10:25 am Pre-orders today, shipping in two weeks
10:24 am $1799
10:24 am 2 GB Memory standard
10:23 am 5 hours of Battery Life
10:23 am No optical drive, but a Superdrive accessory is available for $99. Also, software comes with the MacBook Air that allows you to "borrow" a Mac or PCs optical drive.
10:21 am 802.11n + Bluetooth 2.1/EDR
10:20 am Other features: 45 Watt MagSafe, 1 USB 2.0 port, Micro-DVI, Audio Out
10:19 am Steve retaking stage
10:19 am Otellini: The processor is as thick as a nickle and as wide as a dime.
10:18 am Apple asked Intel to shrink the Core 2 Duo. Intel shrunk the processor by 60%. Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel is taking the stage
10:17 am 1.6 GHz Standard, 1.8 GHz Option -- Intel Core 2 Duo
10:16 am 80 GB hard disk standard, 64 GB SSD as an option. "they're pricy, but they're fast"
10:15 am 1.8" Hard Drive
10:15 am How did we fit a Mac in here?
10:15 am Move a window by double-tap and move. Rotate a photo by pivoting your index finger around your thumb. Of course, pinch-zoom.
10:14 am Multi-touch trackpad
10:13 am display is LED backlit. iSight is built-in. MacBook-like keyboard, but with an ambient light sensor
10:12 am Magnetic latch, 13.3" widescreen display
10:12 am MacBook Air is 0.16" to 0.76". The thickest part of the MacBook Air is thinner than the thinnest part of the Sony. It fits inside a envelope
10:10 am We thought 3 lbs is a good target weight, but there was too much compromise with the other features
10:10 am Most people think of Sony TZ series when they think of thin notebooks. Competition specs: 3 lbs,
10:08 am "The World's Thinnest Notebook"
10:08 am As you know, Apple makes the best notebooks in the industry. Today, we are introducing a third kind of notebook. It's called the MacBook Air
10:08 am 4th thing: There's something in the air
10:07 am Steve has re-taken the stage
Re:A grand for a 64G SSD drive? (Score:5, Funny)
You think that's bad? Wait till you see the price difference when they offer it in black.
Re:A grand for a 64G SSD drive? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:A grand for a 64G SSD drive? (Score:5, Funny)
Nice, you can even duct tape the second one to the macbook air and pretend you have a 64GB SSD inside... pure genius!
Re:Laugh (Score:5, Funny)
Re:A grand for a 64G SSD drive? (Score:4, Informative)
That's pretty clost the current going price for a 64 GB SSD.
The cheapest 64 GB SSD I've seen so far is $949 from Dell [dell.com]
In Early 2007, a 32GB SSD could set you back over $2,000 [techdepot.com] so the price per GB has already dropped by a factor of four in the past year.
However, like all technology, SSD's are getting cheaper and cheaper as component prices are falling and the mass production is picking up.
Wot no optical drive? (Score:5, Funny)
What's that? I can rent them from Apple, you say? What a coincidence!
Remember, kids, it's not lock-in, it's Steve Jobs holding you nice and safe in his loving arms...
Re:Wot no optical drive? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Wot no optical drive? (Score:5, Insightful)
How is this related to lock-in again?
Re:Wot no optical drive? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Wot no optical drive? (Score:5, Informative)
The DMCA, in no uncertain terms, criminalizes the very *act* of breaking the CSS encryption on DVDs.
"No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title."
Re:Wot no optical drive? (Score:5, Informative)
* Buy the accessory for $99, then just not carry it with you when you travel.
* Use the built-in software to "borrow" the optical drive on another Mac or PC and use that for ripping.
* Rip it on your other system and then transfer it over the network.
Basically there are several good options.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Wot no optical drive? (Score:5, Insightful)
But yeah, you're spot-on about the lock-in nonsense. If you want a thin machine, ditching the optical drive and moving to a 1.8" drive is the way to do it. It's been rumored for months that if Apple made a thin/small/light/sub notebook, it wouldn't have an optical drive. It's not like streaming DVD-quality video over 802.11n is a challenge - I can stream 1080p through two floors where I can't even see 802.11g signal.
"Integrated Battery" (Score:3, Interesting)
"Integrated 37-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery"
Are they serious? No way to swap out a battery halfway through a 10 hour flight? No way to take it out at security check points (or if it catches fire)?
Please tell me I'm misinterpreting that phrase. Want to buy one now, but that's a deal breaker. Argh!!!
-Chris
Re:"Integrated Battery" (Score:5, Insightful)
"Wah Wah Wah, I want a replaceable battery in the iPod."
Get a Nomad. Some companies even have players which take AAs.
"But they're not tiny like an iPod".
Compare a AA to an iPod... there's no way you're going to get it into that form factor.
Go take the battery out of your laptop. Notice all the extra plastic around the battery. And then the laptop has to have plastic where the battery sits. So you're already essentially doubling the case thickness.
Do you want a laptop that is 0.16" to 0.76" thick? Go grab a ruler and put that in perspective. There is no way in hell you're going to do that with a standard external battery.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I kid you not I read a comment that was something like, "if it has dedicated video, I'll buy it in a heartbeat." Yeah, because they're clearly going after the gamer and 3D development market with these babies. You can always expect the:
"If this product has I'll buy it in a heartbeat." or "If this product costs I'll snatch it up in a second." What we have above, concerning the battery is a sort of reverse play on the same
Re:"Integrated Battery" (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been trying, actually. The 0.16" is clearly marketing-speak, because when you look at the thing the edges come to points. By that logic, I've seen cars that are
After watching the little intro video on the Apple website, I'm getting the impression this is intended mainly as a shiny executive toy. They mention presentations, meetings and airplanes every time they get a chance, for example. But beyond looking sleek, I'm not sure I get the point. I mean, are you actually SUPPOSED to be storing these in packing envelopes? If not, what are the advantages over a normal laptop? Is it worth the inconvenience of no removeable battery, no optical drive, minimal connectors, and limited hard drive options, all for a pound or two of weight saved? I know, I know, it comes with the subnotebook territory - but who are these "subnotebooks" targeted at, anyway?
Re:"Integrated Battery" (Score:5, Insightful)
There are three consistently important things about portable devices - size, weight and battery life. Many people who can afford it are willing to pay for smaller, lighter and longer. It's that simple. If this perspective does not make sense to you - simply write yourself out of the target audience and get on with that which is important to you.
Many users do not need a removable battery, optical drive or additional connectors. It's that simple. If you do, simply write yourself out of the target audience and get on with that which is important to you.
There's a lot to be said about being able to understand another person's perspective and requirements. On a geek site, an engineering achievement such as an incredibly small laptop that (for instance) required Intel to produce a new, smaller chip design is worthy of respect rather than puerile comments about shiny toys. Reducing height by 25% and weight by 40% is a tough design goal. But if you can't understand the user, or appreciate the engineering - just get on with other things.
Re:"Integrated Battery" (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, I've only had a MacBook for four months, which isn't a huge amount of time to go on, but I've not used the Ethernet port once so I'm guessing because it's not necessary. And in eight years of doing the whole road warrior thing with PC laptops - ditto on two USB ports. I know many of my colleagues would disagree because of a need for USB mouse + memory stick. But presumably there's enough people like me out there for whom the design does provide something we need.
I'm pretty sure the 22mm package is new, but I'm happy to be corrected if you can provide a reference.
Oh, come on. Yes, the OQO is smaller but it's a handheld. Yes, similarly sized PC notebooks have been on the market for years and guess what - I think they're incredibly small too! And dearly wish I got something like that from my work. However, from an engineering perspective I can also recognise the effort and achievement in the shape of the MacBook Air, because the tapered shape means less space to work in. Engineering at the margins is usually tough. The M300 damn sure wasn't $300 when it came out - it was $1000 more expensive.
It's even easier to bullshit online, and the lack of comparable alternatives available suggests you're full of it.
Actually, it is. When intelligent, experienced, successful IT people say "I like the look of that product, it's what I need for mobile computing" and you can't understand it - that is a problem with you. And if you can't understand, just walk away.
Yeah, gee, I'm such a sucker. Spending a few weeks wages on something that I know fits my requirements based on years of experience. How ever do I manage to get through life? My last expensive purchase was an American Deluxe Series Ash Telecaster. Pretty basic, no fancy paint job, simple wiring, no humbuckers, no auto-tuning, no whammy bar, no B-Bender, no onboard processing, no mother of pearl scratch plate, no trim, no access to the 24th fret, etc etc. But hey, I've got other guitars. This one looks great, feels great, and provides all the functionality I need from a guitar when I want to just pick up and play. I know my tools, I know their limitations, and I'm willing to part with cash for designs I like. Just because Springsteen's guitar lacks the functionality of Steve Vai's doesn't mean Bruce doesn't get good artistic and/or commercial results out of it. I can live with a single tone control. If that kind of thinking makes me a fanboy, so be it. Having experienced the joy of going from opening my notebook lid to recording riffs within seconds, I'm currently believing Apple have an overall better understanding of what I want from a computer than any other vendor.
Re:"Integrated Battery" (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"Integrated Battery" (Score:4, Insightful)
It's $1799. $1898, if you add the optical drive accessory. And it's cheaper than comparable (but slower) subnotebooks from other PC manufacturers.
Re:"Integrated Battery" (Score:5, Insightful)
I imagine this will see excellent sales among business users, regardless of the "integrated battery". A Core 2 Duo at 1.8Ghz isn't exactly "poor performing". My Macbook Pro is the first generation model with the original Core Duo (not Core 2) CPU in it. It still performs quite well for me, so I'd expect to see similar overall performance from the Macbook Air.
Furthermore, as Apple pointed out, the thickest portion of this notebook is THINNER than the thinnest part of Sony's Vaio slim notebook line. The battery life is rated as high as 5 hours. The keyboard isn't some "compact" model with keys too closely spaced together, and the display is a full 13.3" instead of some 11" or 12" compromise.
Considering the fact that notebooks are largely non user-serviceable to begin with, the need to mail this off for battery replacement shouldn't be a huge change for most laptop users. (When's the last time your full-size HP, Toshiba or Gateway laptop malfunctioned, and you were able to swap out the defective motherboard or video or display with parts picked up at your local retailer, huh?)
Judging by how many notebooks I see in service with totally non-functional, worn out batteries in them - I think for many people, it's not even a priority..... They don't like the price of new li-ion batteries anyway, so they do without when the original wears out. If you have you car and airline charger/adapter, along with your AC power adapter, the ability to plug it in wherever you go still makes your portable computer pretty darn portable.
Re:"Integrated Battery" (Score:5, Insightful)
Could you imagine this in a college setting? 90% of these kids just use AIM, Mail, & Word. And before you go off ranting about how expensive it is for some college kid. Imagine those kids who drive new cars to college. The ones whose parents live in 500,000 houses and drive the latest from Mercedes. $5k is a drop in the bucket, I'm sure they can find another credit card to put it on.
But you know what, they keep Apple in business. And as long as they do that I'm happy with the other toys Apple gives me (ZFS, Unix, Stuff that just works(tm)).
The same reason I don't have a problem with BMW selling their 3 and 5 series to any yuppie that wants to buy it. People that won't even touch the performance of what it's capable of. Because those people give BMW money to make nice toys for me like the M3 which I can take out to the track.
Re:"Integrated Battery" (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I have never gotten more than a hundred charges or so from my battery without noticing definite decrease in capacity -- these are not deep charges, and if you use the battery every day, that is quite a few replacements over the life of the machine...
Re:"Integrated Battery" (Score:5, Informative)
Re:"Integrated Battery" (Score:5, Funny)
.
As opposed to those videos you saw where someone walked up and pulled out their exploding battery after it caught fire?
Re:"Integrated Battery" (Score:5, Funny)
Look, you heard it from the guy from Fox: "we always wanted rental movies online and consumers did too." You aren't a user any more, you're a "consumer" so start consuming!
Replacable battery jeez. Get with the modern world! Next you'll want to install your own apps!
-g
(I love that it's called an "MBA" -- that's the target market!)
Re:"Integrated Battery" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:"Integrated Battery" (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:"Integrated Battery" (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:"Integrated Battery" (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:"Integrated Battery" (Score:4, Insightful)
Lithium Ion degradation NOT covered by applecare (Score:5, Informative)
This argument is often trotted out for the iPod, etc. It's specious. First, it's not expensive to install a new one -- it's free as part of your AppleCare.
Bullshit. The warranty specifically excludes reduced battery consumption as a result of use/age, both under the standard warranty and the Applecare extended warranty. At least they're (more) upfront about it now than they used to be...they now mention that Lithium Ion batteries degrade with time and use, etc.
Re:Lithium Ion degradation NOT covered by applecar (Score:5, Interesting)
Movie Rentals? (Score:5, Interesting)
Touchstone, Miramax, MGM, Lionsgate, Newline, FOX, WB, Disney, Paramount, Universal, Sony all on board.
Library titles: $2.99,
New Releases: $3.99,
HD rentals are $4.99.
Rules: 30 days to start watching. 24 hours to finish
Watch anywhere (Macs, PCs, all current iPods and iPhone
Thanks MacRumors.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Short on Options! (Score:5, Interesting)
So, somebody's going to buy one, and when they foobar their OS and drop it off at the helpdesk, how do we fix it?
Yes, there is USB, so we'lll need to keep a few USB CD-Rom drives around for these things. >p>ah well, it looks real nice.
Re:Short on Options! (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Sweet. (Score:5, Funny)
No FireWire?! (Score:4, Interesting)
Although, you probably don't need it as much if you have that $1000 solid state disk...
For That Price (Score:5, Funny)
Re:For That Price (Score:5, Funny)
apple why the lack of updates for you other hardwa (Score:3, Funny)
like the lack of a macbook pro update, macbook, imca, adc, and mini updates?
The mini is 161 days old and that was just a core 2 cpu drop in update it still has the real old gma 950 video and only 1gb of ram at the same price point.
The imacs are 161 days old as well and they have a weaker video card then the older a bigger imac before them.
The macbook pro is 224 days old.
also where is the xmac?
the mac pro starts at $2700 now but you can cut $500 by going down to 1 cpu.
$2200 for 1 quad core with 2gb of ram and ati 2600xt is better then the older mac pro but what about people who need a good desktop at $600+ and $1000 - $2000?
The Imac screen is not good for pro work and the mini is over priced and underpowered for it as well.
are you waiting for 10.5.2 with amd chipset drivers?
http://www.mac4ever.com/news/34085/amd_dans_leopard_10_5_2/ [mac4ever.com]
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.mac4ever.com/news/34085/amd_dans_leopard_10_5_2/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D10.5.2%2Bapple%2Bamd%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26hs%3DzNW%26sa%3DN [google.com]
$20 Suite of apps for the iPod Touch? (Score:5, Interesting)
I know I'll end up buying them, but it's the principle of it all...
Apple Legal & shareholder lawsuits (Score:5, Informative)
In general, updates to existing products are not allowed to be free if they add new features, only if they fix bugs. There are a bunch of exceptions, including for products that are given away, like iTunes. I expect that the iPhone is actually being "sold" a bit at a time over the course of the mandatory 2-year contract, and so since customers are still technically paying for them, it's okay to add new features in a software update.
I didn't much like this explanation the first time I heard it, but given the number of shareholder lawsuits Apple already gets every year, they definitely have reason to be cautious. As long as the prices for feature upgrades remain relatively low, it probably won't anger the customer base too much, and it'll hopefully keep the class-action lawyers at bay.
Air (Score:4, Insightful)
But really, a non-replaceable battery in a LAPTOP? Especially when Apple says that the batteries are rated for 18 months with "ideal usage"? That seems... a bit off to me. Also I'm betting the harddrives aren't that easy to replace/upgrade.
Come on, Apple! I'll take the same form-factor as a MacBook! Heck I'll take the same specs, just put a real keyboard on it and get rid of the glossy screen! I'll still pay $1,799!
Time Capsule (Score:5, Informative)
It's a sign of things to come. (Score:5, Insightful)
Note: Women are getting more education, and filling more elite/management positions than men [reason.com].
Note: The CEO of Avon cosmetics joined Apple's board. [reason.com]
Apple got a Gap board member to help with retail design and strategy. Apple got a Google board member to have a strong ally in networks and data distribution.
Apple is not looking in to selling cosmetics, I can guarantee that. What Ms. Jung brings to the table is a huge amount of experience in marketing to women. Women who, per the first note, are going to be earning more, spending more, and who are an expanding market for techno-doo-dads which have been traditionally marketed to men.
Oxygen network vs. Macbook Air? I don't know if that's what's going on here, but I think it's likely to think that Apple will be pushing their products--naming, ad campaigns and more, possibly even specific designs--in ways that will be more and more appealing to women. Making a laptop that's 3 lbs instead of 5 is not something that should be ignored by anyone who has ever noted the difference between the average man's hand/wrist strength and that of the average woman.
Sony has done something similar, but half-a$$ed, with their "Bravia - A TV both Men and Women can Love" campaign. I think Apple will go down this road, and they will do it right.
I wonder when the MacBook Vapor is coming out... (Score:5, Funny)
To enhance morale, at Apple there are gigantic posters of Steve Jobs fixing employees with what can only be described as a "level stare".
Re:Expensive (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Expensive (Score:5, Insightful)
Really thin is only so useful. The Vaio TZ (along with some Japanese laptops that we don't get here in the states) allows you to change the way that you live. You can stuff those notebooks into a man-purse (Tumi makes some that fit rather well) and go. You can use them in the coach section of an airplane without fear of screen-crunch.
I'm not saying that the Macbook Air is a bad thing. Thin notebooks are nice, but thickness is the dimension that I find least annoying in a notebook (keeping in mind that my thickest notebook is a comparably enormous Vaio FZ, and my favorite notebook is my Thinkpad T42). I wouldn't want my sub-notebook to be as thick as the old Thinkpads were (think DSM-IV hardcover) size, but the footprint matters as well.
If only someone would bring back the old butterfly keyboard of the Thinkpad 701...
Re:Expensive (Score:5, Insightful)
I have a Toshiba Portege R500. It's 2.4lbs, .77" thick, includes an optical drive, and has a replaceable battery (usually runs me a full 6hrs on one charge with average usage). Granted it's not as powerful as the mac (it has a 1.2ghz Core 2 Duo) doesn't have all the cute features of the mac (my favorite is the backlit keyboard), but it's lighter and has some essential practical benefits over the mac. IMHO I don't fully understand the hype that's behind the Air. It's not nearly as revolutionary as people are suggesting.
Re:Expensive (Score:4, Informative)
I don't consider features like a backlit keyboard or a FireWire 800 port to be necessities, so I have no problem comparing the MBP to competing models that have the same size screen, same CPU, same hard drive and optical drive, same networking features, etc. but a much lower price tag. For example, a configured HP dv6700t with the same basic specs as the low-end MacBook Pro costs $958.99 - less than half as much as the MBP.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Expensive (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Expensive (Score:4, Informative)
How expensive is it? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Expensive (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Expensive (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Expensive (Score:5, Interesting)
The difference in price between the 'middle' MacBook and it is $500. I put together a WHOLE PAGE of stuff that is on the cheaper MacBook but not on the Air. And for less money, seriously, look at the specs, it's freaking hilarious. I'm a huge Apple fan boy but I can't say I'm enthusiastic about something that is so blatantly only sold for the 'cool' factor (insert your 'isn't that all Apple products' line here).
Apple really missed the mark with this one here. At $1000-1200, it's reasonable but at %50 more it becomes laughable. I was really hoping for something in that range so I could replace my girlfriend's aging iBook but now it looks like I'll wait for an LED-backlit refresh of a MacBook, you know, that laptop that actually does something for $1200.
Re:Expensive (Score:5, Interesting)
The difference in price between the 'middle' MacBook and it is $500. I put together a WHOLE PAGE of stuff that is on the cheaper MacBook but not on the Air. And for less money, seriously, look at the specs, it's freaking hilarious. I'm a huge Apple fan boy but I can't say I'm enthusiastic about something that is so blatantly only sold for the 'cool' factor (insert your 'isn't that all Apple products' line here).
"There's no optical drive!"
"You can pay Apple more money to solve that!"
"There's only one USB port!"
"You can pay Apple more money to solve that!"
"There's no user replacable battery!"
"You can pay Apple to solve that!"
I'm sorry guys, I just don't get this one.
Re:Expensive (Score:4, Insightful)
People say that Apple missed the mark with everything they release. Sometimes they do, but lately it hasn't been very often. One thing Apple knows is their customers. Apple Marketing is truly superb. When you say that Apple "missed the mark," what you really mean is they missed the mark for you, but most likely you weren't in their target market for this device in the first place.
That said, you may be right. Maybe nobody will buy it, but I don't think so.
Re:Expensive (Score:5, Insightful)
People DO pay for size. A friend of mine paid almost as much for a Lenovo x61s (IIRC) a few months back. He loves it - it weighs half what his old laptop did, gets about 3-4x the battery life, and takes up so little room that he doesn't need a separate bag for it anymore. That's worth a few hundred bucks for a lot of people, and isn't simply a matter of "being trendy".
I wouldn't want it as my primary computer, but it would certainly do the trick as a second computer (as my iBook does now...).
Re:Expensive (Score:5, Informative)
First, I wholeheartedly agree that there is a market for sub-notebooks. I've been wanting to pick one up myself. I consider the Macbook to be on the larger side of the sub-notebook class of computers. What I was talking about was specifically the Macbook Air, specifically compared to Apple's next smallest notebook.
Here's what you get going from the stock Macbook to the Macbook Air:
2 pounds lighter.
0.25 inches thinner, at its thickest.
Spiffy new touchpad.
OLED screen, meaning that the LCD should last longer (this is a marginal improvement)
1 extra gb of RAM, base (costs $150 to add to the Macbook on Apple's website, $50 to add after-market)
Trendy new computer that few other people have.
Here's what you give up:
1 optical drive
1 USB port
1 Firewire port (probably not a big deal to travelers)
1 replaceable battery (meaning that your travelers won't be able to carry a spare)
1 hour of battery life (even worse considering the lack of a replaceable battery)
1 ethernet jack (probably not a big deal, since wireless is slowly becoming ubiquitous)
400mhz on the low end, 200mhz on the high end.
Replaceable RAM (RAM starts going bad? Your Mac is going in for service. Hope it doesn't go bad after the warranty is up.)
Stereo speakers
Optical audio out
$600
I simply can't believe that the things you get are highly sought after.
Ram doesnt "start going bad." (Score:5, Informative)
Sure, it could happen. Congratulations, a high-tech laptop is less serviceable than a whitebox PC. Whoddathunk it?
As for the optical drive, I use mine every other month, why should I carry it around every day?
The battery
Optical audio out? Completely useless. Stream over wifi or Bluetooth (has Apple implement hifi audio on their bluetooth stack in Leopard?). Apple sells a device for that.
You're missing the point. The Air is not replacing the MacBook, it's a new product. So yeah, it's expensive. Too expensive for me, I'm keeping my MacBook and will buy an EEE to carry around, but this is a nice product and will sell like hotcakes, no doubt about it.
Re:Expensive (Score:4, Informative)
Its also twice as thick, weights 25% more, has a smaller screen and as you say comes with half the ram. Also, in order to get a similar battery time you need the extra big battery. Still a fairly good deal if the Thinkpad has everything you need but for some people the lighter computer with the larger screen might be worth the money.
Re:Expensive (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Expensive (Score:5, Insightful)
if not, why do you constantly talk about its price in terms of its size? ("For a little tiny thing like that...", "the cost of these small machines...")
Time Capsule (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Time Capsule (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I'm underwhelmed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I'm underwhelmed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I'm underwhelmed (Score:5, Informative)
No way. The iPhone (which is 8GB max) uses flash and has zero space left inside. If you're talking 32GB flash, you're adding hundreds of dollars to an already hefty price to get that much flash, and you'd still possibly need to slim down the battery to make more space for flash chips (the thing is seriously packed inside). And a 32GB hard drive like the one in the current iPods wouldn't fit in 1/16 of an inch.
Re:Solid state drive? (Score:5, Informative)
Seriously, they have no moving parts - which do you think will fail first? The manufacturers have been working on the limited write capacity for years such that they believe it's no longer an issue. Modern flash memory can already silently correct for any parts that can no longer be written.
Now all we need is for production to ramp up and the cost to come down.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:A few thoughts (Score:5, Insightful)
In fact, the brilliance on Apple's part here is the recognition (FINALLY) that there are lots of people with big honkin desktop machines who also need a portable computer for going out to meetings, travel or just reading the web (on something bigger then a 3" screen) at the local coffee shop. For us, the Air is perfect - a minimalist extension of our main work computer.
The only two complaints I have about the Air are the hard drive (you get to choose slow or obscenely expensive) and the fact that Apple hasn't really taken the concept of a satellite laptop as far as they could in OS X. It would be cool if my MacPro and my laptop used WiFi to sync up documents, preferences, media files and such. This problem is especially acute in iTunes where I have hundreds of GB of media on my main machine, but have to manually manage those things on my laptop. I wish Apple recognized this problem and solved it elegantly.
Other then that, I already pre-ordered my MB Air with the SSD. I can't wait!
Re:Apple releases MacBook Air (Score:5, Interesting)
You pay for size (Score:4, Informative)
A more apt comparison is the one Jobs did, with the Sony slim notebook, and the Sony's more expensive.
Re:So it's basically a grossly overpriced DVD play (Score:5, Insightful)
Fuck you, my insecure little cupcake.
If you don't like it don't buy it. But get off your sanctimonious high-horse, your false belief that your purchasing decisions are the One True Way and that anyone who differs is a fucking idiot. What you chose to buy does not make you better than other people.
"No nothing"? Except for... a 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 2 gig of RAM, 802.11n wireless, USB2, backlit keyboard, built-in iSight, LED display, 5 hour battery life. Not to mention the software.
Yeah, I guess other than that nothing. If I were a business traveler I'd want one of these. I'm not, so I don't. But I'm not such a child as to think that I'm better than anyone who might.