MacBook Air's Battery is Actually Easy to Replace 420
pizzach noted that the MacBook Air battery is actually fairly easy to replace.
"All it requires is a philips screwdriver. Unlike some of Apple's other products, the battery is not so soldered in which should make a lot of people at least a little bit happier." I think I'll have to wait for something with a bigger screen and a faster clock speed.
Keep waiting (Score:5, Insightful)
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And the 17" at that. If that is not big enough you could always convince them to develop the 30" portable, but that would be a tad ridiculous.
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Re:Keep waiting (Score:5, Insightful)
Even a good IDE, like Eclipse, probably would be hard to use on anything less than a 15" monitor.
If I was working in Emacs, or if all I had to do was office type tasks, 13" would be plenty for me.
Every notebook is a set of compromises. Bigger screens (and faster processors) require larger batteries or shorter battery life, or both, along with greater weight. Tiny screens means much less weight, and greater convenience when you are doing things like trying to fit your laptop and coffee onto a cafe table. I suspect 15" to 17" is a good compromise for most people who need laptops.
But it is also true that any design that excels in some dimension is bound to be better for some people. I'd like a 20" laptop, because of the software I have to use. When I was traveling a lot, searching for an outlet at the airport was often a big deal, but if I could afford a 20" laptop, I'd just buy a spare battery. I'm a 250 pound weightlifter, and also an extremely light packer, so the space and weight is nothing for me.
On the other hand, small and light would outweigh other considerations for other people. A 98 pound woman whose travels a lot is going to look at a 20" laptop weight eighteen pounds as an exercise in lugging 20% of her body weight through the airport. For her a MacBook air, at 3 pounds, is actually a heavier load a percentage of her body weight than a typical 17" laptop is for me.
There are people who would love this thing for its low weight and the convenience of a small package. Even I would find it convenient, if it weren't for the software I have to use.
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Also, the samsung is great if you wear cargo pants and find yourself constantly needing a computer for something or another. it fits in the cargo pocket. it was great when i went to the wild
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However, I'd count adding $1200 of capital expense as at least a little compromise.
Tell me, do you use Vista on this thing? I find Vista on 2GB barely tolerable without 2GB of ReadyBoost.
Bring the retro back! (Score:3, Funny)
I'd say, let's have a strike all of us, bring back the retro! Bring back the 7 to 9" screens! I want my black backgrounds back! Back to the old days!
Boycott VGA!
Re:Keep waiting (Score:5, Funny)
You bastard! If you have a trust fund and are only working to amuse yourself, I don't want to hear about it.
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http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m2010 [dell.com]
Being a non-coder working in game development, I had to use IDEs every day, mainly Visual Studio and ProDG. VS was pretty easy to get to a 'reasonably productive' state with a few clicks, but ProDG (for PS3) was this labyrinthine mess, spawning split windows everytime you tried to click anywhere.
Re:Keep waiting (Score:4, Insightful)
Get the 17" with 1920x1200, same as a desktop 24".
The Air is smaller (Score:3, Informative)
Or to put it another way, the Air is 50% smaller than the PowerBook. Important when putting it into a briefcase or backpack. Heck, it's even 20% smaller than the Asus Eee [isights.org].
I don't mean to troll but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I don't mean to troll but... (Score:5, Funny)
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I think it depends on the Mac. I've tried to open a grand total of two Apple laptops. One was surprisingly accessible and easy to crack open, one was a nightmare. Don't mean to be harsh, but more generally it's a bit lazy to think that getting the basic user experience right (thoughtful, consistent UI for example) is necessarily at odds with being able to pop open the hood.
I've been inside 3 Dells, one Toshiba, and one IBM Thinkpad. All three of them were a certified pain in the ass. Not sure how "hard to work on stuff inside" is in any way unique to Apple. In the case of the Air, from the pics, it's a case of "unscrew the cover and unplug the battery", which oddly enough is exactly the same thing I had to do to upgrade RAM on my Dell D600 - unscrew a cover, unplug something, and plug something else in.
Not disagreeing with your point, don't get me wrong - but it's fu
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There are probably going to be battery options... (Score:5, Interesting)
The Air has a power port. Getting extra run time when on aircraft without power plugs, etc, is nothing more than supplying power to the power port.
Efficiencies also depend on how Apple configured the power port. With just a little forethought, they could have made it where a portable power pack (i.e. auxiliary battery) just runs the Air itself and doesn't recharge the onboard battery. That would be more efficient than accepting charging efficiency losses and the only down side would be having to carry an assembly with cord instead of just an extra battery. A fairly acceptable compromise to trying to make removable batteries in such a tight form factor.
Re:There are probably going to be battery options. (Score:3, Informative)
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In addition, these batteries connect to the laptop through the power adapter port on the machine. In the event you ever drain your internal battery before using such a beast, you risk losing all of your work if you accidentally bump the plug. (Something one could easily do in a crowded area.)
Aside
Re:I don't mean to troll but... (Score:5, Insightful)
in that case, surely having a swapable battery would also defeat the point as you'd be carrying another battery with you everywhere.
I genuinely can't understand the mentality of all these people who claim to be constantly going on 10+ hour flights with no access power sockets and want an ultraportable laptop but also want to carry the weight of several spare batteries.
post screenshots of your airline tickets or you're all a bunch of whining fucking liars.
personally, I don't care about swapping batteries because I never want to carry a spare with me anyway. if a slimmer design means having to visit a store in person every 2 years or so to have it changed, then get over it or buy a different laptop.
Re:I don't mean to troll but... (Score:5, Insightful)
For apple, a BIG selling point is it's the thinnest thing going for anywhere near those specs. Adding a latch is NOT worth losing that bragging right.
Also you'd have to consider adding casing for the battery since its no longer considered always protected inside the shell of the computer, so that adds both size and weight. The iPod's internal battery has an "outer case" of foil, hardly suitable for consumer handling. And the connector needs to be something that can handle many hundreds of uses, not just a few. That connector again adds size and some weight. The external battery connectors that apple uses are actually pretty big, and I'd be willing to bet you can't find that much unused space in the Air.
And considering the claimed battery life, it almost erases the need to carry a spare battery.
My watch has a battery that I can't replace myself. I have to take it into the store for them to crack it open because it's a diver's watch and requires a special tool to unscrew the back cover. Does this bother me? no. I expect it. Your car needs the transmission serviced after so many miles, and that's not considered a user-maintenance thing either. There are many more examples. It's not like you throw it away when the battery goes out... Now THAT you would have room to complain about.
Re:I don't mean to troll but... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I don't mean to troll but... (Score:5, Insightful)
BTW, we have 5 X61s at work, and with the oversized battery they get more like 7 hours. Not that much more than the claimed 5 hours from the air, and the oversized battery is OMG HUEG!1!!
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There are two kinds of people wanting to swap batteries, one wants to swap them frequently when the battery runs down, and the other wants to be able to swap them occasionally when the battery starts to fail. Being able to open the case with a screwdriver and swap the battery appeals to the latter group.
For a lot of people, I can see this being the case, but e
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These Sansa e200 things have these neat little beveled screws that add approximately
Re:I don't mean to troll but... (Score:5, Insightful)
The Sansa E200 series actually proves the grandparent's point.
The Sansa E200 series contains the three most-requested features the iPod Nano lacks:
FM radio.
Expansion card slot.
Easily swappable battery.
What do we get?
A device almost exactly twice as thick as the thickest Nano.
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In fact, it's not replaceable at all. Sansa has no battery replacement program whatsoever for the View.
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Changing the gearbox fluid on my TJ is easier than changing the engine oil. Break open the fill nut (to let air into the transmission) and open the drain plug. Close drain plug and add gear oil until it starts dribbling out of the fill hole. Then tighten the fill nut, and you're done. And even engine oil is that plus filter.
What seems easy and simple to some (read: user serviceabl
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I don't accept that for a second. Apple is allegedly a company which comes up with clever designs, yet not for batteries it seems. Instead they expect people either to throw away their otherwise fu
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someone remind this guy that the first mac was made of wood.
Something bigger/faster (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:Something bigger/faster (Score:5, Interesting)
What market segment up until now were saying to themselves "If only this laptop was exactly the same size but *thinner*"
My boss travels a lot on airlines and was waiting for an ultraportable macbook. He wanted one *smaller* - that could fit nicely in the limited space on airline seating in the way a normal laptop won't. This doesn't either.. so it's a missed opportunity.
The other thing he asked for - solid state disks (hard disks don't last long if you fly a lot) - was answered, but he won't be getting the Air.
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As for the limitations, they don't really bother me much apart fro
dell or gateway? (Score:3, Insightful)
I think your original point is how much Apple is adored and how much Microsoft is loathed, and that adoration or loathing remains resistant to logic.
Even with that, Microsoft's long history caused people to loath it. It's annoyed people so many times that even if it is nice once, people are not going to change their minds about it. People would have to perceive a fu
Re:Something bigger/faster (Score:4, Insightful)
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You want innovation? How about a cheaper laptop? A laptop that costs less than $50
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Doesn't really matter (Score:4, Insightful)
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Exactly, or for those of us that travel a lot have a repalcement fedEx'd to your location when the one you have dies.
Plus, a removal batteyr means that if you get a really bad system hang you can do a manual "power down" and restar
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Not if you're flying. I thought I read somewhere that they would not allow a second laptop battery on planes.
The ideal solution is to have better battery life. Also, the 5 hour rating that Apple gave was apparently in full usage an
Re:Doesn't really matter (Score:5, Insightful)
Second, exactly where will you be that power is inaccessible? Coffee shop? Plane? Train? Boat? Car? Airport? This is the 2000's and power is accessible in almost all of these places.
Third, this is a continuation of the complaints of years past where people lamented the disappearance of 5.25" floppies, then 3.5" floppies, etc. It's a wireless world now (and Apple has introduced other products to make this even more-so), and it's a world with power accessible in many places you would have never had it before. In fact, I can think of very few places that I've taken my laptop in the last couple of years where I had to run off of battery power by necessity. (Convenience, yes. I like the view here and there's no plug near, but necessity, no. There's a plug 30 feet away.)
Fourth, I return to my first point. If you want great gas mileage, don't buy a Porsche. If you maximal cargo space, don't buy a Cooper. If you want acceleration, don't buy a Prius and then complain that you can't add Nitrous Oxide and a Supercharger. The proper tool for the proper task, so if you want to work with your data with a highly portable machine with a large (for its class) screen and total wireless capability, get an Air.
other whiner stoppers (Score:5, Insightful)
2) theres a Ethernet jack dongle for the USB so you can plug it to a hard line
3) there's a mini multiple USB hub so you can put in plenty of things
4) it has blue tooth (and wifi N) built in so your blue tooth mouse or pointer does not need a jack.
5) it's gotta honk'in large cache so the 4800 rpm disk is not going to be that big a drag (afterall the macbooks and mac mini are only 5400 rpm and have smaller caches)
It's not a supercharged photoshop engine given the slower disk and lower end graphics and 13.3 inch screen of course. That's what the8 cpu macpro is for.
But it's two pounds less than a macbook and you don't need an oversized breifcase or book bag to take it a along. I could see this as a lot easier to schlep around at conferences than may macbook pro. And with it's ultra-fast wifi it's gonna be a lot easier to keep synched than the usual cable clumsiness.
The 13.3 inch screen is also a much nicer form factor than the 15 or 17 for airplane seats. PLus it's a wide screen not a SVGA shaped screen to it's not as tall. And it has a back lit KB that the macbook lacks.
Basically the mac book is for college kids and teachers. The air is for bussinessmen and conference goers and people who like aesthitics in the house.
convenient mail-in replacement (Score:5, Funny)
It fits in an envelope? Oh wow! (Score:2)
Swapping batteries, not replacing is the point (Score:5, Insightful)
It would appear at first that Apple's ultra thin and light missed its target market; after all, the main market for ultra thin and lights has traditionally been mobile road warriors. However, the lack of a swappable battery and of a wired LAN port (my company, and most I have been to, as well as many hotels I have stayed at, don't even have a wireless network option) make clear that mobile road warriors aren't the target market.
The target market is in fact fashion conscious users, and students, and others whose requirements are a sexy form factor.
I don't think that weight is necessarily even _that_ significant a factor here. Steve Jobs made clear if I recall correctly that he was willing to increase weight to decrease thickness. Thickness has no particular use other than sex appeal, footprint is actually more significant in terms of usefulness when it comes to size. In terms of weight, there have been other laptops that are significantly lighter yet retaining key features like a wired LAN and swappable battery. The entire point of this laptop is how thin and awesome looking it is.
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FWIW I've never actually been on a flight on which a power outlet was made available, although I've travelled a lot in the last couple of years, including some very long flights. I think that is because only business class and above usually get gifted with this sort of thing. Also, no
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Re:Swapping batteries, not replacing is the point (Score:5, Informative)
As for the battery needs, I'm a business user and while I do agree that extended batteries are nice, I don't think it's the norm that you need 8 hours of battery life without a single power outlet nearby. Where are you using your computer for that long that you're not near an outlet once in a while? I typically need stretches of several hours, possibly as much as 4 hours from time to time, but never much more than that. The people I know who have the extended battery packs seem to use them just because they can, not because they need to.
I think the integrated battery decision is possibly market-limiting to the users who really do (for some reason) need 8 hours of battery life, but not nearly as limiting as you suggest. Overall, a simpler design has positive aspects in that Apple can spend time making features that most of their target users will benefit from, they can also get the product to market faster and lower R&D costs building it.
This reminds me a lot when the iPod first came out. Most people just couldn't say enough bad things about it. Too simple. No features. No replaceable battery. Too expensive. But the core comptency of the iPod hasn't really changed that much over the years: it lets you organize your music in a really simple way, and find any song fast. When it comes down to it, if you can't find your music easily, you're far less likely to use the device. And if you don't use it, every other "neato" feature is irrelevant because it'll be sitting in your desk drawer.
Ok but dongles start to defeat the purpose (Score:4, Insightful)
So that's the problem here for the road warrior market. The "well just buy X accessory" really defeats the purpose of having a small laptop. You lose your weight and size advantage there, not to mention that it is a much bigger pain to carry a bunch of separate dongles than it is to carry a slightly larger laptop that has everything in it.
We'll have to see how it does, but trying to explain away all complains by "just buy an accessory" doesn't really work. Remember that Sony has a whole lineup of sleek small laptops out there. Many of them include just about damn everything (wired lan, USB, firewire, WiFi, bluetooth, cellular net, DVD, etc). Yes, they are a bit thicker and a bit heavier (though they have lighter ones that still include most things other than an optical drive) but that doesn't mean they aren't a consideration. While people like light, it isn't a case of "Well that laptop is nice, but it is 0.5 pounds more than this other one so I can't possibly buy it."
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Well, instead of carrying one back and forth all of the time and digging under the desk every day, I simply bought one and left it at work. Problem solved. So if I should need an ethernet connector to get on the office LAN, I'd probably just do the same thing: buy one and leave it connected to the LAN.
For the external drive, I'd probably leave it at home. I mean, how often do you really
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I think calling some people retarded (Score:4, Insightful)
Just say its not for you because of (yadda, yadda, yadda), and suddenly, you find that not even you want to read your opinion.
I'm not buying one because of my needs for something more substantial, but those are MY needs. They aren't for everybody.
Apple
got everybody to switch 5"1/4 disketes for 3"1/2 by giving them no option (and everybody predicted disaster,) them he
got everybody to switch to USB by giving them no option (and everybody predicted disaster), then
got rid of the diskette drive altogether by giving them no option (and everybody predicted disaster,)
then he got everybody to switch to writable CDs (and now DVDs) by giving them no option.
Now he's getting rid of CDs and DVDs altogether and moving storage into appliances and services; by giving them no option.
Wake the fuck up.
The machine YOU'RE using as a road warrior would still be taking up all of your desk space if it wasn't for Steve Jobs' sheer balls.
The internet and the web weren't caused by INTERNAL influences.
Good news, everyone! (Score:2, Insightful)
I've got some good news for you then: You don't have to settle for a 13 inch screen and 1.8GHz processor at $2,099! For just $1,999.00 you can get a macbook pro with a 2.2GHz processor, the same RAM, a bigger hard disk, a bigger screen (still LED-backlit), free built-in gigabit ethernet, firewire, a decent graphics chip, you can avoid the glossy screen, RAM and HDD are user-upgradable - and you get all this for $100 less!
O
Re:Good news, everyone! (Score:5, Insightful)
Or in other words, using a car metaphor, of course: "Nobody will ever buy a Porsche, because it's got only two seats and a minimal trunk space. For 50'000 EUR *less*, you'd get four seats, a pickup-sized cargo bay AND as much horsepowers, so the Porsche is clearly bad value."
Horsepower? Road apples. (Score:2, Insightful)
If a Porsche had the same handling characteristics as a pickup, it *would* be bad value.
Unlike automobiles, making a laptop smaller doesn't increase its performance... it usually decreases it. The Macbook Air has a slower processor a
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The point remains, the primary goal of the thin and light laptop segment is for them to be...well, thin and light. I'm not particularly an Apple fan but it is sort of pissing me off hearing people whine about not being able to efficiently simulate folding proteins on a laptop that is totally not intended for that kind of shit.
If you're not a road warrior or a student who wants something to carry around for
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But the guy you were replying to was saying the same thing you are saying now. Really. Look:
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Except that CmdrTaco's response is more like seeing a Porsche and then wanting a Porsche which is a little more aerodynamic and with more horsepower. So until Apple produces the equivalent of a Bugatti Veyron he won't be a MacBook Ai
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Or in other words, using a car metaphor, of course: "Nobody will ever buy a Porsche, because it's got only two seats and a minimal trunk space. For 50'000 EUR *less*, you'd get four seats, a pickup-sized cargo bay AND as much horsepowers, so the Porsche is clearly bad value." :)
You're really close (okay, no you're not even remotely close on this one).
A better analogy would be a Nissan Armada vs an Infiniti QX56. The Armada dn the Infinit are very very similar vehicles. The difference is:
The armada can't pull my boat
The armada can't fit all the kids AND their snowboards
the armada can't fit 6 full sized adults comfortably
the armada is quite a bit smaller
The armada doesn't have some of the features of the QX56 like standard navigation, backup camera, heated seats etc. etc.
But the
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Cheaper Batteries? (Score:2)
Why are these batteries so expensive? I know Apple is just launching this AirBook, and all its tech is new, and battery life is its primary constraint. But that replacement cost is 7.5% of the $1720 of the entire AirBook. The R&D and manufacturing of the rest of the
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Yes.
For wearing out: Li-Ion. They simply do that. Li-Ion batteries have a limited lifespan of approximately 3 years. Usage doesnt affect it much; temperature does. Put them next to a hot CPU and they'll die within a year, put them in the freezer and they wont lose more than 2% capacity per year. And of course, you dont really know how long the product's been in the shelf at the shop...
Basically, if you hardly ever use them, take them out and stick them in the freezer or at least in a fridg
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Who knew buying a battery was like adopting a tamagotchi?
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Not that easy (Score:2)
However, don't this opening of it void the guaranty?
Also, why did Apple made the battery internal like this in the first place?
Why don't simply make it as easy to change as on a Mac-book or any other laptop?
I don't see the rational in the decision to not make it easy to change it without opening the case.
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Seriously: the reason MacBook Air exists is because it's light, and because it's ridiculously thin. It's also interesting because of the trackpad and its multi-touch gestures, and because it has slightly different tradeoffs when compared to other subnotebooks which makes it a fairly unique product - MacBook Air has a faster CPU and normal-sized screen and keyboard, virtually every subnotebook has more features and ports
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Probably not much.
The Air is a strange thing that is mostly sold of being thin. I don't really understand the purpose of that. What if it was a bit thicker? The Air is still a large computer even if it is thin, since it is quite large in depth and length (which it of course have to be to have the large screen). The most important factors for people is usually the weight and that the computer isn't unreasonable large.
Air is very thin but not imp
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What Good Does It Do? (Score:2)
If the MBA is missing something, read this first: (Score:2, Informative)
http://wilshipley.com/blog/ [wilshipley.com]
Wil's missing something too... (Score:2)
I'm a programmer. I just want a machine I can write software on. Once I loved hacking on the computer itself, but now I just want a gadget that (a) works and (b) is easy to use. Beautiful I'll take... but I'm a programmer, I'm the only guy who'll see it, and the rest of my office is decorated in Early 21st Gentury Geek so I don'
They don't get it (Score:5, Insightful)
There's a diversity of needs in personal computing, and at one end you have the gamers who want highly upgradable components and to cram everything they can into a 600-watt beast with fans whining. Fine, okay, but my own preference is that I'd rather not share my living space with that. The next is the quiet low-profile desktop, and Apple's doing that kind of thing very recognizably with the iMac and Mac Mini. There are PC systems like the shuttle. Then there are desktop-replacement laptops with enough GPU for gamers and CPU for number crunching. And now there are subnotebooks. Cite whatever midpoints or extremities you want, these are the relevant ones.
Most web/email/office use is simply best done on something like an iMac if you're stationary, or a laptop. Those of us who value quiet and energy efficiency will more and more choose this route. The real junkies among us have not one, but several machines. After a while, it gets annoying if they're all identical configurations. You don't want to pack a DVD and a monster peripheral set into your subnotebook - that's for basic needs on the go! Leave your movie collection at home, say, on a nice Kurobox [slashdot.org] or some other NAS. You don't need multiple DVD burners. You can get disk images off your NAS. Back it up with a Time Capsule or roll your own.
I like my network of specialized machines. It makes choosing an operating system and hardware configuration a matter of the right choice for the job. I think most of the criticism of the MacBook Air comes from the 600W desktop beast crowd that has everything in one or two boxes. Well... they'll come around.
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The reason for my opinions on the matter stem largely from portability. The Macbook Air may only weigh 3lbs (certainly a technical innovation) but if you set it on top of a Macbook, it's going to be about the same size. Its length and width are almost identical. Only its height (thinness) and weight are less. To me, that doesn't make it significantly more por
How odd... (Score:2)
Ask Slashdot: Battery life with the SSD option? (Score:3, Interesting)
But all this is just speculation and BOTEC. Has anyone got their mitts on an SSD MBA and tested battery life???
Re:Ask Slashdot: Battery life with the SSD option? (Score:4, Informative)
Lame? (Score:2)
Re:Lame? (Score:5, Funny)
Special battery (Score:2)
Best Laptop for Airtravel (Score:3, Insightful)
Second, the TSA keeps restricting extra batteries. Recently Spare LiON's were banned from checked luggage. There is no way to know if the same won't be applied to carry on.
From that standpoint, a laptop that works with Airline power seems more important than being able to change the batteries.
Re:Can I get that through airport secuirty... (Score:4, Interesting)
I recall having been asked to REMOVE the battery from my laptop at airport security. THAT is something that will cause problems if you get the wrong TSA agent.
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because if you can run a macbook for several hours (Score:3, Funny)
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Re:Nibbled to death by ducks... (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe you should have tried reading the "What's in the box" [apple.com] section:
That lets you connect an Off-the-shelf MacBook Air to anything you can connect an Off-the-shelf MacBook Pro.
I'm not saying you won't get nibbled to death in other places (*cough* iTunes rentals *cough*), but this isn't one of them.
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Quack, quack... (Score:2)
anything and everything that will keep you tied to your desk.
Your storage is internal (2GB RAM and an 80GB application and scratch-pad persistence mechanism) while the rest (500GB or 1TB with USB [for your printer{s} and RJ-45 to the net/web) can come over the 802.11n.
(Sorry I got distracted by my MacBook Pro's external 1TB drive doing its hourly incremental back-up via TimeMachine.)
Its a wireless (and slightly less top end,) version of something I already own, an
You're mixing up software and hardware... (Score:3, Insightful)
The Macbook Air would tie me to my desk more surely than my Macbook Pro does. All that wireless stuff you're talking about? That's software. Having to dangle a dongle drive off my leg when I'm checking out a CD version of a presentation while I'm sitting on a bench in a conference center, wishing I was back at my desk to I could USE that wireless connection, that's hardware.