Apple Announces MacBook Air

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.

Comments

"Integrated Battery"

[rockmuelle]

(from tech specs page on apple.com)

"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"

[sokoban]

Ave you ever disassembled an Apple laptop. It's pretty easy, and an external battery will probably be coming soon from some third party.

Re:"Integrated Battery"

[ZombieRoboNinja]

>>Do you want a laptop that is 0.16" to 0.76" thick? Go grab a ruler and put that in perspective.

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 .16" "at the thinnest point." And .76" is certainly thin, but hell, my current MacBook is less than an inch thick already. So at best they saved maybe a tenth of an inch of thickness and added in a prettier, curvy form-factor.

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?

Movie Rentals?

[0100010001010011]

I thought this was a pretty big part of todays Keynote:

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.

Short on Options!

[qwertphobia]

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?

• No Firewire - can't boot target mode!
• No Optical Drive - can't boot from DVD!
• No Ethernet - can't net-boot!

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.

No FireWire?!

[alispguru]

Just a USB2. FireWire target mode has saved my butt so many times, I would really hate to give it up, especially on a portable machine.

Although, you probably don't need it as much if you have that $1000 solid state disk...

How expensive is it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Can you link to something cheaper with a competitive hardware spec? Please do not link to anything physically larger, as size is the primary discriminator in its class. I went looking for a Vaio to price against it but couldn't find anything in its class. HP, Dell, and Lenovo all fell short as well. Before saying it's more expensive than its competition, please actually tell us what its competition IS, keeping in mind that to compete, you have to compete on form factor first.

$20 Suite of apps for the iPod Touch?

[Aphrika]

I'm a tad annoyed by this. iPhone users get the new software update for free, new iPod Touch users get them for free, yet the early adopter iPod Touch people have to stump up $20?

I know I'll end up buying them, but it's the principle of it all...

Re:Apple releases MacBook Air

[norminator]

I also just noticed that it doesn't come with the Front Row remote by default... you have an option to pay $20 more to get that... what's the deal with that, when the other MBs include it?

Re:Expensive

[Penguin's Advocate]

The SSD is a $999 upgrade. Have you looked at the prices for 64GB SSDs recently? They tend to run in the $1500 range. I know it's hard to believe, but the SSD from Apple is actually *cheaper* than retail at the moment. It's not something you usually see in BTO upgrades for a Mac.

Re:Expensive

[MrPerfekt]

You're more right than you know.

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:Lithium Ion degradation NOT covered by applecar

[arrrrg]

I'm on a 1.5 year old MacBook Pro, on my fourth battery. The first one was recalled, and the next two started performing poorly and both times I called AppleCare and had a new battery on my doorstep the next day without paying a dime.

Re:Expensive

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

You're more right than you know.

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). What amazes me is the gist of the comments, 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.