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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.
does it blend?
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From the apple site...
.8-1.2 inches, 11 or 12" display, miniature keyboard, and slower processor.
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/
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
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
But how am I going to watch movies?
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...
(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
But not for me. I don't like their prices, some items lack features (Apple TV needs Xvid/DivX support) and they are too lawyer happy for me.
But I have to admit, they make very nice products (Macbooks, ipod touch, their 30 inch screen)
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.
While the Macbook Air does not come with an optical drive, it does come with a canister of compressed breath of Steve.
I'm not willing to sacrifice processor speed, memory, disk drive space, and optical capability so that I can fit my laptop into an interoffice envelope.
I feel the same way about the iPhone -- with 16GB storage, it is in no way a replacement for my current iPod. But I suspect if he'd been willing to accept 1/16 of an inch increased thickness, we could be looking at 32GB or 64GB, and then you've got me as a customer.
Subscribers can see articles in the future? So what? Everyone gets to see them in the future.
Is it a cheap-arse 6-bit per RGB (256K color) or a proper 8-bit per RGB (16M color) display panel?
I wonder how durable that thing is.... put that in a bag and drop it, see how it compares to the macbooks and thinkpads.
Also why nobody mentioned the EEE pc yet? though the similarity seems to end at portability....
Er.. I like apple stuff, and this is nice, but...
As someone who totes a camera and laptop when travelling with the 13 inch macbook, drive space is usefull to us. I miss the portability of my old 12" g3. They just made it thinner which won't help on airplanes etc.
I have an OLPC, and I kinda like the mini size. Maybe thats too mini but....
Also no firewire means all those mac users who tote portable firewire drives for photos are going to have to switch to USB. No Firewire input from video cameras either.
It pretty though..
specs here
http://www.apple.com/macbookair/features.html
http://www.apple.com/macbookair/features.html
What a pity!
How are they going to prevent accidental input on that gigantic trackpad?
That SSD one looks very sweet though.
Lies about crimes
Compared to the MacBook:
+ Thinner
+ Lighter
+ Multitouch trackpad
+ Backlit keyboard
+ LED display
+/- Height and width are identical
+/- GPU is identical
- more expensive
- slower CPU
- sucky 1.8" HD or expensive SSD
- optical drive is optional external extra
- 1 x USB, 1 x analog audio out, 0 x ethernet, 0 x firewire
- less battery life
That is insane! I need to get me one of those. :o
Weaksauce as they say...
I feel like I'm gonna break this damn thing! I wonder how long it will be until someone snaps one of those Airs in half?
I found the "Any" key.
Those who believe the Internet is private,
find their privates are on the Internet.
No optical drive. Smaller hard drive than a VAIO. Lame.
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.
Never ask for directions from a two-headed tourist! -Big Bird
Good things cost money. Deal with it ;-)
(+3 Funny anyone?)
"People are stupid. Persons are smart" -- Agent K, MiB.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
Just because it costs a lot doesn't mean it's overpriced. It's a deal compared to comparable Sony models with less power and aren't as thin.
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...
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
BTW, I think Time Capsule is as important as the Air announcement. Can't get anyone to back up. But since it's also a wireless hub, and Time Machine autoconnects, people will actually start backing up while barely meaning to.
Lies about crimes
That's not the half of it. If you decide to go with the flash disc (SSD), you'll have pony up over 3000 smackers.
...you could just buy an ASUS Eee PC for 10% of the price, which whilst not as powerful would still be capable of doing everything you'd do on a sub-notebook anyway i.e. office, music, video, web.
For some reason I thought when Apple release a sub-notebook that it might be something within a reasonable price range (i.e. less than the MacBooks), god only knows what made me think that.
I was going to check the UK pricing but all I get when jumping to the UK Apple site is a 500 internal server error, the US version of the site is just unusably slow.
I know these type of announcements are going to put a lot of strain on a site, but I don't remember any other large tech. companies suffering such an outage.
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.
This laptop is too small and feature-limited to make a reasonable primary computer for many people, I think. Consider:
1.) No wired ethernet. I don't know if I've seen a recent laptop without wired ethernet. Apple is pushing bluetooth and 802.11* hard. That brings me to
2.) 1 USB port. Seriously? You can have wired ethernet OR a superdrive OR any of a huge number of wired devices, until you end up getting one of those tiny and somewhat annoying USB hubs which don't seem to be as reliable as having multiple USB ports.
3.) 1.8" 80G hard drive. This is the hard drive they use in iPod classics. It's 4200RPM, and it's small by modern laptop standards. The only upgrade option is $1000 for the solid state drive. Why aren't they offering the 160G iPod drive?
4.) Micro-DVI: Unlike the Macbooks, they actually stick a few of these adapters in the package.
It just seems like they tried too hard to go all out for thinness (and with the case design, it's still 3lb like a lot of subnotebooks). One option I thought would make it a lot more attractive would be built-in ripping of DVDs into iTunes. That way it could still function as a useful movie player on the road. Instead, we get an announcement that some distributors (like Fox) will be including iTunes files on new DVDs. No thanks.
There's probably a market niche for this product, but I don't think it's as big as the one for the 12" Powerbook G4. I'm still waiting for a suitable replacement in that category.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
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.
$1,000 to upgrade to the SSD
No optical drive
No ethernet
Just one USB port
No audio-in port, but built-in mic
Probably runs hotter than hell
It's pretty, sure, but the regular Macbook is already just a hair over an inch thick and has the exact same size otherwise, with more power and connectivity for cheaper.
You serious? Have you priced out its competition? The closest is probably the Vaio, and it is more expensive. The Dell XPS is cheaper, but is bigger and heavier.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
From the tech specs page:
13.3-inch (diagonal) glossy widescreen TFT LED backlit display with support for millions of colors
so I suppose it could be a 7-bit panel...
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
You can get 4 eee PCs for the price of this thing, in fact you can probably get 3 into its footprint. I was hoping they would properly challenge Sony and Dell's subnotebooks with a 10-inch screen device. Thinness is less important than width to me
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
It better include a iHandjob!
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
Has anyone else noticed that they've gotten rid of the 'Open Apple' symbol from the keyboard on the Macbook Air? It's been replaced by command...what's that about?
I also wonder how good a price of $1000 is for a 64GB solid state drive. Typically, Apple sells memory at a 200-300% markup over average maket price. The SSD, along with the fast processor, is why the full configured machine is well over $3000.
Overall, I like the machine. It projection is a little bigge than the 12", 2" in one dimension, but I guess 13" screens are in. Nothing we can do about that. If 2 gigs are the most it can handle, that could be a problem as well.
Ultimately, the question is which market it is for. If it is an expensive consumer machine, with consumer features, it is too expensive. If it is like the Powerbook 12", with some compromises, but still solid, it looks like a good deal.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
All that's true, which just means you're not the target market for that machine. I think they want to sell you the Pro.
Lies about crimes
Sounds like a sys-admin's nightmare. I think I'll stick with my Macbook for a bit, thanks.
As a consultant who travels with a laptop, I would say I use wireless at client sites no more than 15% of the time. The chance of me showing up with a wireless-only laptop, and being able to get onto the network on the first day.... 0%.
I'm sure we'll get there. But until then, I still need to get work done.
don't mess with those geekgrrls
A Macbook Air and A Wacom Cintiq 12WX... I want to get one just for the "watch this" effect next time I have to meet a client/portfolio review.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." ~The Honorable Daniel Patrick Moynihan
1280-by-800 resolution.
This thing is awesome, and I really really want one, and I understand compromises must be made, but a screen limited to 800 lines is problematic.
Please, Steve, 1024 lines? really soon now? please?
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
apple why the lack of updates for you other hardware?
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/
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
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 $20?
I know I'll end up buying them, but it's the principle of it all...
Compared to Vaios that have a DVD drive or 200GB second drive built in?
Really thin is only so useful. The Vaio TZ (along with some Japanese laptops that we don't get here in the states) allows you to change the way that you live. You can stuff those notebooks into a man-purse (Tumi makes some that fit rather well) and go. You can use them in the coach section of an airplane without fear of screen-crunch.
I'm not saying that the Macbook Air is a bad thing. Thin notebooks are nice, but thickness is the dimension that I find least annoying in a notebook (keeping in mind that my thickest notebook is a comparably enormous Vaio FZ, and my favorite notebook is my Thinkpad T42). I wouldn't want my sub-notebook to be as thick as the old Thinkpads were (think DSM-IV hardcover) size, but the footprint matters as well.
If only someone would bring back the old butterfly keyboard of the Thinkpad 701...
I agree the XPS is bigger and heavier (not that much anyway) but to gain 0.4kg, you loss the DVD, the CPU speed, the storage size and speed, and you paid much more for it. I don't pay 700$ more to have less.
Insightful!
At first I was psyched about the MacBook Air. I've been wanting a small MacBookPro for... well, since the MBP came out. I was goign to ask whether this thing has a glossy screen.
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!
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
Every laptop includes iHandjob. As long as you have hands that is.
Its the Handjob2-Me4M-HR technology that is non-standard. And no.. it does not come with it.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I think I'll stick with my Thinkpad X61s. It has mobile broadband (real air! - Verizon or Cingular) which is crucial for me when I'm traveling. It is hundreds (to thousands) of dollars cheaper than the Mac Air. It is also a tad lighter, has removable batteries (the big ones last over 10 hours), a much faster HDD (than the 1.8" HDD), is just about as thin (0.8"), can connect to a dock, has multiple USB ports, ethernet, a microphone, PCMCIA slot, SD card reader, keyboard light, , a full size video connector (no dongles to lose), and tough construction. In addition, the Thinkpad keyboards are legendary. Of course - it's not an Apple - but if that's not an issue then it is a much more flexible and cheaper alternative if you're looking for a small laptop which is truly wireless nearly everywhere.
called a Sony VAIO.
Apple removed many of the parts from a normal laptop computer and are now going to charge more for it. Genius I tell you!
The MacBook Air is silver. It has an aluminum case.
0.76" to 0.16" thick, nickel and dime processor...
How much is that in REAL measurements?
You know... like Libraries of Congress (LoCs) and Lengths of Football Fields (LoFFs)?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Here is the official Apple link:
http://www.apple.com/macbookair/
~Petaris "The world is open. Are you?"
I was stoked on the rumors but not so when I found out how big it would be. They essentially took a decent laptop and made it really really thin. Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I have found that with the fairly thin modern laptops, the thickness wasn't the limiting factor as far as portability. I'd much rather had them keep the same thickness and knock it down to around a 10". Really, 13.3" is still pretty big to stow and go. And, I'd be scared about its durability.
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.
Toshiba has been doing it with their portege series for quite a while now. Here's their latest ultraportable/thin laptop (Portege R500) where they even managed to cram an optical drive into the thing: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3769
You can even go to their older products like the Portege R100 which has a maximum thickness of 19.8mm (.78 inches) as well as a removable battery but no optical drive.
Sendou Wave Kick!!
We may laugh, but my secretary just came up to me and asked if it comes in black, because she'd pay more for that...
Lies about crimes
The only two advantages it has over other similar notebooks is that it a) looks good, and b) runs OS X. But with those specs I'd rather get a Lenovo X61 or Panasonic W7. And integrated battery? Come on, it's not a freaking wrist watch, even if it's thin enough to be one.
Finally a very very luxury item from apple ;) how strange. Some considerations:
1) I won't do anything with just a USB port. Two is few and I usually carry a powered hub with my macbook.
2) The multitouch stuff is interesting I can't wait for people to port it to the other macs.
3) Where the fuck is the battery!!! Can't see that, maybe is it a iPhone trap?
4) Dealing with wireless on my macbook is as pleasurable as dealing with a sandpaper anal indruder. I hope they made some progress on drivers before relying on it for software installs
Looks a nice expensive hi tech mobile, somewhat superfluos but I guess people will flock to buy it nevertheless.
Not to mention that the big killer for flash memory is swap files. Your normal day-to-day operations aren't going to be doing so much disk writing that it's really going to be an issue for a long time. If you're swapping files to disk all the time, though, you might run into problems. I noticed they said that the Air comes with a minimum of 2GB of RAM, so that probably helps reduce the need for swapping.
I really thought it was funny back when all the flash-based mp3 players were coming out, and people would make comments about the limited number of write cycles... Even without wear-leveling, 100,000 write cycles is a lot for a music player. The pins on the dock connector would break before you reach that many rewrites.
And for general day-to-day computing, with wear-leveling and a healthy amount of RAM, I would think that Flash would be a pretty viable option.
At first I was dazzled by the bullshit, but after an hour's contemplation I realized that nothing they've announced today is either revolutionary or exciting.
#1 - The Time Capsule. Haven't we had wireless NAS's since 802.11 became a standard? I've got a USB-2 external drive that does my backups now. This announcement does absolutely nothing for me.
#2 - The iPhone/iPod touch updates. I was really hoping to hear an announcement regarding the hardware. More memory. Smaller form factor. Lower price. Open network. Instead we see a few lousy software upgrades (woo, quasi-GPS that's been in the system for a week now). And, a nice F-U to the early adopters in a 20$ upgrade for the Touch. Glad noone bought me one of those for xmas. Anyone who did get one in the last 30 days should immediately return it and get one of the "new" ones with the additional features for free. And take a crap in the box, before they do.
#3 - The AppleTV/Movie Rental Service. Exciting, if the XBox360 hasn't been serving this capacity for over TWO YEARS. Wow, all the major labels, eh? Are they suddenly going to cut ties with all their other distribution partners? I didn't think so. And the price cut on the AppleTV was okay, but they *really* couldn't go just a bit further to put it below the $200 mark? Really, they must want this device to fail.
#4 - The MacBook Air. It's really just a masturbation toy for the rich gadget hound -- it does nothing new besides be smaller, and it does it slower and more expensively to boot. Wow, it fits in an envelope. Unless you're mailing me one, I'm not interested. Multitouch pad? Give it a month, they'll be on all the MacBooks. The size factor will very quickly be copied by Sony/Dell/et al, so Windows fanbois can rest easy. What would have made it revolutionary? If it were JUST a screen, no Keyboard, no fancy touchpad. Or, if it were under a thousand dollars. THAT would have been impressive. Made of Aluminum? And you thought the last generation MacBooks broke easily! Remote Disk? I've been sharing my CD-ROM drive via windows networking since 1996. It even works over wireless!
What WOULD have been impressive:
- A new headless Mac Desktop that fits between the Mac Mini and the Mac Pro.
- An iPhone Nano, about the size of the old iPod Nano with 1-2gb of memory for $99-$149.
- A Mac tablet running full Leopard with multitouch. Bonus points if it's under $1500.
- An iMac with a curved monitor like what's been shown at CES.
- Price drops on the iPhone, iPod Touch, or Mac Mini.
In a word: meh.
Maybe, just maybe, a hand-crank charger (like the one for the XO laptop) will be available for MacBook Air soon... and a demonstration video with Chuck Norris showing us how to fully recharge the battery under one minute.
I think you're missing the target market for this machine. It's your basic road-warrior type, who uses the machine away from the office. They give Powerpoint presentations, read and send email from coffee shop and hotel wireless, watch a few movies, type up documents and spreadsheets, etc.
They have their IT department install software at the office, from another computer or an attached laptop. These people haul their computers around all day every day and want something really, really light and small.
It's always been Apple's brilliance to see what people can live without and making their computers more streamlined. People spazzed when the iMac didn't have a floppy drive.
I dunno if this is the right computer for its target market; that's Apple's gamble. But it doesn't surprise me that you're not in it. It's not for everybody. A machine for everybody is a machine for nobody; it doesn't make any of them completely happy.
Apple is using the lingerie model : pay more for a lot less, but it looks sexier.
... which is common on portables that get the crap beaten out of them, being able to easily attach another machine and copy your data off is real important. This is especially important on portables that are tough, but painful to open for servicing.
My ancient and revered iBook (500 MHz G3) is still in service, running 10.4. I've never lost data on it, not even when its hard drive committed slow-motion suicide after repeated falls, primarily because I was able to image its hard drive even when it was unbootable.
Replacing that hard drive was a nightmare. Three hours on my dining room table, N different shapes and sizes of miniscule screws... my eyes water at the thought of it.
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
I was hoping apple would produce a nice HD TV/PC device with a nice 50 " display for my house ... oh well maybe next year!
Sounds pricey.
No ethernet port, only ONE usb2 port, no microphone jack? Honestly, how are you supposed to use this thing? What if you need to use Ethernet and a flash drive at the same time? Are you supposed to carry around a USB-to-ethernet dongle and a hub... possibly a POWERED hub?
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.
My bicyles
Dude, where I live, $500,000 will barely get you a one bedroom apartment.
You're right about the target audience though. More like "needs to be thin to look cool in the coffeeshop" than "needs to work in coach in a plane".
God, I want one...
Lies about crimes
I think the uneven shape is intentional--the very thin edge makes the whole unit look slimmer than it actually is, since some of the bulk is hidden. Also, the fact that the leading edge hovers 3/8" off the top of the desk adds a floaty feel to the whole unit (thus, "air"). It's a bit jarring, but I don't find it unpleasant.
The flipdown USB port isn't pretty, but plugging anything into a pretty, hermetically sealed unit uglifies it, so one can think of it as a flip up cover for when you're not using it.
Really, you should imagine pulling this out in a coffee shop or airport, connecting to wifi and doing your thing without something plugged in. In that case, it very much looks wafer-thin, light, and convenient--which is probably what it was supposed to look like.
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
Please stop spreading FUD. An out-of-date flash drive, being written to CONSTANTLY (under MUCH harder conditions than just swapping) should last for no less than 51 years. For modern flash drives, that number should be in the hundreds of years.
This is not to say that flash drives last forever, or even that they last 51 years. This is to say that, no matter what you're doing, there is nothing in this world perverse enough you could be doing which will make a modern flash drive level out. As mentioned in a parent post, the limiting factor in flash drives these days is NOT how many writes it can do. It's probably not too hard to abuse a flash drive to render it useless, but writes are NOT the limiting factor.
Other companies will copy it and then maybe there will be one I can afford.
No wired ethernet. Weighs less than a Nomad. Lame.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
omg you're not genuinely unaware of the fact that for electronics, smaller is generally more advanced and hence more expensive are you?
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...")
One of the most irritating pet peeves of mine from the days of working retail is what you stated. There's nothing more annoying than a customer complaining to you that something is "too expensive" because it costs more. What I would do to help them understand is to tell them "A Mercedes costs more than a Honda, but people still buy them. You pay more and you get more. The same applies to this product."
The reason a USB hub isn't as reliable is that it can't supply full power to each port because you don't plug in its external power supply. The hub then divides up 2.5 watts among all its ports. Devices have to get by with a fraction of full power, and some of them can't.
AAPL has fallen from 180/sh at 11am to a current value of 166/sh, a drop of almost 7% in just four hours.
OUCH.
Firewire is still present on every other device they sell, AFAIK. They just figured it wasn't essential in a sub-notebook PC.
Why are so many people here considering this a direct MacBook replacement? Why does it need everything the MacBook has?
If you need those features, spend less, get a MacBook. If you need the small size, get MacBook Air. It doesn't seem all that difficult...
Does anyone out there NEED the smaller size of this AND Firewire built in?
Resolution too low. I wouldn't buy a computer under 900 lines of resolution.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
The summary missed one of the new products, called "time capsule." It is basically an 802.11n wireless hub/Gb ethernet hub, with a built in hard drive for use with Time Machine to auto-backup all your macs. It's going for $500 for a terabyte, or $300 for a half terabyte. It is, of course, a small form factor without room for more drives. It will probably be the only backup solution that will really be easy enough for most of the home market, but not really all that cool for Slashdot types.
The Germans are at it again! Trying to take over the world! Or, I guess, my iPhone.
Disclaimer: This comment was generated by a Flock of Trained Microsoft Programmers for Aqua_Geek.
Not to sound condescending, but, I'm guessing that you just are not in the demographic they are targeting this towards. Apple pretty much seems to be marketing towards the upscale client, with a decent bit of disposable income to spare and that likes fun 'toys'.
I'm not one of them, but, there are TONS of people out there, that make a lot of money...and to them, a couple grand for a toy is chump change. These are the same people that bought iPhones while others complained that they were too expensive too.
If they don't sell well at that price point, then they did price it too expensively, but, I'm willing to bet, that they will sell quite a lot of these.
Apple is not marketing really much towards the middle or low end of the computer market, they are targeting the upscale market with some sleek looking, and functionally 'nifty' products, and there IS a market for that out there obviously....just look at Apple's recent year sales figures.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
it is also an exclusivity thing.. apple doesn't want everyone to get it.. they want a niche group.. they arn't going to price it so that every kid or preson can have one.. they want it to be exclusive.. they can make more money that way..
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
But that's why Apple sells MacBooks for $1100 too. This is for the people for whom the .4kg and smaller size _does_ matter.
If the average prospective customer cares so much about having a replacement battery, this version won't sell as well as Apple hopes, and soon they will introduce a new version which does allow battery replacement.
I bought my first (and last) laptop in the early 1990s: a Gateway 2000 486DX/25. It was fairly small by the standards of the day, and the battery lasted five hours if you nursed it along. I said to myself, my next laptop purchase will run ten hours and weigh three pounds. Still waiting, but closer now. Meanwhile, I've discovered I rarely have an idea in a coffee shop so profound I can't jot it down on a slip of loose paper in ten words or fewer.
Then when I return home, I can keyboard it at an ergonomic workstation with the top of the screen positioned to eye level. But who knows, maybe kyphosis is actually good for your sex life after all.
http://bicyclehabitat.com/page.cfm?PageID=97
And when you using those power apps like Keynote, will easily substitute as a frying pan for making breakfast when you're on travel.
It's nice effort, excellent for those need-to-have-bling consultants of Silicon valley (and pretty much any Big5 consultant). But for a home use it's not that practical.
"thank you for trolling, please move along...."
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.
Please help metamoderate.
19 bucks for an upgrade that does nothing. How come the iphone guys get a free upgrade and ipod doesnt? I guess they just want to brick more phones with their upgrades.That sucks.
Lord of the Binges.
i don't think there is a better way of putting it..
+1 perfect
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
I just ran through a customization option at Dell, and here's what I ended up with:
Components:
PROCESSOR: Intel® Core(TM) 2 Duo T5450 (2MB cache/1.66GHz/667Mhz FSB), English
OPERATING SYSTEM: Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition, English
SYSTEM COLOUR: Alpine White
LCD AND CAMERA: Standard Display with 2.0 Megapixel Webcam
MEMORY: 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
HARD DRIVE: 120GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
GRAPHICS CARD: Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
OPTICAL DRIVE: 8X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW Drive)
Essentials:
PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE: Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD, English
WIRELESS CARD: Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card
INTERNET ACCESS: Please contact me with more details
SECURITY SOFTWARE: Trend Micro Internet Security 15-months
BLUETOOTH: Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR)
ONLINE DATA STORAGE: Dell DataSafe 2.0 Online, 10GB for 1 Year (included with price)
HARDWARE SERVICES: 3 Year Next Business Day Onsite/In Home Service, CompleteCare, Tech Support with Lojack
BATTERY OPTIONS: 56Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell)
SOUND OPTIONS: High Definition Audio 2.0
Accessories:
FINGERPRINT READER: No Fingerprint Reader
Price quote? $1658 CAD = $1641 USD. And that's with what I call the "hammer warranty" - they will replace your computer if you so much as hit it with a hammer!
NOTE: I picked this specific model because it was the lightest, according to Dell. I put minimal upgrades on it, and, IMHO, this totally smokes the MBA in terms of value. And Dell actually puts ports on their computer. 1 USB port is just not enough for anyone. Unfortunately, this particular model does not, IIRC, come with a mouse nib. I personally want to kill whoever decided that people don't use mouse nibs. Trackpads are unusable, and external mice don't work in many places. I can play any FPS or RTS or other game on my mouse nib. I have yet to meet someone who can play similar games on a trackpad. Moreover, I wouldn't pay for half this stuff, but it comes standard (it's too hard to find somewhere where you can just buy a computer nowadays. It's either "make it yourself" or "here's all the software you don't need".
I am far more upset about the apps added to the Touch. So, they want early adopters to pay $20 for apps that are in the new Touch (which is in no other way different), when they have no increased the price of the touch, so they are not showing an apparent "cost" to the new apps. (Granted, they've probably increased the margins since the touch launched.) This is what pisses me off. Apple once again proving they like screwing their early adopters (twice in the last year now). Oh well, too bad I got all those Apps free once I "jail breaked" (or whatever term to use) my Touch.
"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb."
I agree here, I love love love the XPS 1330 series with the LED display. I will pay $2500 for one of those any day of the week. I bought 3 just last year for co-workers the only complaints I have had so far are Vista issues.
CS: It is all sink or swim...oh and did I mention there are sharks in that water?
Note: Women are getting more education, and filling more elite/management positions than men.
Note: The CEO of Avon cosmetics joined Apple's board.
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.
The CB App. What's your 20?
It can't matter that much. There aren't many situations where it's necessary from a usability or pragmatic standpoint.
These laptops are trendy, nothing more. If you want to be trendy, it's perfect--and there's nothing inherently wrong with that. But I'm going to get really tired of hearing how innovative Apple is with the Air when functionally, the only new thing is the touchpad (which, you'll note, they didn't put in their other notebook lines, possibly because they realize that it's the only thing that really separates the Air from the Macbook/Pro.
You're joking? I hope? The Eee PC is not in the same ballpark, not by a long shot. Pick any category: screen, speed, OS, storage, etc. Vaio compares very closely to the "Air", Eee PC compares to what an Air would have been like half a decade ago.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
The cost of electronics doesn't go up,
Did you not see the custom Dual Core built for it? Or the thin hard drive....ya I bet those cost just as much as all the other processors and hard drives of the same spec to manufacture.
CS: It is all sink or swim...oh and did I mention there are sharks in that water?
The Air seems to be a prestige product, like a V12 BMW. Almost no one really needs it, but quite a few people will pay a premium price because they think they do. :-) It's a pretty little thing, though.
It so happens that I unpacked and set up a few Fujitsu Lifebook T2010 convertible tablets yesterday. Handling those makes the tradeoffs Apple made with the Air really obvious. The little Fujitsu is slower, cheaper, larger, and heavier... but not much slower, larger or heavier, and not all that much cheaper. They obviously didn't minimize on ports, as it has 2xUSB2, Gig-E, Firewire, headphone, mic, and VGA ports; slots for PCCard, Smartcard, and SDCard; a fingerprint reader, a Wacom touchscreen, and almost twice the battery life. On the other hand, it only has a/b/g wireless and it doesn't come with OS X or integrated multitouch, and it is not much of a looker.
Apple clearly optimized for different requirements than Fujitsu did. I'm sure the Air will fly off the shelves, but it's not for me.
Darn it.
With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter. -- William Lloyd
Not specifically saying it applies in the case of this Apple kit, but sometimes paying more just gets you your desired brand name/image rather than anything more.
A rather left-of-field example from me today: I benchmarked an Adaptec 1210SA PCI SATA controller against a 'generic' (Newlink) equivalent in a Linux box I was building. Both cards are based on the humble SiL 3112 chip. The performance difference was negligible, but the Adaptec controller was £48, the 'generic' was £12.
Sony and Apple, in particular, strike me as examples of manufacturers that demand/expect a price premium for the brand name. Sure, there are elements of 'first to post' development costs built into their pricing, but in general you can usually buy better kit with more features for less.
AT&ROFLMAO
I have a 13" powerbook G4 with 802.11g, bluetooth, firewire, and a lot of other buzzword-compliant googaws on board. It's small. Sure, it's only 867mhz with 640 ram, but it does everything I need a laptop to do when I need a laptop (which is almost never) - media playback, web browsing, wireless, terminal/ssh.
I can get all that in an Asus EEE PC for 300-500$, or approximately 0.16-0.27 the price of the Macbook Air.
And the EEE has rj45.
Sure, it doesn't (easily) run OS X or Photoshop, but that's what my desktop is for. Sure, it's not as pretty. But it's small, it's functional, it has more features I need/want than the Macbook Air (which I'm sure could be added to said for more money on top of its already grotesque price point), and it's much more reasonably priced.
The Macbook Air reminds me of the Apple Cube from a few years back - Pro priced, lacking a bunch of the features that mac the Pro pricing tolerable, pushing size/formfactor as the makeup feature... and with an initial MSRP of $1,799.
Maybe in five or six years, when I can get one used for what I paid for my (also used) powerbook. Until then, the featureset and the price point are way too out of whack for my wallet.
The one thing I hate about the iPhone firmware update is that it requires you to re-activate your iPhone. Which means that if you got the SIM-Lock removed in yours (which, for example, T-Mobile had to do for free in Germany for a limited time) then the SIM-Lock will be active again after the update.
Since the Apple hotline is closed now (9 pm over here) I can't yet say whether they'll remove it again without trouble or not. I'll see tomorrow.
Bad move. Being able to get it without a SIM-Lock was an important deciding factor for me.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Also announced were updates (& a price drop) to the AppleTV, a wireless basestation/NAS companion to Time Machine, and the long-anticipated iPhone SDK. Summary is too summary...
Wanna bet the touchpad shows up on the other Apple notebooks as they are refreshed?
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...).
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
From my point of view: MacBook Air + my Edirol PCR-1 slim USB keyboard = Incredibly powerful music composing tool, usable in dark because of backlit keyboard, only 5lbs total weight, less than 2" thick. Fantastic! And in my mind Apple keeps up its tradition of design by working with Intel to get a new, smaller chip layout.
One side-effect of working enough to be able to afford such a doohickey is that I no longer get much time for my creative pursuits. With my MacBook Pro I can be getting things done in GarageBand (for later export to Logic) within seconds of opening the lid - but in a small cramped seat thin and light really does have value. With the Air I'll be able to use both laptop and keyboard even in coach (it's just a bit too tricky with the larger machine). That means more time to be creative - that means good value for money for me.
Yes, proper recording requires an external firewire drive, a single USB port isn't enough, and during serious music making you want ready access to a CD drive whether for listening or burning a CD, etc etc. I'm sure photographers have similar issues. But if you need an external device anyway, surely by definition your use case means that thinness and lightness are not priorities?
but you're right. People will go in to see what the high end machines look like and then decide "well, while I'm here, let's see what other stuff they have".
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
It has sound out, USB and micro DVI, 3 out of the 4 things you mention are actually present...
Most small laptops these days don't have an optical drive anyway (in fact even some quite large laptops don't).
The only normal thing I can see thats missing is wired Ethernet but there are USB adapters to fix this, in fact apple should be clever and add it to the USB optical drive.
Sam "to lazy to register" Look
And there's STILL no 802.1X authentication. What the hell, guys?
Clearly I forgot to equip my +5 Codpiece of Karma.
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.
The only consistency in life is the lack thereof
I don't think your last paragraph is right. I dont think there's a laptop out there that even comes close to the Macbook Pro (or even the Macbook) in terms of "quality" even if you ignore OSX: and how long has the Macbook been out now (and before it the Al Powerbook)? You get what you pay for.
Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
Yeah, if Apple really wanted to make a great product, it should have made it a tablet. Then the thinness and lightness (and multitouch!) really would have mattered!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
FTFS: "Its Intel chip is the diameter of a dime and the thickness of a nickel. The MacBook Air will cost $1799 and up."
:-)
- what, it doesn't use a CPU? and with the "diameter of a dime" and the "thickness of a nickel," this laptop sounds expensive - plus, you have to pop extra for an optical drive?
- and no SSD?
- talking about being, pardon me, nickel-and-dimed to death?
p.s. i love apple, but i'm starting to collect too many expensive yesterday 'puters... anyone want a Ti PowerBook or Cube?
The Gospel according to lolcat
It looks like a really awesome device. Just not worth $1800 unless it's going to blow me while it downloads movies from the iTunes store.
Clearly you didn't look closely enough at the expansion ports under the drop down door!
*wah wah wah wah*
What? Of course it'll fit in there. You're reading slashdot, aren't you?
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
Why a 24 hour limitation?
I may be weird, but I often will watch a longer (>90 mins) movie in 2 or 3 chunks, sometimes over a period of a week.
I still think Netflix is pretty close to ideal; I can keep them as long as I want, and for $15/mo I can beat $4 rentals even at my leisurely pace.
I'm probably in the minority here, but let's say you wanted to play Civilization 4 or the forthcoming Starcraft 2 on the Macbook air.
Would the "virtual CDROM" work in another machine, would you be forced to pony up for the external drive, or will game manufacturers cease the activity of requiring the CD in the drive?
(While there are means of questionable legality to circumvent this, people who play games like "The Sims 2" may well just become upset instead!)
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
You didn't happen to notice that the damn thing's approximately the size of a postage stamp, did you? The point of the air is that's it's incredibly thin. This isn't designed to be the most powerful, feature-laden notebook out there, it's designed to be portable. For instance, Intel re-designed the processor to make it significantly smaller. Things like that don't come cheap; hence, Apple charges more for the device. Yes, it isn't as powerful as the Pro, but it's designed to complement Apple's other notebooks, not replace them. Buy the Pro if you want more power/features, buy the Air if you need an eensy notebook. It doesn't make sense for Apple to sell 3 different notebook models that are all essentially the same thing. One's cheaper, one's more powerful, and one's small. Pick one. Personally, I'm impressed that the Air's still cheaper than the competition, considering that: A) it's a Mac B) It's smaller (thinner) than comparable notebooks C) it's decently powerful and has good battery life. I wouldn't buy one for video/audio editing, but for web-browsing, e-mail, and text editing it's perfect. And, let's face it, that's all that most consumers use a computer for.
Good god you are an idiot. I can definitely see you purchase exclusively low-end Dell notebooks. You know, there is a reason people buy premium hardware. It's not built out of cheap black plastic covered with cheap silver paint, it might actually last longer than 6 months, and you don't have to wait on hold for hours just to speak to Indian tech support with no fucking clue what's going on. Not to mention, Apple laptops might actually be able to play an MP3 file without skipping every 5 seconds and connect to wireless networks reliably (unlike every recent Dell notebook I've used). It might have to do with, say, hiring American engineers who have a clue instead of letting the Chinese OEMs design stuff. Or maybe it's that whole thing about not cutting corners. Not sure.
Just so you know, I'm not a Mac fanboy. I just had enough of Dell's shittiness one day and sold my piece of shit Inspiron to some poor SOB on eBay. He probably thought he was getting a deal.
MacBook Air sounds more like an airline devoted to Mac users, doesn't it? I wonder what that would be like...
"Microsoft killed my company, I hold a personal grudge. I don't use Microsoft products and neither should you."-JWZ
I am inclined to disagree with that analogy. I look at it more like, some people like red cars, some people like blue cars. If for some reason the blue car is more expensive than the red car, but you really really don't like red, and you have to have a car, is it worth it to pay more for the blue car? They are fundamentally the same, but you just can't stand walking out to your driveway every morning and staring at that hideous red car. That's why I pay more for a Mac. I could use Windows, it would get me where I want to go, but man is it ugly.
I don't care about 10 hour flights, my experience has been that those always have power plugs.
But for my old laptops, the ability to change the battery has easily doubled their effective lifetime. I do need it to be able to stay alive for a 45 minute bus trip, plus some "sleeping" time before and after.
Of course, I can see the business case for making the lifetime of a product half as long, with a loyal customer base it means double sales.
"IMHO I don't fully understand the hype that's behind the Air. It's not nearly as revolutionary as people are suggesting."
Maybe Apple should have named it the Macbook HotAir?
"But this one goes to 11!"
Seriously, it can take me a long time to run a backup over the other ports, how come the Macbook Air doesn't have a Firewire port?
USB is painfully slow.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
"Apple removed many of the parts from a normal laptop computer and are now going to charge more for it. Genius I tell you!"
Do you work in my IT dept.?
Alex, I'll take keybindings not used by Emacs for $400....
Applecare is the extra warranty,
Last week Apple gave me a brand new battery for an intel MacBook that is nearly 2 years old, even though it was out of warranty, and I never purchased applecare, they were simply not happy with the performance of their batteries. My had the vague symptoms of not lasting as long as it used to. There was no wining needed, I simply made an appointment at the Apple Store "Genius Bar" (for the next day), brought in my MacBook (forgot the receipt) and 10 minutes later I had my brand new battery.
A lot of ideas are so fleeting in my mind that they are gone by the time I can get my PowerBook out of its case, wake it up from sleep, and start typing.
But I couldn't use a slip of paper. I would simply lose it.
The solution? I have iPhone and take it everywhere. Then I jot down the idea instantly using the notes application and never forget it.
Works better than anything else I've ever tried.
D
Buying expensive hardware without a warranty is pretty... what's the word... retarded? how about just risky. All Macs, as you apparently know, come with one year free warranty (first two weeks: not even a blink; first 90 days: no questions asked, from experience). I would never encourage anyone to buy a laptop without a warranty. You even say as much... so I have to ask -- did you have a point other than to insult me?
So let me ask, how many of you buy new laptops without extended warranties or insurance of any kind? Do you think you're normal?
Read Heinlein's 1953 Revolt in 2100, now more than ever.
Fair point, my perspective was more PC Laptop and MP3 player based rather than Macbook-related.
AT&ROFLMAO
Nope, the closest is the Thinkpad X61 from Lenovo. Same Processor, Same HD, only 1GB memory standard but starts at $1020. Thats 70% cheaper then the Apple.
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.
Frag 'em all...
Don't look at the XPS - Check out the Latitude D430. 3lbs, only slightly thicker, and starts at $1200. See it here. I've got the earlier version of it (D420). Far more features and by my experience it's a more mature product. Plus, it makes one sweet Linux box!
There are no uninteresting things. There are only uninterested people.
That Dell is about the size of the MacBook, which costs less and is more powerful. It is lighter, but then it also has a smaller screen. It is far bigger than the MBA.
A more apt comparison is the one Jobs did, with the Sony slim notebook, and the Sony's more expensive.
For the Thinkpad X series, which has similar specs, you can buy a base station. The base station has extra usb ports, as well as connectors for external monitor (plus usb keyboard and mouse). It also sports space for an optical drive and extra hard drives. You place your (closed) Thinkpad X laptop on the base station, and use it as desktop computer.
If the MacBook Air is to be used as a primary computer, it will need something similar.
It makes more sense to me than to move all your rarely used peripherals with you in your "ultraportable" package. When used "on the road" I have never needed any of the missing stuff. A single USB port is enough.
It's also a bit faster than the vaio TZ series. Still though, I was really hoping apple was going to release an 11 inch macbook :-/ I've had my 13 inch macbook for a year and a half and it still feels oversized and klunky. I would much rather have a more portable form factor than something that is just thinner.
In contrast to a load of the posts here, I am absolutely cock-a-hoop with this. After having my needs in laptopery ignored for years, someone has finally made a laptop that is basically exactly what I want. No useless DVD drive, no stupid sockets (This Thinkpad I'm using now has a parallel port, FFS), no stupid replaceable battery, a full size keyboard, a decent screen, very low weight, fast processor, good HD and a reasonable amount of RAM.
Well done Apple.
The only thing that is a bit silly is the camera and I'll need to see one after its been dropped on the floor before I'll actually shell out.
Upscale, okay. But there's a lot of people that aren't upscale, and they buy this stuff too. I don't think $85K is rich, and I certainly don't like throwing away money on things that aren't drugs =)
I think Apple rides on their name, on the success of the iPod, and eventually I do believe it'll fall back on top of them. Apple makes decent products and it sucks that they're not willing to sell to the average consumer, on the border of being arrogant. We'll see what happens.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
The MacBook Pro was updated in November.
Look, I bought a 15" MacBook Pro back in august. Im pretty thrilled with the machine. It does everything I need and then some, plenty of power, its great. But I have a trip overseas comming up and im not sure I want to lug that thing around for 2 weeks. in this case I would much rather have one of these. The thing is, I want a more full featured laptop because it is my primary computer (I prefer not to be desk bound). For me the Mac Book Pro is still the right computer but if I were a heavy traveler that could easily change the calculus.
I only travel seriously once in a while but this computer is designed for road warriors and for someone like that the
For some people, sub notebooks make sense... if I were someone who had a desktop as a primary computer then I would almost certainly look at one of these for a portable.
I will admit though, the lack of firewire is disappointing. No Target disk mode makes this laptop a bit less cool than it could be.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
like the lack of a macbook pro update
What more do you want? They're up to date on everything. They did just do a speed bump when they did the santa rosa macbooks.
, macbook,
Just got a big bump.
The mini is 161 days old
Yeah, not sure why this hasn't gone santa rosa yet.
The imacs are 161 days old as well and they have a weaker video card then the older a bigger imac before them.
Don't concern yourself with imacs. You don't want one. It doesn't matter if they bump them.
The macbook pro is 224 days old.
No it's not. No where close. And, as mentioned before, it's got everything they could put in it, anyhow. And they just gave it a speed bump.
also where is the xmac?
Nice try.
the mac pro starts at $2700 now but you can cut $500 by going down to 1 cpu.
Yep. They just updated this.
$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?
You're not the target audience, apparently. They think they can do better without you. So far they're winning that bet.
The Imac screen is not good for pro work and the mini is over priced and underpowered for it as well.
Yep. That's why it's called a Mac Pro. It's for Pro work.
Where are you getting this 2k-3k number?
www.apple.CA: $1899 for the base model $3.3k for the SSD model.
These are in Canadian dollars which are worth roughly 2% more than a US dollar (at least last I checked) so converting this into USD gives $1937 which easily rounds to $2k. I'm sure this is the price that Apple must be charging you in the US because Apple is such a fine, upstanding company that I know they wouldn't dream of participating in the usual price gouging of Canadian consumers.
I do all my backups over Firewire. A firm protocol for when reliability is essential. No FireWire? No deal.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
Tablets have been tried, repeatedly. Tablets have failed, repeatedly. I'm just about to start rewriting one system which was designed for a tablet, because the field engineers it was designed for do not like the tablets. Tablets are not great products, they're niche products - and that niche isn't anywhere near as big as the computer makers thought it would be.
I agree that the keyboard is a lousy user interface device, but like democracy it's a hell of a lot better than any of the alternatives.
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
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.
I just wasted your mod points! HA!
There's size, and then there are the dimensions that really matter.
The Macbook is 13.3". The Macbook Air is 13.3". Where they've cut down is on thickness (and not much on that) and weight (from 5 pounds on the Macbook to 3 pounds on the Macbook Air.) The weight is nice, if you don't mind a non-replaceable battery, no optical drive, and extremely limited expandability (one USB and one DVI.) The advertised battery life is actually lower than on the Macbook!
Talking generically, you're right. People might spend more money on a smaller, lighter notebook. In this case, though, they're spending more money on a thinner, lighter notebook which eliminates a lot of the features that notebook users probably take for granted right now. I simply can't believe that there is a huge market for the feature set of the Macbook Air compared to the featureset of the Macbook. I can completely believe that the trendy nature of "the new Mac laptop" has a large market.
How do I install Ubuntu on it without an optical drive? or How would someone reinstall MAC OS if they fsked their system?
Cool! A program that shares a drive over a wireless network! And a computer that can map said drive! Revolutionary! Where would we be w/o Apple?
Lets start refering to The War Against Terror by it's initials. . .
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.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
Apple had a patent about detecting accidental contact with a track pad, such as resting your hands on it. Maybe that technology made it into this.
The last mac book pro update as just a BTO add on
Where is the $1000 to $2000 desktop?
$2200 is high for alot of pro users.
the mini is still over priced as it is and santa rosa will not help at is price point.
I'll summarize another post I made along the same lines.
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.
One problem that keeps the Apple laptops out of our office, let alone others, is no docking stations.
See, Executives have nice LARGE LCD monitors at work. If by chance they have a laptop; most of ours have computers given to them for home use complete with everything they have at work; they dock it at home and work. E-Mail, blackberry, thank you.
This is a Starbucks trophy. I can only imagine seeing a few pop up in two weeks at Starbucks. An accessory of the wanna be terminally cool crowd.
Do I want one... yes and no. Yes because it is so small, no because it is so small. Its a great form factor for college students... but honestly it only shaves two pounds off of their already light weight notebooks. My long term concern is the durability of something so light and small. I am not horribly upset at the battery, thats an annoyance and at most a "justification" for many to push off yet another good machine from Apple. I am still in the camp of wanting a headless system similar to the Mac Pro but in the iMac price range. I'll keep my iMac till then.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
My Parents have 4 Macintoshes in their house. Two they use, and two that ended up obsolete simply because Apple made them that way ahead of their time (okay, okay, that iBook could have been brought up to speed for only a $150 software update and a $150 (on Ebay only) legacy 802.11b card, 'cos Apple wouldn't think of making 802.11g for old tech).
Most people DON'T need all that. But most people DO need SOME of that. And if you add it all together, most people AREN'T going to get WHAT THEY NEED.
Now, you can debate whether the Mac approach is better than Microsoft's (=We give you ALL you need, but each bit of it only works 80% of the time. Most people will need to use FIVE such elements, so it will only work, (Pet 2.0 fans, help me out here) 32.768% of the time), but the fact is, fashionable obsolescence is part of Apple's game plan. And we can always needle you for it.
The big question, is will it play world of warcraft?
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.
Oh wait. Not that kind of lingerie model, obviously.
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
Removing unnecessary stuff from a computer - I mean really removing it, not just taking half away and ignoring the half that's left - is difficult when the cheap option is to leave crap hidden inside, and to tell the suits "no, really, people will pay MORE to have LESS!" Sounds goofy, but true. Ever consider building a really really small computer? even with the "micro" and "nano" sized motherboards, there's always a whole bunch of useless ports on it; want to get rid of the unused stuff? go build yer own motherboard is the answer.
... instead, it's within arm's reach or a short walk all the time. The one thing holding me back from Apple was the absence of an ultraportable (and now my only hesitation is no 1024-line display).
Crossing the 3lb barrier has huge physical and psychological changes. Getting a Vaio ultraportable has (dare I say) changed my life: having a computer so light it's harder to not have it around than to drag it everywhere. Never do I have to go home to get email, or look stuff up, or run handy tools, or decide whether to lug the durn heavy thing around
Part of the genius of Apple IS the gumption to say "no, you're not going to have it that way". They compel people to think forward to better ways of solving a long-running problem, rather than hanging back to old solutions. No optical drive? yeesh, they're so 20th Century, get with the download/bittorrent/thumbdrive/802.11n future already. Limited hard drive? wireless shared drive, man. No Ethernet port? get a USB adapter for those rare no-Wi-Fi times.
Time to switch. Apple is hitting the tipping point: just a hair (or 224 lines of video) away from "PC? Vista? why bother what that old stuff?"
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
also where is the xmac?
I don't recall Apple ever promising an xMac.
They did deliver a lower-cost tower a few years ago, but it was such a market failure I doubt we'll see another soon. Remember, the people who say they'll buy something rarely translate to actual sales. For some reason the myth of the xMac includes the idea that everyone and their dog would rush out and buy one, when the reality is that few will.
I don't want to whine, but though the products are nice, I had expected a lot more from Apple. The Air is much too limited for my needs. A single USB port? (I need three) No Firewire? (I need two ports, preferably FireWIre 800.) No audio in? At any rate I won't get version 1.0... The services are VERY impressive, though, much more so than the hardware.
Beauty is in the beholder of the eye.
If only someone would bring back the old butterfly keyboard of the Thinkpad 701...
Yeah. that was a cool keyboard. But the reason for implementing it was that laptops back in the day had the old 4:3 aspect ratio. this meant that laptops were more square and didn't have enough width to fit a keyboard. Or if it did, the screen would be very large, and a lot of space would be wasted with the handrest area.
Today, the problem is solved simply by having widescreen LCD's which do provide enough space for the full laptop keyboard.
Regardless if the product is good or bad. The product defines what innovation is.
It's left blank because I have nothing to say to you punks!
I can't agree more.
I just two weeks ago bought a Macbook and It's small enough for me.
Making a laptop JUST smaller is a feat, STRIPPING a laptop bare and making it smaller is simple, RAPING a laptop of all it's features, except ram! blah blah blah including removable drive thumb drives blah blah blah and charging more than the larger featured model is criminal.
Even If it does run OS X 10.5
And I'm an Apple fanboy, this could get ugly.
Even if you have the disposable income, the Air might not appeal. It's essentially a Macbook with a bunch of stuff stripped out, a slower processor, and a redesigned case. The remote cd-rom application is not all that amazing -- I imagine it's just some rehash of Appletalk. It's sort of like an extreme version of the Macbook "black" penalty -- except now it's an extra $800.
And mods note -- I'm not an Apple hater. I spring for $2k powerbooks, well, now it'll be macbook pros, for my office (replace at 3 year intervals) and I have a Macbook which I use as my personal kick around machine, and before that, a 12 inch iBook.
Another problem with the Air is the same problem the Macbook has -- it's WIDE. The 12in iBook made a great travel computer. The macbook is on the wide side and feels a little more delicate than the iBook. If the Air had a smaller footprint, it would make sense in the product line. As it is, it looks like an expensive wide wafer -- fewer features than a Macbook at nearly twice the price. Even for people with money to burn, it doesn't seem the best place to burn it.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
Yeah, but the £48 one probably had one of the following in addition to the part:
All in all, no matter which, well worth the extra £36 IMO
Je me fous du passé
Thanks to everyone for replying to my use of the Mercedes/Honda analogy. You're all correct in what you say. Keep in mind that I used this analogy when I was much younger and it worked in those circumstances. I was in fact selling a superior, high quality product and it cost more than some people expected. My point was that when looking at the price they had to keep in mind that they were in fact getting more than the cheaper junk they were used to.
The analogy was never meant to be all that accurate. For example, the statement about paying more for brand identity is correct. In my generic example I'm referring to a product that IS superior and costs more. That doesn't mean it's just "more expensive", it's a different product so of course it costs a different price. You can't compare a superior product's price to that of its inferior clones. They are different. To a degree it's an apples/oranges comparison.
The same goes for the non-utilitarian based preferences of wanting a certain color car. In that case that involves an irrational consumer preference that doesn't apply to what I'm talking about.
Right, but you still have a much slower laptop - and when you upgrade it to have some of the same specs as the Apple the price goes up to $1465.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
$1500 for a whole SSD harddrive. This is $999 for an *upgrade*. Meaning you lose the 80 GB 4200 RPM 1.8" hard drive which is about $200 on its own. Then the price differential is only about $300. Considering that Apple probably gets a very nice volume discount, it's not *that* great a deal. Fair, but definitely not a screaming bargain. Apple's not a nonprofit charitable organization, no matter what the diehards would have you believe.
"The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well."
Granted.
So one needs to determine: am I carrying around 2 pounds or more of port-replicators and external drives? Do I have device incompatibilities? If no, you're still winning with the ultraportable. If yes, though, one needs to do some more fine grained calculus -- are there times when I can make do with less? Is the equal or greater weight in externals worth those situations? etc. -- Still worth it? If not this laptop is ruled out and you go back to the five-pounder and reevaluate what you have to carry around with it.
On the other end of the spectrum, I'm sure there's kitchen-sink, dual HD, dual proc, 17" display DELLs that don't justify their built-ins, and the interrogation is in the other direction (how often do I need 4 USB2.0 ports and RAID 10 on the road, is it worth 12 pounds?). It's probably been said 300 times in this thread now, "choose the right tool for the job."
Airbook looks about right if you want to spend a 2000 mile flight using xcode and your tray-table is broken/missing and your thighbones are too brittle to hold up a MBP (or your jewels can't take the heat! wink wink). Right there's a market niche to exploit!
It also seems like it would be pretty handy as a satellite machine at university. You'd carrying it all day everyday, the form factor might be a win there. Maybe picking up some dates in lecture hall? I dunno. You don't need lots of ports and optical drives to IM your friends, I mean take notes and do homework. The cost you say? Put it on the student loan; worry about it when you're old!
God I'm old.
Read Heinlein's 1953 Revolt in 2100, now more than ever.
iPod Flea ;)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
So the hint left on http://www.thereissomethingintheair.com/ was correct (if you cod decipher the message on the front page that is). It is big and small...
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
Nice try and good points, but I actually sold my car several years ago with the express intention of not purchasing another until I could afford a viable environmental alternative. I use public transportation for the vast majority of my transit, which in Austin is run in large part on natural gas.
So you can laugh all you want to...
400mhz on the low end, 200mhz on the high end
Those millihertz really add up too!
This may be the first Apple upgrade ever to be cheaper from the factory than DIY.
I just bought an 8GB microSD card for $115 for my n810, so if you gang them together with their USB adapter boards and an 8-port USB hub's circuit, and RAID-0... OK, that's just silly.
But the price of the RAM, retail, is less than what they're charging, and SATA and flash controllers don't cost much, so there's still plenty of profit left in those drives. Whether that's going to the drive vendor or Apple/Dell/whomever is another story.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
You're absolutely right. My 12" G4 PB is (still) my primary computer. I'm a form factor fanatic, so much so that the relatively small size increase between the 12" PB and the MacBook is enough to keep me using a G4. Sure there are trade-offs (I've upgraded the hard drive to 160 GB, but I'm still stuck with 1.25 GB of memory and an aging 1.5 GHz PPC processor), but I make them happily for my itty bitty form factor.
I've been waiting for Apple to come out with an equivalent sized Intel machine, but frankly this isn't it. Yes, it's thinner and 1.6 lbs lighter, with a faster processor and more memory, but even I have limits to what I'm willing to sacrifice for a smaller machine. I use wired ethernet every day both at home (where I could use wireless) and at work (where I can't), FireWire at least once a week, a plethora of USB devices (I have a powered USB hub at work but not at home), and rip and burn discs regularly. I'd *have* to carry around the external SuperDrive, a powered USB hub, an external hard drive (I couldn't come close to shoehorning my data into the Air's tiny hard drive) and the USB-to-Ethernet adapter just to maintain my current functionality, at which point any benefit from the smaller form factor is totally lost. Besides, I'd be cutting less than an inch from the thickness but gaining 2 inches in width. No thanks.
Size freak that I am, it seems that if anyone would want one of these it would be me. Unfortunately I really don't. Maybe I'm really not the target market after all, but are there really that many executives out there who use Macs, and of that set are there that many who fetishize small machines?
Boundless Expansion, Self-Transformation, Dynamic Optimism, Intelligent Technology, Spontaneous Order- BEST DO IT SO!
Quoth Owen Wilson: "Look at the size of this thing! Size matters. But in the spy world, it's reversed. You want people to say, "Look how small and sexy and sleek this is." Not "How huge this is!"
Except small is sexy outside of the spy world, too. (excepting the bedroom perhaps)
Constitutional rights may be respected, repealed, or modified; but they must never be ignored.
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.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Thats nice, but the parent was talking about ipods. Try even ordering a replacement battery for a 3 year old ipod. You will be redirected to the apple store and told to buy a whole new ipod.
Apple is crap for long term reliability. And if you say something stupid like "you should have bought the extended waranty with the cutsey wootsey carebare name" ill punch you in the face. Apple makes people into suckers. Always have, always will.
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
It's not an OLED display, it is an LCD display with LED backlighting (no electrofluorescent panel - which generally contain mercury). Going with LED backlighting has a few pluses: generally brighter, less power hungry, "green".
Blame our good friends at the IRS and FASB for the required $20 upgrade for iPod Touch users.
The issue here is good old revenue recognition.
For the iPhone, Apple has an ongoing revenue stream (the monthly fee they get) against which they can charge the cost of this upgrade.
For new iPod Touches, it is built into the price.
But for old iPod Touches, Apple doesn't have a revenue stream against which they can charge the cost of the upgrade. Therefore, they had two choices: 1) do not recognize all of the revenue from an iPod Touch sale and use it to match the cost of the upgrade, or 2) charge for the upgrade.
Revenue recognition around upgrades (vs. bug fix releases) is a major issue for software companies. The complexity of trying to set aside a chunk of revenue and match that against expenses is nasty. It is just easier - unless you have a revenue stream - to charge a nominal amount for the upgrade.
Pay more, get less. Hooray fuck. I'm buying a Dell.
Now wash your hands.
As it was explained to me when I worked there, the Legal team at Apple feels that they'd be vulnerable to shareholder lawsuits if they gave away something that customers would be willing to pay for. This is traditionally attributed to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, but I think the intent of the policy is more general than that.
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.
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.
Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
"1 extra gb of RAM, base (costs $150 to add to the Macbook on Apple's website, $50 to add after-market)"
Just a nitpick but RAM costs have plummeted. You can get a name brand 2GB PC 5300 SODIMM for $35 or less (I've seen $26 after rebate). And yes it works fine with MacBooks.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
#1 - The Time Capsule. Haven't we had wireless NAS's since 802.11 became a standard? I've got a USB-2 external drive that does my backups now. This announcement does absolutely nothing for me.
Iomega vs. Time Capsule
See any differences? Price, size? Not revolutionary, but a fine product.
I have an AE with a USB harddrive, it does almost nothing for me either.
So what?
Wow, that is really interesting, thanks mods.
#2 - The iPhone/iPod touch updates. I was really hoping to hear an announcement regarding the hardware. More memory. Smaller form factor. Lower price. Open network. Instead we see a few lousy software upgrades (woo, quasi-GPS that's been in the system for a week now). And, a nice F-U to the early adopters in a 20$ upgrade for the Touch. Glad noone bought me one of those for xmas. Anyone who did get one in the last 30 days should immediately return it and get one of the "new" ones with the additional features for free. And take a crap in the box, before they do.
Why the F-U? You knew the touch didn't have those functions originally, now it's a measly $20 add-on. So?
Sure, free is better, but it's not like you got a raw deal. Care to explain?
Thanks again mods.
#3 - The AppleTV/Movie Rental Service. Exciting, if the XBox360 hasn't been serving this capacity for over TWO YEARS. Wow, all the major labels, eh? Are they suddenly going to cut ties with all their other distribution partners? I didn't think so. And the price cut on the AppleTV was okay, but they *really* couldn't go just a bit further to put it below the $200 mark? Really, they must want this device to fail.
Apple is poised to leapfrog Microsoft's rental attempts in the blink of an eye. It's not INSIGNIFICANT that they've managed to get every major studio on board! Does Microsoft?
The Apple TV is now cheaper than the cheapest XBox 360. It also looks, sounds, and fits good next to a TV. There's also the additional incentives to rent videos through iTunes due to the transferability to iPod/iPhone/computer. There will still be an appeal for 360's, but that doesn't mean this device will fail.
Interesting? Please mods...
#4 - The MacBook Air. It's really just a masturbation toy for the rich gadget hound -- it does nothing new besides be smaller, and it does it slower and more expensively to boot. Wow, it fits in an envelope. Unless you're mailing me one, I'm not interested. Multitouch pad? Give it a month, they'll be on all the MacBooks. The size factor will very quickly be copied by Sony/Dell/et al, so Windows fanbois can rest easy. What would have made it revolutionary? If it were JUST a screen, no Keyboard, no fancy touchpad. Or, if it were under a thousand dollars. THAT would have been impressive. Made of Aluminum? And you thought the last generation MacBooks broke easily! Remote Disk? I've been sharing my CD-ROM drive via windows networking since 1996. It even works over wireless!
We get it, you're not in the market for a sub-notebook, and/or poor. Waaaaaaah! Move on, others are in the market.
"The size factor will very quickly be copied by" Well, which is it? It's a flying piece of shit on one hand, but Sony and Dell will attempt to quickly copy it on the other. Well? You sound more like the "Windows fanboi that wants to rest easy" yourself.
Poop on multitouch, poop on form factor, poop on Apple, poop on price, poop on aluminum (seriously?), poop on MacBooks, poop on EFI-level wireless Remote Disc (excellent display of ignorance). Poop on us all because you wont buy one.
Very interesting indeed mods.
Since you were so kind, I'm going to poop AL
Yea I'm sure nothing else will ever use that CPU...
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
I don't buy any of my own notebooks. I let the state buy them for me. In fact, I'm using a Dell M6300 with 4GB and a Blu-ray Writer to type this right now. It's metal and plastic. I'm using MacOS Leopard. Yea, Leopard hackintoshes can be notebooks, too. It also runs Windows very well, too. Ohh, and it can play MP3's just fine, thank you very much. (And Crysis, too.)
The machine was expensive, but it sure offered a hell of a lot more bang for the buck than this thing.
But I see you're taking this opportunity to bash PC's in general, so whatever~ You say you're not a Mac FanBoy but you sure sound like one. If it looks like shit and smells like shit, hey, I bet it's shit!
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
It's a great engineering effort, but hardly revolutionary.
I was really excited when I got my hands on a hacked iPod touch. Notes, Photo editing, nifty motion-sensing games, a really neat multi-touch interface...it felt like 1984 all over again, with apple inventing another revolutionary human interaction system that would define computing for years to come.
Somehow, with the Airbook I feel apple's creative streak is stumbling. And to its marketers, a $20 early bird tax for an iPod update when Microsoft rewards early adopters with new firmware that they have no real reason to give away? Like charging for full screen mode in quicktime, this is just plain annoying.
So the fact that they get a fair volume discount and you still end up saving $600 makes it somehow more expensive? Also, calling it an *upgrade* doesn't devalue it, either; sorry.
"Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life
"No wires. Less space than an iPod. Lame."
I think that sums up what you are trying to say there.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Ugh. Where have you all been? This is a subnotebook. This is not meant to be your only computer. This is meant to slip into your folio for your bike ride to the cafe. This is meant for travelers who are not trying to render video on the airplane. There are uses for this computer. It is not intended to replace your desktop. Isn't that obvious?
Now, besides the high likelihood that the thing has a built in mic like all other macs, you have bluetooth. That's B L U E T O O T H. It's this fantastic new technology that lets you wirelessly connect a headset to a device, along with a variety of other features nobody ever uses.
If you're wondering how to hook this up to your monitors you're DOING IT WRONG. The *only* reason it has a dvi port is for connecting to a projector! And if you're really savvy you've got yourself a bluetooth enabled projector that lets you export your screen. Hell, I have had 2 different cell phones that worked with such projectors... really, the slashdot crowd is sadly uninformed about new tech.
Now for those who have seen and/or held the device. I wonder, does it have a fan? I'd be enamored if not. Even so, it's a pretty slick superlight machine, and I'd love to be sliding into my folio for the ride to work at... wherever I feel like working
Oh, and before I go, I cannot post on MWSF day without pointing out where we are in the The Apple Product Cycle: The haters offer their assessment. The forums are ablaze with vitriolic rage. Haters pan the device for being less powerful than a Cray X1 while zealots counter that it is both smaller and lighter than a Buick Regal. The virtual slap-fight goes on and on, until obscure technical nuances like, "Will it play multiplexed Ogg Vorbis streams?" become matters of life and death.
I read the script, and I think it would help my character's motivation if he was on fire. -Bender
Typically, Apple maintains the similar product margins so there is likely a valid reason for the price. In addition, Apple often releases at competitive or even great pricing (see the flash HD) and maintains that price while the industry continually moves downward in price.
I think it was designed to be far cheaper but was held up on components and manufacturing somewhere; otherwise, Apple is aiming for higher margins (not that the missing parts cost all that much to include.) I don't know what they are thinking leaving out Firewire; USB 2 is a joke replacement.
This is not an injection molded frame like a macbook it is metal and needs some precision to fit together nicely; in addition to the custom CPU package, possible custom bridge, GPU package, "green" LCD, newer keyboard, etc. Possibly Apple will break past patterns and have price drops and or simply not upgrade and let it fall into a sub-note book price range.
Keeping high margins will make this the next Mac G4 Cube (remember that flop? it did cost to make those.)
Note: I'm not interested in one. No DIMM, no firewire is nuts! Otherwise it perfectly fits my portable needs.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
The old way wasn't that different, really: you pay to see the movie, and in return you get to take a copy of it out of the theater with you, encoded in your brain with a highly abstract lossy codec.
When you rip rented movies you're just using a better codec and space-shifting the bits from your brain to your flash drive.
Personally I don't see a problem with it either way especially if you aren't distributing derived works.
It's 0.1 inches thick, can be folded up to fit in a standard envelope, sports a 2 terabyte SSD and 8 cores, all while sipping only 3.5 Watts of juice. As a nod to Greenpeace, it is not only biodegradable, it is also edible. Early beta testers describe it as having a "cool mint" flavor, and there are reports of a "zesty orange" version in the works.
To enhance morale, at Apple there are gigantic posters of Steve Jobs fixing employees with what can only be described as a "level stare".
If I have seen further it is by stealing the Intellectual Property of giants.
And by "us*" I mean not you nor I, but the public.
#1 - The Time Capsule. Haven't we had wireless NAS's since 802.11 became a standard?
Yes but how many people have those in homes and use them for backups? What I'm hoping this means is that older AIrports with mounted disks will also be able to act as TM repositories without extra work. Even if they don't I don't care, since I backup wireless to a disk mounted on my desktop Mac - but I recognize this will help a lot of people actually get backups done, in one easy to deploy integrated package.
#2 - The iPhone/iPod touch updates. I was really hoping to hear an announcement regarding the hardware. More memory. Smaller form factor. Lower price.
*Lower* price? Do you not remember the extreme bitching that occurred he *last* time Apple lowered the price, now at a very reasonable $400? Considering four million have been sold, why should Apple do so? Plenty of people are fine with the price, me included.
The hardware is already very good, software updates improving it significantly and soon to have an SDK. For real hardware updates wait for 3G support later this year - and as for open networks, we already know we are on year one of a five year plan. Since all cell carriers are equally horrid (in the US) this is not an issue for most people.
#3 - The AppleTV/Movie Rental Service. Exciting, if the XBox360 hasn't been serving this capacity for over TWO YEARS
Personally it doesn't excite me much (yes I realize you were being sarcastic) though with Apple presenting it, it might actually get used (last NPD numbers for online video sales I saw showed iTunes TV donwloads already mopping the floor with Live, so we can only assume the same thing would keep happening with movie rentals).
#4 - The MacBook Air. It's really just a masturbation toy for the rich gadget hound -- it does nothing new besides be smaller
But smaller has a lot of value, as the history of devices has shown. If I were getting a laptop for the first time that's the one I would go for, as it plays on the key strength of a laptop - portability. Apple sells powerful laptops too but not all laptops need bucketloads of power to be useful, and if you traveled much at all the smaller size would be really, really nice.
It's actually a great complement to the other laptops, and fills a need not well met by the other two lines (Macbook for instance does not have backlit keyboard which is very handy).
It was a keynote about products for real people, not just geeks.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Sex was always very expensive all times. Especially, if you have merry with afterwards. :-)
Just a USB2. FireWire target mode has saved my butt so many times
They have a utility to use the Macbook Air drive as a target from another computer over USB. Doesn't help when it's your desktop needing target mode though... but then that's what bootable backups are for!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The 24" iMac has a very high quality screen.
If it's the glossiness that has you concerned, you can either remove the glass (under which is a standard screen) or use a second monitor that's not glossy. After all, what pro wouldn't be using two screens anyway?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It can be a pain but you can put XP on them. Just need to hunt down the drivers. That nvidia video driver was a pain to get. The two XPS 1330s after switching to XP were very nice laptops.
As someone who totes a camera and laptop when travelling with the 13 inch macbook, drive space is usefull to us. I miss the portability of my old 12" g3. They just made it thinner which won't help on airplanes etc.
I also travel with a camera (a few cameras and a number of lenses) and laptop, and this system looks much nicer to me for traveling:
1) will fit better in seat pocket in front of you when not in use.
2) Will take up less extremely valuable space in carryon, since you have to carry every possible thing on now.
3) Makes it more practical to carry in a variety of bags along with cameras, again because of lighter weight and thinner width.
4) Every little bit of thickness lost from the base means the screen can tilt that much further back against the reclined seat in front of me.
If I didn't have a Macbook Pro already, I'd buy this - as it is I'll wait for about a year and probably get it later after selling the Macbook.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
exactly why you should just use Bluetooth perfs.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
They wanted to force us to buy an apple product to do wifi backing up. Lame...
I backup using TM today, onto disks mounted on my desktop Mac. Wouldn't that also have been disabled if your theory were correct?
Wait and see if the next OS X update doesn't also enable this for airport mounted disks (or of course you could use a simple workaround to just get it to work now).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Georg
Where have I heard something like that before...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
So, the article states "The all new Apple TV software delivers an entirely new user experience centered around iTunes Movie Rentals, allowing movie fans to rent and watch movies right from their widescreen TV, with no computer required." Can someone please explain how exactly you run the Apple TV software without a computer? Does is magic run on my widescreen tv? Did they invent a new way for my current TV to connect to the internet and download, save, and play a movie automagically? Or is this just blatant bullshit?
"Information wants to be expensive" - Stewart Brand, the same guy who said "Information wants to be free"
My boss's main work computer is a D420 running Gutsy. I built it for him and I have to say it is the best non-Apple laptop I have used. However, he has been waiting for one of these, and now that it is out, he is switching.
It is cowardly, and a betrayal of whatever it means to be a Jew, to act as a white man
-James Baldwin
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
Buy yourself a used USB hub on ebay, genius.
I thought the whole thing was a big deal. The movie rentals deal was amazing, as was the revamp of AppleTV. I don't think it's quite there, but combined with having every major studio available for cheap rentals should make it a much more desirable product. I for one will actually use the damn thing now; I've never bought a single movie in my life for the reasons Steve said - you only watch a movie once or twice or so in your entire life. With rentals, hell, it's cheaper than Blockbuster and FAR less difficult to use. I don't have to waste money on subscriptions like NetFlix so it's really a rather awesome deal.
I actually thought the biggest thing in the presentation was how humble Steve-o was. He didn't talk about the awesome progress most Apple devices made, and he mentioned flat out two or three instances where Apple didn't meet expectations. You could see him shy about announcing 4M iPhones (When everyone thought it would be five) and he just said that they were wrong with AppleTV. I don't know if I like it yet, but it's refreshing!
I live in constant fear of the Coming of the Red Spiders.
I simply can't believe that the things you get are highly sought after.
Yeah, but it's thin! What more do you want?!
One point you missed is that the low end machine uses a 1.8 inch HD with an RPM of around 4K... so presumably if they hadn't included 2GB ram, it'd be more likely to need to page out to a slow hard drive and make the machine feel slow.
IMHO its a very cute machine and if they sell a lot, they'll make a killing as their margins must be high on this. But I'm sure there will be other similar machines out this year; i.e. machines with no removable media devices and a small HD or SSD a-la the Asus EEE.
For me the new Mac is far too expensive, but I'm sure some people will enjoy it.
I've never encountered RAM going bad. I've encountered a lot of RAM being bad to begin with, however. ... 95% of users don't swap them around, the only exceptions being those who need extra long battery life. So we have established that the Air isn't going to compete in the rugged industrial laptop category ... that's quite the bummer, buddy!
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.
Many people make this point of calling it a toy, but seriously ... I use my MacBook at least several hours a day. It's the tool of my trade, just like a dentist's drill or a carpenter's hammer. Sure, unlike those, you can play with it as well as work with it, but I certainly can't work without my computer.
Consider the amount of time you spend on your computer. The extra few hundred bucks you could spend on a better machine amortised over this time is really nothing. In fact, getting 1% more efficient at one's job is worth much more than a few hundred bucks.
Yeah, but time and again, reports come out that Apple machines just don't handle low-quality RAM too well. The extra few bucks for better quality control (that's almost all it CAN be--it's the same damn physical chips) is worth the trouble, in my opinion.
Also, in the Macbook (with its integrated video), you really want two 1gig sticks in order to make up the difference. On Newegg right now, you get 1GB sticks each for $24.99.
I was trying to be fair and throw a bone to all the Apple lovers. I'm also disappointed in the lack of Ethernet--of course, you can always get an adapter.
I appreciate what they are trying to do... but others have already made ultraportable laptop's that are in some ways better.
I currently use an laptop well under 3 pounds, the IBM/lenovo X61. It has very similar specs, with a core 2 duo and GMA X3100 (which is the best *embedded* card on the market).
The differences that I note are this:
1. The air is a lot thinner and less sturdy than the X61 for the same weight. This may be a stylistic plus, but it also makes the hardware a lot less breakable, and I think they made the wrong choice here.
2. The Air is only 1.6 Ghz for a core 2 duo. My X61 came in at 2.2 Ghz.
3. The Air costs a lot more. My X61 came in at about $1400, whereas the air starts out at $1800! That's $400 for a brand identity on slightly inferior hardware.
4. The Air has a tiny by current standards harddrive (80 gigs) probably to make the solid state version not look so bad.
5. The Air's one strong point is that it has DVI out, whereas the X61 only has VGA out. Since there are DVI to s-video adapters, this means the Air can play movies on the tv, whereas the X61 cannot.
6. The air has an optional (it's in the $3000 dollar model) solid state drive. I'm not sure what real benefits you get by paying for this.
I am glad that more companies are putting out more portable laptops. I see a lot of people with these huge tanking laptops rigged for gaming and audio video that make no sense to me. My brother's laptop even has 2 harddrive's!
If your laptop weighs in at around 10 pounds, then there's no point in having a laptop. Just get a desktop and save some money. Desktop's are about as portable as a 10 pound laptop...
Why don't you use the regular macbook as competition. It has the same footprint and screen, a faster processor, a DVD burner, ethernet, multiple usb, removable battery, upgradeable ram, etc. for a lot lower price.
The Air sacrifices a ton of handy capabilities/usablility to shave off a pound or so and get slightly thinner.
The Mercedes also does better in crash tests, many of them DO haul ass in a straight line, they have decent handling considering their size, and they're considerably more luxurious than most Hondas. And, Hondas are driven mostly by riceboys that live their lives 1/4 mile at a time. ;) (Yes, I know, IHBT, IHL, HAND.)
And I'm the one that usually supports smaller cars in arguments like these!
Slashdot? Girlfriend? You must be new here.
Just to pick nits, it isn't OLED. OLED display would mean that the screen itself would produce the light. It is an LED-backlit traditional LCD panel. Of course, not being OLED is a good thing, since OLEDs don't last nearly as long. :-)
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Crap. I just noticed a dozen other people already made the same comment, but I thought that no one had replied because Slashdot doesn't nest comments past about four levels deep. I wish I could change that to... say ten levels. For those of us with wide screens, the extra nesting isn't a problem, but thinking that you're the first person to point out a mistake only to find a dozen replies... is.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
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.
This author takes full ownership and responsibility for the unpopular opinions outlined above.
No worries! None of the others were actually direct replies to my post, I don't think.
... its so cool, you're going to need an 8 lb chain to keep thieves from running off with it.
Have gnu, will travel.
Thanks for the info- I hadn't seen this line before. It's funny, ever since I sold my Apple stock, the Reality Distortion Field has grown weaker and weaker...
-b
No offense, but I've stopped responding to AC's.
Please see the Toshiba Portege-
http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/cmod.to?coid=-33781
$3K for a comparable system with an optical drive, solid-state HDD, etc. No backlit keyboard, maybe, but still food for thought. And I AM a macbook pro, ibook, and mac mini owner.
I'm just saying.
-b
No offense, but I've stopped responding to AC's.
At least one of them above me was. You can't tell it, though. :-)
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
I'm not going to buy this Air either (at least not at this price), but I heard your argument a thousand times about the iPhone. People are NOT rational actors, economically speaking. I WANT this computer. Many people will want this computer. If you think that the "wow" factor doesn't sell, then I advise you to look in your phonebook for the porsche, BMW, and mercedes dealers in your area.
This computer is sexy as hell. Recession or not, people will buy it.
-b
No offense, but I've stopped responding to AC's.
I notice you didn't compare it to the SSD version. Because there, but for the difference between 1.2 and 1.8 GHz (admittedly that's substantial), the difference jumps to a rather substantial $904 (Latitude D430 with 1.2GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 64GB SSD, Bluetooth 2, Wireless-N). That's quite the gap.
Re your example, the price is actually $1495 - you forgot to upgrade from G to N for your wireless. But "some of the same specs" is a little disingenuous, too. "Some" = "CPU", and "OS X", for $304.
Applecare is great, but I have never used mine. My oldest Mac is a 2 year old iBook G4 that still uses the original battery. I still get more than 4-5 hours on it unless I'm running the optical drive or the HDD constantly.
Anecdotes prove nothing, of course. I'm just saying.
-b
No offense, but I've stopped responding to AC's.
It's almost twice as heavy and nearly twice as thick!
The Macbook is 2.27 kg and is a 2.75 x 32.5 x 22.7 cm cube. That's 2029 cm^2. The Air is 1.36 kg and is an oddly-shaped (0.4-1.94) x 32.5 cm x 22.7 cm. That's approximately 863 cm^2 (I think, assuming a wedge shape of 1.54 cm attached to a cube shape of 0.4 cm).
Now, I can understand it if you don't like the trade-offs, but don't pretend that a 40% reduction in weight and a 57% reduction in volume is a minor difference! As a second computer, this thing could be pretty ideal - especially if you are a frequent traveler.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Well... CPU, OSX, and it's about twice the size by volume with a smaller screen. Stick the 5-hour battery in it and it is heavy, too. I didn't really do a very thorough job because I think it's the wrong computer to compare the "Air" to. It compares more with the standard MacBook.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
I think Apple hit it's mark, you're just not it's mark. That's okay I'm not either. I'm not concerned about size or weight all that much. I have a MacBook and if they had a model twice as thick and twice as heavy for $200 less, I'd have bought it. That doesn't mean the market for small and thin doesn't exist. I know those people and they're probably not who you think. A senior engineer/software architect I recently worked with did not get a Mac as his last laptop because he will only consider the extremely small form factor machines (like Sony's tiny one he has now). He doesn't care about looks either, but he is more of a manager now than an engineer. He wants something tiny that will fit in a briefcase, check e-mail, surf the web, run terminals and project management software and read files and create and show presentations and play mp3s. Price is not a big concern since the company will buy it for him. I'll bet you this machine will be his next purchase.
This is finally the machine I have been looking for. An ultra-light that runs Mac OSX. SSD. Wow... they listened to the small market that is tired of lugging heavy feature bloated machines around.
My only question is how much faster is SSD over the hard drive option, and how much longer will the battery last?
If it takes the device from 5 hours to 10 hours battery life, that helps justify the high cost of the SSD option a lot... of course waiting will make that SSD cheaper, but I've already been waiting 5 years for a 3 pound Mac OSX ultra-light.
Dancing for joy.
I know most business travelers use their notebooks for work but I use it for movies also...a lot actually. I am somewhat of a fan boy but still have to say what were they thinking with no internal optical drive for a travelers box?
"Computers are a lot like Air Conditioners" "They both work great until you start opening Windows"
If you are a frequent traveler, you will have your laptop in a laptop bag where you can comfortably carry much more than a 5 lb laptop. As far as size goes, you still have the same L x W which means it will take up roughly the same amount of space. It only got smaller in the thickness, and frankly, thats the least important when considering effective size. If Apple had removed the thick bezel from around the screen and removed the extra space on either side of the keyboard they would have made it a lot more portable even if it meant leaving it as thick as the regular macbook.
It snaps.
I simply can't believe that the things you get are highly sought after.
It's certainly endemic to Slashdot to believe that if you don't want something, nobody does.
For someone who travels a lot and cares about their back, shaving 2 lbs -- that would be 40% -- of the weight off is huge. I think this is a traveler's laptop.[*] I know a couple of people who travel several weeks out of the month who have already placed their orders.
[*] And, I suppose, one for the fashion-conscious. Whatever.
if the system is crashed, how are you going to browse the network to read the install DVD?
Ask Me About... The 80's!
There is a chemical fire extinguisher built in to the MBA - if temps get above safety levels, the machine activates a dry powder that sucks all the oxygen out of the surrounding area.
...are targeted at sub-humans, of course.
If by "customers" you mean "people who willingly mortgage their houses to get less product for more money", then yes, I imagine Apple knows and loves, loves, loves them ;)
What is is all that is. Isn't that obvious?
> the diameter of a dime and the thickness of a nickel.
Does anyone have these dimensions in other currencies?
"You can justify anything by putting it in quotes, adding a famous name and making it a sig" - Albert Einstein
I doubt very much it has an OLED screen. I would bet the backlight is LED.
In case you really care, it is the LED backlight that lasts longer, the LCD screen itself will have the same lifespan either way.
If you claimed it was illegal to rip a movie, then I hope you only posted on the USA ONLY section of slashdot. (they should make one so we can continue to believe we ARE the world)
Anyway, the last time I checked, most people on the world lived outside the US, and for most of those it is LEGAL to rip a movie.
$1700 is only 1156 Euros. Sounds quite reasonable that way.
"The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
But if you've been using Time Machine, then you just restore from that. The fact that the Macbook Air was announced together with Time Capsule is significant that way--Time Capsule apparently allows you to restore wirelessly.
Are you adequate?
Replacement iPods of most varieties are available as "Battery Replacements" with a 90 day warranty for about $70. And you don't just get a new battery - it looks pretty again too.
It is 0.76" thick at the thickest part, tapering to 0.16".
Decimal inches always struck me as awkward; saying 19mm tapering to 4mm is much cleaner. Steve Jobs is already legendary in some circles, but even his biggest fanboys haven't predicted his ability to force the US to finally adopt the metric system.
Anybody want a peanut?
15-inch MacBook Pros and now the MacBook Airs have LED-backlit LCD displays, not OLED displays. Unlike traditional florescent backlights for LCDs which become dimmer from age more rapidly, LEDs have a much longer lifetime in the 7-10 year range, allow for much whiter whites on the display and don't show a 'warmup' period when turned on.
OLEDs on the other hand refer to the organic light emitting diodes that make up the pixels of OLED displays. They emit light directly resulting in richer, brighter color from nearly any angle. OLED technology is in its infancy right now though and the biggest problem is that the organic materials they are composed of breakdown after a relatively short amount of time compared to the operating lifetime of an LCD.
I just wasted your mod points! HA!
The oqo2 has the upgrade option for 650 bucks and they don't have nearly the volume as Apple. Apple is way over priced on this.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Why not? They could just take an external battery. I'd bet that this will be one of the first accessories available from third parties. Will probably be cheaper than an Apple-made swappable battery, too.
... and then they built the supercollider.
I wonder if Remote CD works with copy-protected CDs. Even though for Mac OS/X there are no CDs with built-in copy-protection (to the best of my knowledge) I wonder how this works with copy-protected CDs with Windows applications...
I may be able to more or less "comfortably" carry much more than a 5 pound laptop, but my gear alone is somewhere around 15-20 pounds, and if I had it in a laptop bag on my shoulder, I'd have back problems by now. As far as size goes, you still have the same L x W which means it will take up roughly the same amount of space. It only got smaller in the thickness, and frankly, thats the least important when considering effective size. Except you can fit two MacBook Airs in one bag
I'm considering the Air. The dearth of USB ports is a bit of a concern since I have 3 USB devices (camera, iPod, headset for VOIP) and would also need the ethernet dongle when I work at facilities where WiFi is forbidden. The aluminum case is a big plus, since it should give better build quality and durability (my current black MacBook has cracks along the edges due to poor design/construction). The weight reduction would be nice, the style of it is awesome. I'm willing to lose some CPU and spindle speed because I'd be upgrading to Adobe CS 3 and MS Office 2008, from non-Intel-native versions of them, which would help balance the performance difference.
As far as the battery, I'll want to know whether it's something where I have to mail it in, or whether I can just take it to a Genius Bar.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
I, for one, have decided to contact Apple to thank them from the bottom of my heart for attaching a $20 fee for the software update.
Yes, I'd love a notes app. I can do without the other ones, I mean, it's not that hard to use the web-interface for g-mail on a touch.
Sorry for the digression...
It was just sooo thoughtful of them to not have to re-program some apps that were already on the iPhone, and just package them into the iTouch system... That must have cost them a fortune.
like I said... I'm contacting them right now... my URL is the one you need if you wish to do likewise....
"It's the Law of the Universe, and I'm the sheriff." Slash-cott 2/10-2/17
The Portege and Vaio are nice machines, but they don't run OS-X, which makes them a non-starter for me.
Does Linux know how to talk to all of the curly hardware in yours?
No, I reckon this new thing could very well be the replacement for my 12" PowerBook G4: the 15" Pro is just too big and heavy for what I want in a laptop. Guess I'm the target market...
-- Andrew
Well I just checked and it is more expensive $1999 for the base model. It's starting weight is 2.4lb with the small small battery, no optical drive and the SSD harddrive. The low end model also had no bluetooth or wireless. The R500 is only a 12.1" screen (there is most of your weight difference) as opposed to the 13.3" on the Air. Max memory 1.5 GB for the base up to 2 GB for the top. It is .77" thick at the front 1" thick at the rear. The Macbook Air is 0.16" to 0.76" looks a lot thinner to me. Further, as you said it has one of those really slow low voltage 1.2 GHz Core 2 with a 533 MHz FSB where the Air has a 1.6GHz Core 2 with a 800 Mhz FSB.
I don't know about about you but the R500 looks to be more expensive, slower and apart from a few more ports and an internal optical drive (an external is fine by me), lacking in features.
But each to their own.
The Air costs a lot more. My X61 came in at about $1400, whereas the air starts out at $1800! That's $400 for a brand identity on slightly inferior hardware.
You can get a Lenovo Thinkpad comparable (pretty much chip for chip) to the $1200 Macbook for under $900. The Mac mini is under $400 worth of hardware for $600. This is the "Mac Tax", it's what you pay for the ability to run OS X. Mac fanatics will come up with a fantasy price comparison that will make the difference go away, or claim that the Wintel boxes aren't as reliable, but the difference is real. But the difference is also worth it - it's not "brand identity" that we're getting, it's the ability to run applications that don't suck on an OS that doesn't suck.
Oh, by the way: "GMA X3100 (which is the best *embedded* card on the market)"? It may be better than the execrable GMA 950, but if I was getting a Thinkpad I'd still pay the extra $200 to get an nVidia or ATI GPU... even if it was embedded. Intel GPUs have been SO bad for SO long that there's no way I'll trust them to get it right until they've established a solid track record.
Still think my panasonic R4 is better... its lighter 999 gramms (3lbs = 1.36kg) has an 8 hour battery life, and changeable battey... okay its a bit thicker, but its smaller in length and width (9"x7.2"x0.9") even though its thicker at the back (1.6") this gives the whole thing a nice downward slope... I might upgrade to the new R7 though as mine only has a pentium-M 1.2GHz being a couple of years old, and the new ones have a core2-duo. This quote sums it up quite nicely: "The remarkable 2 lb Panasonic R7 has an 8 hour battery life, and comes in 11 colors."
This is /. I'm pretty sure we all pay the most ultimately careful attention to the DMCA and all that legal clap-trap.
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
Wait, it doesn't have a DVD drive. Nevermind.
Seriously, this is ridiculous. No Ethernet port, no optical drive, no modem, no nothing? At this price point? It's absurd! But hey, it's thiiiiin and kyooooot, so the idiot yuppie iPhone buyers will lap it up.
Not OLED. LED backlighting.
LED backlighting does, however, give you better battery life, it will last longer than CCFLs, and it has zero warm-up time. (Yes, I can notice a CCFL-backlit screen warming up. It doesn't take long, but it still happens.
The X61s, however, is about 150% as thick, and weighs 2.7 pounds. As close as I could get it to the MacBook Air, I couldn't get it over $1300.
Then again, it'll have less than half the battery life for a machine with identical specs. I get 4 hours out of my X61 Tablet (essentially a tablet version of the X61s,) and I have the 8-cell. The 2.7 pound weight is with the SLIMLINE 4-cell, which has less than half the battery life of the 8-cell.
Granted, IIRC, even with the 8-cell, the X61s is right around 3 pounds. And has a 2.5" HDD, user-replaceable RAM, an easily replaceable battery, etc., etc.
Did you not see the custom Dual Core built for it?
It's not a custom chip, it's made by Intel. Custom chips were things like the Amiga had - custom, as opposed to using a 3rd party component.
... is buy last year's model and make it last for five years. The newest machine in my house right now is a 1.25 GHz G4 Mac mini, which I'm debating moving to Leopard.
I love the idea of Time Machine and Time Capsule, but I won't be running them any time soon.
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
I was a 1K traveler on United, and then for a while I commuted between New York and Philly (about 2 hours). It's safe to say that I am an experienced business traveler and laptop user. A five-pound laptop is barely tolerable. Heavier is out of the question. Reducing the dedicated briefcase + laptop bag to just a briefcase is a huge boon, and one that thickness definitely plays a part in. My iBook sort of lets me do this, but it could stand to be a bit thinner. I'd also appreciate the larger screen that the Air provides.
I haven't used the CD drive on the road since USB sticks started getting passed out as free trinkets at trade shows - everyone has one now.
Don't get me wrong, this thing would make a terrible primary computer. And in Asia you'd have trouble without the ethernet, so you'd have to haul around a stupid adapter. And I'd need to see how one goes about replacing the battery. But as a traveling business computer, this thing looks pretty sweet.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
That's an upgrade from a 32GB SSD to a 64GB SSD. The Air is an upgrade from a normal HDD to an SSD. Completely different starting points in terms of price. Apple's price is still perfectly fair.
Frag 'em all...
It's the imac over again - lack of the floppy drive is touted as an advantage. When someone says they actually still want one - it's okay, you can pay Apple to solve that.
The Macbook Air has an LED-backlit LCD screen, not an OLED screen.
The vista problems don't warrant a rebuild for me... yet. My main issues are the bluetooth not working on wakeup and some multiple monitor problems that I solved with UltraMon.
CS: It is all sink or swim...oh and did I mention there are sharks in that water?
Yeah, you'll note that about a dozen other people already pointed that out. Thanks for your added support.
Geez, one thing about Slashdot--there's always a ready supply of self-righteous assholes ready to correct your tiniest mistake.
"Intel was willing to engineer a new version of the Core 2 Duo specifically to Apple's specifications -- it's 60 percent smaller than others"
Ya, that doesn't sound custom at all. And yes it probably could be used for other things as long as Intel didn't sign some kind of agreement with apple NOT to use the chip in a competing device...cause apple would never do something like that.
CS: It is all sink or swim...oh and did I mention there are sharks in that water?
wow... FUD? Troll? I was saying that I thought flash would be fine for a desktop machine, and that the number of write cycles probably wouldn't be a serious limitation... Apparently I underestimated just how suitable it is (although 51 years of continuous writing to disk sounds like a lot). Sensitive bunch we have here.
Again, this is a monstrously selfish view. I see what you're saying, sure, but valid arguments from flawed premises are still unsound arguments.
You apparently operate on the principle that you're free to do what you want so long as you don't suffer the consequences for it. That's a principle you're welcome to adhere to, if you like, but I find it hard to believe that you really do. Would you - in principle - go set fires for fun if that's what you enjoyed? I assume not, but maybe I'm wrong.
As a member of a society, you could at least do the rest of the world the common courtesy of enjoying your life in a less threatening way. This isn't an unreasonable request.
So you can laugh all you want to...
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.
Of course, if the keyboard is supposed to give enough power to more demanding USB devices, it needs more batteries.
Claus
The problem is more related to revenue recognition with a hardware + software bundle, and is similar to why they charged $2 for the 802.11n enabler.
Basically, software is tied to hardware as a "bundle", but if you provide "extra features" at a later date, then you technically did not deliver full bundle, and should not have recognized the revenue from the original sale. This is because accounting rules try to remove "shenanigans" that have happened in the systems integrators of the past where software was promised but was still being built after the deal had closed & revenue recognized!
So, if Apple were to give away the iPod Touch update for free, they'd have to restate their earnings from back when it was first released, because they didn't technically "sell" the Touch back then, they completed delivery now.
If, however, they charge for the update, at a nominal price, it's considered a set of extras and isn't tied to the original bundle.
The iPhone doesn't have to deal with this because they accrue the revenue over several years.
-Stu
Sure, it's cheap, but not exactly an ultraportable. A better comparison would be to a Thinkpad X-series. Or maybe a Toshiba Portege or a Fujitsu Lifebook. Heck, the Asus eee is closer to this than that HP. (And unlike the Apple, it has three USB ports, a swappable battery, and an ethernet port.)
Seriously though, my business laptop has a 100GB HDD and I purchased it about 15 months ago (and at the time a 100 GB drive was about mid range). A new laptop that isn't even available yet is going to ship with an 80GB, what the heck? No optical drive, I don't think that has been the case for ~10 years. Conclusion: you can make things really pretty and small if you want to use old hardware/remove major components, duh.
Err, try to get a regular person to set up backups. Or a lazy techie. Versus "1 click" time machine. I know I'll back stuff up more with this.
As for the iPhone, I wouldn't say these are lousy updates; I've been using the new GMaps and it's fantastic.
I have an XBox 360. They don't have much of a movie library, at least compared to what they're saying iTunes is going to have by eo-February.
Oh, and all the MacBook Pros are made of aluminum.
Headless Mac Desktop might be nice, agreed, but not sure the market is big enough (Curious PC switchers wedded to their monitors?)
In a word: lolwut
-Stu
The X3100 integrated graphics will run Wow around 2-3x better than the older MacBooks with 950 GMA. Which isn't saying much.
Basically expect ~18-25fps in 25 mans or BGs. Playable, but don't expect wonders. My MacBook Pro with X1600 Radeon averages 25-38 fps in comparison.
-Stu
and MagSafe, so you're less likely to pull it off a desk.
I'd rather the infinitesimally higher risk of pulling my laptop off the desk with the very real (as in it's happened) risk of the stupid MagSafe cable falling out without my noticing it, and my battery going dead.
MagSafe is an overreaction to Apple's previous horrible power connectors. My Thinkpad had a generic concentric power connector that never came out by accident and never pulled my Thinkpad off the desk.
Also, let's admit it, ThinkPads are ugly.
Why should I admit it? I like the looks of most Thinkpads. They're industrial-style rather than Mac-style, but de gustibus non est disputandum.
The lack of a firewire port on a new Mac makes me think that either Apple has made a new way of doing the target disk function (USB perhaps?) or that functionality is gone. Honestly, having it makes having a Mac portable very versatile and the only other way I can see for a OS reinstall or boot camp install is to purchase an external drive.
And what the heck do you think this super-thin subnotebook is, then?! It's a niche product too! Moreover, I'll wager it's the same niche, or at least a significantly overlapping one, as the tablet niche. Here's why:
Besides, one important reason why tablets have failed before is the lack of good software (believe me, I know!), and Apple is probably the single company most suited to overcoming that problem.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Thank you, you just helped me find my next notebook.
Patriot - A fan of expanding government power and spending while not wanting to pay higher taxes.
Its only an LED lit screen. If it were actually OLED, it would be highly sought after, considering Sony is selling an 11" OLED display for $2500.
That's because you're listening to the gist of Slashdot comments, not the target market. What you need is to go back to basics. Imagine a number of well paid professionals, or executives, or trust fund kids, whose use case is checking email, editing documents, surfing the net, doing presentations and filling in paperwork on the move. This use case might not apply when they're at their desks, especially for professionals, but does apply to most of their trips and interactions with customers outside of their office. Some professionals spend a lot of time on the move, so this describes their most common set of use cases.
If you can realistically describe a number of scenarios whereby any of those features you mention is actually used on any kind of regular basis, then you've got a point. I doubt the real world would provide much evidence for you though. I've never replaced a battery in a laptop myself, for instance, simply because corporate policy is to refresh laptops every three years and in the meantime if the battery starts to die you're just stuck with it because replacement batteries cost money. But forget the reason and focus on the result - most people do not swap or replace batteries in laptops anyway, and most replacements that do take place will be carried out by IT or a service center.
In short - the answer to not getting it is simply to observe what happens out there. You'll see very little to justify why those missing features are a bad design decisiosn when the goal was "strip out the non-essentials and make it small".
Please see my post at http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=419084&cid=22067098
I like the unit, and might have jumped at a $1500 price, but $1900 (Cdn) + cables + external drive etc., and the few other lacking things might make me hold off for now. I feel they sacrificed a bit too much to be thin, think thin. They could have gone with a smaller screen to reduce it's length/width, and had a bit more thickeness, and thrown more stuff in, maybe...
I'm sure I'll still end up with one, but it's not quite the slam dunk I had hoped it would be, in my mind... The size/weight and battery life will probably win me over, but for now, my Macbook will do
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
I guess you are to be commended for re-encoding at a lower bit-rate rather than simply cloning the disk? It's sort of a self-flagellation I guess.
I wasn't addressing the morality of making back-ups of movies you rent though, I was addressing the lock-in of rental memberships. Sadly, it flew over some people's heads, or they hate me for even suggesting it, because I was modded down for it. How can lock-in even be an issue for digital rentals when the rental business is already designed around 'lock-in'? Sheesh.
A digression if you'll permit me though!
I'm glad you admit a little later on the the moral issue you see with uploading the rentals you've 'backed up'. Is it then moral to benefit from that immoral act by downloading torrents? It's another gray area. For the U.S. and assuming you're in the U.K. it's illegal for us, and for me downloading for free what you would typically be willing to pay some amount slightly immoral per instance, and rather outright immoral in the high degree. I don't see making 'back ups' of rented material as immoral, but for people in the U.S. it is dishonest. In other countries, it's expected behavior (e.g., Japan and China; you can pick up blanks while standing in line to check-out). In Canada they are taxed on a variety of 'piracy related goods' to permit unregulated downloading for personal use. (Weirdly, uploading is still illegal, so that freedom, as I understand it, relies on illegal activity inside Canada and the U.S. or uploaders from countries where it's legal to upload copyrighted material.)
One day someone here in the States will get sued for having a library of DVDs they've 'backed up' from rentals, when the case makes it to the supreme court it could probably be ruled a fair use even though it doesn't obviously pass the 17 USC's 4-point test for fair use. (IANAL, but it doesn't seem obviously 'fair' in light of the 4-point test.)
The four fair use factors (for copying rented material, without redistribution or intent to redistribute, sourced from Stanford's Fair Use Center):
What is the character of the use? Personal and non-profit (very likely fair).
What is the nature of the work to be used? Published yet creative. (This is the light-gray area of the test where white is fair. This would be black for not-yet-published works, and white for works of pure fact like phone directories. Movies aren't like either of these.)
How much of the work will you use? Every bit (this is a very dark gray area of this test, copies of more than small sections of long-form works aren't found fair use very often).
What effect would this use have on the market for the original or for permissions if the use were widespread? Some, in aggregate, after all this is why you do it, to save a few quid. Your personal, non-profit 'back ups' would prevent repeat rentals (might not matter) and in many cases prevent purchases of the product outright as well as possibly prevent purchases of later editions, thereby diminishing the market as a whole for a particular work. This wouldn't be an issue if copyright terms were sane -- but since they're like 200 years right now over most of the globe... the market of each work lasts at least 100 years and so covers many, many people for generations. For this factor the outcome isn't clearly "in the white" either: 'back ups' have some non-zero effect on the market, especially if 'back ups' are widespread. This factor gets darker in relation to how long copyright terms are and how many people are 'backing up'.
The four fair use factors here would be determined by our judges in aggregate, one clearly fair use factor does not make the infringement fair use. In aggregate these factors are on the 'dark' side of the spectrum, towards the unfair infringement. If this case were tried today, in our current supreme court with our current "treaty-length copyrights" it would fail. A couple dissenting opinions might mention the extreme terms of copyright as being exclusively pro-glob
Read Heinlein's 1953 Revolt in 2100, now more than ever.
BS you are pulling number out of the air as to retail pricing.
In fact I can go out today buy a Sony TZ91 with a 100GB hard drive for $2,699.00 or I can buy a Sony TZ91 with a 64GB SDD drive for $3,549.00 which is a price difference of $850, Sony's upgrade to SSD is 15% less than Apple's ($850/$999). http://www.dynamism.com/tz90/pricing.shtml
Either you knew ahead of time and were just pumping Apple or you are an idiot and didn't actually "research", pick one.
Wow...I mean it takes like 6 seconds to find the retail price of a 64GB SSD....
here's an example for you:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609244&Tpk=64GB%2BSSD
Look around and you'll see that price is actually a steal.
Great. Sony's upgrade is $850 to go from a 100GB drive to a 64GB SSD vs Apple's upgrade from an 80GB drive to a 64GB SSD. That changes what exactly? Those prices aren't even directly from Sony.
You're certainly aggressive, I'll give you that, and that's about all.
Frag 'em all...
Very well put revscat!
It's an excellent 'on the go' laptop or for the office if you are meeting locked most of your day. It's small, light and probably next to silent. I'm impressed. Reminds me of my old n505ve!
All the worlds a stage, and I'm the guy running the lights...
I can't find any solid information on Remote Disc outside Apple's site. The demo video says it can be used to install new versions of OS X, so wouldn't that mean the disc has to be available at the EFI layer? I hope they don't just mean upgrades, and an install is impossible. The Air page says the Remote Disc software is used to do the wireless migrations that TDM used to be used for. Not the same thing as using TDM to fix a broken system, I know.
/shrug
I think Firewire will be around at least as long as optical drives are, in Macs anyway. They must have been pressed for space in that little flip down panel. Check out the video, I thought it was just a plastic cover till they showed it. All three ports actually flip down.
Don't lose hope yet, it isn't quite clear how Remote Disc works. If Sun hardware can boot from NFS shares, I wouldn't toss out the idea of Apple pulling something similar off with EFI, wirelessly.
I don't think you really 'get it' with the MBA.
When I was travelling for business I'd have killed (well, maybe not killed but certainly maimed) for something that light that could easily carry off presentations and still be powerful enough for work. Instead I had a half-ton Dell that came in its own heavy leather briefcase which still included a handful of accessories (most of which stayed at home). For a while I thought Dell had perfected the compacted neutron battery, where a teaspoon of the stuff weighs as much as a mountain. Carry that plus your normal luggage around an airport and you'll soon grow to hate every damnable gram as much as I did.
This is absolutely perfect for business travellers. And for those people you mentioned. And for people needing a very portable second machine.
If I were still travelling I'd be interested.
Ahh... I see what you did as "research" (your words not mine), went to Newegg and put the first thing in and said "Well, that's the market price".
Here goto Dell and buy a 64GB SSD outright (buy it from Dell directly, keep your 80GB Apple drive and still make money, over your so called "under-market price" Apple store)
Dell 64GB SSD drive $949
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/System_Drives/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=341-5582
I am aggressive with people that say grandious things but didn't put mental powers behind it... especially when they get incorrectly upmodded to a 5 when they are very incorrect.
by systems and research people. I agree that 802.11n with Time Machine are fine for
incremental encrypted backups(Filevault).
Apple's due credit for anticipating & producing this cutting-edge notebook the
leaders and shakers in Supercomputing (including nerds & geeks) are likely to adopt quickly.
What's past is NOT ALWAYS prologue for the future!
Incorrect? Hardly. Dell's price is not market price by any stretch. Sure you can buy an SSD from them cheap, but they go out of their way to paint it as an upgrade for a specific model. Newegg has the lowest price for an SSD at retail at the moment. Most other retailers are close to $2K. Cheapest price != market price.
Frag 'em all...
Checking around, you can find seats on many airlines
that have electrical connections so you can charge
your MacBook Air's battery. You'll probably need to get
a special adapter you can find on the web or check with
a seasoned international traveller.
What's past is NOT ALWAYS prologue for the future!
Again if you did the proper research (heck any research, just type Appl SSD), you'd see what brand of SSD they are using. It's the Samsung 64GB that I have listed in my post... there's a reason I used that brand and it's because it's the one that Apple actually *USES*. The market price for the drive that Apple *USES* is nowhere near $1500 period, and Dell's is pretty much around the market price for that particula drive that Apple *USES*.
If we are randomly going to be picking which model of drive SSD drive, then I'm going to pick the brand spanking new STEC ZeusIOP drive (announced this week) that they created specifically for the EMC DMX-4 (which I have more than one of). It has an expected list price of 30x the pricing of a normal 15k drive (it has some special magic, goto the storageanarchist for details), a 72GB 15k drive has a price of around $900, with a 30x multiplier the cost is $27,000 for it (divide $27,000 by 72 = $320/GB or $24,000 for $64GB). Since you were using a brand compeletely different than the one Apple actually *USES*, the statement that the market price of $24,000 for 64GB of SSD flash is as correct as the drive that you "researched", meaning that both of those are completely incorrect if one would (AS YOU SAID) say that Apple is selling their SSD for "below market price", when market price is either of those drives.
Why don't you just walk away, the hole you are in is getting deeper and deeper; facts are facts and you are simply wrong.
I really shouldn't bother since your so-called "research" appears to be very limited, but you're spreading misinformation and I don't like it. First, Apple is not using the same drive as Dell, I'll give you the brand, but it's a different drive, at the very least it's PATA not SATA, and it's 1.8" while the Dell is 2.5" (that's a *big* difference). That said, try buying that *SAME* samsung drive from a retailer, you'll find the retail price on that *SAME* samsung drive to be over $1500, even the 2.5" version is over $1K at most places that actually have them. You won't find it at many retailers because it's an OEM drive, but here's one for you
http://www.king-cart.com/cgi-bin/cart.cgi?store=dvnation&product_name=Samsung+64GB+ZIF+SSD&exact_match=exact
As for your other, utterly ridiculous comparison, that is not just a different drive, but a completely different market segment. There's no point bringing that in, at least my example and your Dell were applicable products. Also no point in telling me about how many EMC DMX-4's you have since this is the internet and you can say anything and I don't believe you anyway.
You're wrong, maybe simply because you didn't read what you posted carefully, but that's what being aggressive gets you.
Frag 'em all...
Can you show me your link to the exact drive model that you found for the Mac Air, I am unable to find it anywhere? However I will show you the data that I come to my information by.
If one goes to Samsung's website there is only 1x PATA SSD drive that is in mass production, all the others are in "ENGINEERING SAMPLE STATUS", including the model *you* listed.
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/productList.do?fmly_id=161
Not having the Mac Air part number directly, logically that leads me to one conclusion. The drive that is actually being produced is the one that is going to be used in the actually being produced Mac Air Looking up the part number that is an ACTUAL PRODCUTION, not fantasy engineering land leads me these results:
http://www.excaliberpc.com/SAMSUNG_FLASH_SOLID_STATE_DRIVE/MCCOE64GQMPQ-M1A00/partinfo-id-582173.html
Samsung FLASH SOLID STATE DRIVE MCCOE64GQMPQ-M1A00 64G PATA SLIM $962.20
http://triointernational.com/all.cfm/partno/MCCOE64GQMPQM1A00/stat/froogle
SAMSUNG FLASH SOLID STATE DRIVE MCCOE64GQMPQ-M1A00 64G PATA SLIM $966.90
http://www.pcsuperdeals.com/ProductView.asp?ProductID=a34bfeb9-6511-4c7e-8465-4dbd908e2175&Refer=11
SAMSUNG FLASH SOLID STATE DRIVE MCCOE64GQMPQ-M1A00 64G PATA SLIM $941.85
Need I go on, as you how exactly you are looking right now? I gave you a nice opportunity to walk away, but no you just said well you are correct it's Samsung but then you picked a PART THAT'S NOT EVEN IN MASS PRODUCTION.
I don't have to prove anything to you, but if you search the internet for InsaneGeek, EMC & SAN you'll find a number of blogs that I am a regular poster of; even some from here from a couple of years ago (but like usual you do such awesome "research").
The fine print mentions that you cannot operate above 10,000 feet! So much for use by business travelers in flight:)
Still it looks great - except the price. I might try the Asus eeePC instead $400.
Note that none of the links you posted have the product in stock for a least a few weeks, while the link I posted to the drive (that is supposedly not in mass production) lists the product as IN STOCK. The fact that samsung's website doesn't list the drive as "in mass production" is pretty much meaningless, *especially* when talking about parts for Apple. Honestly, until you order a drive and receive it, you can't really say either way. We could talk around in circles until the price comes down and you're "right" if you like. There's also the possibility that it's not a Samsung drive at all and it's made by Toshiba, Apple uses both suppliers and both have 64GB SSDs. Either way it's a 1.8" PATA drive, and not anything else, no matter who says they're making what when. In any case, as far as "you how exactly you are looking right now" I'm not too worried...
As for "proving anything" I was simply pointing out that your claims to having so much of some related piece of hardware do nothing for your credibility. I could claim I have hundreds of SSDs in giant arrays, and even if it were true, it wouldn't mean I'm any more right about SSD pricing. It was simply a pointless claim.
Frag 'em all...
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/01/18/sources_macbook_air_battery_replacements_take_only_minutes.html For all of those that were upset about the integrated battery.