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MacBook Air's Battery is Actually Easy to Replace
pizzach noted that the MacBook Air battery is actually fairly easy to replace.
"All it requires is a philips screwdriver. Unlike some of Apple's other products, the battery is not so soldered in which should make a lot of people at least a little bit happier." I think I'll have to wait for something with a bigger screen and a faster clock speed.
If you want big screens and fast clocks, I'd conjecture you're not the market segment the Air is aimed at. Have you considered a Macbook Pro?
Isn't the whole point of the 'Apple experience' to never have to do something like open up your laptop's case with a screwdriver?
They also mention you can have it replaced for $129 by mailing it in. Ahh, that must be why Steve Jobs showed us that it fits in a manila envelope. How convenient!
I think this is missing the point behind the main thrust of the complaints. Most of the people complaining about it (at least here on Slashdot) have been the mobile road warriors who are worried about it running out of juice while traveling, rather than the battery wearing out after 2 years and needing replacement.
It would appear at first that Apple's ultra thin and light missed its target market; after all, the main market for ultra thin and lights has traditionally been mobile road warriors. However, the lack of a swappable battery and of a wired LAN port (my company, and most I have been to, as well as many hotels I have stayed at, don't even have a wireless network option) make clear that mobile road warriors aren't the target market.
The target market is in fact fashion conscious users, and students, and others whose requirements are a sexy form factor.
I don't think that weight is necessarily even _that_ significant a factor here. Steve Jobs made clear if I recall correctly that he was willing to increase weight to decrease thickness. Thickness has no particular use other than sex appeal, footprint is actually more significant in terms of usefulness when it comes to size. In terms of weight, there have been other laptops that are significantly lighter yet retaining key features like a wired LAN and swappable battery. The entire point of this laptop is how thin and awesome looking it is.
To repeat myself and others: "I think one of us is missing the point of the MacBook Air."
:)
Or in other words, using a car metaphor, of course: "Nobody will ever buy a Porsche, because it's got only two seats and a minimal trunk space. For 50'000 EUR *less*, you'd get four seats, a pickup-sized cargo bay AND as much horsepowers, so the Porsche is clearly bad value."
There's a certain crowd that's criticizing the MacBook Air a lot for what it leaves off, and I don't think they get what you want with a subnotebook. I likewise wonder what they think of the EeePC.
There's a diversity of needs in personal computing, and at one end you have the gamers who want highly upgradable components and to cram everything they can into a 600-watt beast with fans whining. Fine, okay, but my own preference is that I'd rather not share my living space with that. The next is the quiet low-profile desktop, and Apple's doing that kind of thing very recognizably with the iMac and Mac Mini. There are PC systems like the shuttle. Then there are desktop-replacement laptops with enough GPU for gamers and CPU for number crunching. And now there are subnotebooks. Cite whatever midpoints or extremities you want, these are the relevant ones.
Most web/email/office use is simply best done on something like an iMac if you're stationary, or a laptop. Those of us who value quiet and energy efficiency will more and more choose this route. The real junkies among us have not one, but several machines. After a while, it gets annoying if they're all identical configurations. You don't want to pack a DVD and a monster peripheral set into your subnotebook - that's for basic needs on the go! Leave your movie collection at home, say, on a nice Kurobox or some other NAS. You don't need multiple DVD burners. You can get disk images off your NAS. Back it up with a Time Capsule or roll your own.
I like my network of specialized machines. It makes choosing an operating system and hardware configuration a matter of the right choice for the job. I think most of the criticism of the MacBook Air comes from the 600W desktop beast crowd that has everything in one or two boxes. Well... they'll come around.
neither makes your point nor endears you to the boss (who's daughter IS quite probably the target demographic for this little gem.)
Just say its not for you because of (yadda, yadda, yadda), and suddenly, you find that not even you want to read your opinion.
I'm not buying one because of my needs for something more substantial, but those are MY needs. They aren't for everybody.
Apple
got everybody to switch 5"1/4 disketes for 3"1/2 by giving them no option (and everybody predicted disaster,) them he
got everybody to switch to USB by giving them no option (and everybody predicted disaster), then
got rid of the diskette drive altogether by giving them no option (and everybody predicted disaster,)
then he got everybody to switch to writable CDs (and now DVDs) by giving them no option.
Now he's getting rid of CDs and DVDs altogether and moving storage into appliances and services; by giving them no option.
Wake the fuck up.
The machine YOU'RE using as a road warrior would still be taking up all of your desk space if it wasn't for Steve Jobs' sheer balls.
The internet and the web weren't caused by INTERNAL influences.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Maybe you should have tried reading the "What's in the box" section:
That lets you connect an Off-the-shelf MacBook Air to anything you can connect an Off-the-shelf MacBook Pro.
I'm not saying you won't get nibbled to death in other places (*cough* iTunes rentals *cough*), but this isn't one of them.
First, if you've got to carry several spare batteries because you will be using your laptop for extended periods in areas that don't have power, it won't kill you to carry a few extra pounds in the form of a MacBook or MacBook Pro.
Second, exactly where will you be that power is inaccessible? Coffee shop? Plane? Train? Boat? Car? Airport? This is the 2000's and power is accessible in almost all of these places.
Third, this is a continuation of the complaints of years past where people lamented the disappearance of 5.25" floppies, then 3.5" floppies, etc. It's a wireless world now (and Apple has introduced other products to make this even more-so), and it's a world with power accessible in many places you would have never had it before. In fact, I can think of very few places that I've taken my laptop in the last couple of years where I had to run off of battery power by necessity. (Convenience, yes. I like the view here and there's no plug near, but necessity, no. There's a plug 30 feet away.)
Fourth, I return to my first point. If you want great gas mileage, don't buy a Porsche. If you maximal cargo space, don't buy a Cooper. If you want acceleration, don't buy a Prius and then complain that you can't add Nitrous Oxide and a Supercharger. The proper tool for the proper task, so if you want to work with your data with a highly portable machine with a large (for its class) screen and total wireless capability, get an Air.
And what's the chance that he thinks a Nomad is better?
There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
It's pretty simple, really. The magnetic charge port. Apple can offer a battery pack that recharges the Air's battery, extends operating time, etc. It would be just like the AC power supply except it would run off of DC. It could still run with typical laptop batteries (Li-ion and such) for high power densities but it also wouldn't need to be some oddball configuration that drives up manufacturing costs. It could be a basic brick more or less.
The Air has a power port. Getting extra run time when on aircraft without power plugs, etc, is nothing more than supplying power to the power port.
Efficiencies also depend on how Apple configured the power port. With just a little forethought, they could have made it where a portable power pack (i.e. auxiliary battery) just runs the Air itself and doesn't recharge the onboard battery. That would be more efficient than accepting charging efficiency losses and the only down side would be having to carry an assembly with cord instead of just an extra battery. A fairly acceptable compromise to trying to make removable batteries in such a tight form factor.
1) there's an adapter for airline seat jacks so you don't need that second battery
2) theres a Ethernet jack dongle for the USB so you can plug it to a hard line
3) there's a mini multiple USB hub so you can put in plenty of things
4) it has blue tooth (and wifi N) built in so your blue tooth mouse or pointer does not need a jack.
5) it's gotta honk'in large cache so the 4800 rpm disk is not going to be that big a drag (afterall the macbooks and mac mini are only 5400 rpm and have smaller caches)
It's not a supercharged photoshop engine given the slower disk and lower end graphics and 13.3 inch screen of course. That's what the8 cpu macpro is for.
But it's two pounds less than a macbook and you don't need an oversized breifcase or book bag to take it a along. I could see this as a lot easier to schlep around at conferences than may macbook pro. And with it's ultra-fast wifi it's gonna be a lot easier to keep synched than the usual cable clumsiness.
The 13.3 inch screen is also a much nicer form factor than the 15 or 17 for airplane seats. PLus it's a wide screen not a SVGA shaped screen to it's not as tall. And it has a back lit KB that the macbook lacks.
Basically the mac book is for college kids and teachers. The air is for bussinessmen and conference goers and people who like aesthitics in the house.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.