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Mossberg Reviews the Lenovo X300 Vs. MacBook Air
genji256 writes "Adding to his first impressions, Walt Mossberg has published a full review of the soon-to-come Lenovo X300. As a bottom line he 'recommends the X300 for road warriors without hesitation, provided they can live with its two biggest downsides: a relatively paltry file-storage capacity and a hefty price tag.' Gizmodo lists all the comparisons with the MacBook Air that Walt inevitably makes. Final score: it's a tie, though certain points are arguable ('Doesn't use Mac OS X Leopard. Winner: MacBook Air')."
I notice on the Amazon listing for the Macbook Air that there are nothing but five-star reviews. Is it really that good, or are they just shills? It's a bit odd that a review never appeared here on Slashdot.
Will a beowold cluster of them run Linux in Soviet Russia?
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
The fact that the Macbook air runs an OS that the PC laptop can't is a major plus.
Unless you intend to run Windows on the Mac laptop then why compare?
Feh. Both of them leave me uncaring. I'd have expected more benefit from SSD in the runtime dept for the price premium it carries. But on the other hand the Apple is too much compromise in function to achieve 'cool factor' for my taste. If I really wanted to optimize the size (while still keeping something close to a real keyboard) over everything else I'd grab an eeepc.
Democrat delenda est
The X300 is like a tank, the Air like a sculpture, one is purpose built to get the job done, the other is purpose built to woo the eyes.
The first time I have ever seen someone use "inexpensive" to describe the Macbook Air.
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
How is this a tie?
How can the lack of an optical drive, any expansion, etc be counted as so low.
Also, the X300 only has SSD as an option right now. Compare that to the SSD version of the MacBook Air, and the price is very comparable.
And, as others have mentioned, Hackintosh! They can both run Windows or OSX. Sure, one doesn't ship with the other, but seriously, its not like its that hard to figure out. OS should not have been factored in at all.
They used thicker + heavier + screen height as 3 separate points. That should all be 1 point.
I don't see how the MBA can even get close.
Why is this tagged IBM? Why is the IBM logo being used? Lenovo bought the IBM laptop division at the end of 2004. IBM has a piece of Lenovo, but IT"S NOT IBM ANYMORE!!!!!
The X300 is like a tank, the Air like a sculpture, one is purpose built to get the job done, the other is purpose built to woo the eyes.
Have you ever held one? The Air is quite solid, for something so thin. I would have no hesitation lugging one around in a backpack ad not having to worry about treating it gently.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Perhaps if it said "Can't run Mac OS X Leopard. Winner: MacBook Air", the point would be less contentious. The ability of one system to run an OS that the other can't seems to be a clear advantage to me.
It's just a tiny bit thinner than a Dell m1330
Can we stop calling travelling salesmen 'road warriors'. Its a pathetic attempt to make very safe ordinary jobs done by people in suits sound like ninjas.
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
The Macbook air won in almost all the categories you would want from a laptop:
* Being able to use it from an airline seat (Macbook Air has a shorter screen and thinner base)
* Ait has longer battery life
* Air has faster processor
The only technical aspect I could see swaying some people, the X300 has more resolution. But not much more, and the processor/battery life in particular would seem to be key to me.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It was an analogy, tool.
Obviously - but that doesn't make it correct, if the points it is based on are wrong. I'm not a tool but you just proved you're a fool.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Turnabout is fair play.
Remember all those people who, when you suggested they consider a Mac, cried "but it doesn't run Windows!"
It still does everything that I need and then some. I see NO reason to buy anything else anytime soon.
Go Dell!
I read the title, and for a very brief moment thought I was going to see someone take a Mossberg pump shotgun to a MacBook Air. That would have been sweet!
Well duh. That's rediculous for a review. We aren't talking splitting hairs a few dollars more it's a lot more expensive and it's larger and heavier and it's not all pluses since the Mac has more drive space. It feels more like a "Gee I prefer windows" review than a head to head match up. Until some one has a machine of a similar size and weight for a similar price then reviews are pointless. The Macbook Air does exactly what it was designed to do. You simply can't install a DVD drive inside a machine of that size with current technology but give them a few years and they'll likely be the first to do it. Remember the first iMacs had external drives. These days you pull them out of the box and plug them in and they're smaller. Each machine reviewed does a good job for what it was designed for but they are very different machines with different goals. Macbook is the smallest and lightest and it's a solid machine not a radically under powered system just so they could have bragging rights. You want to know the winner? The consumer because the Macbook Air is driving the market so the PC makers will keep pushing to copy it. By then Apple will have the next generation out but the point is everyone will benefit from them pushing the envelope. when it comes down to it it's not fair comparing PCs to Macs because most people are branded and they'll always show a preference. There are advantages to both so once again the consumer wins because there's choice. Remember the dark days of beige computers? For a lot of years they were like model Ts, you can have a computer any color so long as it's beige. A few vendors started selling black cases then suddenly you had cases available that looked like a Rebook shoe, colors and style. We need more companies pushing the break the model. The Macbook Air fits easily inside a brief case without taking up much space. It's more like throwing a thick notepad in the briefcase. That was the intent and they pulled it off and made it afordable. I find it funny that there were complaints about the price on the Macbook Air and now people are touting a more expensive machine that's bigger and heavier.
I don't understand why they couldn't have included the manilla envelope in EITHER product release? Why should I have to go out and buy one when they clearly advertise how well they work with a manilla envelope.
And it had better be one with the little strings to easily open and shut it...
Also, the ThinkPad's screen, when opened, stands significantly higher than the Mac's, so it is less usable in a coach seat on an airplane when the person in front of you reclines.
Really, how many people who are willing to spend $3,000 on a laptop are flying coach? I spent barely 1/4 of that on my laptop, and I do fly coach. If I had 4x as much income available, I think I would at least spring for business class if I had to do work on my laptop while flying...
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I'm really not sure I see the advantage of this point:
Has USB Wireless. Winner: Lenovo X300.
I usually use Mac portables, but the ultra-lightweight, while a decided gift, also means reduced functionality. I don't want to load my stuff via a wireless connnection; it's slow and ties up the resources used.
The Lenovo when compared to the MB Air SSD version comes out nearly the same in price as might be expected, and for good Cost-of-Goods reasons.
But if you want to use a Fujitsu Lifebook, you can get a tablet-based notebook, airline usable, all the ports and guts, and a reasonably decent (Lenovo and Apple are known for theirs, sorry Dell users) and run whatever you want if it's Windows or Linux Something.
It's very cute and sexy, and if that's why you buy Apple, you'll be happy. Still, it's a stunted machine, and the Lenovo, while pretty cool, is pretty expensive, too. The Lifebook ain't cheap, but it's a contender here.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Oh I just love the style of these product reviewer types. They have to keep coming up with strange turns of expression so that you don't realise you're reading the same old media release again and again.
eg
small hard disk - 'a relatively paltry file-storage capacity'
too expensive - 'a hefty price tag'
I believe my sig speaks for itself here.
Thank God for evolution.
Ehhh... I'm a hardcore Mac user (MacBook Pro for me)... and I disagree. One of the things that really kills me about the MacBook Air is the TOTAL lack of ports. You know, Apple was the first one to jump on the USB bandwagon, using USB HID peripherals when everyone else was still shipping them with PS/2 ports. But now, they ship a laptop with only TWO ports? The ONE thing I hate about my MacBook Pro (and the MacBook) is that it only has two USB ports, necessitating ANY serious user to get a USB hub (oh great, ANOTHER thing in the laptop bag). And now we're looking at... ONE PORT?
That to me is a dealbreaker. Especially considering that in order to use the disc drive you must plug it directly into the laptop, meaning you cannot use ANY USB PERIPHERALS while using the disc drive. Have you heard anything so ludicrous in your life?
I appreciate that Apple is concerned about the form of our electronics and not just the function, but sometimes they do take it too far. When form compromises functionality, you know you're doing something wrong!
As much as I like the MacBook Air, you neglect what happens when you get to the meeting:
* You need to get something off a CD or DVD
* You need to plug in ethernet as well as a USB flash drive
* The resolution of the X300 is much, much better
If I had my way, my next laptop upgrade at work would be an X300 (I have a T60 now), and an additional personal laptop would be an Air (I have a MacBook Pro now). Toss in the high-res screen from the X300, and the Air could easily *be* my next laptop.
I don't know what kind of crack I was on, but I suspect it was decaf.
The Apple Slice. A razor thin laptop with a bunch of bloody smiling fingerless people.
"Standing up taller" is actually a double edged sword for using on an airline seat. If you are 6'4 and have large thick legs (muscular or otherwise) then a taller screen makes it harder to use. When the passenger in front puts their seat back then the taller screen has to be bent forward; because you are so tall you end up looking fown on the leading edge of the cover and cant see sh*t on the screen.
The consumer because the Macbook Air is driving the market so the PC makers will keep pushing to copy it. By then Apple will have the next generation out but the point is everyone will benefit from them pushing the envelope.
For Gawds sakes man! Steve Jobs must have spent hours pushing that machine in and out of that bloody envelope just to illustrate stretch it get with the programme!
I would say one of the big things the X300 has going for it is the TrackPoint. Trackpads are very annoying and inefficient in comparison.
I could never go back to a normal trackpad laptop after using a thinkpad. I even prefer it over a regular mouse, apart from gaming.
Pardon me but it seems like the point about the Lenovo machine not running OS X is bad on Apple's part. Lack of portability is a major problem if you are planning to upgrade your machine. What happens when we get tired of using apple hardware? I like to keep my choices open. This is going to start to take away our choice of hardware. Slowly the selection we expect from New Egg or TigerDirect is going to get smaller. No more OCZ, EVGA, AMD, and other non-Apple choice hardware. This is part of the reason why Apple isn't as big as Microsoft. Some may say why not Linux? Because no matter how good Linux is it isn't mainstream. It will always stay independent. So in part we need people to keep buying Lenovo, Dell, and IBM. So they can keep a good variety in the market. As far as I can tell that is the only way we can keep from losing the creativity brought to the table. Nobody understands that variety is what made computers what they are today. Do people really believe Apple would be so good without that independent thinking? God save the PC! F*$k Macintosh
For a laptop that is .1 inch thinner than a regular Macbook Pro and is on average is about half an inch thicker than a Macbook Air, I fail to see how this Thinkpad is really compairable to the Macbook Air to begin with. It's like saying, "Haha, my Van can seat more than your compact car!!!" Holy crap people, regular Macbook Pros are famous for having about that much thickness and having that many ports for years.
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
Hang on a sec, you're being ridiculously pro Mac here and overlooking a lot of things:
Is thicker than MacBook Air. Winner: MacBook Air.
Really, who gives two craps about thickness... it's all marketing from Apple. Who has honestly gone "Gee wizz, this laptop is just too darn THICK for my needs!"? Pretty much no-one... where does it being super, super thin make for a big boon? Any bag you're going to carry said laptop in is going to be able to handle another centimeter or so... geeze.
Is heavier than MacBook Air. Winner: MacBook Air.
Weight does matter, indeed... but when it gets to a certain point, it doesn't any more, light enough is light enough, unless you have some sort of musculature atrophy that makes you unable to lift the heaviest version of the notebook at a whole... ooh, 3.5 pounds. Geeze... from his review: "is still very thin and light. It's under an inch thick and even at its heaviest is only 3.5 pounds." So, these points are just mindless waffle.
Has less battery life in both tests and normal use (so much for SSD.) Winner: MacBook Air.
This does indeed have baring on actual use, I give full points to this one.
Has way more ports. Winner: Lenovo X300.
This is very important, yet you just ignore the need for a large number of us to have different ports for different uses.
Has built-in DVD possibility. Winner: Lenovo X300.
YOU say "Whooptee doo." Big plus for me... my laptop MUST have a built in DVD drive as I use it as an entertainment station for the kids while we're away, and having a separate drive hanging off on a usb cable is a big NO NO. You also contradict yourself with for the Lenovo "You get to lug a DVD player", and yet for the Apple you say "you can bring along a USB powered DVD". Which is better, one that's in built, out of the way, doesn't need the external casing, or one hidden away in the body of the machine... if you NEED or WANT a DVD player (which a LOT of us still do), then it's a major failing to not have one in the unit. Yes, I can see certain people who'll have little need for one, but don't off handly say it's not a good thing.
Has SSD drive built-in. Winner: Lenovo X300.
YOU SAY "Smaller disk (with zero advantages on speed or battery)" which is ignoring the robustness of a solid state drive, nothing to do with speed/battery... missing the point entirely.
Has WiMax connectivity. Winner: Lenovo X300.
I like how you ignore this, which considering that the Apple lacks drives and needs to share others, would seem to be something it could do with, data transfer wise.
Has USB Wireless. Winner: Lenovo X300.
While this isn't widespread yet, how cool to not have to plug in new devices? Very nice.
Has GPS location-finding. Winner: Lenovo X300.
YOU say "Whooptee doo." Yeah, just discount something many, many people would find handy.
Has higher screen resolution. Winner: Lenovo X300.
You say "Whooptee doo." Again... um... higher resolution is a BIG plus for many people, yet you just discount it... well done.
Has a screen that stands up higher, leaving less viewing angle while travelling on plane. Winner: MacBook Air.
Yeah, valid point here, no two ways about that.
Has slower processor. Winner: MacBook Air.
Except "In my tests, the X300 performed very well, even though it has a relatively slow processor, slower than the MacBook's." So, a bit of a moot point it would seem.
Doesn't use Mac OS X Leopard. Winner: MacBook Air.
This SO doesn't apply to most people... SOME want OSX, OTHERS want Vista/XP, you can't put this as a carte blanch statement.
It comes down to what you want a laptop for... and looking at what YOU deem to be important and applying that to EVERYONE is such an immature attitude.
- MBA -> Neuter
- X300 -> Female
I'd much prefer a girl on my lap.And, btw, yes the 'TrackPoint' really is a superior way to move the cursor.
Are you honestly bitching about having to lug a small usb hub? I would think you'd be bitching more about the substantially larger accessories your lugging around for no reason. The only thing I ever plug into my Macbook is a thumbdrive, and maybe my cellphone's USB charging adapter. My mouse is the Bluetooth Apple mouse, and my phone syncs via Bluetooth as well. The only thing I could possibly need to plug into my Macbook is a webcam, or DVD burner, which it already has built in!
"Apple offers a MacBook Air version with the same solid-state drive for a similar high price." So what was the final outcome? And since when is 64GB paltry for a laptop? At any rate, three (3) USB ports will always win out over one (1) USB ports. X300 wins! c
www.itjerk.com
Personally, I'd take my Thinkpad X61s over either of those. Much cheaper, faster, and (the deciding factor for me) 10 hours of battery life. The small size increase of the X61s is trivial to me when I can get MUCH longer battery. Stock OS does not matter to me either, as I use Gentoo on all of my machines.
Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer
Hmm... So, thumb drive. Let's say you want to pull files off a disc and onto a USB drive with the MacBook Pro. Oops!
See, things would be wonderful if they were all Bluetooth, but they ain't. Bluetooth mice are expensive (the Mighty Mouse is a poor excuse for a mouse, IMHO), and the selection is very limited. The best mice in my experience are not Bluetooth, sadly.
Not to mention that this whole wireless thing that Apple is apparently touting doesn't quite work. My iPhone cannot sync wirelessly with my laptop, and that's aggravating, since now I need to have it use up a (precious, precious) USB port!
Us Mac users tend to bitch and moan about small inconveniences in the PC world - heavy, thick laptops, crappy power bricks, etc etc. There's no reason we should let Apple get away with this major inconvenience (i.e. lack of ports) just because they're Apple.
People who have to work in airplane seats, i.e. exactly the target audience of the Lenovo.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
I cannot imagine a 'road warrior' or any other business man ever finding that much space cramped, you could have 20 divx movies and a thousand mp3's on that hardware and still have what, a paltry 40gig left? No doubt necessary for the 32 million spreadsheets and documents you use every second of every day.
In my opinion if your not haxing l33t warez and downloading copious amounts of porn and lat3st n gr3at3st moviez my 5 yo 32gig raptor is more space than I will need for the foreseeable future.
http://www.awfullybigmoustache.com
The other thing I'm surprised people aren't more concerned about is the Air's lack of a removable battery. On long trips I always run my D630 with 2 batteries and a spare so I can swap the main battery without shutting down. With my old T40, I flew from San Francisco to Taiwan this way, computing the whole way. It's the only way to survive such flights IMHO (other than buying a first class seat with a power receptical :)
The X300 review was sorely lacking any performance benchmarks. To bemoan the 60GB capacity of the drive without also measuring its (hopefully low) access time is not fair.
"* Being able to use it from an airline seat (Macbook Air has a shorter screen and thinner base)"
It accomplishes this by being deeper. The X300 is shallower and taller due to its hinge design. I don't accept Mossberg's opinion that the Apple design is more airplane-friendly.
"* Ait has longer battery life"
Mossberg's MBA battery life measurement is highly suspicious. He hasn't provided any evidence that the MBA battery life for a traveler is actually better and there's plenty of reasons to feel otherwise, namely (a) lower power X300 processor, and (b) more battery options on the X300. You are wrong here.
"* Air has faster processor"
Yes it does, but the Air is crippled by its terrible hard drive and its faster processor is harder on battery life.
"The only technical aspect I could see swaying some people, the X300 has more resolution. But not much more, and the processor/battery life in particular would seem to be key to me."
Yes, resolution is a significant advantage for the X300, just not the only one. If you choose to travel with the DVD drive, as the MBA forces you to do, the X300 becomes lighter. If you choose a conventional hard disk rather than SSD, the X300 will offer a 50% larger drive. If you value battery life, the X300 offers two sizes plus a secondary battery in the DVD bay. Then there's the complete complement of IO, the cellular and the GPS options. You are again mistaken.
I meant "without the DVD drive" of course.
Playstation or Wii [youtube.com]
Heh yeah I like that PS3 vs Wii ad too. I think it sums up the differences nicely.
One of them is cute and shallow, a novelty bimbo that I'd soon lose interested in. And probably infected with God knows what.
The other one looks like she might actually have some substance, can handle sophisticated fun and will probably age better.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
I've never ever had trouble opening my MacBook Pro in any airline seat... It seems to me 1" is plenty thin enough to be an airline workhorse... Any thinner IMHO is a bit pointless.
I agree with GP, overall the Lenovo is looking like the better machine. More ports (yay!), better resolution (a small bonus, IMHO), WiMax integration (meh right now, may become important later), and integrated disc drive (yay!), is a lot of pluses, considering its only penalties are being thicker, and having slightly less battery life.
About the only real place where the MBA wins over the X300 is the weight. Sure, 0.5 lbs don't seem like a lot, but then again, people said that about the 2 lb difference between the MacBook and MacBook Air. Weight does matter for people who are traveling with the device ALL DAY.
How does thickness affect someone working in an airplane seat? I can see depth being a factor -- a wider, more rectangular chassis being preferred so your wrists aren't pressed up against your stomach as you type.
But thickness? It's not even a concern.
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
Doesn't use Mac OS X Leopard. Winner: MacBook Air.
I find that category confusing.
So... the MacBook Air wins the "Doesn't use Mac OS X Leopard" category? So it "Doesn't use Mac OS X" better than the Lenovo?
Fair enough I guess. Not that it matters to me - whichever one I get will have its HD scratched and Linux installed over it anyway.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
I bought the last iteration of the PowerBook, 12" G4. About 5 pounds, has DVD writer, USB Firewire, and the Apple wunderHibernation and wunderNetworking compatibility and WiFi connectivity. Goes years, yes YEARS without crash or reboot. Only thing it doesn't have is a PCMCIA slot.
The 12s and 15s used can still be had used for about 1000 bucks, and they're well worth it. Best thing Apple ever did.
MacBooks are ducky, the MBPros are overpriced. Get the PB12, great value.
For this one, I'd rip a few discs worth, then pack away the DVD drive until I'm done watching them. If you're not re-encoding, it's fairly easy to rip just the movie (not the special features), and even with the 64 gig solid-state, that's still a good 4-5 movies. Figure, also, that it's a lot less wear on the discs (if you're bringing originals) to rip them in some stationary place, then put them away for the car (or plane) ride.
True, but the same applies to this as to OS choice. The Baby Boomers hate it when I turn their resolution up, because it makes everything smaller and harder to read, and they don't know how to set resolution or font size in most places. This is less relevant for OS X -- if they can figure out how to use the awesome zooming feature.
I think it does apply to a lot of people -- I'd imagine there are far fewer people who don't have a preference than people who prefer one to the other. But unless you really don't care about OS X, it makes sense to have the option, and Parallels if you need XP programs.
Otherwise, good points.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
But if they would make it thin enough you could stick five of them in your average bag
Errr. nope.
The issue with the Lenovo on planes is he's saying the screen is taller than the mac, so you can't open it out as much without it hitting the seat in front, but that's nothing to do with thickness.
It's not an issue.
I don't you really need the DVD drive with you when you're on the road. Just use Handbrake or some other software to rip the DVD to your HD, then you don't have to worry about your kids getting peanut butter on the disc. Or you can get an iPod or other portable video player so you don't have to worry about wasting your battery on movies.
WiMax isn't meant for local networking. It is to Wifi as cellular phone is to portable phone. The MacBook already has 802.11n, which is decently fast. That said, yes, having it would be better than not.
It's called Bluetooth. I haven't plugged a mouse into my PowerBook for the last four years. Similarly, most printers can be either plugged into the network directly or plugged into the USB port on an Apple Wifi router (I don't know if other companies make routers that do this yet). So, the device that will take advantage of Wireless USB are going to have to be things that need a lot of bandwidth, but don't use Wifi. That rules out hard drives, since there are tons of wireless NASes on the market. So, basically it just leaves iPods/other media players and digital cameras, but already some of those use Wifi. So, while WUSB is a good idea, and I wish it luck, it's not such a big deal. It's just a minor evolution of existing standards.
The MacBook is more versatile. If you want to run XP/Vista, you just need to install it. With a PC laptop, you can only run OS X illegally, which is sure to be buggy and lead to headaches.
One more point for people on both sides:
I've heard a lot of complaining about the tiny size of the MBA's hard drive. And while that's true, what people are ignoring is the fact that we now have wireless NASes. So, just put a terabyte in your living room, store your media library on that, access it wirelessly from your laptop, and when you go on the road, just sync it to a portable media player first and keep your serious computing separate from your entertainment.
You are comparing the Lenovo to the wrong machine. For tour usage pattern, you discount thickness and weight, but like more screen, built-in ports and a DVD. Why not get a macbook pro? But in that fight the Lenovo really takes a dive.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
My guess is that even the most frequent travellers will use their laptop more outside an aeroplane than in one, and if you are not in an airplane the larger Lenovo screen is most likely to be preferred by most people. Another absolute showstopper for the Mac is the lack of ports. Dongles breaks, can be misplaced having a real ethernet port is a big bonus. So is having a DVD player, not only for entertainment but it makes it simple to reinstall the OS in case of a virus atack or some other mishap. If I was to give some important presentation away from home I would certainly carry backup media both of my presentation, and the software needed to give it, including the OS. Naturally you can use an external DVD player for the Mac but then the advantage of being small and light is lost.
As for the unlit keyboard, X300 has Think Lihgt a little diode lamp at the top of the screen that gives enough light to make it possible to handle in the dark
God is REAL! Unless explicitly declared INTEGER
>Really, who gives two craps about thickness...
>
>People who have to work in airplane seats, i.e. exactly the target audience of the Lenovo.
If you're going to drag airplane functionality into the equation, what do you do with the Mac Air when it's battery takes a dive in the middle of your flight and you don't have access to AC power?
Just to add to your comments...
Is thicker than MacBook Air. Winner: MacBook Air.
Either way, the Lenovo X300 is still under an inch thick, apparently.
Is heavier than MacBook Air. Winner: MacBook Air.
But in fact, the Lenovo is 2.93lbs, whilst the Air is 3lbs! Whilst this does mean less battery life, this is the weight category, not the battery life category, so it's a bit misleading to ignore the option of the light model (the fact that it has no DVD drive is, of course, irrelevant).
Doesn't use Mac OS X Leopard. Winner: MacBook Air.
Either you want to run OS X, in which case you're restricted to Apple anyway, or you don't, in which case this point isn't an advantage.
The target demographic of the Air is women. Young women just hitting there career stride.
Do you think the Mary Kay addition to the board was a coincidence?
Look at it, it looks like a compact for crying out load.
different demographic. Yes I like the way it looks, but I doubt I would buy one...unless they add induction charging. Of course then I could never hold on to it because my boner would keep knocking it out of my hands.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
And why would you want a post in the middle of your keyboard? I see idiot VP's that don't know how to type and only rarely use a computer that love the annoying posts, but not many people that know how to type want a painful obstruction in the middle of their keyboard. Even worse, IBM could have positioned it so it made hitting only two of the keys painful, but they decided to move it downwad so it also partially blocks hitting the B key. Why would you claim to like something that keeps you from typing?
"Really, who gives two craps about thickness."
I do, as does it's target demographic(not me)
"it doesn't any more"
I suggest you take up hiking. then you will realize that on any long haul every Oz matters.
Plus I think it's light weight is cool. Fantastic was the word I used when I held one.
Again, BIG plus to the target demographic.
"This is very important, yet you just ignore the need for a large number of us to have different ports for different uses.
"
SSD is about power savings, not speed.
Why? It's better to ahve blue tooth then cables. Cables are awkward, cables add weight, untangling cables before a meeting is not good. Setting the device next to it and just ahve it work is a big aw factor at any Upper Management meeting.
Built in DVD player isn't possible for there goal. Yes it would be nice, but children use isn't a target demographic.
OTOH, have a separate device for the children to use means they are less likely to break your computer.
While this isn't widespread yet, how cool to not have to plug in new devices? Very nice."
The WHOLE POINT OF THE AIR!THATS a feature of the AIR.
" YOU say "Whooptee doo." Yeah, just discount something many, many people would find handy."
I ehar that on slashdot, but I don't know any non geek that want's that. That said, it would be a useless feature to the target demographic.
The Air performed better. The other did 'well' so don't down play this weaknes, and it's a big one when it's been in use for a month.
" This SO doesn't apply to most people... SOME want OSX, OTHERS want Vista/XP, you can't put this as a carte blanch statement."
All of which can be done on an Air.
Winner: Not You.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
You need to get something off a CD or DVD
You use someone else's drive in the room
You need to plug in ethernet as well as a USB flash drive
What company does not have wireless nodes now? Nowadays companies are a lot more reluctant to let you plug non-company devices physically into the network. And if you must, there is an adaptor for cheap ethernet...
The resolution of the X300 is much, much better
As I said, that is the one aspect that I could see being compelling. But given the size of the screen, I don't see it as that much more compelling compared to a desktop.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The ONE thing I hate about my MacBook Pro (and the MacBook) is that it only has two USB ports, necessitating ANY serious user to get a USB hub (oh great, ANOTHER thing in the laptop bag). And now we're looking at... ONE PORT?
Then for you it's the same - you still need a hub.
But what are you plugging into the ports? You don't need an external mouse for a Mac.
I am as I said, basing my observation on my use. In the entire lifespan of two laptops, I have yet to ever use more than one USB port, and that's just for CF readers. Sometimes I have used external drives as well, but often those have passthroughs.
To me the Air is more practical than my current Macbook Pro when traveling, and I'll seek to upgrade probably in about a year or so.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
That is my problem, I'm rather tall.
The Macbook Air screen is shorter, therefore to me it would be more usable on an airline seat. I have given up using my Macbook Pro screen on an airline tray in coach. I am pretty sure the Air would be just shorter enough (in screen size and in base depth) to make it workable.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Uh, everybody who'd used a laptop prior to the mid-1990's? My first laptop was a Pentium-166, and pretty darn thick; I'd rather go back to a P-166 than a laptop that thick again.
Thin means I can put it in my bag with a sketchpad, or a Wacom tablet, or another book, or anything else I want. Size is the single factor that determines whether I can carry it or not, which defines whether I have it around to use or not. This is the number one most important thing a notebook computer can do! I don't get why you're downplaying it, unless you keep your laptop in a bag-of-holding.
You're right. Once it's under 10 or 15 pounds, it doesn't matter. Why anybody cares about laptop computer weight today is a mystery. It's not like you can't lift it.
It reminds me of the Israeli study to find out what exercise was best for cardiovascular fitness. Of all the people they tested (civilian, military, olympian, etc.), the best was the mailman, who walked a few miles a day carrying a few dozen pounds of weight. Is your laptop bag more than 35 pounds? Are you just *too* fit? Unless you answered "yes", you have no reason to complain about the weight of your laptop. It's great exercise, and it's not preventing you from doing anything.
I'm sure it's a personal preference thing, but I've used trackpoints before and I really dislike them compared to what I can do with gesture based use of a trackpad on a Macbook, the Air offers some extensions to that as well.
Apart from that I greatly prefer a single button that I chord with keys to be a second or third button. I never once saw a PC laptop button layout that worked well for both buttons.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
screen is not larger. virus attack? what's that. if you really feel the need to reinstall the OS while on travel is higher than a meteor strike then you're using the wrong OS.
There are a number of small external power solutions for laptops that do not take up much more room than a spare battery. I have a device called a "Solio" that can charge either from the wall, or by built in solar panels - it charges an internal battery and has adaptors for a number of different devices, including a 12V adaptor to use with a Macbook car charger. Caveat - I've not yet tried this particular device for actually charging a laptop so I don't know how much extra time it would provide, or if it would work (I've had a running Macbook Pro trip a circuit breaker on a car inverter so I'm a little wary of it working fully).
There are solutions more dedicated to laptop powering as I said.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Really, who gives two craps about thickness... it's all marketing from Apple. Who has honestly gone "Gee wizz, this laptop is just too darn THICK for my needs!"? Pretty much no-one...
How many people feel lust for a phone? Pretty much no one... until the iPhone.
How many people feel lust for a laptop? Pretty much no one... until they see something with sex appeal.
It's bizarre and somewhat telling about how many regular, non-technical people stop and ask about the iPhone if they someone use it. A similar effect is happening with the MacBook Air (zomg it's so thin! wow that's light! Look at how bright the screen is! Hey that SSD makes the apps snappy!)
The MacBook Air is the two-seater roadster of laptops -- a blast to drive, eye-catching, not overly practical, and sneer-inducing among those who want a larger, or faster, or more practical model.
Not saying it's universal, just saying that Apple seems to be tapping into a lust-factor that one hasn't seen with consumer electronics in some time, if ever.
-Stu
It accomplishes this by being deeper. The X300 is shallower and taller due to its hinge design. I don't accept Mossberg's opinion that the Apple design is more airplane-friendly.
I do because I've given up using a Macbook Pro on airline trays in coach for exactly this reason.
Mossberg's MBA battery life measurement is highly suspicious. He hasn't provided any evidence that the MBA battery life for a traveler is actually better and there's plenty of reasons to feel otherwise, namely (a) lower power X300 processor, and (b) more battery options on the X300. You are wrong here.
I'm wrong because you feel someone else who actually had both computers I guess if you had thought longer before posting you might have realized that the Air has more internal space (having less ports and no DVD drive) to use for a battery, and that the processor might actually be more efficient (my computer today has lower power usage than my system of a few years ago).
You can apologize later.
Yes it does, but the Air is crippled by its terrible hard drive and its faster processor is harder on battery life.
Like I said, battery life does not have to suffer with faster processors.
I agree the hard drive would slow things down but I don't know why you'd not get the Air with the SSD - which incidentally offers better better life too.
If you choose to travel with the DVD drive, as the MBA forces you to do, the X300 becomes lighter.
I already mentioned I've had to use that a handful of times in two years of use. Why would I even buy one? I'd just carry the CD with client software - anywhere I'm traveling that I'd need a read a CD there would be a computer around, somewhere. Mostly I get everything over the network now.
If you value battery life, the X300 offers two sizes plus a secondary battery in the DVD bay
Now that would be actually handy.
Then there's the complete complement of IO, the cellular and the GPS options.
All of which I can get working on an Air as well, just more external. Color me unimpressed.
You are again mistaken.
May I suggest a change of careers? You might want to think about being a cobbler, as you seem fond of the taste of shoe leather. Thankfully it's not really leather so much anymore as plastics, which is more hygienic for you.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Reasons not to put DVDs on ultra-portables:
1. It's the most fragile and mechanical part of the whole thing
2. It takes up space that I would rather devote to a thicker case or more battery
3. It's useless. I can always plug in a USB DVD drive and copy twenty movies over to the HD before my flight, or I can access my PC's DVD over the net
4. Gee, isn't it lovely to have a built-in (non-replaceable) DVD player now that BluRay has just won the format war and I won't be buying any more DVD movies?
It's time for optical drives on ultra-portables to go the way of the floppy disk or the parallel port.
So for me, "doesn't have a DVD" is an advantage of the Air. Vs these two options, I would take the Panasonic Toughbook T7 over either of these machines. It has real USB and Ether ports (unlike the Air), it has a two-button mouse (unlike the Air), and it is not encumbered with a DVD (unlike the X300), and it doesn't have a keyboard "clit" (I real real clits, not keyboard clits).
Well, I've got news for you - thickness and weight are really important to people who travel loads, and have other things - like you know...work...to take with them instead of DVD's etal. So the Air isn't for you. It sounds like the Lenvovo isn't either. Get over it!
lemonade was a popular drink and it still is
Err - Sorry! Didn't mean to use bold tags at all up there - no idea where that came from! I wasn't trying to shout at you - Sorry!!
lemonade was a popular drink and it still is
Anyway, masochism is a valid private behavior of many people, and I will respect it. U_U
We are Turing O-Machines. The Oracle is out there.
>The only thing I could possibly need to plug into my Macbook is a webcam, or DVD burner, which it already has built in! The macbook air doesn't have a DVD burner, a macbook or macbook pro arn't in the same class as an X300, being 2 or more pounds heavier and dimensionally are substantially larger. Carrying a USB hub plus all the other crap the MBA lacks around would suck I like one laptop I can just grab and carry around like a book (and is durable enough to care around like that, no matter what people say I dont think apple build quality/design is very good: I have seen to many powerbooks with completely busted hinges and LCDs with screwed up screens from pressure on them etc) In my opinion all of the MBA vs X300 comments so far have missed the most crucial missing feature from the MBA, the complete lack of any reasonable way of networking the damn thing, a laptop in 2008 without gigabit Ethernet is just criminal. Personally what I want out of a laptop is something portable thats easy to haul around: however when I get to either of my desks at home or work I want to be able to plug it in and sync it with real machines at a rate somewhere faster than molasses and that isn't going to be over wifi. Hardware wise its hard to argue that the MBA is even comparable, the X300 packs a higher resolution screen, a dvd burner, a ton of wireless connectivity options on top of just wifi and bluetooth, you can change the battery yourself (easily) and if its like my X60 even plug an extended battery into the ultra base connector on the bottom for long flights. Having OS X might be nice I admit but I could use that at home and not have to endure the torture of an apple portable.
Most business I know prefer external users to go through a wireless router and then VPN into the network rather than plug an unsanitised laptop directly into their whole infrastructure. If you're at _your_ office, then you've got a usb hub on the desk with the ethernet usb dongle. Big deal.
lemonade was a popular drink and it still is
You're right, I didn't mean to imply that Apple was the first to put USB ports on their machines, but rather that they're the first to really say "want PS/2 peripherals? TOO FRIGGIN BAD!" - much like they were the first with the floppy in that regard. Steve Jobs made a big deal out of how USB was the future, and it's kind of sad now to see all these peripherals getting no love. USB still has a huge role in everyday computing, and while 6 ports may be a bit extreme, at LEAST 3 or 4!
I'm trying to think of when I had more than one USB device at a time plugged into my laptop, and I'm coming up short. Likewise, I can think of only a couple of times I've ever used the DVD drive while traveling, and that cured me of ever doing it again--it utterly kills battery life.
I guarantee that packing and using a usb hub of any size is more inconvenient than the what, 0.16" difference in thickness that Apple fans will not let up on as being the most indispensable feature of the AirBook.
Puh-leeze.
Road warriors stick to ArsTechnica.
/\/\icro/\/\uncher
The Thinkpad comparison is ridiculous. The Thinkpad is not a response to the MBA, its a machine that came out about the same time with one MBA technology, the solid state drive. I would not pay $1000 for a SSD. Its a technology that is definitely going to have a big impact but not make mainstream till a 128Gb drive costs $300.
There are two types of laptop, portables and desktop replacements. This is a portable, it is not a desktop replacement by any stretch of the imagination. My desktop has a 1KW power supply and puts out enough heat to warm the server room nicely. It has water cooling and was built to drive three 30" displays. That is a desktop. The day a laptop comes with even one 30" display will be a while coming.
Apple are very smart to emphasize 'thin' over small and light. If they made a 17" model with a high res screen I would definitely buy one.
I don't give a hoot for the number of ports, power, USB and DVI are plenty. The only complaint I have is that its only a single link DVI connector and there is no support for my 30" display, a fact made rather worse by the fact that these displays are only just coming available with scaling chips.
My only real complaint is the lack of a supplemental power accessory. Just give me a battery pack I can plug into the magsafe adapter for long flights.
The lack of DVD built in only worried me before I found that DVD ripper technology has advanced in recent years. The bigger challenge there is the fact that the built in disk is rather small to be loading DVDs onto the machine.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Once people could have said a cordless phone was "just marketing". But if I try and use a corded one, it drives me freakin' nuts!
Just bought my first mac, a secondhand 12 inch Powerbook, I see the ads on tv here in NZ non stop it seems for the MBA, it makes My Precious look morbidly obese.
Have you read Fake Steve Jobs book Options? The end shows his next Insanely Great computer, if not, go out and buy his book!!!!
(ok, its a sheet of clear plastic that has keyboard, screen everything buit....omg MBA ad just came on arrrrgh this laptop if fat!....everything built into this clear plastic, it rolls up and fits into a tube)
---
Five MBAs is $9K plus tax. Screw the bag, for that you could buy a couple real desktop replacements and a car for hauling them around.
The author writes:
"certain points are arguable ('Doesn't use Mac OS X Leopard. Winner: MacBook Air').""But I don't see what's arguable about "Being able to legally run Windows and Mac OS X is better than only being able to run Windows."
it does not matter if seven or more features of both the laptops match or not, but the main thing is that who will be able to keep pace with the changing tecnology and upgrage their laptops faster to give better service and stay ahead in competiotion. I think Apple will win on this.
It comes down to what you want a laptop for... and looking at what YOU deem to be important and applying that to EVERYONE is such an immature attitude.
And why does this not apply to you? The funny thing is, it doesn't apply to Mossberg because he is a big tech writer and people read his stuff specifically to get his opinion.
The Air has a multi-touch track pad -- you don't really need a two button mouse unless you're gaming.
The pursuit of absolute tolerance leads to the most rigorous and ludicrous intolerance. - REX MURPHY
A possibly better example would be the Motorola RAZR, which was nothing special - except it was ridiculously thin. It sold (and continues to sell) like hotcakes, even when it was initially $500+.
Dude, I used to behave this way exactly 5 years ago, when I was too dumb to use WiFi. Now I have very small cute Linux machine smaller than Mac Mini, that is connected to my big Sony screen and it does pre-buffers DVDs from my online home storage (oh, just a few terabytes, not as much as your Lenovo has...). I can operate it remotely using my mobile through Bluetooth and software is MythTV. :-)
P.S. Lenovo is using at its best just a fugly Windows. Thanks, for *desktop* I'd stay with OSX and build another home Linux server on some low-powered hardware, like Kurobox for example.
it's not so much the thickness that matters in that case but the size of the machine when opened (in most cases the size of the screen).
That's not true! I always wanted to sit on a Cray supermachine and I'm sure you would too--!
funny how those things were the excact opposite of a laptop^^
quote:
:-)
Who has honestly gone "Gee wizz, this laptop is just too darn THICK for my needs!"?
end_quote:
- you've obviously never used a Dell Inspiron 7500?
You can buy a $3000 lenovo, or a $3000 Mac ... or be realistic and buy a $900 laptop that in all honesty would be just as good anywhere else.
:-)
Lift 15lbs weights for a bit, then you'll be able to carry that 5lbs laptop like us real pros...
coming up short? keyboard, mouse, webcam, ipod.
you're running that fucking bloatware abortion of an OS known as Vista... screw that, where's my Ubuntu CD? Solid-state drives reformat as easily as conventional disks...
you really expect me to be able to express my opinion of what's so fucked up in this world in 120 characters or less?
You can get the full DVD by ripping it to an iso file and mounting the file as a virtual device. You can do this in Windows with either commercial software or a free, unsupported, utility from Microsoft that hides in the deepest corners of the Microsoft download site. I don't know about OS X, but in Linux/Unix it is a pretty trivial task.
So there are no power adapters for planes? Good thing you posted AC, you knew someone was gonna mod you down, fucker.
Keyboard? Mouse? It already has a full-sized keyboard. This isn't one of those dinky subnotebook microkeyboards that you can't stand to type on for long. And you really think that somebody up-to-date enough to get a MBA will want to use a wired keyboard or mouse, anyway? Everybody I know uses bluetooth, particularly with laptops. Webcam? Apple laptops, including the MBA, already come with that built in. Ipod? You plug it in for a few minutes to sync, and then you unplug it. You don't leave it plugged in long unless you are recharging it, and iPods hold a charge well, so you don't have to do it often. I usually let it recharge overnight when I'm not using my computer, so one port is plenty.
'Mindless waffle' to you maybe, to those of us that have to put our notebooks in a bag with other books and items and then carry them around for significant periods of time (such as even through airports while rushing to make a connection) both are very important. I carry my laptop to work everyday along with my other work. Those fractions of an inch and pounds add up quickly and I am grateful for every little bit I don't have to lug around.
Ummm, the x300 features a removable dvd drive. You can take it out and replace it with a battery or a blank travel insert. Also, if you dont like the trackpoint(clit) you can disable it in bios and remove the red piece. It will hardly be noticeable at all.
You think he should buy a second laptop to take away with him just so the kids can watch DVDs without using the laptop he'll be taking anyway?
(lets ignore the discussion on whether the children should be able to survive sans DVD for another day. After all, nobody's suggesting he might not need the laptop either..)
she/he btw, I haven't a clue and it's not particularly relevant
So when you're away with the kids do you take your small cute Linux machine and your multi-terabyte home storage with you?
Because if you don't, you've completely failed to address the particular need of the person you're calling dumb.
(and if you do, you're still suggesting a multi-machine solution to someone seeking a single machine answer)
hmm. USB devices commonly in my laptop:
- Laptop base with fans (ok, that's so I can use it on a soft fluffy bed that would otherwise block the cooling vents - I don't take that with me when I'm out and about)
- mouse. Bluetooth just doesn't cut it, especially in a busy environment
- USB key. Not ever-present, but I don't want to be unplugging other things for it
- headphones. Sure, the laptop has a microphone and speakers built in. It would be obnoxious of me to force everyone else to listen to what I'm doing though, and it would be equally obnoxious to force people I'm chatting to through the laptop to listen to all the crap the built-in microphone picks up
- kensington usb powered fan. I rarely use this. A friend that went to Africa and South America rated the one I bought him as one of his top travel accessories.
Do I really need 5 USB ports? No. Even with an external DVD I wouldn't. Do I need 2 or more? Absolutely definitely.
erm. My company has several buildings with no wireless. If you want your laptop connected to the network, it must be through a wire.
No, external people can't connect to the network. This is good.
Internal people can't use a macbook air. No loss.
"Just use Handbrake or some other software to rip the DVD to your HD, then you don't have to worry about your kids getting peanut butter on the disc. Or you can get an iPod or other portable video player so you don't have to worry about wasting your battery on movies."
Yes, do everything you're doing right now differently in a way that doesn't fit your needs as well as the way you were doing it did. For more money.
Exactly the Mac philosophy. Bend way the hell out of shape to accomodate Apple and then claim they are amazing because they fit your needs so perfectly.
Even 2.5 kg (5 lbs.; 1 kg ~ 2(.2) lbs.) is getting into hefty, never mind 3 or more.
Once you get below 2 kg, most manufacturers go for tiny and trade-off screen size, drives, etc.
2 kg is the cut off point. Alan Kay, while research for the DynaBook project, found that once you get over 2 kg you go from "portable" and approach "luggable" (read: hassle).
hmm. I'm using a laptop with a multi-touch track pad. I also just took my hand from the keyboard to use a physical mouse to click on the 'reply' button.
Track pads are good, but I'm afraid mice are still a teensy bit better.
I need to buy a USB hub with ethernet dongle for each of the offices I use?
Some of us don't have one desk in one building in one city. That's why we have laptops in the first place.
no one is carrying the macbook air in their jeans pocket. what's a centimeter of thickness when you're dealing with a paper-sized object?
"I may be quite wrong." - Socrates
Just because you choose to ignore the trackpad and stick with the tried and true ways doesn't necessarily mean you NEED to use a mouse, or that mice are necessarily "a teensy bit better" (whatever that means). Many people use ONLY the multi-touch trackpad. They feel the mouse actually limits them and moving from keyboard to mouse slows them down. I agree except when I'm playing a game (but even some gamers use only the trackpad).
Perhaps you need to tear yourself away from your beloved mouse for a few days and actually learn how to use the trackpad, because it sounds as if a mouse is very awkward for you since you apparently must move your hand several inches to click something, instead of moving it only an inch or two.
Which laptop do you use by the way?
The pursuit of absolute tolerance leads to the most rigorous and ludicrous intolerance. - REX MURPHY
I use a laptop no longer sold, that I bought from Rock Direct (rockdirect.co.uk). It's quite nice
I have used it (and others) without a mouse. It's very usable. I still prefer to have a mouse.
When I'm actually mobile (the current beast is a portable desktop replacement, useful for me living between two locations at the moment) the mouse is an annoyance as there's no surface for it. That's a tiny proportion of my overall laptop usage, and the rest of the time I genuinely love my mouse.
(anyway, you haven't seen my mouse. It's sexy in ways that oughtn't be possible for something that doesn't vibrate. and it doesn't actually need a surface to use it while mobile! http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/mice_pointers/mice/devices/3443&cl=gb,en )
There's an amazing piece of technology I've been seeing off and on for a while now that helps get your carryon bag through the airport, or the train, or really anywhere--without you lifting it! Little round thing, I think it's called something like "the Wii".
Are you sure that has a multi-touch track pad? Can you "pinch" with two fingers to zoom, or use two fingers to scroll, or use two fingers down and click to right click? That's how a true multi-touch track pad on the Air works. I have looked at the products at Rock Direct and none of them appear to mention "multi-touch". I suspect they do not use that technology and that is why you need to use a two button mouse because they are simply standard trackpads, which generally suck.
:-/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-touch
I use a basic four-button Intellimouse for gaming with my MBP even though it has true multi-touch. I just don't have enough manual dexterity beyond normal everyday use
The pursuit of absolute tolerance leads to the most rigorous and ludicrous intolerance. - REX MURPHY
"But if they would make it thin enough you could stick five of them in your average bag :)"
Flash LAN party!
...so what you are saying is that after you compile, you have the same battery life as the rest of us? ;)
Slashdot, where armchair scientists get shouted down and armchair theologians get modded up.
hmm. hadn't realised you meant that by multi-touch - my laptop has standard synaptics touchpad.
it's nice, but the multi-touch features would annoy the hell out of me - too many inadvertent touches. I disable the non-directional capabilities of the synaptics device for that very reason. Shame, it's able to scroll up/down/left/right, minimise/maximise windows, single/double-click, etc.
being able to use two fingers not one still doesn't make it a good alternative to a separate mouse for me.
Use wifi much then? ;)
lemonade was a popular drink and it still is
On work laptops? Nope, it's disabled. The joys of working for financial institutions..
Dude, HandBrake is free. Using a DVD drive wastes battery life. A lot of people rip their DVD collections just for that reason alone. Plus, again, kids like to accidentally ruin discs. Even if you use a PC, HandBrake is a good idea.
LOL! You make me laugh, man. You are funny. Yes, I take my machine with me, full of movies already pre-buffered. The thing is called Visual Hub. Google it for your own information. And kids (I have two of them) actually use Sony 2000-PSP, which is way better for them, because apart of movies they also can play amazing games and surf the network, using Skype, listening to Internet radio, watchint TV, while keeping the device in the pocket. Still nobody need DVD thing ever. Besides, you can purchase external DVD drive for you, but I am really sure you will need no one right after you change your way of thinking. :-)
There is also a thing, which is called iPod Touch. So if you go portable, then go REALLY portable and have things tiny and neat. The iPod Touch brings you amazing video quality, just excellent when you are on airplane or something. And if you go watch movie at home, then forget the idea watch it on 13" notebook, but watch it on big large comfortable screen with nice surround sound instead.
P.S. And I did not call you dumb. I was dumb... :-) So stay portable and cool. Cheers.
You mistake me for someone else. I have no kids. I was merely highlighting that you weren't addressing the issue that was being raised.
Your answer to that issue is indeed a multiple machine approach. Shrug, it clearly works for you.
Or you can simply copy the files off the DVD and point VLC at the VIDEO_TS folder.
The reason I would use other tools is, mplayer -dumpstream, in particular, is a quick and dirty hack to grab just the movie and nothing else. Remember, we're still dealing with a 64-gig hard drive.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
RAZR was the first real example of this, yep. on the bright side, the iPhone is more than a pretty face.
-Stu
The people lining up around the block for the last year to buy the Nintendo Wii would like to disagree with you on that
My point was about non-technical people finding lust with things that usually only geeks loved.
I suppose video consoles might qualify, though it seems pretty geeky to line up around the block (says the guy that did so for WoW-TBC in Jan 07)...
-Stu
Rather multiple gadgets approach, which is already approach of almost everybody. And I suppose it what MacBook Air is built for. As any other sub-notebook in the World.
Internal people can't use a macbook air. No loss.
Sorry to hear your company is so backwards. Real companies know how to secure wireless networks, and know how to not have them run on the same network as the internal network...
Macbook Air users will be able to adopt to your primitive culture by simply attaching the USB ethernet adaptor.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
What's the point of running on a non-internal network? It's rather easier to plug the laptop into an ethernet port and run on the internal network.
The point of running on any network is easy - connectivity.
The point of running wireless on a non internal network is obvious - security, and providing availability to guests without compromising internal networks (security again).
VPN's are what make everything work if you need both.
Just because one of our buildings is still on token ring doesn't make us backwards
Holy crap! I was just joking before. I would stop digging now.
Things are working fine, when there's a genuine business case for making things wireless then it's something that can be considered.
That case was made about five years ago in terms of employee flexibility and happiness (including VP's).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I didn't read anything in the prior post about usb hub...and the Macbook Air doesn't have an optical drive...a major drawback I think.
I don't know what you were to replying to, but it wasn't anything from the previous post
The greater is the Pc @ any brand lable, any pc will out perform a Macintosh as long as its @ year with the Macintosh.
for example: - 4ghz pc can run circles around any 4ghz mac..
any computer user from ye olden' times would understand, for one small reason, Command line..
Macintosh has no command line and at that has no manual configurations, basically the only thing you can adjust is the background, and icon eye candy on a Macintosh..
While your clunky PC, has that same auto installation feature
- now-days
but at first was highly unliked by many because it wasn't user friendly at all, and no beautiful click-able desktop like our modern fashions..With only one mouse button at the time of ye olden days.. The Macintosh was liked for its easy to use.. No need to calibrate trend.. Now with the evolved Macintosh OSX the mouse now have 2 buttons.. and that same still easy to use.. no calibration auto fix, auto clean, auto sort, auto calibrate, ect.. nature.. could never an will never be as good as a.. PC.. Just because you can cut off resources from putting cache an power to specific measures by, Calibrating a PC...
So as i conclude.. The publisher of that site needs to calibrate the likeness' of both because they are wayyyyyyyy off..