MacBook Air

Wow, check this out. Another new product from Apple. It comes out on Jan 29, 2008, priced at 1799$.

www.nytimes.com...

www.apple.com...

www.apple.com...

Frankly, I'm going to be honest with you. I really am starting to forget about Microsoft / PC....

Evolution is the key right there for sure.

[edit on 15-1-2008 by TheoOne]

Amazing tech. Apples stock is at $169 a share!!! insane.
I told my wife to get in at $4 a share, she and everyone else I was telling to do that at the time looked at me like I had two heads.

Not two heads, I was running dual processors hah!
Last week Apple introduced the 8 core tower.

add 3600 US for the fancy new HD and your mini notebook only set you back 5000+US, lol

Originally posted by smans
add 3600 US for the fancy new HD and your mini notebook only set you back 5000+US, lol

The high-end MacBook Air is $3098USD, including the Solid State Hard Drive and a 1.8GHz processor. It's not over $5000.

Sooo, Why put a PATA HDD into any computer nowadays? Most HDD Companies are not making PATA Drives anymore, most MBoard don't support PATA... maybe Apple has a Stock pile.. But still transfer rate on a PATA HDD is sooo slow in comparison, and the SSD Drive is even slower than PATA. - And everyone loves to multitask.

They should have just stayed with either a SATA 1.8" or offered a lower cost on the Solid State Drive (SSD) HDD, since it's ability is still only "below average" in transfer rate. SSD Drives are only better at reliability cause if you drop it, it will still work, over the working parts on a PATA Drive.

Apple wants $999.00 for a 64GB SSD Drive extra on top of lap top cost.
Most HDD Companies are selling 1TB, 3½" HDD SATA Drives for the same cost.
Most HDD Companies are selling 350-500 GB 2½" HDD SATA Drives for aprox $250 bucks.

But $3K for something that has average computing power, isn't worth the money. - I love Apple Computers and know em inside and out, but there is no way the MacBook Air is worth $3,000.00+

If you plan on doing anything with Video / Audio editing, this MacBook Air is NOT the tool you want.

- speeds vary if installed in external boxes -
- Speeds listed below are if installed internally -
3.0 Gb/s - SATA 3½" and 1.8" HDD
1.5 Gb/s - SATA 2½" HDD Transfer Rate (common knowledge)
60-100 Mb/s - PATA 1.8" HDD Transfer Rate (depending on vendor)
60'ish Mb/s - SSD HDD (currently)

Agreed, I'm a huge Mac fan too, but this thing might go the way of the G4 Cube.

Not to mention the entry level model has an iPod hard drive, when Apple themselves warn you shouldn't use an iPod to boot a Mac as it wears out the drive, very odd... But I guess it's a new design that sets a new standard for thin portables.

Oh, and its a totally sealed system - battery is non replaceable, can't access the hard drive (like in a 'low end' MacBook) and RAM isn't upgradable. It's really super portable, and I think its sexy, but I can't see anyone doing really serious work on it. Bring back the 12" PowerBook G4 design I say
[edit on 16-1-2008 by mattguy404]

[edit on 16-1-2008 by mattguy404]

I'm a Mac fan, but a 13.3 inch screen on a laptop to me is just to small.
I prefer the 17.5 inch wide screen on my laptop.

Also, SONY made a thinner laptop back in 2003 so as they claim to be the "worlds thinnest" that really isn't true but being the 2nd thinnest ever made isn't a bad accomplishment just don't drop it

I sure wouldn't mind having one of those Wireless Apple External HD's, now thats cool.

Bzzzzzzz

reply to post by mattguy404


Yeah, I heard somebody say that Apple has a long problem with heating issues, so I guess you can't replace batteries, RAM, or anything you wish - because if you do, then the changes would probably take up more heat. Or blow up, perhaps?

reply to post by TheoOne


I have one of the white MacBooks and with everything full throttle (video encoding for instance) I've seen the processor temp shoot up to 90 degrees celsius (194 Fahrenheit) before the fan kicks in and brings it down a bit. It's normal from I've read, other laptops run the same temps, but it's an awful lot of heat in a small space.

Today's laptops are definitely not 'lap'tops! They can get pretty hot underneath.

The non-replaceable battery in the MacBook Air is the biggest 'uh oh' I think. Notebook batteries are generally only good for two years - I'm not too sure I'd pay premium for a lower performance sub-notebook only to have buy another one when the battery gives up.

The Air is for people who already have a capable desktop. There's no optical drive, no ethernet, no FireWire, no audio-in. You're really just paying for the thinness, it'll appeal to a lot of people, but not to people who need to do more 'stuff'.

I see.

Well, what would you say what's it best used for? Would you say it's best used for word processing? I think I would say so.

[edit on 16-1-2008 by TheoOne]

It could do a bit more than word processing (but it seems to be aimed at executives), it'd be ok for photo editing. It doesn't have a FireWire port, so you couldn't hook up a digital video cam and edit any video - which is really odd, because all Macs come with video editing software.

It'd be fast enough to handle most things, but it has a really slow 80GB hard drive. You can part with about another $1000 and get a fast 64GB solid state drive (flash memory based), but I don't know how you can sell a computer to someone by telling them they'll get less storage by paying more. It'll be interesting to see how these Airs cope out in the wild

I don't really get it.

So, you get the the thinnest laptop in the world, but you don't have an optical drive.

Did I miss something?

Have thumb drives rendered the optical drives obsolete?

I don't doubt that Apple makes some great products, but the formats they are offered in leave out so many options for the consumer.

What you buy is basically what you get forever. Well, unless you buy the options available from Apple.

When you buy an Apple, you're pretty much locked in.

Microsoft has a lot of problems, I do admit, but PCs offer me almost unlimited options to personalize my computer to my needs.

It's not perfect, but that's the price of freedom.


[edit on 2008/1/16 by GradyPhilpott]

They're running out the old technology in prep for the flash drive etc... therefore, no moving parts.

I use a MacBook Pro, dual pentium etc... all the toys, but it does have a habit of overheating.

Otherwise, I love my Mac.

The point is there is a market and there is demand for a smaller thinner notebook.

I don't know where "laptop batteries only last two years" come from, I have an iBook with its battery going on five years now.

I have a Sony Viao going on eight years, no problems with battery, useless machine though, you have to have tons of crap and cables plugged in to do anything.

At least the AIR is wireless, but still how do you install the OS and or reinstall the OS if you don't have an optical drive?

I guess a USB DVD drive is like what, $30 now.
Smart of apple not to include it since it will force iTunes movie sales, and they don't have to commit to blu-ray or HD-DVD, letting the consumer pick up whatever format they will need when they decide they need it.

Nobody is going to do video editing on a 13 inch screen, that would just be painful, especially with a track pad. That iBook I mentioned was 15 inches, too small for me.

For video editing they have the 8 core tower...there you are going to get real time effects on what, like eight to sixteen video tracks at once?
Glad I'm not editing anymore, else I'd be drooling for that mac.

The AIR comes with 2GB standard, plenty of RAM for anything you are going to do on a tiny little machine like that.

Funny they called it AIR, since that is ADOBE's new Web 2.0 software development platform. I'm trying to recall which Apple branding Adobe or someone similar ripped off in the recent past but I'm drawing a blank.

Originally posted by Legalizer
At least the AIR is wireless, but still how do you install the OS and or reinstall the OS if you don't have an optical drive?

Maybe the OS is on a partition of the hard drive.

My HP has this arrangement and it only takes up about 6 gigabytes.

Of course, when I do this, it takes hours to load all the updates that aren't on the hard drive.

I lug my macbook around with me everywhere, so the weight saving along would be sweet.

I do all my work at my desk top and then just transfer pic's and presentations to the mac book.

If the wife didn't hold the purse strings like a rabid pit bull, I'd get one fa sure!

MacMonKey

reply to post by Legalizer


That's true, I also have an iBook who's battery is still reasonable after 5 years. However, if you look around the web a bit you'll notice that 2 years is the typical expected useful life span. A lot of people abuse laptops, they might leave them in hot cars, don't charge them properly, etc etc. Also, you can carry a spare battery with you on the road with any other laptop - something that you can't do with the Air.

The Air uses Remote Disc to install software and OS updates - it can use either a Mac or Windows optical drive wirelessly.

If no one wants to edit video on a laptop, why is iMovie on there? It's just a conundrum that there's no FireWire port, it's the first Mac since the 1999 iBook not to have one. No one may want to edit video on a laptop, but the time may arise when you wish to capture it.

2GB of RAM is currently becoming the standard. Mac OS X Leopard is a hefty beast, I would say 2GB is needed to make everything run smoothly.

[edit on 16-1-2008 by mattguy404]

[edit on 16-1-2008 by mattguy404]

Well, let's hope they will come out with another newly improved version of Macbook Air, then.

Which I'm sure they will, of course.

[edit on 16-1-2008 by TheoOne]

reply to post by TheoOne


No doubt they will, it's a very slick machine. In a few years time all of their laptops will probably closely follow the same design based around the same technology. It really is mind blowing stuff

Evolution at its finest.

Evolution FTW.