Has anyone here been using their MBA 11.6 model and now is thinking that they could have just went with an iPad? I have been using mine mainly for just surfing the web and sending emails. Has anyone else done the same? Anyone thinking about selling or taking back(if the apple store lets them) to just get an iPad?
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Macbook Air to much for you?
- Thread starter littlepooch21
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I would actually prefer to surf the net on a MBA or MBP. The resoulution on the iPad is so low and looks very pixelated. Also web pages load pretty slow in comparison to the MBA or MBP. Don't get me wrong I love the iPad but I think its better for very brief tasks.
Got iPad on launch day, but got the 11.6" MBA and no regrets... sold ipad as well... my wife still has hers so I "can" use it when she's not but this new MBA and form factor are amazing!
yeah i like having the form factor of a nice small cpu that i can download to, surf the web, do email, work on my schooling, etc. the base 11 inch seems to be pretty speedy. i haven't noticed any slowdown at all. probably the only thing i don't like about it is wrist space while typing or using the trackpad.
my thing is i will probably be using it the most just couch surfing. maybe pulling up my fantasy leagues on Sunday and stuff like that. i'm just wondering if any others are thinking the same thing.
my thing is i will probably be using it the most just couch surfing. maybe pulling up my fantasy leagues on Sunday and stuff like that. i'm just wondering if any others are thinking the same thing.
Same here. I've been using an MBA for 1.5 years now and have loved it. In some cases, my iPad is better, but I spend more time on the MBA. I just got my 11.6" MBA, and for the most part, I like it better than my Rev C 2.13 MBA that has now been passed down to my wife as her primary laptop.
/Jim
Same here, both work great. Biggest problem I have is deciding whether to use 11 or 13"
I'm liking and using my 11" a little more than the 13" so far. iPad still gets used in bed, for browsing photo's and as a GPS in car.
I love my Apple equipment!
Same here, both work great. Biggest problem I have is deciding whether to use 11 or 13"
iPad still gets used in bed, for browsing photo's and as a GPS in car.
I love my Apple equipment!
you have an 11 and 13 inch one? why are you using the 11 over the 13 more?
I have hardly used my iPad, which I bought the week it was released, since I got my 13 inch MBA last week. The iPad is too limited in too many ways to be a serious competitor for an MBA. I bought a 13 inch MBA in preference to the 11 inch model only because I hoped to be able to make it my primary computer. So far, at least, that's the way it's working out. I have hardly used my 3 year old MBP since I got the MBA.
All of that said, though, if I were looking at an MBA solely as a replacement for an iPad, I would get the 11 inch model because as much as I like the 13 inch MBA it is significantly larger and heavier than the iPad. It seems to me that the 11 inch MBA would be far more powerful and easy to use than an iPad and would come in a package that is almost as small and lightweight as an iPad.
All of that said, though, if I were looking at an MBA solely as a replacement for an iPad, I would get the 11 inch model because as much as I like the 13 inch MBA it is significantly larger and heavier than the iPad. It seems to me that the 11 inch MBA would be far more powerful and easy to use than an iPad and would come in a package that is almost as small and lightweight as an iPad.
Right now, I have Xcode running (finally getting back into iOS stuff I was meaning to do), Illustrator, Transmission, iTunes, Skype, Messenger and Google Chrome. Ran Virtual Box earlier to VPN into work. Oh, Terminal.app is up to, connected to my web server at home since I was doodling on the rails website I'm making earlier.
All in glorious 2048x1156 on my external 23" monitor.
Yep, I shoulda just got an iPad.
All in glorious 2048x1156 on my external 23" monitor.
Yep, I shoulda just got an iPad.
see your doing a lot of things at one time. i normally just surf the web and do email.
Trying to do email or post to special interest sites like MacRumors on an iPad has always struck me as pretty brutal. Trying to write coherently while using the iPad's virtual keyboard made the exercise too difficult for me. Even before I got my MBA, I did anything that required any kind of data entry on my 17 inch MBP. Now I do it all on my MBA. Even Web surfing is limited on an iPad because it can't access Flash enabled sites. I thought my iPad was excellent for Web surfing while watching TV but not much else.
I think it could also be the 'ooo shiny' syndrome - people getting a bit bored of their iPads and jumping to the shiny new gadget that Apple have just released.
You'll see the opposite come the new year when the iPad 2 is released, people selling their MBA's for the new iPad.
You'll see the opposite come the new year when the iPad 2 is released, people selling their MBA's for the new iPad.
yeah that is how it is with all new apple products. i'm sure there is going to be a lot of selling going on come the iPad 2. i know that i will for sure get one.
I am actually surprised at the level of boredom with the iPads already. It seems that the iPad is actually getting less popular with those who use them over time. I cannot stand the iPad myself, but my parents and kids love them.
This is the biggest flaw of all the iOS devices for me too. I don't need to look at the keyboard while typing and I'm used to looking at the screen and seeing what I type get displayed. iOS pretty much kills this. Not to mention having to either prop it up and type 1 handed or lay it flat and have to bend my neck down to type.
The iPad and other iOS devices are just too "read-only" for me, sort of like TV, just a big brain drain.
As you know, I have been as underwhelmed by the iPad as you. But we are computer guys who do a lot of writing on them. Obviously, the iPad and its virtual keyboard are pretty bad at that sort of thing.
In fairness to the iPad, my daughter reads ebooks on hers and loves it. She also uses it when she wants to make a quick Web search while she is watching TV. I, too, used mine for light Web surfing while watching TV but no longer do even that with it. My 13 inch MBA is small and light enough for me to use it for even light Web surfing. That way I can get the benefit of Chrome, which is, to say the least, infinitely better than any browser available for the iPad.
I haven't owned an iPad, so I can't speak to its usefulness (or lack thereof?), but for me at least, between my iPhone and MacBook Air, there's absolutely no room or market for what seems to me like an oversized iPod. I don't really know what I'd do with one, and it surprises me that so many users are enthralled with theirs. To each his own.
I will hold on with my ipad because it serves me very well as a e-reader. However, I will not upgrade to ipad 2 or ipad 3 for camera or more power. It will be a while before I upgrade. I want to get MBA 11.6, but it is still too weak for my taste. I am going for 13.3 inch model for now and I am going to give it to family member later on.
That was exactly why I decided to get a 13 inch MBA instead of the 11 inch model. I wanted a new MBA that would provide the power to use it as I had been using my old Santa Rosa MBP. The 13 inch 2.13Ghz 4GB model does do it. Despite the stresses I put on it by running Windows 7 and a couple of Windows apps in VMware Fusion's Unity mode, plus a half dozen OS X apps, the new MBA handles it well.
As appealing as the 11 inch MBA was, I finally decided to pass it over, based in part on a recommendation from Scottsdale that the faster chip and larger screen of the 13 inch would be a better choice for an everyday computer. Scottsdale was right. I have accommodated to the smaller 13 inch screen without too much trouble but I now realize that the 11 inch MBA's screen would be too small for me to use it as an all day every day machine.
I definitely know my daughter loves her iPad more than her MBP. She is legally blind, so she needs to hold it within six inches of her eyes and the iPad allows a lot easier viewing for her. She also has problem with low muscle tone so the touchscreen works better for her also...
I just wish the iPad had a camera on it for facetime, as my daughter could use it instead of her MBP to call me nightly. I want facetime to work a lot better for us, as it has more potential than skype... but the camera needs to find its way to the iPad for a perfect use for many people. I would think that iPad sales would nearly rise by 20% (a personal guess) if it had facetime as people want a richer facetime experience than the iPhone/iPod touch can provide. People love the feature, but the tiny screen on the iPhones aren't large enough especially for people that don't have great vision.
The iPad is nice for those who consume, and my daughter is definitely in that market, but it's missing features that should have been there from the beginning, just like the camera for facetime calls. Apple is really crappy from a consumer standpoint as they remove features like backlighting from the MBA or a camera from the iPad to sell more later... great for AAPL investors, but terrible for consumers.
I will use my smartphone, an HTC G1 Android from T-Mobile, for connection to the Web only if I absolutely have to. Such a use is both brutally slow, even over a 3G network, and the small screen makes the exercise nearly painful. I have virtually not used the camera on my MBA, as I virtually didn't use the camera on the MBP that preceded it. My daughter wants me to get a Skype account for audiovisual communication but I have not yet got around to it.
It seems to me that when Apple makes marketing decisions like leaving backlit keyboards off of the MBAs and cameras from the iPads they know they will outrage a certain percentage of their customer base. They do it anyway, though, because they bet there are more potential customers who don't care about such features than there are who won't buy as a result. Is that smart or is it cynical? Maybe it is a bit of both.
Have both; use each according to its function. The iPad is an nice internet entertainment appliance when lying in bed. The MBA is my business laptop.
Ugh, I'm so torn on that issue! I'm going from a 15" MBP + iPad to just a 13" MBA.
I will miss is being able to crawl under my Jeep with the iPad in one hand (zoomed in on a color picture from the manufacturers install PDF) and a wrench in the other. Sooooo much nicer than trying to make do with the printed black and white "barely readable because it's been xeroxed 1000 times" instructions that they include.
Maybe I'll pick up a cheap, used first-gen iPad when the second-gen go on sale. But it's not worth keeping the 64GB 3G one that I have just for that feature...