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iDisk

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 2, 2010
825
0
Menlo Park, CA
Okay, like many, we get the usual "I want to use the Air for this, will it work" or "Is anyone using the Air as their primary machine" yada yada yada ...... So I want this to be THE ULTIMATE THREAD TO ANSWER THOSE QUESTIONS, for newbies and other members here..... This thread will be a REFERENCE were people who ask redundant questions can go to.... Hopefully if there's enough post will get this as a sticky :)....

NOW ANSWER IT IN THE FOLLOWING:

  • What MacBook Air do you have? Rev A (Which has an Intel graphics card & Storage capacity is 80GB HD & 64GB SSD) Rev B (Which has an Nvidia graphics card & has a CPU of 1.6Ghz and 1.86Ghz processor & A 120GB HD / 128GB SSD) Rev C (Which has an Nvidia graphics card & has a CPU of 1.86hz and 2.13Ghz processor & A 120GB HD / 128GB SSD)

  • What Applications are on your MacBook Air ?

  • What do you use your MacBook Air for? (ie: Programming, Light/Med/Heavy Photography use, video editing etc.....NAME EVERYTHING PLEASE )

  • Do you have any Issues using the Applications you mentioned? If so what? How often?

  • What do you think of your screen quality? (ie: Good/Bad/Okay)

  • With the Applications you use, do you find the RAM & HD or SSD limiting?

  • Do you Game on your MacBook Air? If so what kind of Games?

  • How is the Game Play ?

 

alphaod

macrumors Core
Feb 9, 2008
22,183
1,245
NYC
# What MacBook Air do you have?

Rev. C: 2.13Ghz w/ 128GB SSD

# What Applications are on your MacBook Air ?

Office 2008, CS4 DP, iWork, iLife, PGP Desktop Professional, assortment of browsers.

# What do you use your MacBook Air for?

Mainly browsing the web, checking emails, chatting with friends and folks; occasionally with fix a few pictures in Photoshop; have on occasion forged documents and such. Code with emacs, so that's pretty light. Will watch a movie or TV show on occasion. Drive is encrypted with PGP WDE.

# Do you have any Issues using the Applications you mentioned? If so what? How often?

Yes, CS4 suffers a bit; mostly due to lack of RAM; videos sometimes don't play and stutter due to cooling issues. The latter happens a lot unless I turn on the A/C (which won't happen in the winter). Coding is not an issue in performance because of the small footprint. However, though screen resolution could be higher—1440x900 would be better; and they make that screen in LED.

# What do you think of your screen quality? (ie: Good/Bad/Okay)

It's good. I don't see any of those grey lines folks have been talking about. Again I would prefer a higher resolution display; maybe a matter option as well.

# With the Applications you use, do you find the RAM & HD or SSD limiting?

I only use about 40GB of space, so no issues there. Encryption drops the read/write speeds (this shouldn't happen since the encryption/decryption is done at the CPU-side of things). RAM is a bit limiting; usually need to restart at least once a week to get rid of my 4GB swap size.

# Do you Game on your MacBook Air? If so what kind of Games?

I tried before, but poor cooling performance hampered any attempts; I no longer play games on this computer.

# How is the Game Play ?

N/A
 

ayeying

macrumors 601
Dec 5, 2007
4,547
13
Yay Area, CA
Nice color scheme lol. It's cute. Really :D

# What MacBook Air do you have?
Unofficial Rev. C, Intel Core 2 Duo 2.13GHz with 128GB Samsung SSD

# What Applications are on your MacBook Air ?

Photoshop CS4, Acrobat 9, VMware Fusion, E-Mail, Chat, Webcam, iTunes Video/Music... um... Games for the Windows side, VMware Workstation, Aperture... thats all I can think of

Edit: Oh yeah, Microsoft Office 2007/2008 and iWork and of course BOINC for SETI@Home, Colltaz Conjecture, and a few other projects

# What do you use your MacBook Air for?
Heavy Virtual Machine use (Occassionaly 3 VMs or more running at once)
Aperture Post-Processing photos, working with 10MB (10MP) RAW photos
Java Programming (Light/Homework)
Scanning Documents for being Paperless
Video converting/ripping (Handbrake and iMovie)
Games (CoD: MW/MW2, L4D(2), Sins of a Solar Empire, Star Trek Online, GTA4)

# Do you have any Issues using the Applications you mentioned? If so what? How often?
Yes, VMware Fusion/Workstation usually, when I hit over 4GB of swap.

# What do you think of your screen quality?
Excellent. Color calibrated using Spyder 3 Elite for a 2.4 Gamma (Non standard)

# With the Applications you use, do you find the RAM & HD or SSD limiting?
Virtual Machines is VERY limiting on the RAM and SSD. SSD is just too bad with concurrent read/write at the same time. Helps running majority of my VMs on an external USB drive

# Do you Game on your MacBook Air? If so what kind of Games?
Star Trek Online
Call of Duty Modern Warfare (2)
Sins of a Solar Empire (w/ Expansions)
Civilization 4 (all Expansions)
GTA4
Occasionally solitare :D

# How is the Game Play ?
Star Trek Online - Good
Call of Duty Modern Warfare (2) - Excellent
Sins of a Solar Empire (w/ Expansions) - Excellent
Civilization 4 (all Expansions) - Excellent
GTA4 - Playable, but poor
Solitare - Needa ask?
 

inott

macrumors member
Feb 1, 2010
76
0
What MacBook Air do you have?
Rev. C 1.86 hdd

What Applications are on your MacBook Air ?
Adobe Suite, Firefox, Limewire, etc..

What do you use your MacBook Air for?
Web browsing, Photoshop is priority (I have external LG 21.5" Secondary monitor (after all, it is my main machine.)

Do you have any Issues using the Applications you mentioned? If so what? How often?
Never, quick machine.

What do you think of your screen quality?
Excellent, the MBA screen rivals many other LCDs i've seen.

With the Applications you use, do you find the RAM & HD or SSD limiting?
unless I am doing serious video editing, the MBAs hardware specs let me do just about anything. Even with the HDD as opposed to SSD.
 

keantan

macrumors regular
Nov 6, 2008
163
0
Penang, Malaysia
# What MacBook Air do you have?

Rev. B: 1.6Ghz w/ 128GB SSD

# What Applications are on your MacBook Air ?

iWork, iLife, Firefox, Xcode, Adobe Acrobat Professional, DoubleTwist

# What do you use your MacBook Air for?

Web browsing, taking notes in lectures, e-mail, coding in Xcode (C and Java), watching videos (non-HD)

# Do you have any Issues using the Applications you mentioned? If so what? How often?

Everything seems fine except sometimes Xcode and and having two A4 pages on the screen side-by-side is quite cramped. Heat issues with watching videos, processor maxes out, and subsequently lags.

# What do you think of your screen quality? (ie: Good/Bad/Okay)

It's good. No line/screen quality issues, however entire screen assembly was replaced once (under warrantee) due to the hinge.

# With the Applications you use, do you find the RAM & HD or SSD limiting?

Sometimes space is an issue, but generally I clean out with a reformat once in a while so that sorts that out. not having 4GB of ram is a bit of a pain. Mostly its CPU limitations than anything else.

# Do you Game on your MacBook Air? If so what kind of Games?

Not really, thinking of starting back on WoW again.

# How is the Game Play ?

N/A
 

Shrek-Moscow

macrumors member
Apr 11, 2008
68
0
What MacBook Air do you have?
Rev A 1.8 GHz updated with a new RunCore 128GB SSD (pata)

What Applications are on your MacBook Air ?
Office 2008 ; Digital Photo Professional (Canon RAW converting SW); Adobe LightRoom; Ilife '09 (I use just iWeb and iPhoto); uTorrent; Lotus Notes client; Parallels with WinXP SP3 (used just for my car's ECU programming sw); various browsers and utilityes; itunes.

What do you use your MacBook Air for?
Everything except gaming.. just because I don't play computer games.

Do you have any Issues using the Applications you mentioned? If so what? How often?
Honestly I feel the limit of the rev A graphic performances only when working on large raw files, but is still liveable.. but for this I guess a rev C should be already good enough. Iphoto, when in full screen and widely zoomed in, is not responding well to moultitouch inputs.

What do you think of your screen quality?
Screen is simply GREAT!

With the Applications you use, do you find the RAM & HD or SSD limiting?
The speed of the original 80GB HDD was really annoyng but after moving to RunCore 128 GB SSD I felt a great improve in everiday performance and boost in free space and now I'm fine.. However a 192 or 256 GB SSD (faster like the sata RunCore's) would be much better. Moreover some extra ram would be welcome for Parallels..


Do you Game on your MacBook Air? If so what kind of Games?
No games..


Generally, despite having the first and slower MBA version, I'm really satisfied.
 

MajorTCS

macrumors regular
Jun 13, 2009
145
0
Farmington CT
iDisk, I am impressed you have become a regular so soon! Do you have alot of time to spare? Here is my input:

Rev C (see below)

I run standard Apps, like WORD and Safari

My MBA is for browsing, email.

I have noticed heat issues while watching DVDs and You Tube. Wish it didn't.

Screen is very good. No grey lines.

RAM is fine.
 

slapguts

macrumors 6502a
Jan 10, 2008
661
0
[*] What MacBook Air do you have? Rev. A, 80gb HD.

[*] What Applications are on your MacBook Air ?
Standard plus Adobe CS4, OpenOffice

[*] What do you use your MacBook Air for? Web surfing, streaming media to an external display, light web design/graphic design work. Travel. I ride a motorcycle, and having such a light weight bag on my back makes the ride a lot more enjoyable.


[*] Do you have any Issues using the Applications you mentioned? If so what? How often? CS4 runs fairly well, some filters do take their time. Had I ever used a Mac Pro, I'm sure I'd hate the wait.


[*] What do you think of your screen quality? Love it. Bright and flawless.


[*] With the Applications you use, do you find the RAM & HD or SSD limiting? I do kind of wish I had the SSD, just for the speed increases. All my media is stored on an external drive hooked to an Airport Extreme that I can access from anywhere, so my HD is only about 40% full.


[*] Do you Game on your MacBook Air? If so what kind of Games?
Nope.

[*] How is the Game Play ?
 

jahala

macrumors regular
Feb 7, 2008
207
16
MBA is great for me

[*] What MacBook Air do you have? Rev. B, 128GB SSD

[*] What Applications are on your MacBook Air ? Adobe Acrobat Pro, Adobe Illustrator CS4, Parallels Desktop, iLife, iWork, Office 2008, NeoOffice, LaTeX, XCode, Path Finder, Handbrake (64-bit), VLC (64-bit), Things

[*] What do you use your MacBook Air for? Web surfing, streaming media to an external display, editing audio with GarageBand, editing video with iMovie, document creation with office suites, LaTeX, and Acrobat; communications

[*] Do you have any Issues using the Applications you mentioned? I discovered with Garageband that the MBA has no audio-in to capture audio. Once captured, I can edit the audio just fine. Other than that, no issues.

[*] What do you think of your screen quality? I love the screen. It is one of the reasons I wanted the air over any of the current pros.

[*] With the Applications you use, do you find the RAM & HD or SSD limiting? I could use more RAM for Parallels virtual machines. Related to hardware limitations, I am too cheap to buy the USB ethernet adapter, so I cannot use my MBA as much as I would like at work.

[*] Do you Game on your MacBook Air? If so what kind of Games?
Nope.

[*] How is the Game Play ? N/A
 

1appleAday

macrumors regular
Mar 27, 2008
195
0
[*] What MacBook Air do you have?
Rev A 1.6Ghz 80 GB HDD

[*] What Applications are on your MacBook Air ?
NeoOffice, Evernote, the iPhone Dev tools (forgot the exact names), RealPlayer :eek: ...to name a few


[*] What do you use your MacBook Air for?
Light iPhone programming, browsing, watch videos, listen to music, look at pic.


[*] Do you have any Issues using the Applications you mentioned? If so what? How often?

My only complaint is that certain Java Applet on the web tends to make the machine slow. Also, NeoOffice takes long time to launch.


[*] What do you think of your screen quality? (ie: Good/Bad/Okay)

Good

[*] With the Applications you use, do you find the RAM & HD or SSD limiting?

RAM and HD both limiting


[*] Do you Game on your MacBook Air? If so what kind of Games?

Nope


[*] How is the Game Play ?

N/A
 

jimboutilier

macrumors 6502a
Nov 10, 2008
647
42
Denver
What MacBook Air do you have?

Rev C 2.13 w 128gb SSD

What Applications are on your MacBook Air ?

Ok my apologies in advance for the length of this list but I use my MBA for a LOT of stuff

0xED - Hex Editor - Freeware
AASYNC - Drive/Folder Sync - Shareware
Adium - AIM/YIM etc Client - Freeware
Adobie Acrobat 8 Pro - PDF Authoring - Commercial Software
AppCleaner,, application removal, freeware
AppDelete - application removal - shareware
Backblaze - online backup service - fast, low cpu, and reliable
BetterZip - great PKZIP tool - shareware
Bento - good desktop DB tool for smaller DBs
Bokeh - CPU/Application managment/Allocation for underpowered macs like MBA rev A - Shareware
CDRevolution - CD Ripper - Shareware
Cinch - window managment - sharewar
ClickToFlash - Safari flash blocker
Cocktail - System Utility - Shareware
ConceptDraw Office 8 - Drawing, Project and mindmapping - shareware
CoconutBattery - battery meter - Freeware
DbVisualizer - database tool - Shareware (free read, pay update)
DiskInventoryX - Disk space by file type utility - Freeware
DivxPlayer - MultiMedia Codec - Free Limited Use Commercial Software
DupeGuru - file cleanup - Shareware
Duplicate Annihilator - for iPhoto cleanup - shareware
EasyTaskManager - GTD task manager
Eclipse - code editor - Freeware
EditX - xml editor - shareware
Espionage - encrypted folder utility
EverNote - online content management utility service
FindAnyFile - file finder - freeware
FireFox - Web Browser - Freeware
Filemaker Pro - db system for larger scale DBs - commercial software
Flip4Mac - Video Codec - Free Limited use Commercial Software
GimmieSomeTune - add album art and lyrics to itunes - freeware
Google Chrome - web browser - freeware
Google Earth - GIS Application - Freeware
GoToMeeting - online collaboration service
Growl - application messaging
Handbrake - Video/DVD ripping utility - Freeware
iDefrag - Disk utility - Commercial Software
iFreeMem - Memory optimizer - Shareware
iWork09 - Office suite - Commercial Software
Kdiff3 - ascii file compare utility - Freeware
LightZone - Photography Software - Commercial Software
MacFUSE - NTFS reader for VM's - freeware
MacMetaMod - JPG Tagging Software - Freeware
MagicDraw - UML Tool - Commercial
MenuMeters - mem/disk/cpu/net monitoring - Freeware
MSOffice2008 - Office Suite - Commercial Software
MySql - database - Freeware
NeatReciepts for MAc - Scanner/Expense Software
Nocturne - nightime screen display - freeware
OmniGrafflePro - Visio Like Program - Commercial Software
OmniPlan - Project Managment Software - Commercial Software
Onyx - system optimization utility - freeware
Opra - web browser - freeware
PdfPen - PDF editing/orgnizing - shareware
PdfShrink - pdf compressing - shareware
Pixel check - dead pixel checker - freeware
reveal - EXIF editor - freeware
SafariCookieCutter - cookie editor - freeware
SafariSorter - sorts safari bookmarks - freeware
Sandvox - Web Site Creation Utility - Commercial Software
Skype - VOIP - Freeware
ShadowClipboard - multi clipboard utility - Shareware
SlingShot - folder synchronization tool - shareware
SmartCVS - CVS Client - freeware
Smartsleep - sleep mode preference pane - freeware
SMCFanControl - Hardware utility - Freeware
SnapNDrag - Screen Capture Utility - Freeware
SoapUi - Web services testing tool - freeware
SuperDuper - HD Imaging/Backup - Shareware
Startup sound - volume control preference pane - freeware
TextWrangler - Technical Text Editor - Freeware
TN5250 - AS400 Terminal Emulator - Shareware
TRANSMIT - FTP Client - Shareware
VLC - Play WMV and more with less overhead
VMWare Fusion - VM tool
VoodooPad - personal wiki - shareware
VpnClient - CISCO VPN - Free Limited Use Commercial Software
WireShark - TraceDump Reader/Network Monitor - Freeware
xbench - benchmark utility - freeware
XmlSpear - XML editor - Freeware
Xslimmer - application optimizer - shareware
xmleditor - xml editor - limited freeware / shareware


What do you use your MacBook Air for?

You should be able to get a fair Idea from the list off applications above. I often use ALL of them in the course of a given month.

At work as an IT consultant I can be involved anywhere and everywhere in the software development cycle from Feasibility, Analysis, Architecture and design, Development, Testing, Deployment, Support and Maintenance.

Personally I keep some portion of my Music, Movies, and Photo's on my Air and use it to edit, maintain, organize and use these materials. I'm an avid photographer so iPhoto and LightZone are particularly important to be for shapshots to more important work.

Keeping all my work and personal materials safe, secure, available, and sharable account for a fair number of utilities.


Do you have any Issues using the Applications you mentioned? If so what? How often?

The Cisco VPN client occasionally causes kernel panics (few times a year) and occasionally (once or twice a month) requires a reboot for it to start successfully.

VMWare Fusion requires you to keep an eye on memory use to avoid excessive swapping (not good for an SSD). I usually shut down most apps prior to starting Fusion and don't run many other things while its running. Be glad when the MBA gets 4gb of ram.

What do you think of your screen quality?

Excellent. Crisp, bright, no lines or dead pixels, even colors and brightness, not compromise of gloss/matte.

With the Applications you use, do you find the RAM & HD or SSD limiting?

When just using OS X apps RAM is good, even when running a LOT of apps - but for running VM's I'd like to see 4gb of RAM and will consider upgrading if/when the MBA adds that.

Size wise I'd like more storage. 128gb is enough for all my work stuff no problem, but when you start talking Music, Video, and Pictures, I have to keep some of my stuff elsewhere and just keep a good selection locally. 256gb would be a worthwhile upgrade for me.


Do you Game on your MacBook Air? If so what kind of Games?
How is the Game Play ?


Don't play any games, so no idea how the MBA games.
 

lucifiel

macrumors 6502a
Nov 7, 2009
982
2
In your basement
Since I'm procrastinating, I'll play along.

# What MacBook Air do you have?
2.13ghz with stock SSD

# What Applications are on your MacBook Air ?
Mac OS X side - Pages is the only relevant app worth mentioning. The rest are the standard things: browsers, mail, calendar, blah blah. Notably I removed all the apps in the iLife suite as it was a waste of space for me. Oh and VLC which I try to avoid, but nevertheless have.

On the Win 7 side - chrome and various games which I will address later. And all the cool windows clean up programs: CCleaner and most of the Piriform stuff. And nVidia System Tools.

# What do you use your MacBook Air for?
In order of importance:
-Note taking at Uni;
-Writing up assignments;
-Doing research of the legal kind;
-Watching TV;
-Gaming.

# Do you have any Issues using the Applications you mentioned? If so what? How often?
iTunes can be a bit slow at times but that's because I have all my songs and stuff stored on a much slower external HDD. The gaming can occassionally piss me off, and multi-tasking whilst watching MKVs is bad. Actually generally MKV pisses me off on the Mac OS X side, takes about 1 min to load. I know there's a thread on how to fix this smoewhere on the forums, but I can't find it anymore.

# What do you think of your screen quality? (ie: Good/Bad/Okay)
Pretty brilliant.

# With the Applications you use, do you find the RAM & HD or SSD limiting?
I think it'd be a better gaming experience with more RAM, but I could be wrong. The underclocked 9400M is a hinderance, but thanks to nVidia system tools, not so much.

# Do you Game on your MacBook Air? If so what kind of Games?
Yes, at the moment, and in order of play time:
-Dragon Age: Orgins; it's not bad, can lag at times when there's a lot happening, but playable (don't expect stellar performance);
-Dawn of War II; highly playable at low-medium settings;
-Baldur's Gate II; like butter.

# How is the Game Play ?
Refer to above.

And like ayeying, I am partial to the occasional game of Solitare.
 

iDisk

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 2, 2010
825
0
Menlo Park, CA
Great Start! The thread is becoming a great reference thus far.

Hey guys & gals :) I just wanted to pop in and see how the thread is going....... Looks like it's off to a great start, lets keep them coming!

......................................

:eek:

Lol I do like this thread though I hope more post.

Thank you and so do I.

iDisk, I am impressed you have become a regular so soon! Do you have alot of time to spare?

Thanks.... Yes I do have time but it's very sporadic.

Hi, long time lurker whose new to the forums. I'm strongly considering getting a MBA upon the next revision (which I think will be tomorrow or next Tuesday). I get the feeling that people are sacrificing things to get the MBA. Is the performance truly constrained by these heat issues / lack of RAM? Is there anything that they could announce in the next revision that would make you think that they've cured these issues?

Thanks in advance for any input...

Doug

Lets stay on topic ..... Start a thread don't hi jack it
 

spriter

macrumors 65816
May 13, 2004
1,460
586
What MacBook Air do you have?
Rev A 1.6, 2GB, GMA X3100, 80GB HD, partitioned 3 ways: OSX; Windows 7; Files (accessible from both OSs).

What Applications are on your MacBook Air ?
Adobe CS4, Quark 8, Office 2008, Windows 7 (via BootCamp for Office 2007). When a home I'll connect to a 20" ACD.

What do you use your MacBook Air for?
Heavy internet, email; medium CS4 and Quark 8 work; heavy Office; learning Chinese <-- I cannot overstate how useful Trackpad handwriting is for this.

Do you have any Issues using the Applications you mentioned? If so what? How often?
Office 2008 feels bloated. Originally I blamed the Air but then I realised it was sluggish on my work Mac Pro. If I do heavy Office work, I usually fire up BootCamp and work in 2007 which is a world of difference better.

What do you think of your screen quality?
Good - nice, vibrant and good viewing angle.

With the Applications you use, do you find the RAM & HD or SSD limiting?
4GB of RAM would be nice but it doesn't hinder my CS4 and Quark work. The HD is slowish to open big apps but I'm not going to lose sleep over it. Once they're open, they don't feel 'slow'.

Do you Game on your MacBook Air? If so what kind of Games?
Warcraft 3

How is the Game Play ?
Good - it's fairly old so the GMA X3100 can handle it fine.

Overall, the best Mac I've used and owned. The portability and (lack of) weight mean I take it everywhere without worrying. I could not bear the thought of going back to a 'fat' laptop. I run CoolBook and generally get 4-5 hours out of it when doing Office work which is fine by me.
 

zzzzzzzzz

macrumors member
Jun 14, 2008
54
0
What MacBook Air do you have?
Rev B 1.6 with 128 SSD. OSX 10.5

What Applications are on your MacBook Air ?
Main ones I use are Firefox, Thunderbird, Word, Excel, SPSS (stats software), Keynote, Photoshop, VLC and Itunes. Then, like, Tweetie, Adium, Quicksilver, and utilities like that.

What do you use your MacBook Air for?
Browsing, Email, Word Processing, Statistics, Presentations, Music and Movies.

Do you have any Issues using the Applications you mentioned? If so what? How often?
I've been increasingly having problems with Excel and SPSS. Not only when I'm running calculations, but even when I'm just copying and pasting data around, or sorting data, I get the beachball. It's quite annoying, and I'm actually better off doing all that work on my nearly six year old Dell 700m laptop (which I upgraded to 2gigs of RAM). I haven't seen many people list Excel and SPSS as issues - do any of you guys have issues with them? Or is it some specific issue with my software?
Other than that, sometimes the system gets taxed when I have firefox, photoshop and word open along with other smaller programs all at the same time, but usually everything is fine save for the stats software.


What do you think of your screen quality?
Yeah, great. Though, when at home, I usually run it through my 24" monitor.

With the Applications you use, do you find the RAM & HD or SSD limiting?
I think RAM (or maybe processor) is the limiting factor for the issues that I do have. I've loaded on as many programs as I need (and then some), and I still have plenty of space left on my SSD.

Do you Game on your MacBook Air? If so what kind of Games?
No gaming.

The battery also ain't what she used to be. I've got 300 load-cycles and coconutbattery says my capacity is at 89% of original, but I'm lucky to get two and a half hours when not plugged in.
 

couto27

macrumors 6502
Nov 10, 2008
264
0
lisboa,portugal
What MacBook Air do you have?

rev A x3100 80gb 10.5

What Applications are on your MacBook Air ?

microsoft office 2008
perian
flip for mac
djay
air mouse server
team viewer
apple remote desktop
mac tubes
onxy
handrake
safari add block
safari add blocker
garage sale
ilife 2009
bump top
kismac
skype
messenger
firefox
opera
xbench
zdlan wireless


What do you use your MacBook Air for?

internet

Do you have any Issues using the Applications you mentioned? If so what? How often?

yes , zdlan doesnt work on snow leopard. i use a dongle for wireless with a 5 metres cable ,looks like zdlan chipset the needs an update.


What do you think of your screen quality? (ie: Good/Bad/Okay)

okay

With the Applications you use, do you find the RAM & HD or SSD limiting?

just one , handbrake.

Do you Game on your MacBook Air? If so what kind of Games?

i try to play with low specs ,world of goo . flat out 2 , call of duty4

How is the Game Play ?

bad very bad . low specs to play .

i bought 2 of these mb air rev A , about 2 months ago $600 each aprox. one for me other for my wife .
for her is ok she love it , her use is also internet , but for me i need a little more powerfull for myself with nvidia 9400, just 3 battery hours seems low, due my constant traveling airport hotels etc.
looking for a used rev b or c ebay with 120gb , to upgrade to a runcore 64ssd
for the price is exelent bargain

one final note , ive being today in the apple store of regent street and i took the weight of the mbp 2,26 and is f**** heavy, i will not able to return to a normal mbp due to their weight.
apple needs to upgrade to:
2 usb
7 hours battery
4gb ram
 

godslabrat

macrumors 6502
Aug 19, 2007
346
110
# How is the Game Play ?
Star Trek Online - Good
Call of Duty Modern Warfare (2) - Excellent
Sins of a Solar Empire (w/ Expansions) - Excellent
Civilization 4 (all Expansions) - Excellent
GTA4 - Playable, but poor
Solitare - Needa ask?


Seriously? That's encouraging. The Air is everything I've ever wanted in a laptop, so I'm determined to get one... but I've been concerned over its performance in gaming. If you say you have a C, and the person who posted with an A is less than satisfied, clearly Apple is rapidly improving this aspect.

Does anyone have an Air and play SecondLife? And is willing to admit to the latter? :rolleyes:
 

ayeying

macrumors 601
Dec 5, 2007
4,547
13
Yay Area, CA
Seriously? That's encouraging. The Air is everything I've ever wanted in a laptop, so I'm determined to get one... but I've been concerned over its performance in gaming. If you say you have a C, and the person who posted with an A is less than satisfied, clearly Apple is rapidly improving this aspect.

Does anyone have an Air and play SecondLife? And is willing to admit to the latter? :rolleyes:

Well, you do realize that the Rev. A model only has a Intel X3100 and the other MacBook Airs have a nVidia 9400M, same as the MacBook/MacBook Pros... that kinda gives it away that it's a capable gaming machine.

You can look at my YouTube videos that I have of actual gameplay of some games including CS:S Stress Test, GTA4, CoD:MW2 and DiRT2

http://www.youtube.com/ayeying

I have played SecondLife before, I never got into the game but it runs fine in both OSX and Windows versions.
 

xparaparafreakx

macrumors 65816
Jul 29, 2005
1,273
1
What MacBook Air do you have?
Rev A, 80 GB HD. Getting the newest one when it comes out.

What Applications are on your MacBook Air?
CS 4 design premium, word, itunes, aperture, Mac OS X Server Admin, Apple Remote Desktop and Traktor Scratch Pro.

What do you use your MacBook Air for?
Internet, facebook, email, homework, itunes, import photos to aperture, taking care of my Xserve, Djing.

Do you have any Issues using the Applications you mentioned? If so what? How often?
No issues other then flash being a hog.

What do you think of your screen quality? (ie: Good/Bad/Okay)
Awesome

With the Applications you use, do you find the RAM & HD or SSD limiting?
iTunes, Aperture, Safari.

Do you Game on your MacBook Air? If so what kind of Games?
Starcraft.

How is the Game Play ?
Good.
 

writingdevil

macrumors 6502
Feb 11, 2010
254
32
@iDisk

i'm a bit confused. read your thread intro: " "I want to use the Air for this, will it work" or "Is anyone using the Air as their primary machine" yada yada yada ...... So I want this to be THE ULTIMATE THREAD TO ANSWER THOSE QUESTIONS, for newbies and other members here..... This thread will be a REFERENCE were people who ask redundant questions can go to."

this thread sounded perfect to me as i am considering getting a MBA to use for screenwriting/researching and other things to replace my MBP while away from LA. however your response to paperboy seemed to shut down questions about usage and problems. the survey you did is a great start, good questions, but why block what he (and I) am interested in finding out, from experienced users, what i thought your intro offered? thanks
 

matthewHUB

macrumors 6502
Nov 29, 2005
499
4
What MacBook Air do you have?
Rev A, 1.8 64gb stock SSD

What Applications are on your MacBook Air?
iWork, iPhoto (library on external), iTunes (same), Openoffice, Skype, iWeb, dreamweaver, audacity, XSLIMMER

What do you use your MacBook Air for?
Internet, email, everything else.

Do you have any Issues using the Applications you mentioned? If so what? How often?
Youtube overheating, glitchy, hulu is a mess.

What do you think of your screen quality? (ie: Good/Bad/Okay)
Brilliant

With the Applications you use, do you find the RAM & HD or SSD limiting?
Not much. 64gb is absolutely fine -- 180gb music collection on an external. Stil have over 30gb free on my stock HD

Do you Game on your MacBook Air? If so what kind of Games?
Nope.

How is the Game Play ?
N/A.
 

iDisk

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 2, 2010
825
0
Menlo Park, CA
i'm a bit confused. read your thread intro: " "I want to use the Air for this, will it work" or "Is anyone using the Air as their primary machine" yada yada yada ...... So I want this to be THE ULTIMATE THREAD TO ANSWER THOSE QUESTIONS, for newbies and other members here..... This thread will be a REFERENCE were people who ask redundant questions can go to."

this thread sounded perfect to me as i am considering getting a MBA to use for screenwriting/researching and other things to replace my MBP while away from LA. however your response to paperboy seemed to shut down questions about usage and problems. the survey you did is a great start, good questions, but why block what he (and I) am interested in finding out, from experienced users, what i thought your intro offered? thanks

I didn't shut him down, his question was actually a "new thread". If you've noticed thus far some readers have actually commented on what users are using their AIRS for (look at godlabrat talking to ayeing).

This thread isn't suppose to be 50 people asking questions about what the AIR is for, that's why AIR users are posting what they're using their machines for & if you plan on using your machine for the same use/purpose as another, then you should do what godslabrat did. Though if not, just scroll and look at all the replies and make a note about what the air can do and or can't do.... again use this as a Reference.

Cause if someone starts a thread and says "Hey, I want to run Photoshop on the Air can I do that??"... The forum members can now point that person to a consolidated Thread as a reference. Instead of answering redundant post.


I wasn't shooting him down, but the post was derailing from what the thread is about.

Hope that helped ;)

Thanks for chiming in, PM me if you have anymore questions... Lets STAY ON TOPIC ;)
 

Scottsdale

Suspended
Sep 19, 2008
4,473
283
U.S.A.
Nice thread here iDisk. I have a similar idea in mind with a different goal, but I like the concept of the thread. Providing one place for a consortium of those looking for MBA information is great. Might I suggest that you make a clear method or a form to collect information so when each "contestant" submits their information it looks identical. Right now some have bold questions, some just answer questions, some skip questions, and etc... it's sorta confusing. Anyways, just a thought. I would also like each person's job title/description to understand more why they're using it; I know some are answering it in what they use it for... but others just state browsing, email, etc. I just think it's the missing question for me.

Per another identifying your "regular" status, I assume you have a membership due to paying for it? Do you know how that works here? I noticed that people become "demi-Gods" by donating... I would surely like to know why I am a lousy NUMBER... LOL.

I am working on identifying articles for a new Apple focused magazine. Another MR member and I will announce more information here in the MR section later. I have an idea to include a monthly feature focusing not on the MBA itself but those who use the MBA, how they use the MBA, and why the MBA is right for them over alternative computers/Macs. The idea will be to specifically target each user's work title and clearly identify why and how they use their MBA.

If anyone here is interested in being featured, please send me a PM. I plan to focus on name, job title/description, and how each person uses the MBA. Obviously, I would like to have a wide range of users and attempt to identify the "typical" or "average" MBA user or even LACK OF A TYPICAL USER. Whether you're a CEO, artist, attorney, doctor, developer, web designer, musician, student, actor, personal assistant, or even you just use the MBA for personal use, I would like to focus on you. I plan for it to be a random identification and understanding of the MBA user whether typical or atypical. I think just as this thread points out, the MBA has several uses and a very random user base that find the MBA to be more than sufficient for all of their needs. Send me a PM if interested in being included.
 
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