OFFICIAL I LIKE the MacBook Air Thread. Haters stay away!

[Sean Dempsey]

I think the Air is a great addition to the Mac lineup. Let me explain:

My family is pretty involved in land development and real estate. Aunts, uncles, cousins...

None of them are techy savvy. None of them care about specs or "I can SSH into my website from my watch!". They check email with "their outlook" and need help unzipping files.

And you know now? At least 5 of them have the ultra-slim Sony Vaio and the LOVE it. They also all make over 100k a year, at the very LEAST.

The Air is the perfect chance now for the non-tech savvy people to get the Mac. Mostly business owners and professionals whose companies don't rely on major IT support. Hell, most of these relatives of mine work with just the Vaio's and no other computers at all.

The ultra-thin portable market has been domianted by Sony, and now all these people forced to buy the Vaio's have an even better option with the Apple. I can see the Air becoming very popular with the people who don't care about "geek" things and just want what this delivers: no fuss ultra slim, lite, portability.

I love it.

[heatmiser]

I like how you don't have to worry about replacing the battery yourself.

[Dimwhit]

I think it's a great computer for its purpose. I could definitely get some great use out of it. Can't come close to affording it, but I could definitely put one to good use.

[Sean Dempsey]

Originally Posted by heatmiser

I like how you don't have to worry about replacing the battery yourself.

I said no haters.

[heatmiser]

Originally Posted by Sean Dempsey

I said no haters.

Okay, serious post. I do think it's an attractive computer, and I'd love to see one in person. I can bet a few students will start showing them off by spring.

[Josheua]

I think the design hails back to the clamshell ibook back in the day. Very good design, very original looks and as powerful as you run-of the mill PC with all the features of a macbook. The backlit keyboard (I believe) will soon find it's way onto the macbook pro and I think the optical drive software is really original.

+1 Apple. Thanks for creating an original, relatively powerful, portable.

-Josh

[dukebound85]

Originally Posted by heatmiser

Okay, serious post. I do think it's an attractive computer, and I'd love to see one in person. I can bet a few students will start showing them off by spring.

i doubt it as why would a student buy a computer with no optical drive and only one usb port. unless uber wealthy and just wanted to have a second computer in addition to a real one to get work done on that isnt all wireless lol

i agree on user friendly part. osx is osx is it not? all the air is just a thinner crippled version of the mb. it has the same screen size for goodness sakes. make the screen 10 inches or so and ill call it an ultraportable.

[Josheua]

Nope. Look at your every day windows PC you can pick up at Best Buy and Such for 1 grand. It has a 1.6 to 1.8 ghz processor with 1 to 2 gigs of ram and a 100 gig hard drive. It also ways 4 pounds, is an inch and a half thick, and runs as loud as 65 mustang. Now Apple took those specs and crammed it into an ultra thin frame with long battery life and great features. This is a good system. Not my personal preference (as I need the power given by the Pro) but a great portable computer with good features.

[heatmiser]

Originally Posted by dukebound85

i doubt it as why would a student buuy a computer with no optical drive and only one usb port.

There are always folks with more money than management--even among students! I'll keep my eyes open.

[eluk]

Waiting for an option to the black keyboard.

[sikkinixx]

Looks really cool, the black keyboard is a bit fugly but the multi-touch pad is sweet. The wireless CD thing is really interesting and I hope other companies take advantage of this (my Eee PC could use it ) 5 hour stated battery life would be awesome, my MBP doesn't get near that *sigh*

Still though... $1900 base model price? (here in Canada) It's only a few pounds less than a macbook and is much less powered/filled with useful ports... makes my $350 Eee PC look even more like the bargain that it is.



(the 64GB SSD is $1300! ouchies)

[Edd.Dantes]

YOU would like it



Oops, where's the official hate thread ?

[Billy Bob]

Originally Posted by sikkinixx

Looks really cool, the black keyboard is a bit fugly but the multi-touch pad is sweet. The wireless CD thing is really interesting and I hope other companies take advantage of this (my Eee PC could use it ) 5 hour stated battery life would be awesome, my MBP doesn't get near that *sigh*

Still though... $1900 base model price? (here in Canada) It's only a few pounds less than a macbook and is much less powered/filled with useful ports... makes my $350 Eee PC look even more like the bargain that it is.



(the 64GB SSD is $1300! ouchies)

haha you believe the 5 hour battery life? that's over optimistic to say the least. Hell apple say that my macbook should get 6 hours it has never even got anywhere near that...less than half of that usually.

[heatmiser]

Originally Posted by Billy Bob

haha you believe the 5 hour battery life? that's over optimistic to say the least. Hell apple say that my macbook should get 6 hours it has never even got anywhere near that...less than half of that usually.

I'm wondering how many people are going to keep falling for Apple's misleading battery estimates. None of their current computers manage more than 3.5h life for the average user despite claims of "up to 6h". Yet people are willing to drink the kool-aid *again* with an "up to 5h" estimate? Amazing!

[Billy Bob]

Originally Posted by heatmiser

I'm wondering how many people are going to keep falling for Apple's misleading battery estimates. None of their current computers manage more than 3.5h life for the average user despite claims of "up to 6h". Yet people are willing to drink the kool-aid *again* with an "up to 5h" estimate? Amazing!

people never learn it seems

[Josheua]

Originally Posted by heatmiser

I'm wondering how many people are going to keep falling for Apple's misleading battery estimates. None of their current computers manage more than 3.5h life for the average user despite claims of "up to 6h". Yet people are willing to drink the kool-aid *again* with an "up to 5h" estimate? Amazing!

Funny, I get 4.5 out of my macbook pro (santa rosa) taking notes in class, using wifi, with the screen at half brightness. Hmmm, guess I just have a special one

[island]

I think it's perfect for what I need.

Don't let all the haters fool you as most of them just purchased or received Mac laptops in the past 6 months and now hate themselves for it.

FLAME ON!

[dukebound85]

Originally Posted by island

I think it's perfect for what I need.

Don't let all the haters fool you as most of them just purchased or received Mac laptops in the past 6 months and now hate themselves for it.

FLAME ON!

lol riiight

i would never buy this thing

[RedBarchetta]

I can see it work, per say for someone who is in some sort of business and a frequent flier. If you just want something thin and easy to carry around and need to look over an email or two or a powerpoint or something while on the plane or in a cab on the way to work. Why wouldn't it work?

That being said, other Apple laptops seem like they would do fine as well but I wouldn't count this one out just yet.

[marclapierre13]

Originally Posted by Sean Dempsey

I think the Air is a great addition to the Mac lineup. Let me explain:

My family is pretty involved in land development and real estate. Aunts, uncles, cousins...

None of them are techy savvy. None of them care about specs or "I can SSH into my website from my watch!". They check email with "their outlook" and need help unzipping files.

And you know now? At least 5 of them have the ultra-slim Sony Vaio and the LOVE it. They also all make over 100k a year, at the very LEAST.

The Air is the perfect chance now for the non-tech savvy people to get the Mac. Mostly business owners and professionals whose companies don't rely on major IT support. Hell, most of these relatives of mine work with just the Vaio's and no other computers at all.

The ultra-thin portable market has been domianted by Sony, and now all these people forced to buy the Vaio's have an even better option with the Apple. I can see the Air becoming very popular with the people who don't care about "geek" things and just want what this delivers: no fuss ultra slim, lite, portability.

I love it.

I agree for you that this is the perfect laptop for just the internet browser and email checker users. But the PRICE makes it so that it DOESNT appeal to them. For this to be a success, I think it should be priced about 25% lower. It should be the model before the MB.

[sikkinixx]

Originally Posted by Billy Bob

haha you believe the 5 hour battery life? that's over optimistic to say the least. Hell apple say that my macbook should get 6 hours it has never even got anywhere near that...less than half of that usually.

dude you're being a jerk around here, oh wait, thats why you get time out.



I said "stated" battery life. I know it's less real-life but with screen dimed, BT off, etc. it will probably get somewhere close. Either way it wouldn't be too bad.

[heatmiser]

I'd be curious to see the real-life differences between the regular drive and the SSD, once people start using these.

[gloss]

I feel like it would be a brilliant machine for about 99% of what I do on my laptop. Unfortunately, current specs mean that it just isn't enough of an upgrade (indeed, none at all) performance-wise to justify moving from a Rev A Macbook, except in the pursuit of pure sexiness.

In a year or two, when the specs are right, it will be a really, really tempting bit of kit. For the moment, it's a beautiful, lightweight, ridiculously elegant machine for those lucky enough to have a use for it. Can't wait to play with one.

[kevinbal]

The Macbook Air is an excellent entry into the growing demand for "more"-portable laptops. I'm going to hold off on calling it "ultra"-portable, since I don't think you can consider a 13.3" screen "ultra".

For anyone who was expecting a machine this big, and this powerful, to be anything less than the price point was absolutely insane. Clearly they haven't bothered to check the competing prices on "ultra"-portables. Same with the battery life; the screen, 802.11n, the processors, and the standard hard drive all draw too much power to be much more than that... and I'm assuming its probably a 4400mhA or 5400mhA battery (I haven't checked the specs on it yet.)

The new innovations to the wireless CD thing is great, that is actually a lot better than having the "dock" system that was floating around prior to Macworld.

Multi-touch trackpad? Damn, that's wonderful. I almost wonder if with a software/firmware update, our current trackpads can do something similar.... I mean if they pick up the two finger scrolling and pressure points for clicking....

Overall though, great product as a first entry into this new (and growing) niche of laptop users. I would have loved to see a sub 10" version come in under a grand, but oh well.. I might give the Asus Eee PC a shot (or just wait for something else to come into being over the next few months.) Kudos to the Macbook Air.

As an aside, notice how the rounding off looks striking similar to a Nano in laptop form? I'm willing to bet that it was first going to be called the Macbook Nano and the Air was a late change.

[marclapierre13]

Originally Posted by gloss

I feel like it would be a brilliant machine for about 99% of what I do on my laptop. Unfortunately, current specs mean that it just isn't enough of an upgrade (indeed, none at all) performance-wise to justify moving from a Rev A Macbook, except in the pursuit of pure sexiness.

In a year or two, when the specs are right, it will be a really, really tempting bit of kit. For the moment, it's a beautiful, lightweight, ridiculously elegant machine for those lucky enough to have a use for it. Can't wait to play with one.

That, and a huge price reduction.