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Apple Announces MacBook Air

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Wow - so many negatives.

This machine is great - beautiful. Personally, I find it a little underpowered, but others no doubt will find it sufficient.

The price is good ( especially Canadian ).

( But I was blown away by the price with all options!)

Slow hard disc... thats going to affect performance a lot :-(
 
macsrsocool said:
4200RPM drive?

Oh, so Apple basically forces you to spend $1000 more for the SSD.

Thanks Apple.
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please for the love of god everyone report this fool as an obvious troll so we can have his inane repetitive posts deleted. he's pretty much singlehandedly ruined this thread.
 
darngooddesign said:
This is what's funny. I had a 12"PB, and the reality was that it was an overpriced iBook. You didn't get much more than what the IBook offered and what you did get was heavier, ran way hotter, and had awful wifi range compared to the iBook.
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I disagree with this. The build quality of the 12" PB was streets ahead of the iBook: the keyboard, the case, it just felt like a superior machine. And its specs were higher across the board. Don't get me wrong, I liked the iBook too, but the 12" PB was a genuine desktop replacement. If you had one, and a big display on your desk at home, you were really set up. (Try running a 23" ACD on an iBook; at least, until someone worked out how to override the firmware.)

My 12" PB is now three years old and I was looking forward to the keynote, hoping that we'd finally get the 12"/13" MBP that many of us have been clamoring for. The MBA is technically amazing, but I can't see how it could ever be a desktop replacement. (Time Capsule might make the tiny HD less of an issue, but what about the limited memory/processor/graphics card/resolution?) So, in practical terms, you'd be forced to have a desktop (iMac or Pro) at home to do the heavy lifting and a MBA to impress people on the road. I'd much rather have had a thicker 12" MBP which could do everything. All you'd need on your desktop would be that big cinema display, and you'd keep the compact footprint and lighter weight that makes the 12" much more attractive as a road machine than the 15" or the 17".

Looks as if Steve has decided to go after the high end/corporate status symbol market, rather like the iPhone, which is perhaps where the easy $$$ are. But as a long-term mac user, I'd have preferred something a little more pedestrian and practical.
 
SirHaakon said:
Making a laptop without an ethernet jack in 2008 is like making a cake without flour. They missed the boat bigtime on this one.
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No. Making a laptop without an ethernet port in 2005 or 2006 might have been stupid. Today everything is wireless. Get on with the times.
 
"MacBook Air comes with a way-more-than-generous 2GB of RAM built in — ample memory for working with your favorite applications."

Source: Apple.com

Who on earth are Apple trying to fool. More or less every single laptop on the market comes with 2GB so this is really nothing but marketing none-sense.

Sadly Apple are deteriorating. Focusing more on marketing and stepping further away from the core values of consumer electronics.
 
hyphn said:
1.18 x 10.9 x 8.6 inches - Powerbook G4 12" (2006)
0.76 x 12.74 x 8.9 inches - MacBook Air (2008)

MBA is certainly thinner & lighter... but it's not smaller.

Not sure it's sufficiently different from a normal MacBook. Perhaps I'll change my mind when I see one in person.
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Actually...

.76*12.74*8.9 = 86.17 cubic in
1.18*10.9*8.6 = 110.61 cubic in

So, actually, it is smaller by about 22%
 
The Bitchy Whining Crowd Comes Out Again

I will never understand why so many people here look at niche products and berate them because it's not something they need. Seems like High School mentality to me.

Your attention please... this is not the MacBook Pro replacement, nor is it a MacBook replacement. It's just another product aimed at people who need a lightweight Mac notebook.

For those of you who are slow at the concept, unless you're talking about boxes of laundry detergent, smaller doesn't mean cheaper. Smaller, while maintaining reasonable capabilities, means more money. And the tinier you make that same item, the more expensive it's going to get. Why would anybody NOT know that???

I have clients who asked me just recently what the possibility was that Apple would release this product. Weight is an issue and they're willing to pay more for less weight. I think this will be a PERFECT product for them. And it's $1799, not $3000 –

Do you call the 17" MacBook Pro a $4000 laptop because you can "Build to Order" one that price? Are you whining now about the fact that the iMac is $3350 when maxed out???
 
i wonder how long before they decide to upgrade the macbook line with the new multi-touch pad and ambient light sensor keyboard...any guesses?
 
Not Impressed Overall

Yeah, it's super thin. I do give Apple credit for that. But everything else about it is so basic. Plus, Apple is basically brainwashing us into abandoning DVDs and CDs completely. I don't want to walk around with some stupid external Super Drive to watch a DVD or listen to a cd? Do you? Also, 80GB? C'mon. They couldn't even improve that? Making it super thin isn't that impressive if they're taking the stuff that is already there away and not updating the stuff that needs to be updated. Multi-touch pad is nice, but they should have gone to a multi-touch screen. Mono speaker? Same huge-size frame around around screen? I see this as a MacBook update, not a completely new MacBook. They are suckering us in with it's slimness, when the rest of it isn't impressive at all.
The whole crowd wanted a brand new MacBook Pro, probably called MacBook Touch, and the smart ones know they got let down with this MacBook Air because they can see right through the slimness and lightness of it. Maybe that's why it's MacBook AIR. It has nothing in it.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
Too many hardware bigots in this thread...migraine....:rolleyes:

This is a small form factor laptop, and yet people are complaining that it doesn't have features (Blu Ray) that most full-size don't have. Give me a break...! This wasn't intended as a performance barn-burner. People complaining about lack of a card slot for cellular modems have more of a case, but I don't see it as a deal-breaker. See Foxy Kaye's post above.
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BUT I can't play Call of Duty 4 at max settings in this laptop, what's it's use? GMA x1300? Are you kidding me? Only 2GB of RAM maximum? How am I going to edit in Photoshop and use Final Cut Studio in it? I wanted at least 4 buit-in usb spaces to connect all I have.

And $1,799?!? What a pice of crap, Apple $uck$.:mad:


Not that I think is needed, but this post is sarcasm at my best.:apple:
 
are people retarded? this is a portable device, it's not meant to be a desktop replacement. which is why they focused more on wireless capabilities.
 
SirHaakon said:
They make a $29 adapter so that iPhone users can use off-the-shelf headphones, too, but that doesn't mean it was a ridiculously stupid move not to make the jack standard in the first place.

Making a laptop without an ethernet jack in 2008 is like making a cake without flour. They missed the boat bigtime on this one.
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Do you have a laptop? When was the last time you plugged it into an ethernet jack? I havne't plugged mine into one in, hmm, months actually...

I'm more annoyed at the lack of a 160GB 1.8" drive than anything else...
 
Roco said:
BUT I can't play Call of Duty 4 at max settings in this laptop, what's it's use? GMA x1300? Are you kidding me? Only 2GB of RAM maximum? How am I going to edit in Photoshop and use Final Cut Studio in it? I wanted at least 4 buit-in usb spaces to connect all I have.

And $1,799?!? What a pice of crap, Apple $uck$.:mad:


Not that I think is needed, but this post is sarcasm at my best.
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What did you want...a Macbook Pro that is as thin as the Macbook Air...it simply is not possible.
 
hierobryan said:
exactly. my thoughts of macbook regret are gone. all that extra $$$ for what? thinness? hahaha... no thanks. i'd take a plain macbook over the Air any day.
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Yeah. Like why even get one? The macbook is just as good with out the EXTERNAL optical drive. Same Screen size. WHat make Air more portable than macbook, the weight? Dumb.

rightly so, apple stock is down by 10 bucks.
 
Thin is in?

One voice for smaller not thinner. I've been holding out on updating my MacBook for a smaller sub notebook and this just isn't it for me. Why no sound in plug or ethernet (sure thin size doesn't allow an RJ11) If we would carry a DVI adapter around how about a mini-ethernet as well?

I remember when Apple was first to stop including a floppy drive which got flack from PC users. Now the optical is on its way out and I can see the sense in a wireless world but not sure we are there quite yet practically speaking.

Shoot. It's a nice machine but for whom? Not me.
 
homeboy said:
"MacBook Air comes with a way-more-than-generous 2GB of RAM built in — ample memory for working with your favorite applications."

Source: Apple.com

Who on earth are Apple trying to fool. More or less every single laptop on the market comes with 2GB so this is really nothing but marketing none-sense.

Sadly Apple are deteriorating. Focusing more on marketing and stepping further away from the core values of consumer electronics.
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MacBooks come with 1Gig? 2Gig is very generous, for Apple and this machine.
 
1700 USD laptop with no user replaceble battery, 1.8" harddisk, and that thickness resulting in heat problem?
no way.

They shouldn't concentrate on making it thinner, but it should be productive and pleasant to use it.
 
jasonklee said:
are people retarded? this is a portable device, it's not meant to be a desktop replacement. which is why they focused more on wireless capabilities.
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I don't think anyone expected it to be a desktop replacement, but with a single USB port and no firewire, it's not even a laptop replacement...
 
im still confused wheter i would regret if im getting MPB this week..
how soon do u guys reckonbefore they imrpove MBP?
would it be much much much better with not so much increase in cost?
 
Gurutech said:
They shouldn't concentrate on making it thinner, but it should be productive and pleasant to use it.
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So buy a MacBook. It's thicker and heavier, but it is also cheaper and faster.

Honestly, you'd think the MacBook Air was the only portable Apple offered... :)
 
or like making...

macs wihtout a floppy disk back in... wait a minute :)

SirHaakon said:
They make a $29 adapter so that iPhone users can use off-the-shelf headphones, too, but that doesn't mean it was a ridiculously stupid move not to make the jack standard in the first place.

Making a laptop without an ethernet jack in 2008 is like making a cake without flour. They missed the boat bigtime on this one.
Click to expand...
 
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