Apple Announces MacBook Air

[homeboy]

MacBooks come with 1Gig? 2Gig is very generous, for Apple and this machine.

Macbooks coming with 1GB is Apple ripping people off. Go to any consumer electronic store and you'll be able to get your hands on a 749 dollar laptop with 2GB.

So Apple aren't generous in any way, especially for $1 700. They are just trying to fool people that they are generous. It's all marketing, and I advice everyone to stay wise and be above it.

 

[kenstee]

Wireless-Only? No thank you.

Actually my major beef with the Air is it is wireless-only.

Let's face it, wireless reception (or lack of it) has been an issue with Apple portables for a long time.

What makes anyone believe this has been solved? Especially with a stripped down product.

I for one would be very hesitant to "gamble" on this as my only access method. And no, I don't want to carry a USB>Ethernet dongle.

Give me a lighter MBP with a new form factor and I'm in. Maybe of this this technology will be incorporated into the MBP.

No problem keeping my credit card in my pocket with this one.

 

[gwangung]

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???

No kidding.

A lot of the folks who are whining are, frankly, quite stupid.

They have NO conception of markets. They have NO conception of anything other than their own needs. That have NO conception of similar products, either in pricing or attributes.

But, please. By all means, keep complaining. Feel free to display your naivety and ignorance to the world.

 

[66217]

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.

Then why not buy a MacBook Pro or a MacBook?

If you don't like the MacBook Air because it don't suits your need, then look for the other laptops.

I find the MacBook Air very attractive. I rarely use CDs or DVDs, I never use the Ethernet port, I rarely need more than one USB space (have a hub for that), and 80GB is pretty good if what you want is portability.

Apple can't comply to all their customers, tho I think they pretty much do with the MacBook Air, MacBook and MacBook Pro.

 

[Agathon]

Where are the mods in this thread?

So many trolls that are obviously FUD producing accounts (i.e. newb accounts that only ever post around Macworld).

Bring out the ban hammer.

 

[LizKat]

The MBA is going to have some serious problems.

1) Warping.

2) Bending

3) Cracks

Macrumors will be flooded. Run now

Yah and television replaced radio, not. Look, the MBA already had problems, it's called product development, hello? They went with the rollout so whatever's left to resolve is seen as having solutions.

It's pretty simple. No likee, no spendee monee. It's not mandatory.

Intel is amazing. I wonder how many engineers pondered killing themselves during the processor downsizing effort. Kudos to them, wow.

Yah, so. Me, I went for the thing, surprising myself since I had hoped for Firewire. I had to wait before I could get into the store and while waiting, realized half the time I have to hunt down a FW cable to run backups off laptops a couple times a week so how much can no fw port on this thing really cramp my style.

I went for the flash option. I plan to love this thing to death. I can hardly wait! I can hardly wait!! I can hardly wait!!!

I can hardly wait to cut down on how many beans I put with my rice...

Wow.. I wasn't even that psyched about the keynote or the ultraportable prospects after all the pre-show hype. Now I'm excited. But I'm still gonna name it Airhead (after moi for buying it) because their name for it is even worse. I am very happy with the ethernet adapter option. and i got the external superdrive even if I suspect I will rarely use it.

As far as USB one-slot goes, I have noticed that in general I am only using zero to one slot at any given time. The whole idea of notebooks is to travel light, and with the advent of wireless, what the hey. That recipe for lentil soup that's on my kitchen machine probably got there via wireless to begin with, not from some firewire or USB transfer.

For those who wanted a 2-pound version of Macbook Pro for $1200 bucks that has 128Gb flash drive and four USB slots plus card slots and DVD burner and Firewire 800 and, you know, the full monty tower effect, don't forget to get up and move around once in awhile so you don't get a deep vein thrombosis while you wait.

I actually would have gone for the nonflash version if they had stuck a 160Gb drive in there and made the screen 10 or 12 and even charged $2k for that. But I craved the big flash experience and can live with the big screen. Apple knows how to park a pricepoint, I have to hand it to them.

"The envelope, please..." I hope they wrap it in a manila envelope, that would be so past perfect.

 

[tenmiler]

This is obviously not for everyone (and definitely not for me), which is why they have a whole line of products... why does everyone think this specific model needs all the specs of its sibilings?

I think this is why people are not reacting more positively. Like myself. I think it's a nice machine, looks-wise. I'm not buying one, but was not buying the 'rumored' one, either.

However, I WAS ready to take out my wallet for a MBP 17", which has fallen very far behind the PC competition in most areas.

And I think that's why had they not put their entire resources into this one niche product and said "we've got a whole slew of speed updates for MBP (even if no new form factor), IMO you'd see people saying "wow that's a cool sub notebook but I am more psyched about the MBP, and here's my Visa number"

I'll submit that given the market's general tanking today and Apples larger drop, this might be what analysts were hoping for and did not get. The MBP line cannot claim much advantage other than the fact it runs OSX over any other PC. I'm not going to a PC, but this definitely slows the "switching" that has driven a large share of new iPhone buyers and former PC users to Apple, if they do their homework and compare laptops.

IMO

 

[jasonklee]

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...

no firewire is a bit disappointing. but sooner or later, we'll see how it really holds up as a portable notebook.

 

[CHess]

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.

Yes

 

[nja247]

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...

Exactly, ethernet is lame for non-nerds. Regardless, you can buy the ethernet-USB cable if needed, so who cares ppl?

However the lack of the 160GB iPod drive is what really sucks. I wonder how easy it'll be to add this after market?

 

[Anuba]

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

Floppy disks were obsolete because their storage capacity was pathetic. With wireless vs. wired networking, it's the other way around. No wireless adapter on earth, 802.11n included, can touch gigabit ethernet. As far as capacity is concerned, wireless is the floppy in your analogy.

 

[FoxyKaye]

You guys aren't looking to the future - wireless express cards are old technology. In the UK everyone is moving to 3G wireless USB modems. You can get up to 2.8 Mbps broadband over the mobile phone networks - way faster than those old cards!!

Yeah - but we live in the technologically inferior U.S. - 3G is just on our horizon while it's old news to the rest of the world. Our cell networks are some of the most backward anywhere.

Though I agree with the spirit of your post, and I don't think it will take forever for that kind of modem to take hold here.

 

[OS X Dude]

looks like an elephant sat on an Inspiron 1500 series (silver chassis/back keybaord).

NOT a good look.

 

[bengst]

I don't get the people that excuse the missing internals by pointing out you can get the same functionality with an add-on.

Great, I can carry around a ethernet dongle in my bag, an external optical drive, a USB hub, micro DVI adapter, DVI to VGA adapter, external USB sound card, ect. By the time you add on all that gack, you're damn near back to where the standard MacBook is.

It's like the cube all over again.

The average consumer will see it as too expensive.

The professionals will see it as useless.

Why would You carry an external USB sound card? Isn't it build in the air? That analog audio out (headphone jack).

No, it's not like the G4 cube. The cube actually a hit, unfortunately the main hardware is really like a 'toaster' You can even make a sandwich with it. It's a defects. Hopefully MacBook air is cooler despite the thin form factor.

Its too expensive, indeed, and for professionals it is useless, but for 'some' professionals (like my boss, doctors, writers, boards of chairman, lawyers, or steve himself) it is compact and truly mobile. They don't like to be bothered with anything they dont use.

I never saw my boss plugged in an ethernet cable to his notebook.. He always use wifi, there's a switch to turn it on (he use toshiba laptop), and the funniest thing is in windows he still has to press fn-F8 to turn it on.

What makes me think a draw back is no built-in optical drive. It's like a car without an 'air' conditioner. And it's really ugly to carry a fan in a car!

Ahem.. one more thing, I think MacBook air is more appealing if the price is $1299..

 

[kenstee]

Making a laptop without an ethernet port in 2005 or 2006 might have been stupid. Today everything is wireless. Get on with the times.

Guess you don't travel all that much. There are many places in the US and abroad which don't have wireless.

Combine that with Apple's legendary weak wireless reception in their portables and it's a formula for disaster.

 

[Selenolycus]

MacBooks come with 1Gig? 2Gig is very generous, for Apple and this machine.

$1800 laptop anywhere else will also come with at least 2Gig ram, hardly generous.

I know, I know, I know "BUT ITS SO THIN" - it doesn't matter. Apple's stock is falling, people with sense and know about how the market works know this is silly and is going to flop.

 

[SirHaakon]

Floppy disks were obsolete because their storage capacity was pathetic. With wireless vs. wired networking, it's the other way around. No wireless adapter on earth, 802.11n included, can touch gigabit ethernet. As far as capacity is concerned, wireless is the floppy in your analogy.

Exactly. I'm glad someone gets it.

 

[66217]

What did you want...a Macbook Pro that is as thin as the Macbook Air...it simply is not possible.

You missed my last sentence: Not that I think is needed, but this post is sarcasm at my best.

It was in white ink.

 

[samwise]

It's called duty and VAT, which works out at around 30% in all, which works out at $2338. or £1194, so it seems we get shipping to the UK for only £5 a pretty good deal really. Don't blame apple, blame Brown.

Computers aren't subject to import duty in the UK, just standard rate VAT.

Take 17.5% VAT off the Apple price of £1,199, and you get a pre-tax price of £1,020. At the current exchange rate (from www.xe.com), that equates to $2,004 pre-tax, so we're paying $205 (or £104) to get it here.

 

[Selenolycus]

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...

I plug into one regularly as where I work wifi is spotty. Ethernet jacks are in every room, tho. Great easy connection every time.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

"MacBook Air comes with a way-more-than-generousWho 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.

Untrue. The VAST majority of laptops out there ship with between 1-2GB, and most ultra portable machines ship with less than 2GB.

Might just not turn to Apple anyway, since the whole fruitshop looks more about design and less about cutting edge performance these days,

**** em'

Ah, Post-MWSF trolling.

Apple has always been about design first. Always. If you don't like Macs I suggest you go back to using the crappy PC laptop you claim is dying in your other posts...have fun with that.

 

[janstett]

At my job our wireless network uses 802.1x authentication. Which Leopard broke.

So without an ethernet jack, I wouldn't even be able to use this thing.

 

[Anuba]

Why would You carry an external USB sound card? Isn't it build in the air? That analog audio out (headphone jack).

A lot of people use their laptop as a portable audio workstation for composing and recording music, and the internal soundcard doesn't cut it quality and latency wise. Most people use an external firewire box, but that's not happening with the MBA... and then there's USB, but with a single USB port you can't plug in your USB MIDI keyboard at the same time. And most likely your music software requires a copy protection dongle.

This is a computer for execs, students and Paris Hilton...

 

[mdriftmeyer]

As I said many a time already on AppleInsider. Chicks will love it. It's a niche product.

Parents will buy their kid a MacBook for cost. Adult women running their own lives will buy it like they buy makeup. They'll pay through the nines for the latest look.

 

[Pixel35]

As I see it:

No memory expansion;
Internal battery;
4200 rpm drive;
5 hours battery life;
No firewire;
Ugly, pretty ugly, totally unbalanced;
Big;

I'm not in the market for a laptop, I'm pretty happy with my MB, so I can't say I'm disappointed (except for an Aperture update so it can read my G9 raw files) but frankly it doesn't have that clean look of an Apple product.

Sadly, it kind of reminds me the Foleo...but that was truly a disappointment as I was hopping for a new Palm device...

Just my honest opinion.