Apple Announces MacBook Air

[bengst]

It's more like finding a vehicle without a CD player in it. Quick - name a car that doesn't have a CD player ...

Toyota Kijang, Daihatsu Xenia, etcetera... etcetera.. Here in Indonesia where I live, still rarely a car sold with built-in CD player...

I will agree tho - at 1299 I might have actually seriously consider one but at 1799 I just can't... eh well. My 12" PB lives on!!! hahaha

Hopefully the price will drop like they did with iPhone
And shipped it with 160Gb HD! I sure buy one.

I'm using iBook G4 12", 80Gb. Deleting anything to free up some space is like a habit to me .

 

[clevin]

Why would you need a massive sleeve? Apple's laptops are very sturdy. My iPhone has lived in my pocket, sans case, for the past six months and it still looks new. My Powerbook G4 was taken all manner of abuse and still looks great. I have no problem believing that the MBA will be fine is whatever bag you would have bought for a thicker and smaller laptop..

massive means width x length, not thick cloth.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

- Only 2gb memory
- ipod hard drive
- no firewire
- 1 usb port
- huge screen bezel
- not really that thin, its tapered.
- battery not replaceable


TOOO EXPENSIVE!

Yes, I saw all that in the last few hundred posts....

I disagree with you though. c.f. previous post of mine

Apple really screwed up here. They should have atleast updated the macbook pro with a new casing and gesture touchpad. The non removeable nature of the macbook pro's hard drive is a deal breaker. I swap them alot.

I bet the MacBook and MacBook Pro will get these new features within a couple months. But why on earth do you swap the hard drive in your MacBook Pro "alot"? It takes a couple hours to do that...

I imagine you mean you swap your batteries often. Yes, the non-removable battery is a limitation, but not a deal-breaker IMHO.

 

[sdds]

Well, slim version laptops, despite its stripped down settings, do usually get a higher price. Take sony ones for example. But I did hope as well that Apple could have done better than the rest. If the price was set lower, the air certainly would sell a whole lot better. Right now, it's just an Apple version of the eye catching but seriously not quite worthy Vaio. A bit disappointing.

Did you even bother looking at Sony's Vaio TZ offerings and really compare them to Apple's? You, sir, don't have a clue because obviously you didn't. Try this for a start. Then come back and complain. OK?

 

[darngooddesign]

massive means width x length, not thick cloth.

I don't forsee it having to be any wider or longer than you would buy for a regular MacBook.

 

[Digital Skunk]

Lets see I could buy a Dell xps M1330 or for another $500 I get:
-1/2 an innch thinner
-1 lb lighter
-crappier CPU
-1/2 the hard disk space
-slow as hell disk
-poorer video card
-no DVD drive
-non-replaceable battery
-poorer battery life
-no ports
-no exernal display capability
-no upgradeable parts

Yeah yeah, but "it fits in an envelope"TM!

You aren't really adding that much new content. I could pay the same price as the M1330 (a nice notebook) and get a Black Book that doesn't run that garbage Windows Vista.

This is another reason the "newbies" shouldn't be allowed to post in forums until they give at least twenty posts to start, or they limit the word count.

 

[clevin]

I don't forsee it having to be any wider or longer than you would buy for a regular MacBook.

of course no, but this supposed to be an "ultraportable", which MB is NOT.

 

[k2director]

Price point is too high for the average person who just wants to send e-mail, listen to music, etc. They'll go for cheaper over thinner - that's my bet anyway.

Edit: Added, people who want to import/watch/listen to DVDs/CDs will be baffled by the silliness of remote disc. Also good luck getting remote disc to work if Leopard on your MBA decides to stop working.

It's strange. You and others think that because people are doing "lighter applications" (like word processing, email, internet, listening to media) that they are going to want to pay less for a computer than if they were using the computer for video or 3d rendering.

That doesn't make sense at all. For many people, the value of the machine is NOT to run higher-end apps, because they have no use for such software. The value of the machine is that it's VERY LIGHT and VERY SMALL, which is something that higher-powered computers definitely are not. It's like you're taking your own value system (which does not value size and weight above hardware performance), and you're applying it to other people that you don't understand.

Imagine that you're a professional writer who's on-the-go a lot. Are you really going to stop yourself from getting a $1799 Mac that will lighten your load BY HALF (which is very important to you), when no other Mac in that price range can do that? Just think: are you going to insist on paying $1200 or $1800 on a Macbook or Macbook Pro, which has features you never use, but weighs too much? Or are you going to choose the machine that suits your work habits and needs more closely?

For many people, the Macbook Air is going to suit their needs better than a Macbook or Macbook Pro. When a machine suits people's needs, they're willing to pay for it, as long as its price is reasonable. And compared to other 3 pound computers, the Macbook Air's price is reasonable...

Really, I think the problem with this thread is that it's populated by too many teenagers and college students that who have a skewed sense of value...

 

[erik.wahlstrom]

Congratulations. You have posted yet another reason the mods should ban "Dells are better" posts.

http://www.ihatedell.net

To be fair I don't think dell's are better. I just think Apple made a mistake. This is not a sub-notebook. Its a thin-notebook. In my mind it doesn't compete as much against the super small sonys and fujitsus(sp?). The ONLY thing this has going for it is thinnes. By making it a 13" screen they havea LOT more competition than a 10-11" screen does. Hell, if all I need is super small I'll buy an eeePC fro $400.

Road warriors do like to do things other than surf the net. They like to plug into corporate networks to check their email (yes, WiFi isn't universal). They also like to watch DVDs on air planes. You could get an USB ethernet dongle and the external drive, but then whats the point of the having such a small machine if you have to carry around a bag full of attachments?

 

[trip1ex]

Black keys on aluminum is fugly!!! I thought that's why Apple didn't go with black keys for their new iMac keyboard.

Nice laptop. I'll probably get 1 in 5 years with the 160gb SSD option.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

My point is that Apple doesn't have to make it so thinner with so much sacrifice. They can keep same weight while making it better.
As far as balancing "making it thinner" and "sacrifice", I think Apple went too far for this product.
People have own preference, but the deal breaker for me is non user replaceable battery.

Only time and sales will tell if Apple's design philosophy works for consumers. I agree this is not a machine for a user with extreme mobility and connectivity requirements, and I doubt Apple had such users in mind as the primary target for the MBA. We'll need to wait a few quarters and maybe one product rev. to truly evaluate its success (or lack thereof).

 

[vassillios]

You guys are funny. the MBA is a niche product. I use my MBP for music production so the MBA would def not work for me...but....there are times when I just need to do some light computing and toting around the MBP can get kinda heavy when walking around town for, say, 8 hours. The MBA would be ideal in these situations, just checking email, surfing, skype...maybe perhaps working on the novel you've been working on for the past 10 years.

I want one. Especially with the SSD option....boot times would be SUPER fast.

 

[ortuno2k]

Looks good and all but WHY THAT KEYBOARD? Sooo doesn't fit!
Another thing I dislike is that is charging for all accessories that should be standard on a computer (DVD, Ethernet, I don't know what else..)
Not that I need one, but for those folks out there needing a multi-portable, this thing looks nice.

 

[hampy]

Someone did figure it out, which makes the lack of dual support OTB irrelevant. I had one and there was nothing overly compelling about it that an iBook didn't provide. You got a little more VRAM, nothing major; a little larger HD, nothing an larger external upgrade wouldn't fix; better superdrive, which you can buy external here; you got significantly worse wifi range, and a significantly hotter running machine all for considerably more money. Keyboard was nice though. The MBA is pretty much the 12PB replacement with a larger screen, which is something I always wished my 12PB had. As you said the 12PB felt like it was superior to the iBook, which I do agree with, but considering you haven't held the MBA it seems a little early to be calling foul. For all we know its going to feel like a dream compared to both the 12PB and the regular MB.

Well, I'd be interested to hear how many 12" iBook users between 2004 and 2006 were using the iBook to run big external displays. (Essential for my line of work.) And, speaking personally, the difference between the PB and iBook wireless reception wasn't an issue: my wife had an iBook, and although she saw more networks when we were out and about, I always got a good connection to the closest one -- which is the one you're usually trying to access.

I'm not calling foul on the MBA, I'm just saying that it's definitely not the replacement for the 12" PB -- which was a full-featured machine which could easily serve as a desktop replacement. I don't need to play CoD4 on my Mac, but I would like to edit large PDF files (I teach history and spend a ton of time on Google Books) and would appreciate 4GB+ of memory and a dedicated graphics card rather than integrated graphics. If you scale up the 12" PB from 2004 to today, then you wouldn't get the MBA -- it's a qualitatively different product. I'm just holding a candle for the slightly larger, light but not _crazily_ light, full-featured MacBook Pro that's easier to hike around than the 15" or 17". I don't think I'm alone in having about $2000-$2500 to spend, and the hope that I can buy a cute & very portable Mac without having to invest in a desktop as well.

I agree with the folks who are saying that the lack of an optical drive isn't just driven by space constraints. Steve wants us to watch movies, for sure. He's less excited about us watching the hundreds that we already own on DVD, because he's focused on the movies (new and old) that he can sell us via iTunes. I'm beginning to realize why Steve isn't rushing Blu-ray into his machines: the true rival to Blu-ray isn't HD-DVD but download services like iTunes, and I can't see Steve encouraging us to buy a shiny plastic disk from Warner or Paramount when you can get the same movie (maybe in HD format) from Apple's download or subscription services with a fat markup for Apple. As a consumer, it'd be nice to choose between buying a physical disk and downloading a movie; but the MBA rather forces your hand. It will be interesting to see if Apple use the MBA to push the idea that the optical disk is now dead, like the floppy before it, even while some of us are getting excited about Blu-ray. To say the least, Apple has a real interest in claiming that CDs/DVDs and other physical storage formats are obsolete. The disk is dead, long live the iTunes Store... and so on.

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

Okay, didn't see this discussed anywhere....
I noticed the Air doesn't have Firewire, only USB2. The external Superdrive is also USB2. As far as I know, you can't boot from USB. So how does one install the next OS upgrade or boot to disk like TechTool Pro?

Oh, and this would be the first modern Mac without Firewire...hmmm...

 

[supremedesigner]

<snip>I'm sorry but this macbook air is useless.

- Only 2gb memory
- ipod hard drive
- no firewire
- 1 usb port
- huge screen bezel
- not really that thin, its tapered.
- battery not replaceable


TOOO EXPENSIVE!

Looks like the only thing I am buying is the new airport with hard drive. Now thats a nice product.

</snip>

We got ourself a real Winn - erm... Whiner!!

 

[UltraNEO*]

Someone tell me I'm seeing things... Did apple screw up the ad on the Japanese site? Cause those look like iMacs, not MBA...

 

[nate22195]

Mba

I havent looked at all the threads yet, but have looked at the first 7 or 8 pages or so and all I see is people complaining about not enough features. The MBA is not meant to be the replacement for you Macbook Pro's or other feature-packed Apple computers we all love. It is most likely targeted to those that already own a Mac..hence the "borrowing" of another Mac's optical drive, and those that travel a lot. If you look at the posting of the Sony's Laptop that is compared to the MBA its a lot more money for a slower computer. This is meant to be more a supplement to an existing computer not a replacement. Its not really meant for movie editing or other intense programs or as a replacement for the Macbook Pro.. If this was meant to target those that travel a lot or need a secondary computer Apple hit the mark.

2nd...Apple stock was down prior to the announcements at Macworld and have been down more than10% or so the past month...but so is the rest of the market...not too many stocks are up today when talks of recession are looming. Historically, Apple stock is also usually down a bit in January with only a modest bump around Macworld, which was obviously canceled out by the weak economic data that was forcasted today.... In short...MBA you arent to blame for the drop in apple stock today! ....Awaiting argumentative responses...

 

[UltraNEO*]

Okay, didn't see this discussed anywhere....
I noticed the Air doesn't have Firewire, only USB2. The external Superdrive is also USB2. As far as I know, you can't boot from USB. So how does one install the next OS upgrade or boot to disk like TechTool Pro?

Oh, and this would be the first modern Mac without Firewire...hmmm...

Nah, you can boot of USB2 on the Current MB and MBP,
you can even install OSX on a USB stick and it'll boot, if you tell it too!

 

[Digital Skunk]

To be fair I don't think dell's are better. I just think Apple made a mistake. This is not a sub-notebook. Its a thin-notebook. In my mind it doesn't compete as much against the super small sonys and fujitsus(sp?). The ONLY think this has going for it is thinnes. By making it a 13" screen they havea LOT more competition than a 10-11" screen does. Hell, if all I need is super small I'll buy an eeePC fro $400.

Road warriors do like to do things other than surf the net. They like to plug into corporate networks to check their email (yes, WiFi isn't universal). They also like to watch DVDs on air planes. You could get an USB ethernet dongle and the external drive, but then whats the point of the having such a small machine if you have to carry around a bag full of attachments?

Okay, much better post.

I think that may be a limitation for road warriors may be the lack of ports. I couldn't see plugging in a broadband card that weighs more than the book. Built-in broadband from Sprint would have been wonderful.

 

[hierobryan]

...the 1" G4 is pretty bulky and adds a lot of bulge to my shoulder bag. The reduced weight and thinner profile will make it much easier to slip into a bag, and be much kinder to my shoulder.

what are you? a 3 foot tall midget with muscular dystrophy?

seriously, anyone who is willing to pay that much for a minor 2lb. drop in weight and a half inch drop in size is CRAZY!

 

[alexf]

Disappointing...

To be fair I don't think dell's are better. I just think Apple made a mistake. This is not a sub-notebook. Its a thin-notebook. In my mind it doesn't compete as much against the super small sonys and fujitsus(sp?). The ONLY thing this has going for it is thinnes. By making it a 13" screen they havea LOT more competition than a 10-11" screen does. Hell, if all I need is super small I'll buy an eeePC fro $400.

Road warriors do like to do things other than surf the net. They like to plug into corporate networks to check their email (yes, WiFi isn't universal). They also like to watch DVDs on air planes. You could get an USB ethernet dongle and the external drive, but then whats the point of the having such a small machine if you have to carry around a bag full of attachments?

I very much agree, and have to say that, after so much anticipation, the "Air" is a let-down.

We need a sub-notebook from Apple, not a thinner MacBook with far fewer features!

For me personally, width and depth are far more important when it comes to portability than thickness, and the Air is the exact same width and depth as the current MacBook. I would have been much happier if Apple had shaved off the the inch plus around the screen and keyboard and kept the thickness of the MacBook (1.08"). For many people - myself included - the width and depth of a computer (or rather lack thereof) have much more to do with portability than the thickness. And that way they could have also fit a drive in there too, which would have been a HUGE plus.

Yes, the "wow-factor" is great with this new release but, contrary to how Steve tried to make it sound, thin isn't everything. Yet had he not focused soley on the "thin-factor", he would not have made all those headlines which are oh-so important for Apple's image.

 

[bodeh6]

Why didn't they include a way to use AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, or any wireless data network? There are SOOOOO many people in the ultraportable world that depend on those services to get internet connections, not WiFi.

USB Modem. But then you take up the only USB slot.

 

[Vidd]

There's about £300 difference between here and America (before tax, I presume). That's some difference.

Also £639 for 64GB? Seems I'll be waiting a while to own a SSD laptop...

 

[bluefido]

is there any reason

why I shouldn't order a MacBook from MacMall than from the Apple Store? it seems like it provides a slight discount (albeit through mail order coupons). i just want to make sure before biting the bullet.