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Apple Announces New 13.3-Inch and 11.6-Inch MacBook Air Models with Flash Storage

Instant On?

So there's something I don't get. Apple has made a huge deal about the new 'Instant On' feature about the new MacBook Airs. But is this truly a NEW feature? I've had a MacBook Air with SSD drive for the last two years. My MacBook Air wakes from sleep *instantly*. So how is this 'Instant On' a new feature? Is it any different? Or are they simply aggressively marketing a feature that was on the high end MacBook Air before, and is now standard?

Can anyone shed any light on this?

BTW, I heard that the Instant On on the new Airs only applies to wake-from-sleep (just like mine), and powering the machine on from scratch takes about 15 secs.
 
prefabsprouter said:
So there's something I don't get. Apple has made a huge deal about the new 'Instant On' feature about the new MacBook Airs. But is this truly a NEW feature? I've had a MacBook Air with SSD drive for the last two years. My MacBook Air wakes from sleep *instantly*. So how is this 'Instant On' a new feature? Is it any different? Or are they simply aggressively marketing a feature that was on the high end MacBook Air before, and is now standard?

Can anyone shed any light on this?

BTW, I heard that the Instant On on the new Airs only applies to wake-from-sleep (just like mine), and powering the machine on from scratch takes about 15 secs.
Click to expand...

Both of those are correct. I think the point they're trying to make is that it's instant on, even after sitting in sleep for 30 days.
 
isosunrise said:
How about Dell's 11.6" M11x with both an i7 processor and dedicated 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M? Same footprint, and better processor and dedicated graphics card than the 11.6" air.
Click to expand...

same footprint?

1. this isn't a 2 dimensional problem. It is a 3D problem.
1.29" thick versus 0.68". That means MBA is basically almost half as thin.
There is a lot of material you can pack into twice as much space. For example, additional fans, battery, and heatsinks along with VRAM and discrete GPU.



2. It is still smaller even in 2D ( Width x Depth )
M11x : 11.25 x 9.19 ( 103.39 in^2 )
MBA 13" : 11.8 X 7.56 ( 89.2 in^2)
 
macamacamac said:
I was wondering if the new airs will run windows... still need mixed environment and don't really like the slow speed of vmware.
Click to expand...

Easily spec'd high enough to run VirtualBox/VMWare/Parallels Desktop.

You want blazing speed? Get something with more power. TANSTAAFL.
 
SD Card Slot

Why the SD card slot, now? The old MBA didn't have it. Apple is moving away from traditional media towards downloading from cloud. So, why the SD card slot? I'm not a big photography or video buff, but can't you download content from your devices via USB? So, why add the SD card slot to this model?
 
Eidorian said:
Apple doomed itself by teaming up with nVidia.
Click to expand...

Yep. As their quarterly figures have shown. If they keep making these stupid missteps rather than listening to the tiny minority of the human population that cares about hardware specifications well... they might be on their way to $70 billion in cash reserves.

They should focus on a more lucrative market: geeks and gamers. That's where the real money is.
 
n2arkitektur said:
Why the SD card slot, now? The old MBA didn't have it. Apple is moving away from traditional media towards downloading from cloud. So, why the SD card slot? I'm not a big photography or video buff, but can't you download content from your devices via USB? So, why add the SD card slot to this model?
Click to expand...

It's the standard consolation prize amongst apple notebooks for killing off firewire ports and expresscard slots.
 
newtonrj said:
So, I'm thinking about the USB stick software reinstall, nifty. . . Who does it leave out? Software box vendors. The future of Apple is AppStore. The loser is any vendor who lives to sell boxed software. Amazon, WalMart, BestBuy, Egghead, etc. That revenue (30%) goes to Cupertino here-on-out.;)
Click to expand...

Only if customers quit buying from third-party vendors, which doesn't seem likely.

Steve said in the presentation that they thought the Mac App Store would be the "best, not the only" way to buy software.
 
UK pricing

Eric M said:
...the pricing in UK as always disappointing.
Last minute $->£ exchange rate $999=£630
11inch basic config is £849 on UK Apple store
that is £219 more than in States - a huge price difference...
Click to expand...

UK pricing EVERY TIME have to state this

US Prices excludes LOCAL SALES TAXES

UK RETAIL PRICES BY LAW HAVE TO INCLUDE VAT in advertised prices

PLUS WHAT IS ALWAYS missed in simple quick and dirty calculations are import duties at 6.5% to be added to US price plus VAT currently at 17.5% on the combined price and yes thats AFTER the import duty is added.
With current currency risks Apple like many others also add around 7% protection against rapid fluctuations in exchange rate

Basic calculation $999 = £630.00
Duty 6.5% =£40.95
VAT 17.5% =£117.41
Currency risk 7% =£59.33 - This could be waved really

TOTAL UK retail price =£847.69 simple marketing round up to £849.00

Rightly or wrongly anything less would impair Apple profit margins in the UK

AS can be seen the biggest thief in the UK is the the UK taxman
 
jmull said:
Only Apple could get away with charging so much for so little... I love the new Air and of course want one, but if it had a Dell logo instead of an Apple, all the reviews would include "overpriced." I guess Jobs was true when he said Apple couldn't build a cheap netbook.
Click to expand...

This just in:):

isuppli estimates that actual costs of the new MBA's to be:

$ 6.57

The 11 inch is $ 5.98 (less aluminum)
 
steveh said:
Only if customers quit buying from third-party vendors, which doesn't seem likely.

Steve said in the presentation that they thought the Mac App Store would be the "best, not the only" way to buy software.
Click to expand...

Haven't had the need to buy any software with a full CD and book in like forever.

Go to software manufacturer website, download DMG file, get a code "et voila" All suppliers can still do this.

Saves lots of CD coasters, paper and I don't have to remember where I put these:)
 
n2arkitektur said:
Why the SD card slot, now? The old MBA didn't have it. Apple is moving away from traditional media towards downloading from cloud. So, why the SD card slot? I'm not a big photography or video buff, but can't you download content from your devices via USB? So, why add the SD card slot to this model?
Click to expand...
Is it an SDHC card slot? If so, could you not use it for up to 64GB additional memory (presumably soon to be 128GB)?
 
skunk said:
Is it an SDHC card slot? If so, could you not use it for up to 64GB additional memory (presumably soon to be 128GB)?
Click to expand...

Yes and yes. Even with high speed class 6 stuff, it would still be quite slow, though. You certainly wouldn't want to use it a constant read/write manner like you would normal Flash memory either.

On a side note, it would be interesting to see if Apple advertises it as SDXC compliant.
 
cult hero said:
Eidorian? He's expecting an i7.
Click to expand...

Then just buy a MacBook Pro. If you hate the price, then get an HP Envy. Problem solved.

cult hero said:
Yep. As their quarterly figures have shown. If they keep making these stupid missteps rather than listening to the tiny minority of the human population that cares about hardware specifications well... they might be on their way to $70 billion in cash reserves.

They should focus on a more lucrative market: geeks and gamers. That's where the real money is.
Click to expand...

Are you being sarcastic?
 
Want best of both worlds

I like these new MBAs, but what I'd really like to see is an ultra-thin iPad that docks (elegantly, as Apple would have it) into the keyboard which would add memory and ports to a certain capacity resident in the iPad itself. The result would be a screen-detachable MBA that could be used both for landscape/portrait browsing/reading/light email and as a fully loaded PowerBook to handle more boring stuff, like actual work. Seems this might be feasible with Lion. Am I being too impractical?
 
deconstruct60 said:
Cheaper?
MBA 13" $1299
MBP 13" $1199

Still have $100 in your pocket if get the MBP.

If talking about the 11.6" version. Performance wise the MBP 13" beats that system like a rented mule. Chopped down memory bus, chopped down frequency, etc. Unless your playing games that are capped on the graphics there is a big difference. It is lighter and smaller ... but those are the main benefits.
Click to expand...

You are forgetting that the MBA has an SSD while the MBP has a mechanical HDD. This is part of the cost and feature difference.
 
isosunrise said:
How about Dell's 11.6" M11x with both an i7 processor and dedicated 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M? Same footprint, and better processor and dedicated graphics card than the 11.6" air.
Click to expand...

Have you looked at the specs? At the MBA's thickest, the Dell is nearly twice as thick. It's also two inches deeper and slightly wider. The starting weight is also over 2 pounds heavier. Despite having the same screen size it's definitely a larger and heavier machine all around. And it has a mechanical HDD. The new MBA and the Dell are two very different machines aimed at very different markets.

To put things in another perspective, the MBA, when closed, is only 0.18" thicker than an iPad and weighs just a few ounces more than an iPad. The Dell is almost as thick as 3 iPads and weighs as much as 3 iPads.
 
I don't know. I'm tempted by the 11" MBA for university or the polyshell MB. But I'd much rather an iPhone 5 when its released. I would like to start developing games under my own company name which is currently being used to make Linux guides. ATM, I'm just helping other people.
 
You can either use a USB optical drive or over a network from an optical drive on another computer. Apple has had this since the original MBAir.

You will not have to re-buy your current apps.

dgree03 said:
Doesnt matter, I want my software on my MBA TODAY. How do I do it? When the app store come online will i have to rebuy my software?

For instance, Protools. How do I get that on my AIR, Do they provide an addon drive?
Click to expand...
 
iJandro said:
Not bad. Pretty much the closest Apple will get to a netbook, as well as thinnest.
Click to expand...

Not only that, wait for the train wreck of Windows 7 notebook / net book guys getting flash storage out of the disk drive interface to get better access time.
 
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