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

I'm sorry, I do not see a point to the Air if you already have a laptop. It's a thousand dollar netbook. Pointless.
 
pyroza said:
I'm sorry, I do not see a point to the Air if you already have a laptop. It's a thousand dollar netbook. Pointless.
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Who buys a laptop when they are already have one that does everything they want it to?
 
isosunrise said:
By definition, footprint is an area (ie, 2D), not a volume (ie 3D), so they are comparable in terms of footprint.
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comparable is different from the same.

It is a 3D problem because what you store/carry/etc is a 3D device, not a 2D one. There are some Flat Earth Society folks that live in a 2D world, that isn't the real one though.



But based on your definition, the Vaio X has an even better "footprint" 10.95" (W) x 0.55" (H) x 7.29" (D) and thinner too. Of course, it has a 2.0Ghz atom.
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Yes. Plus it weighs a little over a 0.5 less. If the customer primarily wants to buy something that is "good enough" powered and lightest, smallest form factor then the MBA would loose in that contest. There is a limit to how low Apple can limbo dance because committed to using metal case. That is also why they don't want to go over 1" thick too. They'll blow out the weight if got substantially thicker.

There is a price to pay when suck large amount of volume out of the case. You are required to chop CPU horsepower because can't dissipate the heat along with reduced room for batteries.
 
darthvedder81 said:
2GB of RAM is still plenty for most users. Open your activity monitor sometime. Unless you're doing video or have a huge Photoshop file open you're not going to need more RAM than that. Most people who buy the base Air are going to use it as a internet portal/email/photo/music machine. If that changes you can upgrade. Simple.

It's amazing how many people still think having more RAM magically makes your computer "go faster." It's all relative to how you use the machine. If all you are doing is retouching an iPhoto or surfing in Safari having 4GB of RAM won't make a lick of difference.
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Your wrong... Safari (for me at least) uses between 500MB and 800MB of memory alone. And if you don't reboot your machine a lot, like I do, kernal_task usually ends up somewhere around ~400MB.

2GB really isn't sufficient for OS X if you ask me.
 
trrosen said:
Before the PC whiners get in here there are plenty of PC's being sold with weaker specs and higher price tags.

The MBA clearly beats out Dell's Adamo, their only comparable machine.

Nobody wants to hear your rants about $400 Atom powered plastic machines with Intel GMA graphics and screens from a portable DVD player.

The MBA is a high quality thin and light with plenty of power and storage for 90% of users that is priced very competitively if not cheaper then comparable PCs.
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+1
 
Caliber26 said:
I was very much on the verge of giving into the iPad, but a lot of its limitations made me hold off. The iPad is not self-sufficient, as it depends on an actual computer for its content to be fed to it. I want ONE machine and this caters to me 100%.
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This is exactly my thought when I first looked at the MBA. I have a colleague at work who has an iPad and I have been playing with it. I like the iPad but to be honest about it still like my iPod Touch better the fact I can put my Touch in a shirt pocket counts for a lot. Here I can get a full blown OS-X portable with the stuff the iPad does not yet have in a form factor that when closed (the 11" model) is not much larger then an iPad. While I have a long time love/hate relationship with PC computers I have already decided when I get a "laptop" it is going to be an Apple. The MBA looks like a good combination of a iPad and a regular Macbook. I know there will be some who will grouse about no user replaceable batteries, but if you take care of what is there they will last for years. This issue is what kept me from purchasing an iPod for years. Now that I have a Touch I really don't care. My choices just got a whole lot tougher. :D
 
I will definitely play with these at the Apple store

If the thinner design allows me to wrangle the trackpad and keyboard without arthritis flare ups and the resolution clicks, I may eventually get one of these instead of an iPad.

Like so many have said, the iPad while nice, isn't a fully functioning computer. And for my writing and light video burning etc. that's what I'd prefer. The MBPs are not an option for me so I'm hoping the Air's unibody design will play nice with my body. ;)

I love the Apple software drive that's great. Will definitely get my tail to an Apple store to play with these. Looking forward to it.
 
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...
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Dont forget that we have 17.5% VAT...Which is going to go up to 20%...But yes I agree, even with other stuff like ABercrombie, UGG and stuff, they pretty much stick on a huge markup. e.g. $100 shirt in US will cost £100 in London, pretty ridiculous...
 
I can totally see apple discontinuing the white macbook, unless they do some serious upgrading to 13inch mbp and white macbook
 
Chase R said:
Your wrong... Safari (for me at least) uses between 500MB and 800MB of memory alone. And if you don't reboot your machine a lot, like I do, kernal_task usually ends up somewhere around ~400MB.

2GB really isn't sufficient for OS X if you ask me.
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Agree. Safari can suck some RAM. I can easily run it to about 2 GB or more on any given day on my 8 GB 13" MBP. I believe it's mostly due to poorly written flash sites though, but annoying nonetheless.

Neurobit
 
Neurobit said:
Agree. Safari can suck some RAM. I can easily run it to about 2 GB or more on any given day on my 8 GB 13" MBP. I believe it's mostly due to poorly written flash sites though, but annoying nonetheless.

Neurobit
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No Webkit likes to aggressively take up ram to help improve its rendering performance.

Google Chrome and Midori easily get into the gigabytes too.
 
Mattsasa said:
I can totally see apple discontinuing the white macbook, unless they do some serious upgrading to 13inch mbp and white macbook
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They'll probably just drop the price for a year before they decide to phase it out…or not.
 
I just wish Apple would use different video cards in it's Macs that reflect really what the device is meant for. Having a regular notebook, a "Pro" notebook, a desktop and a netbook all using the same card just doesn't seem right. To me, having less of a video card in regular MB and 11.6 MBA would make more sense.
 
Chase R said:
I just wish Apple would use different video cards in it's Macs that reflect really what the device is meant for. Having a regular notebook, a "Pro" notebook, a desktop and a netbook all using the same card just doesn't seem right. To me, having less of a video card in regular MB and 11.6 MBA would make more sense.
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The 320M GPU is part of the chipset.
 
MorphingDragon said:
The 320M GPU is part of the chipset.
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Duh... I'm just saying that calling the 13" a "Pro" when the same chip is in a netbook and lower performance models just doesn't hold much weight.

For the masses though, they could care less, which is why Apple continues to use this approach; it works.
 
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