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Apple Announces New 13.3-Inch and 11.6-Inch MacBook Air Models with Flash Storage
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These new Airs come with all the reinstall (and iLife) on apple branded USB drives, I fully expect Apple to at least offer those for Lion, if not use them exclusively for Lion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwGFalTRHDA
Ooo, an interesting idea. But Flash Drives still cost more than DVDs. I don't know if Apple is willing to do that when shipping Operating Systems. Maybe they'll offer them exclusively for MBA owners?
I'm so liking that restore USB drive thing. I want one of those for my iMac or just to put on my keyring
Download it from the App store and then some kind of two part installation I expect.
if need to commonly do 6 hours of work each day then it is a no brainer.
Throw in the extra weight of a power cord to the system have to haul around and the weight gap is more than blown away.
If need to commonly do more and need to carry power cord anyway then 11.6 if weight means alot to you.
Note also that even though close in GHz that the smaller is 1/2 the L3 cache and 25% reduction in memory speed. You are tossing away more than just a couple of MHz. If regularly tax the CPU performance the smaller will crumble much more easily.
Probably agree with you for the air - I was just debating the assertions by several posters that the C2D is faster than the i3 when it's not (whether it is the right processor for the MBA is another question).
The C2D in the Air is 2 - 3 times as fast as the Atoms in Netbooks (plus you have the NVidia Graphics) so it's going to be plenty fast enough for its target market
Don't forget the US prices don't include sales tax whereas the UK prices include 17.5% VAT. It still makes it about £100 more expensive over here but it's not as huge as it first appears
Yeah, I think if they do this, it will be exclusive for MBA owners. DVDs are still far cheaper for mass production.
This also sounds like a good idea. You can load the OS onto the Flash Drive after you download it from the App Store for restore.
Alternatively, it could cannibalize the market for MBPs. If your 17" MBP is going to stay in one place, then why not get an iMac instead? You get a lot more for your money, because you're not paying for miniaturization. One of my best friends is a graphics professional, and he says he'll never buy another laptop computer again. He has a 27" iMac for his heavy-duty work, an iPad for portability, and an iPhone the things an iPhone does. Although I use my Mac for hobbies rather than professional work, that probably will be my next combination, too. I like my 15" MBP because it does everything I need, and I can still take it from room to room or (very occasionally) out of the house, but an iPad would meet all of my portability wants and needs, and the 27" iMac would be great for my music and photography projects. Obviously, though, people's needs differ, and it will be interesting to see where the market goes over the next few years.
I think it is just matter of time (once sandy bridge available and Intel IGP's performance is in acceptable level) .
This is still a revision A product, Let us see what Revision B brings.
I just compared this with my Black Book I bought it in 2006 (2.0GHz, 1GB and 80 GB HDD and GMA 950 Graphics - $1499) to current
13.3" MBA
2GB RAM
1.86 Ghz Dual Core
128GB Flash Memory
nVidia 320M
give it a time, once component prices starts to come down you will see more buck out of MBA.
$1299 model is rock solid in my opinion (may be it is missing 4GB RAM).
hey there is always refurbished MBA
Heat issues???
What's to heat up in this new air - I guess the GPU and the CPU - no hard drive heat. I 'll be interested to see the iFixit tear down to see if there is a fan inside. I didn't notice one on Steve's pictures today.
Question of current MBA users - is there a fan in the old model(s)?
M.
What's to heat up in this new air - I guess the GPU and the CPU - no hard drive heat. I 'll be interested to see the iFixit tear down to see if there is a fan inside. I didn't notice one on Steve's pictures today.
Question of current MBA users - is there a fan in the old model(s)?
M.
Might be my next Mac
i just priced the Air with 4 Gb of Ram and it just might me my next Mac some time next year. I find that I really don's use the screen unless I am traveling otherwise I am connected to my large Apple monitor at my desk.
Cool.
i just priced the Air with 4 Gb of Ram and it just might me my next Mac some time next year. I find that I really don's use the screen unless I am traveling otherwise I am connected to my large Apple monitor at my desk.
Cool.
Lame
so, it doesnt even have the backlight keyboard anymore! haha thats so lame to take that feature out of it.
so, it doesnt even have the backlight keyboard anymore! haha thats so lame to take that feature out of it.
Not yet.
I was at the flagship Apple store in Dallas 1/2 an hour after the mini-keynote ended and was informed by an Apple rep, as he was stocking iLife '11, that the new Airs would be in stock "within a few days."
It just means another year with Apple unable to make a suitable replacement for my Macbook. No wonder people keep these things for such a long time. There isn't any motivation to buy a new one.I think it is just matter of time (once sandy bridge available and Intel IGP's performance is in acceptable level) .
This is still a revision A product, Let us see what Revision B brings.
I just compared this with my Black Book I bought it in 2006 (2.0GHz, 1GB and 80 GB HDD and GMA 950 Graphics - $1499) to current
13.3" MBA
2GB RAM
1.86 Ghz Dual Core
128GB Flash Memory
nVidia 320M
give it a time, once component prices starts to come down you will see more buck out of MBA.
$1299 model is rock solid in my opinion (may be it is missing 4GB RAM).
hey there is always refurbished MBA
I think what people really mean is that the performance difference would be negligible if they were to go with the i3 considering the severe graphics trade off. Yes, the i3 is faster in benchmarks, but in real life? Probably about the same. I'm not going to go into it much since it's been largely discussed when the 2010 13" MBP came out, but I think Apple made the right choice.
I agree Phil A. - still looks bad when you look at just the price comparison US vs UK Store...eh...
At the same time, just for the media consuming the 11in is a killer machine.
i suspect the two CPUs are not the same (the ones in 11" and others in 13")
we have to see it for sure when iFixit tear them down!!!
Attachments
Anandtech's early impressions show promise for Sandy Bridge IGP. Still, it will be a step-back from nVidia discrete no matter what. A single chip to cool on the motherboard has to be pretty attractive for Apple though.
If so Lion will probably jump back up to the $129 price range. But yes, either read-only SD cards or USB fobs is where they are going. Right now though that's an extra $10-15 or so than a DVD solution. They can bury that into the $129 price though. (volume of Lion will be higher than Leopard so shouldn't hurt margins much) Or just bump it up to $149 and keep margins even larger. Still cheaper than retail copy of Windows.
An 8GB drive is like $20. It will be even cheaper a year from now. They just have to cap the capacity of the drive to drive down the costs over time.
Considering that "this is the future of macbooks" I wouldn't hold out much hope for better specs in the near future.
In Stores today?
I just called the main San Francisco Apple Store. They said they don't have them in stock, but they do expect them this week.
I just called the main San Francisco Apple Store. They said they don't have them in stock, but they do expect them this week.