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Apple Updates MacBook Air Line With Sandy Bridge, Thunderbolt and Backlit Keyboards

Problem

The biggest problem I see with using the Macbook Air with the external display is that the Magsafe connector and the thunderbolt port are on opposite sides of the machine. They should really have been both on the same side. I remember having this problem with my first macbook pro and was glad to see it sorted with the unibody's. Still now we have a reason to upgrade to the next version I guess :)
 
So glad to see they incorporated the lit keyboard. Now I may have to look into one....but Apple did away with the $200 education discount which makes it less likely I will buy one at the end of the day.

They "give" you a $100 card to use at the app store. Nice try Apple. Doesn't impress me at all.
 
To be honest, I was a bit disappointed by the refresh air. They did put faster cpus, and thunderbolt but a worse graphic card!!
 
chrmjenkins said:
1.Supercharger on a 4 cylinder.
2. Not possible. Intel doesn't offer HT in a chip that fits the Air TDP.
3. It's not clear if they've disabled it or elected to not advertise it. They do not advertise it prominently on the MBP, which offers it.
Click to expand...
1. You may not need a supercharger then, but there are many of us that do.
I'm using 5 GB right now with a minimum of applications used for business; Mail, Entourage, iTunes, Firefox, TextEdit, Terminal, and a VMware image with a VPN connection to the company intranet running IE and Office Communicator.
The chipset supports 8 GB.
2. Intel supplies the chip with HT, but Apple disables it in firmware, possibly for heat considerations.
See http://www.intel.com/consumer/products/processors/specifications.htm?proc=54617 for details (1.7 GHz in title is incorrect, specifications are for the 1.8 GHz).
3. Same as 2.
 
No infared. So no way to control music and movies from afar, unless I buy iphone. So unnecessary...
 
Anybody know if changes in order status are posted in real time, or if they are updated on some kind of regular schedule (daily?)?

I'm figuring that if the was going to be any change in the status of my 11" CTO today, it would have happened already, as it is now the middle of the night in China.
 
EHLO said:
1. You may not need a supercharger then, but there are many of us that do.
I'm using 5 GB right now with a minimum of applications used for business; Mail, Entourage, iTunes, Firefox, TextEdit, Terminal, and a VMware image with a VPN connection to the company intranet running IE and Office Communicator.
The chipset supports 8 GB.
Click to expand...

The air isn't for you then. Apple makes the air clearly intended to be a second computer, not a main computer. The benefit is obvious: they sell more computers.

2. Intel supplies the chip with HT, but Apple disables it in firmware, possibly for heat considerations.
See http://www.intel.com/consumer/products/processors/specifications.htm?proc=54617 for details (1.7 GHz in title is incorrect, specifications are for the 1.8 GHz).
3. Same as 2.
Click to expand...

Same as above. They are targeting battery life and heat numbers. Those take precedence over an ultra-portable where mobility is the chief concern.

You want performance in that thin package then buy a VAIO Z, but apple is betting you won't, and winning that bet handily.
 
chrmjenkins said:
The air isn't for you then. Apple makes the air clearly intended to be a second computer, not a main computer. The benefit is obvious: they sell more computers.

Same as above. They are targeting battery life and heat numbers. Those take precedence over an ultra-portable where mobility is the chief concern.

You want performance in that thin package then buy a VAIO Z, but apple is betting you won't, and winning that bet handily.
Click to expand...
As noted, I'm willing to overlook the lack of HT and Turbo if I could get the maximum 8 GB memory that the chipset supports.
My main computer is a 12/24 core MacPro5,1, and this would be a replacement for a MacBook3,1 with 6 GB that I use when traveling.
I won't instead buy the 13" MBP that's available with 8 GB, as I need the 16:9 form factor of the 11" MPA's screen for comfortable use behind a reclined airline seat.
I'm willing to listen to technical reasons for not providing the 8 GB option, but I don't know of any at this point.
 
zedsdead said:
One of the other changes is the removal of the "eject" button, which is good because that puts the F buttons back in their usual positions. It's always been annoying because was the only Apple keyboard with that issue because they added the power button there.
Click to expand...

Is the functionality of the Eject key present anywhere else? As in, keyboard shortcuts for Shutdown and Restart?
 
chrmjenkins said:
The air isn't for you then. Apple makes the air clearly intended to be a second computer, not a main computer. The benefit is obvious: they sell more computers.
Click to expand...

Except the problem with this line is, if you use a beefy enough main computer, even your second computer needs more than an anemic 4 GB.
 
chrmjenkins said:
Apple makes the air clearly intended to be a second computer, not a main computer. The benefit is obvious: they sell more computers.
Click to expand...

Obviously power users will need more, but I think at this point a lot of people will use the Air as their primary computer. I probably will for my next upgrade.
 
RobQuads said:
wow that is interesting. These Sandy-Bridge processers are very impressive.

Its interesting to see how close they are now to last years MBPs. In fact will be interesting to see if the 1.8Ghz i7 will trump all of last years laptops
Click to expand...

Wife got the maxed out 11" Air. I ran the 32 bit Geekbench and got 5816.
Details below.
Integer Processor integer performance 4338
Floating Point Processor floating point performance 8033
Memory Memory performance 5160
Stream Memory bandwidth performance 4547

I only got to play with it for a short time, but any task running off the SSD hard drive, like installing programs, is super fast.
 
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