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Essential accessories for an MacBook Air??

Magic mouse is by far and away the worst mouse i've ever used. I've yet to find a surface that it glides smoothly on, the acceleration blows and it's uncomfortable. Functionality wise it does nothing well. I was awed by the "cool factor" bought it and absolutely hate it. If you think you need a mouse, buy a Logitech.

And no, the Ethernet adaptor is not included with the MBA
 
2IS said:
Magic mouse is by far and away the worst mouse i've ever used. I was awed by the "cool factor" bought it and absoltuly hate it. If you think you need a mouse, buy a Logitech.

And no, the ethernet adaptor is not included with the MBA
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yeah i just looked it up. it was only the 2009 model that shipped with the ethernet adapter.
 
External HD for backup and storing large files.
Spare power adapter to leave at your regular desk.
Large external monitor.
USB drive.
Ethernet adapter.
 
Ethernet Adaptor.

the 11-inch Air appears to be very sensitive to what channel and settings the wi-fi network has... for public networks the performance is quite poor. I find myself plugging into ethernet where i can...
 
42streetsdown said:
i've never tried it myself, but i don't see any reason why not. the bootloader sees them both as bootable media. i've installed OS X off of a flash drive.
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I have installed Windows 7 onto my Macbook Air 13" using a Flash Drive. It does work...google for instructions how to do it.
 
Hey I am also a university student too so we share the same situation.

I personally have a ethernet to usb since where I travel doesnt always have wifi.
I had the macvelope, but let me tell you as of experience: Velcro never works out. Buy a case that has a zipper. It is really more convenient.

Magic mouse wise, I believe you dont need it. Trust me, the keypad in the macbook air feels awesome since its glass. Forget the magic mouse, it is more uncomfortable.

I have 3 USBs (28GB total) for music, documents, pictures, and other random stuff just in case I loose something.
I dont think you really need a time capsule now that iCloud is coming up...
I will back up all my contact info, calendar, documents, and music (approx 4GB) to my iCloud.
I have used my macbook air for over 4 months and my SSD is still at 220GB (still full considering that it starts around 228 when it first loads)
If you really need more space, you can use dropbox for some additional.

Good luck with your purchase!
 
As it stands right at this minute, i have 60Gb of music, 70-80Gb of movies, 2Gb of photos. That is way to much for the iCloud, and i have an external HD, which i would use as my secondary back up, considering the TC backs up wirelessly and automatically.

I want to see what Apple does with the update to the MBA, then ill mkae my decision as im still torn between the MBA and the MBP. (im leaning towards the Air because of the complete portability of the thing)
 
I find the advantage of a Time Capsule or other NAS backup storage is that everything is always backed up hourly without me thinking about it.:) It doesn't matter if my computer is running wirelessly (WiFi) or wired to the network.

I was not so consistent when I had to plug in my USB backup drive to the laptop computer, usually only doing a backup every few days or weeks.:( Sometimes I would only think of it after I had deleted something erroneously, or after reading on the forums about someone else losing all their data, music or pictures. Then I would dig out the drive, plug it in, and faithfully do a backup.

-howard
 
Psilocybin said:
Multi touch gestures. I bought a magic mouse for my air and I barely use it. I am going to sell it since I have one on my iMac already
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Hankster said:
No need for a mouse with the MBA, especially with Lion coming out. -snip-
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FX4568 said:
-snip- Magic mouse wise, I believe you dont need it. Trust me, the keypad in the macbook air feels awesome since its glass. Forget the magic mouse, it is more uncomfortable.-snip-
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^ Haha. Who new there were so many magic mouse haters! Really I think the point of having any mouse with your Air is to relieve wrist contortions. If you spend allot of time mousing around at your desk then a mouse is really a much more ergonomic choice. The brand, of course is up to you, but I totally fail to see how Lion's new multi-touch gestures make the magic mouse obsolete. Like Lion relieves wrist strain? Anyway, you can enable any multitouch gesture you want on the magic mouse with a little program called MagicPrefs.
Regarding other accessories - I would strongly recommend a ShaggyMac cloth to guard your somewhat thin and flimsy screen from the oils and pressure of your keys. Then why not throw the whole package in a BookBook that protects and camouflages your machine. Just slide it onto your book shelf when you go out.
+1 on a refurbished external ACD (try to get a 24", 27" is fricking lavish)
 
hfg said:
I was not so consistent when I had to plug in my USB backup drive to the laptop computer, usually only doing a backup every few days or weeks.:( Sometimes I would only think of it after I had deleted something erroneously, or after reading on the forums about someone else losing all their data, music or pictures. Then I would dig out the drive, plug it in, and faithfully do a backup.

-howard
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that is where Im at at the moment with my pc. hence my consideration of a TC - it takes out the human element.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

My assumption would be with all of the vast array of multi touch gestures in lion. the new track pad gestures would render "mice" obsolete.
 
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