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First MacBook Air Reviews: Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, USA Today

Ok I have a question for you gamers. At the present time, If I want to play a game on my ibook I have to insert the disk. So what if I want to play WC3 on the macbook air on the road? How can you get the game onto your computer and play it without having to insert a disk? :confused:
 
CaptainCaveMann said:
Ok I have a question for you gamers. At the present time, If I want to play a game on my ibook I have to insert the disk. So what if I want to play WC3 on the macbook air on the road? How can you get the game onto your computer and play it without having to insert a disk? :confused:
Click to expand...

Actually, even with the current MacBooks, you can use Disk Utility to make a disk image of the CD you need, keep it on the hard drive, and then mount it whenever you want to play the game, without needing to insert the disk at all. I haven't done this myself, and don't really know how, but I've heard from some people who have that it's possible and very convenient.
 
Hmmm, tough call... 3.5 hours on full screen brightness, highest performance battery setting, speaker blaring and with wi-fi on sounds pretty good. I think my MBP gets not much more than that with wi-fi and bluetooth off, my brightness down to one or two bars, and the battery set to minimal use. And no music being played.

I was kind of hoping for spectacular battery life, though, not just very good life. Like, I was hoping this computer would set new standards for battery life the way it set new standards for thinness.

Well, I will think about it... ultimately I may need to just buy one and see for myself how the battery lasts.

It would be nice if in the next model they could trim off the border around the screen and get a smaller footprint, though.
 
Ok ok, hold everything! I was about to order one of these bad boys, then I realized... a 4200rpm hard drive? Apple, oh why do you do this to me?

3 steps forward, and 4 steps back. :cool:

What I'd really like to see is 100gb ssd drive for 1799. Or a 100gb regular hd at 7200 rpm for the same price. Guess I'll be waiting. Unless of course real world tests show these 4200rpm drives arent THAT slow. Although my ibook has a 4200rpm drive and it crawls.
 
CaptainCaveMann said:
What I'd really like to see is 100gb ssd drive for 1799. Or a 100gb regular hd at 7200 rpm for the same price. Guess I'll be waiting. Unless of course real world tests show these 4200rpm drives arent THAT slow. Although my ibook has a 4200rpm drive and it crawls.
Click to expand...

The problem is that SSDs just aren't available at that price yet. I think by the end of the year though we should see 128GB SSDs for less than the 64s are now.

If you've priced bare SSDs at newegg, etc., you'll see what I mean. Granted Apple gets volume pricing, but still it's not like they pay 10 cents on the dollar for these things.
 
kuwisdelu said:
Actually, even with the current MacBooks, you can use Disk Utility to make a disk image of the CD you need, keep it on the hard drive, and then mount it whenever you want to play the game, without needing to insert the disk at all. I haven't done this myself, and don't really know how, but I've heard from some people who have that it's possible and very convenient.
Click to expand...

Actually, I just tried this with Guitar Hero 3 on my Macbook Pro, and it still asks for the game CD. So this is not a universal solution.
Not to mention I just don't see a Macbook Air as being a very good (or even acceptable) gaming system with its current specs.
 
Darth.Titan said:
Actually, I just tried this with Guitar Hero 3 on my Macbook Pro, and it still asks for the game CD. So this is not a universal solution.
Not to mention I just don't see a Macbook Air as being a very good (or even acceptable) gaming system with its current specs.
Click to expand...

Yes but to be fair, WC3 doesn't need to much to play well. :)
 
this might just be me but do you notice now that the MBA is shipping you can add an 64gig SSD with out the 1.8Ghz processor. I don't see why anyone would do this when you could get a faster processor for essentially the same price.
 
bushman1 said:
this might just be me but do you notice now that the MBA is shipping you can add an 64gig SSD with out the 1.8Ghz processor. I don't see why anyone would do this when you could get a faster processor for essentially the same price.
Click to expand...

$300 and a slight uptick in battery life. I was considering. With my education discount, it costs like $2598 in that config.
 
PabloGS said:
Since when does adding 3G limit you to a particular carrier?
This once again shows, how blindly Apple ignores the rest of the world.
UMTS is a standard all around the world, except for the USA of course where EDGE (which of course is just a 2G service btw) is the ultimate wireless experience...
Pablo
Click to expand...

Yes, UMTS/HSDPA is a widely used standard in Europe. GPRS/EDGE is NOT THE "ultimate wireless experience" in the United States. Verizon/Sprints's CDMA/EV-DO 3G network is great, with nearly all areas now upgraded to Rev. A, and it is available across most of the country, with nearly every single city and major suburb covered, and surprisingly many rural areas as well. Even my parents that live in northern idaho in a town of 40,000 have 3G there.
It's really too bad that Verizon didn't bite on the iPhone.

Also, Japan uses a modified form of WCDMA, China has its "own" network standard, etc etc.

Apple needed to do a Built-to-order "add a 3G card" just like the PC manufacturers do, where you can choose between a UMTS/HSDPA card
and an CDMA1x/EVDO card. Or as I mentioned in my previous post, it would have been even better to go with a small expresscard slot.

Now engadget is reporting that even USB modems don't fit.... ugh
 
bushman1 said:
this might just be me but do you notice now that the MBA is shipping you can add an 64gig SSD with out the 1.8Ghz processor. I don't see why anyone would do this when you could get a faster processor for essentially the same price.
Click to expand...

I'm curious to know, how much faster is the 64gb ssd drive over the 80gb 4200rpm drive? Where would you notice the speed differences, and how significant would they be?
 
CaptainCaveMann said:
Ok I have a question for you gamers. At the present time, If I want to play a game on my ibook I have to insert the disk. So what if I want to play WC3 on the macbook air on the road? How can you get the game onto your computer and play it without having to insert a disk? :confused:
Click to expand...

Not likely to work over the shared DVD, your key DVD needs to be in place at all times so you may need to get the optional DVD drive.
Nobody has an Air so hard to tell, but I bet you need to buy the optional drive.
 
CaptainCaveMann said:
I'm curious to know, how much faster is the 64gb ssd drive over the 80gb 4200rpm drive? Where would you notice the speed differences, and how significant would they be?
Click to expand...
Check out the huge difference between a 1.8 inch iPod drive and a Samsung SSD 64GB here:


http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/products/flash/Products_FlashSSD.html

sustained R/W (MB) 1.8" SSD: 100/80 ––– 1.8 inch HDD: 20/20 (1)
Click to expand...

(almost at the bottom).

You'd see it when starting up, backing up, copying/duplicating files and what have you.

Added:

Hell, try booting your computer from an old iPod. That is how slow it will be. But the SSD will be faster than our current laptop HDD. It has almost no seek times.
 
Tosser said:
Check out the huge difference between a 1.8 inch iPod drive and a Samsung SSD 64GB here:


http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/products/flash/Products_FlashSSD.html



(almost at the bottom).

You'd see it when starting up, backing up, copying/duplicating files and what have you.

Added:

Hell, try booting your computer from an old iPod. That is how slow it will be. But the SSD will be faster than our current laptop HDD. It has almost no seek times.
Click to expand...

Wow that's pretty cool, sounds like ssd is the way to go. But check this out...

"Samsung is one of the key players in the flash market, and plans to introduce a 128GB solid state drive this year for notebook computers, as does Hitachi."

Thats from an article I read at msn on flash drives making their way into lighter laptops. I think the best thing to do for the average user, who has photos, music, videos, would be to wait until the next revision of the macbook air and get it with a bigger ssd drive. Should be cheaper by then to! Plus gives you more time to save up some money. :D
 
CaptainCaveMann said:
Wow that's pretty cool, sounds like ssd is the way to go. But check this out...

"Samsung is one of the key players in the flash market, and plans to introduce a 128GB solid state drive this year for notebook computers, as does Hitachi."

Thats from an article I read at msn on flash drives making their way into lighter laptops. I think the best thing to do for the average user, who has photos, music, videos, would be to wait until the next revision of the macbook air and get it with a bigger ssd drive. Should be cheaper by then to! Plus gives you more time to save up some money. :D
Click to expand...

How about an 832GB SSD then?
 
CaptainCaveMann said:
Wow that's pretty cool, sounds like ssd is the way to go. But check this out...

"Samsung is one of the key players in the flash market, and plans to introduce a 128GB solid state drive this year for notebook computers, as does Hitachi."

Thats from an article I read at msn on flash drives making their way into lighter laptops. I think the best thing to do for the average user, who has photos, music, videos, would be to wait until the next revision of the macbook air and get it with a bigger ssd drive. Should be cheaper by then to! Plus gives you more time to save up some money. :D
Click to expand...

Sweet! Then it will propably be another year on top of that before the 128GB is reasonably priced. But that _is_ sweet.!
 
retroneo said:
As long as they don't seal in the SIM card or put a network lock on, you can put any carrier's 3G sim card in and it will work.

There are multiple 3G HSPA networks in every other country that Apple operates in.
(The USA will soon have two)

The data plans are getting very cheap now too.

Please put HSPA in, it's pretty much essential now.
Click to expand...

The problem is that in the US, the fastest mobile network doesn't use a SIM. Yes, AT&T uses SIMs, and T-Mobile (who should get 'real' 3G soon,) uses SIMs, but Verizon and Sprint don't.

I still think the next iteration of the MacBook Air needs Wireless USB, some plus form of 3G or Wi-Max.
 
winterspan said:
Yes, UMTS/HSDPA is a widely used standard in Europe. GPRS/EDGE is NOT THE "ultimate wireless experience" in the United States. Verizon/Sprints's CDMA/EV-DO 3G network is great, with nearly all areas now upgraded to Rev. A, and it is available across most of the country, with nearly every single city and major suburb covered, and surprisingly many rural areas as well.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's definitely been my experience as well. I started with EVDO and then switched to HSPDA and then back to EVDO Rev.A and the performance of EVDO Rev A is significantly better and more consistent both here in the DC area and in the Bay Area. And even when you get further out from the city.

So for me, an internal EVDO Rev A card would have been nice. But that would have been useless in Europe.
 
eddietr said:
It's highly unlikely there will ever be a "perfect" ultra-portable. Because everyone's idea of perfect is different. My perfect is not your perfect.
Click to expand...

True in terms of the balance between small footrint with small screen/keyboard vs. large footprint with large screen and keyboard.

But otherwise, the tradeoffs are likely to decline with time. As machines get more power efficient (SSDs, LEDs, efficient processors), battery size is less of an issue. As they get faster, you care about relative speed differences less. The move to SSD drives means physical dimensions are less relevant. Optical drives seem on their way out. So I think the tradeoffs are likely to diminish.

The MBA is amazingly functional in a lot of ways. They could certainly have added an extra port or two were they so inclined. They perhaps could shrink the footprint by 8-10% in both directions. But I'd argue that 2megs of ram and a 1.8htz processor is not a performance compromise for example.
 
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