New MacBook Air Due This Wednesday?

[trims]

Fair enough. The instant on, instant to where you were, going from full screen app to full screen app features are said to use the SSD a lot. Instead of keeping all that stuff in RAM, they keep the info in SSD. Without an SSD (like with a hard drive) these switches will not be so instant.

At least that is what I read. If it is true, it also means that Lion will be very efficient with RAM, so Apple might not feel the need to offer 4GB as default.

What's the big deal? OEM RAM isn't that expensive. Take a look at the bestseller lists at Amazon etc. Find me a notebook that is more expensive than the MBA and has 2GB RAM or less. Or even half the price.

Only Ebenezer Scrooge would install less than 4GB in such a premium laptop product

 

[islanders]

price

This actually seems to be the direction they are going. When the MacBook Air is updated, its specs will make it far above the level of the white MacBook. MacBook Airs as the base and MacBook Pros as the high end. There really isn't that much of a price difference between the two. $999 vs. $1199

Or they could drop the Macbook to $799 with an upgrade. Would be a good option for people who don't spend their last dime on the latest upgrade.

 

[Flip2gig]

No. Tablet PC laptops entered the market years ago, and have never had any tremendous gains in capturing the market. Those were not multi-touch because you would only interact with it at a single point with a stylus.

At what frequency do you see people using a tablet PC laptop these days? Like netbooks, they are "junky" and Apple has repeatedly stated that they will not follow the PC market in areas that are "junky". There is a good reason why they are on the decline.

Tablets haven't yet caught on because of "junky" software. People naturally want to write and draw, it's what we've been doing for some 5000 years now. Advances in multi-touch can allow for two finger gestures like drag and zoom while still holding a stylus.

I'm also a realist, typing is essential so a fullsize keyboard in a small space is a must, the 11" Air hits this sweet spot. Now why not add multi-touch and stylus support if the technology is here?

How many iPad owners sometimes wish they could just pop a pen out of the side of their machine to write or draw on their display? Or maybe just flip open, slide out, however to a full-size legitimate keyboard.

The Air can provide all the features of an iPad as well as running full fledged OSX. Maybe it's just me but there's so much potential for a next great product when melding an 11" Air, Tablet, and an iPad into one machine. Good software goes withought saying...

 

[OatmealRocks]

Arggg

Engadget has updated their post about the MBA being released.

According to them, their source 'Chronic' have now said it was a mistake about them saying the MBA will be released this Wednesday.

 

[nizmoz]

Haha....mistaken? More like spewing bs before they even knew.

-----


Update: iPhone hacker Chronic claims the MacBook Air refresh could appear as soon as Wednesday morning.

Update 2: Never mind -- Chronic says his sources were mistaken about the MacBook Air on Wednesday

 

[nebulos]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)

No. Tablet PC laptops entered the market years ago, and have never had any tremendous gains in capturing the market. Those were not multi-touch because you would only interact with it at a single point with a stylus.

At what frequency do you see people using a tablet PC laptop these days? Like netbooks, they are "junky" and Apple has repeatedly stated that they will not follow the PC market in areas that are "junky". There is a good reason why they are on the decline.

Wow. You have no idea what you are talking about.

 

[matznentosh]

This actually seems to be the direction they are going. When the MacBook Air is updated, its specs will make it far above the level of the white MacBook. MacBook Airs as the base and MacBook Pros as the high end. There really isn't that much of a price difference between the two. $999 vs. $1199

Data on the specs? I've heard the sandy bridge plus built in graphics adds up to about the same perceived speed. Glad to hear if I'm wrong, can you give any info on how it's likely to really play out?

 

[macsamillionjoe]

Lol another "false rumor". Man I was really excited about getting one this Wed.. Guess i'm just gonna have to go with the 13 Mbp..

 

[fkhan3]

Lol another "false rumor". Man I was really excited about getting one this Wed.. Guess i'm just gonna have to go with the 13 Mbp..

At least wait till Wed, who knows, Apple my surprise us

 

[ECUpirate44]

Why?

Because it's a laptop, imagine how useless and annoying a touch screen would be.

 

[Trauma1]

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Wow. You have no idea what you are talking about.

Care to back that claim up with any actual facts?

The tablet PC laptop market (not to be confused with handheld tablets) is dying.

 

[NurJahan]

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Pretty bummed that Chronic made such a huge mistake....so I guess no MBA release? It seemed to soon anyway, with production starting just recently.

 

[KPOM]

Lol another "false rumor". Man I was really excited about getting one this Wed.. Guess i'm just gonna have to go with the 13 Mbp..

We know it's coming eventually. If you want the Air, my advice is to wait for it, even if it's another month or two. You won't regret it.

 

[Analog Kid]

Wait... Why are unlocked iPhones being treated like "oh, nevermind"?! Shouldn't this be a significant story in its own right?

 

[KnightWRX]

Wait... Why are unlocked iPhones being treated like "oh, nevermind"?! Shouldn't this be a significant story in its own right?

Why ? We have had unlocked iPhones since June 2010... oh wait, you're in the US.

 

[Tilpots]

Because it's a laptop, imagine how useless and annoying a touch screen would be.

Don't think iPad and iPhone users are annoyed with their touchscreens. Face it, apps are useful and are part of my everyday routine just as much as a full computer is. Can't figure out why people wouldn't want the best of both worlds on one machine. Bootcamp was a huge leap, Lion will be a huge leap because it's incorporating iOS features, so the next logical step is one machine that can do both. If a MBA folded completely over so that the keyboard ended up behind the screen, we'd be in business. If folks can find the utility in that, not sure what else to tell ya.

 

[iRun26.2]

It'd also be nice if they could put a Retina display in the next MacBook Airs along with Lion (aka HiDPI), but that definitely won't happen if Lion is coming later. I guess they might do it with the next MBP refreshes. ;/

I, too, look forward to the time when the MBA gets a 'Retina Display', like the iPhone 4 (where you can no longer see the individual pixels on the screen). It is a good observation of your's that the newest refresh of the MBA won't have this (since Lion would be required for a Retina Display). It does seem too early for a major screen upgrade, but that would guarantee I upgrade to the the new MBA...

The only other feature that would make me upgrade immediately would be the return of the backlit keyboard.

 

[Trauma1]

Face it, apps are useful and are part of my everyday routine just as much as a full computer is. Can't figure out why people wouldn't want the best of both worlds on one machine. Bootcamp was a huge leap, Lion will be a huge leap because it's incorporating iOS features, so the next logical step is one machine that can do both.

Apps (applications, programs, games, etc) were on computers long before these handheld devices even existed.

You can get iOS apps in the Mac App Store.

Bootcamp was practical because it made the two separate worlds Mac and PC compatible. Why do iOS and OS need to be bridged like this?

 

[Sankersizzle]

Almost as disappointed with this news being false as I was with WWDC.

 

[iRun26.2]

Actually, I'm extremely happy with my 13" Ultimate MBA from last year- so much so that I find the news just to be "meh." I guess it's good news for those that don't already have a MBA? If I was in that position tho, I might try to save a few hundred and buy a 2010 refurb. They're really THAT good.

I'm also very happy with the 11.6" MBA that I purchased last year. I use it all the time and greatly enjoy it's portabiity and quickness. While I wouldn't have wanted to waited until now to get the SB model, I am kind of jealous of the improved CPU power and battery life that the new model will bring.

I probably need more than just the SB and TB improvements to get me to upgrade.

 

[Tilpots]

Bootcamp was practical because it made the two separate worlds Mac and PC compatible. Why do iOS and OS need to be bridged like this?

Steve Jobs laid it out pretty well in this last keynote. The things people do on their iOS devices make sense to bring to their full computer usage. Most apps for iOS devices are magnitudes more popular than their counterpart computer applications. Why? Ease of use. iOS apps make tasks dead simple, quick and efficient.

Just look at the explosive popularity of the iPad. People have found it so useful that Apple has had to change their entire ecosystem to suit the needs of users who ONLY have iOS devices. But many of us still need that full computer component to complete some tasks. Why not let us serve both needs with one device? That rumor a week ago about ARM MBAs in the wild is a sign of things to come. ARM processors are fast enough for most daily tasks and could get us by for those few instances when full computing capabilities are required.

It makes perfect sense for Apple to marry the two OSs into one device because it would be a superior device, both to an iPad or MBA. Despite all the iCloud and iTunes stuff, they're a hardware company first. Make superior hardware, dominate the market.

 

[Trauma1]

It makes perfect sense for Apple to marry the two OSs into one device because it would be a superior device, both to an iPad or MBA.

There's a difference between having one OS with iOS-like features and having a dual boot set up.

OS and iOS are evolving together, not apart. A dual boot would be conducive for two entirely separate systems. What's going to happen is that there is one day going to be an OS that has many, many similar features to its iOS counterpart. But they won't inherently separate themselves.

 

[MartiNZ]

Tablets haven't yet caught on because of "junky" software. People naturally want to write and draw, it's what we've been doing for some 5000 years now. Advances in multi-touch can allow for two finger gestures like drag and zoom while still holding a stylus.

I'm also a realist, typing is essential so a fullsize keyboard in a small space is a must, the 11" Air hits this sweet spot. Now why not add multi-touch and stylus support if the technology is here?

How many iPad owners sometimes wish they could just pop a pen out of the side of their machine to write or draw on their display? Or maybe just flip open, slide out, however to a full-size legitimate keyboard.

The Air can provide all the features of an iPad as well as running full fledged OSX. Maybe it's just me but there's so much potential for a next great product when melding an 11" Air, Tablet, and an iPad into one machine. Good software goes withought saying...

I find this -really- interesting. I'm pretty much the opposite to this, writing and drawing are far less natural to me now than typing and mousing. I see people taking handwritten notes in meetings and such; I find it very difficult - not only do I no longer like writing, but it just adds an extra step, as most of the time such things will be typed up.

Okay for those that still do a lot of writing, perhaps that would make sense; I've never understood the sense of the stylus interfaces myself. And I no longer think its a negative to lose that writing tendency in general - that's how far it has gone .

 

[Tilpots]

There's a difference between having one OS with iOS-like features and having a dual boot set up.

OS and iOS are evolving together, not apart. A dual boot would be conducive for two entirely separate systems. What's going to happen is that there is one day going to be an OS that has many, many similar features to its iOS counterpart. But they won't inherently separate themselves.

It doesn't matter if they coexist or launch separately. I don't know what they'd call it or how it'd work. What's important is to be able to use the functionality of both on one device.

 

[KnightWRX]

It doesn't matter if they coexist or launch separately. I don't know what they'd call it or how it'd work. What's important is to be able to use the functionality of both on one device.

Functionality of both ? OS X can do everything iOS can and more. There's just no extra functionality to wish for. Waste of SSD space. Both OSes already share the same core and many of the same sub-systems. Only the top most UI is different and it is for a reason : different input paradigms. On a laptop, there's no point in having the iOS UI layer. What they are doing in Lion brings the same UI stuff in a usable form on a laptop and that's enough.