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Steve Jobs Introduced the MacBook Air Exactly 10 Years Ago Today

Dave245 said:
How so? The MacBook will end up replacing the Air, the MacBook is better in almost every way (I believe the Air has longer battery life)

MacBook has a much better display it’s also thinner lighter and more up to date than the Air. I think Apple should introduce a bigger 14” version tho.
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To each his own, of course, but I would add to your list of battery life, a decent keyboard, two ports.

Yes, the MacBook could be better, Apple just needs to get over the thinness fetish. More battery life and a reliable, good keyboard are more important than a couple of mm on a spec sheet.
 
ActionableMango said:
Why does everyone keep saying this? You don't need a dongle to do that. A USB-C to Lightning cable works just fine.

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Get with the times, cables are called dongles now :)
 
BWhaler said:
To each his own, of course, but I would add to your list of battery life, a decent keyboard, two ports.

Yes, the MacBook could be better, Apple just needs to get over the thinness fetish. More battery life and a reliable, good keyboard are more important than a couple of mm on a spec sheet.
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I understand what your saying however Apple are seeing the future as wireless yes there will be a transition faze which may be more uncomfortable for some than others (the same as with the Macbook Pro’s). The keyboard is personal preference, I’ve tried the new one on the MacBook Pro and it doesn’t seem that bad. However it’s personal opinion I guess.
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Hank Carter said:
The screen on the MacBook is better, but that's about it.

It has a slower CPU
It has slower GPU performance.
It has only one port for charging AND connectivity.
The 'keyboard' sucks.
You can't swap out the SSD.
It's more expensive (plus dongles)
Dongles. Dongles everywhere.

But it is a nice fashion accessory for people who only need to check their email, browse the web and maybe type something in Pages.
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From what I’ve seen online (I’ve not used the MacBook so I can’t say) it can do more than just checking email and Pages, some videos show it being used for photo and video editing.

No you can’t swap out the SSD’s but how many people really do that anyway, they keyboard is a matter of opinion as I’ve said in another post. Price will probably drop which is when I think the MacBook will replace the Air. Dongles are a part of the transition faze that Apple see’s as being wireless.
 
The MacBook Air will go down in history as one of the best laptops ever made.

An absolutely fantastic design. Incredibly thin and light, without ever compromising the user experience (something which can’t be said of today’s MacBooks, Pro included).

I remember how Steve Jobs made fun of netbooks at the time. They had low-power processors, crippled keyboards and poor connectivity. The MacBook Air in response, was thinner than most Netbooks, offered a fantastic keyboard and all the power most would need thanks to proper i5/i7 processors. Moreover, it had MagSafe, 2x USB, an SD-card slot and Thunderbolt. You could connect your iPhone and iPad, import files from your SD-cards, while charging and being connected to a big screen. Without a single adapter.

Ten years later, and Apple’s best effort of a modern replacement has been the MacBook. Compromised by terrible keyboards and zero connectivity, it’s pretty much the modern day Netbook. No wonder people are still asking for a true replacement to the Air.

Sold my 2011 model in 2013 for a new Retina MacBook Pro. That was a mistake, and I might need to get another MBA before it’s too late.
 
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MacRazySwe said:
Ten years later, and Apple’s best effort of a modern replacement has been the MacBook. Compromised by terrible keyboards and zero connectivity, it’s pretty much the modern day Netbook. No wonder people are still asking for a true replacement to the Air.

Sold my 2011 model in 2013 for a new Retina MacBook Pro. That was a mistake, and I might need to get another MBA before it’s too late.
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Current MacBook isn't even close to this description. The most people even use a port for is to charge or hook-up to an external device. That is one USB-C dongle.
 
MacRazySwe said:
The MacBook Air will go down in history as one of the best laptops ever made.

An absolutely fantastic design. Incredibly thin and light, without ever compromising the user experience (something which can’t be said of today’s MacBooks, Pro included).

I remember how Steve Jobs made fun of netbooks at the time. They had low-power processors, crippled keyboards and poor connectivity. The MacBook Air in response, was thinner than most Netbooks, offered a fantastic keyboard and all the power most would need thanks to proper i5/i7 processors. Moreover, it had MagSafe, 2x USB, an SD-card slot and Thunderbolt. You could connect your iPhone and iPad, import files from your SD-cards, while charging and being connected to a big screen. Without a single adapter.

Ten years later, and Apple’s best effort of a modern replacement has been the MacBook. Compromised by terrible keyboards and zero connectivity, it’s pretty much the modern day Netbook. No wonder people are still asking for a true replacement to the Air.

Sold my 2011 model in 2013 for a new Retina MacBook Pro. That was a mistake, and I might need to get another MBA before it’s too late.
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Apple currently makes no laptop computer with the interfaces you mention - the MBP has two USB-C ports and a headphone jack. Across the board, with both phones and laptops - Apple has chosen to go minimalist. Jony Ive runs the show. At least the laptops still have headphone jacks. Bet that goes away soon, as it did with the phones.
 
curtvaughan said:
In any case, I always thought of a dongle as being a cable or wire connecting disparate interfaces.
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Well okay, but the existing wired method was USB-A to Lightning, and nobody complained about dongles then. Dongle outrage started with the MacBook USB-C and iPhone without headphone jack.

You can also use WiFi Sync and Airdrop, which will accomplish most connection tasks without any kind of cable or dongle. (Not charging of course.)

The Apple USB-C to Lightning cable is not new. I don't know when they came out, but I bought mine over a year ago (December 2016). Third party cables are relatively new.
 
theluggage said:
Actually had one of those.

Looked cute (I got seduced). Expensive. Poor keyboard, poor battery life, had to carry a dock around to connect stuff... hmmm - that sounds familiar :->

...except with the Sony the dock and external drives were included... and it had a detachable battery!

But seriously - that thing was tiny (even c.f. an Air) it was very underpowered (even relative to its contemporaries) the keyboard was cramped (although ISTR the feel was OK) and the screen was small. The real downfall was, in 1998, you needed the CD drive, the floppy drive (and probably a ruddy Zip drive as well). It did have built-in USB ports - but this was 1998 and USB was only just taking off so you did need and the dock with the parallel port etc.

The thing that set the Air (and subsequent 'ultrabooks') apart from other ultra-portables and netbooks was it was relatively powerful and had a decent-sized keyboard... and, of course, 10 years on, some people could manage on a USB port and WiFi.

(Not me - sometime in the 00s I remember buying an Ethernet switch and half-a-dozen ethernet cables and lugging them to a meeting so I could demonstrate a website...)

Of course, Sony also had a hand in designing the original Apple Powerbook - which basically defined the design of modern laptops by moving the keyboard back and having a pointing device in the middle of the palm rest... and the Vaio range was what you bought if you wanted a Mac but needed a PC (before Intel Macs removed the dilemma... anybody remember SoftWindows?)
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Absolutely love this post, really takes me back. Especially the part about the switch.

I went through two of the VAIOs. The single capacity battery was seriously a joke. The dual capacity one was clever how it propped up the back.

Performance wise, it was okay with Linux and FVWM.

My second VAIO caught on fire. That was it for me.
 
ActionableMango said:
Well okay, but the existing wired method was USB-A to Lightning, and nobody complained about dongles then. Dongle outrage started with the MacBook USB-C and iPhone without headphone jack.

You can also use WiFi Sync and Airdrop, which will accomplish most connection tasks without any kind of cable or dongle. (Not charging of course.)

The Apple cable is not new. I don't know when they came out, but I bought mine over a year ago. Third party cables are relatively new.
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Here's a recent practical experience I had, where I really needed an SD card interface, both on my phone and on my computer. I went on a long bicycle ride in which I documented my experience with a GoPro helmet mounted camera, which used a micro-SD card for video storage. To transfer video from the micro-SD card to either an iPhone or a recent model Apple laptop would require either SD card dongles for access via iPhone or MacBook, or bouncing the videos over WiFi either via the cloud over the internet, or directly via WiFi over the LAN in my hotel. For the sake of reasonable speed in transfer, all Apple could offer me is either a lightning to SD-card reader dongle, or a USB-C to SD-card reader on a MacBook. So, even though my main phone is an iPhone 6s+, I brought along an Android LG-V20 with a micro-SD slot, and an HP PC laptop with a micro-SD slot. Either could transfer large video files at decent speed via interfaces directly connected to the I/O bus of the respective devices. That was a very smooth way to offload the GoPro videos daily to my devices for editing and internet posting. Typical prodedure for an all-day ride (GoPro records about 3 hours before running out of battery and/or storage): ride and record 3 hours; offload SD-card to phone and charge GoPro/phone batteries for an hour or two; get back to the ride and record; go to hotel and process the stuff on the camera and phone to the PC laptop.

Neither the PC laptop (running Linux) nor the Android phone were as slim or pretty as their iThingy alternatives, but they were both technically up to snuff and practically useful for the production needed. No dongles necessary. And in that line, as far as dongles go, what if instead of the USB-x to lighning dongle I could either use a USB-x to USB-x mini port, or better yet, take a micro-SD card out of my iPhone SD-card holder (oops) or GoPro camera and insert it directly into my MacBook (Pro) micro-SD slot (oops) for fast processing? Either method would be better than having to use a dongle/adapter for data transfer. We'll have to agree to disagree on the wisdom of form over function.
 
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curtvaughan said:
Apple currently makes no laptop computer with the interfaces you mention - the MBP has two USB-C ports and a headphone jack. Across the board, with both phones and laptops - Apple has chosen to go minimalist. Jony Ive runs the show. At least the laptops still have headphone jacks. Bet that goes away soon, as it did with the phones.
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Doubtful. The jack is used for many high-end desktop sound systems, there is no alternative compared to how the iPhone works.
 
curtvaughan said:
We'll have to agree to disagree on the wisdom of form over function.
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What? No. My post was a correction specifically in response to someone claiming that you needed a dongle to connect two common Apple devices (a USB-C-only MacBook and an iPhone). That is not true.

I corrected his misstatement, that's all. I am not defending form over function.
 
Our MBA 2012 13" has been a great machine. The MBA is superior to the MacBook. Just the keyboard alone makes it worth hanging onto. I just did a battery replacement at home, and the little machine is back working like new.
 
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riverfreak said:
Sort of. A little bit. I guess.

PCG-N505 Super Slim vs 2008 MacBook Air. From the Riverfreak Museum of Personal Computers.
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Rip off becomes clearer with 2004 Sony VAIO X505 vs 2008 MacBook Air. Prior 2006 MacBook was thick ugly plastic before Apple decided to rip off Sony design influence and metal build.

So, to correct the other person the industry didn't rip off Apple but rather Apple and the rest of the industry ripped off Sony.

2004 Sony VAIO X505 vs 2008 MacBook Air
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2006 Macbook before ripping off Sony design influence
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technole said:
Doubtful. The jack is used for many high-end desktop sound systems, there is no alternative compared to how the iPhone works.
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One would hope the phone jack remains. BTW, re-reading the post you quote, it looks as if I'm defending the minimalist lack of ports. Hardly. I come from the opposite court. Every time I argue for retaining ports on Apple forums, I get 3.5 inch floppy demise, and lately, optical drive demise, thrown my way. The demise of both of those platforms was mostly preceded by viable alternative technology. The floppy was replaced largely by CD/DVD technologies, especially when they became bootable. CD/DVD is being transplanted by fast networks and streaming, as well as by USB pen drives. Those too will eventually fade away, but I think Apple jumped ship too early this time with removal of the phone jacks, SD card slots, and multiple USB ports. They certainly lost me as a customer for their laptops and phones. I still like my iPad and iMac, which both sport the ports I appreciate (I'd be okay with iPad going USB-C).
 
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mi7chy said:
Rip off becomes clearer with 2004 Sony VAIO X505 vs 2008 MacBook Air. Prior 2006 MacBook was thick ugly plastic before Apple decided to rip off Sony design influence and metal build.

So, to correct the other person the industry didn't rip off Apple but rather Apple and the rest of the industry ripped off Sony.

2004 Sony VAIO X505 vs 2008 MacBook Air
2300766306_2fbc7f500c_z.jpg


2006 Macbook before ripping off Sony design influence
hqdefault.jpg
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X505 and MacBook Air couldn’t possibly look more different to me.

That said, Jobs was inspired by Sony and vice versa. I believe he wanted the VAIOs to run Mac OS, too, although that may just be my dementia kicking in.
 
riverfreak said:
X505 and MacBook Air couldn’t possibly look more different to me.

That said, Jobs was inspired by Sony and vice versa. I believe he wanted the VAIOs to run Mac OS, too, although that may just be my dementia kicking in.
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I couldn't tell from the photos supplied above, but what ports did the original Air sport compared to the Sony pictured?
 
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