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The MacBook Air Turns 17 Today
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IBM PCjr (ASK PEANUT code name given by IBM in its Development team) was Underpowered cheaply made and a bitch to use. It was cute
A family member was on the Dev team in the early part of the 80`s. chicklet keyboard was the worse 
The original MacBook Air was impressive in size, but NOT in performance.
The current MacBook Air is impressive in BOTH size and performance.
Love my Air.
The current MacBook Air is impressive in BOTH size and performance.
Love my Air.
Unfortunately he has a fiduciary duty to shareholders to maximize profits. Customers and employees will always be an afterthought.
I like the flatter design.
The important question is, does it still fit in a large Manila envelope?
Fun fact: they cut the song up a bit which you can kinda hear if you listen. The original lyrics were:
I'm guessing Apple didn't want that last line associated with them basically redefining an entire product category, plus the instrumentation also better ramps up in anticipation of the ending.
One thing I do like about the MacBook Air is Apple has finally put in more USB Type C ports to support Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 connectivity. I still wish Apple offered an "official" device that connects to the USB Type C port to offer a lot of I/O connectors, though.
I was there, this was Steve Jobs' last MacWorld (and the next to last MacWorld ever). I remember the banners "There's Something in the Air" and a lot of of us were wondering if it was an Airport related announcement, we had no idea. When Steve held up that envelope we still had no idea until he took it out. After the keynote though I remember folks around me we wondering why he was so skinny and gaunt looking, something seemed off but we didn't know yet it was his cancer.
As far as the product, the CCO (Chief Creative Officer) where I worked had the pull to get one (regardless of IT's capex budget! They probably expensed it! 😆). They tried to use it as a daily driver with an external monitor, keyboard, etc... and dang if that stupid little flip door with the ports wasn't a pain in the ass to work with! And with only one port, when it's 2008 and you need network, printer, USB for iPhone charge/sync etc... it was a real challenge to get everything plugged in elegantly.
Lastly, while I really liked the tapered design and the way you you could easily pick it up, I've got to admit the new design with the rounded edges is nice too (upgraded from 2020 M1 Air to 15" M3 Air), those non-sharp rounded edges feel good in your hand. 17 years is a good run for a design.
As far as the product, the CCO (Chief Creative Officer) where I worked had the pull to get one (regardless of IT's capex budget! They probably expensed it! 😆). They tried to use it as a daily driver with an external monitor, keyboard, etc... and dang if that stupid little flip door with the ports wasn't a pain in the ass to work with! And with only one port, when it's 2008 and you need network, printer, USB for iPhone charge/sync etc... it was a real challenge to get everything plugged in elegantly.
Lastly, while I really liked the tapered design and the way you you could easily pick it up, I've got to admit the new design with the rounded edges is nice too (upgraded from 2020 M1 Air to 15" M3 Air), those non-sharp rounded edges feel good in your hand. 17 years is a good run for a design.
You get what you pay for and the sample you give is on a massive sale, so I guess the Snapdragon ones aren't selling.
Of course, a lot of that has to do with the fact that the MBP has gotten almost too thin (2016-2019 butterfly KB mess) considering that the Air exists and should be a distinct product?
Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the MacBook Air 17 years ago today at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco, captivating audiences with a groundbreaking design that set new industry standards.
Jobs famously revealed the MacBook Air by pulling it out of an interoffice envelope to emphasize its unprecedentedly slim profile. The original model featured a 13.3-inch display, Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and an optional 64GB solid-state drive, which was a rarity for consumer laptops in 2008, in a sleek aluminum unibody design. It lacked features considered standard at the time, such as an optical drive and Ethernet port. The single headphone, USB, and Micro-DVI ports popped out of a small door on the right of the machine. Jobs said:
Seventeen years later, the MacBook Air remains a cornerstone of the Mac lineup, providing the entry-level point for customers who want an Apple laptop. In 2020, Apple brought its own custom silicon processor to the MacBook Air in the form of the M1 chip, enabling a massive leap in performance and energy efficiency. It completely redesigned the machine in 2022, and added a 15-inch model in 2024. In the first half of this year, Apple is expected to bring its latest-generation M-series chips to the device.
Article Link: The MacBook Air Turns 17 Today
Can't believe it's been that long..
Yikes!
The design was great, but the sloooow 4200rpm hard drive and lack of high speed (firewire) ports made working with it feel like going back in time 5-10 years. Never got to work on one with that relatively tiny SSD, but imagine that it had to have performed so much better.. of course that tiny SSD w/o high speed external storage would have introduced a different pain point...
The design was about 3 years ahead of the parts needed to really make it shine... (more affordable/larger SSDs and thunderbolt)
We take how thin even the MBP is and fast SSDs and TB4 ports are for granted I think...
That first gen model was painfully slow due to that 4200rpm HDD, but once they shipped them with SSD's they were an absolute gamechanger. I still have a 2010 MBA sat in a drawer somewhere, but the coating from the screen has been peeling away from age. Cant bring myself to throw it out and it's probably too old to be of use to anyone.
Yes. I remember all the complaints in the Macworld forums about how for “only” another 1 lb you could get a “real” MacBook with a SuperDrive and more ports. The MacBook Air could “borrow” a DVD drive from another Mac or Windows PC on the same network. Apple also sold a separate SuperDrive.
I had the original MacBook Air with the HDD (the 64GB SSD model was $2,999(. It throttled a lot. In November 2008 Apple released a much improved version with a processor that did not throttle as much, and a larger and faster SSD available for $2,499.
It’s a question of component supply and demand, plus engineering resources (design, test, reliability etc)
When the MBA first came out, I was initially against it. Felt there were too many compromises made in performance and specs but there was no doubt the design was on point. With that said, when I bought my first laptop, I went with the 2015 12" retina MacBook over the Air at the time because the rMB offered a much better screen, flash storage and was just as portable and thin/light as an Air for not that much more money. The problem with the MB though was the CPU, it was just atrocious. That and the single port for charging and data transfer left it gimped in a way that would not fly long term.
When the M1 MBA came out, however, it changed the game as we know it. It offered a compelling package of performance, design, a great screen, keyboard and trackpad...and it had 2 ports which helped a lot. I still have mine and I adore it, though I use my 15" M2 MBA as my main these days. I hold firm that pound for pound the M1 MBA is the single greatest computer Apple has ever made, it is the jack of all trades.
When the M1 MBA came out, however, it changed the game as we know it. It offered a compelling package of performance, design, a great screen, keyboard and trackpad...and it had 2 ports which helped a lot. I still have mine and I adore it, though I use my 15" M2 MBA as my main these days. I hold firm that pound for pound the M1 MBA is the single greatest computer Apple has ever made, it is the jack of all trades.