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What do you use your MacBook Air for?

K

kevintech

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 5, 2010
319
2
Just wondering what everyone uses their MBA for. Post your age, occupation, type of MBA you own, and what you use it for.

25 year old grad student with an 11" 2011 MBA 128GB/4GB i5. I use it mainly for web browsing, e-mail, calendar, chatting and netflix and for notes during class. And now I'll be using it for fantasy football!

What about you, forumers?

oh yeah, and for facetime with the gf and family
 
17 year old student with a 13" 2011 MBA 4GB/128GB/1.7 i5. Use for iOS and Android development when away from my iMac, doesn't get much use at home, but I opted for the 13" for the screen resolution.
 
I use it mainly for travel, presentation at my University, and what ever my iPhone cant handle or when my MBP/iMac is not near me.
 
I use it mainly for Adobe fireworks , browsing using safari, mail, adium ( beats ym , msn gtalk etc , nifty product ) , skype , youtube etc
 
My own air is mainly for writing, browsing, emailing etc.

It's also used as the one Mac at my workplace in case we ever need it to decipher something Appleish that's been sent in.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
My MBA 13" is my main (and sole) working machine as a web-admin and web-designer. I love it because it's powerful enough to function as a professional's machine, plus it's portable enough to take my business with me when I travel.
 
KohPhiPhi said:
My MBA 13" is my main (and sole) working machine as a web-admin and web-designer. I love it because it's powerful enough to function as a professional's machine, plus it's portable enough to take my business with me when I travel.
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thats exactly what i wanted to hear, im wanting one of these for the portability and im learning html, css etc, i know the slowest pc in the land can handle notebook editing lol but yea i want something flexible like the air...

from what im reading these are good for wed design (heavy photo editing aside) yea? sorry to cut in but had to ask before i lay down my coin..

p.s would the 11" screen be ok for html editing?
 
I purchased a 13" base model last week.

I use mine for web design, design and photography (as well as all the usuals)

For the photography side of things, it's a great machine for tethered shooting, light photo editing is great as well. I hear a lot of people giving the screen abuse but I've had no issues whatsoever.

A few issues with Dreamweaver, fireworks and indesign with regards to Lion, something you may want to bear in mind.
 
adammade said:
I purchased a 13" base model last week.

I use mine for web design, design and photography (as well as all the usuals)

For the photography side of things, it's a great machine for tethered shooting, light photo editing is great as well. I hear a lot of people giving the screen abuse but I've had no issues whatsoever.

A few issues with Dreamweaver, fireworks and indesign with regards to Lion, something you may want to bear in mind.
Click to expand...

base model as in i5? thanx for your reply btw
 
Everything. I run somewhere around 75 different programs regularly (not all at once). From my work stuff with modeling and requirements for software design, occasional development and quality assurance activities, database tools, data analysis tools, connectivity and communications tools, etc. The usual MS office stuff, and scanning, faxing, printing. Personal stuff like music, movies, photos etc.

As I travel a lot the MBA has always been appealing to me. I've owned MBA revA and revC and now revD models. Since day one the MBA has always been my primary computer and as of the 2010 model it's become my only computer with enough power and capacity for all my common needs. Would still like more RAM but not quite to the point of switching back to a MBP.

The MBA is a phenomenal mobile experience if you fit within it's power and capacity constraints and I'm glad I do. My wife uses a 2011 15" MBP ultimate and while it's a beautiful machine with much more versatility, power, and capacity, I'd sure hate to drag that around in my travels
 
21 year old university student with an 13'' 2011 MBA 256GB/4GB i5.

I use it to browse the web, email, watch movies, type documents ala Pages for class and chat via adium.
 
50's guy, simi-retired. I use my 2010 13 inch ultimate for email and web surfing as well as photo editing using Aperture3 and various plug-ins for photography while on the go.
 
I'm a 25 y.o. University student, graduating in May '12. I use my 11" 1.6 i5, 4GB, 128 GB SSD Air for safari, Microsoft Office, School assignments through blackboard and typing notes in some classes. Also some photo processing, most liking buying Aperture soon, and also using Handbrake to rip my DVD collection to iTunes(which is twice as fast as my old MacBook).
 
University student here so I use it for web browsing, email, typing reports and the occasional movie.
 
University professor, use my i5 13" 256gb MBA for work for writing lectures, papers, and travel, plus the obvious web browsing and so forth. In my other life I'm a photographer and while I have a 27" 2009 iMac for that, I'm surprised by how fast the Air is for editing photos when I need to on it. But 27" is hard to beat for editing photos, plus it has much more storage space via external HDs, so I only occasionally use the MBA for that.

I wanted something that I could slip into my bag and not dread dragging around all day, and the MBA fits that profile well. It's also much more powerful than I expected. I am very happy.
 
Wildlife photography...

I am a wildlife photographer and I take mine on trips... I'm in high school! :)
 
I mainly use my Macbook Air to surf the Internet, emailing, manage my calendar and tasks and write documents for work.
Most of the times I use it when at home sitting on the couch. I rarely take it with me because I have to use my windows company laptop, so I take my iPad with me for my private stuff.
My Macbook Air isn't my main computer but has a big part in my computing life.
 
3rd year electrical engineering student: When I'm at my apartment, I'm almost always on my 27in iMac. I really only use my 11in MBA when I'm in bed bumming around, or if I head to a friend's place. I don't particularly frequent libraries, nor do I take my laptop to class, so yup - mainly for travel or bumming. I do love it though and often times my girlfriend uses it since her laptop is too big for her to lug over to my place conveniently (~15in Dell).

Using both simultaneously right now though, as I'm setting up a virtual XP machine on the MBA (to run LTSpice and Mathcad), but using the .iso from my iMac. Woohoo technology.
 
23 year old male, with a 2011 13" Ultimate i7. I have a iMac but have been using this Air as my main computer for the last month. I mainly use it for web surfing, iTunes, mail and iPhoto.. Probably could of got away with getting the i5 but the i7 just seemed so tempting!

If I was into heavy video or photo editing i probably would of opted for a MBP but the MBA's design is lovely!:)
 
46 year old web developer. I just traded in my 4 year old 15inch MBP for a 13inch MBA 1.8, i7. I figured if I could go a month without missing the MBP, then I'd switch over for good.

I use it primarily for client meetings, quick layout and comp presentations, email, web surfing, social networking, working on the road and just about everything else. I've been incredibly impressed with it, even though the screen is smaller, the resolution makes up for it, and working on it while flying is so much easier than on the 15 inch. Plus the weight difference, and battery performance make this a machine that truly performs on the road. At home and in the office, I've got a Mac Pro Tower and a new 27 inch iMac, but I still find myself using the air in other parts of the house, or over lunch during the week. It's like my best new buddy. Can't wait for iCloud so I can start storing major files in the air.
 
45 ish Sales Engineer. I use my 11" i5 4GB 128SSD for sales presentation using Microsoft office power point and or Word. I am a amateur photographer and use it for minor photo editing, iPhoto. Web surfing, email, iCal for my schedule, contacts and sync with my iPhone and iMac along with all my work documents saved on iDisk.
 
IngerMan said:
45 ish Sales Engineer. I use my 11" i5 4GB 128SSD for sales presentation using Microsoft office power point and or Word. I am a amateur photographer and use it for minor photo editing, iPhoto. Web surfing, email, iCal for my schedule, contacts and sync with my iPhone and iMac along with all my work documents saved on iDisk.
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except for the photo editing - virtually the same - retired and now doing sales training on contract. I have moved to Keynote from PP as I create on my MBA and show in my ipad2. Inger - a great compact projector that fits in a messenger bag is the Epson 1750 - 1 " thick but lumens like a std projector.
 
glen e said:
except for the photo editing - virtually the same - retired and now doing sales training on contract. I have moved to Keynote from PP as I create on my MBA and show in my ipad2. Inger - a great compact projector that fits in a messenger bag is the Epson 1750 - 1 " thick but lumens like a std projector.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the tip Glen ;)
 
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