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What do you use your MacBook Air for?

slo82 said:
From what im reading these are good for web 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?
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You can TOTALLY do web design on both the 11" and 13", BUT you will find the vertical resolution on the 11" too limiting unless you hook it up to an external monitor. For web design, I need more screen real state which is precisely why I went for the 13".

Trust me, you won't be disappointed with the 13"
 
37 business consultant for grants and incentives and I use it for work; word, mail, Skype/VoIP, excel and in the evenings instead of the iPad I sold. Ive got this thing always with me, even now when I'm on holiday in London. It makes my life often a bit easier to have it with me all the time.
Right now I carry it in an eagle industries Molle patrol pack. It's where normally the trauma plate is placed. Perfect hidden pocket btw.
 
KohPhiPhi said:
You can TOTALLY do web design on both the 11" and 13", BUT you will find the vertical resolution on the 11" too limiting unless you hook it up to an external monitor. For web design, I need more screen real state which is precisely why I went for the 13".

Trust me, you won't be disappointed with the 13"
Click to expand...

exactly what i needed to hear, i wont be using a second monitor on this thing, its to stay very very portable, i have the Asus G73J for anything heavier like graphical work, but it doesn't leave the desk due to weight and battery life limiting its portability. but down the beach in a park somewhere working on my MacBook Air using my Samsung Galaxy as a WiFi Access point is something to be desired for a geek like me (who says i dont leave the house lol)...

tomorrow morning ill be going straight into a local distributor and getting the 13" i5 128gig Air (stock depending knowing my luck):rolleyes:
 
30- Pharmacy student. came from 2010 MBP > i5 11" MBA base and am happy with it as my main unit. I was in returning my bookbook for my IP4, when a girl sat a 13" MBP in from of me and I asked if it was a 15? She laughed, no its a 13. Its amazing how accustom I have gotten to the 11" screen and I love it.
 
25 year old law student, I use my base 2010 11" MBA for lecture notes, all typing and looking-up of things I have to do while at school, and for some note taking when I'm at meetings for my job. I also take it for longer travels, where I feel I need a little more than the iPad.
 
browsing, information seeking, chatting, few games, video, music...

i dont use it for "work" since i dont really have a computer related job :p
 
Browsing, AIM, Pages, Music, some Apps. And of course for everything university-related.
 
36 yr old software developer. The MBA is my only computer so I use it for everything including writing software. Last year I moved to a new city and commute via subway and walk a lot and sometimes barely notice the MBA is on my back esp not needing to carry the power supply around. (been without a car for 1 year now :) )
For coding I use the following:
Adobe Flash Builder
Adobe Flash
XCode 4
Photoshop
Textmate

Also watch movies (sd and hd, .avi, .mkv etc) using Plex (if you haven't tried Plex, I highly recommended it even over VLC)
 
Same here: web design and heavy Flash development on a 2010 13" MBA. I had the 2008 13" MBA before and it was only "bearable". The hdd was way too slow and when my agency provided me with a Mac Pro, I gladly switched.

The 2010's MBA however is lightning fast – the SSD completely outclasses the Mac Pro. I use the MBA as my only computer now and gave the Mac Pro to someone else. Since the newer MBAs are even faster, I believe they should be perfect for anything but heavy film editing or 3D rendering. Both are possible on a MBA but on a higher and professional level you'll probably want to have as many additional cores as you can get.

An extra screen may be nice, especially if you're working on a desk, but I can easily live without.
 
I mainly use this for web browsing and office work, mainly Microsoft mac office, and occasionally use Fusion because the pivot table of Windows Excel 2010 is better. MBA is good for road warrior!
 
iOS programming. I'll be installing Windows 7 soon as well for Visual Studio development.

Coming from Windows laptops the portability and build quality of the 13" has surprised me.

I'm recommending it all over the place.
 
It's a computer, I use it as such. I use my new 17" MBP for engineering & design work. For everything else I use my new 13" MBA.
 
MBA - 2010 11" 128 SSD + 4GB Ram

39 year old Unix Systems Admin contractor - Use mine everyday - goes everywhere with me for work.

Have the usual MS Office/Skype etc - but the fact I can run multiple Virtual Machines (use VMware Fusion) I have 3 x Redhat Linux VM's configured in a Veritas Cluster - with shared storage. :D

Also carry all my notes/research with me.

Goes on holidays (along with iPad) and use it with a 1TB USB Portable drive for storing photos/videos.

In my house - everything is now Apple - just because the last thing I want to do after coming home - is spend hours fixing a broken PC/Windows machine ........

Even my 9 year old daughter now has my old MBP as her machine - quite happily uses the PC's at school - and then swaps to the Mac with no problems.
:apple:

Even bought a 13" MBP for my in-laws - as trying to remotely fix their PC/patch etc was too time consuming. They think it's tee best thing since sliced bread - and Skype with my wife/daughter - rather than expensive phone calls.

As I say to any of my friends who ask what computer they should get - "Buy a mac" -

When they then grumble saying their more expensive than XYZ Laptop.

I say - "But they just work ......."

Out of 6 family friends with kids - 4 are now running macs as well !!!

:apple:Imac 2011 27" I7 256SSD 16GB Ram
:apple:MBP 2011 15" I7 256SSD 8GB Ram
:apple:MBA 2010 11" C2D 128SSD 4GB Ram
:apple:MBP 2008 15" 2.53Ghz 2x128SSD(aftermarket) 4GB Ram (My old Laptop now given to my daughter)
:apple:Mac Mini 2010 C2D - 64GB SSD4GB Ram (CCTV system for house/gardens)
:apple:Iphone 4G 32GB
:apple:Ipad2 64Gb Ram
* ReadyNas NV+ - 4 x 2TB (5.4TB usuable)
 
32 year old teacher and writer. I use a lot of technology in the classroom: iPad, Keynote, videos, iMovie for student presentations, Pages and Numbers for making tests and keeping track of grades, all of which flows into or out of my air at one point or another.

At home I stream TV shows and movies on it via Plex and a Mac Mini connected to the main TV. Since I live overseas I use Skype and FaceTime to communicate back to the states.

I wrote a horror novel a my old Macbook and finished it on my new Macbook Air. My entire workflow from Pages to Kindle Direct Publishing was designed to learn how to put a great looking eBook out there without having to hire someone to format it (I did hire a designer however).

I game, occasionally, on my Macbook Air. Mainly World of Warcraft, Starcraft, and some older games (Doom 3 just the other week). Otherwise I do all the stuff people do with computers: waste a ton of time watching videos of cats on the internet.
 
19 year old student/software developer. MBA 13" 1.8GHz i7. I use it for everything - Photoshop, fireworks, website development, iPhone development, Java..everything! It's amazing how much easier it is to work on than my MBP 13" due to the screen res!
 
20, college student of English and Philosophy. 13" 2010 MBA, base model.

I'm a writer by hobby and through my education, and I've found that this is the most comfortable computer I can think of. It's so easy to slip into my purse wherever I go and grab 20-30 minutes of work. There's also the obvious: writing papers, making presentations, putting together study guides.
 
Just got mine a few days ago..

I use it for work (office 2011, sparrow for email), Browsing (google reader feeds, youtube), Entertainment (watching tv shows and media with plex, iTunes for music and podcast), Gaming (Team Fortress 2 on steam), Remote desktop to control my mackintosh and old 2006 macbook file/media server.

So basically.. almost everything for my computing needs :)
 
Hey, I am a University student (Business Psychology) and these are the tasks I plan to fulfill with the MBA:
  • Finishing presentations on the way or at the university/in the park/city etc.
  • organizing my calendars, appointments etc.
  • writing essays
  • surfing
  • project work for the consultancy
  • project work for Assessment Centers

Should be no problem nontheless the disk space is quite limited, huh?


Greetings
 
Scary! Just insert 46 years old instead of 39, and Hybrid Systems Administrator and this could be my bio, right down to the "In my house", which I use at least once a day. :D
seyre1972 said:
39 year old Unix Systems Admin contractor - Use mine everyday - goes everywhere with me for work.

Have the usual MS Office/Skype etc - but the fact I can run multiple Virtual Machines (use VMware Fusion) I have 3 x Redhat Linux VM's configured in a Veritas Cluster - with shared storage. :D

Also carry all my notes/research with me.

Goes on holidays (along with iPad) and use it with a 1TB USB Portable drive for storing photos/videos.

In my house - everything is now Apple - just because the last thing I want to do after coming home - is spend hours fixing a broken PC/Windows machine ........

Even my 9 year old daughter now has my old MBP as her machine - quite happily uses the PC's at school - and then swaps to the Mac with no problems.
:apple:

Even bought a 13" MBP for my in-laws - as trying to remotely fix their PC/patch etc was too time consuming. They think it's tee best thing since sliced bread - and Skype with my wife/daughter - rather than expensive phone calls.

As I say to any of my friends who ask what computer they should get - "Buy a mac" -

When they then grumble saying their more expensive than XYZ Laptop.

I say - "But they just work ......."

Out of 6 family friends with kids - 4 are now running macs as well !!!

:apple:Imac 2011 27" I7 256SSD 16GB Ram
:apple:MBP 2011 15" I7 256SSD 8GB Ram
:apple:MBA 2010 11" C2D 128SSD 4GB Ram
:apple:MBP 2008 15" 2.53Ghz 2x128SSD(aftermarket) 4GB Ram (My old Laptop now given to my daughter)
:apple:Mac Mini 2010 C2D - 64GB SSD4GB Ram (CCTV system for house/gardens)
:apple:Iphone 4G 32GB
:apple:Ipad2 64Gb Ram
* ReadyNas NV+ - 4 x 2TB (5.4TB usuable)
Click to expand...


----------

46 year old systems admin. I use my 2010 13" Macbook Air as my primary work machine. Telnet into routers/switches, SSH into Nix boxen, write up policy/manuals in Libre Office, test VMs using VMWare Fusion, RDP/VNC into Windows boxes at work, pop over into Windows VM to Dameware into various boxes. All the other normal crap, websurfing, video, audio, documents, downloading, plus the occasional video and photo edits.

Just read Seyre1972's post for the rest of my story, except my daughter is 5 and I got my mom a macmini.
;-)
 
Just curious, what word processing software do you use in your MBA? Do you really have to spring for the extra copy of office, or go for free stuff like openoffice? Trying to get a feel of the 'extra costs' involved, in addition to the base cost of a MBA.

I seem to recall reading somewhere claiming that my imac's copy of office could be installed on another laptop free of charge, but not sure how credible (or ethical) that is. :confused:
 
Abazigal said:
Just curious, what word processing software do you use in your MBA? Do you really have to spring for the extra copy of office, or go for free stuff like openoffice? Trying to get a feel of the 'extra costs' involved, in addition to the base cost of a MBA.

I seem to recall reading somewhere claiming that my imac's copy of office could be installed on another laptop free of charge, but not sure how credible (or ethical) that is. :confused:
Click to expand...

"Pages" - 20 bucks - mac app store
 
I am in my home stretch on College for mechanical engineering. I use it for notes in class and assignments, I have a class where i will have to be doing some programming this semester and i plan to do it on it as well. Absolutely love the machine!
 
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