There must be something in the "Air"

Libra Monkee · Post by **Libra Monkee** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:10 pm

Whatever it is I'm not seeing it. I speak of course of the MacBook Air just announced at MacWorld. Apparently this thing is small enough to fit inside an inter-office envelope. It has wifi of course but no ethernet support, one USB port, and an external cd-rom drive.

Engadget coverage

spazegun2213 · Post by **spazegun2213** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:34 pm

as useful as tits on a nun really......

chicken n waffles · Post by **chicken n waffles** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:46 pm

hmm.

no.

schvin · Post by **schvin** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 3:40 pm

i must have one.

Post by **complacent** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:50 pm

schvin wrote:i must have one.

ditto.

it would be the perfect-ist travel laptop. evAr.

Mr Kleen · Post by **Mr Kleen** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 10:24 pm

complacent wrote:it would be the perfect-ist travel laptop. evAr.

except after paying $1800 (or $3100) I wouldn't be able to afford to travel

Phibs · Post by **Phibs** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 3:39 pm

I love apple, this however is fail truck sorry

Libra Monkee · Post by **Libra Monkee** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 5:01 pm

Like most minimalist laptops this device lacks a lot of common functionality unless you're going to carry a bunch of dongle devices with you. In this case it would be a cd-rom drive, ethernet adapter, and a usb hub, at least. Which, to me at least, defeats the purpose of the small form factor.

Also it lacks the processing power that my short attention span needs to have multiple applications open at one time. Example: Watching a movie, get a song in my head, open a media player to play the song, don't have the song, find another song to listen to while I search internet for the first song, can't find the song, open bittorrent to download the original song, while the original song is downloading and other music playing I imdb the movie I still have open. Not saying that 1.6GHz processor couldn't handle VLC, iTunes, Firefox with 10 tabs and 17+ extensions, and Azureus all being open at the same time but if i open a few more programs I'd probably start feeling the the system bog down.

BTW these feeling aren't exclusive to the Air but small laptops like this (i.e. Dell D430).

Post by **complacent** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:49 am

Mr Kleen wrote:
complacent wrote:it would be the perfect-ist travel laptop. evAr.
except after paying $1800 (or $3100) I wouldn't be able to afford to travel

ALL "ultra-portables cost $texas. Period.

Libra Monkee wrote:Like most minimalist laptops this device lacks a lot of common functionality unless you're going to carry a bunch of dongle devices with you. In this case it would be a cd-rom drive, ethernet adapter, and a usb hub, at least. Which, to me at least, defeats the purpose of the small form factor.

This could very well be an irritant to people. Personally, I would have liked to see more USB ports on the MBA, as well as built-in ethernet. I can deal with a USB ethernet adapter, but it ties up the only USB port? That might make it tougher to deal with.

Libra Monkee wrote:Also it lacks the processing power that my short attention span needs to have multiple applications open at one time.

Really? You think a 1.8GHz Core 2 duo isn't enough power? That's faster than what was put in the first MacBookPro!! They were only running Core Duo, not Core2Duo! I dunno, I think it'll have plenty of oontz.

Mr Kleen · Post by **Mr Kleen** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:53 am

when I think ultra-portable I think Eee

for the cost of the MBA I could get 2 Eee PCs and a weekend vacation to Vegas!

Post by **complacent** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 11:00 am

Sure, the Eee is a ton cheaper. Look at the processor, ram, hard drive, etc.

Pardon the pun, but apples and oranges my friend.

WRXWagon2112 · Post by **WRXWagon2112** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 11:06 am

As has already been stated, ultra-portables tend to be expensive and sometimes lack optical drives - so that's not necessarily a knock against the MBA. What I think will hold it back is the single, solitary USB port.

It's one thing to expect customers to connect peripherals to a thin-and-light notebook. It's another to make them choose which ONE to use at any given time.

--Alan

Mr Kleen · Post by **Mr Kleen** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 11:09 am

complacent wrote:Sure, the Eee is a ton cheaper. Look at the processor, ram, hard drive, etc.

Pardon the pun, but apples and oranges my friend.

BOOOO! pun bad!

I was hoping for an apple version of the eee, a macbook nano. like all of apple's products the industrial engineering is top notch I just wanted a different class of product I guess.

Libra Monkee · Post by **Libra Monkee** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 11:13 am

complacent wrote:Really? You think a 1.8GHz Core 2 duo isn't enough power? That's faster than what was put in the first MacBookPro!! They were only running Core Duo, not Core2Duo! I dunno, I think it'll have plenty of oontz.

1.8GHz would be enough, sure. But what you'd be gaining in processor speed you'd be losing in HD storage. Unless, of course you want to carry an external HD with you also.

The 1.8GHz MBA comes with a 64GB SSD. SSDs are cool and all but currently they lack the capacity to cost ratio that makes me what to spend my money on them.

Post by **complacent** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 11:19 am

i bet money people will be swapping in the 160gb drive from the latest ipod within a day of the MBA's release.

but yea, they could have done it better. it feels like they've gone after a reeeeeely specific group. Maybe that's why its initials are MBA

Mr Kleen · Post by **Mr Kleen** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 2:35 pm

complacent wrote:it feels like they've gone after a reeeeeely specific group. Maybe that's why its initials are MBA

damn, I didn't notice that. sarcasm... powers... slipping....

zaxrex · Post by **zaxrex** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:14 pm

complacent wrote:i bet money people will be swapping in the 160gb drive from the latest ipod within a day of the MBA's release.

You think it is the same form factor and is compatible? Seems like the iPod would be much more expensive. That or they are just being pricks for charging that much for the air memory.

Libra Monkee · Post by **Libra Monkee** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 10:47 am

MacBook Air ad parody.

T3h funneh

Post by **complacent** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 10:50 am

zaxrex wrote:
complacent wrote:i bet money people will be swapping in the 160gb drive from the latest ipod within a day of the MBA's release.
You think it is the same form factor and is compatible? Seems like the iPod would be much more expensive. That or they are just being pricks for charging that much for the air memory.

They said it's a 1.8in drive. I'm willing to bet it's the same. Guess we won't know until we see one eviscerated.

Post by **complacent** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 11:03 am

Libra Monkee wrote:MacBook Air ad parody.

T3h funneh

Haha. I lol'd.