MacBook Air - wow!

[Stinky The Clown]

They have an 11" model for $999. Yeah, I know. Big money. But how cool! Actually about the size of an iPad but with real computational power, not an overgrown iPhone. It is incredibly lightweight. The small screen actually has great resolution and therefore works like a much larger screen.

I need a small, highly portable computer that computes. I can maybe get by with the iPad, but the Air is way ahead in power and abilities. The iPad is a ready to use form factor. The Air needs to be unfolded. The Air runs real apps. The iPad runs little bitty apps. The Air has a camera now. The iPad might have a camera some day.

iPad?

Air?

iPad?

Air?

[alfredo]

1. Buy the Air and then save up your pennies for the iPad.

You know the second generation iPad will be more capable.

[onehandle]

2. It is a really nice machine. If I needed an in between size unit, I would get the Air. (edit)

Have you actually handled one at the Apple Store?

Light, but sturdy. Instant on and off when you open and close.

Very nice.

Edited to add this:

MacBook Air outperforms Windows netbooks and ultraportables

We already know the 2010 MacBook Air models significantly improve on the previous generation in overall performance, but how do they stack up against Windows 7 laptops of similar size? Judged solely on performance, they dominate. With Windows 7 running on Apple's featherweight machines, our test results indicate that the new Airs ran faster than all but one recent netbook or ultraportable from Windows PC vendors.

http://www.macworld.com/article/155354/2010/11/macbookair_versus_winnetbooks.html

[Stinky The Clown]

3. Yes, we played with an 11" and a 13" model

We both have aluminum 13" Macbooks now, but they seem like boat anchors in comparison. The 11" model has more pixels than our current 13" models, so screen resolution is amazing. The smaller screen is still very readable. The processor is faster than mine. And the thing really is thin and light. I love the instant on feature, too.

The only downside is the form factor. It still needs to have the cover opened (unfolded), making it hard to use as a handheld. If they did it like Lenovo did with the IBM ThinkPad of a few years ago, that'd be really cool - both a tablet/handheld and normal laptop.

Overall, however, this MacBook Air is quite a machine. Well worth considering.

[47of74]

4. I saw both models the other day at the Apple Store

The other day I was up in Madison with my brother, so naturally we went to West Towne to visit the Apple Store. We didn't buy anything, but we got a pretty good look at both new MacBook Air models. I kind of liked the 13" model, I could see myself getting one of those when it comes time to get a new machine. That would still be several years down the road yet, I want to go as long as I can with my 2008 MacBook. But I was pretty impressed with the new Air.

I also got a look at the 11 inch MacBook Air. If it wasn't so expensive I think that would be a great replacement for my Acer Aspire One which is running Ubuntu and serves as my travel computer. I went to Italy a couple months back. I took my Acer netbook so I wouldn't have to worry about loss or theft of my MacBook. The Acer worked really well, but I still missed some of the applications that run on my MacBook but for which there aren't any Ubuntu equivalents. It felt good to finally come home and work with my MacBook again after having been away from it for about two weeks. It would've been nice to have had the 11 inch model on the trip seeing how it's so thin and compact.

My brother said the 11 inch wouldn't be his preference, and he'd want something even bigger than a 13 inch, so he'd probably go with the more traditional MacBook Pro.

[struggle4progress]

5. For $999 you get a 1.4ghz dualcore processor, 2gb ram, and 64gb ssd

That looks slow to me -- and it's not user upgradable

That $999 for a white macbook gets you a 13" 2.4ghz processor -- and I think for maybe another $125 you could upgrade the RAM yourself to 8gb and for maybe another $250 you could upgrade the hdd yourself to 120 gb ssd. That's around $1375 for the base system plus user upgrades

Meanwhile a slower 2.13ghz air with half as much RAM (4gb RAM) and approximately the same size ssd (128gb) would run you $1799

So you're paying for sleek appearance and low weight

[Stinky The Clown]

6. I think you're right

This is part of the first generation all solid state, instant on machines. It is the direction Apple is going for pretty much their whole line. I can see a time in the not too distant future when Apple becomes all solid state across all lines. The rest of the industry will then play"me too."

This series and this price is more the cost of being an early adopter of new technology.

[awoke_in_2003]

7. Apple has always...

driven the industry. This relatively small company has enormous influence in the computing world.

[struggle4progress]

8. Apple nixes partner's production of 256GB SSD for MacBook Air (30 Nov 2010)

The drive offered a 66% speed boost in drive throughput

By Lucas Mearian
November 30, 2010 04:52 PM ET

Computerworld - Apple has asked its business partner PhotoFast to discontinue production of a 256GB SSD upgrade kit for its MacBook Air laptop, according to several published reports.

The PhotoFast SSD kit included a 256GB flash memory module, along with a 64GB USB 3.0 flash drive for backing up the native 64GB SSD in the 11.6-in MacBook Air. Other models of the MacBook Air have Samsung SSDs with as much as 256GB of capacity.

The PhotoFast drive not only offered a big capacity boost to lower-end Air models, but it also increased throughput from the 150MB/sec speed of the MacBook Air's native drive to 250MB/sec ...

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9198741/Apple_nixes_partner_s_production_of_256GB_SSD_for_MacBook_Air?taxonomyId=19