Apple MacBook Air Announced at MacWorld '08

I'm amazed with all the loud predictions here of how this machine will be a failure. Screen size is a major factor in usability, and as far as I'm concerned, the biggest impediment to portability is weight. The MacBook Air is a winner on both these counts, and it will have quite respectable performance, too, especially with the solid state option. Not to mention the superb style.

Yes, one USB port may be a pain in the ass, but usually when I'm using more than one I could just swap the peripherals anyways.

I would probably not buy this computer without the Ethernet adapter and likely not without the external CD/DVD drive, either. But I think this machine would come very close to meeting my needs, as a serious computer user (I spend plenty of time programming and am writing a physics thesis right now).

Obviously this machine is not targeted to people who like to take apart their computers. But there are so few of you that I don't think that matters. I think it will be quite successful, as it does occupy a rather unique market position at the moment.

 

Even the $20 upgrade for Touch users is a bit of a slap in the face. Should all the Xmux presents be returned? What are they thinking?

More confusion in the stores:
customer: 'does this touch have the new firmware with mail and maps?'
best buy associate: 'huh?'
customer: 'never mind I'll wait/tell me more about that Samsung.'

 

Well, this is just one of many communities, but it is rife with Apple likers and early adopters (as are the other sites covering this launch). I took a quick peek at other sites and found quite a few folks that are a bit disappointed.

Many of us were hoping that Apple would make a product with more mass appeal.

 

the tz is still lighter w/ an opitcal drive

and no Ethernet, boooooooooo


they should of bumped it down to a 12" screen too.

 

If you come out and basically fly a "I am richer than you" flag, along with the rest of your posts what do you expect?

 

Because I can.

Apple products are a sham, they suck, they are overpriced and over hyped and I just love how everyone bends over and takes it from Steve Jobs anytime he gives a speech.

 

Does anyone know about the cooling system on this thing? Passive, or is there a fan on the bottom?

I see how freaking hot my notebook (see sig) gets when I am gaming, I cannot imagine how they will shed heat from the CPU.

Oh, and if I was rich, I would buy this thing immediately just to play with/ogle

 

so it ONLY has wireless n?

what if i dont have a n router? will it still work with b/g?

 

But as a business major, I absolutly love the company from a business point of view, as a consumer, not so much.

The iPod Touch is a amazing little device (friend has one), but obviously it is prone to breaking, its expensive (rightfully), and the whole battery issue.

However, as a business, you simply cannot fault Apple. Look at the pathetic mess the company was in when Jobs came back in 1997/8, and after the iMac came out, its just been one continuous push that has served them well.

Again, I am just talking about Apple as a business, not that 'Apple is cool!!!1 #1 APPLE FANBOY!'

 

a, b, g, n, and Bluetooth

 

I like how Apple rants about it being so thin. Hell, I could make a computer thin if I didn't bother to add any ports or optical drives too.

I'd fully expect less of a computer to take up less volume.

I'm really aggrivated that Apple has insulted general intelligence with a product like this. There is nothing new or groundbreaking here.

 

This.

The only reason you dont see the Lenovo X61, Sony TZ, Fujitsu P7xxx models this thin is they still want expresscard slots, multiple USB ports, VGA, lan/modem, SD card readers and in some cases optical drives. Hell some crazy nutjobs even want to carry spare batteries!

 

How can a laptop that thin fit a battery large enough to power it for 5 hours?! I'd be amazed if it turned out to be true. I bet the keyboard isn't much fun to type on though (shallow keys)...

 

Ah, very Apple. They are way beyond any other companies when it comes to the ability to make people believe that their somewhat attractive product is "innovative".

Imo, the concept of the combining relatively large LCD with light weight itself is good. But no eithernet? No optical drive? One USB port? Ok, let me see. If you want to use external drives, such as DVD-R, you will need an USB port. Majority of printers and mouses (which, you will want to have with mac, as you want to do right click). USB keys are almost necessary nowadays, too. And well, how do they connect iPods...Plus, its footprint is huge even for a 13.3 laptop.

For me, SZ or Toughbook Y7 is so much better choice than this. Both are heavier than MBA, but by less than a pound, and they both have built-in optical drive, and of course normal connectivity options. SZ has dedicate GPU and smaller footprint. Y7 is the toughest non-rugged laptop on the earth and it has bigger screen as well. If you like big screen, there's also Fujitsu S6510, which has 14.1inch screen, even. Or, for there's TZ which is lighter and has optical drive, if LCD is bit smaller. No contest.

That being said, when it comes to "average Joes thinking of getting laptops" - their world ends with HP, Dell, Apple, Acer, Toshiba and maybe Sony. I bet they don't even know that Y7 or S6510 exists. Chances are, they would think like "my, this MacBook Air is so much more sleek than these Dells!". Seesh, there are so many people even at here who thought M1330 was unique and innovative laptop, unaware of SZ which did the same thing more than a year ago, and better.
.

 

Sorry, but they have clearly laid out the size, weight, capabilities, limits (lack of optical drive, limited ports, etc.). Its there for the consumer to say yes or no to.

Don't think I will be giving up my Vostro 1400 for this Almost 1/3 the price, a lot faster, and much more.

 

You get that rating on a 37whr battery it would need to consume ~7.5 watts of power. For some reason I doubt its going to be that low for average use

 

Amen. There's nothing revolutionary about this, and as many other posters have pointed out, it sacrifices a lot of functionality. Another failure by Mac imo.

 

Quoted for truth, though I wouldn't say that all of their products are crap. The vast majority of them are overpriced, though .

Either way, I won't be buying a MacBook air anytime soon. I would purchase an HP 2510p, a Lenovo X61, a Dell XPS M1330, or a used Sony VAIO X505 before I buy the MacBook Air. All of the above are thicker (except for the X505 maybe), but they don't sacrifice nearly as much in the process. And they would still be more than thin and light enough for me. Heck, I don't even mind my 15.4" nw8440's size and weight all that much.

Thin is definitely in, I understand, but honestly, the MacBook air is suffering from Anorexia.

 

There is little (not nothing!) revolutionary about the MBA. It IS the evolution of the notebook. I will put this into the discussion:

MBA = iPod of notebooks

It will succeed just as the iPod did. iPod wasn't the best and is still not the best at what it does, but it was easy. Easy to learn, use, carry, and it's reliability is up there with the best. The cherry on top is that even if you don't like it, resale is very high for Apple products. Those who bring up Sony's innovations forget that it doesn't matter if Sony is on the bleeding edge of technology if they can't expand their market beyond the spendy enthusiast market. I love Sony tech, but their good stuff is just too much and they leave you on your own when it comes to support.

 

Isn't the MBA 1800$? How's that less enthusiast than Sony?

 

I think this is gonna sound really philosophical, or weird but I think minimalist is good.

Sure there's less features than in a regular laptop, but do we really use them?

I think wer'e so used to having everything that not having it makes us worried.

No Optical drive? Who really needs it? My laptop has no optical drive. The last time I used the attachment waas to reinstall windows and office and that it. The rest of the time, I just download my programs off the internet.

One USB port? Who really needs more than one at a time? The only ones I can would be those who use a mouse which is really counter intuitive since the MBA has a brand new multi-touch trackpad. Besides that, the only time when I actually need more than one is when I'm at home at my desk where a HUB holds all my usb connections.

As for expresscard/pcmcia? Um, the only peropherals I have seen of late using it was either a SSD (which you can just buy a usb one instead) and the wireless modems for cellphone networks.


Oh well.

The only thing wrong with it is the price... So, when the refurbished models start to appear for 1200-1400$, I'm so on it.

 

After thinking about it, I'm going to opt for the regular Macbook over this. No ethernet + 1 usb + no optical drive did it for me.

 

Even if it did have 4 USB ports, an optical drive, and the such, I still would have no desire ot get this. What is useful about a thin laptop? Wow, I could fit it in a book bag. But, then again, I can fit any notebook computer in my book bag!

I hate how the average person has no clue how to price computers. The big companies with varying ranges of service make computers nearly twice the price they need to be. Lately, though, Dell has been changing this with sub-XPS machines.

This is all Apple does. They make sleek things at the cost of price, features, and performance, and people love them for it. All they are are propriety Apple versions of technology that's been around at least a year.

I could continue ranting on about I still have the same reliable MP3 player from a year before the iPod came out, but I will restrain myself, because that is off topic.

A note about the optical drive system. They're saying they have some new software where this thing can use optical drives from other machines over a wireless network. They act like they're the first. Windows has been able to share optical drives between machines as long as I can remember. YOU'RE NOT NEW OR SPECIAL!

If you want something small, or you hate Microsoft AND you want something small, go with the Eee PC. I doubt the performance advantages this has over the Eee PC make up for the fact that it's over 5x more expensive.

 

For me, the MBA is $1799 and the cheapest TZ available is $2300. That's a lot to give up for footprint and a slower processor. It's really a matter of priorities for each buyer. I don't fly enough to pay an extra 500.

 

Regardless of whether people like the MacBook Air or not, one thing is for sure:
Apple is once again causing a stir and getting lots of publicity/attention. Be it bad or good publicity it is publicity nonetheless. Just look at the amount of posts in this thread. Apart from packaging their products using simple and sleek design, Apple is very good at marketing/PR - and it helps their bottomline.

 

One thing is that it's light.
I take public transit all the time and the difference between 5lbs and 3lbs is huge on your shoulders. So big screen with thin and light profile is quite reasonable.

Less features means less holes for dust to creep in.

 

yeah but the tz and others go on sale for much less and they are always much cheaper then their msrp. when a mac goes on sale its usually for a mesley $50-100 dollars.

also this thing is probably only good for photos Internet and writing stuff. when you want to do more it will become a hassle because of all the add ons you will need to do anything. it won't be so portable if you need a external optical drive, usb hub and what ever else, the thing doesn't even have a memory card reader, when will they figure out that memory card readers are usefull...

I hope they come out with a suped up 13.3" macbookpro! that would be way cooler!

 

Just noticed that Apple actually does refer to it as an ultraportable when talking about its full size keyboard feature here: http://www.apple.com/macbookair/guidedtour/index.html?size=large

As other have mentioned, it may be in the same weight class as ultraportables, but footprint wise it is far from it. It's an insult to call it an ultraportable considering the 13.3" screen with a fat bezel surrounding it.

As I mentioned earlier, Apple is good at the marketing/hype game, but they are really starting to get on my nerves when they try and hype their products into something they are not. The sad part is, that many normal consumers eat the marketing hype raw and undigested.

 

so its thinner than the sony x505vp?




hmmm... wonder where apple came up with the idea haha

 

are you serious?.
with the ipod apple basically tapped in to an untapped market by producing a digital music player that utilised massive storage via hard disks that allowed thousands of songs to be stored via a pc as apposed to cd,cassette and mini disk players it was truly revolutionary. how exactly does this compare?

it lacks internal components that have been standard in notebooks for long time some of which over 10years. charging you $100 to add a external dvd drive something that comes standard in 99.9% of new notebooks they really take you for mugs. i really cant see why anyone would choose this over the macbook or macbook pro. if you want portability the macbook is a great solution and is very reasonbly priced or if you want more power and options the macbook pro is the ideal solution. who are they targeting this at? does it being thin and light as well as multitouch justify the $1799 price tag?

 

and the x505 was made years ago too.

 

And as discussed before in this forum, thats where the "Macbook" style keyboard came from which many will confuse as Apple pioneering. What if Apple and Vaio engineers teamed up?

 

WOW even with this news apple stock fell down. I still think this is a great product, but will not sell because why should a company have 2 of the same screen size notebooks.

 

i dont think vaio engeineers need apples lol.

now that apple has made this. i foresee sony coming up with something better (maybe the next S series, or something else)

 

LOL
it's gonna break in half

 

First, know your history before you launch into massive exaggerations. Deification of the iPod is misguided. The unique implementation of otherwise existing technology was the novel advantage of the iPod; iPod touch being an exception to this. Second, removal of unnecessary components should be considered progress. Why have legacy ports (VGA) or optical storage when they are not necessary? You may as well ask for a parallel port while you're at it.

 

The truth is not rude my friend.

 

This device is not marketed towards a user who just "want it to work" and are looking at a mac because
1) Its more expensive then a MacBook
2) Has less features and is slower then a macbook
3) As soon as an average user learns that they cannot play their movie on the road that the bought on DVD at the airport they will not be a happy camper.

Optical Drives are hardly considered a "not necessary" Yes you can get away with it barely but I had a HP ZV5000 where the DVD drive is broke and it was eternally painful not being able to rent DVD's at the airport and watch them on the flight....meh I think this is a mistake. On top of that the black and silver scheme is terrible IMO it looks like they needed something to show people and took a black macbook keyboard just laying around and slapped it onto the prototype with tape and glue.

 

80GB 4200rpm PATA?? This not good...I might just stick to Thinkpad X series

 

Optical Drive unnecessary? Hmm, I do burn CD/DVDs (assignments, Linux ISO, custom music CD etc). I do rip music CD I own often, too. And some documents are distributed in CDs (say, a photo album your friend made). Yeah, you can use external drive. But that is bulky, add annoying cables..And well, that uses the precious USB port. And well, USB hub is also bulky and it add another cords, especially the one with AC adapter - the only useful one. Not to mention they don't always work that well, especially if you put too many things on it. Many people still uses Ethernet at home, at least I do. Memory cards are useful, too. And when did express cards became legacy invention? I thought that thing was very new?

They should get rids of VGA outs or Modem outs, but other things are hardly "unnecessary", nor they won't be disappearing anytime soon.

BTW, Ipod wasn't the first of their kind. It was the first of their kind that was made by a major company. Plus, its sound quality is awful (its UI is good, though).

 

Fail
(filler)

 

I disagree with the premise of this laptop..

Apple makes it seem like standard 13" laptops are unbelievably thick and heavy and generally unmoveable. I don't see the reason for an ultrathin laptop this expensive and featureless.

 

I'm very fond of the no-optical-drive form factor, many ultraportables (like the Dell lattitude X1 - I think it is called) have been doing external dvd for years!

I don't think an internal optical drive is nescessary at all. I have a lovely Vostro 1400 which I'm very happy with, and I've used my DVD-ROM drive all of 3 times since I bought it at launch!

 

This will certainly do well. I wish I had the funds to get one, but it'd be unnecessary for what I have at the moment...

 

If I had that kinda money, I would get the Toshiba R500 over the MBA in a heart beat.

 

I don't understand why the MBA only goes up to 80 GB while the iPod goes up to 160 GB. Are they using different HDDs?

 

i wonder how slow its gonna be with a 4200 rpm drive. (thats the only one i would be able to afford right now, if i ever bought one)

over a grand more for a 64gb ssd? wtf.

 

I think it might be a bit thicker than the 80GB one....I know that the 160GB iPod is thicker than the 80GB iPod.

And I'd regard the deletion of the DVD drive as progress. Really, the only real use for optical drives is HD DVD and BluRay; everything else should just move to SD and SD-HC. Its smaller, has more storage space, and its not really that much more expensive than DVD was a few years back.

 

Ok my friends, lets keep things mature, no more calling each other rude please. Lets respect one another opinions.

They might go larger with SDD size later. 80GB is plenty on such an ultraportable though in my opinion.

 

nice assumption and words
fair enough, but like i said apple basically tapped into an untapped market where CD and mini disk players were still the most popular form of music players and wasn't until the ipod hit that there was a significant rise in popularity of digital music players, so yes in that respect it was revolutionary.

not necessary to who? you? how is removing anything that is currently industry standard considered progression?is taking out a 120gb 5400rpm drive and replacing it with 80gb 4,200rpm progression? is taking out a 2.0ghz cpu and replacing it with a 1.6ghz cpu progression? do we not need optical drives to install software,games and watch films that we buy? and like i said apple is taking you for mugs as they are charging you $100 for something that is present in 99.9% of notebooks. Now i dont see how asking for whats should be included in an system is related to asking for parrell ports. im not asking to bring back outdated technology now am i parrell ports were replaced by USB just in the same way CD/DVDs etc have replaced floppy drives.

so to sum you would rather spend $1799 on a notebook because it omits standard components im assuming this beacuase the awnser to my question wasn't awnsered why would anyone choose this over the macbook or macbook pro. is it really that difficult and worth an extra $799 to travel with a machine of the same size just slightly heavier and thicker but overall much better in every other way?