Apple ships over 1 million MacBook Airs in new notebook's first quarter - Page 5

Glad you brought that up. I actually started noticing that too. I definitely notice when lifting it from the front (thinner) edge that the chassis "creaks". I dismissed it as the chassis screws slowly relaxing loose over time. I think if I re-tighten the screws, the creaking would stop. It is a very minor annoyance for me.

However, to be fair, my old 2008 MBA creaked a lot when I rested my big hands on the palmrest. The chassis itself did not flex/bend. Again, I think just re-tightening the screws would alleviate that.

I don't think the build quality is necessarily affected though. It's still built like a tank compared to other machines. I agree with you, I think my old MBA had more heft to it, and obviously the thinner profile of the new MBA means they are using less aluminum. I think there's a fine balance between keeping things light, and taking it too far where structural integrity is being affected. I don't think Apple is going to do that unless they abandon aluminum and use a stronger metal like stainless steel (???). They can only go so far with current materials/design before it gets too thin and things start bending/warping.

I don't know if the screws on the chassis have a specific torque requirement when they're assembled. When I work on my motorcycles, even torqued screws in certain areas eventually come loose depending on flexing/vibration. I dab of blue loctite and the issue is resolved. I wonder if the same would resolve the creaking issue on the MBA??? I'll have to look into that. Those screws are pretty darn small for loctite!

The Tunderbolt chip is huge! Given the (small) size of the MBA logic board, this may not happen as quickly as you want.
Even without Thunderbolt, our 13" MBA is sweet No need to wait...

No, I did get it. This thing still has to run an OS- either OSX or iOS. They're not gonna invent a 3rd. OSX would be unuseable, and iOS would be absolutely redundant, and iOS keynote doesnt support the full features of the OSX version anyway. Again, whats the point? Its not a practical or logical device.

Why did you start such a silly debate? You knew folks would take the bait. I think you deserve a spanking.

The correct answer is neither. That is, the correct answer is neither "Macbooks Air" or "Macbook Airs". The correct answer is Macbook Air. The grammar of the article should have been called into question, not the usage of an incorrect term. Every mention of "Macbook Airs" should be replaced with Macbook Air. Every one of them - and the sentences where the incorrect term is used should be rewritten to reflect the change, i.e., the correction.

That is all.

The point is to carry 600 g in the pocket to plug the presentation on the videoprojector and give the presentation with the remote control instead of 2 kg of laptop plus accessories. Only that. No need to interact with the interface beyond that. No need to work on it. Nope. And since it must be fully compatible with Keynote and PowerPoint presentations created on a standard Mac, it must be also a Mac, since iOS does not deliver. Only that.

I recently spent a week scuba diving and shooting underwater photography with a friend who was running an off-the-shelf 2GB 13" MBA (late 2010) while I had my 4GB, HDD-based 13" MBP (mid 2010), since sold. In a head-to-head comparison running local Lightroom libraries of the raw underwater images for the week, I'd be inclined to say the only deficiency in her MBA was the page out rates (not enough base memory, not upgradeable). In fact, I pretty much said exactly that:


Based on that experience, if they gave the MBAs similar updates to the early 2011 MBPs, I will be first in line for one. For those of use to have to travel with the current weight restrictions, a pound-and-a-half here and there can make a big difference and, IRL, SSDs can make up a lot of the performance difference of a slower processor.

Maybe don't be so quick to assume what you think makes a fast enough computer has to apply to everyone?

The major complaint was the lack of a CD Rom drive. It's another case of apple being a head of the consumer.

It will be interesting to see if these problems go away with an iPad 2 only version of the iWork apps.

How exactly does deleting present notes when moving off the iPad and additional fonts have to do with not enough RAM. Let's consider that iWork for iPad is still in it's first iteration.

Neither 'air' nor 'book' is an adjective. They are both nouns.

It's a silly argument born out of pretentiousness and a misconception. Hangers-on, passers-by etc. are couplings of nouns with prepositions, not nouns with adjectives. I can see what you're both saying but they're MacBook Airs. 'MacBook Air' is a product name, you can't chop it up; it needs to stay intact.

'Air' isn't added because the MacBook is made of air. It's not a description of the product. It's just a nice word that's added to the base MacBook name because it evokes a sense of lightness in the buyer's mind. At no point does it magically become an adjective or, for that matter, a preposition.

'Nike Airs Classic' sound right to you? No.

Metal rats nest? I thought I was ancient and I learned to type on an IBM Selectric with their fancy "ball".

oh, man, really? w(ho)tf cares? the true definition of geek masturbation.

clearly a slow day for some.

I agree, but when I found it stupid to bring up, I wanted to at least put it right. If you're going to be a super geek, at least get the info right.

You can say it, but if you write it that way, it makes about as much sense as MacBooks Air.

There are actually many issues here that impact the various problems with the iWork suite. On big issue is that iPad one is extremely tight with respect to RAM.

Which is exactly my point! If the next iWork update targets iPad 2 they will have far more RAM to work with which would hopefully mean that they can retain all of the data from files transferred to the platform. Due to they way iOS works RAM significantly limits app functionality. With iPad 2 we should start to see some impressive apps that leverage the greater amount of RAM in the device.

I would guess you don't know what RAM is.

Based on alleged sales figures, this appears to no longer be a significant issue.

almosty

mac should make a 6 in ipad

You mean 'Apple' and '7-inch', respectively.

And no, they won't.

Is it really much faster than my 5400 HD? Will I see a difference if I installed a SSD in my MBP 13 inch from 2010 I just got 1 month ago. Thanks

I am enjoying my MBA, and did not get the optical drive. MacMall pre-installed Windows 7 (and sent me the install disk which says clearly the drive is needed for reinstall). I installed two other things on the MBA, MS Office for Mac by sharing my iMac drive, and Sophos Virus on Windows by putting the install on a flash drive. So, with these two methods, i seem to be getting along nicely.
Can anyone think of a likely scenario where i will need to Optical drive? Main reasons for not buying it were (1) the ads tout that it's not needed, and (2) another piece of hardware lying around not being used, getting misplaced, etc.
John

Get a good quality SSD and you will *definitely* see the difference. If you can afford it, I don't see any reason not to use an SSD in a Mac laptop.

What I see is an intention to progressively improve the capabilities of the iPad, giving it the ability to handle a wider variety of specific uses. As this happens, a $799 laptop becomes progressively less necessary. If the iPad 3 is a machine that Apple will market as closer to being a substitute for a lower-end laptop, it means we could see an end to a low-cost laptop option.

Don't forget that another development may be the reduction in price of the MacBook Air because one of the reasons for it being priced as it is now is that SSD is still expensive. This will not be the case indefinitely. As SSDs become more affordable, I think a computer using Air technology coming in at a lower price point is not out of the question.

By the way, regarding the Mini, I wonder if one option could be to offer a minimalist take on the desktop, featuring an outrageously small device that uses SSDs and has no optical drive. That would be an interesting product and I can imagine a desktop that small could be put to some interesting uses.

There are so many reviews out there comparing them. Even a cheap SSD is faster than a fast HHD in pretty every test. Just go into an Apple Store and restart an 11 MBA with a comparatively slow 1.2GHz small-form-factor ultra-low voltage CPU, then restart the fastest MBP, iMac or Mac Pro they have with an HDD for a boot drive.

Also, make sure you check out the SSD v. Raptor HDDs online. AnandTech also has a lot of good comparisons.

For the vast majority of MBA purchasers, 2GB is plenty, which begs the question, why are you so insistent on all those many customers who don't need more RAM paying more to accommodate a small percentage of purchasers. If Apple were to make 4GB the default configuration, it would mean adding to the cost of the base model. It might be less than the $100 Cdn. it costs now to boost the RAM but no matter how much it would come to, you are asking people to pay something for RAM that has no value to them. If it's $70, for example, that's $70 wasted for many consumers. Apple is offering consumers a choice and in so doing it is charging a bit of a premium on that small group needing additional RAM. It seems to me preferable that a small percentage of MBA buyers have to pay let's say an extra $30 for additional RAM than have all MBA buyers have to come up with an additional $70.

Sure this puts the onus on the consumer to know how much RAM is going to be needed but then again, how is that different from any other purchase. If you don't do your homework and it costs you, that's your fault.

It would be like GM refusing to build five-passenger vehicles because some consumers might, on occasion, need to carry six people. It's your responsibility to make an informed purchase.

I would guess English is not your first language.

DisplayLink is your friend: http://www.displaylink.com/

I use an EVGA+ 16 and I have 2 1680x1050 displays, one miniDP->DVI and the other attached to a belkin 7-port hub that has KB, mouse, and iPhone dock.

I plug in my primary display, USB and magsafe and I'm all connected.

I've never run into problems for normal usage. I haven't tried videogames or movie playback (it's a work office).

Well, there's this:

What ever happened to, "It just works."

Computer pricing is based on a number of factors and "margin" is more complicated than many believe. The first big cost is amortizing the design and ramp up costs - "production experience" in short. Apple's done this ten times over on the white plastic macs by now. The second is the actual cost of making the ongoing models on existing production lines. The third is in refreshing the guts.

If they keep the model, I've been expecting a slight refresh and a price point of $899 - in between the fully tricked out Pad and the baby Air - as Apple is fond of filling every price point with usually one model - and (I believe) would still have decent margins with no design costs and slightly outdated and therefore cheaper components - and would be able to get another bit of the computer buying demo into Macs.

As for the below, I quit marking posts two pages in, so someone else may have already done me better....


Nupe. Macbook is the adjective in this construction. Adjectives nearly always precede the noun they modify. This is the Air line of Macbooks.



You guys are both correct. As for Addabox's post, one reason is we're waaay too ADD (and stuck using less optimal keyboards and length-limited Tweets and TXTS) to use such clumsy constructions. Which is why Thunderbolt's already commonly TB with few people thinking about a disease when it's in an Apple context.


Excuse me, I've also been a touch typist for many decades, and have momentary trouble orienting myself and staying oriented - even with the little 'bumps' when I try to use my old notebook in the dark. I can live without a lit KB, but it is a nice addition.

However, another poster noted that Apple made the keytops on the MBA reflective enough to be minimally lit by the reflection from the screen, and if so, that could be the most useful, power friendly and least distracting solution of all, e.g., who wants their KB glowing while watching House on Hulu?

thanks
no i do mean a form factor between ipod touch and ipad sizes

and of that >> in the middle size of which I speak will one day in the future be the top selling size

simply fits the hand better

9

Better than a 3.5" screen. Right...

You have a very odd definition of "remotely resemble" given all they did was add a USB port and SD card, did a speed bump and added a SSD in the 13".

It's not a 'totally new design" but a nice evolution of the original product. Put the two side by side and this is obvious.



Which is the new one?

How, specifically, are they a "long way" from being absolutely faster?

I saw this comment too, was a very odd comeback lol


MacBook is not the adjective. 'MacBook Air' is a compound noun. It's that simple.

You can turn down/off the keyboard backlighting using the function keys mapped to the F5 and F6 keys for House

You have insulted a fine member here ..

take it back dude


9

left
left

this whole grammar debate IS STUPID

really


9

Why would left be new when it has the physical trackpad button? Come on.

Heh...that is a dead giveaway but they do look remarkably similar for something that was "totally redesigned" and only "remotely resemble" one another.

Yes, yes, from the side it is fairly obvious because of the ports but the heritage is obvious.

You win the kewpie doll, sir:

http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/nouncompound.htm




Cool that!


And as is well known, we always stick entirely on subject and only debate things of great moment and intellectual weight here on Apple Insider......

Me, I find some of the side conversations that break out (other than tediously and hideously personal flame/troll wars) the best part of a given thread, and the others, well, I'm a well-practiced scroller.