Apple to begin production of Thunderbolt MacBook Airs next month - Page 2

because laptops with traditional hard drives outsell the MBA's by a lot. if you have a 50GB itunes collection plus idevice apps where are you supposed to keep them if the MBA only has 64GB of storage?

I did say "Now, it is possible that moving to the on die GPU and away from the nvidia 320m chipset to an Intel chipset could safe enough power to make up the difference in TDP of the CPUs. It looks like the 320m is likely around 12 watts TDP."

I am with you - I am needing a new iMac bad but keep hoping the Sandy Bridge/Thunderbolt version is just around the corner. Unfortunately I do think Apple might deny off time for the Air since it has been so Hot - they want to raise the heat again and announcing the iMac at the same time would certainly take away from some of the shebang (even though they are definitely aimed at different users). Heres still hoping for those iMacs though "real soon now".

I recently had a 3rd-party memory issue, but due to the way it occurred I didnt think to check the RAM. Took my MBP to the Genius Bar. They neither cared about the RAM which you can change without voiding your warranty, as well as your HDD/SSD) *or about my OptiBay drive which doesnt allow me to meddle with the ODD. They got me up and running quickly.

I have close to two thousand set aside to upgrade my Black Macbook, which reaches 3 years old in August. However, I am not sure whether I want an Air, a Pro, or whether I even need an upgrade at this point since I am carrying the iPad most of my day. It is the fine line between the iPad and the Air that is really confusing me. If I have a computer almost as light and small as my iPad, which one do I carry? With the Macbook it is a no-brainer, but if I owned an air. . . . . .. . .

With the possibility of a new iMac on the horizon as well, my money might be better spent on one of those since my home 17 inch iMac is a white one with the original Intel Core Duo. Trouble is that upgrading this machine requires buying new furniture because the hutch we keep it in cannot handle a bigger screen without getting out the Dremmel tool

I have to say that had the 11 inch air sported an SD card I probably would have not through twice about one, but then I started to look at specs and weight. It is surprising how much heavier 4-5lb computer feels next to a 2-3lb computer, but as a certified iPad carrier I would probably still lean toward a fully loaded 13 inch pro. Maybe even 15 inch so I can get the special screen!

Choices, Choices, Choices!

facetime HD camera,
backlit keyboard,
sandy bridge,
thunderbolt,
same price,

then I'm in.

My 11" MacBook Air with 4GB of RAM respectfully disagrees with you.

I'm a photographer too! woo ha I don't edit on my MBP 15" just use it to dump images and review them in Aperture. This 4 year old MBP works fine with 5DMkII raw files - ok a wee bit slow but it works. I have Mac Pro 8 core XEON mother, back at base to do the real work. Unless maybe you're a press photag well then you wouldn't be shooting in Raw, I can't see the reason to want such specs.

Anyway I welcome a SB i5 CPU on the new 11" Mac, it means I can bring more lens on my travels. Let's hope they have 256Gb option on the 11".

It should be noted that the plastic MacBook is considered Apple's K-12 model. Most ordering of these units (educated guess) takes place shortly before and after the July 1 beginning of the fiscal year. It isn't surprising that both production and orders of these units is extremely slow at the beginning of the calendar year in Jan-Feb-March.

By rushing the shipment of the Thuunderbolt MacBook Airs, Apple is telling us that the iPad 2 is not adequate for all of our computing work. I have been saying that a personal computer, and this include laptop, is required to do real work. Although the iPad 2 is a fine computing device that can accomplish many computing tasks. The iPad 2 is also a hot commodity that sells well. You can even get a free iPad 2 on my homepage if you follow certain conditions.

For everyone complaining about the "limited" size of the SSD's on the Airs: Really? Do you really cart around 500-1000GB of photos with you to work on? How many can you work on while you're "on the go" anyways? Sheesh. Learn to use "the cloud" and store things either on a home server that you can access remotely, or a service like Dropbox or something.

Those RAW photos fill up space quite fast. It's even more pronounced for AVCHD hi-def video.

For most business users, the NAND flash memory storage is quite adequate.

Looks like Charlie Sheen has hacked into Murch's AI account.

On a serious note I'm so ready for these. I can't wait for them to be released.

Mods: does the reporting spam button still work?

If they are bsing a lot of the architecture and drivers etc on the new 13" MBP I really hope they get the wi-fi/battery/overheating issues sorted before release.

I'm talking from experience here, I've just downgraded my 2011 MBP i5 to the 2.66 Intel as I couldn't take it any more. Way too man problems. Sniff a flash site and the fan is flat out for ten minutes. That just isn't good enough.

That is the only scenario I can see the white plastic MacBook surviving. Make it the new eBook and move it to educational-only status. I can see it w/a low end SB chip as being a very compelling educational option, but they would need to drop the price 1-200 to make it worth not picking up an MBA instead. Not to mention that Apple has been positioning the iPad for school sales more recently. If it survives at all tho, educational sales seem like the most likely

This is exactly the reason I want to finally upgrade my '06 MBP.

Except I'll just get a new 13" Air to replace my MBP and then get an iMac for photo editing/movies. Or I could just build a $600 windows tower to use Lightroom in, except I crave OSX. Hackintosh tower anyone?

That would be winning

I'm firmly of the opinion next year's Ivy Bridge MBP's are going to ditch the on-board optical and take some design cues from the Airs (while maintaining higher performance, storage, etc.), i.e., they'll lose some bulk and weight while maybe gaining even longer battery life.

I still also see the possibility of a hybrid 64/128 GB SSD + 512/1024 HDD config as a temporary 2012 bridge to more affordable large SSD's (512 GB and up) in 2013, while providing SSD speed access to, e.g., the OS, disk cache, most recently used files, programs, etc. Snappy (!) performance + sufficient onboard storage for pro needs. A kludge, but done right, a semi-elegant kludge if that's not a contradiction in terms.

A 15" MBP that accomplishes the above while losing a pound is likely to be my main machine for several years, but a 15" Air that I could use for a year and sell for a nice price would tide me over until then (either '012 or '13, depending on how capable it is) quite nicely.


Pretty with sugar on top! (PS: how much significant power does this require?)


Hopefully we will have that and a pound less to lug!


Hoping the 15" Air - if in the offing will arrive with sufficient frame rigidity in that form factor. Any engineers out there who can comment on this??

And haven't seen any speculation on the price point. The 13" MBA AND the 13" MBP start at $1199 and the current 15" MBP at $1799. So a 15" Air would likely be.... ...$1399? $1499? $1599? More? I would def be in at the lowest of these, but conflicted as they got closer to the MBP's price.


Don't think Apple's about to quit offering a sub-$1K notebook with an optical yet. Some of the masses aren't ready to give up CD-R's and DVD's, so this would leave a hole in their line up. Especially if the Pro line also dumps the drives. And some power users on a budget still have legitimate needs for 'em.

So they might a) keep the specs as is and drop the price - there's no R&D involved after all and the older parts are getting cheaper - and/or b) take to offering a new SKU in a 2011 vintage MBP 13" shell when the new pros arrive. They've certainly paid for the "production experience" in making those and with slightly lower specs all round (but still above today's whitebook) could bring it in at that price next year.

Or maybe optical equipped Mac notebooks ARE going the way of the buggy whip...


How will this (relying on the built-in Intel graphics) affect graphics performance?


Dunno about the backlit (which I want too), but a reasonable wish list IMHO.


I just reported "samlogo's" "free iPad on my site" as well....

You can get up to 4GB with both the 11" and 13" Airs (and have been able to since they were released back in October). The only caveat is that you must specify this at the time of purchase as it's soldered to the board.

15" macbook air/with i7, 6 gig, and TB... that thing would sell like... like..., like really fast. I would consider it. Right now Im thinking an Thinkpad 220... but it doesnt have the TB.

Ohhh and DONT FORGET THE LIGHTED KEYBOARD... mien gott, was eine katastrophe. Too dramatic?

I happily stand corrected. I should have checked the current online configuration options before posting.


My memory is fallible, but I remember trying to configure 4GB back in October and being able to do so only with the 13" model.

• 2.3 Ghz i7 processor
• Thunderbolt port
• 4 Gb RAM
• Backlit keyboard
• 500 GB SSD BTO

Yes, please. This is my next Mac.

It looks like that its always had a 4GB option.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...late_2010.html I was thinking the same thing and my memory is infallable as I recall.

What we might be thinking of is the SSD limitation of the 11 MBA which cant take the 256GB SSD card the 13 MBA can take do to the size of the card.

3. A locking socket please. I just noticed yesterday there was no lock on the current MBA

I know 2 people that will sell there MBP to buy a 13" MBA as soon has they go on sale. We you carry your laptop around all the time the air is much better. But since we leave our laptop at our desk at lunch time we need to be able to lock them.

I don't disagree 100%, infect I kinda agree, but what difference does it make? I very much prefer the current 15" MBP but that could change if the new AIRs can effectively drive a desktop monitor / hub. I'm looking at Thunderbolt here. TB would change the whole character of the AIRs over night with the right supporting hardware.

Now a 15" MBA is another story again. This could be a very hot seller if constructed the right way. In any event don't pigeon hole the machines, there is more capability in those machines than you might imagine.

Is this a confession to being a complete physical wimp? To say you have to lug around an Apple laptop as if it's heavy really should have yourself looking in the mirror and wondering how your body can hold itself up at all.

Yep. Stupid post from a stupid spammer.

No one ever said that the iPad would meet everyone's computing needs. In case you don't realize it, Apple has a wide range of computers for people with all different needs.


Yes, but how many professional photographers are going to use a MBA for thousands of RAW photos and hours of AVCHD hi-def video?

Different computers for different needs.

For one thing the cost is trivial these days!!!! More importantly RAM can functionally improve the performance of your machine, especially with certain combos of apps running.

The point people are making here is that Apple needs to get with the times and properly configure it's machines. You are simply making excuses where Apple should have none to make.

I just don't trust the long-term viability of Flash-based mass storage. For an iPod or iPhone, sure, but for a full-featured computer? No. I need to know I can still write data to the mass storage device in 6+ years. I still have a PowerBook G4 from 2005 that runs perfectly after 6 years. And devices with hard disks that are up to 10 years old that still run. The same cannot really be said for solid-state drives.

This is why I will always get the MacBook Pro line of machines (at least until they force solid-state drives as standard).

Well, that must explain why this 13" MBA came from Apple with 4GB RAM.

Wait... What?

*Every* competitor? It was amusing to see several Asus laptop specs that say "2 x SODIMM socket for expansion up to 4GB SDRAM", while not specifying how much RAM was installed by default. (A couple did note "4GB RAM".)

And at least one warned that while you *could* install 4GB, only 3GB would be usable by the OS.

The devil does seem to be in the details sometimes.

That doesn't cover the "most" in your original comment.

Im not sure where youre getting your information from. The only real limitation SSDs have over HDDs is when you isolate the ability for each to be rewritten. Then the SSD falls very short of a HDD, but that isnt to say the low limit of the SSDs rewrites is anything to be concerned about.

My 2.5 80GB Intel X25 G2 SSD is rated with a MTFB of 1,200,000 hours, while my 2.5 500GB Seagate 7200RPM HDD is rated with a MTFB of 500,000 hours.

From everything Ive seen SSDs on average far exceed HDD MTFBs.

So how are you sure you can write to a HDD 6+ years later if the MTFB is lower with all those moving parts? Is this just a natural fear of new technology? A history of inexpensive CE breaking and assuming it must be the NAND?


Why cant the same be said for SSD? Is it because SSDs are the crap you suggest or that SSDs werent used heavily in consumer devices 10 years ago.

Its kind of like saying that Mayan stone carvings are the only way to store data because you can still be read a millennium later, yet the same cant be said for HDDs.


That is likely to come sooner than you expect and youre gonna love it! I suspect the next revision after Lion will look more like the MBA with the tapering, have the ODD removed, have a mini-PCIe card SATA III SSD card for booting and apps, and a regular 2.5 drive for data. The 27 iMac already has an option for a 2.5 SSD and 3.5 HDD so Apple isnt against storage stepping.

This setup in the MBPs will give you great capacity and speed. I have been using it in mine for a year. I do wonder how much of the ODD height their reclaim. Its currently a 12.7mm drive which mean current MBPs can take 12.5mm HDDs and SSDs. But I think theyll likely limit that to 9.5mm. They could even limit it more with the new 7mm HDDs that are a single platter. They are currently 320GB, but should be nearing 500GB within a year. That could mean the HDD could be placed in an under/over fashion with the SSD card.


PS: You really should have your data backed up so you dont have to rely on any 6+ year old storage medium.

PPS: If one is really concerned Id say one should write to 50GB Blu-ray discs so when that one in a trillion chance solar or pulsar comes right at us when our magnetic poles are shifting your optically recorded media wont be affected. I take it one step farther and tattoo binary code on the children from all my polygamist unions.

I'm also a photographer (professionally, off and on, for the past 40 years) and I use Aperture 3 with RAW files.

It works fine on a MBA with 4GB RAM for sorting/selection and some post processing. For heavier demands, a 2009 3GHz iMac does quite nicely, and without 8 cores.

Maybe I'm just not as impatient as some?

Quite a few, actually. Not for their only machine, but for working out in the field.

Once you're home, the sorted stuff moves to the heavyweight tools, and mass storage.

I can see the MacBook Pros evolving into the current day MBA in terms of size (thinness) while making step change improvements in performance.

I can see the iPad becoming as thin as an iPod Touch.

Don't ask me how they'll do that, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen.

Totally agreed.

Friends and family alike are jealous of my father's MB Air when they see it. He's got a slower 13" with the 4GB memory, and it handles 4 huge sessions of etrade-pro simultaneously fine, in addition to mail, web, and media players.

All while being completely svelte, silent and cool. It puts my hot-rodded (SSD) MBP 13" to shame.

Lightweight MacBook Air with a speedy Sandy Bridge processor, SSD, and access to fast/large disk via Thunderbolt?

When do the lines start forming?

Useless without built-in 3G as for me there seems 3G is the only network available in my work travels.

Backlit keyboard essential as is ThunderBolt which is a certainty.

15" MB Air would cause me to sell my current MBP and replace it.
(oh, I they should also put a lock slot on the MB airs too).

A mini-PCIe card for GSM/3GSM or CMDA/CDMA2000 3G with the option to buy from carriers with the same ease as with the iPad would be fricken sweet even though with Personal Hotspot on the iPhone and other phones that need does fade a little.