You may be right, but I've been really struck by all the positive responses around the web from folks once they'd held one in their hands.
The actual announcement got the usual range of responses, but the 11" in particular seems to have some mysterious power to cloud men's minds. I've lost count of the number of posts I've seen on various forums wherein the skeptical go to check one out and almost shamefacedly emerge with an Air under their arm.
There's just something really dead sexy about the combination of super rigid, solid feeling unibody design, feather weight, great screen, good keyboard and OS X. $999 starting price doesn't hurt, either-- it's just low enough to keep folks from walking away with disgust at the "Apple tax."
I just have a feeling, anecdotally based as it may be, that the Air is going to have massive holiday sales. It's the new MacBook, for all intents and purposes, the cheap Mac notebook-- but instead of feeling like you're "settling" for the cheap Mac, it feels like totally top drawer all the way.
The mysterious power is it doesn't feel like you are working on an 11" screen. I was playing around with one the other day and I honestly forgot I was on the 11" and thought at one point I was still using the 13 inch. Its really odd, because I can not use a netbook at all because I feel like its just too small to the point of annoying. Yet when I use the 11" MBA it feels comfortable.
You don't feel any lag or like it doesn't have the power it needs, I admit I wasn't really testing it for raw power but it felt just fine.
I think its like most things if you want it and you have the money even if you can't truly justify needing another notebook someone might just go for it. I think for maybe a teen or younger adult if they are looking for their first Mac then they are going to go for the 999.00Macbook before the MBA.
Thats why when I think holiday shopping only I tend to think parents buying for their teens and I always think the Macbook and now iPad is going to be the big sellers.
Its getting to the point where Apple is going to need to lower the cost of the Macbook or get rid of it. The 13" MBP and even in short order the 13" MBA isn't that far away in price for what you get.
The mysterious power is it doesn't feel like you are working on an 11" screen. I was playing around with one the other day and I honestly forgot I was on the 11" and thought at one point I was still using the 13 inch. Its really odd, because I can not use a netbook at all because I feel like its just too small to the point of annoying. Yet when I use the 11" MBA it feels comfortable.
I agree. I went to the Apple Store this morning to check out the Macbook Airs and sweet mother of Apple! It feels solid and really light. The keyboard doesn't feel cramped like other netbooks that I used in the past and it's very responsive. But I fell in love with the 13-inch Macbook Air. The size of it suits me more.
The MBA is cool but really for a little bit more going with a MBP 13" is reallyt the way I think most people are going to go unless they just simply want a machine that thin and small.
I?m with addabox, I?m seeing a lot more demand for the new MBA that I would have thought for an ultralight notebook. I can see a lot of students wanting this for its portability. You?re obviously right that you get a lot more bang for your buck with the other Mac notebooks but I?d wager that they have a lot more performance than most will need. The only caveat at this point may be the drive space, but I checked with several non-techy people I know (friends and family) and they?re all using under 25GB. Only the technical people I know that use torrents and newsgroup use more space than that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by extremeskater
The mysterious power is it doesn't feel like you are working on an 11" screen. I was playing around with one the other day and I honestly forgot I was on the 11" and thought at one point I was still using the 13 inch. Its really odd, because I can not use a netbook at all because I feel like its just too small to the point of annoying. Yet when I use the 11" MBA it feels comfortable.
I hadn?t thought about it until you mentioned it, but both times I looked at the 11? MBA I took a double take to make sure it wasn?t the 13? model.
I?d rather have either MBA than my iPad, but since my 13? MBP is my primary device there is little need at this point. Maybe if I upgrade to a desktop a MBA would fit my travel needs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mgl323
The keyboard doesn't feel cramped like other netbooks that I used in the past...
That?s one of the qualifiers that makes it impossible for me to call the MBAs ?netbooks?. Meaning, having a full-sized keyboard means that you can type all day without issue.
You?re obviously right that you get a lot more bang for your buck with the other Mac notebooks but I?d wager that they have a lot more performance than most will need. The only caveat at this point may be the drive space, but I checked with several non-techy people I know (friends and family) and they?re all using under 25GB. Only the technical people I know that use torrents and newsgroup use more space than that.
Yeah, exactly that-- I think we're to the point with excess computing capacity that for the vast majority of people there is no compromise whatseover in terms of power. And as the benchmarks have shown, the SSD goes a long way towards making up for whatever the CPU lacks.
So really it's all about storage space-- and even for those with a need for more room, keeping stuff on a dirt cheap external drive and OS, apps and working files on the machine is a perfectly functional solution. Not to mention a pretty good practice just in general.
So really it's all about storage space-- and even for those with a need for more room, keeping stuff on a dirt cheap external drive and OS, apps and working files on the machine is a perfectly functional solution. Not to mention a pretty good practice just in general.
I absolutely love my dual drive setup in my MBP. Boot from SSD and store data on the HDD. I really hope Apple offers this when they remove the ODDs from their other notebooks, but I have a feeling they won’t.
I absolutely love my dual drive setup in my MBP. Boot from SSD and store data on the HDD. I really hope Apple offers this when they remove the ODDs from their other notebooks, but I have a feeling they won?t.
I imagine that by that point the base model will be 128GB, with 256GB and 512GB as available upgrades (although I reckon the 512GB will still be a fairly pricy option).
At some point it really doesn't make sense to keep putting larger and larger drives in the machine you carry around. It's not that operating systems and apps are getting that much larger, it's that people are continuously adding to their legacy files. For that it just makes sense to start offloading things onto external drives for backup and archival storage.
I can understand some people not getting the sarcasm of my original post, but after I added the emoticon that is holding a sign labeled SARCASM that you would have removed from the quoted text to create this post I?m truly baffled.
with that price, you can get really good gaming laptop with high quality. I have searched for new laptop recently. then I got a lot of information. $999 for this piece of shit? to me, it's totally useless. if you just like design, quality stuff, not care about performance, go get it. trust me, you will feel something really missed. I suggest you better buy ipad. it's much better, and cheaper.
I can understand some people not getting the sarcasm of my original post, but after I added the emoticon that is holding a sign labeled SARCASM that you would have removed from the quoted text to create this post I?m truly baffled.
Maybe you need to put in animated flashing lights and a big blinking arrow. And the definition of "sarcasm."
with that price, you can get really good gaming laptop with high quality. I have searched for new laptop recently. then I got a lot of information. $999 for this piece of shit? to me, it's totally useless.
Not everyone want to play serious game on notebook especially one as light as MBA.
with that price, you can get really good gaming laptop with high quality. I have searched for new laptop recently. then I got a lot of information. $999 for this piece of shit? to me, it's totally useless. if you just like design, quality stuff, not care about performance, go get it. trust me, you will feel something really missed. I suggest you better buy ipad. it's much better, and cheaper.
Most gamers go for desktop and replace the graphic card with an high end one. Laptop's are not gaming friendly, most of the I7 windows laptop have crappy graphic cards in terms of gaming. The air is not for serious gamers, but the Nvidia 320m is decent for old games and many current ones.
The MBA also has advantage over an ipad because its a full OS-X mac that support flash and allows the installation of OS-X apps. Its a great choice if you want lightweight combine with full feature PC, but for twice the price of an ipad.
Even iMacs are not consider good gaming machine because of the amount of new games running on Mac OS-X and graphic card choice. But if you really like Macs (like me), the solution is buy an windows 7 oem for 100$ and activate bootcamp. My i7 iMac with a radeon 4850 is pretty good at running pretty much everything I throw at it: native mac OS games or windows 7 ones.
Yeah, exactly that-- I think we're to the point with excess computing capacity that for the vast majority of people there is no compromise whatseover in terms of power. And as the benchmarks have shown, the SSD goes a long way towards making up for whatever the CPU lacks.
So really it's all about storage space-- and even for those with a need for more room, keeping stuff on a dirt cheap external drive and OS, apps and working files on the machine is a perfectly functional solution. Not to mention a pretty good practice just in general.
What makes the most sense is combining the Air with a desktop that allows for lots of storage and horsepower at reasonable prices.
As you long as you can live with a desktop for heavy lifting, in terms of cost, rather than max out an Air, I would look at a basic Air combined with a Mac mini, especially if one already has a decent monitor. The Canadian pricing for a fully optioned 13" Air is $1,928 for a 2.13 Ghz processor, 4GB of RAM, 256GB of flash memory and an external hard drive. In comparison, the basic Air which is fine for a lot of less demanding activities lists for $1,049. Add in a Mac Mini and you are adding a cost of $859 for the configuration with 320GB of memory, 4GB of RAM, and a 2.4Ghz processor. Add in a keyboard and magic trackpad to up that to $997. So not factoring in the monitor, that's a total MSRP of $2,046. We're talking $118 more for more power while still having a portable unit that is easy to use. Yes the cost goes up once you factor in a monitor but a good monitor lasts much longer than any computer attached to it. A typical LCD is apparently good for about 14 years.
I realize this doesn't work for everybody. For me, though, it makes sense, especially since I already have a Mini and a Cinema display and assorted peripherals. I have my desktop and next revision, I intend to invest in a portable companion device, be it a second-gen iPad or the next Air revision (so I can have 128GB and a little more horsepower for the entry-level price).
One cautionary note, however. As an Apple investor I anticipate some excess in terms of stock price, though I also think Apple is a fine long-term investment. The company is well positioned with room for still more growth. Jobs has helped transform Apple into a multi-faceted behemoth managing to make a profit out of just about everything it touches. We're talking real earnings and a brand that is highly regarded by an important young demographic. It would take years, even if Jobs stepped down, for Apple to lose momentum.
I have lost count of how often I have been advised to get out of Apple since climbing on board in 2003. The sell-Apple advice has been a constant. Maybe I'll stay in too long but my gut is telling me it's not time to bail yet. Maybe I'll hedge my bets and move some of it (not that I have a lot of shares). Maybe I'll just sit tight and continue to enjoy the ride. It's hard to turn away from such a successful company with a ground-breaking product in its infancy. If Apple collapsed it would be a very bleak day for me and, I suspect, countless others. At this time, though, who among us could have said we saw it coming.
I absolutely love my dual drive setup in my MBP. Boot from SSD and store data on the HDD. I really hope Apple offers this when they remove the ODDs from their other notebooks, but I have a feeling they won?t.
I have a feeling that Lion will support this type of setup natively.
When you create a new user account, it will also ask you which drive you want it on.
The 27" iMac already has the option for an SSD and a traditional hard drive.
The new SSDs apple is using in the MBA is extremely small and should find it's way into the MBPs.
There's no recession for the upper half of the income distribution. The rich are earning more than ever, and companies are reporting record breaking profits.
well, this shows that its faster, but this is access times, when you try running something CPU or GPU intensive, show me the benchmarks.
Depending upon the users software this can be significant or not. However for the most part such figures are useless for most computer users in general and maybe even more so for AIR users. In the end it is just a way to make a product look good relative to another even if the info is useless to most users. Sort of like skid pad tests for automobiles.
Quote:
that being said, a lot of people wouldn't need this speed.
Exactly! It is a distraction more than anything because most users need strong CPU performance to run their favored software well.
Quote:
also, i believe a test was with flash, vs. w/ out flash, but no other add ons, i would say these tests aren't that great...
Useless is the word in my estimation. I'd be more concerned about the performance of Safari and other apps commony used by compact laptop owners. Especially with respect to user responsiveness and interpeter performance.
The new AIRs have many nice features and improvements over the old ones. These are what should be focused on when comparing machines.
Comments
You may be right, but I've been really struck by all the positive responses around the web from folks once they'd held one in their hands.
The actual announcement got the usual range of responses, but the 11" in particular seems to have some mysterious power to cloud men's minds. I've lost count of the number of posts I've seen on various forums wherein the skeptical go to check one out and almost shamefacedly emerge with an Air under their arm.
There's just something really dead sexy about the combination of super rigid, solid feeling unibody design, feather weight, great screen, good keyboard and OS X. $999 starting price doesn't hurt, either-- it's just low enough to keep folks from walking away with disgust at the "Apple tax."
I just have a feeling, anecdotally based as it may be, that the Air is going to have massive holiday sales. It's the new MacBook, for all intents and purposes, the cheap Mac notebook-- but instead of feeling like you're "settling" for the cheap Mac, it feels like totally top drawer all the way.
The mysterious power is it doesn't feel like you are working on an 11" screen. I was playing around with one the other day and I honestly forgot I was on the 11" and thought at one point I was still using the 13 inch. Its really odd, because I can not use a netbook at all because I feel like its just too small to the point of annoying. Yet when I use the 11" MBA it feels comfortable.
You don't feel any lag or like it doesn't have the power it needs, I admit I wasn't really testing it for raw power but it felt just fine.
I think its like most things if you want it and you have the money even if you can't truly justify needing another notebook someone might just go for it. I think for maybe a teen or younger adult if they are looking for their first Mac then they are going to go for the 999.00Macbook before the MBA.
Thats why when I think holiday shopping only I tend to think parents buying for their teens and I always think the Macbook and now iPad is going to be the big sellers.
Its getting to the point where Apple is going to need to lower the cost of the Macbook or get rid of it. The 13" MBP and even in short order the 13" MBA isn't that far away in price for what you get.
The mysterious power is it doesn't feel like you are working on an 11" screen. I was playing around with one the other day and I honestly forgot I was on the 11" and thought at one point I was still using the 13 inch. Its really odd, because I can not use a netbook at all because I feel like its just too small to the point of annoying. Yet when I use the 11" MBA it feels comfortable.
I agree. I went to the Apple Store this morning to check out the Macbook Airs and sweet mother of Apple! It feels solid and really light. The keyboard doesn't feel cramped like other netbooks that I used in the past and it's very responsive. But I fell in love with the 13-inch Macbook Air. The size of it suits me more.
The MBA is cool but really for a little bit more going with a MBP 13" is reallyt the way I think most people are going to go unless they just simply want a machine that thin and small.
I?m with addabox, I?m seeing a lot more demand for the new MBA that I would have thought for an ultralight notebook. I can see a lot of students wanting this for its portability. You?re obviously right that you get a lot more bang for your buck with the other Mac notebooks but I?d wager that they have a lot more performance than most will need. The only caveat at this point may be the drive space, but I checked with several non-techy people I know (friends and family) and they?re all using under 25GB. Only the technical people I know that use torrents and newsgroup use more space than that.
The mysterious power is it doesn't feel like you are working on an 11" screen. I was playing around with one the other day and I honestly forgot I was on the 11" and thought at one point I was still using the 13 inch. Its really odd, because I can not use a netbook at all because I feel like its just too small to the point of annoying. Yet when I use the 11" MBA it feels comfortable.
I hadn?t thought about it until you mentioned it, but both times I looked at the 11? MBA I took a double take to make sure it wasn?t the 13? model.
I?d rather have either MBA than my iPad, but since my 13? MBP is my primary device there is little need at this point. Maybe if I upgrade to a desktop a MBA would fit my travel needs.
The keyboard doesn't feel cramped like other netbooks that I used in the past...
That?s one of the qualifiers that makes it impossible for me to call the MBAs ?netbooks?. Meaning, having a full-sized keyboard means that you can type all day without issue.
You?re obviously right that you get a lot more bang for your buck with the other Mac notebooks but I?d wager that they have a lot more performance than most will need. The only caveat at this point may be the drive space, but I checked with several non-techy people I know (friends and family) and they?re all using under 25GB. Only the technical people I know that use torrents and newsgroup use more space than that.
Yeah, exactly that-- I think we're to the point with excess computing capacity that for the vast majority of people there is no compromise whatseover in terms of power. And as the benchmarks have shown, the SSD goes a long way towards making up for whatever the CPU lacks.
So really it's all about storage space-- and even for those with a need for more room, keeping stuff on a dirt cheap external drive and OS, apps and working files on the machine is a perfectly functional solution. Not to mention a pretty good practice just in general.
What happened to the recession?
Short memories. We're all getting old.
So really it's all about storage space-- and even for those with a need for more room, keeping stuff on a dirt cheap external drive and OS, apps and working files on the machine is a perfectly functional solution. Not to mention a pretty good practice just in general.
I absolutely love my dual drive setup in my MBP. Boot from SSD and store data on the HDD. I really hope Apple offers this when they remove the ODDs from their other notebooks, but I have a feeling they won’t.
I absolutely love my dual drive setup in my MBP. Boot from SSD and store data on the HDD. I really hope Apple offers this when they remove the ODDs from their other notebooks, but I have a feeling they won?t.
I imagine that by that point the base model will be 128GB, with 256GB and 512GB as available upgrades (although I reckon the 512GB will still be a fairly pricy option).
At some point it really doesn't make sense to keep putting larger and larger drives in the machine you carry around. It's not that operating systems and apps are getting that much larger, it's that people are continuously adding to their legacy files. For that it just makes sense to start offloading things onto external drives for backup and archival storage.
What happened to the recession?
What recession? Those Apple 5% market share buyers have to check Wiki on "recession"
I wonder how those MacBook Airs will sell when they are just really slow ?netbooks? for 3x the price, according to some.
See
http://www.pcworld.com/article/21084...html?&tk=hp_fv
Slow!?
See
http://www.pcworld.com/article/21084...html?&tk=hp_fv
I can understand some people not getting the sarcasm of my original post, but after I added the emoticon that is holding a sign labeled SARCASM that you would have removed from the quoted text to create this post I?m truly baffled.
I can understand some people not getting the sarcasm of my original post, but after I added the emoticon that is holding a sign labeled SARCASM that you would have removed from the quoted text to create this post I?m truly baffled.
Maybe you need to put in animated flashing lights and a big blinking arrow. And the definition of "sarcasm."
with that price, you can get really good gaming laptop with high quality. I have searched for new laptop recently. then I got a lot of information. $999 for this piece of shit? to me, it's totally useless.
Not everyone want to play serious game on notebook especially one as light as MBA.
See
http://www.pcworld.com/article/21084...html?&tk=hp_fv
If you want a good ultraportable (workstation) notebook then buy Sony z13. True, 50% more expensive but way way way better.
Imagine an MBP in ultraportable size&weight with better screen.
with that price, you can get really good gaming laptop with high quality. I have searched for new laptop recently. then I got a lot of information. $999 for this piece of shit? to me, it's totally useless. if you just like design, quality stuff, not care about performance, go get it. trust me, you will feel something really missed. I suggest you better buy ipad. it's much better, and cheaper.
Most gamers go for desktop and replace the graphic card with an high end one. Laptop's are not gaming friendly, most of the I7 windows laptop have crappy graphic cards in terms of gaming. The air is not for serious gamers, but the Nvidia 320m is decent for old games and many current ones.
The MBA also has advantage over an ipad because its a full OS-X mac that support flash and allows the installation of OS-X apps. Its a great choice if you want lightweight combine with full feature PC, but for twice the price of an ipad.
Even iMacs are not consider good gaming machine because of the amount of new games running on Mac OS-X and graphic card choice. But if you really like Macs (like me), the solution is buy an windows 7 oem for 100$ and activate bootcamp. My i7 iMac with a radeon 4850 is pretty good at running pretty much everything I throw at it: native mac OS games or windows 7 ones.
Yeah, exactly that-- I think we're to the point with excess computing capacity that for the vast majority of people there is no compromise whatseover in terms of power. And as the benchmarks have shown, the SSD goes a long way towards making up for whatever the CPU lacks.
So really it's all about storage space-- and even for those with a need for more room, keeping stuff on a dirt cheap external drive and OS, apps and working files on the machine is a perfectly functional solution. Not to mention a pretty good practice just in general.
What makes the most sense is combining the Air with a desktop that allows for lots of storage and horsepower at reasonable prices.
As you long as you can live with a desktop for heavy lifting, in terms of cost, rather than max out an Air, I would look at a basic Air combined with a Mac mini, especially if one already has a decent monitor. The Canadian pricing for a fully optioned 13" Air is $1,928 for a 2.13 Ghz processor, 4GB of RAM, 256GB of flash memory and an external hard drive. In comparison, the basic Air which is fine for a lot of less demanding activities lists for $1,049. Add in a Mac Mini and you are adding a cost of $859 for the configuration with 320GB of memory, 4GB of RAM, and a 2.4Ghz processor. Add in a keyboard and magic trackpad to up that to $997. So not factoring in the monitor, that's a total MSRP of $2,046. We're talking $118 more for more power while still having a portable unit that is easy to use. Yes the cost goes up once you factor in a monitor but a good monitor lasts much longer than any computer attached to it. A typical LCD is apparently good for about 14 years.
I realize this doesn't work for everybody. For me, though, it makes sense, especially since I already have a Mini and a Cinema display and assorted peripherals. I have my desktop and next revision, I intend to invest in a portable companion device, be it a second-gen iPad or the next Air revision (so I can have 128GB and a little more horsepower for the entry-level price).
One cautionary note, however. As an Apple investor I anticipate some excess in terms of stock price, though I also think Apple is a fine long-term investment. The company is well positioned with room for still more growth. Jobs has helped transform Apple into a multi-faceted behemoth managing to make a profit out of just about everything it touches. We're talking real earnings and a brand that is highly regarded by an important young demographic. It would take years, even if Jobs stepped down, for Apple to lose momentum.
I have lost count of how often I have been advised to get out of Apple since climbing on board in 2003. The sell-Apple advice has been a constant. Maybe I'll stay in too long but my gut is telling me it's not time to bail yet. Maybe I'll hedge my bets and move some of it (not that I have a lot of shares). Maybe I'll just sit tight and continue to enjoy the ride. It's hard to turn away from such a successful company with a ground-breaking product in its infancy. If Apple collapsed it would be a very bleak day for me and, I suspect, countless others. At this time, though, who among us could have said we saw it coming.
I wonder how those MacBook Airs will sell when they are just really slow “netbooks” for 3x the price, according to some.
Not "slow netbooks" , just netbooks.
Or more truly- a notebook. A high powered, 11" form factored device is a notebook no matter how you'd like to distort the reality.
I'm wondering how the truly innovative Kinect will do this holiday season compared to the iPad?
I absolutely love my dual drive setup in my MBP. Boot from SSD and store data on the HDD. I really hope Apple offers this when they remove the ODDs from their other notebooks, but I have a feeling they won?t.
I have a feeling that Lion will support this type of setup natively.
When you create a new user account, it will also ask you which drive you want it on.
The 27" iMac already has the option for an SSD and a traditional hard drive.
The new SSDs apple is using in the MBA is extremely small and should find it's way into the MBPs.
What happened to the recession?
There's no recession for the upper half of the income distribution. The rich are earning more than ever, and companies are reporting record breaking profits.
well, this shows that its faster, but this is access times, when you try running something CPU or GPU intensive, show me the benchmarks.
Depending upon the users software this can be significant or not. However for the most part such figures are useless for most computer users in general and maybe even more so for AIR users. In the end it is just a way to make a product look good relative to another even if the info is useless to most users. Sort of like skid pad tests for automobiles.
that being said, a lot of people wouldn't need this speed.
Exactly! It is a distraction more than anything because most users need strong CPU performance to run their favored software well.
also, i believe a test was with flash, vs. w/ out flash, but no other add ons, i would say these tests aren't that great...
Useless is the word in my estimation. I'd be more concerned about the performance of Safari and other apps commony used by compact laptop owners. Especially with respect to user responsiveness and interpeter performance.
The new AIRs have many nice features and improvements over the old ones. These are what should be focused on when comparing machines.