This is the second performance review I have seen of the new MacBook Airs and again only the 13" Airs are listed in the performance comparisons. Do the 11" Airs compare so poorly that no one wants to review them??
Because it's 4 GB to download Lion - that's many hours on a 1.5 Mbps connection. If you have a 50Mbps connection, it wouldn't be slow.
And I love how in the Lion movie on Apple's site, it magically downloads at about a gigaBYTE per second... wirelessly... for the sake of the timing of the video.
I tend to agree with the former. I suppose anything on physical media is becoming irrelevant nowadays, but I would have appreciated (at least on build-to-order) an option to include it. Usually the first thing I do on a new Mac is wipe it out a couple times to test the re-install process. Since I'm purchasing Lion for my 2009 i7 iMac, I'll just make a boot disk when I download it. I'll wait and see as to how much actual space the recovery partition is. 256GB is not much in the big picture.
I can't find the reference right now, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that the restore partitions on the new Air and Mac mini are under a GiB (<- trying to use the correct lingo ).
So the good news is that it won't take up too much of the SSD space. But the bad news is there is no way that is the entire system restore (OS, apps, utilities, printer drivers, etc). I suspect it's just the core OS components and that you'll need to download the rest after you've restored the base OS to the drive. So the restore could take a very, very long time to complete because you still have to download the majority of the install. And another minor issue might be if Apple only provides the latest version of each component. So if you were holding off upgrading some app or OS update for whatever reason (ie, it breaks one of your 3rd party apps) you may be out of luck.
I dont like the no recovery media part... that should be included even if it isnt "cool" or whatever and it couldnt cost more than $2-3$ -- what if the internal drive fails? what if the user wants to wipe and reload before sale (and when I say wipe and reload, i dont mean just blast an image on from a recovery partition. What I mean is use a program like DBAN to wipe the entire disk to DoD spec as I do when selling old gear or even giving it to family)
I expect no media or some crappy DIY solution when I am buying a $300 netbook, I do not expect this from Apples pricey ultra portable line.
You can wipe the drive clean before a sale. The recovery partition is hidden. Do a DBAN wipe. No problem
or:
Install over internet. One of the most cool features with 10.7 is that Apple has its own Jumpastart technology. With the right boot keys you can install directly from Apples servers. I do think you need Apple care for this option.
OK, my workflow may be out of date or not the same thing that the kids are doing, but the fact is, a certain percentage of hard disks (solid or spinning) will fail at some point...if my relative/friend/coworker/client needs a disk replaced, how do I do that on a Mac now? On Windows PCs even without included restore media, its rather easy for the proverbial "neighborhood techie" to fix, just slap in any Windows media that matches the license tag on the device, install and use the key found on the label to activate...
Also, even non archane workflows may get worms viruses spyware or whatever and generally when cleaning up from that, the last thing you should use is a restore partition -- the bad ware could have jumped to that, just like it can jump accross to infect boot sectors or EFI if it were sophisticated enough. Just because Macs have been safe now doesnt mean anything for the future -- just look at the last few months, Apple for the first time I can remember faced crapware head on, didnt deny it or blame the dumbass users who ran the executibles from unknown sites, they just fixed it for them...some of these will not be fixable without reinstall at some point and this move away from media makes that hard to do. Furthermore, once a computer is compromised with unknown software, it really cant ever be assumed secure again untill; the entire drive, all partitions, are wiped and completely reloaded from nothing.
Apple not including media is like Lexus or BMW not including a spare tire...
1) Your argument doesn't hold water. These machines don't have hard disk drives so the likelihood of a disk failure is low. You might as well argue that every other component on the device should be user replaceable because it too could potentially fail.
2) If you want write 1's to the drive 1, 3, 7 or more times you can certainly do so right from Disk Utility in the Recovery HD partition. You can then reinstall Mac OS X Lion right from the Recovery HD partition.
3) If you don't have the bandwidth for this download you are certainly welcome to burn a DVD, or copy to an SD card or USB flash drive, or external HDD, or external SSD, or to another partition within the internal SSD the InstallESD.dmg bootable installer.
4) If for some reason that doesn't work for you ? yet I'd think those that care about DoD-level security to know how to do those simple steps ? you can send to Apple or bring into a Genius Bar to reinstall, or pay for a Lion USB drive, though by the time you are likely finished with this product you may want to instead put the latest OS on the machine.
I can't find the reference right now, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that the restore partitions on the new Air and Mac mini are under a GiB (<- trying to use the correct lingo ).
So the good news is that it won't take up too much of the SSD space. But the bad news is there is no way that is the entire system restore (OS, apps, utilities, printer drivers, etc). I suspect it's just the core OS components and that you'll need to download the rest after you've restored the base OS to the drive. So the restore could take a very, very long time to complete because you still have to download the majority of the install. And another minor issue might be if Apple only provides the latest version of each component. So if you were holding off upgrading some app or OS update for whatever reason (ie, it breaks one of your 3rd party apps) you may be out of luck.
It's 650MB. It doesn't contain any core OS components unless you count what is needed to let you run Safari* from Recovery HD partition.
You still have to install Lion again from some other source, either first downloading from Apple's servers or using one of the many options to install it to the desired volume from the installer on another volume, either external or internal.
PS: Be sure you make a copy of the "Install Mac OS X.app" file before you do the upgrade so you can have a copy of it for later.
* I wonder if that is more efficient on power usage than running Safari from the main OS. If so, by how much time for normal browsing?
I'm pretty sure I'm going to pick one up on Apple Financing in October, depends on if I can get a weekend job when I get back to University. Plan is to get it and use it as my browsing and document editing machine, and upgrade the MBP's RAM (To 8GB) and turn it into a desktop replacement for video editing, games and managing my iTunes Library.
That way I can put the Pro in "Better Performance" mode permanently so it'll be less of a hassle when I have a video to edit or a game to play.
As for the Air, I'll probably be going for the 11" with 4GB of memory and 128GB of storage. Dunno if I'll take the stock 1.6GHz Core i5 or upgrade to the 1.8GHz Core i7, probably decide based on benchmarks or something. DO love the little beauties. Picking them up in stores, just blows my mind how light they are.
It's 650MB. It doesn't contain any core OS components unless you count what is needed to let you run Safari* from Recovery HD partition.
You still have to install Lion again from some other source, either first downloading from Apple's servers or using one of the many options to install it to the desired volume from the installer on another volume, either external or internal.
PS: Be sure you make a copy of the "Install Mac OS X.app" file before you do the upgrade so you can have a copy of it for later.
* I wonder if that is more efficient on power usage than running Safari from the main OS. If so, by how much time for normal browsing?
And if you aren't upgrading but bought a new Mac? You don't have anything to make a backup from! Not to mention, if I have to download the OS (I assume Apple will let me download it for free?) that means I need to use my AppleID, correct? And then be prepared to wait. And I then assume the installation of Lion on that computer is now tied to my AppleID? What if I'm planning on selling it? Can I wipe my personal information which I had to provide to install the OS before selling it? Is my $1000 Mac now permanently tied to my Apple ID just like my 99 cent iTunes song?
I presume Apple has thought these scenarios through, but only time will tell (because Apple almost never does). If there's not a way to anonymously install the OS to prepare the computer for resale, that's a major fail on Apple's part.
The ironic thing is that the low prices on the Air and the mini means they are a good option for folks who don't have a lot of extra money to spend and whose computer usage isn't all that heavy. That's the exact same folks who are less likely to have a fast internet connection.
Yes, I understand Apple's desire to move forward. But would it have killed them to throw the USB installer in the box? It would cost them next to nothing and it would in no way impede their forward progress. It's the removal of the optical drive that will move people to the Mac App store, not the lack of a USB OS installer. That missing component in no way promotes Apple's desired future state.
This is the second performance review I have seen of the new MacBook Airs and again only the 13" Airs are listed in the performance comparisons. Do the 11" Airs compare so poorly that no one wants to review them??
The performance of the machines look great, but it could be deceptive. The laptops scale down performance if in danger of overheating, or so Apple claims. So my question is this; What is the performance of these laptops like when used for an extended period of time. Like with, for example, a game.
The performance of the machines look great, but it could be deceptive. The laptops scale down performance if in danger of overheating, or so Apple claims. So my question is this; What is the performance of these laptops like when used for an extended period of time. Like with, for example, a game.
The performance of the machines look great, but it could be deceptive. The laptops scale down performance if in danger of overheating, or so Apple claims. So my question is this; What is the performance of these laptops like when used for an extended period of time. Like with, for example, a game.
True. The GPU on Sandy Bridge also uses Turbo Boost only when the TDP from the rest of the processor allows it, so in scenarios when both cores and the GPU are loaded will the GPU perform worse?
The performance of the machines look great, but it could be deceptive. The laptops scale down performance if in danger of overheating, or so Apple claims. So my question is this; What is the performance of these laptops like when used for an extended period of time. Like with, for example, a game.
I ran CS Source on MBP 2.3 i5 8GB and CPU went to 99 degrees or so, which is when the game started stuttering (don't worry the CPU is ok). Source is a very old FPS, so you can see that sandy bridge is not for sustained high end video processing. It is good in burst, which is good for iMovie/ iPhoto, but certainly not for games, unless you only play in 30 minute intervals.
I'm gonna head out to apple store soon to check out these machines (and do some maintenance on the mac), but I want the lion driven onslaught to end first.
PS I saw crisis running on MBP i5 4GB perfectly in bootcamp, but once again you dont wanna run it for too long.
you can download os X on demand, you can do that EVEN without any data on the internal storage, and yes, you can format and destroy the data on it (even the hidden partition)
and yes, you can force os x to forgot your apple id. the new user will use its own apple id.
Comments
Because it's 4 GB to download Lion - that's many hours on a 1.5 Mbps connection. If you have a 50Mbps connection, it wouldn't be slow.
And I love how in the Lion movie on Apple's site, it magically downloads at about a gigaBYTE per second... wirelessly... for the sake of the timing of the video.
I tend to agree with the former. I suppose anything on physical media is becoming irrelevant nowadays, but I would have appreciated (at least on build-to-order) an option to include it. Usually the first thing I do on a new Mac is wipe it out a couple times to test the re-install process. Since I'm purchasing Lion for my 2009 i7 iMac, I'll just make a boot disk when I download it. I'll wait and see as to how much actual space the recovery partition is. 256GB is not much in the big picture.
I can't find the reference right now, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that the restore partitions on the new Air and Mac mini are under a GiB (<- trying to use the correct lingo
So the good news is that it won't take up too much of the SSD space. But the bad news is there is no way that is the entire system restore (OS, apps, utilities, printer drivers, etc). I suspect it's just the core OS components and that you'll need to download the rest after you've restored the base OS to the drive. So the restore could take a very, very long time to complete because you still have to download the majority of the install. And another minor issue might be if Apple only provides the latest version of each component. So if you were holding off upgrading some app or OS update for whatever reason (ie, it breaks one of your 3rd party apps) you may be out of luck.
I dont like the no recovery media part... that should be included even if it isnt "cool" or whatever and it couldnt cost more than $2-3$ -- what if the internal drive fails? what if the user wants to wipe and reload before sale (and when I say wipe and reload, i dont mean just blast an image on from a recovery partition. What I mean is use a program like DBAN to wipe the entire disk to DoD spec as I do when selling old gear or even giving it to family)
I expect no media or some crappy DIY solution when I am buying a $300 netbook, I do not expect this from Apples pricey ultra portable line.
You can wipe the drive clean before a sale. The recovery partition is hidden. Do a DBAN wipe. No problem
or:
Install over internet. One of the most cool features with 10.7 is that Apple has its own Jumpastart technology. With the right boot keys you can install directly from Apples servers. I do think you need Apple care for this option.
If you really want a 10.7 dvd. Just burn one.
OK, my workflow may be out of date or not the same thing that the kids are doing, but the fact is, a certain percentage of hard disks (solid or spinning) will fail at some point...if my relative/friend/coworker/client needs a disk replaced, how do I do that on a Mac now? On Windows PCs even without included restore media, its rather easy for the proverbial "neighborhood techie" to fix, just slap in any Windows media that matches the license tag on the device, install and use the key found on the label to activate...
Also, even non archane workflows may get worms viruses spyware or whatever and generally when cleaning up from that, the last thing you should use is a restore partition -- the bad ware could have jumped to that, just like it can jump accross to infect boot sectors or EFI if it were sophisticated enough. Just because Macs have been safe now doesnt mean anything for the future -- just look at the last few months, Apple for the first time I can remember faced crapware head on, didnt deny it or blame the dumbass users who ran the executibles from unknown sites, they just fixed it for them...some of these will not be fixable without reinstall at some point and this move away from media makes that hard to do. Furthermore, once a computer is compromised with unknown software, it really cant ever be assumed secure again untill; the entire drive, all partitions, are wiped and completely reloaded from nothing.
Apple not including media is like Lexus or BMW not including a spare tire...
1) Your argument doesn't hold water. These machines don't have hard disk drives so the likelihood of a disk failure is low. You might as well argue that every other component on the device should be user replaceable because it too could potentially fail.
2) If you want write 1's to the drive 1, 3, 7 or more times you can certainly do so right from Disk Utility in the Recovery HD partition. You can then reinstall Mac OS X Lion right from the Recovery HD partition.
3) If you don't have the bandwidth for this download you are certainly welcome to burn a DVD, or copy to an SD card or USB flash drive, or external HDD, or external SSD, or to another partition within the internal SSD the InstallESD.dmg bootable installer.
4) If for some reason that doesn't work for you ? yet I'd think those that care about DoD-level security to know how to do those simple steps ? you can send to Apple or bring into a Genius Bar to reinstall, or pay for a Lion USB drive, though by the time you are likely finished with this product you may want to instead put the latest OS on the machine.
I can't find the reference right now, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that the restore partitions on the new Air and Mac mini are under a GiB (<- trying to use the correct lingo
So the good news is that it won't take up too much of the SSD space. But the bad news is there is no way that is the entire system restore (OS, apps, utilities, printer drivers, etc). I suspect it's just the core OS components and that you'll need to download the rest after you've restored the base OS to the drive. So the restore could take a very, very long time to complete because you still have to download the majority of the install. And another minor issue might be if Apple only provides the latest version of each component. So if you were holding off upgrading some app or OS update for whatever reason (ie, it breaks one of your 3rd party apps) you may be out of luck.
It's 650MB. It doesn't contain any core OS components unless you count what is needed to let you run Safari* from Recovery HD partition.
You still have to install Lion again from some other source, either first downloading from Apple's servers or using one of the many options to install it to the desired volume from the installer on another volume, either external or internal.
PS: Be sure you make a copy of the "Install Mac OS X.app" file before you do the upgrade so you can have a copy of it for later.
* I wonder if that is more efficient on power usage than running Safari from the main OS. If so, by how much time for normal browsing?
Apple not including media is like Lexus or BMW not including a spare tire...
BMW offers cars with run-flat tires and no spare. I don't know about Lexus.
That way I can put the Pro in "Better Performance" mode permanently so it'll be less of a hassle when I have a video to edit or a game to play.
As for the Air, I'll probably be going for the 11" with 4GB of memory and 128GB of storage. Dunno if I'll take the stock 1.6GHz Core i5 or upgrade to the 1.8GHz Core i7, probably decide based on benchmarks or something. DO love the little beauties. Picking them up in stores, just blows my mind how light they are.
It's 650MB. It doesn't contain any core OS components unless you count what is needed to let you run Safari* from Recovery HD partition.
You still have to install Lion again from some other source, either first downloading from Apple's servers or using one of the many options to install it to the desired volume from the installer on another volume, either external or internal.
PS: Be sure you make a copy of the "Install Mac OS X.app" file before you do the upgrade so you can have a copy of it for later.
* I wonder if that is more efficient on power usage than running Safari from the main OS. If so, by how much time for normal browsing?
And if you aren't upgrading but bought a new Mac? You don't have anything to make a backup from! Not to mention, if I have to download the OS (I assume Apple will let me download it for free?) that means I need to use my AppleID, correct? And then be prepared to wait. And I then assume the installation of Lion on that computer is now tied to my AppleID? What if I'm planning on selling it? Can I wipe my personal information which I had to provide to install the OS before selling it? Is my $1000 Mac now permanently tied to my Apple ID just like my 99 cent iTunes song?
I presume Apple has thought these scenarios through, but only time will tell (because Apple almost never does). If there's not a way to anonymously install the OS to prepare the computer for resale, that's a major fail on Apple's part.
The ironic thing is that the low prices on the Air and the mini means they are a good option for folks who don't have a lot of extra money to spend and whose computer usage isn't all that heavy. That's the exact same folks who are less likely to have a fast internet connection.
Yes, I understand Apple's desire to move forward. But would it have killed them to throw the USB installer in the box? It would cost them next to nothing and it would in no way impede their forward progress. It's the removal of the optical drive that will move people to the Mac App store, not the lack of a USB OS installer. That missing component in no way promotes Apple's desired future state.
This is the second performance review I have seen of the new MacBook Airs and again only the 13" Airs are listed in the performance comparisons. Do the 11" Airs compare so poorly that no one wants to review them??
There's one here: http://www.apple.com/macbookair/performance.html (One can make absolute inferences from past performance speed comparisons between the 11 and the 13, and this data).
I see no reason not to believe it.
The performance of the machines look great, but it could be deceptive. The laptops scale down performance if in danger of overheating, or so Apple claims. So my question is this; What is the performance of these laptops like when used for an extended period of time. Like with, for example, a game.
Gaming. On a MacBook Air.
Apple not including media is like Lexus or BMW not including a spare tire...
You really are behind the times, mate. BMW hasn't included spares in years. The run flat tires are good for 50 miles at 50MPH.
The performance of the machines look great, but it could be deceptive. The laptops scale down performance if in danger of overheating, or so Apple claims. So my question is this; What is the performance of these laptops like when used for an extended period of time. Like with, for example, a game.
True. The GPU on Sandy Bridge also uses Turbo Boost only when the TDP from the rest of the processor allows it, so in scenarios when both cores and the GPU are loaded will the GPU perform worse?
Apple not including media is like Lexus or BMW not including a spare tire...
BMWs haven't had spare tires for years.
The performance of the machines look great, but it could be deceptive. The laptops scale down performance if in danger of overheating, or so Apple claims. So my question is this; What is the performance of these laptops like when used for an extended period of time. Like with, for example, a game.
I ran CS Source on MBP 2.3 i5 8GB and CPU went to 99 degrees or so, which is when the game started stuttering (don't worry the CPU is ok). Source is a very old FPS, so you can see that sandy bridge is not for sustained high end video processing. It is good in burst, which is good for iMovie/ iPhoto, but certainly not for games, unless you only play in 30 minute intervals.
I'm gonna head out to apple store soon to check out these machines (and do some maintenance on the mac), but I want the lion driven onslaught to end first.
PS I saw crisis running on MBP i5 4GB perfectly in bootcamp, but once again you dont wanna run it for too long.
I then assume the installation of Lion on that computer is now tied to my AppleID?
Nope. Like all previous Mac OS X releases, Lion contains no activation nor DRM. You need an AppleID to purchase Lion from the App Store. That's all.
As first reported by me on AppleInsider on 23 July 2011™
you can download os X on demand, you can do that EVEN without any data on the internal storage, and yes, you can format and destroy the data on it (even the hidden partition)
and yes, you can force os x to forgot your apple id. the new user will use its own apple id.