That is one of the few valid issues, IMO, of the MBA. Perhaps the reason Apple didn't include this option was because of the relatively few users of cellular broadband in notebooks and/or the fractured 3G protocols in use through the US and the world would make the chip too large.
Even worse, because the Air's USB port area is recessed, standard USB mobile broadband devices CAN'T EVEN FIT in the USB port. So, in order to use one, you have to use a 3" USB extension cable. Consequently, this restricts you from using it without the laptop being seated on a desk or other surface.
How was this not foreseen?
Overall I think the Air is a beautiful and revolutionary piece of hardware, but this is one glaring omission that is bound to have an impact on many potentials buyers.
Probably a good point, but... shhhh. Be careful. Or the Cupertino Inquisition will rendition you to a black site in Eastern Europe.
5. And one for you. How are you planning on starting an Air up if you have a problem and are on the road?
I don't understand the question. If any Mac I own failed to start up while traveling I'd be left with the exact same choices. I don't travel with my install disc and I don't know of anyone who does. I spent 6 months out of my home country last year and didn't take it with me. Perhaps it's because the only issue I've had with a Mac failing to start was because of bad 3rd-party RAM I installed.
That is one of the few valid issues, IMO, of the MBA. Perhaps the reason Apple didn't include this option was because of the relatively few users of cellular broadband in notebooks and/or the fractured 3G protocols in use through the US and the world would make the chip too large.
To let apple offer mobile broadband without the hassle of stocking equipment, keeping different models of the laptop, and keeping things simple for a worldwide market, it should definitely just add in the small expresscard slot.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TBaggins
Probably a good point, but... shhhh. Be careful. Or the Cupertino Inquisition will rendition you to a black site in Eastern Europe.
I will probably purchase an MBA once I actually see it in person. As a very mobile individual, this fits the bill quite nicely. If I want more features, I'll use my desktop when I get home.
So, if you have any start-up or disk issues on the road how you planning to start this baby up?
I don't understand the question. If any Mac I own failed to start up while traveling I'd be left with the exact same choices. I don't travel with my install disc and I don't know of anyone who does. I spent 6 months out of my home country last year and didn't take it with me. Perhaps it's because the only issue I've had with a Mac failing to start was because of bad 3rd-party RAM I installed.
I do travel a lot and always with a DiskWarrior disk. And yes, I have needed it. I was able to get my "dead" machine up and running in 15 minutes. Seems I had some directory damage. So, sh*t does happen. Don't know about you but a problem like that far from home is not a pleasent thought for this self-employed person.
I do travel a lot and always with a DiskWarrior disk. And yes, I have needed it. I was able to get my "dead" machine up and running in 15 minutes. Seems I had some directory damage. So, sh*t does happen. Don't know about you but a problem like that far from home is not a pleasent thought for this self-employed person.
I guess the external drive or another machine is a must have for someone with your concerns. I thought there was a way for the MBA to boot into a mode that would allow Disk Utility to run without any disk. Like a small, hidden partition with the appropriate apps installed.
the lack of some kind of FireWire is a problem for me, simply because I cannot connect my video camera. When I travel, which I do a lot since retirement, I like to stream off each miniDV tape to an external USB drive to see what I've got and to do pre-editing of the video. I do this now with a first generation Albook.
Until somebody makes a dongle (and drivers) that will adapt the USB port to 4 or 6 pin FireWire, the MBA is not suitable. Since DV streams at a only 4 MB/sec or so, the rate is clearly within the capability of USB and the camera is 4 pin so it doesn't need the extra power that FireWire can provide either. I'd also need to use a USB hub or stream the DV to the internal disk and then off to the external disk later. An enterprising aftermarket supplier would make a USB/FireWire hub combo specifically for the MBA.
I realize that I'm not the target for this machine due to this requirement, but still I'd like to be able to pack a little bit lighter. None of the Apple notebooks are significantly lighter than the Albook except the MBA.
Either I or some of the others are missing the point. It's a companion machine, not a main computer so you need to sync it with your desktop on a regular basis. So, I use a mac pro and carry my home folder back and forth from work in a portable 2.5" drive which has hardware encryption (with a dongle key) and firewire 800. Each evening, I sync my home folder via carbon copy cloner to my laptop. this usually takes no more than 10 minutes to make an incremental backup. If I make changes on the laptop, I do the same the other way. How can I do this without a firewire port? If it had just an express card slot, even at the expense of the existing usb/ video out, then I would buy one tomorrow. As it is, it just isn't viable, transferring lots of files over usb is just too slow
The Air has the same screen size and resolution as the MacBook, but is LED back-lit like the 15" MacBook Pro. So how would you say the quality of the display stacks up in comparison?
The new restrictions do NOT affect people who want to carry an extra laptop battery.
Quote:
Originally Posted by flydoggie
You are 100% wrong because there are limitation on the size of spare batteries. 1) All batteries part of the device are ok. 2) No batteries may be in checked luggage. 3) Spare batteries carried with you must have less than 8 grams of lithium.
No, you are INcorrect.
What I wrote was: "carry an extra laptop battery"
1. Carry. Means carry on and not checked in your baggage.
2. Laptop batteries are much less than the 8 gram limit so carrying one extra is well within the limits.
I don't mind being criticized for factual errors.
I don't mind having my opinions challenged.
I do mind when "an ignorant slut" [see Saturday Night Live for reference] tells me I am 100% wrong.
Innovative products aren't made according to the way things are done today. They define the way things will be done tomorrow.
Wasn't Apple criticised heavily when they got rid of the floppy disk? Now, the only floppy drive I have between home and work is in a computer that barely runs Windows 98, and hasn't even been turned on in about six months.
One of the most common Mac Air complaints is the "hassle" of installing software. I believe the hassle is only temporary. Apple is working very hard to make physical media a thing of the past. This is a clear part of their strategy.
The Mac Air already has the capability to do a system install via wi-fi with Remote Disk. Is it a stretch to say that it could be installed via a wi-fi internet connection, directly downloaded from Apple? Similarly, any application could be installed media-free. This sounds like less of a hassle than worrying about disks! Ubuntu already does that for applications, and Apple already has a successful online store with license management in place.
Predictions:
- Apple to roll out online installs in six months to a year, tied to iTunes.
- Existing Mac Air owners will be offerred a firmware update to enable this.
- Other Mac owners may also be offered the same update.
- Other Mac models will be refreshed, making them slotless as well. Pro models will have options for an internal drive, others will work with the existing external drive.
- Blu-Ray will not be openly embraced as it conflicts with this higher strategy. But it will make a quiet appearance as an option for Pro models, and maybe an external USB version will appear as well.
I do mind when "an ignorant slut" [see Saturday Night Live for reference] tells me I am 100% wrong.
Dave Barnes
+1.303.744.9024
SNL reference or not, that would easily be construed as a personal attack. Since we are from different cultures, and varying backgrounds and ages it's difficult to know what will get upset someone. I'd hate to see someone get banned because of joke.
PS: I am not brave enough to post my real name and phone number on the internet. The idea of identity theft scares me. Perhaps I'll feel better once my Dave Barnes Gold Card comes in the mail.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mbmcavoy
Innovative products aren't made according to the way things are done today. They define the way things will be done tomorrow.
Wasn't Apple criticised heavily when they got rid of the floppy disk?
They were also the first to wholly adopt something called USB. I've heard it became popular but I don't really know for sure.
I'm a MBA hater because I use a 12" G4 PB as my main machine. I travel a lot and commute 2 hours per day on a train between a desk at work and another desk at home. Both desks have a real keyboard, mouse and a large screen that I connect to.
Since Apple discontinued the 12" model there was no laptop that Apple offered that I was interested in - they were all too large.
I really want an MBP 12". The reason I hate the MBA is because its presence makes me believe Apple wont ever produce a good 12" PB replacement.
The good part about the MBA is the weight. And it looks good.
It has less hard disk space than I can have in my 12" PB
2G memory is a little bit too small. One of the reasons an intel machine is interesting to me is the ability to run a virtual machine with Linux or Solaris.
Meanwhile I'll upgrade my 12" PB with a larger disk. If it should die tomorrow I would buy a used 12" PB (and I have the money to buy the MBA SSD, but it isn't interesting for me).
Glossy
I don't care about the missing FW, ethernet, optical drive, "non-replaceable" battery, low CPU speed or cost.
The single USB port worries me. So my question to MBA reviewers is: How much power can the MBA USB port deliver? Is there a non-powered USB hub to buy that can power a (small) external USB hard drive while charging an iPod?
I'll look again on the next revision of MBA (in a year?). Maybe then the drive and RAM has doubled.
... However, when you look at the laptops currently on sale, many are layered with other rather impractical features that suddenly sound indispensable once you're aware they exist. A recent must-have addition on many new PC laptops is the fingerprint reader unit used to log in, ...
Oh please! I hope I'll never see a fingerprint reader on an Apple laptop! What are people thinking???
The thing that amuses me about all those crying foul at the lack of a replaceable battery is they fail to remember the Air has a Magsafe power socket. It's rather immaterial to connect a battery to the Magsafe port in much the same way battery packs are connected to the iPod's Dock connector. It's got 5 hours on the battery USING Wi-Fi so you're probably going to get 7 hours with it turned off anyway.
As for the complaints about processor most of the people in need of something like the Air don't require the processor specs of the Pro. Most of these people will be wanting to edit Office documents or surf the Web or read emails, things that don't require huge amounts of resources.
Single USB? Come on, when you're travelling who has the space to connect a heap of devices to their computer? And if you do have those devices how many do you bring along? Enough to fill a four port USB hub? Something tells me not likely.
Many of the arguments against the MBA are from those who the MBA ISN'T designed for and as such they have no reason to complain. I bet if you added a FireWire and an extra USB port and a PCI-Express port and increased the HDD size and processor speed you'd get these people saying "well I have that in my MBP so why should I go for the MBA?".
You can please some of the people some of the time but never all of the people all of the time, unless of course you shoot those who aren't pleased leaving only those who are, then the world would be a better place.
Geez, lowededwookie, I went through this whole registration process to say the exact same thing you just did, so I guess I won't bother!
What is it about Mac forums in particular that leads everyone for whom a new product is not ideal, to write a long, vitriol-laden post about how this is living proof that Apple is going to Hell in a handbasket, and Steve Jobs is the devil? If you don't want something, don't buy it! Is that that hard a concept to grasp? As near as I'm able to tell, everybody is steamed because they think Apple has discontinued the MacBook and MacBook Pro and replaced them with the MacBook Air. Check again, folks: They didn't!
What the consensus seems to be is that any laptop is useless unless it has the power, connectivity, and expandability of a Mac Pro, but you can hold it in your mouth when you have both hands full!
The AIR rocks! I would actually go ahead and place an order for a MacBook Air, if it also had a firewire-port. I hate to admit it, but for me FW is right now a little more important than low weight. So I'll just have to wait for the next MBP, or consider a MB.
And by the way, I don't think it's fair to (kind of) compare the Air's lack of FireWire with the toilet iBook... By then FireWire weren't as accessible and wide spread as today.
So to keep it simple. Here's my list:
1) Keep as is and add a FireWire port, and I would buy.
Being a Macbook Pro owner I am interested in the Macbook Air as an ultralight mobile platform. I was looking for the Macbook Air to actually be the Macbook tablet but it did not appear. On the flip side The Macbook Air looks to be a close alternative. There are times when I do not want to go to the hassle of using the MBP due to it being a 17". Boot up times are better since 10.5 and that does not seem as big an issue for me as simply having to get some space to set it down. The Macbook Air looks like one could cradle it in their arm or hand and use the other for typing and mouse movements. I think a touch screen with the same funactionality as the iPhone and iPod touce would have been a nice added option but maybe in time it will appear...
i completely agree with you. That feature will not only set apart macbook air, but also target a rather different audience.
Comments
Even worse, because the Air's USB port area is recessed, standard USB mobile broadband devices CAN'T EVEN FIT in the USB port. So, in order to use one, you have to use a 3" USB extension cable. Consequently, this restricts you from using it without the laptop being seated on a desk or other surface.
How was this not foreseen?
Overall I think the Air is a beautiful and revolutionary piece of hardware, but this is one glaring omission that is bound to have an impact on many potentials buyers.
Probably a good point, but... shhhh. Be careful. Or the Cupertino Inquisition will rendition you to a black site in Eastern Europe.
No one expects the Cupertino Inquistion!
.
5. And one for you. How are you planning on starting an Air up if you have a problem and are on the road?
I don't understand the question. If any Mac I own failed to start up while traveling I'd be left with the exact same choices. I don't travel with my install disc and I don't know of anyone who does. I spent 6 months out of my home country last year and didn't take it with me. Perhaps it's because the only issue I've had with a Mac failing to start was because of bad 3rd-party RAM I installed.
That is one of the few valid issues, IMO, of the MBA. Perhaps the reason Apple didn't include this option was because of the relatively few users of cellular broadband in notebooks and/or the fractured 3G protocols in use through the US and the world would make the chip too large.
To let apple offer mobile broadband without the hassle of stocking equipment, keeping different models of the laptop, and keeping things simple for a worldwide market, it should definitely just add in the small expresscard slot.
Probably a good point, but... shhhh. Be careful. Or the Cupertino Inquisition will rendition you to a black site in Eastern Europe.
hahahahahah. great pic !
No one expects the Cupertino Inquistion!
.
I will probably purchase an MBA once I actually see it in person. As a very mobile individual, this fits the bill quite nicely. If I want more features, I'll use my desktop when I get home.
So, if you have any start-up or disk issues on the road how you planning to start this baby up?
I don't understand the question. If any Mac I own failed to start up while traveling I'd be left with the exact same choices. I don't travel with my install disc and I don't know of anyone who does. I spent 6 months out of my home country last year and didn't take it with me. Perhaps it's because the only issue I've had with a Mac failing to start was because of bad 3rd-party RAM I installed.
I do travel a lot and always with a DiskWarrior disk. And yes, I have needed it. I was able to get my "dead" machine up and running in 15 minutes. Seems I had some directory damage. So, sh*t does happen. Don't know about you but a problem like that far from home is not a pleasent thought for this self-employed person.
I do travel a lot and always with a DiskWarrior disk. And yes, I have needed it. I was able to get my "dead" machine up and running in 15 minutes. Seems I had some directory damage. So, sh*t does happen. Don't know about you but a problem like that far from home is not a pleasent thought for this self-employed person.
I guess the external drive or another machine is a must have for someone with your concerns. I thought there was a way for the MBA to boot into a mode that would allow Disk Utility to run without any disk. Like a small, hidden partition with the appropriate apps installed.
Until somebody makes a dongle (and drivers) that will adapt the USB port to 4 or 6 pin FireWire, the MBA is not suitable. Since DV streams at a only 4 MB/sec or so, the rate is clearly within the capability of USB and the camera is 4 pin so it doesn't need the extra power that FireWire can provide either. I'd also need to use a USB hub or stream the DV to the internal disk and then off to the external disk later. An enterprising aftermarket supplier would make a USB/FireWire hub combo specifically for the MBA.
I realize that I'm not the target for this machine due to this requirement, but still I'd like to be able to pack a little bit lighter. None of the Apple notebooks are significantly lighter than the Albook except the MBA.
- gws
As far as I know, all LCD screens use glass. Just not for the front face. I think the substrate glass is what was being mentioned in the presentation.
Correct.
ThanX
The new restrictions do NOT affect people who want to carry an extra laptop battery.
You are 100% wrong because there are limitation on the size of spare batteries. 1) All batteries part of the device are ok. 2) No batteries may be in checked luggage. 3) Spare batteries carried with you must have less than 8 grams of lithium.
No, you are INcorrect.
What I wrote was: "carry an extra laptop battery"
1. Carry. Means carry on and not checked in your baggage.
2. Laptop batteries are much less than the 8 gram limit so carrying one extra is well within the limits.
I don't mind being criticized for factual errors.
I don't mind having my opinions challenged.
I do mind when "an ignorant slut" [see Saturday Night Live for reference] tells me I am 100% wrong.
Wasn't Apple criticised heavily when they got rid of the floppy disk? Now, the only floppy drive I have between home and work is in a computer that barely runs Windows 98, and hasn't even been turned on in about six months.
One of the most common Mac Air complaints is the "hassle" of installing software. I believe the hassle is only temporary. Apple is working very hard to make physical media a thing of the past. This is a clear part of their strategy.
The Mac Air already has the capability to do a system install via wi-fi with Remote Disk. Is it a stretch to say that it could be installed via a wi-fi internet connection, directly downloaded from Apple? Similarly, any application could be installed media-free. This sounds like less of a hassle than worrying about disks! Ubuntu already does that for applications, and Apple already has a successful online store with license management in place.
Predictions:
- Apple to roll out online installs in six months to a year, tied to iTunes.
- Existing Mac Air owners will be offerred a firmware update to enable this.
- Other Mac owners may also be offered the same update.
- Other Mac models will be refreshed, making them slotless as well. Pro models will have options for an internal drive, others will work with the existing external drive.
- Blu-Ray will not be openly embraced as it conflicts with this higher strategy. But it will make a quiet appearance as an option for Pro models, and maybe an external USB version will appear as well.
I do mind when "an ignorant slut" [see Saturday Night Live for reference] tells me I am 100% wrong.
Dave Barnes
+1.303.744.9024
SNL reference or not, that would easily be construed as a personal attack. Since we are from different cultures, and varying backgrounds and ages it's difficult to know what will get upset someone. I'd hate to see someone get banned because of joke.
PS: I am not brave enough to post my real name and phone number on the internet. The idea of identity theft scares me. Perhaps I'll feel better once my Dave Barnes Gold Card comes in the mail.
Innovative products aren't made according to the way things are done today. They define the way things will be done tomorrow.
Wasn't Apple criticised heavily when they got rid of the floppy disk?
They were also the first to wholly adopt something called USB. I've heard it became popular but I don't really know for sure.
Since Apple discontinued the 12" model there was no laptop that Apple offered that I was interested in - they were all too large.
I really want an MBP 12". The reason I hate the MBA is because its presence makes me believe Apple wont ever produce a good 12" PB replacement.
The good part about the MBA is the weight. And it looks good.
But it has a larger footprint!
http://mbp12.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=9
It has less hard disk space than I can have in my 12" PB
2G memory is a little bit too small. One of the reasons an intel machine is interesting to me is the ability to run a virtual machine with Linux or Solaris.
Meanwhile I'll upgrade my 12" PB with a larger disk. If it should die tomorrow I would buy a used 12" PB (and I have the money to buy the MBA SSD, but it isn't interesting for me).
Glossy
I don't care about the missing FW, ethernet, optical drive, "non-replaceable" battery, low CPU speed or cost.
The single USB port worries me. So my question to MBA reviewers is: How much power can the MBA USB port deliver? Is there a non-powered USB hub to buy that can power a (small) external USB hard drive while charging an iPod?
I'll look again on the next revision of MBA (in a year?). Maybe then the drive and RAM has doubled.
... However, when you look at the laptops currently on sale, many are layered with other rather impractical features that suddenly sound indispensable once you're aware they exist. A recent must-have addition on many new PC laptops is the fingerprint reader unit used to log in, ...
Oh please! I hope I'll never see a fingerprint reader on an Apple laptop! What are people thinking???
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/05...print_sensors/
http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-...tml#biometrics
As for the complaints about processor most of the people in need of something like the Air don't require the processor specs of the Pro. Most of these people will be wanting to edit Office documents or surf the Web or read emails, things that don't require huge amounts of resources.
Single USB? Come on, when you're travelling who has the space to connect a heap of devices to their computer? And if you do have those devices how many do you bring along? Enough to fill a four port USB hub? Something tells me not likely.
Many of the arguments against the MBA are from those who the MBA ISN'T designed for and as such they have no reason to complain. I bet if you added a FireWire and an extra USB port and a PCI-Express port and increased the HDD size and processor speed you'd get these people saying "well I have that in my MBP so why should I go for the MBA?".
You can please some of the people some of the time but never all of the people all of the time, unless of course you shoot those who aren't pleased leaving only those who are, then the world would be a better place.
What is it about Mac forums in particular that leads everyone for whom a new product is not ideal, to write a long, vitriol-laden post about how this is living proof that Apple is going to Hell in a handbasket, and Steve Jobs is the devil? If you don't want something, don't buy it! Is that that hard a concept to grasp? As near as I'm able to tell, everybody is steamed because they think Apple has discontinued the MacBook and MacBook Pro and replaced them with the MacBook Air. Check again, folks: They didn't!
What the consensus seems to be is that any laptop is useless unless it has the power, connectivity, and expandability of a Mac Pro, but you can hold it in your mouth when you have both hands full!
And by the way, I don't think it's fair to (kind of) compare the Air's lack of FireWire with the toilet iBook... By then FireWire weren't as accessible and wide spread as today.
So to keep it simple. Here's my list:
1) Keep as is and add a FireWire port, and I would buy.
Being a Macbook Pro owner I am interested in the Macbook Air as an ultralight mobile platform. I was looking for the Macbook Air to actually be the Macbook tablet but it did not appear. On the flip side The Macbook Air looks to be a close alternative. There are times when I do not want to go to the hassle of using the MBP due to it being a 17". Boot up times are better since 10.5 and that does not seem as big an issue for me as simply having to get some space to set it down. The Macbook Air looks like one could cradle it in their arm or hand and use the other for typing and mouse movements. I think a touch screen with the same funactionality as the iPhone and iPod touce would have been a nice added option but maybe in time it will appear...
i completely agree with you. That feature will not only set apart macbook air, but also target a rather different audience.