First look: Apple's new 11 and 13 inch MacBook Air

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  • Reply 161 of 186
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jamo View Post


    The main reason it is widescreen is because they wouldn't have been able to put in a full-size keyboard into the machine. I guess Apple decided that more people would prefer a full-sized keyboard over a 6:10 screen.



    That and all of Apple's computers are widescreen...
  • Reply 162 of 186
    jamojamo Posts: 2member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    That and all of Apple's computers are widescreen...



    Lol I ment the 11" being 16:9 instead of being 16:10.

    I should be more clear when I put up posts...
  • Reply 163 of 186
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jamo View Post


    The main reason it is widescreen is because they wouldn't have been able to put in a full-size keyboard into the machine. I guess Apple decided that more people would prefer a full-sized keyboard over a 6:10 screen.



    When the 11.6" MBA rumour first cropped up I did the maths and found that at a 16:10 aspect ratio it's actually a little wider than the 12.1" 4:3 PowerBook which also had a full-sized keyboard.



    Now, that doesn't mean that they didn't need a wider display for other other reasons, but they surely could have used a 16:10 ratio and still kept a full-sized keyboard using the current display frame.
  • Reply 164 of 186
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by matt_s View Post


    I think you've completely missed the point. Where you pulled "massive internal storage" and invented numbers like "750GB" and "1.5TB" is unknown. As I look at our posts, I noted a 300GB HDD installed in a MacBook, using 111GB, and wizard69 noted something in the 80 to 90GB area in terms of a loaded drive. Far, far from 1.5TB.



    I was addressing a poster who stated that an ultra-portable didn?t have enough storage to hold massive data libraries and stated that Apple is ?missing the boat? and ?artificially? limiting the storage which is needed to make it thinner, lighter and more power efficient.



    I simply pointed out that of course it?s artificial and used an example that would allow for 2x750GB HDD, which i think are the largest possible 2.5? HDDs with a 9.5mm height. It?s an example. That?s not putting words anywhere. Note that unibody MB and MBPs can take 12.5mm HDDs.



    Quote:

    Both myself & wizard69 never claimed a need for "massive storage," as you put it. Reasonable storage, yes. Our point was that 64GB & 128GB is not reasonable, and you missed this completely.



    If you say that his argument is that Apple strategically planned their options to allow for more unselling. Well of course. You don?t think other vendors don?t do the same thing? But it?s not just about profit centers, it can also be about lowering cost centers.
  • Reply 165 of 186
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by addabox View Post


    The whole storage thing is interesting. HDD sizes balloon, year in and year out, and the "necessary" size of internal storage just keeps getting bigger. The MacBook Pro I'm using to post this has half a terabyte of drive space, and we'll surely see laptops shipping with multi-TB drives soon enough.



    Which is great and all, but at some point it becomes completely unwieldy, if for nothing else than the "all my digital eggs in one basket" phenomena, exacerbated by how more and more of our lives reside on file systems. People are growing up now with nothing but digital photos, correspondence, home movies, media collections, financial records, diaries, personal paraphernalia, etc. Losing that at one go isn't an inconvenience, it's a devastating erasure of your very identity. And with every passing year the collection grows larger....



    Even if you're conscientious about local backup, how far are we willing to take that? Are we going to be obliged to have multi-Petabyte drives lying around? HDDs are ridiculously fragile to entrust the entirety of our lives to. At some point not having most of this on the cloud will seem as odd as insisting that all of our bank statements, DMV records, tax history, etc. be reduced to a single paper copy that we keep in a shoebox under the bed.



    A very relevant question indeed. I've owned computers long enough to realize that the technology is disposable, but your records & data last potentially forever. After upgrading many times over the years, I realized that it was rather stupid to store all of your data on a computer, particularly in the days before Time Machine made backing up trivial. A few years ago, I got a RAID 5 NAS, and migrated all of my long-term Mac & PC data there. This was a step in the right direction (except the Linux-based NAS uses some funky drive format that doesn't like some of HFS+ pathnames). But I've already had to replace one of the drives after a few years, and I'm worried that eventually, I won't be able to buy Parallel ATA drives at some point in the future, making my RAID array unserviceable. What to do? Besides stocking up on spare PATA drives? Then it hit me: with cable modems and FIOS speeds reaching 15Mbps+, it made sense to use cloud storage. Of course, you have to trust your cloud vendor not to drop the ball on backing up your data & keeping it secure forever (or until you cancel the service). So I predict that's where things will go for many who have access to fast broadband.



    The MacBook Air is a step in that direction. I just got one (woo hoo!) and the SSD drive isn't big enough for all my iTunes music & HD video files, so I'm keeping those on my MBP, which I had upgraded to 640GB a few months ago. I'm going to use iDisk to sync files between the two. I also read somewhere that you could put all of you iTunes data on a network share, like a USB drive attached to an Airport Extreme. I'll be looking into that. I plan to use a mirrored (RAID 1) USB drive for that, as it wouldn't be included in Time Machine backups.
  • Reply 166 of 186
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jamo View Post


    The main reason it is widescreen is because they wouldn't have been able to put in a full-size keyboard into the machine. I guess Apple decided that more people would prefer a full-sized keyboard over a 6:10 screen.



    Looking at the rather large bezel around the screen of the 11" MacBook Air, I believe they could have easily upgraded the screen to something larger without changing the case. Some older PowerBooks and MacBook Pros have very thin bezels around the screen, as do larger ThinkPads. I think it has to do with cost and availability of 16:9 LCD panels in the 11" size. These can be used in everything from in-car entertainment screens, portable DVD players, to netbooks. Using a part that is in demand by manufacturers means more production, lower prices, and better supply.



    I just don't think 16:9 at such low resolutions is ideal for document viewing, but we're living in the HD era.
  • Reply 167 of 186
    Clarification on Instant On feature



    From Apple's website:

    "And when you put MacBook Air to sleep for more than an hour, it enters what?s called standby mode. So you can come back to MacBook Air a day, a week ? even up to an entire month later ? and it wakes in an instant."
  • Reply 168 of 186
    antkm1antkm1 Posts: 1,441member
    You know there are several USB slots on both sides, so you can add a USB hard-drive to store all your movies and music and stuff. That way all your machines sync to it instead of dedicating one machine. You might have room left over on the new MBA for all you programs you talked about having.



    There is also the accessory "Super-Drive" you can purchase for watching DVD's.



    The lack of Ethernet is a bit disappointing, i agree. I was thinking about buying one of these to use as a remote desktop device for work, but without Ethernet, that may be a problem. I have (my significant other's really) a MBP 13" that has spotty Wifi issues in my house when i'm 20' away from the router! I've heard these metal cases causes Wifi issues. So i'm torn as well.



    Edit: Apple does sell a USB - Ethernet accessory (for $30).

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by matt_s View Post


    The 11.6" looks almost perfect, save for the lack of Gig Ethernet and very tiny storage. I'm looking at my MacBook now and I've already got 111GB used out of the 300GB HDD I installed immediately after I bought the machine. No way 128GB SSD is going to work. I'm wondering how the heck I'm going to be able to put my whole life and business on this gorgeous travel companion.



    At I time when I feel I should be rejoicing, I'm also feeling frustrated, dammit. Almost exactly what I want but yet, unusable. Grrrr.........



  • Reply 169 of 186
    nvidia2008nvidia2008 Posts: 9,262member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by antkm1 View Post


    You know there are several USB slots on both sides, so you can add a USB hard-drive to store all your movies and music and stuff. That way all your machines sync to it instead of dedicating one machine. You might have room left over on the new MBA for all you programs you talked about having.



    There is also the accessory "Super-Drive" you can purchase for watching DVD's.



    The lack of Ethernet is a bit disappointing, i agree. I was thinking about buying one of these to use as a remote desktop device for work, but without Ethernet, that may be a problem. I have (my significant other's really) a MBP 13" that has spotty Wifi issues in my house when i'm 20' away from the router! I've heard these metal cases causes Wifi issues. So i'm torn as well.



    Edit: Apple does sell a USB - Ethernet accessory (for $30).



    FWIW, my Macbook Aluminium 2ghz has excellent WiFi reception. The white plastic MacBook has *insanely good* WiFi reception.



    Maybe try a different router brand? So many common wireless routers nowadays are not that good.
  • Reply 170 of 186
    nvidia2008nvidia2008 Posts: 9,262member
    Edit: ARGJGJGJHH Another thread with mythical pages you cannot get tooooo *sob*
  • Reply 171 of 186
    ivan.rnn01ivan.rnn01 Posts: 1,822member
    Err... Piece of work...



    PC Universe:

    Standby = halting hardware without saving system state snapshot to the permanent storage (i.e. hibernating)

    Sleep = Standby first -> then hibernating, possibly controlled and parameterized by an user.



    Mac Universe:

    Sleep = Ordinary, unsafe sleep (i.e. standby) -> then Safe Sleep (hibernating solely under low battery conditions and without user control)
  • Reply 172 of 186
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nvidia2008 View Post


    Edit: ARGJGJGJHH Another thread with mythical pages you cannot get tooooo *sob*



    Yeah, it seems to happen from time to time. I think I've noticed that after a few more clips are posted that the next page actually, eventually, even magically, appears.



    Or maybe the discussion is continuing without us.... (cue theme song to The Twilight Zone)







    -----



    Lots of guests viewing these MacBook Air threads... shows high interest in these babies. Nice to see. Hello, everybody! Go get one of these thingies; they're awesome. Just make sure you request the 4GB RAM option for a few bucks more.
  • Reply 173 of 186
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by doyourownthing View Post


    as an apple fan, i want to like them more but i just don't get them



    4 gb of ram seems way too little...i wanted a replacement for my macbook pro, but i'll keep waiting until they're refreshed



    4GB of ram seems way too little? OMG what are you doing with your machine? Cmon...at some point, the macbook air is just NOT the right machine for you if you need more than 4GB of ram.
  • Reply 174 of 186
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nvidia2008 View Post


    Edit: ARGJGJGJHH Another thread with mythical pages you cannot get tooooo *sob*



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bergermeister View Post


    Yeah, it seems to happen from time to time. I think I've noticed that after a few more clips are posted that the next page actually, eventually, even magically, appears.



    Or maybe the discussion is continuing without us.... (cue theme song to The Twilight Zone)



    Solution to today?s riddle: http://forums.appleinsider.com/showp...&postcount=297
  • Reply 175 of 186
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,951member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by fishstick_kitty View Post


    4GB of ram seems way too little? OMG what are you doing with your machine? Cmon...at some point, the macbook air is just NOT the right machine for you if you need more than 4GB of ram.



    I agree. MBA isn't a power user's machine, if you need more than 4GB any time soon, you'll benefit from getting a machine that has more than a low volt processor. I'm doing fine with a MBP that I upgraded to 4GB. 2GB seems a bit shy even for just web browsing and email though, that's what I do and I see more than 2GB used pretty often. But I never see more than 4GB used.



    This incessant demand that everything be a power user's machine is dumb. We power users need to accept the fact that most people *aren't* power users and as such, most people don't necessarily need terabytes of storage. For example, my parents have computers that could fit everything they need within 10GB. Just relax already, the world doesn't revolve around your needs, allow a product to fit someone else's needs for once.
  • Reply 176 of 186
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Splash-reverse View Post


    Apple just made the metal connector on the dongle slightly bigger than normal USB and leave it bare. That's why it look different and cool too.



    Somebody is bound copy it onto a off-the-shelf USB flash drive and abandon the normal distribution disc for good. Easier to store IMO compare to disc which although thin, still need the case etc.



    Copy? I've already seen USB sticks without usb connector being enclosed. Check you nearest electronics supermarket.













    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    On the other hand, the 13 inch model has a "15 inch resolution" of 1440x900, the same as the 15 inch MacBook Pro, packed into the 13.3 inch display (although the latest 15 inch MacBook Pro now offers a higher resolution, 1680x1050 option.



    With Sony Z series (13") having 1920x1080 option for quite some time. Moreover, it is a matte screen, with a 3G integrated module. Essential for some travelers.

    Air lacks matte and 3G. At least 3G - they definitely had place in 13" to put it in.
  • Reply 177 of 186
    benicebenice Posts: 382member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dagamer34 View Post


    The Air isn't intended for a lot of people then.



    The problem I have with the air is that despite the fact that it's thin and light, an iPad could cover 99.9% of your needs and the Air is so underwhelming for the other 0.01% than I'd almost rather buy an MBP or nothing at all.



    Ever since I got my iMac and my iPad, I've barely touched my old 2006 MacBook Pro. I'm bound to sell it, but I constantly wonder if it's worth buying a replacement laptop when using a service like LogMeIn gets me access to my desktop PC where most of my heavy lifting happens.



    Interesting. How practical though is it to do real work over LogMeIn back to the main desktop? I'm genuinely interested in how I could park my main mac somewhere in the corner of my place and then bring up MS Excel and other apps to do work on via the iPad or another remote machine.
  • Reply 178 of 186
    Well, by looking now at MacBookAir I wonder what is next? Will Apple switch all its MacbookPro models at some point to flash memory? I bet Apple will be the first company to adapt the revolution in circuitry that happens now with developing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memristor, cause that will make a notebook instant on/off portable device.

    I have a crazy idea that MacBookAir '11 may have appeal particularly to women...;-)
  • Reply 179 of 186
    ajpriceajprice Posts: 320member
    I can see them placing MBA type flash on the board for the OS install, then a hard drive for file storage. Similar to the top iMacs with the 256GB SSD and 1TB hard drive, but replacing the SSD with flash on the board.
  • Reply 180 of 186
    onhkaonhka Posts: 1,025member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post


    A very relevant question indeed. I've owned computers long enough to realize that the technology is disposable, but your records & data last potentially forever. After upgrading many times over the years, I realized that it was rather stupid to store all of your data on a computer, particularly in the days before Time Machine made backing up trivial. A few years ago, I got a RAID 5 NAS, and migrated all of my long-term Mac & PC data there. This was a step in the right direction (except the Linux-based NAS uses some funky drive format that doesn't like some of HFS+ pathnames). But I've already had to replace one of the drives after a few years, and I'm worried that eventually, I won't be able to buy Parallel ATA drives at some point in the future, making my RAID array unserviceable. What to do? Besides stocking up on spare PATA drives? Then it hit me: with cable modems and FIOS speeds reaching 15Mbps+, it made sense to use cloud storage. Of course, you have to trust your cloud vendor not to drop the ball on backing up your data & keeping it secure forever (or until you cancel the service). So I predict that's where things will go for many who have access to fast broadband.



    The MacBook Air is a step in that direction. I just got one (woo hoo!) and the SSD drive isn't big enough for all my iTunes music & HD video files, so I'm keeping those on my MBP, which I had upgraded to 640GB a few months ago. I'm going to use iDisk to sync files between the two. I also read somewhere that you could put all of you iTunes data on a network share, like a USB drive attached to an Airport Extreme. I'll be looking into that. I plan to use a mirrored (RAID 1) USB drive for that, as it wouldn't be included in Time Machine backups.



    It is amazing the number of people that hoard their data. And many, if not most, that don't have a backup plan.



    But then, all we have to do is visit our bedrooms, our basements, our offices or our cars.



    Right off, let it be clear, that if we have a need to have our entire music, video or photo library on our computers, there are legitimate and rational reasons to keep it as handy as possible. For most however, much of what is there now is basically useless, i.e., rarely if ever used.



    And why not test to see if we really need all that space for nothing.



    Method: Create and save a Smart Folder(s), adding 'Used Dates' is 'within', e.g., 30, 60 or 90 days, and 'Kind' is 'Application'



    Most of us would be extremely surprised at the number of applications we have installed, and more enlightening, the relatively smaller number we actually use routinely. For the MacBook Air, I wouldn't be running Adobe CS and excluding that suite alone would save me nearly 5 GBs of space.



    Now, create another Smart Folder(s) for Document, music, movies, etc? Do we need all those versions. More important, do we need all of them outside of our offices or homes and subject to loss, thievery or carelessness?



    Then create a Smart Folder of everything that we really need and use. We would be amazed how really small it is.



    As you have pointed out, there are a number of ways to access your data other than keeping it all within arms length. And, if anybody can offer a newer and more viable solution, it will most likely come from Apple. I have not witnessed anything that would lead me to believe that it would not be secure as possible, or overly costly.



    Let's look at it another way. My home is over 3200 sq ft. My office is 200. Our cottage is only 900. My hotel rooms are seldom over 150. Our home contains everything. My office, current projects. Our cottage, the necessities. My hotel room, a bed/TV/bathroom. All, to my wife's chagrin have internet. But basically everything I need for the moment.



    I would like to add, we have contemplated on building a larger cottage. But then, we realized that my relatives and friends(?), let alone my wife's, would want to be there all the time. So we put the plans in a Smart Folder so to speak.
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