Earlier this week on April 20th, their was a post on the AppleInsider that the Apple store employees couldn't take vacation on May 20-22 because it is around the 10th anniversary of the retail stores opening.
What a move it would be to launch the new Macbook Air's, their back to school offer, and some type of a 10th anniversary sale at this time. Food for thought...it would really drive people into the stores.
I would hope we would see a new iMac along with the new MacBook Air's. Surely Apple would not just ask their staff to hold off on vacations just for a revised MacBook AIr with Thunderbolt.
Not necessarily true. I want power *and* portability.
The MacBook Airs are fantastically light. I want to be able to carry it around and do design work.
However, I also want Apple's specs to catch up to their rivals and reflect better pricing. Every competitor is entering at 4GB RAM now while Apple continues to do the "2GB with 1GB in both sockets" type of thing in their laptop line which drives me nuts.
If a MAC with OSX work just as well on 2GB as those other machines running windows on 4GB, why should Apple add unnecessary cost to the system going to 4GB?
If you want 4GB, change out the memory module with 4GB kits, and sell the 2GB modules to recover some of the cost.
the MBA like all the other subnetbooks are niche products. most people want 15" screens, faster CPU and more storage
the people who buy them use them for email and work on the road, especially long flights
This is total BS. You're just 'supposin' based on your own personal needs and don't actually have any actual facts at all.
Here's some facts ...
At my place of work (a large University somewhere on planet Earth), roughly 4% of the senior faculty have MacBook Airs and use them as their main/only computer. They often dock them to one of those giant Apple monitors when in the office, but they travel around the world with them and have no complaints.
I'm a developer and I spend most of my time in XCode, Outlook, Word, and Excel. Plus lots of web based activity. My 13" MacBook Air is docked to a large monitor, keyboard, and trackpad. Is that a niche?
None of these apps tax the CPU/GPU in the slightest. In fact with the SSD this is one of the real-world fastest machines I've ever had the pleasure of using.
I also travel a lot and the MBA can't be beat for that.
I have the external DVD drive too, which I think I've used about 3 times.
When I see people lugging around the behemoth MBPs I just smile. If you're a gamer or you're rendering video in the airport it's great I guess.
I don't have an air (have a clunky old 13" mbp ) but playing on friends' airs I gotta agree that there is nothing slow about them (only tried the 13"). Photoshop and FCP performance may not be good enough for dedicated pro level work but anyone looking for an air to be the primary machine for that kind of work is not thinking straight. I don't think the air is niche at all. In fact, the regular mbp is becoming niche. My guess is that a 15mba is on its way.
If a MAC with OSX work just as well on 2GB as those other machines running windows on 4GB, why should Apple add unnecessary cost to the system going to 4GB?
If you want 4GB, change out the memory module with 4GB kits, and sell the 2GB modules to recover some of the cost.
Can't do that on any past or current Macbook Air.
Quote:
Originally Posted by addabox
We get a lot of this, claiming that "Apple people" are forever insisting that everything is perfect just as it is, that Apple need not change or improve anything ever, but I never see citations of anyone actually saying that. It just seems to be an article of faith with some folks.
I am a photographer...you can smile all you want but Aperture really uses all four cores and needs 8 Gb ram when you are working with RAW files. I would love the MBA but would have to be quad core with 8 GB ram and 500+ Gb drive....not likely to happen so i will just have to "lug" the MBP
I am a photographer...you can smile all you want but Aperture really uses all four cores and needs 8 Gb ram when you are working with RAW files. I would love the MBA but would have to be quad core with 8 GB ram and 500+ Gb drive....not likely to happen so i will just have to "lug" the MBP
Same here! I use Aperture, FCPro as well as CS5 Suite and I had to go to an internal 1 TB drive on my MBP i7
the MBA like all the other subnetbooks are niche products. most people want 15" screens, faster CPU and more storage
the people who buy them use them for email and work on the road, especially long flights
Mac OS X ran fine on a 1Ghz single core PPC G4 chip. The 45nm iteration of the Intel Penryn Core 2 Duo runs rings around that. It's not like OS X got bloated like Vista. As long as you don't load Flash on the MacBook Air (I use Click2Flash) you should be fine.
Not necessarily true. I want power *and* portability.
The MacBook Airs are fantastically light. I want to be able to carry it around and do design work.
However, I also want Apple's specs to catch up to their rivals and reflect better pricing. Every competitor is entering at 4GB RAM now while Apple continues to do the "2GB with 1GB in both sockets" type of thing in their laptop line which drives me nuts.
Which competitors are giving 4 GB though? The only manufacturer serious about competing with the MBA is Samsung and their Series 9 computers come with 2 GB. I'll check again though, maybe I saw the wrong thing.
I want a 15" MacBook Air. The CPU and storage options now available on the 13" MacBook Air are acceptable.
Ditto here.
I actually think the MacBook Air is the future of Apple laptops. I bet they do come out with a 15 inch and that within 2 years most laptop sales will be the MacBook airs.
Macbook Pros will only be marketed to traveling media people like reporters who need lots of storage and lots of ports. White Macbook wil disappear or linger as the base option for the really budget conscious
Same here! I use Aperture, FCPro as well as CS5 Suite and I had to go to an internal 1 TB drive on my MBP i7
But you and markb are niche. Nice niche, but niche. And really, is even a MBP fast enough? As a pro photographer I am surprised your main machine is not a top of the range MacPro. I don't know the kind of work you do and I know field work can be a big part of photo, video, graphics work but were I to spend half my working time in front of a monitor with the above mentioned apps I would want the biggest baddest monitor hooked up to the biggest baddest MP I could afford just to minimize technical frustrations associated with cpu, memory and screen real estate issues.
Should Apple follow its current trend of using ultra-low-variants for the 11.6-inch MacBook Air and low-voltage ones for the 13.3-inch models, consumers can expect to see new 11.6-inch MacBook Airs sporting 1.4GHz to 1.6GHz Core i5 and Core i7 chips and 13.3-inch MacBook Airs with 2.10 and 2.30GHz Core i7 processors.
I'm also looking forward to Sandy Bridge based Mac Book Airs, but the CPUs you are not the same power envelope as the CPUs in the current MacBook Airs. The CPU listed above are 17 watts and 25 watts respectively.
So if apple does move to the LV/ULV line up being released this summer, there may be a battery life and heat generation hit.
Now, it is possible that moving to the on die GPU and away from the nvidia 320m chipset to an Intel chipset could safe enough power to make up the difference in TDP of the CPUs. It looks like the 320m is likely around 12 watts TDP. I'm less sure about the chipset that would be used in the next MacBook Airs.
I certainly hope that these CPUs can be used; while I would prefer a 13" MacBookPro with no optical drive and a discrete video chip, these potential MacBook Airs would be nice.
I'm definitely excited to see the Sandy Bridge MBAs coming soon, plus likely SB iMacs as the stock of iMacs has been reportedly dwindling recently. I don't expect the white Macbook to last the rest of the year. I think it has run it's course and Apple will expect anyone who wants a "low end" OSX system to pick up an Air. The MBA and iPad cover an amazingly wide variety of people's full needs.
I'm just wondering if Intel will be following roughly the same schedule of processor production next year w/Ivy Bridge. So we would get the normal laptop chips early in the year and halfway thru the year get something good for the MBA. My wife and I were talking about getting MBPs w/our tax return next year, but she has been thinking about the MBA instead. Would make sense to just wait till Ivy Bridge was in it if it would only be a couple of months away.
The option of putting in up to 8gb of RAM would be nice.
Apple just made 4GB an option. The most I'm hoping for in terms of RAM is that 4GB becomes standard on the 13" MBA (and hopefully a new 15" MBA). An 8GB MBA may still be a few years away.
Should Apple follow its current trend of using ultra-low-variants for the 11.6-inch MacBook Air and low-voltage ones for the 13.3-inch models, consumers can expect to see new 11.6-inch MacBook Airs sporting 1.4GHz to 1.6GHz Core i5 and Core i7 chips and 13.3-inch MacBook Airs with 2.10 and 2.30GHz Core i7 processors.
I'm also looking forward to Sandy Bridge based Mac Book Airs, but the CPUs you are not the same power envelope as the CPUs in the current MacBook Airs. The CPU listed above are 17 watts and 25 watts respectively.
So if apple does move to the LV/ULV line up being released this summer, there may be a battery life and heat generation hit.
Now, it is possible that moving to the on die GPU and away from the nvidia 320m chipset to an Intel chipset could safe enough power to make up the difference in TDP of the CPUs. It looks like the 320m is likely around 12 watts TDP. I'm less sure about the chipset that would be used in the next MacBook Airs.
I certainly hope that these CPUs can be used; while I would prefer a 13" MacBookPro with no optical drive and a discrete video chip, these potential MacBook Airs would be nice.
You forget that the Geforce 320M inside the MacBook Air also requires some power, and the new MacBook Airs aren't going to have a separate chip for graphics. The 320M itself uses about 12W (I assume less for the 11" since it's likely downclocked), so these chips should fit in nicely without any drop in battery life. In fact, these are likely to be MUCH more efficient, since Nehalem/Sandy Bridge CPUs have power-gating, letting the CPU turn off one of the cores if it's not needed.
I am a photographer...you can smile all you want but Aperture really uses all four cores and needs 8 Gb ram when you are working with RAW files. I would love the MBA but would have to be quad core with 8 GB ram and 500+ Gb drive....not likely to happen so i will just have to "lug" the MBP
You poor thing! You're positively hampered by the lack of cores and memory. In ten years, you'll be complaining that the 2021 MacBook Air only has 32-cores and 2TB of 5Ghz of RAM... how will you adjust the contrast on your RAW photos??! You'll have to wait 1.09 seconds!
If you want 4GB, change out the memory module with 4GB kits, and sell the 2GB modules to recover some of the cost.
There is a problem with this idea. If you call Apple support, one of their first troubleshooting questions is asking you if you have 3rd party memory. Unfortunately, regardless if that is the problem, 3rd party memory is often blamed for problems.
I would only upgrade memory after purchase on a machine where you can easily put the original memory back in. Otherwise, you could have problems getting support/warranty down the road.
because laptops with traditional hard drives outsell the MBA's by a lot. if you have a 50GB itunes collection plus idevice apps where are you supposed to keep them if the MBA only has 64GB of storage?
Comments
Earlier this week on April 20th, their was a post on the AppleInsider that the Apple store employees couldn't take vacation on May 20-22 because it is around the 10th anniversary of the retail stores opening.
What a move it would be to launch the new Macbook Air's, their back to school offer, and some type of a 10th anniversary sale at this time. Food for thought...it would really drive people into the stores.
I would hope we would see a new iMac along with the new MacBook Air's. Surely Apple would not just ask their staff to hold off on vacations just for a revised MacBook AIr with Thunderbolt.
Not necessarily true. I want power *and* portability.
The MacBook Airs are fantastically light. I want to be able to carry it around and do design work.
However, I also want Apple's specs to catch up to their rivals and reflect better pricing. Every competitor is entering at 4GB RAM now while Apple continues to do the "2GB with 1GB in both sockets" type of thing in their laptop line which drives me nuts.
If a MAC with OSX work just as well on 2GB as those other machines running windows on 4GB, why should Apple add unnecessary cost to the system going to 4GB?
If you want 4GB, change out the memory module with 4GB kits, and sell the 2GB modules to recover some of the cost.
the MBA like all the other subnetbooks are niche products. most people want 15" screens, faster CPU and more storage
the people who buy them use them for email and work on the road, especially long flights
This is total BS. You're just 'supposin' based on your own personal needs and don't actually have any actual facts at all.
Here's some facts ...
At my place of work (a large University somewhere on planet Earth), roughly 4% of the senior faculty have MacBook Airs and use them as their main/only computer. They often dock them to one of those giant Apple monitors when in the office, but they travel around the world with them and have no complaints.
I'm a developer and I spend most of my time in XCode, Outlook, Word, and Excel. Plus lots of web based activity. My 13" MacBook Air is docked to a large monitor, keyboard, and trackpad. Is that a niche?
None of these apps tax the CPU/GPU in the slightest. In fact with the SSD this is one of the real-world fastest machines I've ever had the pleasure of using.
I also travel a lot and the MBA can't be beat for that.
I have the external DVD drive too, which I think I've used about 3 times.
When I see people lugging around the behemoth MBPs I just smile. If you're a gamer or you're rendering video in the airport it's great I guess.
I don't have an air (have a clunky old 13" mbp
If a MAC with OSX work just as well on 2GB as those other machines running windows on 4GB, why should Apple add unnecessary cost to the system going to 4GB?
If you want 4GB, change out the memory module with 4GB kits, and sell the 2GB modules to recover some of the cost.
Can't do that on any past or current Macbook Air.
We get a lot of this, claiming that "Apple people" are forever insisting that everything is perfect just as it is, that Apple need not change or improve anything ever, but I never see citations of anyone actually saying that. It just seems to be an article of faith with some folks.
Are you reading this addabox?
most people want 15" screens, faster CPU and more storage
You know this how?
I am a photographer...you can smile all you want but Aperture really uses all four cores and needs 8 Gb ram when you are working with RAW files. I would love the MBA but would have to be quad core with 8 GB ram and 500+ Gb drive....not likely to happen so i will just have to "lug" the MBP
Geez, you need to switch to Lightroom. ; )
I am a photographer...you can smile all you want but Aperture really uses all four cores and needs 8 Gb ram when you are working with RAW files. I would love the MBA but would have to be quad core with 8 GB ram and 500+ Gb drive....not likely to happen so i will just have to "lug" the MBP
Same here! I use Aperture, FCPro as well as CS5 Suite and I had to go to an internal 1 TB drive on my MBP i7
the MBA like all the other subnetbooks are niche products. most people want 15" screens, faster CPU and more storage
the people who buy them use them for email and work on the road, especially long flights
Mac OS X ran fine on a 1Ghz single core PPC G4 chip. The 45nm iteration of the Intel Penryn Core 2 Duo runs rings around that. It's not like OS X got bloated like Vista. As long as you don't load Flash on the MacBook Air (I use Click2Flash) you should be fine.
Not necessarily true. I want power *and* portability.
The MacBook Airs are fantastically light. I want to be able to carry it around and do design work.
However, I also want Apple's specs to catch up to their rivals and reflect better pricing. Every competitor is entering at 4GB RAM now while Apple continues to do the "2GB with 1GB in both sockets" type of thing in their laptop line which drives me nuts.
Which competitors are giving 4 GB though? The only manufacturer serious about competing with the MBA is Samsung and their Series 9 computers come with 2 GB. I'll check again though, maybe I saw the wrong thing.
I want a 15" MacBook Air. The CPU and storage options now available on the 13" MacBook Air are acceptable.
Ditto here.
I actually think the MacBook Air is the future of Apple laptops. I bet they do come out with a 15 inch and that within 2 years most laptop sales will be the MacBook airs.
Macbook Pros will only be marketed to traveling media people like reporters who need lots of storage and lots of ports. White Macbook wil disappear or linger as the base option for the really budget conscious
Same here! I use Aperture, FCPro as well as CS5 Suite and I had to go to an internal 1 TB drive on my MBP i7
But you and markb are niche. Nice niche, but niche. And really, is even a MBP fast enough? As a pro photographer I am surprised your main machine is not a top of the range MacPro. I don't know the kind of work you do and I know field work can be a big part of photo, video, graphics work but were I to spend half my working time in front of a monitor with the above mentioned apps I would want the biggest baddest monitor hooked up to the biggest baddest MP I could afford just to minimize technical frustrations associated with cpu, memory and screen real estate issues.
Referenced here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...icroprocessors
The CPUs in the current 11" MBA are 10W (the U9400 and U9600):
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=36697
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=37264
The CPU in the current 13" MBA are 17W (The L9400 and L9600):
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=36689
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=37262
So if apple does move to the LV/ULV line up being released this summer, there may be a battery life and heat generation hit.
Now, it is possible that moving to the on die GPU and away from the nvidia 320m chipset to an Intel chipset could safe enough power to make up the difference in TDP of the CPUs. It looks like the 320m is likely around 12 watts TDP. I'm less sure about the chipset that would be used in the next MacBook Airs.
I certainly hope that these CPUs can be used; while I would prefer a 13" MacBookPro with no optical drive and a discrete video chip, these potential MacBook Airs would be nice.
I'm just wondering if Intel will be following roughly the same schedule of processor production next year w/Ivy Bridge. So we would get the normal laptop chips early in the year and halfway thru the year get something good for the MBA. My wife and I were talking about getting MBPs w/our tax return next year, but she has been thinking about the MBA instead. Would make sense to just wait till Ivy Bridge was in it if it would only be a couple of months away.
The option of putting in up to 8gb of RAM would be nice.
Apple just made 4GB an option. The most I'm hoping for in terms of RAM is that 4GB becomes standard on the 13" MBA (and hopefully a new 15" MBA). An 8GB MBA may still be a few years away.
I'm also looking forward to Sandy Bridge based Mac Book Airs, but the CPUs you are not the same power envelope as the CPUs in the current MacBook Airs. The CPU listed above are 17 watts and 25 watts respectively.
Referenced here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...icroprocessors
The CPUs in the current 11" MBA are 10W (the U9400 and U9600):
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=36697
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=37264
The CPU in the current 13" MBA are 17W (The L9400 and L9600):
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=36689
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=37262
So if apple does move to the LV/ULV line up being released this summer, there may be a battery life and heat generation hit.
Now, it is possible that moving to the on die GPU and away from the nvidia 320m chipset to an Intel chipset could safe enough power to make up the difference in TDP of the CPUs. It looks like the 320m is likely around 12 watts TDP. I'm less sure about the chipset that would be used in the next MacBook Airs.
I certainly hope that these CPUs can be used; while I would prefer a 13" MacBookPro with no optical drive and a discrete video chip, these potential MacBook Airs would be nice.
You forget that the Geforce 320M inside the MacBook Air also requires some power, and the new MacBook Airs aren't going to have a separate chip for graphics. The 320M itself uses about 12W (I assume less for the 11" since it's likely downclocked), so these chips should fit in nicely without any drop in battery life. In fact, these are likely to be MUCH more efficient, since Nehalem/Sandy Bridge CPUs have power-gating, letting the CPU turn off one of the cores if it's not needed.
I am a photographer...you can smile all you want but Aperture really uses all four cores and needs 8 Gb ram when you are working with RAW files. I would love the MBA but would have to be quad core with 8 GB ram and 500+ Gb drive....not likely to happen so i will just have to "lug" the MBP
You poor thing! You're positively hampered by the lack of cores and memory. In ten years, you'll be complaining that the 2021 MacBook Air only has 32-cores and 2TB of 5Ghz of RAM... how will you adjust the contrast on your RAW photos??! You'll have to wait 1.09 seconds!
If you want 4GB, change out the memory module with 4GB kits, and sell the 2GB modules to recover some of the cost.
There is a problem with this idea. If you call Apple support, one of their first troubleshooting questions is asking you if you have 3rd party memory. Unfortunately, regardless if that is the problem, 3rd party memory is often blamed for problems.
I would only upgrade memory after purchase on a machine where you can easily put the original memory back in. Otherwise, you could have problems getting support/warranty down the road.
-kpluck
You know this how?
because laptops with traditional hard drives outsell the MBA's by a lot. if you have a 50GB itunes collection plus idevice apps where are you supposed to keep them if the MBA only has 64GB of storage?