Please, Apple. Please, please, please bring back the keyboard backlighting when the Air is refreshed. PLEASE!
Quote:
Originally Posted by mr O
1. Please, bring back the backlit keyboard!
2. And add an external battery indicator. Like the Macbook Pro.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xao
I AGREE!!!!!!
That is the ONLY thing that is holding off me purchasing one. I'm still holding on to my old 15" MBP until the Air gets backlit keyboards, then I'm all over the new laptop!
2. And add an external battery indicator. Like the Macbook Pro.
3. A locking socket please. I just noticed yesterday there was no lock on the current MBA
I know 2 people that will sell there MBP to buy a 13" MBA as soon has they go on sale. We you carry your laptop around all the time the air is much better. But since we leave our laptop at our desk at lunch time we need to be able to lock them.
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
I don't disagree 100%, infect I kinda agree, but what difference does it make? I very much prefer the current 15" MBP but that could change if the new AIRs can effectively drive a desktop monitor / hub. I'm looking at Thunderbolt here. TB would change the whole character of the AIRs over night with the right supporting hardware.
Now a 15" MBA is another story again. This could be a very hot seller if constructed the right way. In any event don't pigeon hole the machines, there is more capability in those machines than you might imagine.
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
Is this a confession to being a complete physical wimp? To say you have to lug around an Apple laptop as if it's heavy really should have yourself looking in the mirror and wondering how your body can hold itself up at all.
By rushing the shipment of the Thuunderbolt MacBook Airs, Apple is telling us that the iPad 2 is not adequate for all of our computing work.
Yep. Stupid post from a stupid spammer.
No one ever said that the iPad would meet everyone's computing needs. In case you don't realize it, Apple has a wide range of computers for people with all different needs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cvaldes1831
Those RAW photos fill up space quite fast. It's even more pronounced for AVCHD hi-def video.
For most business users, the NAND flash memory storage is quite adequate.
Yes, but how many professional photographers are going to use a MBA for thousands of RAW photos and hours of AVCHD hi-def video?
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?
For one thing the cost is trivial these days!!!! More importantly RAM can functionally improve the performance of your machine, especially with certain combos of apps running.
Quote:
If you want 4GB, change out the memory module with 4GB kits, and sell the 2GB modules to recover some of the cost.
The point people are making here is that Apple needs to get with the times and properly configure it's machines. You are simply making excuses where Apple should have none to make.
I just don't trust the long-term viability of Flash-based mass storage. For an iPod or iPhone, sure, but for a full-featured computer? No. I need to know I can still write data to the mass storage device in 6+ years. I still have a PowerBook G4 from 2005 that runs perfectly after 6 years. And devices with hard disks that are up to 10 years old that still run. The same cannot really be said for solid-state drives.
This is why I will always get the MacBook Pro line of machines (at least until they force solid-state drives as standard).
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.
Well, that must explain why this 13" MBA came from Apple with 4GB RAM.
Wait... What?
*Every* competitor? It was amusing to see several Asus laptop specs that say "2 x SODIMM socket for expansion up to 4GB SDRAM", while not specifying how much RAM was installed by default. (A couple did note "4GB RAM".)
And at least one warned that while you *could* install 4GB, only 3GB would be usable by the OS.
The devil does seem to be in the details sometimes.
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?
That doesn't cover the "most" in your original comment.
I just don't trust the long-term viability of Flash-based mass storage. For an iPod or iPhone, sure, but for a full-featured computer? No. I need to know I can still write data to the mass storage device in 6+ years.
I?m not sure where you?re getting your information from. The only real limitation SSDs have over HDDs is when you isolate the ability for each to be rewritten. Then the SSD falls very short of a HDD, but that isn?t to say the low limit of the SSD?s rewrites is anything to be concerned about.
My 2.5? 80GB Intel X25 G2 SSD is rated with a MTFB of 1,200,000 hours, while my 2.5? 500GB Seagate 7200RPM HDD is rated with a MTFB of 500,000 hours.
From everything I?ve seen SSDs on average far exceed HDD MTFBs.
So how are you sure you can write to a HDD 6+ years later if the MTFB is lower with all those moving parts? Is this just a natural fear of new technology? A history of inexpensive CE breaking and assuming it must be the NAND?
Quote:
I still have a PowerBook G4 from 2005 that runs perfectly after 6 years. And devices with hard disks that are up to 10 years old that still run. The same cannot really be said for solid-state drives.
Why can?t the same be said for SSD? Is it because SSDs are the crap you suggest or that SSDs weren?t used heavily in consumer devices 10 years ago.
It?s kind of like saying that Mayan stone carvings are the only way to store data because you can still be read a millennium later, yet the same can?t be said for HDDs.
Quote:
This is why I will always get the MacBook Pro line of machines (at least until they force solid-state drives as standard).
That is likely to come sooner than you expect? and you?re gonna love it! I suspect the next revision after Lion will look more like the MBA with the tapering, have the ODD removed, have a mini-PCIe card SATA III SSD card for booting and apps, and a regular 2.5? drive for data. The 27? iMac already has an option for a 2.5? SSD and 3.5? HDD so Apple isn?t against storage stepping.
This setup in the MBPs will give you great capacity and speed. I have been using it in mine for a year. I do wonder how much of the ODD height their reclaim. It?s currently a 12.7mm drive which mean current MBPs can take 12.5mm HDDs and SSDs. But I think they?ll likely limit that to 9.5mm. They could even limit it more with the new 7mm HDDs that are a single platter. They are currently 320GB, but should be nearing 500GB within a year. That could mean the HDD could be placed in an under/over fashion with the SSD card.
PS: You really should have your data backed up so you don?t have to rely on any 6+ year old storage medium.
PPS: If one is really concerned I?d say one should write to 50GB Blu-ray discs so when that one in a trillion chance solar or pulsar comes right at us when our magnetic poles are shifting your optically recorded media won?t be affected. I take it one step farther and tattoo binary code on the children from all my polygamist unions.
I'm also a photographer (professionally, off and on, for the past 40 years) and I use Aperture 3 with RAW files.
It works fine on a MBA with 4GB RAM for sorting/selection and some post processing. For heavier demands, a 2009 3GHz iMac does quite nicely, and without 8 cores.
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.
Totally agreed.
Friends and family alike are jealous of my father's MB Air when they see it. He's got a slower 13" with the 4GB memory, and it handles 4 huge sessions of etrade-pro simultaneously fine, in addition to mail, web, and media players.
All while being completely svelte, silent and cool. It puts my hot-rodded (SSD) MBP 13" to shame.
Useless without built-in 3G as for me there seems 3G is the only network available in my work travels.
Backlit keyboard essential as is ThunderBolt which is a certainty.
A mini-PCIe card for GSM/3GSM or CMDA/CDMA2000 3G with the option to buy from carriers with the same ease as with the iPad would be fricken sweet even though with Personal Hotspot on the iPhone and other phones that need does fade a little.
Useless without built-in 3G as for me there seems 3G is the only network available in my work travels.
Get a USB 3G adapter if you need it. I'd rather not have it taking up space or consuming power on the motherboard, so why should I pay for it?
Quote:
Originally Posted by steveH
Quite a few, actually. Not for their only machine, but for working out in the field.
Once you're home, the sorted stuff moves to the heavyweight tools, and mass storage.
Well, if quite a few professional photographers are currently using an MBA for in the field, then I guess the limitations you cited aren't that big of a problem, right?
The point is that it's not a full featured, desktop replacement machine. It's an ultraportable with certain limitations. If you can live with those limitations, then it's a fine machine. If you can't, you use something else. Expecting an MBA to have as much power as a MBP is just silly. That's like saying "I want a two seater convertible that will go 0 to 60 in 4 seconds, but I want to be able to tow a 10,000 pound trailer with it, as well".
Define your needs and then choose a machine. Expecting one machine to meet everyone's needs is silly.
Comments
Please, Apple. Please, please, please bring back the keyboard backlighting when the Air is refreshed. PLEASE!
1. Please, bring back the backlit keyboard!
2. And add an external battery indicator. Like the Macbook Pro.
I AGREE!!!!!!
That is the ONLY thing that is holding off me purchasing one. I'm still holding on to my old 15" MBP until the Air gets backlit keyboards, then I'm all over the new laptop!
- 2.3 Ghz i7 processor
- Thunderbolt port
- 4 Gb RAM
- Backlit keyboard
- 500 GB SSD BTO
Yes, please. This is my next Mac.My memory is fallible, but I remember trying to configure 4GB back in October and being able to do so only with the 13" model.
It looks like that it?s always had a 4GB option.I was thinking the same thing and my memory is infallable? as I recall.
What we might be thinking of is the SSD limitation of the 11? MBA which can?t take the 256GB SSD card the 13? MBA can take do to the size of the card.
1. Please, bring back the backlit keyboard!
2. And add an external battery indicator. Like the Macbook Pro.
3. A locking socket please. I just noticed yesterday there was no lock on the current MBA
I know 2 people that will sell there MBP to buy a 13" MBA as soon has they go on sale. We you carry your laptop around all the time the air is much better. But since we leave our laptop at our desk at lunch time we need to be able to lock them.
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
I don't disagree 100%, infect I kinda agree, but what difference does it make? I very much prefer the current 15" MBP but that could change if the new AIRs can effectively drive a desktop monitor / hub. I'm looking at Thunderbolt here. TB would change the whole character of the AIRs over night with the right supporting hardware.
Now a 15" MBA is another story again. This could be a very hot seller if constructed the right way. In any event don't pigeon hole the machines, there is more capability in those machines than you might imagine.
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
Is this a confession to being a complete physical wimp? To say you have to lug around an Apple laptop as if it's heavy really should have yourself looking in the mirror and wondering how your body can hold itself up at all.
By rushing the shipment of the Thuunderbolt MacBook Airs, Apple is telling us that the iPad 2 is not adequate for all of our computing work.
Yep. Stupid post from a stupid spammer.
No one ever said that the iPad would meet everyone's computing needs. In case you don't realize it, Apple has a wide range of computers for people with all different needs.
Those RAW photos fill up space quite fast. It's even more pronounced for AVCHD hi-def video.
For most business users, the NAND flash memory storage is quite adequate.
Yes, but how many professional photographers are going to use a MBA for thousands of RAW photos and hours of AVCHD hi-def video?
Different computers for different needs.
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?
For one thing the cost is trivial these days!!!! More importantly RAM can functionally improve the performance of your machine, especially with certain combos of apps running.
If you want 4GB, change out the memory module with 4GB kits, and sell the 2GB modules to recover some of the cost.
The point people are making here is that Apple needs to get with the times and properly configure it's machines. You are simply making excuses where Apple should have none to make.
This is why I will always get the MacBook Pro line of machines (at least until they force solid-state drives as standard).
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.
Well, that must explain why this 13" MBA came from Apple with 4GB RAM.
Wait... What?
*Every* competitor? It was amusing to see several Asus laptop specs that say "2 x SODIMM socket for expansion up to 4GB SDRAM", while not specifying how much RAM was installed by default. (A couple did note "4GB RAM".)
And at least one warned that while you *could* install 4GB, only 3GB would be usable by the OS.
The devil does seem to be in the details sometimes.
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?
That doesn't cover the "most" in your original comment.
I just don't trust the long-term viability of Flash-based mass storage. For an iPod or iPhone, sure, but for a full-featured computer? No. I need to know I can still write data to the mass storage device in 6+ years.
I?m not sure where you?re getting your information from. The only real limitation SSDs have over HDDs is when you isolate the ability for each to be rewritten. Then the SSD falls very short of a HDD, but that isn?t to say the low limit of the SSD?s rewrites is anything to be concerned about.
My 2.5? 80GB Intel X25 G2 SSD is rated with a MTFB of 1,200,000 hours, while my 2.5? 500GB Seagate 7200RPM HDD is rated with a MTFB of 500,000 hours.
From everything I?ve seen SSDs on average far exceed HDD MTFBs.
So how are you sure you can write to a HDD 6+ years later if the MTFB is lower with all those moving parts? Is this just a natural fear of new technology? A history of inexpensive CE breaking and assuming it must be the NAND?
I still have a PowerBook G4 from 2005 that runs perfectly after 6 years. And devices with hard disks that are up to 10 years old that still run. The same cannot really be said for solid-state drives.
Why can?t the same be said for SSD? Is it because SSDs are the crap you suggest or that SSDs weren?t used heavily in consumer devices 10 years ago.
It?s kind of like saying that Mayan stone carvings are the only way to store data because you can still be read a millennium later, yet the same can?t be said for HDDs.
This is why I will always get the MacBook Pro line of machines (at least until they force solid-state drives as standard).
That is likely to come sooner than you expect? and you?re gonna love it! I suspect the next revision after Lion will look more like the MBA with the tapering, have the ODD removed, have a mini-PCIe card SATA III SSD card for booting and apps, and a regular 2.5? drive for data. The 27? iMac already has an option for a 2.5? SSD and 3.5? HDD so Apple isn?t against storage stepping.
This setup in the MBPs will give you great capacity and speed. I have been using it in mine for a year. I do wonder how much of the ODD height their reclaim. It?s currently a 12.7mm drive which mean current MBPs can take 12.5mm HDDs and SSDs. But I think they?ll likely limit that to 9.5mm. They could even limit it more with the new 7mm HDDs that are a single platter. They are currently 320GB, but should be nearing 500GB within a year. That could mean the HDD could be placed in an under/over fashion with the SSD card.
PS: You really should have your data backed up so you don?t have to rely on any 6+ year old storage medium.
PPS: If one is really concerned I?d say one should write to 50GB Blu-ray discs so when that one in a trillion chance solar or pulsar comes right at us when our magnetic poles are shifting your optically recorded media won?t be affected. I take it one step farther and tattoo binary code on the children from all my polygamist unions.
Geez, you need to switch to Lightroom. ; )
I'm also a photographer (professionally, off and on, for the past 40 years) and I use Aperture 3 with RAW files.
It works fine on a MBA with 4GB RAM for sorting/selection and some post processing. For heavier demands, a 2009 3GHz iMac does quite nicely, and without 8 cores.
Maybe I'm just not as impatient as some?
Yes, but how many professional photographers are going to use a MBA for thousands of RAW photos and hours of AVCHD hi-def video?
Different computers for different needs.
Quite a few, actually. Not for their only machine, but for working out in the field.
Once you're home, the sorted stuff moves to the heavyweight tools, and mass storage.
I can see the iPad becoming as thin as an iPod Touch.
Don't ask me how they'll do that, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen.
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.
Totally agreed.
Friends and family alike are jealous of my father's MB Air when they see it. He's got a slower 13" with the 4GB memory, and it handles 4 huge sessions of etrade-pro simultaneously fine, in addition to mail, web, and media players.
All while being completely svelte, silent and cool. It puts my hot-rodded (SSD) MBP 13" to shame.
When do the lines start forming?
Backlit keyboard essential as is ThunderBolt which is a certainty.
(oh, I they should also put a lock slot on the MB airs too).
Useless without built-in 3G as for me there seems 3G is the only network available in my work travels.
Backlit keyboard essential as is ThunderBolt which is a certainty.
A mini-PCIe card for GSM/3GSM or CMDA/CDMA2000 3G with the option to buy from carriers with the same ease as with the iPad would be fricken sweet even though with Personal Hotspot on the iPhone and other phones that need does fade a little.
Useless without built-in 3G as for me there seems 3G is the only network available in my work travels.
Get a USB 3G adapter if you need it. I'd rather not have it taking up space or consuming power on the motherboard, so why should I pay for it?
Quite a few, actually. Not for their only machine, but for working out in the field.
Once you're home, the sorted stuff moves to the heavyweight tools, and mass storage.
Well, if quite a few professional photographers are currently using an MBA for in the field, then I guess the limitations you cited aren't that big of a problem, right?
The point is that it's not a full featured, desktop replacement machine. It's an ultraportable with certain limitations. If you can live with those limitations, then it's a fine machine. If you can't, you use something else. Expecting an MBA to have as much power as a MBP is just silly. That's like saying "I want a two seater convertible that will go 0 to 60 in 4 seconds, but I want to be able to tow a 10,000 pound trailer with it, as well".
Define your needs and then choose a machine. Expecting one machine to meet everyone's needs is silly.