Macbook Air

[spikey_richie]

Not sure if this is a dup post, but just incase:

http://www.apple.com/macbookair/

Truly awesome!

[Beerknurd]

I don't care for anything that comes out of Steve Jobs company. I will never buy anything apple, not even an ipod...

[Nflight]

I think I will take 4 of them, I will place the order as soon as I get the money!

[Beerknurd]

Yuck... I think I just threw up a little...

[Lagu]

Yeah, they are expansive to buy as usual

[vaughan]

I don't care for anything that comes out of Steve Jobs company. I will never buy anything apple, not even an ipod...
Ah go on! An Apple a day keeps the Dr away :icon_wink:

I also resisted buying anything Apple for a long time but eventually I got Lisa an ipod shuttle, then Doomeva wanted an 80GB ipod and then I succumbed and got an 8GB nano with a Nike Plus thingie (scientific term). Its great.

That Macbook air looks very sleek. Its a pity Apple charge too much.

[Strongbow]

I liked it till I got to the point where I found out it had a sealed battery!

...I mean c'mon!!! ...lithium-polymer batteries can easily lose over half their charge within 12months and then lose all their charge a month or so after. That's an example not that it will happen to every battery but even if it did after 24months then you would have to send it off to Apple for a replacement!?!??!

...and what happens when you forget to charge it up one day and there's no power socket around ...well tough luck:icon_mad:

still, after that rant it does look shiny and I do want one! ...if the SSD version dropped dramatically in price that is!

[NeoGen]

I think it must be a great laptop for many people, but not for me. I need something more solid in my hands, that I can mess around with inside and out. I only got a quick look at it but it seemed that it doesn't even have a cd/dvd reader, if that's true I really don't want it. I know I can have an external one but if I have to travel around with a laptop I don't wanna have to carry more accessories, I'd prefer to have it slightly heavier and thicker but to have everything I need.

[AMDave]

/ed - (good point FB)
the Apple design is very slick and appealing and as there's no major change to OS or application requirements, it means that you can tote your Apple User Experience wherever you go, further and faster. Well done Apple. Now, what can the rest do to out-shine them, I wonder?
ed/

It is interesting where the technology pundits think we are going, but I am often questioning the completeness of their reasoning (or at least what I think is their reasoning).

Without the built in media drive, the designer has more control over the power usage and can give the marketing group a "better" (more accurate and higher) estimate of the battery lifecycle.

However, as you point out you can't just stick in a disk and put whatever you have handy onto the machine. So I guess that goes in favour of the programmers who might argue that user-inserted disks are a source of viruses/worms/or bugs of other kinds. (We should also acknowledge here that there are internet-capable markets which do not have the disk-media penetration of other countries as well as the latest commercial push away from disk media to Internet/ISP serviced demand [read as contracted as opposed to purchased]).

On the other-hand, this design format makes you dependent on the wireless and LAN internet connection for both data export (backups) and data import (software installation and upgrades) which plays nicely into the hands of the ISPs. It also means that the internet connection will be the primary security focus and we already know that there is a well established industry around that.

Something that bugs the daylights out of me is the design standards. We have 5.25 inch drive bays because of an old floppy standard and that dictated the size of hard disks and CD and DVD ROM drives. For the life of me I can see absolutely no reason what-so-ever for the complete absence of 3.5 inch drives. There seems to be a supreme opportunity to head down the AWA path and go for the 2.5 inch (and smaller) format. Already technology has pushed ahead of the 3.5 inch market. Our computer cases and PSUs and consumption could be so much smaller than they are. It's getting to the point that if you are a big enterprise and want to build a grid, you could commission new designs and pioneer whole new markets (and that really ought to include implementing better volume and power consumption standards for the open market).

Given the amount of bits that you could fit on a 2.5 inch blue-ray disk, it would suit the media world perfectly and the rest of us (we are the market after all and I really am sick and tired of being told what I like and what I want and what I really really need). The mini disk was a perfect implementation of a breakthrough technology, but with a completely failed marketing strategy. I feel quite strongly that a mini-format blue-ray disc should be in our lives as soon as possible thank-you-very-much. The manufacturing savings would be tremendous due to the fact that around half of the physical and energy resources are required to produce the mini version of the the technology. It just beggars belief that we continue to buy 5.25 format products because that's what they tell us we want. Until someone tells them otherwise, they will continue to squander the resources and energy and we will shell out more cash on an out-dated format.

A "mini-blue" disk (let me coin that now: it has nothing to do with wireless and it has a hyphen in the middle so Motorola can go bother someone else) would fit nicely into the power profile and dimensions of these latest lines of notepads, but it seems that none of them have the "pioneering" way about them anymore. I can't point the finger at the designers. I know that some of them have been trying to push that concept, but their management are a typical bunch of managers (and I mean that in the strongest possible way). It's not research, design, development, technology etc. that is holding us back, just management (or lack thereof).

That said, the Apple design is very slick and appealing and as there's no major change to OS or application requirements, it means that you can tote your Apple User Experience wherever you go, further and faster. Well done Apple. Now, what can the rest do to out-shine them, I wonder? (tongue-firmly-in-cheek) :P

[AMDave]

I should have pulled this post and got myself a marketing degree, shouldn't I?
Oh well.

[Frederic Brillouet]

I should have pulled this post and got myself a marketing degree, shouldn't I?
Oh well.
I fell asleep halfway the lecture :icon_lol:

[AMDave]

haha!
I must be over compensating for not posting for ages (or something!? LOL)

/ed- above post edited with respect to your astute point. thanks FB :D -ed/

[AMDave]

As a heavy laptop user for several years I appreciate the 2GB RAM as standard, and the 64GB SSD is a great option which I anticipate will be quite popular. The larger touch-pad is a welcome sight and a good example of R&D producing a sensible design change.

I'm still somewhat confused about their audio choices of "Built-in mono speaker" as I would have expected dolby stereo from the Apple design crew. I guess the omni-directional microphone can let you talk while you walk around your office, but in other environments it's likely to pick up the background noise. There is noise filtering available, so when they hit the streets I'll be interested to read the feedback on that (pun intended :icon_lol:)

Shame about the CPU selection. Apple would be a rare fruit for AMD to harvest.