The New Macbook air.

Way too expensive. I'm having trouble identifying the type of person who wants to pay that much of a premium for a "skinny" laptop. Spec-wise, it's pretty darn mediocre.

I love how apple explains away the need for an optical drive... It was either in Steve's keynote or in the MacBook Air demo: Who needs CDs for music, we have iPods! Who needs a portable DVD player, we have iTunes rentals now! How...."convergent" of them. :)

I'm a pretty big apple fan, but I think they might have missed the mark on this one. We'll see.
 
Maybe I'm just an idiot, but without an optical drive, how are you supposed to install programs? Do you have to load the installers onto a USB drive on another computer first?
 
It's in the video. It has wireless link to Macs and PCs to utilize the optical drive of other machines to install software. Interesting, but not a good thing.
 
Waaah! In the corporate/government world,

1. Noone cares what things cost. They tend to be leased, and for each computer you're "charged" an IT fee which is FAR MORE than the cost of the lease.

2. Software is usually installed by IT folks, usually by network... or site-licensed and run off a server anyway. Usage of optical media is often pretty rare.

3. Printers, extra storage, scanners... almost all peripherals used... are pretty much handled over the net.


Mind you, I'm not saying I like the thing or would ever want one myself. I'm tough on computers and would worry about torsioning it to intermittent death. But I think it WILL sell very well.
 
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HorseFilms said:
Maybe I'm just an idiot, but without an optical drive, how are you supposed to install programs? Do you have to load the installers onto a USB drive on another computer first?
Click to expand...

you can use the remote drive utility or buy the optional $99 usb dvd/cd burner.
 
It looks pretty freakin' cool, I saw one at macworld today. They really are ridiculously thin, you could see them put it in an envelope without a problem.

But too expensive for me. I'm happy w/ my mac pro, but it'll be hot. I'm sure the damn things will be flying off the shelves. People want an ultra-handsome laptop to sync with their iphone.

The solid state hdd is going to be off the chain, though. Expect that to be big. The Air with the ss HDD will be RIDICULOUSLY fast and that will lead the way to some change.

The expensiveness, well I learned that lesson w/ my iphone. Apple likes to charge extra for the first few customers through the door. Pays for their R&D.
 
ullanta said:
Waaah! In the corporate/government world,

1. Noone cares what things cost. They tend to be leased, and for each computer you're "charged" an IT fee which is FAR MORE than the cost of the lease.

2. Software is usually installed by IT folks, usually by network... or site-licensed and run off a server anyway. Usage of optical media is often pretty rare.

3. Printers, extra storage, scanners... almost all peripherals used... are pretty much handled over the net.


Mind you, I'm not saying I like the thing or would ever want one myself. I'm tough on computers and would worry about torsioning it to intermittent death. But I think it WILL sell very well.
Click to expand...

True. My wife works for a major PC company and that's EXACTLY how it works.

This thng may be a good barometer of SS HDDs, if nothing else. We're headed that way, and I don't mind a bunch of rich, corporate sponsored folks doing the beta testing for us.
 
not even beta testing, but volume pricing will lower solid state HDDs for the rest of us.. that's why you should encourage your friends who want to buy it just to look cool - it'll make it cheaper for you :)
 
I think, like others, that it seems to be in a wierd niche.

I would get one in a heartbeat, but 80 gigs doesn't do anything for me anymore. The biggest issue is not having a firewire. I always trade files between computers by slaving my laptop to my desktop through the firewire port.

I keep all of my work on my laptop, but work with it on my desktop. Does anybody know if you can do this through USB or only Firewire?

Sure is a beautiful piece of industrial design.


J.
 
Well, if you've got the new "Time Capsule" wireless disk server, you could trade files between any computer wirelessly. Kinda makes not having firewire a non-issue for everyday use, I guess.

Still wouldn't try to install FCP on this machine, though someone will try. :D
 
stephenmick said:
Well, if you've got the new "Time Capsule" wireless disk server, you could trade files between any computer wirelessly. Kinda makes not having firewire a non-issue for everyday use, I guess.

Still wouldn't try to install FCP on this machine, though someone will try. :D
Click to expand...

Thanks Stephen. I thought that might be possible, but haven't dug into enough to check it out. I will dig deeper.

This would only be used for light graphics work, writing and traveling. No editing, for sure.

thanks again,

J.
 
Yeah, the 80 gigs is hideous, especially in something you can't upgrade yourself. I just dropped a 320 into my MBP and ezz very nice, uh-huh.
 
I don't know if you've noticed but they do include the option to pre-install Final Cut Express... So basically apple is saying the laptop is strong enough for video editing...

With only one USB2 port though, its more of a DV editing machine than anything else...
 
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