freeztar Posted January 16, 2008 Report Share Posted January 16, 2008 I must admit, this thing looks sweet!Apple Introduces MacBook Air - The World's Thinnest Notebook - Press Release What really grabs me is the care they took in making it a "green" product. It is the greenest laptop I've ever heard of. It looks like the equivalent of a RAZR for laptops. Has anyone had a chance to demo one or have any other insights not revealed in the article linked above? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tormod Posted January 16, 2008 Report Share Posted January 16, 2008 I "watched" the Keynote on macrumors.com. It was kind of cool. The MBA is a cool machine. Way too expensive though, squarely aimed at the business execs. The plain MacBook is much more powerful. But IMHO that MacBook Air is revolutionary in some ways - it's certainly going to put the pressure on the competition. It's AFAIK the first ultraportable that sports a full size keyboard and a real screen. It's cool that it's green, but it's not for me. I was hoping for a 13.3" MacBook Pro. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeztar Posted January 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2008 What's the deal with the "64GB solid state HD"? Is it just a big flash drive? If so, it's gonna be slooooooowwwwww. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tormod Posted January 16, 2008 Report Share Posted January 16, 2008 From what I read it's the fastest kind of drive there is (solid state, no moving parts). Boots in no time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexander Posted January 16, 2008 Report Share Posted January 16, 2008 Yeah, i saw it, and here was the exact sequence of thoughts: Lookin thin, wait turn around, ooooh turn more slowly, and do it more sexfully, oh yeah beautyWait, what are the specs for it *reads for a little while* eeeh my mbp is like twice this machine, twice as fast, twice as powerful, twice as thickWait, let me see that back lid, yeah, light up like that, oooh ... *recalls the verse from the bible* Thy shall not covet the newest lappy; thy shall not covet thy neighbour’s lappy, or male or female avatar, or osx, or thumb key, or anything that belongs to thy neighbour was just released by apple or is more recent then thy lappy. *sigh*Wait, knowing apple this thing goes for like your first born or something... *recalls another commandment* thy shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Maker, for the Maker will not acquit anyone who misuses the name. *sigh* i should so write a laptop bible.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeztar Posted January 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2008 Yeah, i saw it, and here was the exact sequence of thoughts: Lookin thin, wait turn around, ooooh turn more slowly, and do it more sexfully, oh yeah beautyWait, what are the specs for it *reads for a little while* eeeh my mbp is like twice this machine, twice as fast, twice as powerful, twice as thickWait, let me see that back lid, yeah, light up like that, oooh ... *recalls the verse from the bible* Thy shall not covet the newest lappy; thy shall not covet thy neighbour’s lappy, or male or female avatar, or osx, or thumb key, or anything that belongs to thy neighbour was just released by apple or is more recent then thy lappy. *sigh*Wait, knowing apple this thing goes for like your first born or something... *recalls another commandment* thy shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Maker, for the Maker will not acquit anyone who misuses the name. *sigh* i should so write a laptop bible.... ;):lol::hihi: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffy Posted January 17, 2008 Report Share Posted January 17, 2008 Can't use it because its too slow! FlashHD is the wave of the future though. When Toshiba starts using them I'll buy them: they'll really cut down on the weight and improve survivability (that's why I never buy anything but Toshiba's anyway). Being able to jog with my Flash-based iPhone is seriously its biggest feature in my book! Speaking of which.... What I really got excited about was the new update for the iPhone software: it can find me on the map now! I'm waiting a week to let other folks have any initial glitches trash their iPhones first, but I'd be interested to hear of anyone else more adventurous who's updated! :) We owe something to extravagance, for thrift and adventure seldom go hand in hand, :shrug:Buffy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexander Posted January 17, 2008 Report Share Posted January 17, 2008 uuuh, i'm all set with my firmware.... i may only be found within a few blocks of where i am (with the navizon soft) but i want my phone to work and i want the third party soft to work like it does now...! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigD Posted January 17, 2008 Report Share Posted January 17, 2008 What's the deal with the "64GB solid state HD"? Is it just a big flash drive?If this is the case, then it’s a sort of high-price, big-screen variation on the OLPC XO-1, or the ASUS Eee PC, both 7” screen machines that feel something between a small laptop and a big palmtop. The EARTHtimes article mentions that the 64 GB solid state drive as “optional”, the standard drive being an 80 GB conventional one. :) I got an OLPC just before they became difficult to get on 1/1/08. It’s about as easy to handle as a thick pad of paper, with a nice handle with a couple of handy thumb-holes that make it really easy to hold in one hand when flipped into its tablet configuration. Its internal flash drive is only 1 GB, though, putting it on a par with a handheld. The Eee PC comes with 2, 4, and 8 GB internal flash drives. 64 GB is a really big flash drive, internal or external! I’ve a concern about these “solid state hard drives”, though. AFAIK, current flash memory can undergo at best about 1,000,000 erase/rewrite cycles. Some of my favorite programs rewrite disc blocks that many times in little time – days or weeks. Although I’ve read that flash controllers are “smart” enough to address this issue by writing the same logical data to different physical memory locations, I’ve a suspicion that some programs will be effective “killers” of SSHDs. As I don’t fancy having to replace its internal 1 GB flash, I plan to be careful with my OLPC to avoid this. Ultimately, though, I fear it will limit the types of programs I can run on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexander Posted January 21, 2008 Report Share Posted January 21, 2008 well, craig it sort of is a variation, but it sort of is not. It's a dual core intel system with a full blown OS X on it, while XO and Eee are both locked down limited os with limited production, low power, single core procs... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikgod Posted February 11, 2008 Report Share Posted February 11, 2008 The problem, for me at least, is the lack of a CD drive. I mean if it had a cd drive, then I could at least potentially see me using it at a datacenter or somewhere else where I don't have a lot of room to work, but without a cd drive it's essentially become worthless to me - no matter how compact it might be. I realize that apple likes making statements, but getting rid of a rather critical part of a computer is a bit absurd. On a side note - does anyone know if the "steal another computer's cd drive" technology will work inside the firmware, or if you'd have to shell out $$ to get the USB cd drive to reinstall OS X? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexander Posted February 11, 2008 Report Share Posted February 11, 2008 Crash, if you have enough money to get an Air for yourself aside from your real, regular laptop, you can shell out extra little bang bang for the dvd drive :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tormod Posted February 11, 2008 Report Share Posted February 11, 2008 The problem, for me at least, is the lack of a CD drive. I mean if it had a cd drive, then I could at least potentially see me using it at a datacenter or somewhere else where I don't have a lot of room to work, but without a cd drive it's essentially become worthless to me - no matter how compact it might be. Can't say I agree with this - I rarely use the DVD player on my Mac these days. Most stuff gets downloaded. On a side note - does anyone know if the "steal another computer's cd drive" technology will work inside the firmware, or if you'd have to shell out $$ to get the USB cd drive to reinstall OS X? What does "inside the firmware" mean? Apple is providing software for MBA owners to install on other machines. The MBA will support this when running OSX. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikgod Posted February 11, 2008 Report Share Posted February 11, 2008 What does "inside the firmware" mean? Apple is providing software for MBA owners to install on other machines. The MBA will support this when running OSX. What I mean is what happens when you want to re-install OS X? Are you able to stick the OS X install cd into another drive and just boot it up? Or do you have to use a USB cd drive. Oh, and alexander, it's not about price, it's more about convenience. If you're not working on a desk and/or don't have somewhere to stick the USB cd drive, then you've got a problem. I would imagine most MBA users would be using them on-the-go, so it just doesn't seem very practical to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tormod Posted February 11, 2008 Report Share Posted February 11, 2008 You need either the USB SuperDrive or another machine's drive to reinstall OS X on the MBA. If you need a machine with a built-in DVD drive, don't buy the MBA. Even the MacBook is better specced than the MBA. And the MBA is not the only ultraportable without a built-in optical drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexander Posted February 11, 2008 Report Share Posted February 11, 2008 i would have to agree with tormod on this one, how oftenly do you install a new version of OS X on your laptop, especially when you are on the go? last time i sat at home and did it, and didnt have any problems the previous days of having a dvd and still waiting to get home to upgrade.... as for external drive being an inconvenience, yes you have to carry it, and yes it won't fit in my case, but i know plenty of people that carry external dvd drives for their laptops... and have very little problems with that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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