MacBook Air

[Fit of Rage]

Anyone get a chance to try one of these yet? Looks cool enough but I don't like the fact that there's no optical drive built-in. You either have plug in a CD/DVD drive with the usb port or do the remote disc thing (which is kind of cool I guess). Otherwise it looks pretty promising, especially with the option for a 64 GB solid-state hard drive.

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

[Facetious]

i was hoping it would be more like 1500 bucks. went to the apple store today to get the baseline macbook because fuck it, 1800 is too much. they didnt have it on display there, probably wont hit stores for two weeks.

[Dameon Angell]

If I had one, I'd probably break it on accident quickly.

[Cops]

It's kind of small for me, I like the thickness of my normal 13' mac book. It's like 3 pounds, doesn't weigh me down.

[Bioture]

the SSD is gimmicky. plus theres only one usb port with no ethernet. and here's the kicker - it doesn't have an aircard built in, and there are no pcmcia slots. So you're STUCK to using a usb aircard that will take up the only usb slot on the computer. so odds are if I'm using this for any sort of office work I would have to buy a USB hub, with the aircard and my external harddrives and thumb drives hanging out of that thing. I thought this was supposed to take advantage of an "increasingly wireless world" what a bunch of bullshit.

this is probably a good computer if you know your hotspots. it looks nice but isn't very practical at all.

[Sufficient]

Well it depends on usage. It's supposed to be an ultraportable from the looks of it. For 1800 it's a bit high, but not totally unreasonable.

[Eric is God]

I agree with Bioture: cool but impractial, which probably means it will sell extremely well in North America.

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

the SSD is gimmicky. plus theres only one usb port with no ethernet. and here's the kicker - it doesn't have an aircard built in, and there are no pcmcia slots. So you're STUCK to using a usb aircard that will take up the only usb slot on the computer. so odds are if I'm using this for any sort of office work I would have to buy a USB hub, with the aircard and my external harddrives and thumb drives hanging out of that thing. I thought this was supposed to take advantage of an "increasingly wireless world" what a bunch of bullshit.

this is probably a good computer if you know your hotspots. it looks nice but isn't very practical at all.

I agree that it's impractical, but I think you're wrong about two things.

First off, SSD isn't "gimmicky," it's simply the way things are headed. Hard drives as we know them are going to be used less and less in mobile devices, then probably start to fall away on fixed systems. Solid state disks are the future, to put it bluntly. Good on Apple for realizing that people are going to start to want that option.

Secondly, wi-fi is built in. Yes, you'll need to get some sort of docking station or something for a wired office, but hotspots are more prevalent than ever, and more are popping up all the time. And if you can spend $1800 on a laptop, chances are you have the $20 for a USB hub, so you should be set either way.

Personally, my biggest problem with it is that the battery is fully integrated (a la iPhone, iPod, etc). It's going to be fun to see how Apple handles dead/dying laptop batteries, and how much it's going to cost the poor saps who have to replace them.

[Zerzera]

It's going to be fun to see how Apple handles dead/dying laptop batteries, and how much it's going to cost the poor saps who have to replace them.

My laptop's battery has 'died' on me ages ago, so I can only use it when it's plugged in. Can't be bothered to buy a new one.

About 'hard drives', I don't even really use that much of them anymore -Must be said that I don't play any games-, 10 GB suffices for me. Just for those few programs I can't do without. (I use Crimson Editor -lol- and Firefox for about 90% of the time I spend behind my PC)
The big byte consumers used to be music and video, but who actually stores those on their own PC nowadays? Just like 'Office' documents, I just use Google Docs. Eventually the only people with big data storages for non-commercial use in their homes will be people with tinfoil hats on their head.

[D1st0rt]

OMG MACS RULE[/turtleneck]

[Galleleo]

So what is SSD?

And how compatible is MAC with windows? Like I have a laptop from Vaio right now and a desktop computer, and it is easy to work in between and stuff. I love the Office Vista package, and from what I have seen the MAC word program (I forgot what its called) didn't look as good. So basically, how easy is it working both with MAC and Windows interchangeably?

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

So what is SSD?

SSD = Solid State Drive. Essentially, it's similar to a memory card you'd use in a digital camera. It has no moving parts, so it's fairly immune to bumps and bruises, and it has the capability of having seek and transfer speeds far greater than platter-based mechanical hard drives. Right now, the capacities are far lower than hard disks (large ones are around 64G) and the prices are quite high ($1000+), but like all things, they'll eventually become extremely competitive in both size and cost.

[Epinephrine]

the SSD is gimmicky. plus theres only one usb port with no ethernet. and here's the kicker - it doesn't have an aircard built in, and there are no pcmcia slots. So you're STUCK to using a usb aircard that will take up the only usb slot on the computer. so odds are if I'm using this for any sort of office work I would have to buy a USB hub, with the aircard and my external harddrives and thumb drives hanging out of that thing. I thought this was supposed to take advantage of an "increasingly wireless world" what a bunch of bullshit.

this is probably a good computer if you know your hotspots. it looks nice but isn't very practical at all.

From apple.com:

Without wires, you’re free to go anywhere.

"MacBook Air is the notebook that allows for a fully wireless lifestyle. It all starts with the fastest-available, next-generation 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR built in. And that’s just the beginning of the unprecedented wireless capabilities of MacBook Air."

I think this will be great! I've rarely ever used the CD rom in my laptop for the last 4 years... the only time I really ever used it was to play Diablo.

[Sufficient]

I agree ... I rarely use my CD-drive.

[Cylor]

I predict human extinction before hard drive extinction.