New Apple MacBook Air

[Andrew Brunelle]

I thought I would let everyone know about Apple's new computer, the thinnest computer ever made. Here is a link to a Youtube video explaining everything about it. It looks amazing and is reasonably priced at $1799. Take a look:

YouTube - Introduction of the Apple MacBook Air(MacWorld 2008)-Part 2

I hope you enjoy the presentation.

[aussieNickuss]

Originally Posted by Andrew Brunelle

It looks amazing and is reasonably priced at $1799.

You're really only paying for the "coolness" and compactness. The performance is much slower than a MacBook (just over half the price) and it lacks an optical drive.

Apple should have made a MacBook with a smaller screen (11 or 12"), and slightly smaller keyboard, instead of just focusing on making it paper thin. What is the benefit of an ultra-thin laptop, if you have to sacrifice so much?

[bwb]

The main benefit to road-warrior types is that you can fit more important stuff in a smaller bag. A thinner laptop gives you room for another couple of shirts or a pair of pants or a stack of papers or something. A thick, but smaller footprint laptop might give you room for an electric razor, a stick of deodorant, or an iPod, but not anything that has to lay flat. The MacBook Air is also much lighter than Apple's other laptops. When I travel on business, I take only a medium-sized backpack for clothes and toiletries and my laptop case for the MacBook Pro. If I had the Air instead, I wouldn't need to bring the laptop case; I'd just slip the laptop into my backpack and be off. That leaves only one bag to carry, keep track of, shuffle through airport insecurity, etc., and no worries about being the last one on the plane after everyone else has filled the overhead bins with their huge suitcases.

If I was on the road 3 weeks out of the month like some of my coworkers are, I would definitely want one, price and performance be damned.

-Brian

[Zombie]

I'm surprised we still use optical disks at all - what are we some kind of prehistoric tribe?

Solid state prices are coming down quickly, access speeds are better and storage and reliability is comparable or better. I'd love it if they started shipping software like Adobe Creative Suite on SD cards / thumbdrives. They should already be shipping movies, videogames and music on them rather than getting into this ridiculous format war when both formats were outdated even before they were launched.

I'm not interested in the Air as much as I am in how it will force other manufacturers to reevaluate mobile platform technology.

[Brutha]

What I would like from Apple is a Notebook that embrases the TouchScreen concept.
Something that just lets one forget paper. At best with a programm that uses the in built camera to scan documents.

The advantage of other Intel based Macs was that you can finally dual boot them with Windows.
You will have a problem with this Mac when you install Windows because you lack the optical drive.

I'd love it if they started shipping software like Adobe Creative Suite on SD cards / thumbdrives.

I don't see the advantage on shiping software on SD cards. You have to remember that a SD card with multiple GB has a cost in the double degits.

[aussieNickuss]

Originally Posted by Zombie

I'm surprised we still use optical disks at all - what are we some kind of prehistoric tribe?

Solid state prices are coming down quickly, access speeds are better and storage and reliability is comparable or better. I'd love it if they started shipping software like Adobe Creative Suite on SD cards / thumbdrives. They should already be shipping movies, videogames and music on them rather than getting into this ridiculous format war when both formats were outdated even before they were launched.

I'm not interested in the Air as much as I am in how it will force other manufacturers to reevaluate mobile platform technology.

The materials that go into manufacturing a CD or DVD would only cost a cent or two. Flash cards, while a hell of a lot cheaper than they used to be, are still exorbitantly priced compared to optical media.

The future of software should be 100% digital distribution. None of this buying big boxed sets that take up space and consume resources. If you need a physical manual, then that could be an extra-cost option. Internet in most countries is at a satisfactorily standard to allow that.

Most of the big software companies (like MS, Apple & Adobe) allow you to download already instead of purchasing physical media, but it's not available on all products. Just about every single smaller software company distributes digitally and many of them are download only.