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January 16, 2008 - 7:28 A.M.
MacBook Air's thin line: love/hate (and Harry Notter)
8 comments- TAGS:Apple, Macbook Air, macworld 2008, MBA, Steve Jobs
- IT TOPICS:Careers, Emerging Technology, Hardware, Macintosh & Apple, Storage
It's IT Blogwatch: in which we discover decidedly "mixed" reactions to Apple's new ultra-portable laptop. Not to mention The Magician...
Gregg Keizer rules (dude):
Steve Jobs ... introduced what he called "the world's thinnest notebook," dubbed the MacBook Air ... priced starting at $1,799 and will ship in two weeks, was the final, and flashiest, of the new products and upgrades that Jobs touted in a 90-minute keynote at Macworld, which opened yesterday in San Francisco ... several features new to Apple's portable line, including a multi-touch trackpad that relies on the same gestures as the iPhone. [more]
Mark Sullivan adds:
The display is LED-backlit, which saves power, gives off a bright image, and is instant-on ... keyboard also is backlit, with an ambient light sensor ... 1.8" hard drive: 80GB is standard, but you have the option of ordering the machine with a 64GB solid-state disk ... no internal optical drive ... So really, you'll be paying a $700 premium for the MacBook air's super-small size. [more]
Jesus Diaz saves the day: [You already did that joke -Ed.]
Stunning ... black keyboard ... is LED backlit, sightly recessed MacBook-style, with rounded edges all around. The latch is magnetic ... 16 to .75-inch thickness ... 12.8 x 8.94 inches ... 3 pounds ... 5 hours of battery life ... 800MHz frontside bus ... 2GB RAM 667MHz DDR2 ... 13.3-inch screen ... 1,280 x 800 pixels ... Intel GMA X3100 Graphics ... 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1 ... One USB 2.0, one audio port, one Micro-DVI ... GIMME! [more]
Nilay Patel and Paul Miller have hands-on pictures:
Pretty much sexy. Every element is super sharp, the hidden ports are a thing of beauty, and the backlit keyboard is certainly a nice touch. It's almost silly how light it is, and multitouch is smooth as butter. With the dimensions and curves Apple is playing with, we can almost forgive the lack of removable battery -- almost ... We sort of understood it with iPods, and we grudgingly accepted it with the iPhone ... a [replacement costs] the same as a new MacBook Pro battery: $129. And hey, installation is even free! The bad news hasn't changed though, you'll still likely have to hand over your machine to Apple until they can get the new battery installed. [more]
Katie Fehrenbacher examines its green credentials:
The MacBook Air’s earth-friendly qualities ... fully recyclable aluminum case ... Apple’s first display that is mercury-free, with arsenic-free glass ... circuit boards are BFR-free and PVC-free ... 50 percent less packaging than the MacBook ... Not huge leaps, but solid incremental steps, given Apple has been criticized by groups like GreenPeace for being lax on the eco aspects of its hardware. The green moves are part of Steve Job’s pledge, announced last May, to change the company’s policies ... better late than never. [more]
But Barbara Krasnoff is (sittin' on) the fence of the bay:
[It's] a very thin, very snazzy-looking, not-so-cheap $1,799 notebook. I'm sure it will do well -- it's a Mac, after all -- but I also think that Apple has missed the boat on this one ... people are looking for something to use that's not as large and complex as their regular notebooks and a bit larger than their smartphones ... the revolution is happening elsewhere. [more]
Seth Weintraub is, "A bit dissappointed":
The only real configuration to consider is the high end. The low end has the same processor as the old Mac Mini and boots/uses an ipod hard drive running at 4200rpm. slooowwww... So the high end ... $3,098.00 That is priiiicey ... Also, it is big! Not thick but it has the same footprint as a MacBook. Let's get the screen closer to the edges next time guys. It is still WAY bigger than that Sony TZ. It's not going into anyone's purse like a TZ. Obviously, it is still a work of art and Apple will sell lots and lots. [more]
Nicholas Carlson wanted more from the advertising:
Yeah, yeah. The MacBook Air looks beautiful ... but it's missing something more than an optical drive, if you ask me. Until I get me some John Hodgman, I'm not sold. [more]
And finally...
- Harry Potter was never like this [contains cartoon violence]
Buffer overflow:
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- StorageMojo: EMC’s new flash drives
- Mike Masnick: Do You Actually Understand What Copyright Is For?
- Eric Bangeman: Locked and loaded: FCC finalizes rules & bidders for 700MHz
Other Computerworld bloggers:
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- Don Tennant: Where is Roger Covey?
- Robert L. Mitchell: SPOTting Terrorists
- Preston Gralla: Why I hate Comcast
- Bert Latamore: Microsft Vista: Not ready for prime time
- Mark Hall: Plug growing security holes
- Mike Elgan: Still more on packing for the tropics
- Shark Tank: Oops!
- Douglas Schweitzer: Clever Toolkit evades security researchers, yet infects thousands of Web servers
- Shark Bait: Thanks for Nothing, Dell
Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 22 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You too can be Richi's Facebook friend.
Previously in IT Blogwatch:
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