Sign in / up

back to article It was the MacBook Air sub-notebook

For once the rumour mill was right. "There's something in the air," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. And then he hit us with the MacBook Air. It’s aluminium, has black keys, is super, super thin, and Steve held it easily with his fingertips. Apple MacBook Air Thinnovation “It’s the world’s thinnest notebook,” he went on. It has …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.

Page:

  1. Dustin
    Unhappy

    Proper tool for the job

    As always, a Mac/Pc (Technically a Mac is a Personal Computer, but I digress) flame war ensues. I would never choose this device for work. It is a very niche device for a specific market segment. For the person whom stated..

    "God bless the PC idiots who 'need' an RJ45 and a thousand USB slots (more isn't always better but it's always MORE, right?) and are clearly labouring in denial of a world where networks went wireless for the rest of us years ago."

    You obviously have no profesional telecomunications or networking experience, nor have you worked with networked multimedia content creation, be it video or multichannel audio. Your "PC idiots" statement places you in a category of user that is limited by brand as opposed to functionality or useability.

    The core of what this discussion should be is whether or not this is inovative. It is not. There have been ultraportable general purpose computers since the 80s for christ's sake. Texas instruments was putting out oversized calculators that were C/Basic capable with wide but short LCD displays. They had one on an episode of V back in the day. That stated, the Air is overpriced when looking at comprehensive functionality but about par the coarse for the UMPC market. It is only slightly more functional than my XV6700 phone.

    I'll finnish by saying this device does not meet my personal requirements, but I'm sure that many Mac fanatics and other entertainment device consumers will embrace it. Enjoy it and keep your ignorant smugness to yourself.

    P.S I use PCs, Macs, Linux, Solaris and HPUX systems daily. They are tools.

    0 0
  2. Ivan Headache

    Re:Anyone got a good lawyer?

    My Dyson is playing up, I need a new rewind ratchet key for it. Damn, Eletrolux don't make or supply the part, neither do Hoover, or Samsung or Pioneer, or Ford, or Mercedes, or Boeing, or NASA. See where this is going?

    For those complaining about being tied in to Apple's batteries - they must be PC user because they have never bought a battery for an Apple computer. I have and I haven't bought it from Apple. There are always replacement batteries on eBay and from 'reputable' support companies. Same goes for iPod batteries. They are now available on the High Street in most UK cities and can be fitted by anyone with a modicum of manual dexterity.

    Then for the "hasn't got enough ports'" brigade. Next time you come out of your darkened room just take a stroll around where people are using laptops 'away from base'. Take a sneaky look to see if can see anything plugged into those laptops (other than a mains connector) chances are there will be nothing plugged in. (Unless of course it's a USB wifi dongle stick.)

    My wife has a HP Compaq laptop provided by her work. It has 3 USB ports. She uses 1 for her mouse because of the appallingly bad scratchpad the thing has. Occasionally she'll add a pen drive. My daughter has a similar aged iBook. It has 2 USB ports. She uses none of them - ever. I have scores of clients with laptops. When I go see them, invariable all is see plugged in is the power cord (and sometimes a printer).

    Anyway, we'll have to see how well it sells. I expect I'll have client with one within the next 30 days.

    0 0
  3. storng.bare.durid
    Thumb Down

    Hmm... disappointing. Nevertheless.. wait and see.

    Time will tell how good or bad this machine is.

    Personally, I would say if you are anyway nerdy, get an EEE PC, it's an unbelievable deal.

    And sorry, vindictive as this may sound, it is almost obligatory:

    @aellath - TLDR. u f4!L

    0 0
  4. Hywel Thomas
    Boffin

    @Mat Stace

    "@Chris Coleman (Price disparity?)

    Mat Stace • Wednesday 16th January 2008 15:13 GMT

    "Actually, once you take off the VAT on the UK price, and add on local sales tax to the US price, there's only about £50 in it."

    Taking off UK sales tax, and adding on US sales tax isn't exactly a fair comparison either - how about comparing the UK price sans VAT with the US pre sales tax price, or the US post sales tax price with the UK price inc VAT?@"

    The US price mentioned is sans sales tax. I think Chris probably meant "or add on local sales tax".

    Comparing both with different levels of VAT vs sales tax (which particular US sales tax do you want to pick ?) would be stupid in this context, which was the implication that Apple was charging a great deal more over here (30% ish), rather than a more modest (10% ish) contingency against currency fluctuations plus operating costs.

    I make the actual difference £108 on the low model and £157 on the silly model.

    0 0
  5. Peter Lawrence
    Jobs Halo

    Replacement Batteries?

    I've been looking at replacing the battery in my iBook G4 (bought in June 2005). I'm looking at ~$120USD plus tax and shipping. I have to put the battery in myself, to boot! Not that installing a battery in a conventional laptop is difficult, but considering that the $130 figure includes labour, it's not out of line with current replacement battery charges.

    Most large cities in North America have an Apple Authorized repair shop, and I'm sure that these folks will be able to do the battery work. Sure, you can get cheaper batteries off of eBay, but buying off-brand laptop batteries is a bad idea anyway.

    Cheers,

    Peter

    0 0
  6. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    We should be applauding Apple!

    Apple should be congratulated for innovating, pushing the boundaries and most of all broadening the appeal of high technology to those who are not geeks, or IT professionals who view technology as tools of their trade.

    I'm seeing Apple launch products that get ordinary people excited. MS and PC makers are bound to take the best parts of what works and follow suit as they've done before (Vista gadgets anyone?), thus benefitting an even wider audience. People should be applauding them rather than smugly firing holier-than-thou broadsides at them.

    And before anyone asks, I use both PCs and Macs.

    0 0
  7. Hannah

    The answer to the battery solution

    The answer is one of these Solar powered laptop bags.

    As long as you're somewhere that's sunny...

    http://www.greenbang.com/2088/solar-powered-laptop-bag-hits-the-streets

    0 0
  8. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    RE That only matters if you're using http, not https.

    You obviously don't know much about network security. Https only guarantees that the connection between you and the endpoint is secure. It does not guarantee that the endpoint you are connected to is the one you think it is. Also I rarely need to think about https as far too many people use the same password for everything. You log into a forum, and bingo I have all your passwords as you always use the same one. Not to mention all the sites that only use https for the initial login, then revert to http for everything else. My machine can easily pretend to be yours. MAC spoofing, ARP spoofing, DNS poisoning. And do you really know that you are connected to the starbucks wireless? How do you know that I am not set up next door with a wireless router broadcasting the name starbucks and hijacking all your traffic? How can you trust that https://mybank.com is really taking you to the site and not a spoof site set up on my laptop that my dns is redirecting you to?

    0 0
  9. piper

    STOP SAYING IT'S INNOVATIVE

    IT'S NOT INNOVATIVE!!!!

    There have been loads of thin and light laptops, check out FSC's Q2010 for starters:

    Few ports, about 20mm in depth, no optical drive, reasonable sized screen, absolutely stunning. Cost the best part of £3ooo just last year too.

    There are few things new here. And the one USB is just a pain in the neck - are some of you that deluded to think users don't want to plug in a mouse AND a USB key at the same time? Or perhaps print from something on an external disk..?! There's no excuse, it should have 2 USB ports at least.

    And great, it has wireless, which works really really well with all the routers that require setting up with ethernet cables first.. Getting round that one will be a doddle for first-time users

    I'd buy a Sony SZ6 everytime. It takes up pretty much the same amount of space in my bag, I'm not actually going to notice that whole 400g more, it's stylish, has bloody good performance for an ultraportable, I can take another battery with me when I'm travelling and it's made by the same flippin company. No-brainer

    0 0
  10. aellath

    @storng-bare-durid

    "@aellath - TLDR. u f4!L"

    i can parse the second half, but what the heck does TLDR mean??

    Some power users still have a respect for language and don't muck about with leet-speak. Honestly, when i see it wherever it looks like illiteracy to me.

    0 0
  11. David
    Thumb Up

    @aellath

    "Honestly, when i see it wherever it looks like illiteracy to me."

    Amen :)

    Although, I rate it more as showing a level of retardation. I doubt I could ever rate it as high as "illiteracy" :)

    0 0

Page:

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like