RSSPerspective: On the ground with Apple's MacBook Air
By Michael Hatamoto | Published January 15, 2008, 6:27 PM
PERSPECTIVE -- Love him or hate him, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has the keen ability to get people excited about anything and everything, regardless if you even care what he's talking about.
SAN FRANCISCO (BetaNews) - I've attended a lot of press conferences and keynotes over the years, and none of them compare to a Macworld keynote when it comes to fervent enthusiasm and an almost cult-like atmosphere. During the keynote, it was amusing to even hear fellow members of the press have to pick their tongues off the ground when the MacBook Air was first introduced.
After playing with the MacBook Air for around 25 minutes at the Macworld booth, we've learned that it really is as small and mobile as Jobs gleefully described. But does the notebook seemingly a cross between the MacBook and MacBook Pro truly deserve all of the attention?
The first thing most attendees here noticed, including myself, is the obvious thinness of the form factor, both opened and closed. Most thin notebooks have to eliminate either a full-size keyboard or the display, though the Air surprisingly sacrifices neither. It truly is mind-boggling to learn that Apple's newest notebook is a high-performance product, though it lacks some basic features that many will probably want.
Although the notebook has 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1/EDR, I still find the lack of Ethernet curious, even when trying to slim down the size. It's always nice to be able to plug a CAT5 cable into a notebook when using a home Internet network.
Another added concern is the lack of a user-replaceable battery, which is a situation with which iPhone users will no doubt be familiar. The task of packaging and shipping the notebook to Apple for a battery replacement is a headache I imagine most users hope they will not have to go through.
My final initial concern is the lack of an optical drive. Why should users have to pay an extra $99 for a SuperDrive? Is the average consumer willing to sacrifice weight in one notebook while having to carry the SuperDrive around? Either way, I am glad to hear Apple is kind enough to have the SuperDrive as a "convenient" add-on for consumers.
Finally, is a built-in SD reader or something similar to it that difficult to have added? I guess it is one of the features Apple decided it could sacrifice to make sure the Air is even smaller and more portable than other notebooks on the market.
But since the Air does not have a built-in optical drive, it does have the Remote Disc software program that allows users to use an optical drive on a PC or Mac. Unfortunately, with all of the chaos on the show floor, I could not find an Apple employee who could make the software work the way it was designed.
Durability seemed to be an obvious concern when I first touched the notebook, even though an Apple employee quickly tried to reassure me that the MacBook Air will be able to take a fair level of "typical" punishment. The Apple employee standing beside me showed sudden panic when she thought I was going to test her "typical punishment" theory.
I'm not an iPhone user, so I don't know the basics of Apple's "gestures." So an Apple rep showed me a 30-second crash course using the feature in Preview, and it worked without a hitch. I was able to view images and other content in a method I never could have used before, and I think this will be one of the biggest selling points for Air.
"It should be 'uber' easy for just about anyone to use," said one Apple employee with a rather curious facial piercing. "We want everyone to be able to sit down and use this laptop without getting frustrated."
The lighting on the show floor is ideal for product demos, but the optimal visibility technology using a built-in ambient light sensor seems like a rather interesting feature for different lighting scenarios. Simply, the brightness of the screen and keys will adjust depending on the amount of light the sensors are picking up.
Assuming you are flipping around pictures, sending e-mails, or browsing the Internet, expect somewhere in the neighborhood of five hours of battery life when not plugged into a power source. With around five hours of total battery life, having to replace the battery probably won't be on the minds of users, so Apple should dodge a bullet after making it such a hassle to change batteries.
If you're on the market for an Apple product and want to keep it simple, it would probably be a wise choice to stick with a regular MacBook product. I am not sure if non-Apple users are going to be willing to spend almost $1800 on a notebook that lacks several features that tend to be necessary while completing basic everyday tasks.
For the record, the "PERSPECTIVE" tag was entered AFTER my rant.
You guys make of that what you will. I'm no fanboy of anyone. But I can assure you that at the time this was posted, and when I read it, there was ABSOLUTELY no reference to "PERSPECTIVE", "OP/ED", or anything that made it something not a news story.
At least it was corrected, though I still contend that this was a known OpEd, and they should have had it as such from its publication.
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|"The Apple employee standing beside me showed sudden panic when she thought I was going to test her "typical punishment" theory."
I would have loved to see that! lol
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|You can buy a 64GB Solid State drive instead of a standard 80gb hard drive. They say Solid State drive is faster but if you were to lose your data - there is no recovery correct?
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|Seems expensive to put it in perspective of the performance of other products in its price range after dropping all the gizmos and doodads you'd find on most macbooks. It also looks to have no speakers, but i dont know for sure.
What is most shocking to me is that after removing all the fluff, using a slower processor, and getting the thing on LED backlighting, they only managed to squeeze 5 hours of battery life out of it. I think if you're going to have a non-replaceable battery in your laptop it should START at around 12 hours of battery life. They're obviously charging a premium for the "design" of it, so why not bump it up to a usable battery life so international travelers or people taking long trips a lot can use it enough to love it. 5 hours is barely enough for local flights, especially if you're trying to watch a movie which you must have purchased from itunes since the thing doesnt have a dvd player ;)
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|As Apple puts it: Thinnovation
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|To compare to a PC notebook you have to compare with something like an X61 with the same specs 2GB ram, etc... This is not a low spec machine and ultra portables never have a built in drive. Usually you buy a mini dock with it that contains the optical drive.
I do kinda of wonder why they wouldn't do a tablet like the X61. The form factor does work well now that CPUs are fast enough and battery life is long enough. Can you imagine a tablet w/ touch interface?
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|That would be incredible, but touch screens do cost more in terms of battery life. Plus, the market for tablets still hasn't been proven, even 6 years after Microsoft announced them.
I'm sure it'll happen, just not for the next couple of years.
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|Not so sure, here.
Can't really see a market for them outside of design, POS, and marketing/presentation.
Maybe I'm just not being "creative" enough. :p
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|They surely won't replace any existing form factors, but as costs come down, we'll likely see more tablets as options -- or at least laptops with touch screens.
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|the idea is that consumers want smaller and affordable. If this was 799$ id be interested. Its about $1,000 too expensive.
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|Apple's market wants yuppie, chic, and extravagant. This is exactly what they are looking for.
This is *not* intended for the business crowd, the enthusiast crowd, or the gaming crowd. This is for Apple's niche consumer PC crowd.
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|The fact is this unit will be most attractive to travelling sales forces and execs who live in a wireless environment and have little use for DVD drives on the road or in meetings.
CD/DVD can be left at the desk.
And while they seldom require wired Ethernet, without the implementation of 802.11i-AES (WPA2-AES - Not the PSK, pe-shared key version) presents a significant security hole that could in large measure be mitigated by a simple Ethernet port without stressing the design of the machine.
For such uses, who cares about the integral DVD, but the lack of an Ethernet port is pushing wireless a bit far, requiring traveling with a wireless router for in hotel use - concomitant with the security issues.
While at the other end of the spectrum from what I desire, I think it will be a hit with the trendy exec and traveling business presentation crowd for whom image is half of their persona.
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|Bye bye, BN -- I've had enough of your "coverage". You just left the RSS. It's a shame. You dig up good stuff now and again... that is when you don't just copy from Slashdot. But if you had any integrity, you'd start reporting the "news" from a position not pretending to be neutral.
You guys report tech news like Fox reports political news.
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|Yay!
...another one bites the dust.
Dude, if ya can't read? We dun' want ya here. It's not like you'd be clickin' the adverts anyway...
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|Are you saying that if your neutral you cannot possibly have an opinion/perspective on something?
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|Sigh.
Now if the rest of the fanboys would just file out behind him...
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|For the record, the "PERSPECTIVE" tag was entered AFTER my rant.
You guys make of that what you will. I'm no fanboy of anyone. But I can assure you that at the time this was posted, and when I read it, there was ABSOLUTELY no reference to "PERSPECTIVE", "OP/ED", or anything that made it something not a news story.
At least it was corrected, though I still contend that this was a known OpEd, and they should have had it as such from its publication.
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|...and you still threw a hissy-fit.
Excuse it anyway you want, man. It was still a huge over-reaction. But it was amusing, you get points for that. :)
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|Is this an article or OP/ED?
"It should be 'uber' easy for just about anyone to use," said one Apple employee with a rather curious facial piercing. "We want everyone to be able to sit down and use this laptop without getting frustrated."
And who are you, Mr. Hatamoto, to be passing judgment? In case you missed Day 1 of journalism school, reporters REPORT the news.
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|"perspective"
Means: OP/ED.
Chillax, cat. Wean yourself off that caffeine before you pop a vessel, man.
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|Haha, that was my favorite part of the piece. A little throwaway comment rather than substantive, yes. Bad writing for op/ed? No.
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|Wow -- everyone bashing the cost of the Air. I'm a total PC guy, but you haters sound so full of it. It's a tiny machine, and it's at a premium. Well, duh. Apple is a premium brand, and not by accident.
Stop acting so ignorantly!
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|Its to expensive. Period.
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