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January 15, 2008

The obligatory MacBook Air post ()

by fluffy at 10:50 AM
Okay, nothing terribly surprising (aside from how thin they actually got it, holy cow). I don't think I'll be getting one, though. I don't trust 1.8" hard drives for a constant-load scenario like a laptop (people have experimented with using iPods as boot drives in the past and they've burnt out after a few days, and it's not like magnetic drive technology has really improved that much since the time that was possible), and the SSD option is $1200 (and I don't trust SSD with a continuous-write scenario either, due to the limited write cycle count combined with OSX's tendency to optimize its access patterns for magnetic disks).

Plus, lack of firewire means I can't use it with my Inspire1394 (not that I ever use that anyway but it'd be nice to have the option), so it's not really useful as an ultra-portable music studio or whatever. Really the only compelling thing about it is that it's lighter, which would be nice for those rare times that I have to lug my laptop around, but realistically I think something like an Eee or some other Internet tablet (like, say, an iPod Touch!) would be better overall.

Also, I couldn't help but think that, hey, having only one USB port and no ethernet means that it'd make things "easier" at work because then I would have to use an Ethernet dongle which I'd put on my single hub and, hey, that's a docking station, and then I realized, wait, I can do that on my MacBook too. Also, on my MacBook the ports are on the left, which makes a huge difference for my setup. (Putting the ports on the right means the system will have to go on the right, which means that if my dock is on the right then my desktop and dock and such will be on the laptop screen instead of my main monitor, and so on.)

So, yeah. Impressive feat of engineering, and I'm glad Apple released it, but I was much more ready to buy one before the Stevenote. Now that I know the reality, I'm a bit disappointed. Okay, it's half the weight of my MacBook and has a sexier screen backlight, but it's also got a slower CPU, and the thickness of the MacBook doesn't bother me at all (it's not like I have to carry it in a manila envelope).

Comments

#10361 01/15/2008 05:47 pm
Incidentally, while an 8GB Touch costs $300 + sales tax from Apple (meaning $325ish for most of the country), Amazon (well, J&R Music World) is selling the old Touch for $260 with a note that it's the old-firmware stock and will cost $20 to upgrade to the current firmware. So if you're in a state which doesn't get sales tax from J&R Music World, you can get the latest Touch (old Touch + firmware upgrade) for around $280 total, a savings of around $45. (Even if you're somewhere that J&R does charge sales tax to you'll still save $20 off the difference.)

In case anyone else was motivated by the AirBook to get a Touch as an actual ultra-mobile system.
#10362 01/15/2008 06:12 pm
Oh, also, I was at MWSF earlier today (after lunch) and I got to see an AirBook case in person, though not the system itself. It really is slender and svelte and fairly OMGtastic. It's a pity it's overpriced, underpowered, missing the connectivity to be useful, and likely to have major hard drive problems.

I mean, I can see the target market it's intended for, and I think it's a great system for that target market. However, I'm not in that target market, and while I was looking forward to buying a Mac subnotebook to replace my old PBG4, it looks like I'll actually be buying an iPod Touch instead (for better note-taking and web browsing than what I get on my phone, and maybe the occasional game playing and eBook reading). It might even replace the PowerBook G4 that I keep by my couch at all times for TV multitasking.