

Marco Arment: The new MacBook Air - cobrien
http://www.marco.org/1361316116

======
mcargian
After several generations of netbooks, people are still pining for optical
drives for the one or two times a year you wish you had one? I'd much rather
the smaller form factor and a USB key for data transfer.

~~~
zmmmmm
The best thing about an optical drive in a laptop is that in many laptops it
is a bay so you can easily rip it out and shove a hard drive in there. This is
so much more convenient and fast for doing backups or migrating OSes, or just
hedging your bets on disk size (small SSD + huge platter is a great combo). Of
course, this wouldn't apply to a Mac ...

~~~
gbrindisi
Relevant: <http://www.mcetech.com/optibay/>

~~~
PStamatiou
Yeah I used that optibay to put a second ssd in and raid it with my other ssd
in my 17inch mbp. definitely worth it

~~~
stcredzero
Someone needs to create a filesystem optimized for something like two
heterogeneous drives, like a 64GB SSD and a 500GB HDD. It would try to put
larger files on the HDD (where storage space and sequential read/write speed
are useful and random-access less critical) and smaller files on the SSD
(which has better random access). This would rock! You'd have a really zippy
laptop with scads of space.

~~~
pmjordan
Working on a driver for this. Watch this space. :) (been trying to go fulltime
on this, financial constraints have been holding me back; I have a partial
prototype working on Linux, Mac OS X is the next target)

That said, there are existing solutions for this, they just suck, e.g.:

<http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/laptops/laptop-hdd> (only 4GB
Flash, WTF?)

[http://www.bit-
tech.net/news/hardware/2010/02/03/silverstone...](http://www.bit-
tech.net/news/hardware/2010/02/03/silverstone-announces-hybrid-ssd-hard-
disk/1) (this is just a dumb partial RAID)

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReadyBoost> (designed to work with USB sticks of
all things, and isn't terribly smart about what to cache)

~~~
stcredzero
What about a daemon that migrates files over and symlinks them?

~~~
pmjordan
Brittle. Many apps will delete and replace a file when writing. Now you have 2
copies, 1 out of date. You'd be mildly better off with a union file system,
but there aren't any good ones I can find.

Plus, that sort of file-based system doesn't cache file system
structure/metadata, which is a major source of disk head movement.

------
leif
"""

It has a few huge improvements:

* Much higher resolution: 1440x900, up from 1280x800. This brings it from the 13” class to the 15” class. I’ve always wanted a light 13” notebook with a 15”-class screen resolution, and Apple just released one.

* SSDs only. The old Air base-model’s 1.8” hard drives were unbearably slow. SSDs have always been the only sensible option for the Air, and it’s nice that they’re now the only option.

* Two USB ports instead of one. This matters more than you’d think.

* An SD-card reader (13” only). Useful if you often needed that USB port for a card reader, although this isn’t a great photo-management computer.

* Ports that are perpendicular to the desk and aren’t behind a flip-down door. So you can probably use any square-ended MagSafe adapter you already own to charge it without hanging the corner off the desk like with the old MacBook Air.

"""

My Lenovo x200s from like two years ago has a 12.1" 1440x900 screen, an SSD
(option when I bought it, I did not, but the option was there), three USB
ports (though I tried to plug in a bus-powered external drive today and the
two plugs it had did not reach the spread of the ports on the laptop,
thankfully it worked fine without the second plugged in), and an SD card
reader. Just sayin'.

~~~
danilocampos
How thick is it?

~~~
tedunangst
About an inch, fairly flat front to back.

They 13-inch air and x20[01]s are very similar. Thinkpad advantages might be
gig-e, vga port, thinkpad keyboard (if you like it), and possible i5 in the
201, and its built out of normal parts. To match the air's battery though, you
have to get the big one, which bumps weight up to about 3.5 pounds, and the
thinkpad costs more. The air does have nvidia graphics too.

I'd be tempted by the air if I hadn't bought the thinkpad a year ago, which to
me, is the ultimate advantage it has.

~~~
leif
Battery life depends what you run on it. I get almost 4 hours on the 4-cell,
about 10 on the 9-cell.

------
thought_alarm
I disagree with his opinion of the MacBook Pro glass screen. I think it looks
great, it's very easy to clean, and it simply doesn't scratch. It's one of the
main reasons I went with a MacBook Pro.

Between the all-aluminum enclosure and the glass screen, you'll have a laptop
that will always look almost as good as the day you bought it, and that means
great things for resale value.

On the other hand, my original plastic MacBook looked very aged after two
years of heavy use.

~~~
elblanco
Man you must treat your MBP pretty delicately. My MPB looks like it got in a
fight with a baseball bat and an angle grinder, and I carried it around in a
padded laptop backpack for only a year.

Thank goodness I almost never put disks in the drive the case around the
opening is so bent I don't think I can anything in or out of there.

(The screen still looks pretty good even if I can't ever seem to get the
brightness to where I want it).

~~~
jonah
How did you manage to do that?!?! ;)

I put mine in my messenger bag and have ridden to work every for a year with
it and the only thing with any signs of wear are the feet.

~~~
elblanco
I wish I knew. I do know when the drive got wrecked, it was after sitting in
my carry on after a 16 hour plane ride overseas. I don't even take it out
anymore I'm so scared about the fragility of it. I have to say this, overall
it looks better after a year of hard use than most of my Dells.

My other notebooks look terrible too, but I attribute that to cheap plastic.
Little pieces broken off on the corners, battery that won't stay in place,
etc.

I use computers _hard_ if you can't tell.

~~~
jonah
Before my MBP I had a black MacBook. It was nice but much closer in durability
to a PC. The matte surface got shined up in the corners a lot worse than the
Thinkpad T before it.

At this point, I doubt I'd buy another laptop without the all metal unibody
construction.

------
51Cards
The new Airs are nice but I still don't fully get the appeal. I still have to
rave about my Sony Vaio VGN-TZ390 for the ultimate portable workhorse.

Core 2 Duo U7700 @ 1.33Ghz, 1366x768 11.1" WXGA LCD, 128 Gig SSD, 2 Gig RAM, 2
USB, a/b/g/n WiFi, Sprint Mobile Broadband, BlueTooth, DVD±RW DL, 10/100/1000
Ethernet, Firewire, V.90 Modem, VGA out, ExpressCard, Memory Stick, and SD
slots, 1.3Mp Camera, Fingerprint reader, 10+ hours actual use on medium size
battery, carbon fiber body, less than 1 inch thick and 2.7 pounds. Also has
'instant on' to watch DVDs, music, or photos without booting the OS.

It may be 2 years old but is still only 0.4 pounds heavier than the Mini-Air
and 0.13 inches thicker. And it offers a LOT more features wise.

~~~
laut
The appeal is that it is small and light Mac. The described computer is
heavier and has a slower CPU and is not Mac.

~~~
Encosia
For what it's worth, the _current_ Sony Z model uses an i7 (and dual SSDs in
RAID 0). It's significantly more powerful than anything Apple has in the 13"
form factor, coming in at about the same weight as the new 13" Air (3.04 lbs).
Actually, its i7 is the same speed as the 17" MBP's top option.

~~~
laut
That sounds cool. Still not a Mac though. Maybe very very few people will hack
it and run Mac OS X on it, but many people who buy Macs just want something
that works out of the box.

~~~
Encosia
> Still not a Mac though.

In the more general market of consumers that want a ~3 pound 13" device, the
ones that see Win7 vs. OS X as an important differentiating factor are a small
minority. For the market served by the underpowered Air, a Win 7 laptop will
"just work" every bit as well as a Macbook.

------
Multiplayer
I bought the first generation macbook air (with SSD) when it first hit the
stores and it was almost worth it just for the "wow" factor at conferences. I
put it on the table at a meeting and an EA exec yelled "hey, why don't you
just slam your huge elephant dick on the table?". That was worth $10 right
there.

Anyhow I always found it to be unbearably slow - particularly when browsing to
a new web server in a session. As if the dns lookup was.... thrashing somehow.
I figured I was too dimwitted to figure out the problem after doing a bit of
research, so it's rotting on the shelf.

Also, Marco is right - it's way too big to use in coach when the person in
front leans back. Thankfully.... Ipad for air travel. Be curious to see what
the 11" is like.

~~~
elblanco
The 11" is about the same size as a netbook, which I can tell you from
experience works fantastic in a coach seat. Even with room for a mouse!

~~~
pluies
I don't see the point in carrying a mouse if you go for the Air (or any
MacBook for that matter); the touchpad is incredible.

~~~
elblanco
Oh, I totally agree, I wouldn't bring a mouse along with an 11" MBA. Just
making the point how well this type of form factor works in small spaces.

------
csytan
"The battery life, while not terrible, isn’t as good as a 13” or 15” MacBook
Pro."

Actually, the battery life is measured using a more real world benchmark now.
Jobs mentioned it has improved quite a bit compared to the macbook pro.

------
siglesias
"Jobs mistakenly said that the new 13” Air had more pixels than the 15”.
That’s wrong: the 15” is the same by default, at 1440x900, and has a $100
option to raise it to 1680x1050. For reference, 1680x1050 is similar to many
standalone 20” LCDs. ↩"

I think here that Jobs was referring to pixel density.

------
blehn
You know how Apple has been gobbling up share in the the university market
over the last few years? I have a feeling the Air is going accelerate that
growth and become the notebook of choice on college campuses.

~~~
jonhendry
Maybe with faculty, especially those who travel much. I think students will
lean toward the macbook as being better value for the money.

~~~
InclinedPlane
How many students spend their own money for college expenses? How often are
laptops for students gifts from parents, friends, relatives?

~~~
jonhendry
It's not just about the money, it's about capability. The $999 MacBook has a
2.4GHz CPU and a 250GB hard drive, and the same GPU.

I work in a medical school neuroscience lab with a bunch of grad students and
postdocs. Everyone has a Mac laptop, paid for by the lab. Two postdocs have
MacBooks. Everyone else has a MacBook Pro. Except the PI who runs the lab, who
has an MBA. The only one in the lab. He values small size and weight more than
anyone else. He also travels more than anyone else.

I don't see many MBAs around campus.

~~~
potatolicious
Agreed. Students are also likely to have it as their _only_ machine - and IMHO
the MBA is a very enticing _supplementary_ computer, but I'd be loathe to have
it as my only.

------
jaaron
The new MBA does look fantastic, but I'm still pretty happy with my MBPro and
iPad combination. I reserve the Pro for development work and intentionally
keep all distracting applications and sites off of it (I block sites so I'm
not tempted). I then use the iPad for travel and for most of my computing
needs in the evenings or weekends such as browsing, reading, videos, games,
etc. The MBA could fill the role well, but since I already have an iPad, I
don't see myself switching or having both.

------
forensic
Why did they remove the keyboard light? That is an essential feature for me. I
guess I'm gonna cling to my current MBA until it dies instead of upgrading for
better hardware :(

~~~
Raphael
Generally people prefer to look at the screen. Extraneous lights are
distracting.

~~~
joshwa
For one of the primary usecases (frequent traveler) the backlit keyboard is
pretty important--try typing on a dark plane with the backlight off. Fine most
of the time, but when you have to hunt for which symbol is which, or you're
not a great touch typer, then you're going to have a much harder time.

That said, my guess is that it's a major battery-suck, and that's why they
took it out. White LEDs require non-trivial amounts of power.

~~~
stcredzero
I'd gladly "settle" for red LED backlights!

------
Maro
I think the logical next step is to replace the physical keyboard part of the
Macbook with an iPad, which is okay to type on, and the keyboard can go away
and become one big touch surface on demand, with graphics.

This also introduces a new class of touch-input aware Mac apps, which Apple
can channel through its new App store.

------
stcredzero
_Ideally I’d weigh a glass 15” on my scale to compare more fairly, but I don’t
have one, and I don’t yet have the balls to walk into an Apple store with my
kitchen scale._

I've walked into the Houston Galleria Apple Store with a hand truck. Sure,
some smarmy guy made some comment like, "What is, this, Walmart?" but who
cares? I have a bad back, FFS. Anyone who'd make a comment like that is most
assuredly lamer than an empiricist who does whatever it takes.

------
dstein
The iPad and the Macbook Air need to basically become the same product.

Kind of like the tablet laptops Toshiba was shipping about 7 years ago. You
open the laptop and it's a Macbook with touchscreen display and keyboard. You
swivel the screen flat onto the keyboard and it's an iPad. Maybe some apps
work in only one mode or the other, but your files will be available to both
kinds of apps, X and iOS.

~~~
megablast
You know that this has been tried many times before, and was the original
tablet form factor, and it failed.

Now, you can get the Air and an ipad for a lot cheaper than any of those
tablets.

~~~
hugh3
Perhaps, but nobody wants to carry around (and charge, and sync) two devices
when they could carry around just one.

If I had a device that worked like a MacBook _and_ an iPad, so I could use it
like a laptop at a cafe and like a pad on the train, that would be a pretty
damn neat device to have. And eventually, I probably will.

~~~
terrym
Something like this: [http://aidacase.com/keycase-folio-deluxe-with-built-in-
keybo...](http://aidacase.com/keycase-folio-deluxe-with-built-in-keyboard-for-
ipad.html) might work for you eventually, though it may seem silly. I think
the difference in this is that you can just open the front flap for quick,
instant-on tablet access, and unfold it further for keyboard usage vs. having
to set up / maintain two different systems or use a tilt/swivel joint to
access the touchscreen.

~~~
hugh3
Something like that would be good, yes. Though obviously MacOS-based and not
iPad-based, cuz I need my Terminal.app et cetera.

------
dmvaldman
I don't seem to understand Apple's move with the huge price drop in the Air. I
feel like the Air is a much better alternative to the iPad, and this causes
Apple to compete with its own product.

People make a big deal about tablets. Personally, I don't see them as the next
big thing. Do you think Apple is straying away from them, given their somewhat
underwhelming sales?

~~~
toddheasley
Do you think that maybe your desire for tablets to not be "the next big thing"
is shading your assessment of iPad sales? The iPad outsold ALL Macs this
quarter, so no, Apple is not likely cooling its heels on the tablet thing.

~~~
toddheasley
Clarification: Even if other companies can figure out how to make a decent
tablet, still a pretty big if, who knows if tablets will be a "big thing" for
the computer industry as a whole. The iPad is clearly already the next big
thing for Apple. The ruling concern among Mac users -- a large enough concern
that Apple made a point of addressing today -- is that Apple is focusing too
much on iOS devices and "straying" from the Mac.

~~~
stcredzero
_who knows if tablets will be a "big thing" for the computer industry as a
whole_

The hardware configuration inside of an iPad is destined to become commodity.
Eventually, those things will be like displays and mice. The value for Apple
will be in the software and software-ecosystem running on the iDevices of the
future. (Also in the cloud.)

More comfortable and natural input and display naturally sell. Such tablets
are both!

------
b3b0p
If these had ethernet, I think it would be the most perfect laptop for me,
ever. I'm still tempted though, but can't help think that the next Macbook Pro
revision will be even more exciting.

Steve specifically said he saw these as the future Macbook. They have higher
resolution screens than the 13 inch Macbook Pro and have flash drives
standard. Also, mentioning the no optical drive as the future if I remember
correctly. It makes me super excited about the next Macbook Pro, especially
the 13 inch (the 15 inch and 17 inch are way to big in my opinion).

------
Yaggo
Hopefully they will further expand the new Air lineup with a 15" model
boasting 1680x1050 screen (as available for the current 15" MBP). That would
be the ultimate all-around Mac workstation for me.

------
lovskogen
I'd recently discovered 5Ghz wireless, which gives OK speeds to my Time
Capsule, no need for ethernet - which I've been using for transferring big
files, 720/1080p video.

------
adolph
The camera is now called a "FaceTime camera" unlike all the other Apple
laptops which have "iSight camera." I wonder if there is a significance to the
name change.

------
vegai
Does it run Linux?

~~~
Tichy
Probably

------
elblanco
Congratulations Apple! You've finally put a netbook on the market and figured
out how to charge 3x for it by removing all of the USB ports and putting a
better screen in it!

~~~
cpr
Huh? The MBAs have 2 USB ports, one on each side.

That's one more than they had in the past. ;-)

~~~
elblanco
Well...33% fewer then.

I mean really, didn't Jobs explicitly say that they would not release a device
in this form factor? If this isn't Apple's take on a netbook I don't know what
is.

<http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2358514,00.asp>

At least do something cool with it like let me flip the screen around and use
it as a tablet or put a micro projector on it or something for that money.

~~~
jonhendry
It's not the form factor it's the cheap quality of $400 netbooks.

Jobs said they couldn't make something in that price class without it being
crap.

~~~
elblanco
Looking at how I just burned 8 points of karma (and probably now more with
this post), I guess I should have just done like everybody else and parroted
the new marketing talking points and pretended to debate the merit of 11
inches or 13 inches.

 _(burn baby burn!)_

~~~
toddheasley
Yours is clearly a case of being downvoted unfairly.

~~~
zzleeper
Indeed. I actually think that paying 3 times as much for something not so
different (a nice netbook vs a mba) is hard to justify purely by the
differences in quality (in software and hardware).

In other words, it's because of the apple fanboys that are willing to write
blank checks just to get their newest white gizmo =) And those fanboys are the
same that downvoted both you and elblanco.

PS: Maybe it's just me, but this fanboyism seems more proper over reddit than
here.

~~~
elblanco
BTW, even though it shows only -4 on my posts, I've lost far more than 12
points of karma. PG appears to actually be counting the downvotes these days
even if he's only showing -4. I think I just bled away about 25 points last
night because people can't accept that an 11" notebook with an SSD and no
optical drive is a netbook.

~~~
gjm11
I'll hazard a guess that quite a lot of that bleeding isn't because people
can't accept that, but because you whined about losing karma.

~~~
elblanco
Oh no, I lost that karma way before I whined about it. I knew as soon as I
posted that it's just a karma burning exercise. Any contrary (or slightly
contrary) post in a discussion about Apple is pretty much treated like
leprosy. I know that going in. I was just observing that the algorithm appears
to have changed and now downvotes are all counted regardless of what the
displayed score is.

~~~
gjm11
You didn't lose all of it before you whined. I know that because I downvoted
your whine about being downvoted, and didn't downvote your bah-it's-just-a-
netbook comments.

(I have a policy of always downvoting whines about being downvoted and "I know
I'll be downvoted for this ..." comments and so forth, because (1) they're
boring and (2) I have a nasty suspicion that they produce net-positive results
for their authors and want to make them not do so.)

~~~
elblanco
So I lost 80% of it pre-whine...any other hairs you'd like to look at cutting?

