

New MacBook Air Now Available on Apple Store - privacyguru
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_air?mco=MTM3NjU3MDM

======
ionfish
There's a bit of sleight of hand on their Thunderbolt Display page [1]. The
first image is of a MacBook Air hooked up to one of the new displays, but when
they talk about "The ultimate docking station" they show a MacBook Pro.

This is because the Thunderbolt and power ports are next to one another on the
MBP, but on the Air they're on different sides of the machine, which is going
to make it a lot less elegant.

[1] <http://www.apple.com/uk/displays/>

~~~
marknutter
That or they wanted to save time and just take one picture, which is probably
their go-to picture whenever talking about "the ultimate docking station."

~~~
reustle
I'm pretty sure apple is anything but lazy with these types of things.

~~~
amstrad464
Saving time doesn't necessarily mean laziness, especially if one has to meet
tight deadlines (which may or may not be the case here).

I don't understand why the grand parent is being down-voted, he just offered
an different view.

~~~
Tyrannosaurs
I suspect it's because Apple are generally seen as sticklers for perfection
when it comes to presentation and people think it's unlike that they've cut
corners on something like this for a new product launch.

------
lispm
Now the questions are:

* how warm will the MacBook Air get with the Thunderbolt in use / not in use? Will the fan kick in more often?

* what effect has the i5 or i7 wrt. to heat?

* will the average battery runtime be better or worse? Are the Apple numbers realistic?

From what I hear, the Thunderbolt MacBook Pros are using the fans to cool the
machine more often.

~~~
ascendant
I have a current gen MBP with a core i7 and I don't really hear the fans that
often, and I'm usually running a lot of stuff at once.

~~~
kayoone
i have a current gen MBP with a core i7 Quad-Core 2.2Ghz and while attached to
an external display the fans get noisy pretty fast. I basically gave up
working on GPU intensive stuff on the MBP because the fans annoy me.

------
joshklein
I'm going to be purchasing the 13" MBA, and I'm trying to decide between the
baseline version and the maxed out version. I would pay the $100 to upgrade to
the i7, but one can only do so by also paying $300 for the 256GB of memory.

Honestly, the 256GB memory vs 128GB isn't important to me (most of my stuff is
small files or in the cloud), so I'm finding it hard to justify $400 for the
better processor.

Any advice from those with MBA in the wild? This is replacing a 3 year old MB
I use as my primary machine, and my laptops tend to last me at least 2 years.

~~~
crazygringo
For regular computer stuff, my 2nd-gen Macbook Air works like a dream, and in
day-to-day use it's the SSD that makes it so much faster than my work computer
with a normal HD.

In the SSD era, if you don't use videogames or do video rendering, I don't
think processor speed matters that much anymore. (Cue mobs with torches...)

~~~
ascendant
The pragmatist in me realizes I don't need a core i7 to edit text files and
run unicorn_rails in the background...but the geek in me punched the
pragmatist in the face and said "yes you do".

~~~
amorphid
I watch Netflix streaming on an attached monitor and surf web on main screen
using base level 2nd gen MBA. It gets a bit slow.

------
corin_
I'm really not a fan of their non-US pricing, it rarely works out well for
international buyers.

For example the $1,199 model costs £999 in the UK. $1,199 is equal to £744. So
to buy it from the UK store you're paying 34% more?

For the cheapest option, $999 in US store, the UK price is 37% more. And I'm
too lazy to work out the 13" price differences.

~~~
swombat
I think this has been discussed a number of times, both on and off HN, and the
final word on this is that the difference is made up of VAT and various
importation taxes levied by the UK government. So, blame Her Majesty, not
Apple...

~~~
colin_jack
I have seen it discussed but I'm not sure its as clear cut as that.

~~~
srgseg
The UK HMRC charges no customs duty or import duty on imports of computers,
but does levy 20% VAT (sales tax).

Using today's exchange rate of 1.6149, here are the UK like-for-like premiums
for several Apple products in the UK:

    
    
      7.6%  - ipad 2
      13.4% - ipod touch
      14.4% - mac air 11 64gb
      12.1% - mac air 11 128gb
      13.9% - mac air 13 128gb
      13.5% - mac air 13 256gb
      12.1% - mbp 13
      21.1% - thunderbolt display
    

Note: these premiums compare the US price excluding sales tax to the UK price
excluding the UK 20% VAT sales tax.

Therefore, the UK premium is much larger when you consider that in some US
states there is no sales tax, but the entire UK is subject to 20% sales tax.

Also note that VAT is only a sales tax on items for personal use. Business
users do not have to pay the VAT (they reclaim it).

Here therefore are the premiums comparing US states with zero sales tax to the
UK:

    
    
      29.1% - ipad 2
      36.1% - ipod touch
      37.2% - mac air 11 64gb
      34.6% - mac air 11 128gb
      36.6% - mac air 13 128gb
      36.2% - mac air 13 256gb
      34.6% - mbp 13
      45.3% - thunderbolt display
    

Lesson: go on holiday to the US, buy your Mac in a state without sales tax,
and you're still ahead when you pay 20% tax on the import when you arrive back
in the UK.

~~~
colin_jack
I think Apple are actually being far too greedy, one of the reasons I don't
buy Macs is the premium you have to pay...I don't like being ripped off quite
so explicitly.

~~~
srgseg
To be fair, it's not just Apple.

The UK is known in the industry as "Treasure Island" because they know that
they can charge more here and get away with it.

E.g. Bose QC15 noise cancelling headphones: 25.2% premium excluding sales tax,
50.2% premium including sales tax comparing a zero sales tax US state to the
UK.

~~~
colin_jack
True, to be honest I had a spell of checking the difference for products
before buying them and if it was too high I'd give the product a bad review on
Amazon. Felt good :P

Out of interest are you aware of a site that does this sort of comparison?

~~~
srgseg
No but it only takes about 30 seconds in a spreadsheet :)

~~~
colin_jack
Sure but it seems like there should be a site, enter product details and it
works out premium being paid in your country.

------
TillE
That 13" Macbook Air is looking really attractive as a portable work computer.
Any downsides I should be aware of?

~~~
w1ntermute
Seems most people are interested in the 13". Does anyone have any comments on
the 11"?

The only downside I can see is that only 1 external monitor is supported.
After all, when you're traveling, the smaller the better.

~~~
tortilla
I use the maxed out 11" as my primary computer. My usage is about 60% at desk,
plugged into external, keyboard, closed clamshell, and 40% portable. The only
complaint is the smaller 128 ssd, but it just forced me to get rid of stuff I
really didn't need. The less glossy screen is great and the smaller size when
I'm portable forces me to focus more. My typical software usage is Photoshop,
Illustrator, TextMate, Terminal, iTunes, Chrome, and VMWare Fusion. It only
really gets hot if I'm viewing flash content. Battery life isn't bad, but it's
not amazing, 4 to 5 hours of mixed use.

The portable size is amazing. From time to time you'll catch me caressing it
and whispering sweet nothings to it. I can bring it everywhere with me and I
don't need a huge bag to lug it around. I use a protective sleeve, which
offers a bit more protection than the other types of sleeves.
[http://www.hardcandycases.com/bubble-sleeve-macbook-air-
case...](http://www.hardcandycases.com/bubble-sleeve-macbook-air-case.html)

~~~
Lewisham
re: Flash content: I was playing with an last-gen 11" MBA in the Apple Store a
couple months ago, and saw that it wasn't capable of playing the YouTube video
of All of the Lights
<[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAfFfqiYLp0>](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAfFfqiYLp0>);
at 1080p without dropping frames. Obviously this is completely arbitrary
because the MBA _can't display 1080p_ , but I was a little concerned about it.

Have you had problems with HD Flash/Netflix?

~~~
tortilla
No problems. I actually have an HDMI to display port adapter from monoprice
and I use it to watch Netflix on my LCD TV every now and then. Plays it fine
with no stutter or dropping frames. The fans do kick on though.

------
larrik
Also, new Mac Mini:

<http://www.apple.com/macmini/>

NO Optical Drive!

Includes Thunderbolt.

Supports an SSD plus a regular hard drive.

HDMI port.

I really have no idea how much of this is new features, though.

~~~
chopsueyar
Notice the new MacBook Air does not have an HDMI adapter available?

~~~
spullara
You should be able to use the mini-displayport to HDMI connector in the
Thunderbolt port (which is a mini-displayport as well).

------
justinchen
For anyone else confused by the lack of DisplayPort:

<http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20043524-263.html>

~~~
ascendant
From the article: "The new port is backward compatible so it can still be used
to connect to DisplayPort devices; however, only the new port can be used to
connect to Thunderbolt devices."

------
kieranyo
Dammit, just bought a MacBook Air a month ago. Is there much difference
between the 1.4 core 2 duo and the 1.6 i5?

~~~
jolan
Yes, quite a bit:

<http://ark.intel.com/compare/54617,54618,56858,36697>

~~~
kieranyo
Win! Spoke to Apple, they are going to refund and take away my 16 day old
MacBook Air so that I can order the new one :) Excellent customer service once
again.

~~~
listic
It's a win unless you don't care about the downgrade in graphics performance
(nVidia > Intel GMA) and power consumption (Core2 > i7). In these regards the
latest model looks like a downgrade, at least on paper.

I'm appalled that noone seems to notice or care about those things, especially
power consumption.

Graphics performance: [http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-
Benchmark...](http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-
List.844.0.html) search for "NVIDIA GeForce 320M" and "Intel HD Graphics
3000". Intel has a history GPU's with poor perfomance and feature support.

Power consumption: on this very table, look at TDP
<http://ark.intel.com/compare/54617,54618,56858,36697>

Pentium M(2004) = 5W [http://ark.intel.com/products/27609/Intel-Pentium-M-
Processo...](http://ark.intel.com/products/27609/Intel-Pentium-M-Processor-
ULV-733733J-%282M-Cache-1_10A-GHz-400-MHz-FSB%29)

Core2(2008) = 10W

i7(2011) = 17W

Despite the shrinking of the electronics Apple even had to raise weight a
little in the latest model, to accomodate a battery large enough to provide
the same "5-7" hours of runtime. That's when you are mostly idling or
browsing; I'm sure the new Air will run hotter and shorter if you utilize your
CPU closer to 100%. Well, customers want an "upgrade", and there are no better
parts available; what else can you do?

------
_Fil_
Still no Gigabit Ethernet adapter ?!? Even with the thunderbolt port ? Come on
Apple, you can do better ....

Apart from that slight pet peeve of mine, those looks like really great
replacement for my now aging MacBook unibody.

~~~
CWIZO
You mean this: <http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC704ZM/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY> ?

~~~
_Fil_
This is still the same 10/100 adapter. Not a 10/100/1000.

------
angerman
This is surely a nice update. But I _really_ miss configuration options. The
only option seems to be

1.7GHz i5 -> 1.8GHz i7

No choice of flash no choice of ram :/ I love my current air. It's a really
nice piece of engineering but even 4GB of ram are sometimes full. With an more
powerful CPU more RAM would be a nice choice...

TB, Backlit KB and a faster CPU are very nice though.

~~~
sandGorgon
but no dedicated graphics card

------
duck
Does anyone use an Air for a lot of Photoshop work? My wife does photography
on the side and is looking for a laptop to go with her iMac. Seems like the
screen would be too small?

~~~
peng
Unless the Macbook Air screens have changed, they're far worse than Macbook
Pro screens for displaying color. I've used a 13" MBP and a 13" MBA and it's
easy totell the difference. You can go to a store and see for yourself: the
colors on the MBP are more vibrant than the MBA.

------
lemming
While I'm sure this is nice, I don't have a compelling reason to upgrade from
my existing MBA (and I really wanted to!). I'd have loved to have seen 8GB RAM
as an option.

~~~
macavity23
I have a current MBA, and I find 2GB very limiting when running eclipse,
tomcat, photoshop and firefox. 4GB will be very nice.

Also, a second USB port! Oh, the luxury!

~~~
bretthoerner
You must have the original? I have the Air that was available yesterday and it
has 2 USB ports and 4GB RAM.

~~~
macavity23
It was a second gen, not 'current', you're right. :)

I could possibly have gotten 4GB with it, but my aging brain still couldn't
conceive of anyone ever needing more than 2GB. Now I know better, haha.

------
iaskwhy
Still glossy display only.

~~~
dhbanes
There's a big difference between the MBA glossy display and the macbook pro
glass display. I use the MBA daily but when I got a chance to play around with
a friend's 17" MBP glossy... it was terribly unusable.

~~~
Udo
At least you can custom order the MBP a with non-glossy hi-res display (I'm
quite happy with mine now). I don't think that option exists for the MBA.

~~~
palehose
MBA is not nearly as glossy as the MBP.

~~~
Udo
Is it just because of the screen size or is the material different somehow?
I'm actually toying with the idea of buying one to take with me on the road
where the 15" colossus is just impractical...

~~~
chrisbolt
I think the MBA glossy display is plastic and the MBP glossy display is glass.

------
mellis
It looks like they got rid of the white plastic MacBook, too. Now the product
line is even more focused.

~~~
daimyoyo
Wow. I am genuinely shocked that they decided to kill off the white MacBook.
All the development costs were already recouped, and I was under the
impression that white MacBooks were the majority of laptops sold. It takes a
very brave company to kill off a cash machine like that.(The $70B in the bank
probably helps.)

~~~
Lewisham
The white Macbook was cannibalized by the Air's lower price point in the last
generation, so keeping it around always looked anachronistic.

------
antidaily
I wonder if the 4GB and 256GB SSD limits have to do with keeping MBPs from
becoming obsolete.

~~~
loire280
We'll find out in the teardowns how much space they're taking up, but I
suspect volume is the limiting factor - RAM and flash chips are only so dense
(at least at a certain price point). The RAM is already built into the
motherboard to save space, and it was rumored that they would do the same with
the SSD this generation.

------
jason_tko
HD video cameras, backlit keyboard, i5 upgradable to i7 - pretty decent
upgrade.

Curses, 3 month old MacBook Air.

~~~
snorkel
But the max screen is still only 13" max and not a significant price drop on
existing models so I'm glad I didn't wait for this release before buying.

~~~
micheljansen
Apple _never_ does price drops. They have a fixed product line and while the
hardware changes over time, the price stays the same.

~~~
macavity23
Rarely, but not _never_. My 2nd gen top-of-the-line macbook air was £1850, top
of the line now is £1450. That's a fair difference.

~~~
kelnos
Really? My 2nd gen top of the line (11") MBA was $1400 (I think), and now the
top is $1650. Maybe it's different for the 13"...

------
BillSaysThis
Space constraints or not, the 4GB limitation is annoying. I'm using a two
month old 13" MBA, which will go to replace the wife's 2007 white MacBook once
I get to the Apple Store, and the dashed hope of getting 8GB has dampened my
enthusiasm. But not cancelled it completely ;)

------
ludwigvan
One interesting thing to note is almost all the Mac's now have ATI cards, some
Intel, and no NVIDIA. <http://www.apple.com/mac/>

When did this change happen? What would this mean for someone developing cuda
apps, then?

~~~
younata
I imagine about the same time NVIDIA announced they were getting out of
manufacturing graphics cards?

------
saturdaysaint
A maxed out 11" MBA (which unfortunately comes to a mere $50 less than the
comparable 13") with a 27" Cinema Display sounds like my dream rig - complete
flexibility between portability and comfort/expandability (when connected to
the spacious and port-packed display).

------
pedalpete
I had been eyeing up a Samsung series 9 laptop, but the Air now has a faster
processor, larger ssd drive and a lower price.

Competitors are going to be VERY hard pressed to compete with this device I
think.

------
mahyarm
Almost as good as a Vaio Z12. It just needs an 8GB RAM option and 13" 1080p.

~~~
dmarble
Almost? If you live and die by external design and feel (trackpad, keyboard,
sturdiness) than most everything but a Macbook will seem inferior, but overall
if you're an equal-opportunity platform user and want the thinnest and
lightest complete desktop replacement like me, I don't think it's remotely
close.

I'm typing this on a year-old Z11, which you can pick up used now for about
the cost of a MBA, with:

* Core i5 520m

* 8GB RAM

* 256GB SSD

* DVD+RW

* Switchable graphics w/ GeForce GT 330M (1GB)

* 1600x900 13" matte display

* HDMI out

* VGA out

* Gigabit ethernet

* 3 USB 2.0 ports

* Fingerprint reader

* Expresscard 34

* 3 lbs

* swappable 4 hr standard battery, 7 hr extended battery

If you need everything in a thin-and-light, the last generation of Sony Z was
pretty unbeatable. I heartily recommend a used model to devs I meet. Even
still, I was seriously considering getting the new MBA, as the Sony is flimsy
with so much crammed into it, the trackpad is tiny, much of my dev work
targets *nix, and I'd like to get into some iOS projects. But 4GB max? If
they'd offered 8GB RAM, I might have pulled the trigger.

~~~
mahyarm
I'm an iPhone developer and Hackintosh just doesn't work. I'm stuck on apple
machines, anything else is an exercise in frustration.

------
mcculley
D'oh. We just received three new MacBook Airs on Monday that we ordered last
week. We haven't even deployed them yet. I wonder if Apple offers any ability
to ship these back and get the new faster ones.

~~~
nolanbrown23
If they aren't custom configured I think it's easy to send them back for new
ones. I thought Apple typically let you exchange without fees if you bought
within 30 days of a refresh.

------
BornInTheUSSR
I just bought the maxed out 13 inch air in October, and it's been a great dev
machine (rails, ios) someone please talk me out getting the newest shiniest
for no good reason

~~~
joeguilmette
i bought the maxed out 13" last year as well. pulling out my credit card...

~~~
markbao
Don't do it! You really don't have more important things to spend $2000 on?

Fight the power :)

~~~
Locke1689
To be fair, 2k isn't much more than my _weekly_ salary and I'm an intern.

------
wyclif
Any good recommendations for a sleeve or messenger bag that is good for the
13" MBA and is form fitting so it doesn't slide around inside the bag/sleeve?

~~~
jolan
<http://www.booqbags.com/13-inch-macbook-air-bags>

~~~
wyclif
That "Viper Hardcase 13" looks ideal. Thanks.

------
nivertech
No 8GB RAM upgrade?

~~~
dschobel
Yeah, that's the only thing keeping me from pulling the trigger at this point.

I hate thinking about memory pressure and having to manage applications to
keep it in check...

~~~
sp332
With your swap file on SSD, is it really that noticeable?

~~~
chopsueyar
Interesting point. Anybody?

~~~
blinkingled
I had a 2GB 11" Air that was swapping out around 350Mb with my workload and it
was noticeable although not a deal breaker - think slight switching delays and
rare mouse freezes for split second - obviously much better than if the swap
was on 5400RPM rotating disk.

I ended up returning it anyway - 2GB isn't nearly enough for anything other
than just browsing.

~~~
tgood
The last part isn't true. I've got the bottom priced 11" and being an
entrepreneur I use it heavily for design. My only issue is the memory. After
CS5 and a couple other programs I was down to 10gb.I'm 80% in front of a big
cinema display but even working on the go its great. Photoshop too. My usual
is itunes, mail, 5-10 safari windows, Photoshop, Illustrator and no spinning
wheel of death. My experience of Apple is nearly 10 years and came from a 15"
MBP that died. If you're questioning it, go for it...

You'll feel like James Bond when on-the-go.

~~~
blinkingled
Are you sure you do that all at once without slowing down on a MBA with 2GB
RAM? I just tried my regular use case - Mail, Firefox, MS Word and Excel plus
Adium and it was 350Mb into swap and switching apps wasn't all that
instantaneous.

What does your swap usage show (Activity Monitor - page outs with all that
workload?

However with 4GB it shouldn't be that much of an issue for this workload. So I
might just bite the bullet given the Sandy Bridge and TB upgrades!

~~~
tgood
I have for the last 12 days, and this was after using an iMac from years back
which processed everything excessively. Right now my swap usage is 640 MB.
Worth mentioning, I am returning it tomorrow to get the latest offering.
Probably in the same setup.

------
ilmare
Did apple add kensington lock in new models? If not are there any viable
options(besides carrying notebook or have lockable drawer)?

------
LetBinding
I am about to embark on a 18-month long data mining project, where I'll be
developing Python NLP software for recognizing patterns in textual data.

Will the MBA be a good machine for this? Ideally I should get something with
more horsepower, but if the MBA suffices, then I feel its portability will
really increase my productivity.

~~~
davidst
Is 4GB RAM enough for your project? If so, you're probably fine.

I do a lot of statistical ML (feel free to AMA) and chafe at the 32GB limit of
the machines I'm using.

~~~
LetBinding
I could use all the RAM available. Ideally I would need 8 GB. But my thinking
is that with the high I/O throughput of the SSD in the Air, swapping from disk
won't lead to a perceptible performance drop.

I will occasionally have access to a server for particularly intensive tasks.
But I would like to be able to code from my bed, in a coffee shop, library,
bus, etc. Hence my fascination for the Air.

What kind of stuff do you do that uses up 32 GB RAM? Is your data set huge, or
are your algorithms RAM intensive?

~~~
davidst
I'm gathering statistics on words, phrases and a few other things from a
medium-sized (about a terabyte) corpus. There are several billion that aren't
hapaxes. That's just the initial feature collection pass. Next, I'm looking
for correlations among these features. It's a challenge to make it fit in
32GB. A lot of effort goes into bit-twiddling to make things fit and into
algorithms that try to be intelligent about what to keep and what to discard.

------
notahaxor
Great specs to go along with the great looks. I'm still disappointed that the
smaller model uses a squished 16:9 ratio screen, it's useless for writing
anything longer than a tweet.

Also, I hope the now backlit keyboards see some improvement in tactile feel, I
thought these were a weak point on the previous generation.

------
aznwhtey
Does anyone know if the Thunderbolt on the MacBook Air supports multiple
displays?

~~~
yardie
The Intel HD3000 can only support one 2560x1600 display and the built-in. It's
safe to say it can't do multiples. And the TB->DVI adapter only has one DVI
interface so you can't even try 2 lower resolution monitors.

------
banders
Will these be available in retail stores today?

~~~
pedrolll
AppleInsider says Thursday.

[http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/07/20/apple_releases...](http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/07/20/apple_releases_new_macbook_airs_with_thunderbolt_backlit_keyboards.html)

~~~
kadavy
Gah! Just ordered one off Apple.com and they estimate it will arrive _next_
Thursday :P

------
purephase
Damnit..

------
lean
Isn't the Intel HD 3000 a downgrade from the previous-gen MBA's Nvidia GeForce
320?

[http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-
Graphics-3000.37948.0....](http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-HD-
Graphics-3000.37948.0.html) [http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-
GeForce-320M.28701.0.htm...](http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-
GeForce-320M.28701.0.html)

~~~
kayoone
roughly the same. For the Sandy Bridge platform there is no other choice
anyway as a dedicated nvidia chip wouldnt fit and draw more power.

------
swah
diff(old,new)?

------
deltriggah
i want a 15 inch air

------
chopsueyar
I want the i7 one.

------
evilswan
Next gen SSDs - that's what I'm waiting on. Lower cost and higher capacity,
then I'll be all over one of these.

------
deltriggah
I want a 15 inch Macbook Air

------
deltriggah
I want a 15 inch Macbook Air

