
New MacBook Air Released – $100 Cheaper - nitinag
https://www.apple.com/macbook-air/specs.html
======
danso
FYI if you're unfamiliar with the previous specs, a writeup from MacRumors:

[http://www.macrumors.com/2014/04/29/updated-macbook-airs-
fas...](http://www.macrumors.com/2014/04/29/updated-macbook-airs-faster-
haswell/)

> _All standard models of the 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air now come with a
> faster 1.4 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor along with the same 4GB of
> RAM. Both entry-level configurations of the 11-inch and 13-inch models now
> sell for $899 and $999 with 128GB of flash storage, while the higher-end
> 11-inch and 13-inch models now come in at $1099 and $1199 with 256GB of
> flash storage, respectively._

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chrisBob
Why is this news? I am a proud Apple fan, but I don't think a slight bump in
their cheapest laptop needs to make the front page of HN. I feel like I am
missing something.

~~~
laichzeit0
Because people browsing
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newest](https://news.ycombinator.com/newest)
decided to click on the upvote button. It seriously only takes 3 upvotes for
something to end up on the front page.

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Spittie
I totally missed some events, or Apple just "dropped" those in the store
without any writeup/presentation?

Even if this is a minor upgrade (price cut and slightly faster processors), it
still feels very weird to me.

~~~
neiled
They're just minor bumps to specs and a reduction in price, they normally
don't do big announcements for something like this. Now if/when the retina
MacBook Airs come out you can be sure there'll be an announcement for that...

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saint-loup
The non-retina 13" Macbook Pro seems less and less relevant.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
It has a slightly faster processor (don't be fooled by "1.3GHz", the MBA's top
CPU speed is 2.6GHz) but there's a 500GB non-solid-state hard drive, it's
heavier, the graphics are older, and it has a lower-resolution screen. Why
would anyone want it?

~~~
_delirium
It's probably a diminishing use-case, but I personally still need an ethernet
port. There's a surprising number of times when I visit somewhere (offices,
universities) and they can't figure out how to get me logged onto the guest
wifi, but I can just plug in to the wired network without a problem. Also some
hotels have only ethernet, though that's getting less common.

~~~
thejosh
Yeah, go and buy a thunderbold ethernet cable, they are really cheap and work
fantastically.

The only downside is on Linux you have to reboot if you unplug the ethernet,
but apparently that's being improved in 3.15.

~~~
wolfhumble
What happens if you don't reboot?

~~~
thejosh
It doesn't work :).

~~~
wolfhumble
I see :-)

RHEL 7 will be a problem then, I assume, as it seems to be based on 3.10?

~~~
thejosh
I run the 2013 on Arch, and apart from the thunderbolt issue it actually works
very very well. Totally silent laptop with incredible battery life is a major
winner.

------
nedzadk
except for the price and 100mhz faster processor is there anything else
different than on model from 2013 (i am asking since i bought 2013 model
couple days ago :))

~~~
akumen
I think you can call Apple and get a free upgrade to the latest model if you
bought yours within 30 days of release of the new ones.

~~~
rickyc091
Yep, they'll upgrade you. It's the same as returning the product and buying a
new one. I think the return policy is 14 days though.

------
Demiurge
My 2012 is fine! I think the only upgrade that will make sense is to the
Retina version.

------
taude
Anyone know if new MB AIRS still make a ton of noise with their fans? (BTW ton
= any noise) I have a 15" MB Pro and love the fact that it's dead silent,
unless I'm rendering video in Adobe Premiere or After Effects.

I'd like to get an 11" form factor for all my pogramming stuff, and migrate
the 15" into some form of desktop computer.

Edit: Probably what I'm looking for in a non-existant 11" MB Pro.

~~~
tdicola
I have a slightly older (ivy bridge) 13" MBA and it is totally silent. The
only time I have ever heard fans was while rendering some high definition
video in iMovie.

------
bitL
1366x768 in 2014?

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
I imagine Apple are optimising for battery life and cost here, rather than for
sheer resolution.

Edit: Also, that's the 11", I doubt they can squeeze many more pixels in there
before it becomes unreadable. The 13" is 1440x900, which is more reasonable
(I'm using it as we speak, actually!)

~~~
bitL
This argument won't stand. New phone displays have significantly lower battery
consumption than the old ones and substantially higher resolutions. And you
can always employ tricks like reducing refresh rate to lower the consumption
even more.

~~~
anextio
New phones are also not tied to the x86 platform, and generally run software
that has been optimized from the start for performance.

There are other considerations too. Phone usage patterns are way different to
computer usage patterns. The vast majority of phone usage occurs in small
blips of activity during which execution can be optimized for the CPU to race
to sleep state as soon as possible. Computers don't have the same usage
patterns at all, and have a legacy of first and third party software (on all
major platforms) that have not yet been optimized for performance.

------
Jhsto
Suddenly I don't regret buying a 13" Retina MBP at all.

------
Shivetya
Consider all prices to still be +249 because owning one without the extended
warranty is at times worthwhile, it can help resale if you sell it within the
warranty period

------
turnip1979
I thought Apple was waiting for new chips from Intel before the laptops would
be refreshed. I'm surprised.

------
protomyth
No Thunderbolt 2 upgrade. I was going to pull the trigger on a couple of
these, but I'm not sure now.

------
j2kun
Now I can only buy three decent chromebooks for the price of one MacBook Air
instead of four.

------
Hopka
I guess this means they won't be announcing Retina MacBook Airs at WWDC in
June.

------
jokoon
I still wonder, how well is windows 7 or windows 8.1 supported ?

how fast does xcode runs on it ?

~~~
nwh
Windows is supported. I imagine Xcode is almost completely unusable with that
CPU and the tiny amount of RAM.

~~~
nicholassmith
I use XCode on the previous generation, it's fine. Interface Builder bogs down
on large Storyboard situations but aside from that it more than happily runs
XCode, Photoshop, Simulator and all the usual expected tools (iTerm 2, Chrome,
Sublime, Spotify/iTunes/whatever music player) without much complaining.

------
vkjv
Still, no 16 GB memory. The only thing left tying me to the MBP.

~~~
dimillian
Really ? With an SSD you can even go with 2GB of RAM you won't see any
difference.

~~~
nwh
You completely misunderstand memory. 4GB is the bare minimum for Mavericks,
any less and even on an SSD you're delving into swap hell. 8GB is really
skimpy to have just as an upgrade option, I'm constantly hitting my limits on
16GB (though admittedly my workload isn't typical).

~~~
dimillian
yeah with 4GB you'll swap a lot, but as an SSD is really fast (no as fast as
RAM of course, but still..) you won't notice it a lot.

------
bavcyc
Anyone heard if you can upgrade the SSD on these?

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tehabe
Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the top line MacBook Air had 8 GB of RAM
before, now it is 4.

~~~
joezydeco
When you select a model to order you can choose 8GB as a $100 upgrade.

~~~
tehabe
That was my point, Apple reduces the price by $100 but reduces the memory to 4
GB. Which you can get by paying the $100.

It would have been better if the price stayed the same but with 8 GB instead
of 4.

~~~
joezydeco
The $999 price (now $899) was always for the 4GB model. That did not change.
Your initial assumption was wrong.

~~~
tehabe
I wrote "top line MacBook Air"! Also I asked a question.

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benihana
Put another way, 7.6 - 10% price reduction

