Comments on: MacBook Air Attack

It's not perfect, but come on.

[grovberg]

That comes later when you start whining about how unfair the world is to you and your Macbook...

When we what in the who now? I'm actually kind of interested to know what the hell you're talking about here. Are there MacBook owners in some kind of plight I should be aware of?

[GlennF]

The MacBook Air is not going to burn early adopters on features, but it might burn them on price. The Air is akin to the iPhone, in that it's "crippled" by lacking certain features you might have come to expect, but comes in a form factor not available in any competing product and it's priced at a premium.

It's interesting to compare the MacBook Air to the original 12-inch PowerBook G4, which was overwhelming in its suckiness. I had one in for review from Apple, and the display top warped with the heat. They sent a second; it warped, too. It was underpowered, lacked ports, and had other problems, too.

Apple revised the 12-inch relatively rapidly, making it a just-junior member of the 15- and 17-inch line-up. You wouldn't have found anyone saying that the original 12-inch aluminum was a full-featured machine.

The Air, however, is a full-featured machine that Apple made some particular tradeoffs to produce in its size and weight factor. In Photoshop's Save for Web option, you can target all kinds of options for image quality, and one of them is size. I think of the Air as if Apple fiddled dials in their magic MacBook producing tool and said, if our goal is $1,800 and 3 pounds and .80 inches at its widest, what do we jettison? And they kept fiddling until they got it right.

When the next Air is released, as is inevitable, in 4 to 6 months, it'll probably offer a 160 GB option, but still have an entry-level 80 GB version. It'll be faster. It'll still have 2 GB of memory standard. But it won't have any extra ports unless Steve invents a new kind of one by then.

One other comment: The guy is comparing a refurbished regular laptop to a new ultracompact, without also noting that it uses a Centrino Duo, a very slow processor compared to the Core 2 Duo. Feh.

[m.meister]

When will folks realize that Apple is NOT trying to be the next Ford or GM of computers. They are quite happy being the BMW or Mercedes of computers. These manufacturers offer up innovation that will *eventually* make it to your Ford or GM many years from now.

If you're happy using your Ford computer, great. If you are looking for a better experience, Apple is there for you. Given that last qtr was an absolute record quarter (in the history of the company) -- I think they are doing the right things (for now).

[ceolaf]

The thing that everyone is missing about this fool's comparison is that his $600 laptop is not even a new machine.

Rather, it is an open box, or even a used, notebook. It's listed as "Like New, in Original Packaging." Other items at that site are listed simply as "New", but this is not one of them.

Check for yourself: http://www.overstockdealz.com/products.asp?id=8932-A11R

So, he's complaining that Apple doesn't sell a sub-$1000 laptop, but if he's willing to buy a refurbished computer, which he apparently is, he can get a refurbished MacBook for under $1000.

An idiot all around.

[jmainmac]

Wow, $600 for a 2-year old junker laptop. Here's a 12" iBook he can buy for $650. In a year he can get a MacBook for the same price, if his craptop doesn't die before then:

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/sys/549327453.html

That's a better machine than the one he's buying 'new'.

[theoxygenthief]

If you ask me the point of the McAir is neither profitability nor saturisation nor any of the above, it is merely a testbed for miniturisation, a public release beta of things to come.

[TheEraser07]

I stopped reading this article after the first couple of paragraphs. This is one of the most unclear, incohesive articles I've read on any site in a while. Macalope, FUD, what is this guy talking about? Most of Cnet's articles are pretty clear and articulate, this one threw me off from the start.

[mbp12]

All good things to those who wait. MacBook Pro 12-inch
http://mbp12.com

[michaelzed]

"Really, is there anyone out there using a Mac who's pining away for some Windows-only app, crying themselves to sleep at night because some vertical market sales force integration module for the dental field isn't on OS X?"

Exactly. BMW's brand name wouldn't benefit by appearing on a bulldozer or a golf cart either. This stereotyping doesn't limit the Mac OS, it differentiates it from Windows and Linux. These anti-Apple fanboy pundits just don't get it?why are they pretending to analyse product marketing when they are just whining about how they can't get it cheap?

[mbp12]

All good things to those who wait. MacBook Pro 12-inch
http://mbp12.com

[Kevlet]

Mike Barton reveals himself for what he is. He wants a Mac but isn't prepared to pay for one.

Instead, he wants to pay about a third the price to buy something of such ineffable crappyness that all his Apple comments are characterised by unfulfilled lust.

Sorry, Mike. The fulfilment of lust requires laying out serious spondoolix.

[ramratanfirst]

Well Said. I believe APPLE is not about cheap products that promise to do a bit of everything.... but nothing perfectly well. Indeed APPLE believes in delivering products with superior value... that do the BEST JOB of whatever they are supposed to do in the first place.

HAIL APPLE!

[leenz14]

Most I miss is notebook port-I found this link-What do you think?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLI_3abKMZw

[andrew6485]

i need some referrals ppl thanks!!! if u clik it then i think they send u a new macbook air but i am NOT 100% sure... yet thanks have a great day ( I am not positive if you will get an Apple MacBook AIr, but I signed up on the website. Thank you very much!
http://www.freemacbookair.com/?referral=u296a0