theducks: (Apple Geek)
theducks ([personal profile] theducks) wrote2008-01-16 06:24 am

Thanks Steve..

.. for a US$19.95 upgrade for my iPod Touch so I can have the same features I've already hacked into it from an iPhone
.. for a US$1999 thin Macbook with a non-replaceable battery and an 80Gb hard drive (seriously, you couldn't fit a 160Gb from an iPod? that would have actually made it a useful product, but no, the only other option is a AU*$1700* "upgrade" to a 64GB SSD drive)
.. for dropping the price of the Apple TV in the US but not in Australia
.. for the Time Capsule WLAN AP with a 1TB hard drive that costs AU$199 than buying an Airport Extreme base station and a USB 1TB hard drive to plug into it

So sure, last night was no iPod-hiFi and leather iPod cases, but it sure was crap.

(Anonymous) 2008-01-15 10:14 pm (UTC)(link)
ill probably still get a macbook air in 6 months when they've upped the hdd (how could they not!?!? or else maybe we'll see a really, really, really big .mac)

[identity profile] velvetbutter.livejournal.com 2008-01-15 10:38 pm (UTC)(link)
The Air looks cool and great for the work traveller, but the price tag is a massive ouch. For less you get a higher specced Macbook, which has more features such as an optical drive and more HDD space. You are really just buying the weight difference, which it totally personal. I love my macbook, it's has more grunt than the current MacBookPro.

Making the Air come standard with 2gig RAM shows that it's going to really need it to run the OS X and apps at a 1.6gig processor.

The 64gig SSD is interesting indeed and I like where they are going with it.

The Air is cool, and you'll see lots of people have it that need it just for emails and word processing. Great for the traveling exec in many ways.

[identity profile] theducks.livejournal.com 2008-01-15 11:08 pm (UTC)(link)
I think some people will buy the air and love it, but I think they've missed the mark. Steve made big things of how tiny screens and keyboards are on other sub-notebooks were, and how this was better because it was a huge screen. Erm, I think more than a few people actually *want* a small screen and keyboard.

SSD is a cool technology, but 64GB seems a tad low for my liking, and a $1200 sticker-shock to upgrade to it makes it something for extreme hardcore users only.

And yes, 2GB is what I recommend people get in new Macs. It's just unfortunate that you can't upgrade past 2GB on the Macbook Air, cause it ain't got no slots ;)

[identity profile] hipikat.livejournal.com 2008-01-17 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
Making the Air come standard with 2gig RAM shows that it's going to really need it to run the OS X and apps at a 1.6gig processor.

I admire your conclusions' jumping ability =O.o= But I'm running OS X and many apps including photoshop, synergy and three different browsers on a 1 GHz PowerPC G4 (with only a single core, obviously), with only 1 GB of ram, and doing fine.

[identity profile] theducks.livejournal.com 2008-01-17 05:10 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, but Intel Macs are worse memory hogs :/

[identity profile] velvetbutter.livejournal.com 2008-01-15 10:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Also notice Itunes 7.6 is now released on the back of the Air, just in time to buy and download those DVDs from the Apple store rather than use the non-existent optical drive :P

[identity profile] ataxi.livejournal.com 2008-01-15 10:54 pm (UTC)(link)
They should've called it the Air MacBook. As usual, "revolutionary" in Apple parlance means only Marie Antoinette can afford it.

1.8" drives

[identity profile] matt (from livejournal.com) 2008-01-15 11:03 pm (UTC)(link)
http://www.apple.com/ipodclassic/specs.html suggests that 80 and 160 gig drives aren't the dimensions?

Re: 1.8" drives

[identity profile] matt (from livejournal.com) 2008-01-15 11:04 pm (UTC)(link)
same dimensions rather.

Re: 1.8" drives

[identity profile] theducks.livejournal.com 2008-01-15 11:08 pm (UTC)(link)
No, the 160Gb is slightly larger, but c'mon, it's like 2mm.. I sure they could have made it fit :)

Re: 1.8" drives

[identity profile] dannipenguin.livejournal.com 2008-01-16 11:20 am (UTC)(link)
But then they won't be able to sell the 160GB version in 6 months so they can pretend that they're innovating!

Re: 1.8" drives

[identity profile] hipikat.livejournal.com 2008-01-17 01:23 am (UTC)(link)
Haha, oh yes =^.^= When will people come to their senses and see that Apple's just been pretending to innovate all this time??

[identity profile] conradin.livejournal.com 2008-01-16 12:04 am (UTC)(link)
yeahh, slightly tempted by the air..

Not sure that people _want_ a small keyboard and screen, but they want the small dimensions, and I'm not sure that the thickness is the dimension that most people want to minimise.

But for the people that work on a laptop all the time, and only have one work computer, then a large screen and keyboard might be good.

I'll see what has happened with the Air by July when my salary sacrifice expires, anyway ;)

[identity profile] shifuimam.livejournal.com 2008-01-16 01:28 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, Stevie's a douche on this one, for sure.

I don't actually see anything about the MacBook Air that makes it worth $1800 or even $1000. Or $800. Or $500. I'd rather just get an eeePC or CloudBook...this thing is a royal ripoff.

And $1300USD for a 64GB SSD is a major ripoff. That's nearly all lining the pockets of Stevie and his buddies, and that's just wrong.

I think that this year's MacWorld solidifies what I've been saying for awhile: Apple's gotten too big for its panties. Stevie's ego has taken the place of any semblance of sanity Apple has displayed in the last few years.

As far as I'm concerned, Apple's glory days of the late 90s and early 2000s are over. The G4 iMac was the last truly innovative piece of hardware they produced...it's all been downhill since then.
Edited 2008-01-16 01:29 (UTC)

[identity profile] caitlen.livejournal.com 2008-01-16 02:41 am (UTC)(link)
The Air is a really pretty piece of work, but possibly that's all it's good for. I can see Business people going nuts for it, because it's so thin, it's like having a manilla folder to stick in your briefcase/satchel. But The 80GB HDD isn't really up to speck. I'm totally with you on the "Why couldn't you put the 160GB iPod HD in there?" I'd like to see them improve it straight away.

Also, far out, the price tag for Aussies is ridiculous.

It was exciting, until I read more about it.

[identity profile] dannipenguin.livejournal.com 2008-01-16 09:36 am (UTC)(link)
Also the lack of ethernet will probably go down badly for corporate customers.

They'll go and buy Toshiba or Fujitsu if they want tiny notebooks.
(deleted comment)

[identity profile] dannipenguin.livejournal.com 2008-01-16 10:29 am (UTC)(link)
Well, corporate types aren't even going to run MacOSX anyway.

[identity profile] caitlen.livejournal.com 2008-01-16 11:06 am (UTC)(link)
I was thinking about that. I thought at first "Wow, I don't think I could do without ethernet", but then I thought about it. When I lived in Canada, I lived off wireless. At work, it was easy to hook up to the intra office web, and that's how everyone did everything. I was stuck at home, because in the shared house (between 7 of us at once) there was only one internet connection, and I had to steal it off the modem in the room off the kitchen, and that was ethernet. But that was the only ethernet connection I used. I think it will actually go down really well amongst corporate customers, specifically in parts of the US and in Europe, where businesses have gone wireless, and for those who usually run wifi but have commitments in places where wifi isn't guaranteed, well there's the ethernet adapter.

I think it will work really well for those people who travel, and might have a Mac Mini at home, with the larger hard drive, or work off a Mac Pro (which they might need for bigger projects), when they can just drag and drop items that they need, and take the Air with them on the road.

It'll be interesting to see how it develops. I think it's a bit ahead of itself, but in a year, I'd be surprised if it's still behind.

[identity profile] dannipenguin.livejournal.com 2008-01-16 11:16 am (UTC)(link)
I love how if Apple do something it's "ahead of the curve". If it appeared in anything else, people would say "how stupid!".

I don't think that many businesses are wireless enabled. Wireless is an anathema to business. They are constantly concerned about security, so much so that many company IT policies explicitly forbid the use of wireless.

While many places have wireless hotspots now, many hotels I've stayed in still only have a hardline into the room. I've actually been known to carry a wireless AP with me so that I could lie on the bed instead.

The other nice thing about a hardline, besides the fact that it's that much harder to eavesdrop on is that it's orders of magnitude faster. If you're copying large numbers of files between two machines, connecting via a cable is still the fastest way.

Dongles are lame (remember how they were lame when they plugged into the PC card you had in your machine, and how awesome it was if you had a real port). USB dongles are also slow.

The back is 1.94cm high, which is slightly wider than the back of my Portege R200, which has an ethernet port.

[identity profile] caitlen.livejournal.com 2008-01-16 11:25 am (UTC)(link)
Going to have to agree to disagree. It'll work and work well, but there's a bit of a way to go with it.
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[identity profile] shrydar.livejournal.com 2008-01-16 02:57 am (UTC)(link)
Oh I don't know - the drive's as big as the one I was travelling with not so long ago, and I really could have done with the weight savings when going hand-luggage only. I also don't think I used my optical drive once the entire time I was in Europe the year before last.

So yeah - aside from price, a nice beast for backpacking..

[identity profile] caitlen.livejournal.com 2008-01-16 11:12 am (UTC)(link)
I've decided I like it. And having backpacked with my iBook 2 years/18 months ago, I could have really done with a weight out of that bag. This would be perfect, and can I say a bit tougher than my iBook? I might take the optical drive with me though, but not for shorter trips (I was living overseas for 7 months, and backpacking for 3 months at the end).

[identity profile] dannipenguin.livejournal.com 2008-01-16 11:19 am (UTC)(link)
A Portege R500 with solid state drive and no optical drive weights 800g and has twice the battery life. It costs the same amount of money.

My three year old R200 weighs less than the new Apple, is the same thickness and significantly less expensive (although dated technology-wise).

All-in-all, I was looking forward to seeing what they did, but I feel that Apple have produced a very poor device.
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[identity profile] shrydar.livejournal.com 2008-01-16 12:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh I agree that in many regards they're playing catchup. I've wanted a laptop with a 12" 150dpi screen for quite some time, and they still don't produce one. (mm, 1440x1080)

But I want something that officially supports OS X..

[identity profile] hipikat.livejournal.com 2008-01-17 01:19 am (UTC)(link)
The MacBook Air isn't for you, Alex. I'm totally with Wil Shipley on this one, and hungry for Air.