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Posted by unregistered user at 1/15/08 11:06 a.m.

Why couldn't they put a buit-in optical drive into the laptop? Would it have compromised the thinness of it?

Posted by unregistered user at 1/15/08 11:13 a.m.

No it wouldn't. Looks cool though

IPhone vastly improved th browsing experience for a whole lot of people frustrated with rendering issues of the existing smartphones. That combined with a music capabilities of IPOD was a certain seller.

Outside of the wow factor, MacBook Air doesn't seem to contribute as much to the usability factor to justify a mass adoption similar to IPhone.

Posted by unregistered user at 1/15/08 11:15 a.m.

"Why couldn't they put a buit-in optical drive into the laptop? Would it have compromised the thinness of it?"

Er.. Yeah. HAHAHA.

Posted by unregistered user at 1/15/08 11:18 a.m.

Usefulness does not matter. This will sell like candy.

Posted by unregistered user at 1/15/08 11:19 a.m.

That's a serious inconvenience. How can it not read discs? Sounds like the next step for Apple is building a thinner DVD.

Or perhaps this is another Jobs attempt to eliminate physical property like CDS, DVDs in favor of digital content purchased directly from iTunes.

Whatever. That thing's beautiful. More pictures here:
gearpatrol.com/blog/2008/01/15/macbook-a
ir/

Posted by unregistered user at 1/15/08 11:22 a.m.

does it run crysis?
oh wait no mac os does.

Posted by unregistered user at 1/15/08 11:36 a.m.

An optical drive would compromise the thinness as well as battery life. The new macbook is lame though. I was hoping to get one if it had better specs than my vaio sz-330, it failed terribly and what the heck did the mean
I got my vaio for 899 at best buy, half the price of the new macbook and heres the scorecard.

Vaio SZ330 P vs Macbook Air
Speed: 2.0 GHZ 1.6GHZ
Keyboard Full size +Pg up pg down Full size
Screen Xtra Brite (battery killer) LED battery saver
Scrn Size 13.3in 13.3in
Optcl Drv Present Absent
Video Crd Present 128mb Absent
Hrd drv 100 Gb 80Gb
Thickness Thin Thinner
Btry life 3hrs 5hrs
Wireless 802.11 a/b/g 802.11 n

Verdict my Vaio is better than the new macbook in all areas except battery life (due to the macbook's screen and lack of optical drive). Sub par hard drive, lack of a video card (for a little gaming) is acceptable for the form factor. However not having an optical drive is unforgivable. Dear Steve Jobs, I have 2 grand to blow on a laptop this semester and I was hoping to blow on a new macbook. However I am so dissapointed in the new product I think I will stick with the money in the bank

Posted by unregistered user at 1/15/08 11:45 a.m.

But wait! I mean, what about the weight?
Person who compared new macbook with Vaio - very useful, thanks - could you compare weight of the two products?

Posted by unregistered user at 1/15/08 11:57 a.m.

Ah, the cult of Mac...

Anyone see the MadTV spoofs of Apple's product announcements? Classic.

I think if Steve Jobs encased his poop in hard plastic, people would buy it.

Posted by unregistered user at 1/15/08 12:00 p.m.

Does it run crysis? Ha, like anything this thin could pack the video processing power needed for crysis. This little mac is not made for gaming, but hopefully you could have figured that out on your own.

Posted by Nebula36 at 1/15/08 12:58 p.m.

Yawn. The apple fanatics will buy anything.

Posted by CaptRedBeard at 1/15/08 1:16 p.m.

i haven't used a dvd drive on my laptop in years...

Posted by cedobie at 1/15/08 1:18 p.m.

how often do you need an optical drive at the coffee shop anyways? its smart. I wouldn't my MBP 15" a little lighter, and a seperate drive.

Posted by unregistered user at 1/15/08 1:26 p.m.

ahhhh, but sony vaio suffers the biggest flaw of all...it runs windows. I'll never buy a MacBook Air, but I'll always buy Macs from here on out. A week with OSX and it's IMPOSSIBLE to go back to Windoze...so boring and cludgy.

Posted by unregistered user at 1/15/08 1:27 p.m.

0.16 inches? !? Typo?

Posted by unregistered user at 1/15/08 1:46 p.m.

Nice looking machine. Of course, it's priced $500 more than it should be, but hey... the price of ownership for the "Apple" mystique.

Then again, a $5.00 bottle of wine scores significantly higher in taste tests when people are told it's $45 a bottle.

If it costs more, much more, it's gotta' be better, right? Jobs knows his fan base, and boy do they "think different", even when they all think the same.

Posted by unregistered user at 1/15/08 1:51 p.m.

be great until you lean your laptop bag against something and weight of everything else in the bag crushes or bends the thing.

I hope they reinforced it somehow.

BTW, the cult of mac would only buy Job's poop if it were encased in plastic AND had the Apple Logo on it somewhere.

Posted by native360 at 1/15/08 1:55 p.m.

Something nobody has mentioned, that will really effect the viability of this product, like the ipod and later the iphone, it has a built in internal battery. So if you're on the road, and your battery dies, no swapping out battery packs. You're screwed.

Posted by fletc3her at 1/15/08 2:18 p.m.

It's a pretty sweet machine. Everyone's just jealous they can't afford one!

I've never swapped out the battery in my portable and I haven't used the DVD in my MacBook for about a year (it's broken :) ) so I think one of these would suit me fine. But, my MacBook Pro still feels new at two years (other than the drive which I just need to get replaced ... for free!) so I'll have to wait another year or two before I think about buying one.

Posted by UpperInternational at 1/15/08 2:47 p.m.

In the words of the immortal Chris Farley, "Woop-de-friggen-doo!!!!!"

Posted by thekaj at 1/15/08 3:12 p.m.

"does it run crysis?"

Why yes, yes it does. Were you not aware that all Macs can run Windows now? But as someone already said, like all subnotebooks (including PCs), you won't find the perfomance all that stellar.

"0.16 inches? !? Typo?"

Nope. This is the thinest notebook currently on the market. But of course, the haters come out in droves to compare it to notebooks 25% larger and 25% heavier, oblivious to the fact that, yes, if you want the ultimate in portability, it will cost you more.

And now to watch more people post about how they're so disinterested in this, yet they've still found enough interest to comment.

Posted by unregistered user at 1/15/08 4:04 p.m.

I am actually very disappointed that Mac got into this senseless business of the mystic "portability." "Portability" is a religion, it is not about any use -- I carry around my old 12" PowerBook all the time, and I am quite happy with its size and even the weight. Oh and I do have extra batteries (2), and I use them all the time -- so if the new one really comes with an in-built battery, that sucks.

Posted by yalker at 1/15/08 4:32 p.m.

no thanks - I will stick with my Dell XPS M1330 - this sucker is the fastest, quietest laptop I have even owned -

Posted by unregistered user at 1/15/08 4:43 p.m.

I just got back from macworld, saw the macbook air, listened to the keynote... yada yada. Im a staunch mac user, I have the latest 15" macbook pro and I HATE the new macbook air. What a POS!!! Looks like a sony vaio! I dont care how thin it is, once you play with it, you will understand what im talking about. feels cheap and flimsy. it only has 2 ports... mini dvi and a usb. TRASH! horrible design! looks nothing like a mac should. it seriously looks like a sony vaio!!!!

Posted by unregistered user at 1/15/08 5:34 p.m.

Vaio-Shmaio! But does it run OSX?
Until someone comes up with a better OS, Mac is IT! Windoze is pathetic. I have nothing but this POS at work and 3 Macs at home. I do know the difference.

Posted by unregistered user at 1/15/08 5:38 p.m.

Looks like too many comments from the "power users" again...

I meet a lot of laptop users who hardly ever plug anything in except the power cord, and spend a lot of time on wireless. How many of these commenters have any idea how much software is installed these days by downloading it and never touching a disk?

The concept behind the MacBook Air is fine. If it isn't for you, buy a different model. My work depends a high amount of power on the road so I buy the MacBook Pro. But there have been plenty of times around town when I never would have needed anything except the MacBook Air. Do we really need to enforce an SUV attitude for laptops, where a laptop is devalued because you don't cart every possible feature around town all the time?

Let's not forget that the best-selling iPod is not the one with the most features or capacity. When the iPod mini came out, it became the sales record-breaker, even though the price per megabyte was pretty bad. That's because it was more portable, lighter, thinner, minimal impact on your person. All you geeks and nerds who obsess over spec sheets like auto enthusiasts endlessly tuning their car engines seem to have no comprehension of how useful it is to have a device that's more useful because it only carries the essentials. A power-user techno-uber-nerd cannot explain why a product like the iPod mini or nano would sell so well, because they are out of touch with regular people.

I don't want a MacBook Air, but it has a mission and a right to exist.

Posted by unregistered user at 1/15/08 5:44 p.m.

Bravo!!! Ditto!!!

Posted by unregistered user at 1/30/08 8:10 p.m.

Amen to that!

Posted by unregistered user at 2/6/08 5:33 a.m.

"Until someone comes up with a better OS, Mac is IT!"

Uh, hallo? Have you ever heard of Linux? I DO believe that it's a little better than the Mac OS.
There's no reason to use Mac. Linux is free, and is more useful than any Mac OS.

Posted by unregistered user at 2/13/08 11:23 a.m.

in regards to the anon. user who wrote the ""Looks like too many comments from the "power users" again..."" post... THANK YOU.

This laptop is meant to be THIN and work well--thats it. Its not made for intense gaming or editing of HD movies. This isn't the ferrari or Yukon XL Denali of the computer world. This is a lotus! a light, sporty, fun computer (car?) to use and TAKE WITH YOU ALL OVER TOWN, to Conferences, Lectures, Class, etc!!!

Posted by unregistered user at 2/13/08 11:27 a.m.

OOH and another thing. Dont' hate on MACS just because you love your taskbar and your billion trillion lines of code... Microsoft is overly-complex and is the sole cause of its problems. If you cannot accept this you cannot even begin to discuss a Mac. Macs just WORK. the way they should! far better than any other computer company. I have personal experience with Dells, Sonys, HPs and IBM Thinkpads (quite frankly the ugliest machine i've ever seen, on the screen and just the computer in general) and the mac is just above them all across the board!

Posted by unregistered user at 3/2/08 8:03 p.m.

I've found I really don't like the Air, but I do like Macs. The air is just too thin for me, and I know this sounds stupid, but the more thin/small electronics are, the more I'm afraid to have them, because I might break it. I'd do fine with a nice normal sized notebook, besides, the Macbook Air is expensive, and it has a lower resolution, drive memory, and speed than the one I plan on getting, which is cheaper.
I recommend this to people who will use it for research/writing essays/checking emails, mainly work. My friend has this and it has problems running big games like Warcraft(mostly lagging and freezing, or low resolution). I have an XPS Gaming Premium by Dell, which cost me $1000 CAD

Posted by unregistered user at 4/3/08 2:24 p.m.

i heart macbooks!!! they RUUUUUUULE! i want 1 sooo badly, but my parents say no. (parents...) i awnistly luv Macs! luv u mac!!!! (BTW...this is so much better than the McDonald's mac. lol)

the bellaz ♥♥♥
PS.: go awn www.bellazsecret.piczo.com ♥♥♥♥

Posted by unregistered user at 4/9/08 6:09 p.m.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

all these nerds are cracking me up.

"does it run crysis?
oh wait no mac os does."

hahaha, that's a "crysis" problem not a Mac problem. Why don't you go blog about it with the other video game nerds on the "Crysis" boards and leave the real reason computers were invented to a real company..and yell up to your ma from the cellar that you're hungry for a ham sandwich while you're at it. geesh.