- Posts tagged Macbook
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Yeah, what he said.
Before I used [to] carry around my MacBook Pro with me to do whatever I needed to on the go, but now I leave it at home. With my iPad I can do something as simple as make a document or surf the web all the way to making my own songs and editing videos on a device that weighs close to nothing.
Those have been my feelings for quite some time. The iPad has replaced my MacBook as a portable device.
A MacBook, an iPad, and the rest: a study in sizes
I have an original unibody 13" MacBook. I love the thing. Less than an inch thick, only 4.5 lbs, etc. Awesome machine.
Then I got an iPad. As I used the iPad more and more the MacBook was relegated to little, and then no, mobile use. My daughter ended up using it.
Yesterday I had to travel for business, which required I use Windows, so I spent last weekend dusting the MacBook off (I hadn't logged into my account since August) and getting it ready. The MacBook seemed so big and heavy that I debated whether I should still take the iPad on the trip.
I did take the iPad, and was glad I did. At a crowded airport the MacBook is like a monster to take out and use. On the plane? Please. And in the hotel room—like at home—it's so much easier to use the iPad than the seemingly massive MacBook.
Then I went into the office. This is why I'd brought the MacBook in the first place. Plug in Ethernet, fire up VMWare and Windows and work away. I looked at the sea of PC laptops (mine was the only Mac) and was struck by how huge they all were. Dells, HPs, Lenovos were in attendance, and they were all absolute monsters compared to mine. Even did a demo on a year-old (newer than mine) HP, and it was a dog performance-wise. My virtual machine-running MacBook blew it away. In the afternoon, one of the attendees looked at my machine, pinched his fingers together and said "That thing is so thin."
The moral? Size is truly relative. In the world of mobile devices doing general tasks, the iPad rules, and even the MacBook seems overblown and outdated. But get the MacBook among its PC peers and one remembers just how much it still blows the majority of them away.
Yet Another Reviewer Understands The MacBook Air
All things considered, what the new MacBook Air is, is an advancement of the laptop in ways that no other manufacturer has come close to touching. It’s not the least expensive option out there, though we wouldn’t necessarily call the most expensive option either. What the MacBook Air has done, is slowly start to transform the laptop industry much like the iPad and iOS have started to transform the mobile industry.
As people get a hold of this thing and see what it can do, it's becoming clear to some of them what this machine is really all about. It's nice to see another one on board.
It Dawns On Another One: MacBook Air Can Be Your Only PC
The 11-inch Air might be the first computer you can seriously take with you everywhere and almost never regret leaving your beefier machine at home.
While others are tripping over themselves still believing the MacBook Air must be a secondary machine, there are those seeing it's capable of being your only machine in it's own right. Even these people have a hard time coming right out and saying it, but they come oh so close.
If the 11" MacBook Air is something you can "take seriously" and have no issue with leaving "your beefier machine" behind, then it's pretty clear the beefier machine isn't even necessary for a lot of consumers in the first place. Not everyone's a geek who'll take the thing out of the box and open 40 tabs in Safari and 20 tabs in Chrome.
And that's just the 11" model, for the 13" the case is even stronger. That the 13" MacBook Air can be one's sole PC is a no-brainer to me. A threshold with UMPCs has been crossed, and the people having issues with it are the same ones who took too long realizing a laptop computer could be your sole PC (over a desktop) 5-10 years ago.
Then and Now: The MacBook Air
While the original's CPU and bus were good for something so small, the machine was handicapped by Intel integrated graphics and a dog-slow hard drive. The drive was the same as used in iPods, not a typical laptop drive, and was especially an issue because maximum RAM was 2GB, so disk swapping was more prevalent.
The new model gained a lot in CPU (today's Core 2 Duo is more efficient to begin with), but the more significant improvements are in graphics and storage. The Nividia 320M provides graphics more than respectable in terms of speed while offering higher resolution. Meanwhile, one could say Apple bypassed a step in storage, eschewing a typical laptop hard drive—that would itself be faster than the iPod drive—and going straight to flash memory which is faster still. Allowing 4GB of RAM is a big help, too.
I think a reasonable case was made two years ago that the MacBook Air was not likely to serve as most people's only computer, but I'd disagree with that statement today. If you'd be fine with either a 13" MacBook or MacBook Pro, then there's a chance the MacBook Air could work for you as well. Which one you choose is now more a matter of your priorities and personal needs, not one of major sacrifices in power, battery life or performance.
Finally, I chose the $1,799 models only as a point of reference. The true beauty of the MacBook Air is that one can spend much less and still get all the primary performance enhancements discussed here (320M high res graphics, flash storage, 4GB RAM).
I believe the overall performance improvement of the new MacBook Air is why Steve Jobs called it the future of MacBooks. Unlike the original, the current model represents a design philosophy Apple can rollout over their entire laptop line as the components become more affordable.
Back to the Mac: Thoughts, Observations and Questions
My comments on the various announcements at Apple's recent Special Event.
iPhoto 11
Apple continued their efforts to make iLife powerful while still being easy to use. iPhoto is my most-used iLife app, and the new full screen mode looks sweet. Now that I can live in full screen mode, I will.
I didn't like that Facebook and Flickr sharing seemed one-way streets, so the ability to grab and display all your albums even if you didn't use iPhoto to put them there is huge for me. I will use iPhoto much more with Flickr as a result.
I've put together books with iPhoto and enjoyed the process, but today's demo makes it look so much easier than before (and it was already easy). It looks very well done.
My only disappointment is that no editing tools were discussed, and I didn't get a good shot of the editor. The last couple of releases of iPhoto have borrowed tools from Aperture—such as the gamma level control and not saturating skin tones—and I hope this new one does as well. I realize I don't need Aperture power (I stopped at Aperture 2), but that doesn't mean I should only have basics.
iMovie 11
The additions of face recognition and enhanced audio editing to iMovie are big.
Meanwhile, I'm sure many will deride the trailers feature but I think it's beautiful. No, it isn't about creating a 30-second trailer for your 5-minute movie. What the detractors don't seem to get is that for many people the trailer will be the movie. Outside of the geek community most people's jaws will drop when you show them a trailer of the ball game or vacation trip or outing you all had last month.
Garageband 11
I'm all thumbs when it comes to music so I don't use Garageband much, but even I know how cool groove track can be. A great idea, and typical of Apple. I also think the visual feedback when playing was an interesting addition. I wonder how much improvement it could make to plying in the real world.
iWeb and iDVD
It's safe to say these weren't updated at all since they don't even have a spot on the iLife section of the web site. The good news is that for those still creating DVDs they get at least one more iLife cycle (18 months or more) of iDVD support.
iWork 11
Psyche! There was no iWork 11 announcement today. I'm disappointed by this, and anxious for when we'll see the latest version of the suite. Maybe when the App Store opens?
Mac App Store
I love this, and don't get all the paranoia and complaining I've seen.
This is not the only way to get apps on the Mac. It's silly to think Apple's out to kill the 25-year old methodology for getting apps on a Mac. But they are out to come up with something better. I believe the App Store will be it. I love the easy way to find and purchase apps, and to update them afterwards. Further, I don't think of the App Store as installing apps for me, I think of it more as apps that don't need installing. That's what the vast majority of users will think, too.
Mac OS X Lion
Too early to comment much. I mean, we got a really, really small sneak peak. I think it's the smallest sneak peak of a new OS X release we've ever seen. I tend to think this had less to do with what's available, and more to do with this not being a developer event and Apple wanting to focus on what could be bought now.
Still, I already love Launchpad (I really like the iOS paradigm of launching apps) and also Mission Control since I use both Exposé and Spaces heavily.
MacBook Air
I love these, and it's nice to see them transition to full unibody models.
The 11" model is tempting. I'm sure some will claim Apple has finally built a netbook, but that's nonsense. This isn't some Atom-powered cheap plastic piece of crap. Even at the minimum 1.4GHz it's an Intel Core 2 Duo w/ 800MHz bus and 3MB shared cache. It has a full size keyboard. The Nvidia 320M graphics with 1366 x 768 resolution will be gorgeous and fast. On top of this add flash storage (2x faster than a HDD) and there's no netbook that can touch it. This is a laptop, people, albeit a small and beautiful one.
The 13" model offers great improvements over the 11" besides the physically larger screen. The resolution is 1440 x 900, the largest for a 13" MacBook ever. Higher CPU speeds, front-side bus is 1066MHz and the shared cache is 6MB. And there's an SD card slot and 2 more hours of battery life as well.
Regarding battery life, I'm anxious for more to come out on Apple's new battery tests. Interesting to see if they really do show "real world" performance. I'll keep an eye out for battery comments when the reviews hit the usual sites.
Home Sweet Home (Screen)
As of right now, and always subject to change.
Since I got the iPad, my MacBook thinks it's ignored
As you can see, that's just not true.
