News Steve Jobs’ Macworld 2008 Keynote - Live Updates Starting 5PM GMT

Uh yes! I'm the most anti-Apple person in the office and it's so full of awesome even I want one. It would be perfect for trade shows, but at $1700 it's just waaay to expensive - but at least now I can see why and the Sony TZ is just as "bad".

 

Pfft. Sure, it's thin and light. I'm just going to come out and say it: who gives a ****! I carry a shoulder bag or a rucksack, and both can fit my powerbook in with no worries. If the weight is a problem for you then geez, get down the gym. What's much more important to me is power. I don't want to compromise on processor speed because I'm away from home, so I guess a MBA isn't for me. Shame, I was really hoping for a case redesign across the board, I think the MBPs are starting to look a tiny bit tired. If Apple had squeezed in the same power as the MBP into that package I might consider paying a premium, but there's no way I'm paying that kind of money for something with a 1.6GHz C2D. My next laptop will be a MBP, but I'll probably wait for the next speed bump. For me, the most exciting thing about MWSF this year has been the iPhone updates. Very excited to try them out.

AH

 

UK pricing: http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/01/15/macbook_air_will_be_1199_in_uk/1

 

I like it... but it's too pricey for me. I was hoping from some sort of 11/12" Macbook Pro and was willing to sell my current Macbook for it, but ah well. Maybe I'll grab an Eee PC if I wanted something even smaller I suppose.

 

Meh. It's really thin, and fairly light. It's the same size as the Macbooks. I don't care about how thin it is, I want something the size of the 12"PB or smaller. If they'd released an 11-12" widescreen with nice thin bezels around the screen (like on the MBP, not those inch-wide monstrosities around the MB), I'd be all over it.

Yeah, it looks very pretty. I don't really care. As someone said on Macrumors forums, "it's cute". It's not an ultra portable, it has zero upgrade-ability, and addresses the wrong aspect of a very portable machine.

Looks like my next decision is whether to get a Mac Mini for $539 or a quad Mac Pro for $1839 along with a base-level Xserve at $2399. Oh well.

Of course, that'll have to be in another couple months as I'm still recovering from that TempurPedic purchase

 

yay, another mac laptop with specs that you can buy for half the price elsewhere!

 

but with city link i would atleast never get to see just how damaged it is because they built the depot where i would have to pick it up out in the wild instead of an area where people live, so they are definitly worth their insane prices

 

It's not the insane prices I have trouble with, it's the fact that I'm sure they load their vans with a frozen chicken gun at 200 paces.

 

underpowered: c2d 1,6GHz, optionally 1,8GHz (the current macbook range starts at 2,0GHz) / 1.8" parallel ATA (that's right, no SATA) 4200rpm (that's right, forty-two-hundred rpm) - good luck finding a replacement!


underfeatured: no ethernet (only airport), single USB port, no optical drive, 2GB onboard RAM (that's right, the RAM is soldered onto the logic board, don't even dream of upgrading!), no firewire (which was standard on every mac since the 350MHz imacs)...

oversized: at 13" it is not much more portable than the 13" macbook.....

overpriced: there's no argument about that...

If "innovation is the refusal to compromise", I don't see any innovation on the macbook air.... They just made way too many compromises in order to achieve a certain look, ruining the functionality and usability in the process!

 

Like all apple products, never buy the 1st gen.
Give it a year and we'll see a price drop and the essential features we all need. Maybe then I'll consider one, just maybe.

 

Thin doesn't really do it for me if its still wide. I'll just EEE PC instead methinks. And at that price? Pfft. I'd get a low end and mod it up.

The Wireless DVD is damn cool and I like the sound of it, but all thats doing is stopping people from buying if they don't already have a Mac. That, more than anything else, loses me as a customer.

 

That would certainly be a cheaper option.

 

The SD version is £2,028.00.

And the best part theres NO user replacement battery so once every 5hrs its recharge time, no ethernet port is a bit of a let down as its wireless only, maybe next time apple.

 

Y'all are not getting it. This is not a geek/gamebook. It is not a media player. It is not a long-haul flight workstation. It is a laptop that City types can drop in their briefcase and just work on, during the train journey or in their hotel, without thinking too much about logistics such as size, weight, carrier and accessories.

My tablet has better battery life and firewire, but less processing power and RAM. I use it for office tasks on the go, and it is powerful enough for that.

You are also overlooking the innovation of the product. It is a proof of concept. The trackpad is beautifully intuitive, and Remote Disk, frankly, is seriously cool.

 

its like ... 1cm thicker than my dad's dell 13" which he got a couple of months ago with VASTLY superior specs for less than its going to cost here
the dell has better battery life, more performance, upgradable, spare batteries, proper inputs/outputs, is the same width/depth, 1cm thicker and ~1lb heavier

i dont see how the Air is so much better considering what you're giving up to gain 1cm and 1lb

the multi-touch trackpad is about the only truly innovative thing on it and i'd have to use that to determine whether its actually any good or not
and remote disk? most apps dont require the disk itself just the files on it, copy the cd to disk on another machine and share that
failing that, ever heard of daemon tools?

 

More Macbook Air analysis and pictures: http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/01/15/more_macbook_air_analysis_and_pictures/1

 

Wireless DVD is trivially easy to do regardless. Well at least as far as reading goes. I've already got everything useful stored as/ripped to a dmg that I keep on my nas, and I just mount it as needed. The real problem is that with this thing, there's no good way to reinstall your OS unless you've got the hardwired external drive.

I was really hoping for something like the eee except not so toy-ish.

 

well i would hope you can boot off a usb cd/dvd drive
and any usb cd/dvd not just the mac one

 

is it me or does the macbook air keyboard look like one from a spectrum 48k ?

 

You already can (yes, with any USB drive). I'm just saying that the remote drive thing is no good for reinstalling the OS.