News Rumour: Apple preps Air 'netbook'

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2010/07/16/rumour-apple-preps-air-netbook/1

 

I would be surprised if the apple netbook would actually be anything too special, it's intel core 2 duo processor is better than an atom dual core but it's not £700 better. Acer timline notbooks can be found at 13.3 inch screen sizes with CULV processors for around £500, these have 1066MHz ram and usually 3GB of it, unlike the air's 2GB. Apple can't really use it's OSX as a selling point either saying it's 'faster and cleaner' as so many netbooks use linux, i use ubuntu 10.04 on mine, it starts up in 10 seconds, could you do that mac? nope.
Apple's arrogance with pricing is what annoys me mostly over £1000 for a netbook is outrageous, even an aluminium core 2 duo one, if it had something like an i5 in i'd understand but it just doesn't have the hardware to justify such a price. Soon sony and asus will be making laptops and desktops that look as good as macs, cost half the price and have better hardware and are running windows 7, then apple will be in trouble although it's got it's macfans to keep buying things of it. Linux if faster and cleaner than mac OSX and windows 7 is more accessible and in my opinion looks about as good and has the programs you want. if you ask me apple is in trouble over the next few years.

 

I think a single USB port and no Ethernet is actually far more palatable on an ultraportable/netbook format device than on a laptop. You'll be pretty much exclusively using WiFi and/or 3G (whether by Bluetooth or integrated 3G module) on a netbook.

Come to think of it, with 802.11n, I hardly ever bother to connect my MacBook Pro via Ethernet - the speeds are sufficient for everything I need and any bottlenecks are in my ADSL line, so gigabit gives me no discernable advantage.

The single USB port isn't a massive issue in my opinion. If needs be, you can connect a USB hub. Anyway, nobody buys an Air for practicality - if you want to be sensible, why not get a marginally thicker MacBook Pro with better connectivity, better battery life, better performance, integrated optical drive and a 30% lower price tag? I'm sure the same logic will apply to the 11.6 incher - a beautiful piece of technology to show off in Starbucks, with the all important Apple logo on the lid. That's if it ever comes to fruition (no pun intended).

 

since it's a bit smaller, they can stick it up their...

 

Well because apple laptops are famously frugal with battery drain in sleep mode, I never shut my mac down when out and about. A wake from sleep is instant, and even a day asleep will only knock a few percent off the battery.

So who needs an instant boot if the alternative works perfectly... like who cares how long their mobile takes to boot from a cold start. I mean like really cares.

 

@hbeevers - you've never used a mac, have you? You'd know that boot time wasn't an issue if you had. You'd also know why they're more expensive and why Asus and Sony can never compete with them - build quality. Acer's finetip keyboard is good, but it's record on trackpads isn't great - I seem to recall lots of complaints about stiff buttons on the Timeline series in particular - whereas Apple have had reliably excellent ergonomics for a long time now. And Sony? Are you kidding me? They just look like Apple knock-offs and bad ones at that with worse specs. Concerning Linux, installing it on a netbook is a little hit and miss when it comes to hardware support. OS X has no such problems on any of the machines you can get it preinstalled on. And drop the "Linux is gonna take over!" line - it's more than a decade old and is still no closer to fruition. Bottom line - as long as people can afford Macs and they're worth buying (they can and they are) then they will continue to give Apple more money than Microsoft. You did know Apple is worth more than MS, right?

 

OMG, I sound like a total fanboi there. I'm not, honest, Apple's laptops are nice, but their desktop range is now awful. And I wouldn't buy an iPhone/iPad/iPod if you held a gun to my head and it came with a years supply of legal marijuana.

 

+1

They can use OSX as a selling point - as much as I love linux, OSX has far better 3rd party off-the-shelf software support, it looks good and is the full OS, not the deliberately restricted £100 service pack for Vista that Windows 7 is.

Most netbooks I've seen with Windows 7 are running Home Basic for crying out loud.

 

Considering the crud the likes of PC World are now selling, they're not actually that bad on the desktop. Sure it's nowhere near what we could build for the same money, but the number of high-powered machines available to consumers off the shelf is pitiful. The 27" iMac with an i5 or i7 is a nice bit of kit.

Yes, you are better off staying away from the iPhone. I have one and now I wouldn't want to use anything else. It limits your options somewhat.

 

Build qualilty? Not so sure about that - I have had 3 repairs in as many years. But my biggest gripe is the pathetic number of USB ports and even worse still is that ridiculous adapter they use for monitors. Knowing apple, you'll be needing an adapter to give you one USB port...and the fan boys will say it's because USB unnecessary because you have the keyboard and trackpad right there....

However, they are excellent pieces of kit - no doubts. OSX is great to use and the ease of working on them....it's good.

 

I'm not a fan of the iMac. You push it hard and it quickly gets quite hot and loud. I don't like the new refresh of the Mac Mini either, it's just too expensive now. I like the old Mac Mini, I'm typing this on one now and I've got one under the TV (best HTPC eva!). I don't like the iP* because of the whole artificial ecosystem Apple have built up around it with their usage restrictions.

I must admit, I do love the Mac Pro. Hands down the most incredible case internals ever seen. Shame it's a workstation, it's just *soo* expensive. Apple really need to do a Mac Semi-Pro or something

 

I guess I should have said ergonomics rather than build quality, you're right. I can understand why Apple went with Displayport, it does give you lots of flexible video out options (if you have the right adapters, you can just hear the accountants chuckle when I say that) but my Powerbook G4 has a full size DVI port on it for crying out loud. What was wrong with that? Can't say I really agree on the USB ports issue though, but I suspect we use our Macs for different things.

 

Is it me or has Apple been really pushing a lot of over priced useless products? I mean are Apple followers that brain washed at this point?

 

Plenty of people will buy it because, you know, it looks so darn pretty.

Retorical question.

 

From a position of being able to get my hands on any laptop available, I ended up buying a Macbook Pro purely for the quality.

First thing I did was install Windows 7 on a partition and start using that. Now that I have gotten used to OSX I have not even loaded up Windows at home for the past month and a bit.

Quality all round hardware that does the job, buy the hardware for the wrong reasons and like any bit of kit it will perform poorly.

13" Macbook Pro is without a doubt the best high performance long battery life laptop available. Find me something that can give me 10 hours real world battery life working with a rugged chassis and good quality screen. You can't as I looked at all the ULV laptops available at the time.

Saying that I wouldnt touch a Mac Mini now due to the price, or any of the other desktops thinking of it. Macbook Air is a designer item and gets beaten by the Macbook Pro.

If I wasnt using my machine out and about so much I would have just gotten the normal Macbook as this is a superior value option to the Pro depending on your use.

Can see a point in most of the products Apple make, but their desktop/laptop range are a premium product and priced accordingly. You are paying for the design more than the components in them... yet the chosen components work better than on any other laptop.

Each to their own, but having sat on the "specs are rubbish" camp for a decade when I finally did not care about the pure specs and took the plunge I am kicking myself for using such shoddy laptops in the past.

Why oh why did I buy a Clevo barebones before this....

 

USB is the biggest thing putting me off a new MBP. 2 USB ports is just piddly really. Even on a 17" you only get 3. My MBP is pretty much a desktop replacement.

Ergonomics are good. Nice. Yes. Lovely in fact.

 

I use mine with my monitor which has 4x USB ports, just plug in the Display Port + one USB cable and I have my laptop working on my desktop with Printer, Mouse, KB.

 

OMG I know people out there that just can't wait to pay $2000 for something they could get for $500. Apple rules.

If Apple says you only need one USB port then by golly you only need one usb port.

besides a slimmer design Apples laptops don't really offer any thing that suggest a $2000 price tag versus Windows 7 laptops

 

Very cool but anyone with common sense will see that you could get the same thing for 1/4 the price

 

Faster..maybe, but most definitely not cleaner. How is a plethora of scattered distros cleaner than one linear line which improves with each release? I have yet to see a GNU/Linux distro that looks as good as OS X and which also has the same built-in/easy to access capability.

The menus of most Linux distros are an utter mess, rather than a 'control panel' or 'system preferences' window, you have a great long list of options. The applications are poorly organised into groups and the reliance on terminal to achieve most 'advanced' things is just a pain in the arse after about the 10th time. While having to use the terminal has helped me with a lot of things, mostly learning the syntax so i can use it for other uses, who really wants to bother with all that crap?