New thin MacBook!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7188849.stm



Ooh a solid state drive! (time will tell if there are any reliability problems). Should be quiet and have a very long battery life.

No CD or DVD drive though as it's designed to be wireless!

bit pricy init?

And then they pull out the DVD drive? How does that add up?

And it requires another computer to install software from?!? That's about as clever as banging your head against a wall...

It does look flat though :)

Well it adds up very nicely for Apple who want everyone to get movies from ITunes...

It looks really nice, but I can't justify it for myself. The $700 premium over a regular MacBook gets you a slimmer/lighter machine that has more RAM, but has a weaker processor and no removable media. If I wanted one to travel with frequently, I'd jump on it, but since mine would travel about as far as my couch it would be wasted on me personally.

Phew, was afraid that they'd have made my MacBook Pro obsolete already.

Anyways, I'd be afraid to own something that slim...., unless it's made of aluminum (and even then), I'd be afraid of it accidently getting broken via accidental bending.

Is there even a USB port on the thing?

hmm, im not that turned on about solid state yet. The fast ram ones appear to need a constant power source (backup battery) and the flash ones apparently have a very finite number of writes (esp where swapping is concerned).

Think ill wait for a couple of years b4 im fully convinced.

I don't think your average user will care about them as your primary storage-device until the read/write endurance rate becomes a moot point.
(I'd figure that Vista could kill an SSD drive in no time at all if you let it do its typical indexing)

I look forward to when that is a non-issue though, as they'd be less a bottleneck than a typical harddrive.
(from what I've read on solid-state drives at anyrate, could be wrong)

But jeez, an extra $1k for just a 64gb SSD....

Hello.

Not a pleasant dollar to pound conversion rate either - paying nearly £300 over the US price.

Goodbye.

I'm told the UK price is including VAT, the US price excludes sales tax.

even still £300 is way more than just VAT (17.5%).

Yes the VAT should be around £157.

VAT is about 7-8% in the US in most places, so not a lot of $.

I wonder if it has a ZX81 keyboard. It would be a step down from the current trend of having a Spectrum keyboard. :)

But you also have to add the 'shaft the uk consumer' tax. If the mac fanboys are dumb enough to keep paying it, apple will keep charging it.

Biggest issue I'm seeing with this new model: hard-wired non-replacable battery. I guess that's most likely to shave off another couple of fractions of an inch, but making the battery not user-replacable knowing that they go south on you pretty quickly seems like a bad thing...

Oooh, it's so thin! *Strokes screen*

http://www.apcmag.com/7839/macbook_air_top_10_things_wrong_with_it

As always, Apple is inspiring my deepest hopes and dreams and then trampling them to the ground... all in one motion.

If anyone needed to know why Apple keep going well they seem to be the only computer manufacturer that doesnt end up with the box/monitor/keyboard combo and they are pleasing to the eye. I would code on my iBook G3 but I dont have OSX on it only ubuntu.

They keep going well because they let ASUSTek (cheapo trash producer) manufacture their system and then sell them at 1.5 - 2 times ASUS prices so they have a margin that between "evil" and "monopoly missuse"

what shocke me most about that box is that the battery lifetime again isn't really better ...
Defeats the point of a sub notebook if its bat lifetime is that bad that a 1300 CHF MacBook outperforms it ...

Mac Book Pros aren't 1.5-2 the price world wide. Your country is unique. We've been over this.

Typical Apple and Stevie Jobs - looks good but no substance or practicality... I just love the way they claim they are always 'first' - started back in the 70s and still continues to this day.

Well Michael, its definitely not unique. Potentially yours is unique (or US - CA - UK or the like)
Its the same for the surrounding countries as well that Apple stuff is more expensive than the ASUS counterparts even though both is the same (and of the same bad quality)

Really?

There's a ton of all-in-one PC's around as well... Most people seem to prefer the slightly cheaper and more expandable PC-in-a-box flavors so far, though. But here's are some:

Sony: http://www.techfresh.net/gadgets/computers/the-sony-vaio-l-series-pc/

alienware: http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/05/alienware-area-51-5400-all-in-one-pc/

Gateway: http://www.referenceguide.com/reviews/gatewayprofile4.htm

HP: http://h71036.www7.hp.com/hho/cache/447010-0-0-225-121.html

Dell: http://jezlyn.wordpress.com/2006/06/02/dells-all-in-one-pc/

There's also a ton of no-name ones like the QBox and others...

Its very nice, but rather overpriced for what (little) you get...

It does come with a recovery DVD!!! But it has no DVD drive!!!

@xlsior - Yes, that is indeed a list of all-in-one PCs, but which one is supposed to be pleasing to the eye?

Also, which one is supposed to be comparable to the iMac in terms of form factor? They all appear to be either 2-3 times as thick as the iMac, or have an extra piece down at the bottom, or both.

As for the MacBook Air, I think it looks pretty, and it would be great for someone who has to travel a lot and wants an ultra-light, but a typical laptop user would be better off with just a regular MacBook or a cheap-o Dell if they don't mind being stuck with Windows/Linux.

- "It does come with a recovery DVD!!! But it has no DVD drive!!! "

It is probably like the Dell Lattitude D400 series. No diskdrive actually INSIDE the machine but has a separate slim & light USB multibay for CD/DVD/Floppy.

Hey, Apple stuff IS more expensive, but you said 1.5x-2x, which is rubbish.

I'm buying one. It's very important people see me with it.

MacBook PRO: $2799
2.4 CPU
1680x1050 Display
2GB RAM
160GB Hard Drive, DVD Burner

Dell 1720: $1649
2.4 CPU
1920x1200(much nicer display)
2GB RAM
160GB Hard Drive, DVD Burner

I think that is about 1.69X the price.

Incidentally, I also have Leopard running fine on my Dell ;)

That Dell also outweighs the MacBook Pro by 2 lbs, and as a bonus, you get to be a software pirate. ;)

Comparing a Dell and an Apple is pointless anyway. They have completely different strategies/ideologies. Quite simply, Dell plays the price game while Apple plays the customer experience game.

It's like complaining that a burger is cheaper at McDonald's than at an upscale restaurant. Even if it was the exact same burger, you're going to pay more at the upscale restaurant because of the difference in dining experience. Some people are willing to pay for that. Some people would rather just stick with McDonald's. Neither is wrong.

'Dining experience' Heaven help me!

McDonalds is wrong.

Fujitsu LifeBook Q2010 is about .5mm thinner.

@Hujiklo - Either you're a die-hard McDonald's guy, or you don't understand what I meant by "dining experience" in that context.

What I mean is this: When you go to McDonald's, you expect a certain level of service, facilities, cleanliness, etc. When you go to an upscale restaurant, you expect different levels than you do at McDonald's.

Applied to Dell and Apple, when you buy a Dell, you expect certain things. You'll get a good price, it'll be loaded with Windows Vista, it'll have trial versions of stuff on it, you may get an OS recovery disk, it'll look ok from an aesthetic standpoint, you can buy it from their website, and if you have problems with it you can ship it back and get it fixed.

When you buy an Apple, you expect different things. The price will probably be a little higher, you'll get the nice/stable OS X, it will have some useful apps built into it and no trial stuff, you'll get a full OS disk with no activation/license keys to worry about, it'll look excellent from an aesthetic standpoint, you can buy it from their website or go to the Apple Store and play with it a bit first, and if you have problems with it you can ship it back or bring it to the Apple Store.

But in this case going to the upscale restaurant, means you have to go to McDonalds first in order to get the food. Then go back to the fine restaurant, and wait for a waiter to bring your food from McDonalds to the restaurant.

Ie. meaning if you want software on your MacFlat you will need to install from another computer, and wait for it to be sent to your new computer by magic wireless internet.

:)

Actually, it's that slimy Microsoft 'market-speak' that has so stealthily crept into our language that makes me cringe.

Pigeon-hole your thoughts with new-speak!

One thing PC users can do that Mac users can't:

[EDIT by MOD: since when is swearing using pictures ok?]

After reading this http://www.apcmag.com/7839/macbook_air_top_10_things_wrong_with_it (posted by Jim Brown) all my 'wows' are frozen...
Better to wait Mac Air 2nd version...
[no Ethernet port - yes MacAir has wireless...but if you are in an office WITHOUT wireless network like mine?!?)

Good design, bad 'contents'...

Hm... does this thing even have a kensington lock slot?

Considering this is an ultraportable, take-anywhere machine theoretically appealing to people on the go, that type of security should be quite important.
This computer is also quite obviously nicer in person, so it will likely only sell well to the general audience if people can play with it first. If retail outlets can't put it on display for fear of the machine being sneaked out of the building in envelopes, it does not stand a chance!

It's also 50% taller (1.5" versus 1"). Sorry, but you can't ignore something like that when making a comparison.

Dell XPS 13" versus Mac Book 13" is a much more direct comparison. Same size, same weight, same specs, same price. Though Apple does gouge on the upgrades, hard drives and RAM are 2x more.

Anyway, it's ridiculous to penny pinch over hardware, as a software developer you probably take home the cost of a laptop per week and spend 40-80 hours on it, saving a few bucks and getting something big and heavy, slow or in any other way unusable is penny wise and pound foolish.

I'm not saying Apple hardware is better. Apple hardware is notorious for failing and not being under warranty. I'm just saying compare apples to apples (no pun intended).

.5mm thicker, it also doesn't thin towards the front (so its volume is quite a bit more), or have nearly the same specs (1.2ghz Core Solo ULV versus 1.6ghz Core 2 Duo). It is 6 months old, though.

Personally, I think the Air came along too soon - the form factor is great, but it really needs the SSD, which is way too expensive for not much space right now. 1.8" drives just don't cut it. The Mac Book Pro is probably a better machine (and not that much bigger - 1.0" tall level).

I'm not saying Apple doesn't make a nice product. I have an iPhone and an 80GB iPod Classic. I was just pointing out that the difference in price was in fact pretty high. I particularly noticed the difference because a MacBook Pro is the one I would use, but there is no way I can justify that much price difference. If it was closer to $2K than $3K, it would make it easier.

I saw a picture in the paper the other day of a prototype 'Macbook Nano' which sounded better to me. Instead of a foldout screen and keyboard, it was like a large iPod Touch, with multitouch and onscreen keyboard. Slot load DVD on the short end.
http://stuff.tv/News/BIG-IN-2008-MacBook-Nano/

Such a touch screen Macbook would probably find itself with no worse price tag than the SSD Macbook Air, too. It would deserve the label of "a new kind of computer", at any rate! (While still not an innovation, at least closer than just making a Macbook smaller and weaker than its already beautifully small form).

I think another problem with this laptop is that the footprint is still very similar to the Macbook. To remedy this, Apple did the fancy touch pad, but consumers are going to see little difference between the two except for price and capacity. The Macbook and Macbook Pro are already very thin as it is, especially compared with other computers in their class. The MB Air is just more of the same thing.
It's like paying $120 for an 8 GB flash drive when you can get two 4 GB ones for around $60.

solid state HD eliminates thrashing so can you now forget the gargantuan amount of RAM that VISTA (woops this is a MAC thread) requires without killing ( mechanically ) your hard disk ?

Jim Brown: Thanks for the link. Very informative. Mayb a 2nd or 3rd gen air will be worth getting.