Keynote thoughts: Time Capsule, Macbook Air
We have to admit that the Macbook Air is a beautiful machine. It makes holding a laptop as little effort as holding an iPhone. Pricewise, it’s pretty good - £1199 for the 1.6GHz version. Battery life at five hours isn’t shabby either. The construction is simply beautifully clever. But it’s all show and no go.
Firstly, you can’t upgrade the memory. The solid-state hard disk adds a lot of cost - £639, and there’s no telling how long it will last. Solid state memory has a finite read-write cycle.
(incidentally, that means the secondhand value of machines with solid-state memory will be poor. How long can you predict it will last?)
But my main issue with them is that they’re not robust. Strength has definitely been compromised in favour of lightness. The body clearly flexes when you press on it even gently. (The Apple demonstrator watching me do this had a look of undisguised horror on her face.)
Sure, you can wrap it in a robust case of plastic or metal. Which will add the weight back and leave you with a poor performance to weight ratio. If you do that, you may as well have bought a Macbook Pro.
If style over substance matters - buy the Macbook Air. It is beautiful. It will sit perfectly on paper-free desks in gorgeously minimalist offices. If you need a machine on which to get your work done, get a Macbook Pro instead.
The Time Capsule is fairly useful in very small businesses. The combination of wireless router and Time Machine backup disk is good. I hope a software update to existing Airport Expresses will allow USB disks to be used as easily - there’s no reason why that shouldn’t happen. It was the one update that wasn’t explicitly mentioned in the Keynote though. We’ll see.
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Macbook Air, Macbook Pro, Apple, MacWorld
Posted: January 15th, 2008 under Comment.
Comments: 1
Comments
Comment from JC
Time: January 16, 2008, 2:54 pm
One of my biggest gripes about the Apple laptop line is that they favor style over utility to the point of sacrificing durability. My Powerbook G4 has a multitudes of scratches and a dent near the apple logo. Sure it still works, and for that I am grateful. But now I recognize the fact that aluminum, while cheap, is not necessarily the best material to construct a case out of. After all as a part of their livelihood frat boys and jocks crush aluminum with their foreheads all the time. Their Macbook line seems to have a better sense of reliability, but they too are prone to scratches. If you look at the multitude of case solutions available specifically for the purpose of protecting Apple’s notebook line-up, it is absolutely mind-boggling that Apple is not trying to create a scratch resistant coating on its cases.
As this relates to the Macbook Air, the issue of durability seems even more applicable. Sure, while stowing my computer and its gear, my 17″ PB survived an accidental drop of the power chord block on its apple logo (even if only marred in a cosmetic sense)… but will the MBA do the same?
Assuming it survives such an ordeal once its visual appeal has been tainted, will the lack of features start to feel like the MBA was a bit of a lemon? I think so. The ballsier (and richer) among us will gladly become guinea pigs for this product, but I have to say I meet this product with extreme skepticism. I expected more, perhaps a brilliant reworking of the 12″ PB. This is not it. The multitouch trackpad is neat, but not dramatic enough a change.
-The lack of internal optical drive creates a problem for importing CD’s through iTunes
-For the purposes of software installation external SuperDrive should be included
-Watching DVDs is impossible unless ripped or downloaded
-Lack of multiple USB ports is unacceptable
-Too expensive for low-capacity solid state disk, and too slow for smaller hard drive configuration
-Not expandable, configurable, like the 12″ PB.
+The screen size and standard memory config are sufficient… Macs are generally good about not requiring robust upgrades to run bloated revisions of current software, mainly because bloated revisions, apart from some of the iLife suite, are not the MO for OS X software.
+Lack of optical drive could actually create a market for space-efficient programs that could be distributed through iTunes… Apple Pro products, iLife, and iWork suites with reasonable file sizes? I’m not exactly holding my breath, but that would be great for everyone.
I’m not buying a Macbook Air, and admittedly it was a disappointment in a way, but that doesn’t mean I can’t look at the bright side of things…
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