Macbook Air

[Jeep Stone]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ULy1SPNAKu4

Looks very nice but it'll be interesting to see how successful they are with it not having an optical drive. You can install software on another mac/pc that allows you to install from CD but seems a little bit fussy to me. Nice looking though.

[Britman]

very nice indeed but enough to turn gay! I don't know.

[Jeewhizz]

Good Lord! What will they do next! I like it a lot - perfect for business users IMO!

[Tanthalas]

At 0.4cm thick at the thin end, what's to stop you snapping it in two?  He went on about it being durable, but he opened it with his fingertips.  And if it's only that thick, it can't have any cooling.

And what the hell is this:

It's optimised for the wireless world in a way that only Apple can do.

Errrr...what magical way do they have that the rest of us don't?

Oh, wait, it's wireless-N.  Nice.  So it's non-standard wireless and partly proprietary, most probably.  That'll be the bit that only Apple can do.

Re: Screen - Whether you're delivering a keynote or watching a movie, everything is blah blah blah...

Watching a movie?  On what?  It's got no optical drive!  OK, I could rip some to the HDD, but only a few, seen as the HDD's so damned small.  So that's useless too.  I notice that every solution he has for it not having an optical drive involves buying another Mac product.  Yes, why use your existing DVD library when you can rent ours?  Why install stuff when you can use your other Mac to install stuff (which you can only do by....installing stuff)?  Backup?  We've got another Mac product for you!  Or perhaps you'd like to add to the already OTT £1200 price tag to buy the external drive? (Seriously, why does it cost £1200 when there's less of it?) I am reminded of this:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/08/20

As for ports - one USB port (for the optical drive it's missing) and a proprietary monitor port so you'll end up paying a fortune for adaptors that you then have to carry with the system.  Nice.

And if I'm not much mistaken, that's a sealed-in, non-replaceable battery.  So in a few years, it's dead and there's nothing you can do.  Except buy the new Mac, of course.

Sorry, but I think it's a daft laptop.  You still can't really get away without an optical drive these days.  True, not being on Windows, you probably won't be gaming, so you might not use it every day, but there'll come a day when you need it, without doubt, and "buy this external drive for £200" is not acceptable, especially given the fact that it already costs a ridiculous £1200.  I mean seriously, £1200!!  There are more capable PCs from PC World for less than half that.  But I'm sure Apple will sell millions of them to their fanbase.  All they have to do, it seems, is wear a black top and say "wireless" a lot.

I do like the trackpad gestures, though.  Very nice, those.  Stick those on an Acer and I'll take one.

[Notorious MCSE]

Shut up tanty, you whiny fanny.

[Jeewhizz]

Tanty... It's 1,200 for a reason. It's ultra thin. It's made of aluminium, so it's not going to snap. None of your plastic here!

Apple aren't the only one offering wireless-N. Much in the same way that loads of companies offered wireless-b before it was ratified, they are merely getting in quick, what's wrong with that?

and "buy this external drive for £200" is not acceptable, especially given the fact that it already costs a ridiculous £1200.  I mean seriously, £1200!!  There are more capable PCs from PC World for less than half that.

No optical drive might be an issue for some people, I admit that. But I don't think that this is meant to replace your desktop. This is meant to accompany it. I have a desktop and a laptop, and to be honest, I could quite easily swap the laptop for one of these. It would make carrying things round a lot easier. In regards to using another mac's CD Drive, the software will let you use a PC's one too And the DVD Burner accessory that comes with it is £65, not £200.

[Tanthalas]

Tanty... It's 1,200 for a reason. It's ultra thin. It's made of aluminium, so it's not going to snap.

So there's less of it...and it's made of metal.  You seriously think that's worth (at least) £700? 

Apple aren't the only one offering wireless-N. Much in the same way that loads of companies offered wireless-b before it was ratified, they are merely getting in quick, what's wrong with that?

Absolutely true, can't argue.  Still don't like people selling wireless-N pre-standard, but hey.  I think it was the "only Apple can do this" quote that made me snort into my mocha latte.

No optical drive might be an issue for some people, I admit that. But I don't think that this is meant to replace your desktop. This is meant to accompany it.

It's still very expensive for a desktop accessory, if you ask me.  I mean, what's the Price of an Asus Eee PC?  £250?  That's almost the same as the MacBook.  Granted, the processor's not as powerful, and the solid state drive is wee, but you get more ports, you actually get Ethernet connectivity, and a battery you can replace.  And that's less than a quarter of the Air's price.

My Ameo does everything the MacBook Air does and more.  £250 from T-Mobile.  Plus, it's got the same ports, more connectivity, a big-ass camera, memory card reader, touchscreen, a longer battery life (and I can replace it), is also made of metal (but slightly chunkier metal), etc, etc. Oh yeah, and I can call people on it and get Internet access anywhere, too. I mean, seriously, why would I pay £1200 for a laptop that costs three times as much as a higher spec laptop that isn't Apple's latest fashion accessory, and has less functionality than my phone? 

And I'll bet you my Ameo's a sight more "portable", too.  Can you fit the Air into your jacket pocket?  And how portable does it become once you've got the plug-in optical drive, card reader, add-on power pack (when the battery dies), etc in your bag along with it?

And the DVD Burner accessory that comes with it is £65, not £200.

Ah, I guess that's alright then!   I thought you lot were tired of the iMac method of buying a computer and then spending a fortune on stuff to plug into it, but hey.

[suedenem]

Can't see the lack of an optical drive being a problem.  I hardly ever use the one on my laptop out-and-about (pen drives/email/ftp are far more convenient for most applications, and I don't watch DVDs on the go), and switching on a desktop is a small price I'd be willing to pay for the extra portability having no optical drive brings.

The premium price reflects that is more of a lifestyle product.  The extra £700 pays for the detail of design put in - as good as Acers are, they are very much at the commodity end of the market.  If you want a capable laptop to do a bit of word processing and check your email, give PC World your £500 and get a semi-decent laptop; if you want to buy into the Apple lifestyle, then you have to splurge out a bit more. 

The same criticisms regarding price, (relative) lack of functionality/power and so on have been leveled at the iphone, ipod and the mac in general, but the detailed design and thought put into the products has won many people over.  It's a bit like balking at the price of furniture at Habitat or clothing at Selfridge's when Argos or Primark can sell you some tat which does a perfectly adequate job.

I won't be getting one, mind.

[Tanthalas]

and switching on a desktop is a small price I'd be willing to pay for the extra portability having no optical drive brings.

I'm not convinced of the extra portability dropping an optical drive brings, TBH.  (I've levelled that at the Eee as well.)  It's the same width/height as a normal lappy, so the only real advantage is a slightly thinner bag (though I will laugh my ass off if the power adaptor brick is thicker than the lappy) and less weight.  But laptops don't exactly weigh a lot to start with, unless you're carrying a sheaf of paper around too (in which case - a) WHY? and b) buy a scann-...oh wait, you can't plug the scanner and its driver disk in at the same time ).  What kind of limp-wristed Starbucks-loyalty-card-carrying polo-neck-wearing "Metrosexual" do you need to be that an optical drive cripples your shoulder?

The premium price reflects that is more of a lifestyle product.  The extra £700 pays for the detail of design put in - as good as Acers are, they are very much at the commodity end of the market.  If you want a capable laptop to do a bit of word processing and check your email, give PC World your £500 and get a semi-decent laptop; if you want to buy into the Apple lifestyle, then you have to splurge out a bit more. 

See, that's the bit that annoys me the most.  Fashion is not worth it - buy a HP/Acer for the same price and I'm sure it'll look just as shiny, but it'll be miles better.  And what is the "Apply lifestyle"?  The elitism of those willing to spend more money to get less?  If the GUI design is more swishy and to your tastes, then fine, but is it £700 swishier?  I really like the iPhone's interface, I really really do, but underneath the phone's still rubbish compared to my far less gorgeous brick.  More expensive, too.

It's a bit like balking at the price of furniture at Habitat or clothing at Selfridge's when Argos or Primark can sell you some tat which does a perfectly adequate job.

Ah, as an ex furniture salesman twice over, I have to disagree on that one.  Some furniture companies do indeed rip you off, but some hand make each piece rather than mass produce them, so you pay extra for better build quality.  That's example doesn't carry across to Apple's high prices - the build quality of Apple kit I've come into contact with has been no better than their rivals.  In some cases, it's been worse.  Besides, with other people making a lot of the hardware in Macs these days, what are you paying Apple extra for?  The Apple logo and the spunk-coloured casing, that's what.

Had this come out at a reasonable price + the inevitable Apple Fashion Tax, say £350-400, I might have said "that's not bad, for the money."  But pricing it so unbelievably high puts it in the same league as very high spec laptops, where it is, unfortunately, a miserable failure.

EDIT - it would appear Das Reg agrees.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/01/16/eee_vs_air/