An eagerly awaited product has been announced by Apple today.
If you want to watch the keynote without any spoilers, I will link to it when it appears on Apple's site.
Update: OK, here is the keynote.
There are many interesting things talked about, but if you wish to skip to the Big News item, it starts at 0:54:20.
That is a sexy product though. Must-have for connoisseurs.
... Randy Newman's first song near the end there... Gee, I don't know many people who could come up with that, nor get away with it. I think only somebody his age could have the guts.
And the next one... "I want to play a song I wrote for Toy Story... I actually wrote a great love theme, but they cut Buzz and Woody's big love scene..."
That new notebook: the solid state drive option is pricey... but it makes the machine faster. And should make it quieter. (Usually with a good notebook all you hear is the HD.) I wonder if it will save a lot of battery power too?
Update: rundown on the MacBook Air on TidBITS.
19 comments:
Never had much interest in Apple computers, for they are to engineering pretty much the opposite of what they are to the graphical arts world. In other words, they are pretty much useless to me, from a professional standpoint.
But damn, I sure will try hard to justify getting a MacBook Air! It's simply awesome.
"I wonder if it will save a lot of battery power too?"
No numbers to compare yet, but we still can be smart about this. Steve Jobs explicitly says that the MacBook Air uses iPod hard drives, and those are far from power hungry. This means that even if you were to remove (or power down) the hard drive completely, it simply couldn't make a big difference. Not much when compared to the power required for a 13" display backlight, anyway.
This is probably the weakest point of the new laptop, though. A drive's power consumption usually reflects its performance, so you shouldn't expect miracles in that department. My guess is that performance issues are exactly what prompted the development of the solid-state drive, which is incredibly faster in read mode.
The "pricey" option (did you notice he carefully avoided mentioning the price?) was required because many user won't want to stand the otherwise sluggish performance. At this point, this is only an educated guess but we should know for sure very soon.
The thin laptop is cool but other than that wasn't this a pretty lame keynote?
I couldn't watch that Randy Newman guy. (Here's the lyrics to his song.)
"they are to engineering pretty much the opposite of what they are to the graphical arts world."
Well, these days they have Intel chips and they run Unix and can Run Windows without emulation, so...
I'm not a geek, but I know many geeks use Apple laptops.
Apple & Macs vs. PCs & Windows...
It's apparently like a religion almost. My local computer shop's owner/technician was an Apple dealer until recently. He gave it up, because as he said, "Apple has never had more than about 5 percent of the market, and the business community has never embraced it like they did with PCs and Windows. So I have to go where the business is."
Apple tends to be a "nagger" - if there's anything of theirs on my PC, they nag me to death to get more of it. Quicktime is the same way. That's why I don't have Quicktime. I have Winamp instead, but Winamp won't play the .mov files from Apple's Quicktime. However, I can usually live without that alright.
- Ray.
"if there's anything of theirs on my PC, they nag me to death to get more of it"
Search for "Quicktime alternative" (your best bet may be on SourceForge), and you will get the best of both worlds. And the same applies for RealMedia. Enjoy life without nags! :-P
"I'm not a geek"
Nor am I, I just happen to work in technology development. Was DaVinci a geek?
"but I know many geeks use Apple laptops."
Good for them. I wonder how they manage in SolidWorks (or any decent CAD software) with a 1-button mouse, though... must be tedious. [Shift-Apple-double-click-while-singing for grinning smiley]
Seriously, I will give them a try sooner than later. To me, Apple switching to unix is the best thing that happened to personal computing in a loooong time, it might eventually break us free from the Windoze hell. But I don't know why, I have a hard time trusting Apple... just can't forget how much they liked to control everything within their reach.
Apple has two-button mice now. (And you could always use one.)
Ray, you dealer may have a point, I'm not sure. But Jaguar dealers can make good money even though Toyota has a much bigger market share.
I liked the previous non-Unix Apple OS... except it was dreadfully unstable. I really like to compute without three crashes per day!
I meant "geek" in the nicest way! A smart tech fellah, see?
"A smart tech fellah, see?"
Sure, bei, sure. :-))
"Apple has two-button mice now."
Three buttons and a scroll wheel are pretty much a minimum to handle 3D design efficiently... (and don't ask me what they are used for, my fingers know, I don't).
"Three buttons and a scroll wheel "
That's what it has. (The scroll wheel also acts as a button.)
But you can use anything. I use a five-button RollerMouse device now.
Thanks, Bert, good points.
TTL, I liked the whole keynote. But then I always do, maybe I'm just a fanboy.
I too liked the keynote. By "lame" I meant that the new products announced weren't as exciting as I (and apparently many) had expected. Of course, last year's Macworld, with the announcement of the iPhone, probably set our expectations unrealistically high.
I was really hoping for a subnotebook. Something to eventually replace the Psion Netbook (and 5mx) I have. Something I could carry with me almost all the time for writing in cafés etc.
Now, I am perfectly happy with my Psion. It is ideal for the above purpose. I was just wondering how Apple might have been able to improve on the concept.
I have a Psion Netbook too. Sadly I don't write like I dreamed I would.
I too would like to see a modern version of that machine. Small screen, large keyboard, under two ponds.
I have an Alphasmart Dana too, but the screen contrast sucks ass.
"it's nothing more than the Paris Hilton of laptops - expensive, slim and pretty, but ultimately useless."
Now that might be quite accurate, given the price tag attached to the high-end version...
Come on, that comment is just Apple-slamming.
I can understand the irritation about attention and admiration Apple always seems to get, but it is stupid to say that their products are not good. And the Air is clearly one of them. Obviously you have to be aware of the compromises if you want to buy a super-compact product, but that's always the case.
Honestly, I think it is too early to tell, for nobody can yet recount real usage experiences.
But if I trust my little finger, with its 20+ years of design experience, the Air running Leopard (or whatever is this week's feline) will be useless without the SSD, which adds a whopping 1,000USD to the price and thus pushes the machine's price tag way out of its class.
But prices have been known to drop, and sometimes sooner than later for Apple products. Remember the iPhone? Only time will tell.
Other than that, you have to admit that the comparison I quoted has class... ;-p
"Other than that, you have to admit that the comparison I quoted has class..."
Undoubtedly, mon cher. Elegant, witty, very je ne sais quoi.
TTL, that lyrics link was great (Gr-8? ;-). Just *loved* it!
It seems the most interesting Macworld product announcement came from a 3rd party, not Apple. And what's even more interesting is that it's a Mac! The first tablet Mac!
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