Tag Archives: Macintosh

Some Thoughts on the MacBook Air

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Not exactly what I was hoping for.

After sweating out the morning, waiting to hear detailed news about Apple’s new products, I finally got my hands on the specs for the product I’ve been waiting for: MacBook Air. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s the product I’ve been waiting for after all.

Wait. Let’s start again. The above is what I wrote on Tuesday, before I laid hands on the MacBook Air. Now that I’ve fondled its sleek aluminum body and hefted its airy lightness, this article may have a different ending.

It’s Friday morning and I’ve been to Macworld Expo and back. And, at the show, I got a chance to look at Apple’s new entry into the sub-notebook field: the MacBook Air.

First, let’s talk specs.

Yes, it’s [currently] the world’s thinnest notebook, at about 3/4 inch tall. That’s thin. It’s about half the thickness of my obese 12″ PowerBook. (How did I carry that fat thing around for so many years?)

MacBook Air

Other dimensions — for those of you who like all the numbers:
Width: 12.8 inches
Depth: 8.94 inches

Since my old 12″ PowerBook is sitting on my desk, let’s measure it up for comparison:
Width: 10.8 inches (estimated; I don’t have high tech measuring tools here)
Depth: 8.5 inches

The screen is a generous 13.3 inches measured diagonally. The PowerBook’s (for comparison) is about 12.25 inches.

It certainly is light, weighing in at only 3 pounds. That fat little 12″ PowerBook weighs a whopping 4 pounds and 11 ounces.

These are the numbers. And they are what disappointed me when I first went through them. Although thinner and lighter, the MacBook Air’s dimensions are also considerably larger than the computer I was hoping to replace with it. Because although “thin is in” and all that jazz, it’s overall size that can determine how truly portable a computer is.

Look at it this way: would the Moleskin people be selling so many of those little black books if they were the same size as the composition book you used in elementary school?

But I got to see the Air in person and touch it and hold it in my hands. And you know something? In real life it looks smaller than I expected it to. And the lightness feels lighter.

My overall impression was very positive. I felt myself wanting one of them, for reasons I couldn’t quite understand.

How does Apple do that? With smoke and mirrors? Hypnosis? Or it it simply the lighting in their Macworld Expo booth?

Now let’s look at what’s crammed in there.

There’s a lot packed into that slim case:

  • 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
  • 2 GB RAM
  • 80 GB ATA hard disk
  • AirPort Extreme (IEEE 802.11a/b/g compatible)
  • Bluetooth 2.1
  • iSight Camera
  • one speaker
  • Audio Out port
  • USB 2.0 port
  • Micro-DVI port
  • 13.3″ (diagonally measured) monitor
  • full-sized keyboard

There are some options — processor and hard disk come to mind — but that’s basically it.

Isn’t something missing?

Yes. It’s the optical drive. Just as Apple led the pack in the phasing out of the “floppy” drive when it released the original iMac all those years ago, it’s removed the optical drive from the MacBook Air.

This is a tough nut to swallow. Apple has built a $99 external SuperDrive that will only work with the MacBook Air, that I believe most people will buy. But Apple has also created “new technology” that enables you to access the CD/DVD mounted on another computer to install software, etc. (This is something I already do in a limited way, since the optical drives on both my 12″ PowerMac and 15″ MacBook Pro are dead; the MacBook is covered under warranty and is making its way back to Apple as I type this.) But what do you do if your Air is the only computer around and you didn’t bring along an external disc drive? Like when you’re on a plane for four hours and the movie is something you can’t bear to watch?

You’re SOOL.

Personally, I think the exclusion of this vital piece of hardware is a big mistake. And it’s what may prevent me from investing in a MacBook Air to replace my 12″ PowerBook.

What was I expecting?

Well, since I don’t read much on rumor sites, I wasn’t expecting anything in particular. I was expecting a “sub-notebook.” To me, that means something smaller than the usual notebook. It doesn’t necessarily mean thinner.

What I wanted, however, was a real replacement for my 12″ PowerBook: a modern version of the same machine that had modern processing power, a decent sized hard disk, wireless, and the all-important optical drive. And I know I’m not alone in that wish.

You see, I believe that the 12″ PowerBook is the best notebook computer Apple has ever made. Perfectly sized for travel, able to display at 1024×768 resolution, all necessary ports, wireless access, optical drive. What else could you ask for? I wish Apple would have brought that up to date by thinning it up a little — hell, it’s only an inch and a half tall! — and lightening it up a bit.

This is what I wanted. This is what a lot of people wanted. But this isn’t what Apple delivered in the MacBook Air.

But Don’t Listen to Me

If you’re in the market for a laptop computer, do check out the MacBook Air. For you, it might be a dream come true.

One thing’s for certain: It certainly will generate a lot of computer envy among your friends.

On the Edge, Looking In

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One geek’s look at Macworld Expo and the state of the Mac.

Next week, I’ll be heading to Macworld Expo in San Francisco, mostly to do a presentation at the Peachpit Press booth.

For a 10-year period starting in 1992, I went to every Macworld: San Francisco, Boston (and then New York), and even the little-known Toronto shows in the mid 1990s. I was part of the Macworld Expo Conference Faculty and did a presentation in the Conference hall. One year, I did a solo panel and was on two other panels, too.

Those were the good old days of Macworld, when the speaker lounge was hopping with lots of friendly Mac “experts” and the attendees really did want to hear what we had to say about using Macs or specific applications. Everything was new and cool and even a writer who writes about something as ho-hum as operating systems and productivity applications for “end users” could put together a dynamic, interesting presentation in a room that was filled to standing room only.

Things change. Changes in show management and theme a bunch of years ago have left me feeling a little out of it. As Apple’s market share shrunk, only the Mac faithful and the Mac core user base — designers — came to Macworld in significant numbers. Productivity software and topics were out; design software and topics were in. I’m not a designer and I had little of value to share with conference attendees. I couldn’t come up with good ideas for conference sessions, so I just dropped out of the conference faculty.

Then, after a while, I just stopped coming to Macworld Expo. It didn’t seem worth the bother. I’d settled into a routine, writing revisions of a relatively large collection of books — mostly Visual QuickStart Guides — and that kept me busy. I didn’t need to go to the show to see what was new.

Instead, I’d tune into the live Webcast of the keynote address and learn about all the new products and features as Steve announced them while sitting at my desk, working on a book or another project.

Then Apple stopped doing the live Webcasts. I’d visit the Home page of Apple’s Web site after Steve’s gig and learn about the new stuff there. A while later, I’d download the Webcast and watch the show.

Things change. Apple’s introduction of innovative new products — starting with the original Bondi blue iMac all those years ago and the iPod much more recently — has gotten the Mac faithful excited about using Apple products again. Tiger was great; Leopard is pretty darn good, too. The ability of Intel-based Macs to run Windows effectively — either booted to Windows or while Mac OS X is running, as is possible with Parallels desktop — has gotten the attention of Windows users who are pretty unimpressed with the long-awaited Vista operating system. (Can you blame them?) Now Macs can run their Windows software. People are switching from Windows PCs to Macs. The Mac market share is growing.

This is great news for me. Although I write about Windows topics, I much prefer working with and writing about Macs. And with more Mac users comes more Mac-compatible products. In fact, there are more than a few software products that I use daily — TextWrangler, Scrivener, ecto 3 (in beta), EvoCam, iShowU, and Time Palette come to mind — that are only available for Mac OS. This not only gives me more great software to to choose from, but it gives me more Mac software to write about.

And that’s a good thing. Back in the early 90s, there were still lots of new computer users, people who needed step-by-step instructions for using software like Microsoft Word and Excel. Nowadays, these programs are old hat. Kids use them in school, for heaven’s sake! They don’t need books. And many of my old productivity titles are starting a slow spiral down to the backlist, never to be revised again.

So I’m going to Macworld. And I’m speaking at the Peachpit booth (on Wednesday, January 16, at 2 PM) about my new Leopard book and the cool things I’ve done with Leopard and Mac OS X.

But I’ll also be looking around at what’s new and exciting, ready to grab on to something different, something that’ll drag me deeper into the Mac community again.

It’s good to be a Mac user.

Computer Retirement

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I finally let my old PowerBook take a break.

I bought a MacBook Pro at least eight months ago, when I was working on my Leopard book for Peachpit Press. I needed a computer with an Intel processor — none of my computers had one at the time — so I could write about Boot Camp and other Intel-specific topics. I went with a “Pro” instead of a regular MacBook because it offered some feature I needed that the MacBook did not. (Right now, I can’t remember what that was.) But I admit that I also prefer the metal case. (I think Apple’s plastic casing looks cheesy.)

How I Used My Laptops

The MacBook Pro was purchased as a “test mule” — a computer used specifically to test and write about software. As such, I kept it very clean, installing only the software I needed to write about. There was virtually no personalization. Heck, even the desktop picture was a plain white screen so I could get clean screenshots of windows and menus.

For computing on the road, I used my 12″ PowerBook G4. I loved its small package, which made it easy to throw in a backpack or piece of luggage. I took it everywhere. I even had a DC adapter for it that enabled me to get power from a car’s cigarette lighter/power port or the DC port in my camper. That was a good thing because the computer’s battery was the first to go. Even the replacement didn’t last long.

Over time, the PowerBook started getting really beat up. Dents and dings, scratches and dirt. One of its rubber feet fell off. Twice. Alex the Bird pulled off the F5 key and I could only get it partially reattached — it was like that for over a year, until a friendly Genius fixed it for me. My CD-ROM drive went on a trip to Alaska after burning one last disc of photos. Oddly enough, it still reads DVDs but wants nothing to do with CDs. Just spins them and spits them out.

But I continued to use it. It did the job — well, most of it — and I was willing to work around the little problems it had.

My PowerBook’s Fall from Grace

When Leopard came out, I was thrilled with the idea of Back to My Mac. The PowerBook met the minimum requirements for Leopard — barely. So I installed it.

Mistake. The poor old computer simply wasn’t up to the challenge of running Apple’s latest operating system. After a month of watching spinning beach balls and being able to type faster than the computer could take the characters, I finally downgraded it back to Tiger.

But I think its experience with Leopard has scarred it. It doesn’t seem quite as fast as it used to be.

Or perhaps that’s just because I’ve been using a brand new iMac at my desk for the past two months and the old G4 is simply no match for any of my equipment these days.

My MacBook Pro Steps into a New Role

Today, I decided to step into the MacBook Pro for mobile computing. The battery is still healthy and it reads and writes both CDs and DVDs. It can also run Leopard without any problems. So this morning, I installed most of the software I need to use while on the road. I’ll add a few more items later today. And I’m composing this blog post in ecto on the MacBook Pro, just to feel it out. (The PowerBook will return to duty as the kitchen table blogging/surfing machine tomorrow.)

I can still use the MacBook Pro for a test mule. I’ll simply set up a new account and use that to run software for screenshots or screencasting. Fast user switching makes it easy. And the computer has plenty of power to run the software I need to create the screenshots and movies.

Computers on the Auction Block

Will I sell the G4? Probably not. It really is beat up. And it’ll probably make its permanent home in our camping shed up at Howard Mesa someday. After all, it still works and it’s still able to connect to the Internet via my Treo when I’m off the grid. It’s not like I’m crunching video up there. Just blogging, e-mail, and doing some surfing, mostly for weather or phone numbers. And writing the occasional article for Informit.

I did recently sell my old dual G5 on eBay. It fetched about three times what I thought it would. I’m a very happy camper. And I assume the buyer is, too. After all, he hasn’t complained.

I do have one more computer I’d like to sell: a Strawberry iMac. I’m going to try to prep it for eBay this weekend. Once that’s gone, I’ll be down to just four computers: a 24″ iMac (my most recent purchase, used entirely for production work), the 15″ MacBook Pro, the 12″ PowerBook, and a Dell laptop (I can never remember the model). With the iMac running Parallels, I don’t even start up the Dell these days, although I’m likely to use it for my annual Quicken revision when the time comes.

Don’t get me wrong — it isn’t as if I want four computers. I don’t. But I do need certain computers to get my work done efficiently and effectively. The PowerBook has always been the equivalent of a “home” computer for me. Now the MacBook Pro will be doing double-duty.

New Apple Products in My Future?

I do see occasional glimpses of a new computer in my future: the rumored Apple sub-notebook. If it’s a viable replacement for the 12″ PowerBook — with a decent-sized monitor, full-size keyboard, wireless (including Bluetooth) built in, and CD/DVD drive — it’ll be exactly what I want.

But will it be? Apple hasn’t been creating products that meet my particular needs lately:

  • The iPhone is beautiful and cool but its close ties to AT&T and limited capabilities make my Treo a better solution for me.
  • The iPod Touch is similarly cool, but doesn’t offer enough “wow” factor to make me want to replace my original 30GB iPod Video (now known as the “classic”).
  • I still don’t understand the purpose of AppleTV, although I suspect Apple intended it to do what the iPod does for the iTunes store — get people to buy content. But with video content providers like television networks pulling out of the Apple store, it’s becoming less attractive as time goes by. Of course, I don’t watch much television, so I’m probably not the right person to be evaluating a device like this.

Don’t get me wrong — I’m still a big fan of Apple. You wouldn’t see me looking at a Zune or buying another Dell. But I’m not so much of a fan that I’m blinded by the Apple logo. I still think before I buy — now more than ever. A product has to completely meet my needs — whether they’re real or imagined — before I buy it. Otherwise I’d rather wait until a better product comes along.

Right now, I’m anxious to see the next Apple computer. I’m hoping it’ll put my G4 into full retirement mode.