The MacBook Air is selling well, Ars Technica reports, with many stores reporting stock shortages and long lead times.
As Railsdaddy David Heinemeier Hansson mentions, this probably comes as a surprise to geeks all over the blogosphere, who were largely focused on the shortcomings of the tech specs - the relatively slow processor, shortage of ports, etc, and not focusing enough on the design and feel of it. Whether it takes 20 minutes or 30 minutes to convert a movie to iPod format is largely irrelevant, what is more noticeable (and therefore more important) is the general feeling of delight (or despair) one feels when using any device. Remember the awe people experienced when flicking images back and forth on the iPhone? Similar experiences abound on the MacBook Air - the feeling of not feeling like you're carrying a laptop, the feeling of not feeling like there's a computer under your keyboard - these are the specs, emotional specs, if you will, that are causing people to buy MacBooks Air. Indeed, the MacBook Air is just another in the long list of examples that prove that Apple is destroying the competition when it comes to emotional specs.
Technorati Tags: Apple, MacBook, MacBook Air, emotional specs, tech specs, design
Well, it's official: My Mac lineup (17" iMac and 13" MacBook) is now completely obsolete. I'm not worried that much since the new models are only slight speed bumps and not something more drastic. As seen from the iMac and MacBook Pro bumps, Apple is continuing their long-standing tradition of incremental speed bumps once or twice a year.
Just a short time after their pricier, gray brethren made the jump to Merom, the 13" MacBooks are now outfitted with Core 2 Duo processors. Clock speeds on the MacBooks remain the same at 1.83/2.0 GHz, but the 2GHz chip now has 4MB of L2 cache, twice that of the 1.83GHz chip and the previous Core Duo models.
Not much else has changed, however. Besides the new chip, other incremental upgrades include a bump in the SuperDrive speed from 4x to 6x, and a bump in hard disk space on the 2GHz models from 60/80GB to 80/120GB (white and black models, respectively). The cost of bumping up the hard drive from 80 to 120GB on the white 2GHz is $150, so the black paint only costs $50 as opposed to the previous $150. If you were going to upgrade the hard drive anyway, going for black is almost a no-brainer.
Only time will tell if Apple has fixed the problems that plagued the first-generation MacBooks and MacBook Pros. Even if they haven't, notebook buyers are slightly better off today than they were yesterday.
Technorati Tags: Apple, MacBook, Intel, Core 2 Duo, Merom, notebook, MacBook Pro, iMac
I posted my PowerBook G4 on Craig's List on Thursday and it just walked out the door less than half an hour ago. Craig's List is simply amazing. In comparison, doing this on eBay would have cost me more (greater than $0) and I would have had to worry about shipping. One does have to be careful, though, as I did get a bunch of replies to the ad that were clearly scams (e.g., "I will pay you $1000 and you send me the change", "This is for my son in Afrika[sic]", etc).
With my PowerBook gone, I picked up a MacBook yesterday. I went with the white 2GHz model and picked up a 4GB nano and printer as well. The nano got promptly placed on Craig's List and the printer will be free after mail-in rebate. If anyone wants to buy it, drop me an email using the contact form at the top of the page. While it did hurt to spend $1500 yesterday, once the nano sells and I collect on all the rebates, the entire upgrade will have cost me less than $250.
For the little I've played with it, the keyboard on the MacBook (and the PowerBook as well) is miles above the desktop Apple Keyboard. I can type much faster on it and the keys don't get stuck like they do on the desktop keyboard. The MacBook was assembled in Week 30, so that puts it at about 2 weeks old. While I certainly haven't done anything intensive on it (just web browsing and iTunes), CoreDuoTemp reports that the machine is running at 22-26°C (with the processor at 1.5-1.67GHz). From that base, I can't imagine it getting much higher than 50-60°C, but I'll only be able to tell once I do use it a lot. I tried it out on my bare lap just to see how it felt and it was fine. A bit warm in the back-left corner (near the MagSafe), but definitely usable and definitely cooler than my PowerBook doing the same things (which I've clocked at around 50-60°C in the past).
Technorati Tags: Apple, Mac, PowerBook G4, Craig's List, iPod, iPod nano, MacBook, heat, Intel, Core Duo
I went out the week old Suburban Square Apple Store in Ardmore today and got a chance to play around with a MacBook. Here are my impressions:
I naturally gravitated toward the black models. The white one seems too iBook-y while the black ones look really slick. The black model didn't feel like a consumer notebook like the white ones did. That said, I don't really see myself paying the extra $150 for the black finish.
The screen is absolutely gorgeous. The glossiness and high DPI made it look better than the 17" iMac that was directly behind the MacBook I was playing with. The screen isn't as reflective as those I've have seen on PC notebooks, but that may just be the difference in lighting between the Apple Store and Best Buy et al. Even still, I found it difficult to "create" reflections by rotating the MacBook towards a light source. The viewing angle is pretty good and I didn't notice any color distortion from angled viewing like I do on my PowerBook. My only complaint is that it the 1280×800 resolution feels "squished" vertically.
The machines are fast. All of the 2GHz models I played with were loaded with 2GB of RAM and they were extremely snappy. They played 1080p trailers without stuttering and I was impressed that Exposé worked fine while the trailers were playing. The integrated graphics work fine for anything OS X throws at it except for games. I'm not sure that the GMA 950 is supported by Vista's Aero Glass interface, so that's definitely something to look into if you want all the UI niceties that Vista will offer.
The MacBook isn't in the same portability class as its 12" predecessors. These clock in at 5.2 lbs, .4 lbs lighter than the MacBook Pro. Taking into account the fact that they come in a smaller package, they are denser and actually felt heavier than the MacBook Pros. I noticed that the MacBooks are heavier hinge-side, so it felt lighter when holding hinge-side as opposed to latch-side with one hand.
This is a wonderful little machine and I would have picked one up had it discrete graphics. For those not wanting to play games on it, however, the MacBook is a worthy iBook replacement and competes well with other manufacturer's offerings. Anyone looking for serious power is no longer relegated to the desktop or to a larger notebook.
Technorati Tags: MacBook, Apple, laptop, notebook, OS X, Vista, review, Apple Store, Suburban Square
Apple announced today the successor to the iBook and 12" PowerBook, the MacBook. The MacBook sports a 13.3" 1280×800 glossy screen powered by Intel GMA950 Integrated Graphics, either a Core Duo 1.83GHz or 2.0GHz processor and a 5,400rpm 60-120GB hard drive (up from the 4,200rpm drives of the iBook). For the first time in a while, Apple offers a choice of colors on the MacBook, with the 2GHz MacBook coming in both black and white. After upgrading the specs on the white version to match those on the black version, however, puts the black MacBook at $150 more. The MacBook also got a lot of the new MacBook Pro amenties as well, including the integrated iSight, FrontRow and Remote, and MagSafe. In addition, Apple has added Line-In and the ability to drive dual-displays, two features that were noticably absent from the iBook but present in the PowerBook.
I was waiting to see what the new MacBooks would bring before replacing my Aluminum PowerBook, and the killer feature keeping me from getting one of these over the MBP is the built-in graphics. If they had thrown in a Radeon X1300 or similar, I would be all over this, but I just can't bring myself to buy a machine without dedicated graphics. Judging by the similarity in specs between the MacBook and 15" MacBook Pro, it seems that screen size and graphics chip will be the distinguishing factor between the two lines, a real shame considering how much unmet demand (at least from me!) there is for a small but high-end notebook from Apple.
Apple also quietly bumped the MacBook Pro to 2GHz/2.16GHz and is giving the option of a glossy screen or the standard MBP screen. For those in the market for a MacBook Pro, I recommend picking up the refurb 2GHz model (unless you want the new glossy screen) over the bumped MBP. The refurb has 1GB RAM vs. 512MB, 256MB VRAM vs 128MB, and a 100GB hard drive vs. 80GB all for the same price.
Technorati Tags: Apple, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Intel, Core Duo, notebooks, laptop, GMA950, integrated graphics, iSight, FrontRow, MagSafe
