Mac users: MacBook Air lacks features
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Steve Jobs wowed the Macworld audience when he unveiled the slim, ultraportable MacBook Air notebook, but users and analysts say its lack of some important features may make it unattractive to buyers.The&#160;ultraportable notebook, launched at the conference and expo on Tuesday, has a 13.3-inch wide-screen display and a full-size backlit keyboard. It uses a 1.8-inch hard drive, also found in the iPod, and a smaller version of Intel&#39;s Core 2 Duo processor.Apple has also developed a program called Remote Disk, with which users can download software from the optical drive of a nearby computer using built-in 802.11n wireless networking. At 3 pounds (1.3 kilograms), Jobs called it the lightest and thinnest notebook on the planet.Scott Armstrong, a Mac user, was watching the Web for news from the show as Jobs unveiled the notebook, which is .076 inch at its thinnest part and from 0.8 inch to 1.2 inches high, by removing it from a business-size manila envelope. For all its impressive features, it does not meet the needs of Apple&#39;s traditional multimedia audience, said Armstrong, who is also president of the Macintosh Users Group in Kennewick, Wash.One omission is a FireWire communications port, which is necessary to transfer big multimedia files, Armstrong said. Apple has led the effort to promote FireWire, so it&#39;s surprising it wasn&#39;t included in MacBook Air, Armstrong said. One USB port isn&#39;t enough, he said.The machine lacks storage capacity and, at 4,200 rpm, the hard drive is really slow, Armstrong said. &quot;Most people would like to have features in their laptops. This product is for people who won&#39;t need stuff or hook stuff up,&quot; Armstrong said.It may be targeted at students, who could sacrifice features for portability, Armstrong said. &quot;They haven&#39;t discontinued the MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook models, so they are doing it for a niche market,&quot; Armstrong said.The Air&#39;s novelty value could attract buyers, but the $1,799 starting price tag is too heavy for a machine lacking features.&quot;They won&#39;t stay with this for long, they&#39;ll come out with something more innovative with Air,&quot; Armstrong said.The MacBook Air is a mismatch with Apple&#39;s price-sensitive customers, such as educators and those who do creative work and require significant storage for music, photos, and video, Citigroup said in a research note on Wednesday. Moreover, ultraportable-laptop users are generally Windows-based PC users, not Mac users, Citigroup said.While the product could be a long-term success, Apple will produce the laptop in small volumes until more features are added, Citigroup said.Unlike&#160;Asus&#39;s Eee PC, the MacBook Air may sell slowly because of its high price point and overlapping functionality with the existing MacBook and MacBook Pro lines, said Shaw Wu, an analyst with American Technology Research, in a research note. However, Apple is adept with product placement, as shown by the iPhone and iPod, where there has been minimal cannibalization despite overlapping functionality, Wu said.The MacBook Air may be niche, but Apple could be pioneering the adoption of future technologies&#160;such as&#160;wireless communication between devices, said Jim Ritz, a Mac user and member of the Apple Pi user group in Rockville, Md.Users were concerned when Apple got rid of the floppy drive, and now Apple is now betting that the time for wireless networking has come by removing the Ethernet port and including wireless storage, Ritz said.Adding more wireless features establishes Apple&#39;s intent to change the way users look at ultraportable laptops, Ritz said. &quot;I&#39;m curious to see what the notebook looks like a year from now.&quot;Ritz has a plan that will help him afford to buy a MacBook Air, which he wants to try out -- he says he&#39;s going to offer to sell his recently purchased MacBook to his wife.&quot;It&#39;s a costly little puppy no doubt, but all new things are expensive,&quot; Ritz said of the MacBook Air.Apple officials could not be reached for comment regarding concerns with the MacBook Air that were raised by Mac enthusiasts and analysts.
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âAs I look at a newly arrived MacBook Air laptop,â writes Dean Takahashi , âit occurs to me there has never been a better time to switch to a Mac.â And he points to the new MacBook Air as âa great example of the faster innovationâ that Apple offers customers. âThe design is attractive and nobody can boast having a thinner notebook computer. It has an innovation dubbed Remote Disc. You install a disk on a desktopâs DVD drive. Then you can use your MacBook Airâs Remote Disc function to take over the DVD drive and install software into the MacBook Air. Itâs an innovation that may signal the beginning of the end of disk media.â
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The oohs and aahs from Tuesday's unveiling of Apple's new MacBook Air have died down -- mostly. Now it's time to take a closer look at just what Steve Jobs pulled out of that envelope at the Macworld Expo.
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WiMax-capable products were on display all over the CES trade show, yet the announcement at Macworld of Apple's stylishly thin MacBook Air laptop made no reference to the high-speed newtork. Does Steve Jobs know something other vendors don't?
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Mike Wendland (Detroit Free Press) was âimpressed but skepticalâ at first. But the skepticism quickly passed after he had the opportunity to take MacBook Air out for a flight test. Itâs âan absolute delight to look at and to use,â but itâs âthe convenience of the MacBook Air that I think has been underreported,â Wendland observes. âFor the corporate worker who runs from meeting to meeting, this is the gadget you want. Itâs not much bigger than a legal pad in a binder. And, with Wi-Fi now being standard in most of the corporate world, you have full access to your calendar, your address book, e-mail and the Internet, so youâre never out of touch.â
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The near-final version of Mac OS X Leopard, unveiled today at the World Wide Developers Conference, introduces over 300 new features. They include a new Desktop and Dock with Stacks; an updated Finder featuring Cover Flow and a new way to easily browse and share files between multiple Macs; Quick Look, a new way to rapidly preview most files without opening an application; Time Machine, a new way to easily and automatically back up and restore lost files or a complete Mac; Spaces, a powerful new feature to create groups of applications and instantly switch between them; and enhanced iChat and Mail applications, which easily allow users to communicate even more creatively. Mac OS X Leopard, the sixth major release of the worldâs most advanced operating system, is scheduled to ship in October.
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A MacBook Pro with the same multitouch trackpad found on the just-released MacBook Air could arrive within a couple of weeks, according to the rumor mill.
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Gabe: So I picked up my MacBook Pro a few months back and I would not call myself a convert but I do really like it. I"ve been doing all the basic iLife stuff, like making DVD"s of Gabe"s birthday party and photocasting pictures to the family. I am getting much more comfortable with the Mac but there are still some things I don"t quite understand and so I have a couple questions for you guys.
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Processors specially developed by Intel for Apple's new MacBook Air laptop will soon be used by other PC vendors in systems, possibly creating competition for what Apple calls the world's lightest and thinnest notebook.
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There's something in the air -- a new ultrathin laptop from Lenovo that some observers think could become the first major competitor to Apple's MacBook Air.
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Mac OS X Leopard is a sweeping update with so many new features that it's hard to keep them all in perspective. What is clear, however, is that it's a solid upgrade.&lt;br /&gt;
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InfoWorld - Developers have high hopes for Adobe&#39;s newly named AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) software, but reservations remain about the technology&#39;s cross-platform capability and learning curve.
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The MacBook Air is a stunner, no doubt, but it's going to be up against stiff challenges from PC notebook makers. Here are a few of the top ones.
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Is Apple a Mac magnate or an iPod powerhouse?
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âFor a lot of people,â says Ken Mingis , âsmaller and lighter is better when it comes to their laptops.â  He considers MacBook Air âone of the coolest-looking laptops to appear in years â both in terms of size and hipness.â It has âa gorgeous display that looks sharper and brighter on the Air than it does on the regular MacBook.â And, he says, âwaking it up from sleep mode took about 2 seconds, and the LED backlighting means the screen hit full brightness as soon as it was awake.â As for performance: âThe Air feels just about as snappy as my MacBook Pro in day-to-day use doing the kinds of things most users will be doing: surfing the Web, firing off e-mails, text editing and light graphics work.â
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At Macworld, Apple fans dish on the company's latest offerings and uncork some cool concepts Steve Jobs might want to consider for 2009.
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MacOS 10.5 offers easy file recovery, effective parental controls, and a host of clever, smaller features.