Apple=Major Win

Apple has proven once again that they are superb at design but unfortunate when it comes to price. The new MacBook Air was released today. Speculation had been around for a while; everyone was pretty certain that they were going to release their new subnotebook, annnnd they did. It’s not like the big banners that they put up at MacWorld (“There’s Something in the Air”) tipped anyone off or anything . At any rate, it’s swell. 0.16 in at its smallest point and 0.76 in at its widest (it tapers at the front), it weighs in at merely 3 pounds but has a 13.3″ screen, a backlit keyboard and options for either an 80GB hard disk or-and here’s the killer-a 64 GB Solidstate-flash memory-drive! I’m excited. Very excited. Of course, given the flash option it costs over 3000 dollars. That’s my biggest concern; price. For about the same price as the hard disk version of the MacBook Air you can get a MacBook Pro, with nonintegrated graphics and a larger hard drive/processor. MacBook Air doesn’t have too small of a processor, though, and it’s Core 2 Duo 1.6GHz. It’s also got a nifty track pad that responds to motions similarly to an iPhone? Which could be pretty interesting.

Kerby, Ed, and I tracked the ars technica blog as they were offering written updates during the keynote.

(keynote finally posted, www.apple.com)

It’s pretty snazzy! Check out the image on the front page of Apple.com. Oh, also, it doesn’t come with an optical drive. You can purchase an external one for about $100 (AMR) or you can use the super fancy Remote Disk to look for other macs in the area and use that mac (presumably with an optical drive) to install software/listen to cds, etc, on your Air. That function? Utilizes the 802.11n wireless that the Air comes standard with. Also included, 2.1 bluetooth. Finally, the Air is designed to be a traveler’s computer. Therefore, it has a whopping 5 hour batter life.

Did I mention that the design is nearly mercury and pvc free? It’s been built to be environmentally friendly.

I think Apple wins again.

~ by joshuadlwilliams on January 15, 2008.