MacWild
Posted on Jan 16, 2008. In Apple.
So another year, another Macworld, and this year the big news is the MacBook Air. But before I get onto that a little on what else we saw, or in my case read, from San Fran this time round.
Movies
Apparently people want “movies, movies, movies” or so say Steve-o, personally I’ve got a big thing for TV and podcasts. So along come movie rentals, with a box to make the model work. Apple TV mark 2 is all right, it only just improves on the first try in my book. I want to see a box that’ll play any codec, is a clever PVR, and plays optical media too, now that I would shell out for.
The big iTunes announcement is undoubtedly movie rentals, loads of titles and all the major studios on board, congrats Apple movies are in the bag. The prices are bearable, the HD and dolby 5.1 are nice touches, but again the rest of the world is left behind. As with so many things I want right now, like the Amazon music download service, it’s US only. I know it’s coming over here in time but I’m willing to bet that when it does arrive our prices will be anything but fair.
Time capsule
It’s a AirPort Extreme with a hard drive (okay it’s a ‘server grade’ hard drive) but has everyone forgotten that we were meant to be able to plug our regular hard drives into our base stations and use these to backup?! If it’s possible to backup wirelessly with time machine, let people do it without a whole new device!
Update 1.1.3
Some nice additions to the iPhone; location for Google maps is neat, multiple recipients for SMS messages will elate some, and bookmarking to the home screen and rearranging icons are both good prep for the SDK. But it’s a poor show for the iPod Touch owners, a $20 upgrade just smacks of Apple trying to pull another fast one on early adopters, and we all know how that worked out last time.
The MacBook Air
Everyone knew about the MBA before it was announced, it was one of the most ubiquitous rumours and magically it actually came true, unlike some of the much more practical ones. *cough* 3G iPhone *cough*
It is a truly lovely looking piece of kit, ‘the worlds thinnest notebook’ if you discount the Pedion (another badly named device) which appeared from Mitsubishi in ’98, CNET revealed, and beat the MBA in the anorexia stakes by a whole 0.03 inches. The package is beautiful, it has the aluminium shell of the MBP but adds sexy curves. At only 3 pounds it’s as light as a feather and it’s prettier than a dove.
You’re going to look super cool on the train when you whip out that manilla envelope and out comes not a sheaf of tax forms but your sexy, slim notebook. With that 5 hours battery life you can sit down to watch your rented movies and work on your next keynote, and you’ll be the coolest kid on the train.
But damn hell it’s expensive. Compare it to the regular MacBook if you will; weight - a win, size - a win, screen and keyboard - a draw, expandability - a lose, connectivity - a lose, power - a lose, price - a big lose. What you’re paying an extra $700 for (and that’s the cheap model, add another $1000 for a SSD) is saving yourself from carrying around an extra 2 pounds, and you lose yourself a whole bunch of the good stuff! I know the competitors (Sony) are coming in at this price point, I know it’s Apple and Apple is expensive, and I know it’s a luxury item.
And so comes the conclusion Apple must bet on time after time; should I buy one? No. Do I want one? Yeah, I really do.
To me the MacBook Air is clearly a secondary computer. There is no point comparing it to a MacBook because you already have an iMac or Mac Pro both of which will win the comparison against the MacBook. Except for portability, which is why you are buying the MBA.
The only thing wrong with is it the price. Since the failure of the Cube — with its premium price — Apple have stuck to the idea that smaller is cheeper, which makes the price of the MBA even more of a shock.
Also, web browsing on the iPhone isn’t exactly quick over Wi-Fi, rendering a page is often the bottleneck not downloading it. A faster processor and more memory is what the iPhone needs, not 3G.
Ah that’s interesting you say about the iPhone processor power. I think the iPhone has a way to come, for me anyway, I want it to do everything, and do it really well. I want broadband speeds on the move, and not just in London on WiFi, I want enough memory to take all my music and video and then some, and I want custom apps (coming I know). I want it to be an all in one device for me, that does everything I want perfectly, and it’s so close, 3G is just one of the things I’m waiting for.
£1000 is a lot for a secondary computer in my book yeah, especially when it doesn’t give you the flexibility of having a near desktop quality machine like the MacBook Pro does. And also, it’d be cooler to have 3G built in *wink*