11–20 of 212 posts
Playing back a 1080p h.264 video using the 24″ Cinema Display (in full screen), the computer drops a lot of frames doing this. That was the only thing that really surprised me.
Of course, with a sub-2.13Ghz C2D it will definitely struggle on higher bit-rate content, so I wouldn't be surprised at all.
From personal experience I know that I'm more productive on 5 LCD than on 3 LCD or 2 LCD setup. However, I spend a lot more time working on my MBA than I ever did on my desktop and though I work slower, the end result is that I'm overall producing more.
In particular, if you're upgrading from a machine without SSD, the speed advantages you'll see for things like emacs or compiles of large projects -- things which access lots of small files -- are huge.
This machine replaced a MacBook Pro which was technically its equal in processor speed, but it feels faster in every way (and is a heck of a lot more usable on the train).
I use MBA (4GB RAM upgrade, 128GB SSD) for doing a lot of XCode development. XCode4 runs very smoothly and I've never had any speed issues with running the iOS Simulator. It's light, doesn't heat up, and is very stable. I gave up my http://chir.ag/stuff/5lcd.jpg setup for a single MBA and I couldn't be happier (my electric bill went down by $125/month). From personal experience I know that I'm more productive on 5 LC…
Also my personal notes on the same, running Ubuntu instead of OS X: http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/11-macbook_air-the_best_computer_i...
This could turn into an advantage if the next MBA revision adopts Thunderbolt as its display connector — then you'll have incredibly high-speed access to external storage, which would make the MBA much more practical as a single machine.
Playing back a 1080p h.264 video using the 24″ Cinema Display (in full screen), the computer drops a lot of frames doing this. That was the only thing that really surprised me.
I use MBA (4GB RAM upgrade, 128GB SSD) for doing a lot of XCode development. XCode4 runs very smoothly and I've never had any speed issues with running the iOS Simulator. It's light, doesn't heat up, and is very stable. I gave up my http://chir.ag/stuff/5lcd.jpg setup for a single MBA and I couldn't be happier (my electric bill went down by $125/month). From personal experience I know that I'm more productive on 5 LC…
I'm the only one in our company not using any external monitors. The added screen real estate would be nice, but the downside is that then you have a different setup in the office and on the road. I rather get used to a single screen I always have with me.
Playing back a 1080p h.264 video using the 24″ Cinema Display (in full screen), the computer drops a lot of frames doing this. That was the only thing that really surprised me.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Simply put, the 11" MacBook Air is the best computer I've ever had. I've always appreciated small and light laptops as I travel quite a bit, but this one takes portability to a completely new level. The laptop weights only a kilogram, and is small enough to fit pretty much any bag. I also hate the display adapters Apple forces us to buy and carry around. I give a lot of presentations, and this is another piece of equ…
HDMI is almost the same size as the Mini DisplayPort. Apple just loves their own connectors, unfortunately. I was shocked when I noticed the VGA adapter wasn't included in the package. Luckily I realized this before my first conference presentation with the new computer ;-)
Or they knew where they were headed with Thunderbolt...
