New MacBook Air Now Available on Apple Store • Hacker News Board

Re: New MacBook Air Now Available on Apple Store

#61

Post by snorkel » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 2:47 PM UTC

javan wrote: post #46

snorkel wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've also been coding and working on an Air for months and had no issues other than being spoiled by its lightness and speed. I run virtual machines on it with no problem. It does everything a Macbook Pro does only faster, quieter, and without a DVD drive which I don't miss. You can also trade in your shoulder bag for a neoprene sleeve and reminisce about what life was like before computers were the size of clipboard…

faster?

For example try this at an Apple store: stand at a Macbook and open several apps at once, close them, then reopen them, then do the same exercise on an Air.

Re: New MacBook Air Now Available on Apple Store

#62

Post by mechanical_fish » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 2:48 PM UTC

w1ntermute wrote: post #49

TillE wrote: post #9

That 13" Macbook Air is looking really attractive as a portable work computer. Any downsides I should be aware of?

Seems most people are interested in the 13". Does anyone have any comments on the 11"? The only downside I can see is that only 1 external monitor is supported. After all, when you're traveling, the smaller the better.

I bought the 11" for my wife and now I want one.

The savings in space and weight are significant when you're moving around. The 11" really isn't much bigger than an iPad. I have some pockets it can fit in.

The tradeoff is a smaller screen when you're on the road. The small screen has high-res and is quite usable but I'd rather dock to something for long-term coding work. But external monitors are cheap, so unless your work pattern involves constantly moving from new desk to new desk it's not hard to just park a monitor at every one of your desks.

Re: New MacBook Air Now Available on Apple Store

#63

Post by _ouxp » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 2:48 PM UTC

ionfish wrote: post #17

There's a bit of sleight of hand on their Thunderbolt Display page [1]. The first image is of a MacBook Air hooked up to one of the new displays, but when they talk about "The ultimate docking station" they show a MacBook Pro. This is because the Thunderbolt and power ports are next to one another on the MBP, but on the Air they're on different sides of the machine, which is going to make it a lot less elegant. [1] h…

I don't think it's misleading. The first image on the page shows a Macbook Air with Thunderbolt going to one side & power to the other. That image is just the first in a slide show of Macs connected to displays, and the page isn't about the Macbook Air, it's about the display.

Re: New MacBook Air Now Available on Apple Store

#64

Post by abraham » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 2:50 PM UTC

snorkel wrote: post #44

dman wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realise that you could use a SSD on the macbook pro too right?

What, and carry an extra kilo everyhwere too? That's crazy talk! IIRC Macbook can use SSD but doesn't boot off the SSD.

No. They can boot off of an SSD. You just replace the existing HD.

Re: New MacBook Air Now Available on Apple Store

#65

Post by micheljansen » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 2:50 PM UTC

snorkel wrote: post #44

dman wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realise that you could use a SSD on the macbook pro too right?

What, and carry an extra kilo everyhwere too? That's crazy talk! IIRC Macbook can use SSD but doesn't boot off the SSD.

yes it can, it is even a standard option in the store (but it makes the thing a lot more expensive)

Re: New MacBook Air Now Available on Apple Store

#66

Post by acangiano » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 2:52 PM UTC

TillE wrote: post #9

That 13" Macbook Air is looking really attractive as a portable work computer. Any downsides I should be aware of?

4 GB of RAM can be a problem for some.

Re: New MacBook Air Now Available on Apple Store

#67

Post by bstx » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 2:52 PM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #14

sandGorgon wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but no dedicated graphics card

[deleted]

The NVIDIA 320M of the previous model did not have dedicated memory either.

Re: New MacBook Air Now Available on Apple Store

#68

Post by ot » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 2:56 PM UTC

lemming wrote: post #2

While I'm sure this is nice, I don't have a compelling reason to upgrade from my existing MBA (and I really wanted to!). I'd have loved to have seen 8GB RAM as an option.

Sandy Bridge is way faster than Core 2.

If you are doing any computationally intensive stuff, it may be worth the upgrade (I had postponed the purchase of a MBA for this reason, and I am definitely going to buy this one).

Re: New MacBook Air Now Available on Apple Store

#69

Post by vegai » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 2:57 PM UTC

acangiano wrote: post #66

TillE wrote: post #9

That 13" Macbook Air is looking really attractive as a portable work computer. Any downsides I should be aware of?

4 GB of RAM can be a problem for some.

It's a bit superfluous, but I don't think it's too much. Besides, the OS can use the extra memory as cache/buffers.

Re: New MacBook Air Now Available on Apple Store

#70

Post by sp332 » Wed, Jul 20, 2011, 2:59 PM UTC

angerman wrote: post #6

This is surely a nice update. But I _really_ miss configuration options. The only option seems to be 1.7GHz i5 -> 1.8GHz i7 No choice of flash no choice of ram :/ I love my current air. It's a really nice piece of engineering but even 4GB of ram are sometimes full. With an more powerful CPU more RAM would be a nice choice... TB, Backlit KB and a faster CPU are very nice though.

I think the RAM is soldered to the board, to save space and weight. So it's really hard to "configure". :)