Apple's "Back To The Mac" announcements

For 1k you can get a netbook and a decent desktop

That Stephen Fry avatar gets me every time.

  On 10/21/2010 at 2:17 AM, Hoodie said:

well, what is the purpose of the macbook air then? what could you possibly use it for other than taking notes at school, checking your mail, listening to music, etc? it doesn't have enough hard drive space or processing power to devote it to anything other than menial tasks. my imac desktop has a 2.16 ghz core 2 duo processor and it barely manages to open garageband sometimes (oh god, did i just admit to using garageband, where is the backspace on this, i don't even).

it'd be a great machine for coding on. would probably run photoshop really well, too, given the ssd and the 320m gpu. might need to up the ram to 4 gigs, though.

at $999 it's definitely a premium product, but you would pay double+ that for a high-end notebook a few years ago, and it would weigh twice as much with 30% of the battery. i'd say the price is reasonable.

The macbook air is pretty explicitly marketed as a secondary (as in, I have a better computer already) luxury item. It's not something I'd ever consider, but it is clearly marketed towards people with more disposable income.

However, I will say having a decent sized keyboard in a very portable package isn't something to sneer at-- if I had to travel a lot and do a lot of word processing (memos, briefs, reports, etc) on trips, it would make a bit more sense.* It's sort of a business-class item, and is priced accordingly, but Apple is cognizant of the need to make it flashy to appeal to the "rich, tech-dumb, and image conscious" set. That's just a good business plan, honestly. The Macbook and Macbook Pro are for the (relatively) normal folk.

*Typing on a netbook for more than an hour is a shitty experience if you've got manly fingers, and mine are so masculine I get propositioned by formerly hetero men all the time-- men who are just dying to take my handsome, burly fist and submit to my clearly superior, testosterone- and possibly XYY syndrome- fueled form. But I digress.

  On 10/21/2010 at 2:35 AM, chaosmachine said:

  On 10/21/2010 at 2:17 AM, Hoodie said:

well, what is the purpose of the macbook air then? what could you possibly use it for other than taking notes at school, checking your mail, listening to music, etc? it doesn't have enough hard drive space or processing power to devote it to anything other than menial tasks. my imac desktop has a 2.16 ghz core 2 duo processor and it barely manages to open garageband sometimes (oh god, did i just admit to using garageband, where is the backspace on this, i don't even).

 

it'd be a great machine for coding on. would probably run photoshop really well, too, given the ssd and the 320m gpu. might need to up the ram to 4 gigs, though.

idk who would want to photoshop using a trackpad. yeah, you could hook up a mouse, but isn't the central focus of this laptop mobility? however, i'm sure it could run photoshop just fine. my desktop, similar specs as i mentioned, can handle photoshop elements 4. you've got me with coding though. i'm not a programmer, so i can't comment on it.

i think that the battery life is the biggest advantage to this and selling it as something for those who travel is a good idea. i brought my laptop with me to school so i could pass the time between classes (two and a half hours, oh my lol) and it only survived an hour and a half before telling me that i was working it too hard, playing a video game from 2001 on it. i mainly use my laptop at home though (for viddy games), so it's all good.

  On 10/21/2010 at 2:43 AM, Hoodie said:

idk who would want to photoshop using a trackpad.

I built a business selling photoshop layer styles using a macbook pro trackpad. ;p

I have a "magic mouse" and a wacom tablet, too, but the trackpad gets the most use.

  On 10/21/2010 at 2:46 AM, chaosmachine said:

  On 10/21/2010 at 2:43 AM, Hoodie said:

idk who would want to photoshop using a trackpad.

 

I built a business selling photoshop layer styles using a macbook pro trackpad. ;p

 

i have a "magic mouse" and a wacom tablet, too, but the trackpad gets the most use.

well, more power to you. trackpads are too frustrating for me to use. i still hook my good ol' usb mouse up to my laptop.

Is this you?

  On 10/21/2010 at 2:51 AM, chassis said:

Is this you?

yep.

Lol, Hi john......i mean bill

  On 10/21/2010 at 2:30 AM, wake said:

That Stephen Fry avatar gets me every time.

  On 10/20/2010 at 9:53 PM, encey said:

Watched the video. What's with British men sporting v-neck chest hair?

 

I dont know but i'd like to lie in the bottom bunk while he pisses himself

  On 10/21/2010 at 2:49 AM, Hoodie said:

  On 10/21/2010 at 2:46 AM, chaosmachine said:

  On 10/21/2010 at 2:43 AM, Hoodie said:

idk who would want to photoshop using a trackpad.

 

I built a business selling photoshop layer styles using a macbook pro trackpad. ;p

 

i have a "magic mouse" and a wacom tablet, too, but the trackpad gets the most use.

 

well, more power to you. trackpads are too frustrating for me to use. i still hook my good ol' usb mouse up to my laptop.

well cause you haven't used an apple trackpad. seriously. any pc trackpad is just complete shit in comparison.

well obviously apple trackpads remove all the fundamental annoyances that are inherent to the concept of trackpads

two finger scroll is the fucking shit. If I wasn't a broke ass student I'd buy a new Macbook Air in a second. Although I'm thinking about buying one next year, since all i do on my machine is....write, research, listen to music and watch movies/tv

pc's have 2 finger scroll too y'know.

most macheads i know have tap click disabled for some reason, idiots.

i have never seen a windows device with 2 finger scrolling standard. of course, I haven't seen every laptop/netbook out there, but in my experience, using trackpads on windows machines involves a combination of "blows" and "goats"

For a Mac noob like me, what is the difference in quality of sound on the different Macs? Mostly referring to the lower end MB, MBP and Mini. Would want to use apps like Ableton, Reason, Massive, Traktor etc. I know their laptop audio output is limited.

  On 10/21/2010 at 9:12 PM, GORDO said:

pc's have 2 finger scroll too y'know.

 

most macheads i know have tap click disabled for some reason, idiots.

I have tap click enabled. Two-finger scroll is something I love, not to say that it isn't on other laptops (though it's not on my friend's HP or my other friend's Dell, but they both use a mouse anyway and their laptops have better hardware).

The app store thing could be good as long as it's only like iTunes. In that you can still purchase hard copies and whatnot or get other third party software developed by people as some of the third party software I have is amazingly useful.

My main concerns with Lion are: How bulky will it be, does it matter that I have a three year old machine and can't do most of the trackpad stuff? I really appreciate how small Snow Leopard is. A lot of the trackpad stuff strikes me as overkill, but that's probably because I don't have it.

Macbook Airs are ridiculously expensive and I don't think I'd ever throw that amount of money at one. What do I know, though? I'm stereotypical broke-ass college student x. I will admit that they're sexy though. Definitely a "I have the money and want this sexy piece of aluminum and silicon" sort of deal. The display and the technology incorporated into them is obviously great, but too limited by how small they try to keep it. 1.4 GHz for that price with not a whole lot of storage just kind of sucks if you want to use it as any form of base computer. It's like owning a really large travel drive that's shiny and can play movies that look nice.

I don't understand the hate or even trepidation with the mac app store.

Ok so if people want to distribute their apps over it, fine, you can download it there. If not.... life will carry on as usual. People think apple is trying to take over the world and have total control over computer apps too. If you don't use it they won't. Derp.

  On 10/21/2010 at 10:36 PM, Rubin Farr said:

For a Mac noob like me, what is the difference in quality of sound on the different Macs? Mostly referring to the lower end MB, MBP and Mini. Would want to use apps like Ableton, Reason, Massive, Traktor etc. I know their laptop audio output is limited.

get a proper audio interface and use that. that applies to any laptop.

Oh and snow leopard was a huge update, but it was mostly stuff that happens behind the scenes. I have no idea about Lion, and neither does anyone not working on it.

I second the buying a decent audio interface. I highly recommend Apogee's products. Have a Duet myself.

I have a nice Edirol fw interface w plenty of outputs, just need a Mac that still has that. Air has no fw.