Naturally with MacWorld today my friends and I were following the news via numerous websites. It seemed to be the clear highlight was that of the new MacBook Air. Now, officially the thinnest laptop ever. After a lot of debating and some ridiculous BBQ nachos I asked my friend Mike to provide his thoughts on the MacBook Air as he seemed extremely passionate about the product. So without further adieu, here are the initial thoughts and concerns regarding the MacBook Air from a guy who extremely loves shiny new toys…Mike G ladies and gentleman!

Post Written By Mike G.

Ok, first thoughts on the MBA, WOW, that’s one hot toy. I haven’t felt this way about a new apple product since the iPhone’s introduction last year. I don’t even mind that my year old mac mini is more powerful. This laptop is going to make everyone go Britney Spears circa ’99… Come to think of it, isn’t that why we love Apple so much? They deliver products that we don’t even really need, but have to have because they are oh so sexy.

So here my first thoughts and concerns:

This will be a great 2^nd computer for my home. I already have a MBP for all my photoshop, video editing needs, burning, DVD ripping etc. I have a mac mini, which is our media hub for our HDTV. The MBA will be the perfect computer for blogging in the family room, surfing the net, editing basic documents and an easy way to stay connected while on the move. One of the best features I’ve loved about OSX is the ability to stream iTunes, photos, movies over the network. This will allow users to better preserve their small MPA hard drives.

7 Concerns I can deal with that might drive others crazy.

1.) Only one USB port: This wont be a big concern to me as I have always been a big fan of USB hubs, this will easily allow you to connect your MBA to multiple devices with one click. You can easily pick up a 4 port hub for $19.99

2.) Not upgradable/non replaceable battery: I feel like this could be major obstacle for the road warriors out there. I don’t think I have traveled anywhere where I couldn’t find an outlet in 5 hours, but I’m sure there are those out there who need to swap out batteries. Additionally I know there are those out there who might want to upgrade memory/HD etc.

3.)4800rpm, 80 gig hard drive: I would have really liked to see at least a 5200rpm drive in the MPA, 80 gigs is never much after the OS and applications are installed, not to mention 4800rpm drives are slow.

4.) $999 for a solid state hard drive: Not really going to comment on this one.

5.) 1.6 Core2Duo processor: It will get the job done for your basic computing needs, but nothing to write home about.

6.) Video Card: The lack of a quality video card will hurt anyone trying to use any advanced programs and could even affect playing HD videos in VLC.

7.) MacBook Air Right? So why isn’t this thing broadband enabled? I figured with the AT&T and Apple partnership they would have locked this up. I mean it should get internet anywhere right? I’m kind of stumped on this one…I’m a Verizon customer but still, that would have been sick!

I feel that Apple is putting us in the same situation as that with the iPod touch, an amazing device but seriously, what am I going to do with only 16 gigs…not much. iPhone…love it but in CT/NYC Verizon is king and there is no 3G. Apple products have always had the sex appeal we lust but I feel that at the end of the day some key features are left out which will frustrate advanced users.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the MBA is great and I’m sure I will pick one up, but I think ill wait a few months and see if the early adopters are as happy as I hope them to be.

There you have it! I just want to thank Mike for providing his initial thoughts and I’ll post pictures when he continues to increase his credit card debt to purchase this bad boy. Finally, I hope to have Mike provide further posts here at toonice4TV as we often chat about many of the topics covered here at toonice4TV.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 9:19 pm and is filed under Apple, News, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.