Shovel
Can't get enough of FH
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2003
- Messages
- 1,350
Spoken like a true engineer. Actually, spoken like a true British engineer, an Italian engineer would never agree with you.
Except, of course, that Jon Ive, who inevitably designed the thing, is British. (So, like, nerr.)
My impression is that the Air could make a very, very nice secondary machine; more so if it's a second Mac. A light weight second machine less dependent on a large disc, less dependent on peripherals and so on seems justifiably useful. Albeit not for me. There's no possible hope it can be used as your _only_ machine, which rules a lot of people out. But that's how it's designed. There's no stupidity at work here, just the identification of a specific user base and a device designed to meet them.
In terms of ‘it has to be a secondary machine’:
•*Lack of removable battery will only bother the minority; most have never carried a second battery in their life.
•*The lack of optical drive seems like an extremely justifiable choice to lose size and weight. I only use the CD in the MBP to rip CDs. If it's a second machine (which it has to be), that's an edge case. I can't remember the last time I used a CD to install software, either.
Do people seriously think that users don't care about the compactness of their devices? It's not a vanity thing, or a shallow, idiot thing. It's a feature. It's 2008, people should expect better that what's out there right now.
•*Lack of ethernet. It's a second machine, so having ethernet for configuring a wireless network isn't necessary. I can't think of any other use for ethernet at this point.
•*Small hard disc. Crippled for size, and using 1.8" devices rather than 2.5" means that the less-extortionate solid state discs are ruled out (initial reports suggested the $999 upgrade for SSD was not, unusually for Apple, much over list price). There's no way it can store all your stuff though, so I can't help feeling that a proper machine-to-machine synchronisation application would be useful: Sync a subset of music, photos and documents when joining a local network; much like an iPod. With that missing, a small disc will be a pain in the arse.
My feeling is that if you've got a Mac, a desktop Mac at that, then the Air is designed to complement it. Any other case is irrelevant because the machine is so specific to the ‘second machine’. The decision not to produce a generic, catch-all super-portable? A shame only for those who doesn't fit into the Air's niche.
My only surprise is that so many of you expect Apple to produce some generic device to appease a majority. So it's not for you, but is brilliant for someone else? Oh well.
Personally, a regular MacBook is more appealing to me, not least as it will take a user-upgraded 320GB disc.