HuskyCaucasian Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 Keynote starts in 30 minutes. Let the fun begin!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanOfCorn Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 QUOTE(Athomeboy_2000 @ Jan 15, 2008 -> 10:27 AM) Keynote starts in 30 minutes. Let the fun begin!! Welllllll...what did the mock turtlenecked one say??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greasywheels121 Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 Saw this on another site. http://www.apple.com/macbookair/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HuskyCaucasian Posted January 15, 2008 Author Share Posted January 15, 2008 MacBook Air ($1800 base)- Overpriced and underpowered. I think it might have stepped a little TOO far ahead. A minimalist notebook is very cool, but optical drives are still so important in many places (this shared optical drive" thing is crap, and $99 for a drive is not acceptable. No Ethernet is ok (most wireless connections are faster than the broadband speed anyways) Thumbs up on the eco-friendly stuff and I look forward to them moving this into their other lines. In November I bought a MacBook for $1500. Here are the specs... 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB 120GB Serial ATA @ 5400rpm SuperDrive 8x DL 5.0 pounds So... BETTER than the MacBook Air, cheaper than the MacBook Air, more USB ports than the MacBook Air, more firewire ports than the MacBook Air, slightly heavier than the MacBook Air.. oh and I get over 3.5+ hours of battery life with the backlight on the monitor turned down. A MacBook is by FAR a better deal. It doesnt have the "cool" factor, but it's still better than most other notebooks out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanOfCorn Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 Any word on if the iPhone is going to work better with Microsoft Exchange Servers? My wife wants one, but wants to get rid of her phone AND Blackberry and just have one phone...and Outlook doesn't work all that well with the iPhone, at least with Exchange Server. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 After spending a month with my son's Macbook I was impressed in some areas, and very disappointed in others. Overall, without the blind loyalty and fanaticism, I'm not certain there truly is an overall advantage with Apple. I'd venture to say, if I tossed prices in, I'm still happier with a PC. But I will say, the coolness and overall tactile "feel" was a real eye opener. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve9347 Posted January 15, 2008 Share Posted January 15, 2008 Macs = heaven. Looking forward to hearing more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HuskyCaucasian Posted January 16, 2008 Author Share Posted January 16, 2008 QUOTE(CanOfCorn @ Jan 15, 2008 -> 04:19 PM) Any word on if the iPhone is going to work better with Microsoft Exchange Servers? My wife wants one, but wants to get rid of her phone AND Blackberry and just have one phone...and Outlook doesn't work all that well with the iPhone, at least with Exchange Server. I dont think so. I head, and I think they even said a while back, that they are working on it. I am sure MS isnt exactly itching to help them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockRaines Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 (edited) QUOTE(Athomeboy_2000 @ Jan 15, 2008 -> 03:45 PM) MacBook Air ($1800 base)- Overpriced and underpowered. I think it might have stepped a little TOO far ahead. A minimalist notebook is very cool, but optical drives are still so important in many places (this shared optical drive" thing is crap, and $99 for a drive is not acceptable. No Ethernet is ok (most wireless connections are faster than the broadband speed anyways) Thumbs up on the eco-friendly stuff and I look forward to them moving this into their other lines. In November I bought a MacBook for $1500. Here are the specs... 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB 120GB Serial ATA @ 5400rpm SuperDrive 8x DL 5.0 pounds So... BETTER than the MacBook Air, cheaper than the MacBook Air, more USB ports than the MacBook Air, more firewire ports than the MacBook Air, slightly heavier than the MacBook Air.. oh and I get over 3.5+ hours of battery life with the backlight on the monitor turned down. A MacBook is by FAR a better deal. It doesnt have the "cool" factor, but it's still better than most other notebooks out there. What wireless is faster than a hard line connection? Other laptop companies have tried the no optical drive before, people didnt like it. This air product doesnt seem like a very good direction as other companies have been doing the portable unit for a long time, and have perfected it. And let me tell you, having a thin notebook isnt really a big benefit, it makes it MUCH easier to break, and the screen which is the most broken part of a laptop now has zero protection. I dont see how this is useful to anyone. Also they market this as something you may want to take on a plane? Well I sure as hell am not going to fiddle around with attaching a disc drive to that thing on a small plane. I used to be a big mac user, because I thought it was easier to use, and it never broke or got viruses. I have completely changed my mind with good PC units that have been ultra reliable and ridiculously faster than Macs, in fact its not even close. I have a new Dell, and a brand new Lenovo that outperform 2 of my friends Macbooks. Edited January 16, 2008 by RockRaines Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlaSoxxJim Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 QUOTE(Texsox @ Jan 15, 2008 -> 05:21 PM) After spending a month with my son's Macbook I was impressed in some areas, and very disappointed in others. Overall, without the blind loyalty and fanaticism, I'm not certain there truly is an overall advantage with Apple. I'd venture to say, if I tossed prices in, I'm still happier with a PC. But I will say, the coolness and overall tactile "feel" was a real eye opener. If his machine is an Intel then it can boot natively into Windows using Bootstrap, switch back and forth between the two systems with Parallels, or even combine the two on a single desktop with Unity. Every disc-based and online Windows game my kid has tried plays out better on my Powerbook running Windows than on my wife's brand new HP Pavilion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasonxctf Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 hey if anyone cares, I'm selling some MAC software right now. All deinstalled from computers. Office 2004, Roxio Toast 6, Adobe Illustrator CS, Photoshop CS, Acrobat 6.0 professional. PM me if interested. Would love to sell to some Soxtalkers for a discount. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
max power Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 I would never by an apple product because their commercials burn my retinas and hurt my ear drums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsideirish71 Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 (edited) QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jan 15, 2008 -> 07:07 PM) What wireless is faster than a hard line connection? Other laptop companies have tried the no optical drive before, people didnt like it. This air product doesnt seem like a very good direction as other companies have been doing the portable unit for a long time, and have perfected it. And let me tell you, having a thin notebook isnt really a big benefit, it makes it MUCH easier to break, and the screen which is the most broken part of a laptop now has zero protection. I dont see how this is useful to anyone. Also they market this as something you may want to take on a plane? Well I sure as hell am not going to fiddle around with attaching a disc drive to that thing on a small plane. I used to be a big mac user, because I thought it was easier to use, and it never broke or got viruses. I have completely changed my mind with good PC units that have been ultra reliable and ridiculously faster than Macs, in fact its not even close. I have a new Dell, and a brand new Lenovo that outperform 2 of my friends Macbooks. Rock, Someone is buying into the 802.11n draft spec a bit too much. Yes with the MIMO technology it can rate very high and above 100mb. However even with MIMO you can run into interferance and other issues that will drag the connection down. I am using 802.11n at home. Its great for video and other things. By using the 5 gigahertz side I dont see the amount of issues with interference with my neighbors. However when it comes to hard core ripping and moving large files I always fall back to gigabit which is always faster. The only cool thing with my AP is that I have the Extreme with a 500 gigabit buffalo drive attached for my central sharing. These ultra portables like the Mac Air never work out. Sony had a line of them, Dell has a line of them. The problem is what you state, having the peripherals outside the main case. The exec is always forgetting the external CD and then you have docking stations to deal with. Its just becomes a mess. Nice idea by Apple, but I dont know who is going to use it. I have a mac and will never go back. I use a mac as a Unix workstation. Most of the tools of my trade are compiled underneath the hood to take advantage of Unix and open source. For my use, there is no comparison. The Apple is faster for my specific needs. I look forward to more applications being compiled for the Intel chipset. Using Office 2008 will be a dream over the old PPC version of Office 2004. Rosetta while nice for backwards compatibility sucks from a resource standpoint. When I rebuild my system before Leopard I didn't even install Office 2004 because it sucked so bad from a performance standpoint. Now on the kickass side. I have ordered a new workstation for my work. A new Mac Pro dual 8 core system with 32 gigs of memory, and 3 500 drives. It cost a crapload of money, but when I virtualize it its going to amazing. Edited January 16, 2008 by southsideirish71 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobDylan Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jan 15, 2008 -> 11:13 PM) These ultra portables like the Mac Air never work out. Sony had a line of them, Dell has a line of them. The problem is what you state, having the peripherals outside the main case. The exec is always forgetting the external CD and then you have docking stations to deal with. Its just becomes a mess. Nice idea by Apple, but I dont know who is going to use it. While not for everyday use or even for the occasional difficult task, I think Asus got the UMPC right with the EEE. For $400, you can't really go wrong with that machine. Yes, the HD space is absolutely tiny and it's not entirely upgradeable outside of an SD card, but for surfing the web, checking e-mail and actually fitting the bill of what a UMPC should be, the EEE is top notch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balance Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 After being a Mac user all through college and then switching to PCs for about 10 years, I bought a new iMac 2 weeks ago. I really do like it. It's funny how much the MacOS has changed over that time. I need to sit down with the new machine for a couple hours and figure out all the tricks I can make it do. I'm glad to be back with a Mac! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HuskyCaucasian Posted January 16, 2008 Author Share Posted January 16, 2008 QUOTE(Balance @ Jan 16, 2008 -> 04:08 PM) After being a Mac user all through college and then switching to PCs for about 10 years, I bought a new iMac 2 weeks ago. I really do like it. It's funny how much the MacOS has changed over that time. I need to sit down with the new machine for a couple hours and figure out all the tricks I can make it do. I'm glad to be back with a Mac! If you have any questions, drop me a note. I'd be glad to help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gene Honda Civic Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 QUOTE(BobDylan @ Jan 16, 2008 -> 05:14 AM) While not for everyday use or even for the occasional difficult task, I think Asus got the UMPC right with the EEE. For $400, you can't really go wrong with that machine. Yes, the HD space is absolutely tiny and it's not entirely upgradeable outside of an SD card, but for surfing the web, checking e-mail and actually fitting the bill of what a UMPC should be, the EEE is top notch. That's the route I'm gonna go this summer I think... I'm gonna build myself a middle-of-the-road laptop running some open source software (Ubuntu, gOS, something) I'd get an Asus, but I want something a little bigger than the 7 inch screen or whatever it's rockin. Actually its the size of the keyboard that has me taking a step away from the EEE. I've got big hands, and have trouble typing on laptop as it is. Anything smaller than the standard 12" laptop keyboard would probably render the thing useless in my hands. Asus got it right, but they still need a couple more iterations (maybe a year or two) before the price of solid state memory makes it viable to have more than just a nominal amount of data on your computer. Though I'm reasonably sure the future of computing will feature server based data storage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsideirish71 Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Jan 16, 2008 -> 08:50 PM) That's the route I'm gonna go this summer I think... I'm gonna build myself a middle-of-the-road laptop running some open source software (Ubuntu, gOS, something) I'd get an Asus, but I want something a little bigger than the 7 inch screen or whatever it's rockin. Actually its the size of the keyboard that has me taking a step away from the EEE. I've got big hands, and have trouble typing on laptop as it is. Anything smaller than the standard 12" laptop keyboard would probably render the thing useless in my hands. Asus got it right, but they still need a couple more iterations (maybe a year or two) before the price of solid state memory makes it viable to have more than just a nominal amount of data on your computer. Though I'm reasonably sure the future of computing will feature server based data storage. If you are going the open source route, keep with Ubuntu, Fedora, or one of the main versions out there. In the Linux world there are so many forks that its hard to keep compatible. Ubuntu is a nice package, has great wireless support. Fedora is Redhat's test bed so I would stay away from it. Its nice and all, but you are more likely to run into bugs based on the fact that they are using it to iron out issues for RHEL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balance Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 QUOTE(Athomeboy_2000 @ Jan 16, 2008 -> 05:59 PM) If you have any questions, drop me a note. I'd be glad to help. Thanks! Once I get some more time to even figure out what questions to ask, I'll send you a PM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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