The New MacBook Air: Slim, Sexy, Useless?
Posted by JamesB in Business News, Technology, tags: Apple, MacBook AirApple has long been the king of hitting the mark on designing very marketable products but in doing so with the latest MacBook did they design something nobody will want?
Rumored for months and released at MacWorld the MacBook Air is certainly an eye catcher. From less than an inch think to it’s 13 inch LCD it’s got an impressive look but as the saying goes it’s what is between the covers that count and here Apple made some very interesting design calls which in my opinion limit this product to a small group of users.
First off it’s a Mac so if your a Windows organization your going to run into all the typical format and conversion problems. Second to get thin Apple decided to pull some items typically found in most notebook and that call is probably going to be the reason you don’t want this notebook. Apple decided to reduce the number of ports on this unit to two, one USB and one proprietary DVI connection (leave it to Apple to come up with another type of port.) Need a CD drive, got to go external USB. Need Ethernet, USB Dongle time. Need access to your cell providers data access, get another extension cable because even the small Sprint USB card won’t fit into the tight USB connection. The battery is internal so swapping batteries during a trip is not an option not to mention what do you do when the sucker wears out. The CPU is a reworked Intel Core 2 Duo and not the more recent 45nm Penryn and a bit on the slow side at 1.6Ghz. The ram as well is permanently attached to the motherboard so 2GB is all you get and all you will ever have.
While the traveler might like the thin, light, sexy book on a plane I don’t think most of you will want to consider this unit even for the student. Apple has once again shown they are the kings at making everything proprietary to the point that once you go Mac you just can’t go back, upgrade or modify.
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