Thursday
Feb282008
Resistance is Futile....
Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 7:05PM
Ever since Macworld, I've started to harbour a strange desire for a MacBook Air.
It's taken a while and it wasn't the immediate knee jerk reaction that sometimes occurs when Apple release a new product. No, I thought it was a great machine, but a little bit too expensive for me.
I was in the mind set to upgrade my 1st Gen MacBook Pro but knew that the new MacBook Pros would be along soon.
So I waited.....
Then I started to re-evaluate what I needed my existing MacBookPro for. It's a 17" and the original thought process was that the beast would be my portable Video editing machine. I needed that huge screen for FCP and some raw horsepower to encode that video when on the road.
In the two years I've had the machine, I must have done this, ooh. let me see... a total of three times!
So I need a 17" MacBook Pro for working when not tied to my desk. You know, such processor intensive tasks such as answering emails in front of the TV, answering emails when in hotel rooms, browsing the web, reading RSS feeds, writing blog posts......
Hmm, not really very processor intensive stuff really.
And then there's the weight and the heat!
It's impossible to use the MacBook Pro as a proper laptop as I need some thermal protection between it and my lap. Plus it's very unwieldy, it's a great desktop replacement but not very portable really.
Then I started to read some blog posts and see repetitive twitter posts..
After consistent MacBook Air usage since it shipped, I now feel comfortable calling it the best notebook I have ever owned. - Dan Pourhadi - Twitter
I agree, and I've owned everything back to the old Mac Portable (which wasn't). The MBA is one sweet machine Steve Sande Twitter
The MacBook Air: What a Laptop Should Be - Kirk McElhearn Blog
Everyone I meet who has a MacBook Air loves them Scoble Blog
MacBook Air Haters: S**k My D**k (Ahem!) Wil Shipley Blog
MacBook Air: Rambling First Impressions (PG!) Wil Shipley Blog
MacBook Air early review: GAME CHANGING! Jason Calacanis Blog
Need I go on...There's plenty more rave reviews if you need them!
And so the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros were released this week and although good in every way, nothing really that caused me to whip out the credit card and replace my existing beast. I toyed with the idea of selling the 17" MacBook Pro and getting a new 15" MacBook Pro for portability but you know.......
I really want a MacBook Air and it would fit the bill of portability, lightness, coolness (in heat terms!) and plenty enough horsepower to do what I need to do with a laptop - just basic computing.
So with that m'lud, I rest my case and complete the self-justification for the fool-hardy action of ordering a new MacBook Air this afternoon.
I'll keep you posted on my findings!
PS In case you think I've recently won the lottery or something as I've only just got my Mac Pro, well no! They're both business expenses and investments for the future of ScreenCastsOnline (or something like that!) I fully expect these machines to pay for themselves over the next few years - mind you, the Mac Pro feels like it's paid for itself already with the time I've saved in encoding - magic!
It's taken a while and it wasn't the immediate knee jerk reaction that sometimes occurs when Apple release a new product. No, I thought it was a great machine, but a little bit too expensive for me.
I was in the mind set to upgrade my 1st Gen MacBook Pro but knew that the new MacBook Pros would be along soon.
So I waited.....
Then I started to re-evaluate what I needed my existing MacBookPro for. It's a 17" and the original thought process was that the beast would be my portable Video editing machine. I needed that huge screen for FCP and some raw horsepower to encode that video when on the road.
In the two years I've had the machine, I must have done this, ooh. let me see... a total of three times!
So I need a 17" MacBook Pro for working when not tied to my desk. You know, such processor intensive tasks such as answering emails in front of the TV, answering emails when in hotel rooms, browsing the web, reading RSS feeds, writing blog posts......
Hmm, not really very processor intensive stuff really.
And then there's the weight and the heat!
It's impossible to use the MacBook Pro as a proper laptop as I need some thermal protection between it and my lap. Plus it's very unwieldy, it's a great desktop replacement but not very portable really.
Then I started to read some blog posts and see repetitive twitter posts..
After consistent MacBook Air usage since it shipped, I now feel comfortable calling it the best notebook I have ever owned. - Dan Pourhadi - Twitter
I agree, and I've owned everything back to the old Mac Portable (which wasn't). The MBA is one sweet machine Steve Sande Twitter
The MacBook Air: What a Laptop Should Be - Kirk McElhearn Blog
Everyone I meet who has a MacBook Air loves them Scoble Blog
MacBook Air Haters: S**k My D**k (Ahem!) Wil Shipley Blog
MacBook Air: Rambling First Impressions (PG!) Wil Shipley Blog
MacBook Air early review: GAME CHANGING! Jason Calacanis Blog
Need I go on...There's plenty more rave reviews if you need them!
And so the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros were released this week and although good in every way, nothing really that caused me to whip out the credit card and replace my existing beast. I toyed with the idea of selling the 17" MacBook Pro and getting a new 15" MacBook Pro for portability but you know.......
I really want a MacBook Air and it would fit the bill of portability, lightness, coolness (in heat terms!) and plenty enough horsepower to do what I need to do with a laptop - just basic computing.
So with that m'lud, I rest my case and complete the self-justification for the fool-hardy action of ordering a new MacBook Air this afternoon.
I'll keep you posted on my findings!
PS In case you think I've recently won the lottery or something as I've only just got my Mac Pro, well no! They're both business expenses and investments for the future of ScreenCastsOnline (or something like that!) I fully expect these machines to pay for themselves over the next few years - mind you, the Mac Pro feels like it's paid for itself already with the time I've saved in encoding - magic!
Reader Comments (12)
Nice one Don,
Knew you'd pick the Air, it was the obvious choice for what you need, after seeing your tweets about watching TV with the MBP on your lap. ;-)
Having the power of a Mac Pro for video editing is a huge thing; especially if you have a decent amount of RAM. Unless you are Bert Monroy, it's simply not necessary for Photoshop or similar 2D apps.
When going portable however, I know very few people who need to do anything more taxing than email, web browsing, blog posting and of course Twitter. I'm not talking about only doing these things, but rather the same kind of apps. The MacBook Air kicks butt and takes names on this one.
I know you won't regret choosing the MBA, enjoy.
You Have Been Assimilated .... (in mono tone)
The Macbook Air!! HOW COULD YOU MAKE SUCH A DECISION DON??
:-) Oh, never mind... Enjoy it.
Assimilated, yes it is a word, I looked it up.
Cool Don. The more you spend on the business the better ;)
ooh! Sounds like we'll be having words on the Mac Roundtable Tim ;-)
Don I loved the Air when it was first "Aired" I think that it is a machine for a purpose and all those people who knock really hancker after a 12" powerbook, well I can tell you if you are going to do any sort of constructive work 12" is only barely enough, I know I work with spreadsheets!
And for traveling well at the moment I have a 5lb "laptop" and guess what I carry an extra battery (that I've never used, as there is always a power point that I can get to (even on my international travel, and I've done a lot) I carry the extra USB num pad again I've never used and an extra battery (yes another one) that goes into the disk drive, oh and I can't remember using the disk drive, but the real pain and times when I can remember thinking to myself, is when I wish this thing was lighter.
If I had the money I'd buy one, if only I had influence on our IT dept, because as a user I'd want one, as for the specs, they are slightly better than this windows machine that I have to 'lug' about. And most of the apps we have are via APPWORX, not local apps, THIS MACHINE IS GREAT if only the WINDOWS world could see it, it might just show those Apple doubters that it really is what I have called on several occasions "A CLASSIC". And I'm only an Apple user since August last year.
I can justify it for my home use, the one thing the one thing is that price, we have to accept that actually when lined up against other similar windows products that seemingly high price is not so bad. So I may not have won the lottery either, but boy if I had I'd be at the new MK Apple Store floating on "Air".
Oh, I'm jealous. Congrats! I agonised over my decision for an MBP but it all came down to needing that FireWire port since almost everything I own and want to plug into it (and do currently with my PowerBook) is FireWire. Sigh. I'm sure you'll be very happy together!
Don apparently you had the same MBA Siren yelling in your ears. I resisted and went for the MBP (this time). Can't wait to hear what you say, I know it's a great machine and if Apple had not come out with the new MBP this Tuesday I doubt I would have made it another week . Good for you.
Don,
I have to admit I think about the Air once in awhile myself. Especially when I see those interoffice envelopes floating around. For me my MBP is my production (and everything else machine). Regardless, if I had the budget it would be extremely tempting to get one since the Air would be plenty enough horsepower for about 70 percent of my computing needs. You'll have to let us know what it is like working on it
Don, you are making it even harder to resist now - I will, however, wait until I read your next MBA blog post.
Good luck with it - jealous already...
Don, you hit it right on the head with your statement "Then I started to re-evaluate what I needed ... "
I'm a first time Mac owner with my purchase of the MBA. I was looking for a portable unit that I could take with me on the road (work and play), wouldn't weigh me down, but would have enough oomph to keep me from getting aggravated.
As I went through the process of figuring out what I wanted (Win or Mac) I sat down and really looked at what I did with my laptops. While there were times when I needed a little extra horsepower for some things, 95% of the time I was just doing some type of reading or writing.
I never ...
... used more than one USB device at a time. The occasional thumb drive or connection of my camera to send a few pic's back to the family while I was on the road (domestic or international).
... used my optical drive. One my current work laptop (IBM T60) I can't even tellyou if the drive works. I download/copy/install just about everything from the network, web, or thumb drive.
... did anything that required a jumbotron sized screen. It's nice to have, but not a must have (for me). I'm used to watching movies on my Dell Axim PDA's screen. :-)
Once I gave it a real good think, a world of possibilities opened up. When I first heard about the MBA I was rally excited because I knew that could be the right tool for the job. i continued on with my research (was contemplating a Dell latitude XT, but too pricey and still heavy), but by the time Macworld happened I was out on the Apple store site hitting the refresh key and eventually placed my order.
It's been two months now and I love it. There's a few things I don't like (would like a replaceable battery) but I understand the challenges they had to keep the shape they wanted and keep the battery drain low (i get 4 hours in most cases). They're not show stoppers, just nice to haves.
In the end, it's all about the right tool for the job. If you need multipe ports, more horspower, etc. The MBA is not a bad laptop, it's just not the right tool.
R.