Apple MacBook Air | Business News | News - Expertise in Open Source Business Development

NEWS

Apple MacBook Air

Even if you have only a passing interest in technology you will surely have noticed that Apple has launched a new ultra-slim MacBook - the Air. Billed as the thinnest laptop on the market the Air certainly does the business in the looks stakes, but is all just a load of hot air? As the saying goes, first impressions count - and our first impression on seeing the Air was 'cor, it does look good.' We should state straight away that we are not the usual Apple fan who claps at press conferences and is a member of sycophantic Facebook groups entitled 'I wish Apple made everything', or so some such. We've used many a Mac over the years and have had both good and bad experiences with them.

First off - the design. You have to hand it to Apple, love or hate them, its designers do craft things well. OK so the design of the Air means that you can't swap out the battery, not a good idea Apple, but put that aside for a minute and marvel and the cleverness of it all. It is so thin. Having lugged many a house brick around, sorry laptop, the Air is the step in the right direction all shoulders and chiropractors have been calling out for. You can put it in your bag and not look as though you're about to embark on a hike up the Amazon.

That said though, although it is the thinnest laptop ever, it isn't the lightest. It tips the scales at just over 1.3kg, which for its size is deceptively heavy. Having had the chance to play with the Asus EeePC, those few grams do make quite a bit of difference. But then with the Air you get a full size backlit screen and a keyboard that gently glows once the sun has gone down.

But the fun doesn't stop there. Apple has never embraced the two button mouse of the PC world but with the Air it has developed an interesting two finger approach. By this we don't mean the good old fashioned v-sign, no we mean using two fingers on the trackpad at the same time.

The first instance of this is when you want to browse the albums in iTunes. In Cover Flow mode place two fingers on the trackpad and move them from side to side to flick through them. One finger isn't enough, so if you don't want to do it - it won't.

This functionality also works for when you want to view your pictures. Move your fingers together to shrink the image and apart to make it bigger. In fact this works on any window where you have multiple items - such as in your applications folder. Moving your fingers makes the icons bigger and smaller. Move them up and down and left and right and you can scroll through them too.

After the controversy with the battery, the other complaint that many people have with the Air is that it doesn't have a built in optical drive. To get around this Apple includes software called Remote Disc. You insert the software you want into your main PC or Mac and it then installs the software using the Air's wireless connection. And as the Air uses 802.11n you don't need to worry about this taking an absolute age.

Overall, although the Air has its limitations, some of which could be terminal (in the case of the battery), you can't help but be impressed with it.

It's well designed and should serve most mobile workers well. OK, so it has limited port connectivity, but then how often do you use most of the ports on your laptop anyway?

< Prev		Next >

Join our Joomla bootcamp

FOUNDING PARTNER

PARTNERS

For your ipod

ABOUT US