Look at the new Apple Laptop!

[iamthewalrus_3]

@cmyk

Also, the idea that aesthetics doesn’t add value, or isn’t something desirable is absurd. It may be subjective and unquantifiable, but Apple’s products have this in spades.

In some cases, it’s easily quantifiable.

For example, the Macbook can optionally come with exactly $100 of Black included.

@bouv

I don’t want to get too off topic here, but someone else brought it up and I’m curious: Why doesn’t Apple just put a god-damn second mouse button on it’s devices?

It is felt by many in the Apple camp that software that requires a second mouse button is poorly designed. And it’s often true. Nevertheless, lots of people want to make poorly designed software, and most mice have multiple buttons by now, so it is supported.

I tend to agree with Apple’s historical stance for a couple of reasons. First, the decision of having two buttons is fairly arbitrary. The design choice of one button is equally valid as that of 2, or 3, or more. But you never hear people complaining about why Windows doesn’t support 8-button mice. In fact, most standard mice have three buttons, now, one of which is really three buttons (scroll wheel up, scroll wheel down, middle click). Yet, I can do all the things I need to on my Mac with just the trackpad. Two fingers is context click. Two finger motion is scrolling (and I get horizontal scrolling for free), and Cmd-click is “right” click, or “context” click. Why add another button to the mouse when you’ve already got a keyboard full of buttons that aren’t being used while you’re using the mouse? From a design standpoint, the philosophy of “We need to add some more functionality, let’s add another button” is inelegant, harder to learn, and becomes unwieldy quickly.

Also, if you’ve ever had to do low-level support or teach total newbies to use computers, you’ll understand how confusing two mouse buttons are to someone with no context.

[Screaming_Amoeba]

@pulykamell

$1844 here, with same specs except 120GB Hard Drive. Add $349 for 3-year Apple Care protection, or $188 for PC Connection’s warranty.

(And, yes, that’s an Apple licensed retailer and where I’ve bought a MacBook, a MacBook Pro, and a MacPro from, all without any problems.)

edit: Actually, the MBP is a matte, not glossy screen, in the link. I don’t know whether that makes it cheaper or more expensive, but I don’t know anyone who uses an MBP with a glossy screen. Yuck.

I screwed up the clock speeds in my OP…they were both 2.4 GHz systems rather than 2.2, which accounts for the price difference here. Configured as 2.2 GHz, the Dell – with 3 GB of RAM and 256 MB of VRAM – is $1594 with 2 years in-home service.

I believe the $150 rebate from MacConnection that drives the cost down to $1844 is likely because it comes loaded with Tiger rather than Leopard, as the otherwise identical system at the Apple Store and Best Buy is $1999.

As to the glossy vs. matte, I’ve not yet had a chance to compare the two, but they’re interchangeable cost-wise.

Thanks for the info!

[N9IWP]

@Phase42

Exactly. Especially when you consider encumbrance rules. For example, a rogue with a STR score of 13 might find that that extra pound pushes his total load from 50 pounds to 51 pounds. This might seem insignificant, but in fact it bumps his load from “light” to “medium”. This has a net effect of reducing his base land speed from 30 feet (6 squares) to 20 feet (4 squares). Even worse, consider the –3 Armor Check penalty that comes with carrying a medium load - a serious drawback for a skills-dependent character such as a rogue. A character such as a monk or a barbarian is unable to use his Fast Movement class feature when carrying a medium load, as well.

Bravo! I for one appreciated the geek crossover

Brian

[buttonjockey308]

@pulykamell

What do you mean? I use my Macs primarily for work.

Do try not to be coy. You’re one of the 5% MAYBE 10% of people who use their macs as primary work machines. They’re generally useless in the open market because of the horrible stranglehold Unca Bill has on the industry. Hell, I like Apple, always have, and now I can afford any computer I want, and I still wouldn’t choose one, like it or not (and I don’t) the world belongs to Microsoft.

[SuperNelson]

@iamthewalrus(:3=

Yet, I can do all the things I need to on my Mac with just the trackpad. Two fingers is context click. Two finger motion is scrolling (and I get horizontal scrolling for free), and Cmd-click is “right” click, or “context” click.

This is one of those things that’s hard to describe, but easy to demonstrate. It feels comparable to the change in bicycling when the shift levers moved from the drop tube to integrated in the brake levers.

[pulykamell]

@buttonjockey308

Do try not to be coy.

I am not trying to be coy. Apple plays fine with Microsoft Office. If you need to go beyond Microsoft Office and run some Windows-exclusive programs, you know there’s ways to do that with Macs (VMWare, BootCamp, Parallels, etc.)

I got rid of all my PCs this year after buying a Mac for the first time last year. I can’t think of a single instance where having a Mac put me in a bind.

I just took exception to your comment because you make it seem like it’s impossible to function/work in a Windows world with a Mac. That’s simply false.

[Amblydoper]

I think the Apple vs. PC cost analysis belongs in GD (whats the value of aesthetics, etc.) So, back on topic here…

I think the MacBook Air is an amazing product that will not be appriciated for what it does to the notebook market until much later. In its present form, the Air has many shortcomings, but if you think about them carefully, you will see they are not that bad.

No Optical Drive - This reminds me of a few years ago when Apple eliminated floppy drives from their desktops. Many people complained and did not see how a computer could work without one. PCs held on to their legacy floppy drives, and within a few years, began to drop them as well. The 3 year old PC I recently replaced has a floppy drive, and I can honestly say I have never used it. CDs and CDRs replaced the floppy disc for PCs as they replaced cassettes for music. Today, Flash memory and wireless broadband are driving out Data DVDs and DVD-Rs just as iPods and MP3s are replacing Music CDs. The Optical Disc in its present state my not become obsolete anytime soon, but the ways in which we use it for data storage and transfer will. Eliminating the drive from future laptop designs will not generate as many complaints as it has toady.

No Ethernet Port - If you require an Ethernet connection on occasion, Apple offers a USB-Ethernet adapter. Wireless networks are abundant enough today that they have become the rule, not the exception. In the future, wireless access will be as common as cell-network coverage.

No Replaceable Battery - The Air is not meant to be a primary computer. If you require more then 5 hours of up-time without access to a power source on a frequent basis, then the Air is not the system for you.

No Fire-Wire Port / Only One USB Port - This is where Apple made their biggest mistake, in my opinion. You can not use multiple USB devices without a hub, but that is more of an annoyance then a major issue. A lack of Fire-Wire is the biggest problem. If Apple developed a Fire-Wire-to-USB adapter similar to the Ethernet adapter, this problem would be less severe. However, the same argument I used above for the lack of a replaceable battery can be applied to the Fire-Wire port. If you need portable access to a Fire-Wire interface, the Air is not the system for you.

While the Air is an amazing and beautifully sleek machine, it is not an ideal laptop for most situations. It is more innovative then practical, as it challenges the commonly accepted idea of what a laptop is: It encourages us to adapt to new technologies and let go of out-dated standards. The Air will have the biggest impact on the next generation of MacBooks and MacBook Pros from Apple. New features such as the touch-pad gestures, smaller CPU packages, and environmentally friendly hardware and packaging introduced by the Air will find their way into newer models.

[scr4]

@CoG888

No Replaceable Battery - The Air is not meant to be a primary computer. If you require more then 5 hours of up-time without access to a power source on a frequent basis, then the Air is not the system for you.

I think the issue here is whether the user can purchase and install a new battery when the original one has reached its lifetime. I personally never had to replace a laptop battery (all my laptops became obsolete or broke down before the battery reached its lifetime), but then again I don’t use my laptop on battery power every day. (At least not until I got my newest tablet PC)

If you just want a spare battery to extend battery life, it’s more convenient to carry an external battery that plugs into the laptop’s power plug. That way you don’t have to power down the laptop to replace the battery. I think there are third-party external batteries available for many laptops.

[cmyk]

@buttonjockey308

Do try not to be coy. You’re one of the 5% MAYBE 10% of people who use their macs as primary work machines. They’re generally useless in the open market because of the horrible stranglehold Unca Bill has on the industry. Hell, I like Apple, always have, and now I can afford any computer I want, and I still wouldn’t choose one, like it or not (and I don’t) the world belongs to Microsoft.

RORP?!

That’s absurd. True, MS’s saturation in the business world is overwhelming (Although, if you look in the creative and scientific fields, I think you’ll find a ton more macs), but it doesn’t mean a Mac is useless in such a scenario. In fact, I think most businesses would benefit from making the switch.

Me? I work from home on my 8-core MacPro, and have 3 Mac Minis serving as a secondary render farm. (I do CGI work and animation). And yes, I use my Macs to run my business. I also worked in a creative department at a large PC infused corporation… we all had Macs.

[slaphead]

@cmyk

And how well were ultra-portables selling?

Ultra-portables are selling very well indeed, since nowadays:
[ul]
[li]A lot of people need to / wish to be able to access a computer whenever and wherever they happen to be[/li][li]a modern ‘mid-range’ cpu and ‘small’ hard drive are adequate for the vast majority of users[/li][/ul]
I always used to have a high-end laptop because I was a power user. Noways an X60s can manage what I need without appreciable difficulty. Very few people actually work their machines hard more than a few percent of the time.

To me it seems the key benefit they should be selling is not that it’s thin, but that it’s a very portable (possibly even an ultraportable) with a full size keyboard and a medium size screen. That’s the one gripe I have about my very nice X60 - the screen and keyboard are a little small. The CPU/HDD/RAM/Firewire etc. is probably not that big a deal to the market segment they are aiming at - this is a single-blade penknife, not a Leatherman. Whether an $1800 computing penknife is a viable business proposition is another matter, but they’ve made a success of a number of other things that I thought a massively dumb idea, so who knows.