bit-tech.net | Steve Jobs’ Macworld 2008 Keynote

Mankz. 15th January 2008, 16:38

Nice! live broadcasting!

adam197 15th January 2008, 16:53

I love MWSF day. Better than Christmas :D

p3n 15th January 2008, 17:01

iWife, c'mon!

Jamie 15th January 2008, 17:01

Looking forward to hearing about the new mac... if there is one...

adamc 15th January 2008, 17:05

There's something in the air... all sorts of new wireless mcgubbins?

Bindibadgi 15th January 2008, 17:05

Touchscreen Mac!! Tablet.. mini-Mac-mobile.. iUMPC??

badders 15th January 2008, 17:12

Small Flying Creatures.... It's Steve! That's why he wears the polo neck, to cover his wings.

Jamie 15th January 2008, 17:21

Wireless Time Machine? The initial backup will take a while!

Bindibadgi 15th January 2008, 17:34

Not on draft-n it isn't. Sure, it's not Gigabit or another internal hard drive but at least it's MIMO+Fast

CardJoe 15th January 2008, 17:34

OMG IT'S WEB 2.0 OMGOMGOMGOMGMONKEYOMG

Firehed 15th January 2008, 17:35

And Apple has finally infiltrated Bit HQ (allowing me to have MacRumors live feed on my iPhone and this page right next to it - win!).

p3n 15th January 2008, 17:36

wireless n will be 100 mbit on average, you remember when things were that 'slow'.....

HugoB 15th January 2008, 17:36

Draft-N is fast enough for most people, faster than my homeplug ethernet for sure.

And wow Tim is updating the site but he isn't at his desk - HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE!?!?!?!

Mankz. 15th January 2008, 17:40

Rentals?

I wonder how?

Firehed 15th January 2008, 17:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by p3n
wireless n will be 100 mbit on average, you remember when things were that 'slow'.....

Not even close. I've got full current Apple N gear, and even right next to the router, it says 130Mbps (even though it should get 300Mbps), but only gets a practical throughput of maybe 10-15Mbps (1-2MB/s).

Those rental pricings are spot-on the pricing for where I used to work. Granted it was 3-day rentals (5 for older stuff) but you did have to worry about stuff being out of stock, etc.

/ninjaedit - HD appleTV? Win!

CardJoe 15th January 2008, 17:49

OMG HE JUST UPDATED IT - NOW ITS WEB 2.1 OMGOMGOMGOMGCHIMPANZEEOMGOMG

Jordan Wise 15th January 2008, 18:00

this is crazy, i just can't read fast enough to keep up with time! Damn Tim and his fingers of lightening!

Mankz. 15th January 2008, 18:12

LOL! Thats tiny!

Jamie 15th January 2008, 18:20

OMG that is so thin!

pumpman 15th January 2008, 18:20

see if it hadnt been for Apple asking Intel to shrink the c2d we would still be using cpu's the size of a brick yeh

pumpman 15th January 2008, 18:25

no dvd drive , no real biggie

pumpman 15th January 2008, 18:26

$1799 with 2gb ram

pumpman 15th January 2008, 18:27

order today ships in two weeks 5hr battery life looks good too

pumpman 15th January 2008, 18:28

oh noes the battery change had gone wrong :)

jreesnc 15th January 2008, 18:30

Maybe next time bring a pc with a hot swappable battery? My ThinkPad has one ;-)

pumpman 15th January 2008, 18:31

so it can fit in an envelope what happens if you drop it or let the Royal Mail deliver it ? will it survive

GoodBytes 15th January 2008, 18:31

iLife iCar iDrive iStore iPod iHome iEnjoy... iStupid iCan't iTalk!
lol!

Firehed 15th January 2008, 18:32

Hmm.... looks like a very nice machine, but I'd have to try one out first. Looks like upgrading RAM is out though, which is a big :( for me as I'd want to port over my latest 4GB kit that I just got last week for my MBP were I to get one.

Bindibadgi 15th January 2008, 18:32

£1200 we recon - same as base spec Sony TZ, although expect the TZ to drop in price as well I'd imagine.

alextwo 15th January 2008, 18:33

Hmm, 64GB SSD option as well.

badders 15th January 2008, 18:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by pumpman
so it can fit in an envelope what happens if you drop it or let the Royal Mail deliver it ? will it survive

It might do, but if you really want to break it, you need to send it via CityLink.

Mankz. 15th January 2008, 18:35

The Air looks amazing!

pumpman 15th January 2008, 18:37

oh you can see the headlines "Apple charges £1700 for air "

Tim S 15th January 2008, 18:43

Check out Apple.com if you want a glimpse of what the Air looks like.. I'm trying to find out whether or not this is the first notebook based on Montevina.

Firehed 15th January 2008, 18:47

Apple store (US) is back up, guess that's it. No One More Thing?

Huh. As usual, overhyped to heck. The Air looks really nice, but all things considered is impractical for me, at least for the price (I still want something smaller than a Macbook, not just thinner). I know a magic way to knock $200 off the price, but even still it's not or me. Xserve it is I suppose (where that same magic knocks $600 off :D)

manjowithane 15th January 2008, 18:57

This MacBook Air sounds like a rich man's toy. You are expected to have another computer just to be able to read discs... clever idea, but is it practical?

Jordan Wise 15th January 2008, 18:58

not a bad keynote, i really can't wait for apple to move onto its 'j' line up of products though

rowin4kicks 15th January 2008, 18:58

would rather get the air than the normal mac book! but if i was gonna spend upwards of £1200 on an apple laptop it would defiantly be on the MBP!

rowin4kicks 15th January 2008, 19:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by manjowithane
This MacBook Air sounds like a rich man's toy. You are expected to have another computer just to be able to read discs... clever idea, but is it practical?

you say tht but most people do have at least one computer in their hoses these days, we have 4 and two are sitting in my room now!

most of the people on this site probably have at least 3 going right now as well!

Bindibadgi 15th January 2008, 19:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by manjowithane
This MacBook Air sounds like a rich man's toy. You are expected to have another computer just to be able to read discs... clever idea, but is it practical?

Uh yes! I'm the most anti-Apple person in the office and it's so full of awesome even I want one. It would be perfect for trade shows, but at $1700 it's just waaay to expensive - but at least now I can see why and the Sony TZ is just as "bad".

ArtificialHero 15th January 2008, 19:13

Pfft. Sure, it's thin and light. I'm just going to come out and say it: who gives a ****! I carry a shoulder bag or a rucksack, and both can fit my powerbook in with no worries. If the weight is a problem for you then geez, get down the gym. What's much more important to me is power. I don't want to compromise on processor speed because I'm away from home, so I guess a MBA isn't for me. Shame, I was really hoping for a case redesign across the board, I think the MBPs are starting to look a tiny bit tired. If Apple had squeezed in the same power as the MBP into that package I might consider paying a premium, but there's no way I'm paying that kind of money for something with a 1.6GHz C2D. My next laptop will be a MBP, but I'll probably wait for the next speed bump. For me, the most exciting thing about MWSF this year has been the iPhone updates. Very excited to try them out.

AH

Tim S 15th January 2008, 19:16

UK pricing: http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/01/15/macbook_air_will_be_1199_in_uk/1

Juppun 15th January 2008, 19:21

I like it... but it's too pricey for me. I was hoping from some sort of 11/12" Macbook Pro and was willing to sell my current Macbook for it, but ah well. Maybe I'll grab an Eee PC if I wanted something even smaller I suppose.

Firehed 15th January 2008, 19:21

Meh. It's really thin, and fairly light. It's the same size as the Macbooks. I don't care about how thin it is, I want something the size of the 12"PB or smaller. If they'd released an 11-12" widescreen with nice thin bezels around the screen (like on the MBP, not those inch-wide monstrosities around the MB), I'd be all over it.

Yeah, it looks very pretty. I don't really care. As someone said on Macrumors forums, "it's cute". It's not an ultra portable, it has zero upgrade-ability, and addresses the wrong aspect of a very portable machine.

Looks like my next decision is whether to get a Mac Mini for $539 or a quad Mac Pro for $1839 along with a base-level Xserve at $2399. Oh well.

Of course, that'll have to be in another couple months as I'm still recovering from that TempurPedic purchase

frontline 15th January 2008, 19:24

yay, another mac laptop with specs that you can buy for half the price elsewhere! :)

naokaji 15th January 2008, 19:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by badders
It might do, but if you really want to break it, you need to send it via CityLink.

but with city link i would atleast never get to see just how damaged it is because they built the depot where i would have to pick it up out in the wild instead of an area where people live, so they are definitly worth their insane prices:D

badders 15th January 2008, 19:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by naokaji

but with city link i would atleast never get to see just how damaged it is because they built the depot where i would have to pick it up out in the wild instead of an area where people live, so they are definitly worth their insane prices:D

It's not the insane prices I have trouble with, it's the fact that I'm sure they load their vans with a frozen chicken gun at 200 paces.

chicorasia 15th January 2008, 19:36

underpowered: c2d 1,6GHz, optionally 1,8GHz (the current macbook range starts at 2,0GHz) / 1.8" parallel ATA (that's right, no SATA) 4200rpm (that's right, forty-two-hundred rpm) - good luck finding a replacement!

underfeatured: no ethernet (only airport), single USB port, no optical drive, 2GB onboard RAM (that's right, the RAM is soldered onto the logic board, don't even dream of upgrading!), no firewire (which was standard on every mac since the 350MHz imacs)...

oversized: at 13" it is not much more portable than the 13" macbook.....

overpriced: there's no argument about that...

If "innovation is the refusal to compromise", I don't see any innovation on the macbook air.... They just made way too many compromises in order to achieve a certain look, ruining the functionality and usability in the process!

msm722 15th January 2008, 19:49

Like all apple products, never buy the 1st gen.
Give it a year and we'll see a price drop and the essential features we all need. Maybe then I'll consider one, just maybe.

CardJoe 15th January 2008, 19:57

Thin doesn't really do it for me if its still wide. I'll just EEE PC instead methinks. And at that price? Pfft. I'd get a low end and mod it up.

The Wireless DVD is damn cool and I like the sound of it, but all thats doing is stopping people from buying if they don't already have a Mac. That, more than anything else, loses me as a customer.

Jamie 15th January 2008, 19:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by CardJoe
Thin doesn't really do it for me if its still wide. I'll just EEE PC instead methinks.

That would certainly be a cheaper option.

Daza 15th January 2008, 20:12

The SD version is £2,028.00.

And the best part theres NO user replacement battery so once every 5hrs its recharge time, no ethernet port is a bit of a let down as its wireless only, maybe next time apple.

Nexxo 15th January 2008, 20:20

Y'all are not getting it. This is not a geek/gamebook. It is not a media player. It is not a long-haul flight workstation. It is a laptop that City types can drop in their briefcase and just work on, during the train journey or in their hotel, without thinking too much about logistics such as size, weight, carrier and accessories.

My tablet has better battery life and firewire, but less processing power and RAM. I use it for office tasks on the go, and it is powerful enough for that.

You are also overlooking the innovation of the product. It is a proof of concept. The trackpad is beautifully intuitive, and Remote Disk, frankly, is seriously cool.

Hamish 15th January 2008, 20:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nexxo
Y'all are not getting it. This is not a geek/gamebook. It is not a media player. It is not a long-haul flight workstation. It is a laptop that City types can drop in their briefcase and just work on, during the train journey or in their hotel, without thinking too much about logistics such as size, weight, carrier and accessories.

its like ... 1cm thicker than my dad's dell 13" which he got a couple of months ago with VASTLY superior specs for less than its going to cost here
the dell has better battery life, more performance, upgradable, spare batteries, proper inputs/outputs, is the same width/depth, 1cm thicker and ~1lb heavier

i dont see how the Air is so much better considering what you're giving up to gain 1cm and 1lb

the multi-touch trackpad is about the only truly innovative thing on it and i'd have to use that to determine whether its actually any good or not
and remote disk? most apps dont require the disk itself just the files on it, copy the cd to disk on another machine and share that
failing that, ever heard of daemon tools? :p

Tim S 15th January 2008, 20:39

More Macbook Air analysis and pictures: http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/01/15/more_macbook_air_analysis_and_pictures/1

Firehed 15th January 2008, 20:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by CardJoe
Thin doesn't really do it for me if its still wide. I'll just EEE PC instead methinks. And at that price? Pfft. I'd get a low end and mod it up.

The Wireless DVD is damn cool and I like the sound of it, but all thats doing is stopping people from buying if they don't already have a Mac. That, more than anything else, loses me as a customer.

Wireless DVD is trivially easy to do regardless. Well at least as far as reading goes. I've already got everything useful stored as/ripped to a dmg that I keep on my nas, and I just mount it as needed. The real problem is that with this thing, there's no good way to reinstall your OS unless you've got the hardwired external drive.

I was really hoping for something like the eee except not so toy-ish.

Hamish 15th January 2008, 20:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Firehed
The real problem is that with this thing, there's no good way to reinstall your OS unless you've got the hardwired external drive.

well i would hope you can boot off a usb cd/dvd drive
and any usb cd/dvd not just the mac one

Elspuddy 15th January 2008, 21:13

is it me or does the macbook air keyboard look like one from a spectrum 48k ?

Firehed 15th January 2008, 21:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hamish
well i would hope you can boot off a usb cd/dvd drive
and any usb cd/dvd not just the mac one

You already can (yes, with any USB drive). I'm just saying that the remote drive thing is no good for reinstalling the OS.

koola 15th January 2008, 21:30

Forget the mba, the time capsule is ace. Perfect for time machine and sharing.

Pre-ordered mine already lol

Mankz. 15th January 2008, 21:39

I'm with Koola.

Time Capsule is much more appealing to my needs than a MBA.

SuiSid3l 15th January 2008, 21:41

If you need more than 2gigs of ram then your looking at the wrong machine. go buy a mbp and stop complaining.

TGImages 15th January 2008, 21:48

I was strongly considering this... but... probably not anymore.

Good:
Thin, light, Wireless-N

Bad:
non user replaceable battery
only 1 USB port... most external drives want 2
intel built in video
2GB on the motherboard, not replaceable or upgradeable.
4200 RPM drive
1.6 (or 1.8) dual core

Undecided:
no ethernet port
no firewire.

Comments:
This is really targeted towards an ultra portable business user who does minimal graphics and works wirelessly without CD/DVD media or extra drives. Anyone else will probably be better served with the MacBook or MacBook Pro series. The final deal breakers for me are the non user replaceable battery and fixed 2GB. Running Parallels with two active OSes with essentially only 1GB each is really pushing it. Media people (movies, digital photos, etc.) won't have enough storage and don't have firewire drive options (something Apple has pushed a lot) and with the single USB port there won't be many external storage options (unless you are near a power source) that can be used.

I can understand the lower ghz CPU for power and heat issues but again that impacts media usage and leaves pretty much only the "generic" app user base.

But that's just my 2 cents.

naokaji 15th January 2008, 21:53

toshibas portege 500 series atleast if you can source the cash:'(

Firehed 15th January 2008, 22:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by koola
Forget the mba, the time capsule is ace. Perfect for time machine and sharing.

Pre-ordered mine already lol

Eh, I already have an airport extreme with a USB drive in. I consider it a wholly insufficient solution, especially as the authentication is a bit whacked and it's inside the network only (unless you ssh into one of your machines with it mounted and then navigate to /Volumes/AirportDiskName. As they're effectively the same thing, maybe Apple will release APE firmware 5.2.2 allowing TM backups so to not totally screw me over for buying something that was almost brand new a couple months ago.

Still, I'll probably be getting an XServe. I do enough web development work that I can kind of justify it on that alone, but mostly because 10.5 server should win at life (and my current fileserver can't run it, being a windows box).

Well,

$500 - Apple Developer Membership, which gets me (among other things) about 20% off a purchase once a year, knocking the XServe down to $2400, and a quad Mac Pro to just over $1800. I'll sell the MBP which will probably get me most of that $1800 back, and then maybe get a standard entry-level Macbook for $989. Dunno, contemplating it later tonight as I should be able to offload some of the cost of the server to the family (and then own them with rendering speed for whatever with Xgrid)

CardJoe 15th January 2008, 22:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nexxo
Y'all are not getting it. This is not a geek/gamebook. It is not a media player. It is not a long-haul flight workstation. It is a laptop that City types can drop in their briefcase and just work on, during the train journey or in their hotel, without thinking too much about logistics such as size, weight, carrier and accessories.

My tablet has better battery life and firewire, but less processing power and RAM. I use it for office tasks on the go, and it is powerful enough for that.

You are also overlooking the innovation of the product. It is a proof of concept. The trackpad is beautifully intuitive, and Remote Disk, frankly, is seriously cool.

Those type of people would, imo, have a laptop bought for them by their work or not be incredibly proficient with systems anyway. Either way, I think its more likely those people would go with a windows system. As others have pointed out, you can get a better Dell for less and get all the support etc that goes with it. If people were really worried about size, weight etc, then they'd probably want something thats less wide too. I can see it being useful in some scenarios - but most of those I can think of, you'd either want a CD drive probably (and not have to rely on a nearby Mac too) or something with a bit more grunt for presentations.

I dig what Apple have done and I bet it'll sell out of this world - but to me it's a massive design failure. It may be thin, but it threw away everything else I'd ever want in order to bring me something I'm not too bothered about.

And those people who just need something for a train etc will only carry it for a short time anyway - I doubt weight would be a major concern for a modern travelling businessman.

Solidus 15th January 2008, 22:59

Im not sure what the fuss is about. It does look nice but its specs are quite poor compared to the laptops out right now.

Iv just picked up a Dell XPS for £730 and i think its awesome, even though iv hated Dell prior (and still do minus this laptop)

Apple is focusing more on fashion statements than features it seems. A super sexy laptop that does about half of what the compeition does, which do it for almost half the price....hmmm...i dont know but common sense is telling me, just go with value for money and i really wouldnt shell out on that laptop.

I do however want an Iphone. As much of a ripoff as it is, when it comes down in price and more realistic in its approuch, il certainly look to get one as it is "sexy" but im not paying through the nose for it which seems to be apples aim these days and cashing in on the "cool rich kids" that can afford to shell out on their items.

antiHero 15th January 2008, 23:02

If you have the money get a Xserv! We got one in april last year and its a blast so far. Everything(except printers from windows:?) run perfect out of the box. Plus the whole sleek+small apple thing.

Tim S 15th January 2008, 23:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by CardJoe
And those people who just need something for a train etc will only carry it for a short time anyway - I doubt weight would be a major concern for a modern travelling businessman.

I dunno, I travel a lot and the only things that really put me off this notebook is the lack of Ethernet and inability to change the battery. It's got everything else I'd ever want - I see it as equivalent to my ThinkPad, but with a bigger screen, higher resolution, more performance and a smaller form factor (width doesn't bother me here, as laptop bags generally come in sizes that are way too big for my ThinkPad anyway). It weighs about the same and I see that as a good thing - the last time I lugged a 2.5-3.0kg laptop around a tradeshow, I had back ache for about a week afterwards.

OK, the battery isn't a massive issue, but I can fly across the world and use my laptop for about 15 hours of my flight time without a charge (using one 4-cell and one 8-cell) - WiFi has to be disabled obviously and the screen brightness is turned right down (you don't need it on high when you're on a plane anyway). In normal use, I get arou

Steve Jobs’ Macworld 2008 Keynote

Related articles on bit-tech.net