Apple Keynote: "The World's Thinnest Notebook"

[Harold Tuttle]

10:08 am   "The World's Thinnest Notebook"
10:08 am   As you know, Apple makes the best notebooks in the industry. Today, we are introducing a third kind of notebook. It's called the MacBook Air
10:08 am   4th thing: There's something in the air

 http://www.macrumorslive.com/

[Gewehr98]

Yay and Hooray.

Another iProduct.   

http://www.aboyandhiscomputer.com/show.php?ItemID=2204

[Harold Tuttle]

10:18 am   Apple asked Intel to shrink the Core 2 Duo. Intel shrunk the processor by 60%. Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel is taking the stage
10:17 am   1.6 GHz Standard, 1.8 GHz Option -- Intel Core 2 Duo
10:16 am   80 GB hard disk standard, 64 GB SSD as an option. "they're pricy, but they're fast"
10:15 am   1.8" Hard Drive
10:15 am   How did we fit a Mac in here?
10:15 am   Move a window by double-tap and move. Rotate a photo by pivoting your index finger around your thumb. Of course, pinch-zoom.
10:14 am   Multi-touch trackpad
10:13 am   display is LED backlit. iSight is built-in. MacBook-like keyboard, but with an ambient light sensor
10:12 am   Magnetic latch, 13.3" widescreen display
10:12 am   MacBook Air is 0.16" to 0.76". The thickest part of the MacBook Air is thinner than the thinnest part of the Sony. It fits inside a envelope
10:10 am   We thought 3 lbs is a good target weight, but there was too much compromise with the other features
10:10 am   Most people think of Sony TZ series when they think of thin notebooks. Competition specs: 3 lbs, .8-1.2 inches, 11 or 12" display, miniature keyboard, and slower processor.

[Manedwolf]

Apple's industrial design is astounding. And it IS design, not just clunky assembly.

Pick up an iPod Touch. Would you think, even a couple of years ago, that something that wafer-thin could show full movies and browse the web with an intuitive interface?

And my Macbook Pro...the thing is the laptop equivalent of a Stradivarius violin. It's just...perfect. Fast, reliable, can multitask huge creative-product apps without a crash or performance hiccup, just cranks out product day after day after day. Which is what you ought to expect by 2008.

[Harold Tuttle]

10:31 am   Randy Newman, Academy Award Winner to perform
10:29 am   In just the first 2 weeks of 2008, we have updated the Mac Pro, introduced Time Capsule, software updates for iPhone and iPod Touch, Movie Rentals for iTunes, Apple TV software updates, and MacBook Air
10:28 am   Environmental highlights: fully aluminum case (good for recycling), first fully mercury and lead free display, circuit boards are BFR free, retail packaging are 56% less volume than MacBook.
10:26 am   New Ad for MacBook Air. Plays off of the ability to fit in an envelope.
10:25 am   Pre-orders today, shipping in two weeks
10:24 am   $1799
10:24 am   2 GB Memory standard
10:23 am   5 hours of Battery Life
10:23 am   No optical drive, but a Superdrive accessory is available for $99. Also, software comes with the MacBook Air that allows you to "borrow" a Mac or PCs optical drive.
10:21 am   802.11n + Bluetooth 2.1/EDR
10:20 am   Other features: 45 Watt MagSafe, 1 USB 2.0 port, Micro-DVI, Audio Out
10:19 am   Steve retaking stage
10:19 am   Otellini: The processor is as thick as a nickle and as wide as a dime.

[Manedwolf]

MacBook Air is 0.16" to 0.76". The thickest part of the MacBook Air is thinner than the thinnest part of the Sony. It fits inside a envelope

Holy... 

Swiss watchmakers would be proud.

[wooderson]

$3100 for the version with the only reasonable HD (flash).
or you can pay $1700 for a notebook armed with the latest and greatest... iPod hard drive. roffle

Apple once again markets on image rather than usability. (I say this as someone who has owned nothing but Apple computers since 2001)

[wooderson]

also: only option is a glossy screen. Just like the iMac (though I doubt glare could possibly be as bad as on the new iMac).

Apple is dead set on moving beyond that artist/designer stereotype of their users, I guess - why else make your affordable products useless?

[Manedwolf]

Really?

Funny, whenever I take my 17" Macbook Pro to a meeting, mine's the only one that instantly grabs onto wireless and connects, while the Dell and Gateway users are still fiddling with Windows networking settings.

I call that "usability", myself.

The price of SSD technology is set by the manufacturers of it. It's hellaciously expensive for anyone, yet.

[mtnbkr]

Really?
Funny, whenever I take my 17" Macbook Pro to a meeting, mine's the only one that instantly grabs onto wireless and connects, while the Dell and Gateway users are still fiddling with Windows networking settings.
I call that "usability", myself.
The price of SSD technology is set by the manufacturers of it. It's hellaciously expensive for anyone, yet.

Funny, the Dell laptop I was given for work and the Dell laptop I own personally both acquire and use wireless connections for which I either have the security info or are open without any input from me.  The only time I have to touch them is for those connections with some flavor of security.

Both have XP installed, but I had the same experience with Win2k.

Chris

[wooderson]

Yes, no one who owns a Windows laptop can ever connect to a wireless network anywhere. That's the sole domain of Apple.

I like OS X. I hate Windows. But in terms of hardware, Apple is hardly special, aside from being pretty.

The iMac, in its current form, is just a complete POS. More glare off the screen than the worst CRT.
The Macbook - solid, but once again, glossy. Usable but far from ideal for the core 'creative' market that Apple supposedly holds.
Macbook Pro - good product, but not in any way superior to the Thinkpad line, inferior in many ways - but Thinkpads are, after all cursed with Windows.
Mac Pro - great for what it is, but also the only option if you want a genuine desktop (and if you're a photographer or designer, you've got to buy one, since the iMac is now useless) and ridiculously expensive and overly powerful for someone who just needs a basic desktop tower

I'd rather have the tiny Lenovo than this thing.

[Manedwolf]

The regular Macbook is meant for students who can't afford a Macbook Pro and for home and casual users who only want to browse the web, use Office, do a little graphics and basic home video editing with iMovie.

The Macbook Pro is an extremely powerful machine meant for professional production, use on movie sets, in editing suites, in the boardrooms of ad agencies and elsewhere, and is priced accordingly.

It's like comparing a Civic to an Acura TL. They're both Hondas, but made for different markets and purposes.

[wooderson]

Obviously the Pro is the more powerful model - never suggested otherwise.

But, the top-shelf Macbook is only $150 or so cheaper than the basic Macbook Pro - and gives you the option of upgrading the HD on your own. In all respects aside from the screen, it is a perfectly usable mobile platform for 'creatives.' And Apple used to sell a ton of 12" Powerbooks to those same people - who are now forced into either a large 'pro' model, or a mildly crippled plain model.

As for the Macbook Pro being "extremely powerful" - no more and no less than dozens of other machines on the market from Lenovo/Toshiba/Fujitsu/Dell. Less powerful than many, as Apple puts in less than ideal graphics cards.

This current model is more Apple hype and style over content - a laughably slow and small HD in this age, in a package that's just slightly thinner and 2# lighter than a plain Macbook - which comes in at half the price. In what world is that extra inch and two pounds a back breaker?

[Boomhauer]

What was it that Maddox said?

What PC users can do that Mac user's cant: Shut the F&^% up!

Hehe.

My Dell notebook works just fine and doesn't crash. It has power to do what I want. Weighs a bit, but I am not weak. It just plain works. And I didn't need to pay a fortune for one...

[mtnbkr]

In what world is that extra inch and two pounds a back breaker?

At the Apple store where the employees are too skinny and weak to lift that much and where the customers primp and preen in the presence of the Apple iProducts.

For most, it'll be nothing but bragging rights.

Chris

[Racehorse]

Apple makes good stuff. But the real genius of Apple is in marketing. How else could they convince people to spend twice as much for the same hardware? OS X is nice, but Windows XP is really not bad either. Apple is a marketing marvel.

[wooderson]

How else could they convince people to spend twice as much for the same hardware?

That's not really the case. Priced hardware to hardware, Apple is equal to or cheaper than other manufacturers.

What they don't have is the expansive product line of other makers - so some products don't compare well (a basic Dell desktop to a Mac Pro - a buyer might only need the power of the former, would have to purchase the latter if he wants a Mac).

[mtnbkr]

Apple makes good stuff. But the real genius of Apple is in marketing. How else could they convince people to spend twice as much for the same hardware? OS X is nice, but Windows XP is really not bad either. Apple is a marketing marvel.

QFT.  For what I and most others use a computer for every day, just about any machine will suffice.  People talk about the instability of Windows, but I haven't had a problem with Windows stability since I dumped the Win9x series and went to NT4, then Win2k, and most recently XP.  I can't remember the last BSOD I had.

ASUS has this nifty new laptop thing out that uses a flavor of Linux and has the basic apps preinstalled.  It's about $300.  I bet it would fit the needs of 3/4 of the users out there.  It would fit most of my personal use needs.

Chris

[BridgeWalker]

All sorts of new toys I need to buy.  Too bad there's no money right now.  Maybe in the fall.  I like the new wireless hard drive/router.  

[Gewehr98]

Funny, whenever I take my 17" Macbook Pro to a meeting, mine's the only one that instantly grabs onto wireless and connects, while the Dell and Gateway users are still fiddling with Windows networking settings.

Funny, my AAFES Dell Inspiron 6000 notebook running XP Media Center grabs wireless connections effortlessly at home, work, and around Madison.

[sarcasm]Do you suppose I got one of those rare versions of PC that might actually work without hiccups?   [/sarcasm]

We're not all incompetent Windoze users here, just so Manedwolf and Jim March understand...

[Racehorse]

How else could they convince people to spend twice as much for the same hardware?

That's not really the case. Priced hardware to hardware, Apple is equal to or cheaper than other manufacturers.

What they don't have is the expansive product line of other makers - so some products don't compare well (a basic Dell desktop to a Mac Pro - a buyer might only need the power of the former, would have to purchase the latter if he wants a Mac).

I respectfully disagree. I can get a much faster PC for the money than a Mac. I got an iMac as a gift about 2 years ago. I have nothing against Macs, but I'm a gamer, so I wanted a PC. I sold the iMac on eBay and built a PC that was much, much faster for the same money. Give me the specs of any Mac, and I can put together a comparable Dell or whatever for less.

[wooderson]

If you look at a Dell or Sony all-in-one, they're more expensive than a comparable iMac. As I said - you've got to compare hardware to hardware - the iMac isn't a traditional desktop, nor a gaming computer.

You can always get more 'value' with desktop components than the laptop components in an iMac. But you also have cables and a separate monitor and other trade-offs.

The previous generation of iMac was a great office, light design or hobbyist computer - fast enough to run Photoshop or Final Cut Express, compact, a decent monitor. Wasn't a gaming computer by any means, but wasn't designed to be. The new one would be even better, if they hadn't FUBARed the screen in order to make the front look uniform.

[Iain]

ASUS has this nifty new laptop thing out that uses a flavor of Linux and has the basic apps preinstalled.  It's about $300.  I bet it would fit the needs of 3/4 of the users out there.  It would fit most of my personal use needs.

Chris

Asus eee - I'm very tempted by them, especially as Asus announced at CES that there are 8 and 8.9" models on the way (granted the resolution stays the same, which is a little disappointing)

[mtnbkr]

nevermind, Iain posted the info.

Chris

[Manedwolf]

What kind of product name is "Eee?"

Did someone spill their coffee in their lap during the marketing brainstorming session?