Awsome piece of engineering.
Still overpriced piece of absolute junk ^^

desostros

@Lstormy10: Of all the reasons to not buy this thing, that's actually the dumbest.

Spyrojoe

I am totally buying one this summer, by that time there will be larger harddrive and a lower price, I'm sure.

rfaulder

@blacksamurai87:
That is the exact reason not to buy.

Lstormy10

Next comes the article quoting the prices of each component, which will total less than $1,800 and thus expose that evil Apple is making obscene profits from its products -- I mean, R&D and marketing are free, right? -- and that's just not fair!

(Hehe, you had to know this was coming! :-P)

packetsniffer

So it's literally... an amalgamation of iPods crammed together with an Intel chip? BUY.

blacksamurai87

@packetsniffer: Well - that's just obvious_

What I find interesting is the 16 - 128MB RAM chips they slapped onto the "re-tooled iPod"_

Makes for efficient use of space - BUT - makes for very INefficient use of Memory and makes it considerably slower than having 2 matched 1GB chips_

So yeah - looks more like a souped up iPod on steroids than a computer_

uberfu

Come on guys. LSTORMY10 is obviously an Zune user who's also exclusively AMD. :-p

Interesting that the LCD assembly is almost 1/2 of the entire weight.

Dearhaw

We are buying 10 this week.

RainyDayInterns

a hard drive is a hard drive. what difference does it make if it's also used in the ipod? in fact, what difference does it make if *any* of the components are also used in an ipod? i'm not a huge fan of the air's current configuration, but shared components is probably the stupidest reason i've seen yet for bashing it. oh i forgot, it's become cool to apple bash for any reason, same as it is for microsoft.

firesign

Uh, so what DID you think was inside of it? Puppies and Magic?

Kaiser-Machead

Crapple FTL.

Fail

Boo

Not a fan of this one. Why not make a powerhouse? I'd rather have an EEE anyway.

NMC ONE WAY

too many trolls in here?!!??!?!

ImTheKing

So this really -is- a really big iPod...

Reilaos, Putting the 'Fun' in Dysfunction!

@uberfu: hav you actually ever bought or even seen a ram module?
a 1gb ram module normally has 8 -128 mb chips (or 16 -64mb chips!!

nidinp

@Kaiser-Machead:
"Uh, so what DID you think was inside of it? Puppies and Magic? "

Well, you know the ol' two probes stuck in a potato or lemon powering a clock project?

APPLE a nice shiny GM APPLE with probes.

ANoel

No disassemble!

nagrom

So it looks like most of the 3 Grand goes for innovation...

SFKevin

@Spyrojoe:
I meant in the way that it is underpowered (because of iPod-like components, not Intel) for its price - being a person who enjoys videogames, I need some more power under the hood for the price on the Air.

@Dearhaw:
I own both an iPod and a Zune. I also have only computers with Intel processors (and other Intel components also) - I go for whatever processor has the most power that I can afford (doesn't matter to me whether its AMD or Intel).

Lstormy10

Ignore that EEE behind the curtain!....

SFKevin

can i has it?

EL_RIEL

So, does the motherboard say "ASUS" all over it?

darex

@Lstormy10: "being a person who enjoys videogames, I need some more power under the hood for the price on the Air."

Seriously? There are still people out there guffing the Air because it's not up to par for gaming? Why don't you also not buy a new box of cereal because you need more "power under the hood" for gaming?

The Air isn't made for you, jackass; move on.

cvalue13

@darex: no, it says foxconn, just like most of the big computer companies motherboards do.

firesign

No optical drive. Less space than a Vaio. Lame.

(for those that remember the old "less space than a Nomad" anti-iPod comments)

permissionmag

The air is a solution for people on the go who need to whip up documents, e-mail and take some notes. It's not exactly a top-end piece of gaming hardware and it's not meant to be.

Kudos for the innovation in pushing the boundaries of thin and light.

***waits for the next round of thin+light offerings***

Magiksreal

It's an amazing ultra portable machine but pretty much junk. stick to your MacBook Pro ppl

gbirrueta

So is a 160gb ipod classic drive too husky to be crammed in there?

adam_h

I really think they could have made the screen bezel a bit thinner, the only thing around that lovely screen is a bit of wire and the double sided sticky tape that holds it together.

Drvec

wow.. that was smart to use parts from other products and just put it together and get more profit than selling the original product.. lol.. but good luck in selling those.. such junk.. haha

Fingerling17

Now to locate the trace for the "warranty expired" interrupt and cut that, so it'll carry on working beyond 12 months....

Lauren

It's an AirPod!

Brau

Its a laptop without a cd drive !

piece of junk......

mrbreakit

@mrbreakit: Not sure what you do with your laptop, but I've only ever used the DVD drive on my iBook like, twice. Ever.

whyisjasontaken

@Magiksreal: Exactly. While I have a lot of same complaints as other people, my primary obstacle is actually the inability to replace the battery. If I could do that, I'd be far more sold.

I work in the international affairs arena, with a lot of moving around to meet with various groups of people, or in meetings from room to room, and am down to the wire for getting a computer that can move easily with me. I am already carrying and gathering lots of paper documents, I don't need more weight (or thickness) in a computer. So thin actually counts to me -- frustration is when you can't get key papers in your bag because your computer, its battery, cord, etc. take up space, so you end up carrying TWO bags, or papers by hand.

I want to be able to whip it out in a meeting to edit a resolution analysis based on a discussion with delegates, to see if someone emailed me the information I need, to quickly type up a brief on the meeting and email it, to translate a document, to pull up documents for reference in a conversation. I want to be able to MOVE with it, from seat to seat, room to room, meeting with this group, that person, while sitting at an informal lunch meeting.

I don't need a large hard-drive because I want it for a specific set of files, not EVERY file I have. I am quick to archive files off my computer on a personal basis, and have the same policy professionally. I don't like computer clutter. I am not playing computer games, not sitting around watching movies from a DVD. Nobody ever comes to me with a CD to transfer information, as we aren't going to carry them and we aren't eager to open up to computer viruses from across the world.

I don't want to wheel a computer bag around. I don't need extra ports. I will either have wireless or I won't, but being wired to a wall is virtually never an option. Unlike others, I am not fooling myself about how much power I need in my computer. Most people have more than they need, and would have much more functionality if they maintained their computers without loading it up with crap. I am not installing lots of programs -- again, don't like clutter, I like efficiency and want the complexity in what I do, not in the tools I use.

I'd be using the MacBook Air in an environment where people are going to envy it, not for superficial reasons, but because they are lugging around too heavy computers, squinting at too small computers screens, in pain with tiny keyboards, or they didn't even bring their computer because it was too much of a bother. When they rush to use one of the handful of public computers available in the building 'for delegates use only' - crappy desktops, buggy, lacking privacy, etc. I don't want to be rushing with them.

My goal is for two computers -- one that primarily will be used at home, or transported from country to country, when I actually will be carrying bags so the computer won't be much added weight -- and the other that is portable, sleek, efficient for the above-described scenarios.

I already decided on a 17" MacBook Pro for the "home" - and no I don't want a small one for home that can also be transported, because at home and when able to carry, I want a big screen and need lots of power because I may watch DVD, install certain programs, store far more. I couldn't decide on the portable one, because I don't want too tiny and it would be a waste to get a big hard-drive since I am not keeping that many documents on the portable one. I'd actually switch them off once home, or access them online. I also don't want my most personal files on the work computer, what's the point? That big hard-drive would be a waste of space, and that POWER would also be a waste.

All this back and forth conversation, I don't see much really talk about the different ways in which people use computers. A computer is efficiency, not a storage facility for everything we can get on a computer. Again, we also aren't focused on playing games on our computer, aren't editing our next movie, aren't trying to store years of music, photos from the family trip, and - wait for it - we actually DELETE stuff from our computers.

I am leaning more and more towards getting one.

noasalira

@Lstormy10:

good luck playig games on ANY ultraportable.

it's calles a "sub-notebook" for a reason

sharkilepsy