I say this because the poor man’s laptop this little collection of SSD and aluminium is certainly not, and I honestly don’t see any struggling J-school grads picking one up when they start crunching out copy at the local paper. “Disposable income” comes to mind as well.
Nevertheless writer John Brownlee, over at Gearfuse, adequately pleads his case about why that little hunk of premium-priced metal and silicon is the kind of tool that gets out of the way and just lets a writer, well, write.
Whether you agree or not is up to you, but I imagine many of you, the savvy readership, are probably more than content craving something else entirely when it comes to diminutive writing tools. [Gearfuse via Boing Boing]
Alec Beville
Monday, January 17, 2011 at 10:23 AMeew, no. When it comes to writing while away from a blank white screen, Macbook air is NOT perfect. Although they are light, bright and have a great finish.. it is easier with something smaller and less ‘pain-in-the-ass’ as the macbooks battery isn’t long lasting and the keyboard is just painful. But I am also inclined to say that it is quite good for writing in general. Or Not as it just slips right off your lap and falls all over the floor whilst you negate the terms of your ‘failty’ warranty with apple who wont give you anything in return.
samt114
Monday, January 17, 2011 at 11:06 AMIs this even a serious post? There is no useful information or comparison. What a load of shit.
Jack Dalrymple
Monday, January 17, 2011 at 11:21 AMsounds more like a facebook post than an article. really wouldnt mind trying a macbook just for a week or something.
just so i could honestly say “i prefer A over B” and give a damn good reason for it
matt
Monday, January 17, 2011 at 11:28 AMNo freaking way is it the perfect writer’s machine. To start with if you do take it outside on a warm day you are going to burn your wrists off. My ASUS ULV states that it has a ‘cool touch’ keyboard – only if you’re sitting inside 24/7 and not near a window. I never thought I’d say it, but screw aluminium. Lighter coloured plastic ftw.
Then there’s the ‘mirror’ glare screen etc. Bah.
MacMatte
Sunday, May 13, 2012 at 10:19 PMIf you hate Apple glossy screens, sign the petition at http://macmatte.wordpress.com – over 2,000 petitions there already.
Des
Monday, January 17, 2011 at 11:52 AMEverything Apple is perfect. Always. Forever.
/sarc
Wok
Monday, January 17, 2011 at 1:18 PMClealy not if this is the kind of story you punch out.
Caesar Wong
Monday, January 17, 2011 at 1:50 PMPortability is only the least consideration for a road-warrior writer. The process of writing itself demands that a good keyboard be at the very top of the feature list, and the Apples aren’t even remotely close to ranking highly in comfort, durability, tactile/feel, etc.
I seriously can’t figure out why the author thinks it’s the perfect writing machine. For all the epic gushing he never actually explains the reasons why the Air meets all of his supposedly lofty expectations.
Meanwhile, my panacea is achieved simply with mobile broadband, a Web browser and a cloud-based storage solution. I don’t even need to carry a machine around.
Zamil Mattar
Monday, January 17, 2011 at 5:22 PMThis may not be the right spot to mention it, but what’s portability without “connectivity”? Even if a writer gets around to writing a masterpiece on a MacBook Air, how is he/she going to publish it online without 3G connection (at the minimum)? I mention minimum because the option for 3G connectivity that is provided by the iPad seems more productive to a travelling writer than a MacBook Air. Hook up a bluetooth keyboard and prop it up on a decent stand, and Bob’s your uncle.
Jie Ma
Monday, January 17, 2011 at 7:46 PM@Alec Beville: Most laptops struggle to go more than 5 hours on actual usage and when I say that, I have had many laptops of many brands.
Krishnarjun B
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 6:49 PM@Zamil-Um, you CAN plug in a USB modem,thats what I would do.
The keyboard seems to be good enough-if its similar in any way to te apple bluetooth keyboard then I consider it quite easy to type on, and backlit is just a bonus.The battery life looks kinda dicey, but five hours is enough for any single writing drive I guess.
Weird article though,didn’t make a point.