I sure would have loved something with less weight at the airports. Lugging my carry on got to be a real pain. literally. Then lifting it into the overhead compartment was a killer.<br><br>On the other hand, the MBA would not be for me and my uses since my laptop is my sole computer for an extended time. I can see for frequent flyer business uses though.<br><br>

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>Every battery is not the same: this one is very wide and thin<p><hr></blockquote><p><br>So?<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>But you already know the ONLY factor is greed? <p><hr></blockquote><p><br>See your own reply to this question below.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>If your concern is that Apple is preventing you from buying a NON-Apple version, I'm sure that will in fact be possible.<p><hr></blockquote><p><br>If you're sure people will be able to buy their own battery and install it, then what good reason can Apple have for saying it's not replaceable?<br><br>Really.. Apple's smart enough to design a thin notebook, but not smart enough to figure out how to make the battery easily user replaceable? I find that incredibly hard to believe. A non-replaceable battery in a laptop borders on stupidity. There's nothing cool about walking into a presentation and having your battery die.<br><br><br><br>Hey I'm an F'n Jerk!®

You're fishing for phrases to object to that I think you understand, but I'll bite once <br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>If you're sure people will be able to buy their own battery and install it, then what good reason can Apple have for saying it's not replaceable?<p><hr></blockquote><p><br>I'm not sure I understand your question. Macs have always had various parts that you CAN upgrade, but that Apple doesn't officially support. Maybe because it's not quick, simple, tool-free, and most-importantly, because it's not supported by warranty, so don't expect their help? The internal details will be known soon. (By the rest of us... you may already know )<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p> Apple's smart enough to design a thin notebook, but not smart enough to figure out how to make the battery easily user replaceable?<p><hr></blockquote><p><br>That question doesn't make sense--and since you know Apple can figure out how to make a battery replaceable, I assume it's not a serious question. The legitimate question is: would it be AS thin if it were easily replaceable? I've mentioned the shell of the battery being one likely reason why thickness and replaceability are related. Are you certain that a user-replaceable battery has NO effect on thickness?<br><br>How about Firewire and onboard Ethernet? Maybe space for a little thicker (160 GB) 1.8" drive? Apple's "smart enough" to do all those things, so what's a little extra thickness?<br><br>Thin is purpose of this model, and that necessarily means compromise. I'd love a replaceable battery, three firewire ports, a 24" screen, and a terabyte RAID all in a palmtop. But reality means that you take stuff out to make something smaller. Apple chose different compromises than Sony chose.<br><br>You don't like the compromises. That doesn't make them a fiction, nor a conspiracy to scam a few bucks out of some tiny fraction of Mac users.<br><br>nagr[color:red]o</font color=red>mme<br><br>I require stroyent!<br>TeamMacOSX.com | MacClan.net

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>Sounds like the machine is not for YOU, so you assume it's wrong for everyone<p><hr></blockquote><p>You've spent too much time at MC. Chill dude. I DON'T assume it wrong for everyone. I'm simply asking what "large target market" Apple thinks it IS for.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>Do you believe these limitations have nothing to do with the purpose of the machine--compactness?<p><hr></blockquote><p>No I don't believe that. It's obvious that compactness is the only reason for the limitations. What I'm trying to get at is, to repeat myself, what large target market is willing to give up those features for simply to save a little size and weight.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>Nobody cares what the battery looks like. We care that the resulting machine is thin.<p><hr></blockquote><p>Apparently you do, you're the one who brought it up.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>My special kind of crack tells me I've never replaced a laptop battery.<p><hr></blockquote><p>I'll turn the tables on you on that one. Just because YOU haven't replaced a battery, doesn't mean the rest of the world hasn't. My company has over 100 laptops in use, every single one of which has had at least one battery replacement in under a year and a half - some of the heavily used ones have had two or more. Granted, they use the hell out of them, some are probably never turned off... but still.<br><br>The Graphic Mac for your Mac and graphics news, tips and more.

I would suggest YOUR company avoid MBAs (Sorry for using caps as a lazy man's italics--it does look like yelling.)<br><br>I brought up battery structure--not appearance for appearance sake.<br><br>Will attempt, in any case, to match your "chill" <br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>I can't think of a larger waste of money than the MacBook Air.<p><hr></blockquote><p><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>I don't give a [censored] what the battery looks like or how it's connected. No user-replaceable sucks, and Apple is raping people for replacing it.<p><hr></blockquote><p><br>nagr[color:red]o</font color=red>mme<br><br>I require stroyent!<br>TeamMacOSX.com | MacClan.net

I'd go one better: I think all companies should put the kibosh on people with MBAs. Consider what that degree has done to the country. <br><br>About batteries, I have to agree with Giz--in fact, I just got a new one for my 12" PB cause the old one was dying after a half hour of use. On the other hand, the iPods too have batteries that supposedly can't be user-replaced, but then users do that all the time.<br><br>&#63743; &#63743; &#63743; &#63743;

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>I'm not sure I understand your question. Macs have always had various parts that you CAN upgrade, but that Apple doesn't officially support.<p><hr></blockquote><p><br>There's a huge difference between not supporting a person putting a 3rd party battery in their product, and making as hard as possible to do so. I don't care about 3rd party batteries, and I don't care about having a charged spare battery.<br><br>I care Apple wants me to hand over my machine to them for a week or so, and fork over $150 for a part I could and should easily replace myself when the battery craps in a year and a half.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>The legitimate question is: would it be AS thin if it were easily replaceable? I've mentioned the shell of the battery being one likely reason why thickness and replaceability are related.<p><hr></blockquote><p><br>Yes. Why not? Asus makes a notebook where the battery is part of the shell of the computer. You can't tell there is even a battery that can be removed. <br><br>I see no reason the bottom of the airbook couldn't be the battery. By the same token, I see no reason the bottom couldn't simply pop off and there's the battery ripe for replacement. If there are 3rd party batteries that become available for the airbook, then Apple can do it.<br><br>We all know if you wanted to add airport to an iBook you just popped out the keyboard. If Apple had said users can't add the airport card, put in a non removeable keyboard and instead fork over $150 I'd have complained they were ripping users off that it's a part we could add ourselves. How many of you would be saying "Oh but there's no way it could be as thin if they let you do it!!"<br><br><br><br>Hey I'm an F'n Jerk!®

Look, I'm not trying to start an argument with you. Nor do I think the MBA will be a massive failure (though it could, similar to the Cube). What I'm trying to get at is that I just don't see what market this thing is targeted at.<br><br>We can look at the Mini and it's obvious what market that is for. The iMac, it's pretty plain to see. The MacPro, is for the pros. The MBA on the other hand, I just don't know. Is the market for the thing big enough? I can't see that many people who absolutely need the smallest laptop possible and are willing to sacrafice so many things and pay a huge premium for it. Please enlighten me if I'm missing an obvious large group of people/business who do need it. If you could net-boot the thing, I could actually see a bigger market, but you can't (yet).<br><br>I'm sure, much like all the other Apple products, the MBA will see a price reduction, feature additions, etc. and it will eventually find a place and value with a lot of people. It's probably also a sign of things to come from Apple (and other computer makers). <br><br>But like someone on another site asked: Right now, there is no way to actually upgrade the OS on the MBA. No media drive, no ethernet connection and no Firewire. So how is one supposed to reformat the drive and/or install a newer OS? Not everyone can afford to pay for even more stuff to go along with the MBA to accommodate the shortcoming. If I were betting, I would guess Apple has thought of that and is probably going to offer some kind of "over the Web" type of install thing. But if you buy one tomorrow, and this weekend it completely crashes, how do you fix it? <br><br>Or maybe they're working on a cheaper attachable media drive, etc. But then again, how to connect it? One USB port? I feel like Apple is making an awful lot of assumptions about it users that (right now) simply aren't true. Of course, a lot of people said the same thing about the original iMac with no floppy drive - but I think the vast majority of computer users DID in fact move past the use of floppy disks anyway by that point. I don't think we're there yet with DVDs.<br><br>And RAM limitation is a concern. A few OSX revisions back, you could run a G3 with 256MB of RAM acceptably. Try that now. OSX would probably gasp, fart and keel over. While 1gig is enough, 2gigs is **almost** the minimum to really enjoy all that OSX has to offer. The MBA probably isn't targeted for people who need more than 2GB of RAM, but you see what I'm getting at.<br><br>It's almost like Apple is making this computer for those who are Apple freaks (like me), who have a desktop Mac or two, have long-since gone wireless with networking, have high-speed internet, and love gadgets. Having all that, if I just needed a simple Web-surfing, emailing, presentation giving machine, the MBA is probably a good buy. But for me personally, I would rather spend $600-$700 less and get a MacBook and just accept the little bit of weight in my briefcase.<br><br>The Graphic Mac for your Mac and graphics news, tips and more.

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>I'd go one better: I think all companies should put the kibosh on people with MBAs. Consider what that degree has done to the country.<p><hr></blockquote><p>That gets my vote! <br>My next door neighbor has both a law degree and a MBA degree, both of which were obtained before he finished school. He told me that he couldn't possibly do, in good conscience, what what they were teaching them to do in business school so he chose to practice law.<br><br>Old farts, the hidden caulk of civilization. Jim Atkinson<br><br>

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>What I'm trying to get at is that I just don't see what market this thing is targeted at.<p><hr></blockquote><p><br>I think it's targeted to people like me, who'd like something portable to complement their desktop machine but aren't willing to have a notebook as a main computer because they hate notebooks.<br><br>The problem there is, I spend a lot on my desktops. So, if there's really no way in hell I'm spending $1700 for a notebook, I'm not spending $1700 on what is essentially a crippled version of a notebook.<br><br><br><br>Hey I'm an F'n Jerk!®