<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>I see no reason the bottom of the airbook couldn't be the battery.<p><hr></blockquote><p><br>In the keynote slides, it looked to me as though the aluminium shell is, amongst other things, a heat sink for the logic board and cpu - the battery was well away from that section, and there was a fan in there anyway. Making the whole base be the battery would probably lead to overheating of the cpu.<br><br>- padmavyuha<br><br>[color:purple]A lopsided man runs best along the little side-hills of success<br>- Frank Moore Colby</font color=purple>

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>There are just WAY too many limitations on this machine to cost that much. If this thing were $500-$700 it would be another story... but nearly $2,000 is flat-out stupid.<p><hr></blockquote><p><br>I agree! <br>The 'thinness' may be a 'cool' thing but this notebook isn't going anywhere!<br>A 'dud', IMHO!<br><br>[color:blue][/b]Hodie mihi. Cras tibi.</font color=blue>[/b]

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p><br>In the keynote slides, it looked to me as though the aluminium shell is, amongst other things, a heat sink for the logic board and cpu<p><hr></blockquote><p><br>ahhh... I didn't see the keynote. So that means hot nuts! :)<br><br><br><br>Hey I'm an F'n Jerk!®

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>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><p><hr></blockquote><p> I hear good fences make good neighbors. I would add razor wire.<br><br>

Supposedly you can boot from Remote Disc. You certainly can from the external (which Apple offers) if you have no other machine.<br><br>The market is people who value thin and light above all else. Likely they already have a primary computer--only a few will use an MBA as their sole machine.<br><br>I disagree about the need to have 4GB vs. 2GB being widespread. And slotted RAM is yet another thing to take up space.<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>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.<p><hr></blockquote><p>First, we don't know how hard it is. Where is your information on that? What we can at least guess is that it's not consumer-friendly like having an eject tab. Second, I find it more likely that the design (100 models they went through behind the scenes) was driven more by thinness as a goal, rather than by thinking how they could make unsupported part swaps harder.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>If there are 3rd party batteries that become available for the airbook, then Apple can do it.<p><hr></blockquote><p>The 3rd-party batteries won't be nice sturdy things you can toss in a bag. They'll be replacements, not spares, and they won't be easy to put in. They will be asking for trouble for many users, who would therefore be well served by having Apple put it in. The one-week turnaround for that procedure is your guess, but not yet known. I'm sure, for some in remote areas, that is possible, and would be a reason to choose a different model.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p> How many of you would be saying "Oh but there's no way it could be as thin if they let you do it!!"<p><hr></blockquote><p>Ummm.... the iBook wasn't design with the goal of being ultrathin and ultralight.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>I see no reason the bottom of the airbook couldn't be the battery<p><hr></blockquote><p>We know Apple's engineers went through a lot of decisions in the past 2 years. We don't know what they are. We do know every part of the design has an effect on other parts of the design, and then no one decision stands alone. Saying something is possible is easy. If actually making it happen is easy, you should send your resume to Apple <br><br>I see two POSSIBLE (and I claim no more than possible) categories of problems with a removable battery in a machine is wide AND thin as the MBA (which the Asus is not):<br><br>1. Problems with the battery itself. We know the battery takes up most of the surface area of the machine. We know it's super thin--at most, it's as thick as half the clamshell minus the aluminum shell. We can also guess that--for the "thin" reason once again--it lacks the rigid plastic shell that familiar replaceable batteries are contained in. It has some kind of shell, but not as thick and sturdy as the batt on a MacBook or Pro. And yet because of its huge surface area, it could use a MORE rigid case, not less. So, super thin--much thinner than the MBA itself--and super wide, and containing hazardous materials. Sound like something people ought to be throwing into backbacks? It probably lacks a heavy-duty connection mechanism too (again--size and weight). Even if Apple forbade people from carrying spares, the swap could easily break the battery or the connection upon installation. Sounds just like the kind of issue that has made other parts non-user-serviceable in the past.<br><br>2. Problems with the computer. This computer is wider and thinner that the laptops you are thinking of. Its shell is vital to it remaining rigid, protecting its internals, closing properly, and withstanding the weight of user's arms (which are right over the battery--a logical choice, since a battery can be squeezed into a tight wedge while ports and chips and drives and fans cannot). Saying you can separate a big part (more than half) of that shell and not lose rigidity is making a big assumption. Unless you add additional structure. Additional thickness and additional weight.<br><br>Let me be clear that I think it's possible Apple designed the MBA battery with NO goals in mind other than scamming certain customers out of $30, charing $129 for a battery that should be $99, or whatever. Possible--just highly unlikely given that there are OTHER possible and reasonable explanations too.<br><br>It seems you feel there are NO other possible explanations, and that size and weight are without doubt NO factor in the battery design. We'll have to disagree on that point.<br><br>P.S. The MacBook Air isn't crippled for my usage. Which is pretty broad as it happens. It certainly is crippled for some users' needs. Any ultraportable will be. And yet people buy them, making the trade-offs that suit their own goals best.<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>Supposedly you can boot from Remote Disc. You certainly can from the external (which Apple offers) if you have no other machine.<p><hr></blockquote><p>And both of those require you to spend more money, in the case of another Mac, a LOT more money. And boot from an external how? If the MBA is your only Mac, how do you install the OS on the external in the first place, since once again, you have no DVD drive. I guess you could get an external DVD drive, but the only way to connect it is the single USB port, which probably won't have enough power to run the DVD drive, or run the battery down to nothing in the process.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p><br>The market is people who value thin and light above all else.<p><hr></blockquote><p>Right. But WHO are THOSE people? What do they do for a living? WHY do they need light and thin above all else? Obviously there are those people, but is there a lot of them (enough to sustain the business model Apple is going with)? I'm just curious. Every other model I can think of a very large target market, but I can't for the MBA.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>Likely they already have a primary computer--only a few will use an MBA as their sole machine.<p><hr></blockquote><p>That's exactly what I think too. But I also think that the market of current Mac owners looking for a crippled laptop as a second computer isn't as big as it would need to be in order to justify the costs of the R&D, manufacturing and sales of the MBA. I don't know, and I'm obviously speculating. But we aren't talking about a "cheap" second computer here. For that kind of money, most people I know would want a little more bang for their buck. Granted, the people I know are mostly in the design field.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p><br>I disagree about the need to have 4GB vs. 2GB being widespread.<p><hr></blockquote><p>I didn't say 4GB, nor that it was widespread. I said that in reality, 2GB is just enough to acceptably run the OS and some minor apps. For anyone who wanted to do more, I think 2GB is not really optimal. But as you've said, this is probably not the "main" computer for those folks, so maybe it's a moot point.<br><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 guess you could get an external DVD drive, but the only way to connect it is the single USB port, which probably won't have enough power to run the DVD drive, or run the battery down to nothing in the process.<p><hr></blockquote><p>Apple has a USB SuperDrive for it for $99. It's bus powered.<br><br>------> JD's Trivia game<br><br>------> MCF-MM Trivia game

By the time the battery dies, the computer will be obsolete anyways. <br><br>

<blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>But WHO are THOSE people? What do they do for a living? WHY do they need light and thin above all else?<p><hr></blockquote><p>I'm guessing you can't pin the desire (not always "need") for thin and light on just one or a few demographics/industries. Just like a broad range of people will value speed or other general specs. A broad range will value portability. (Which is actually a major reason why people buy portables.) Some will be students, some businesspeople, some travelers, some who just like to roam their house or visit friends. The ultraportable segment--always with SOME compromises--has existed before Apple, and is not cheap. A general reason why many might value thin and light above SOME other things is that a MacBook Air doesn't really give up anything they personally need:<br><br>I'll use my MBA the same way I use my iMac that has "only" 2 GB. ("just enough to acceptably run the OS and some minor apps" ?) I'll use it for programming, 3D modeling, animation, video editing, photo processing, illustration, web development, word processing, business management, Web, email, watching TV, listening to music and gaming. (But not UE3!) I'll run Photoshop, Lightwave 3D, Flash, Illustrator, Director, RealBasic, Unity, iPhoto, GarageBand, Google Earth, EyeTV, Unreal Tournament 2004, and even the occasional dip into Windows XP. The same things people have done with less than 1.5 Ghz dual cores and less than 2 GB. The same things you can do BETTER or FASTER (and sometimes even notice this) if you have 2GHz and 4GB. But you don't need those specs. (What you do need is a computer, and if you've left your laptop behind because it's heavy and a beast, you have 0 GHz and 0 GB. Everyone has a threshhold for when it's "worth" lugging the laptop along. Size and weight changes that threshhold. This matters to some people more than it matters to others. Is that a surprise?)<br><br>There's actually very little that a 1.6 GHz Core 2 Duo "can't do" even with "only" 2 GB RAM. It's "crippled" by your definition--not by everyone's. It's surely crippled if you intend to have it as your ONLY computer and wish to import from a DV camcorder.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p> For anyone who wanted to do more, I think 2GB is not really optimal.<p><hr></blockquote><p>Now we agree. 4GB (or 8GB with 16 cores) would be more "optimal" for lots of things. But you CAN do those things well and fall short of "optimal." For that matter a tower is probably optimal for lots of things. You make sacrifices to get a portable. You make a few more to get an ultrathin. If the sacrifices are too great, and the benefit too low to be worth the price, you choose a different model.<br><br>I definitely agree with you on one thing too: the MBA's market is smaller than the market for their other models. I'm not worried that Apple will fail to pay for their R&D, and you shouldn't worry either: even if they don't, the company will stay afloat. I'll gladly enjoy the fruits of this venture even if it fails to be profitable I'll also enjoy the many future fruits of a company that dares to release products that are different from the expected categories. I'm sure you don't want to see an Apple that stops taking risks. Still, if I had to guess, I'd say this WILL pay for itself and make a profit. It will sell well--not like the mainstream models, but well enough. And its R&D cost--not to mention mindshare and press attention--will contribute to future products beyond just itself.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p> Every other model I can think of a very large target market, but I can't for the MBA.<p><hr></blockquote><p>Define "very large." By my definition of "very large," no very large market exists for 160 GB iPods, or fully loaded XServes, or a million other things. Who cares? They need a market, not a "very large" one.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>And boot from an external how? If the MBA is your only Mac, how do you install the OS on the external in the first place, since once again, you have no DVD drive. I guess you could get an external DVD drive, but the only way to connect it is the single USB port, which probably won't have enough power to run the DVD drive, or run the battery down to nothing in the process.<p><hr></blockquote><p>You may be ranting against the details of something you haven't looked into the details of <br><br>First solution: you need not have a Mac. The MBA will read DVDs through a WIndows PC too.<br><br>Second solution: http://www.apple.com/macbookair/specs.html<br>"Play or burn discs directly with the external USB-based MacBook Air SuperDrive. Thin, light, and easy to take with you, this drive is designed specifically for MacBook Air."<br><br>And a solution dedicated just to the question of how you install an OS without the DVD running down the battery: you plug the laptop in--just like any other.<br><br>nagr[color:red]o</font color=red>mme<br><br>I require stroyent!<br>TeamMacOSX.com | MacClan.net