Face Time - and macbook air

[jonoslack]

Hmm - not sure that this is the right place for this, but we've used it a bit between phones - the new beta version which works between any mac is a real ball - first of all it's stunningly simple to set up, after which it works really well.

Facetime Beta for Mac

It doesn't really do much that Skype doesn't, and of course, it is limited to macs, but it's so simple to set up, and it really does seem to work well too.

I just specced out a new macbook air with 256Gb 4Gb and the larger screen - I'm afraid it's going to have to wait for a bit!

 

[cam]

lucky for you, Jono, i will be in the states 21 november to 12 december if you happen it to come up with the dough sooner

i think my household is seriously looking at the smaller guys, if only to stop cat fights about who gets the electricity!

seriously hoping there is a guinea pig here on the forum to let us know if they are as good as they look...

 

[jonoslack]

lucky for you, Jono, i will be in the states 21 november to 12 december if you happen it to come up with the dough sooner

i think my household is seriously looking at the smaller guys, if only to stop cat fights about who gets the electricity!

seriously hoping there is a guinea pig here on the forum to let us know if they are as good as they look...

I've rather rethought, I'd love one, but these days I keep data on portable external encrypted drives (not personally paranoid, but clients data . . .) including my Aperture Library - and then I use firewire 800 . . . which of course it doesn't support.

So I just bought 8gb RAM for my 13", and I'll stick with that for the time being.

all the best

 

[LJL]

Interesting you should say that, Jono, as I was coming to the same conclusion. While I personally think the new MacBook Airs are really attractive, and could be the perfect tag-along device for some nice viewing and even a bit of work, as they are not totally underpowered now with better graphics cards, the lack of seriously useful connectivity for storage saps my interest. Like you, fast external FW800 drives or connectivity has become really important to manage growing libraries. Now, to be fair, the MBA does have USB2 connectivity, but not satisfying enough to handle fast CF card reader. And one cannot easily connect anything else.

Bottom line, these fantastically attractive new notebooks appear to be really geared more toward the mainstream business users, not so much the media intensive creative types. Nothing wrong there, as I had thought about going with one for greater portability, and maybe using an iMac or whatever as the workstation, but since I already have a very useful 15" i7 Core MBP with 8GB RAM, and FW800 connectivity, no real need, and the frustration of wanting the MBA to do more would be bothersome. So, I will drag the twice as heavy MBP around instead, but have lots more storage and utility with it. Were I back doing just business consulting stuff, the MBA would be the ticket for sure, or maybe even the next iPad iteration, but for doing more photography and video stuff, the MBP seems to be the minimal entry point tool.....and you can soup it up with SSD and more RAM for performance as you need it.

Still, the new MBA notebooks are seriously nice, light and fairly powerful machines that I do think will sell very well for Apple. Just not capable enough for more demanding tasks that some of us may need :-(

LJ

 

[jonoslack]

Interesting you should say that, Jono, as I was coming to the same conclusion. While I personally think the new MacBook Airs are really attractive, and could be the perfect tag-along device for some nice viewing and even a bit of work, as they are not totally underpowered now with better graphics cards, the lack of seriously useful connectivity for storage saps my interest. Like you, fast external FW800 drives or connectivity has become really important to manage growing libraries. Now, to be fair, the MBA does have USB2 connectivity, but not satisfying enough to handle fast CF card reader. And one cannot easily connect anything else.

Bottom line, these fantastically attractive new notebooks appear to be really geared more toward the mainstream business users, not so much the media intensive creative types. Nothing wrong there, as I had thought about going with one for greater portability, and maybe using an iMac or whatever as the workstation, but since I already have a very useful 15" i7 Core MBP with 8GB RAM, and FW800 connectivity, no real need, and the frustration of wanting the MBA to do more would be bothersome. So, I will drag the twice as heavy MBP around instead, but have lots more storage and utility with it. Were I back doing just business consulting stuff, the MBA would be the ticket for sure, or maybe even the next iPad iteration, but for doing more photography and video stuff, the MBP seems to be the minimal entry point tool.....and you can soup it up with SSD and more RAM for performance as you need it.

Still, the new MBA notebooks are seriously nice, light and fairly powerful machines that I do think will sell very well for Apple. Just not capable enough for more demanding tasks that some of us may need :-(

LJ

Well, they teeter on the brink for me - I couldn't manage with one USB port - two would be okay if either
1. it had an ethernet port. or
2. it had a firewire 800 port

I currently have an i5 imac (27), a 17"MBP and a 13"MPB, and also an iPad.
It would seem logical to replace the 13" with an air, but the connectivity is an issue. It would be interesting to see how the speed compares, but not quite interesting enough to shell out £1500 to find out!

Very beautiful though, as you say.

 

[iiiNelson]

I never understood the overlap of the MBA. Good concept but priced wrong. It fits a "Netbook" marketing strategy and goal IMO but retains MBP prices. At least they put some horsepower in this iteration...

 

[jonoslack]

I never understood the overlap of the MBA. Good concept but priced wrong. It fits a "Netbook" marketing strategy and goal IMO but retains MBP prices. At least they put some horsepower in this iteration...

Well, maybe, but reading the speed test comparisons, it seems that the maxxed out 13" is faster than the 13"MBP - and has better screen resolution. (mind you, it's more expensive as well).

However, I think it's always dodgy to do a price / value comparison between mac products and non mac products - it doesn't seem to have much effect in terms of sales!

 

[Godfrey]

I don't do image processing very often on a laptop and USB 2.0 pocket drive suffices for when I do. When it comes to laptops, small and light is better as long as they run most of the same software I run on my desktop, and the screen/keyboard are usably sized.

My ancient PowerBook G4 is still working well (I'm using it now), but when I do an update the MBA looks to be just the ticket, if the iPad hasn't replaced its functionality for me by then.

 

[Jack]

13" MBA 1.86, 7 hours of battery life max, no onboard DVD drive, no back-lit keyboard, no user swappable drives, 2G RAM, 12"x7.5"x.6.8", weighs 2.3 pounds and costs $1599

13" MBP 2.66 processor, 10 hours of battery life, 4G RAM, 14"x10"x1", weighs 5.6 pounds and costs $1499.

Seems you're paying a lot for smaller size and weight versus a significant hit on performance and utility... I'd buy the 13" MBP in a nano-second over the Air for the added battery life alone. But if the Air were 15 hours of runtime, then I'd be really conflicted.

 

[Godfrey]

13" MBA 1.86, 7 hours of battery life max, no onboard DVD drive, no back-lit keyboard, no user swappable drives, 2G RAM, 12"x7.5"x.6.8", weighs 2.3 pounds and costs $1599

13" MBP 2.66 processor, 10 hours of battery life, 4G RAM, 14"x10"x1", weighs 5.6 pounds and costs $1499.

Seems you're paying a lot for smaller size and weight versus a significant hit on performance and utility...

The trade off of 3 hours less run time compared to over 3 lbs lighter makes the MacBook Air much more appealing to me. I buy laptops with mobility as the priority. For only $100 more, it's a shoe-in: I've left *lenses* home for a 1 lb reduction in my carryall's weight, never mind a computer. ;-)

 

[jonoslack]

13" MBA 1.86, 7 hours of battery life max, no onboard DVD drive, no back-lit keyboard, no user swappable drives, 2G RAM, 12"x7.5"x.6.8", weighs 2.3 pounds and costs $1599

13" MBP 2.66 processor, 10 hours of battery life, 4G RAM, 14"x10"x1", weighs 5.6 pounds and costs $1499.

Seems you're paying a lot for smaller size and weight versus a significant hit on performance and utility... I'd buy the 13" MBP in a nano-second over the Air for the added battery life alone. But if the Air were 15 hours of runtime, then I'd be really conflicted.

Hi Jack
Well, you can put the RAM up to 4Gb very cheaply - 3.3lbs ain't nothing, and unless you put an SSD into the MBP you're going to lose quit a lot due to the read speeds from the drive.

I think what you're paying for is actually mostly the solid state storage.

The battery life is perhaps an issue - but then again, fast recovery from sleep means that you're likely to lose less battery if you're shutting and opening it a lot.

If you put a 256Gb SSD into a 13"mbp then the price difference isn't so much.

I'm just sad you can't put 8Gb RAM into one

 

[cam]

if you get the 11", no having to take it out when you go through security at the airport... if you fly a lot, that is huge!

 

[jonoslack]

Just a quick price and spec check:

MBP 13" 2.66Gh`
4Gb RAM
256Gb SSD
UK Price: £ 1849 US $2249

MBA 13" 2.13Gh
4Gb RAM
256Gb SSD
UK Price: £1509 US $1799

a DVD drive is $79

You get more screen resolution:
MBA = 1440 x 900
MBP = 1280 x 800

having just put an SSD into my 17"MBP I know how much difference this really makes.

 

[jonoslack]

if you get the 11", no having to take it out when you go through security at the airport... if you fly a lot, that is huge!

Actually Cam
I've had to take my ipad out every time I've flown in Europe recently (. . erm . . 6 times).
Each time they said I didn't have to - and then after the scan they'd made me take it out and put it through again

I think you'd find the same with the 11" MBA

 

[cam]

damn... oh well, good to know.

and it makes the 13" not so bad an option then

 

[Jack]

Aftermarket SSDs are a lot cheaper and better than Apple OEM...

 

[fultonpics]

gee, not much love for the Air here I guess.

I shot an NHL game last night--had to use Photoshop since didn't have time to download Photo Mechanic yet.

Results: faster to use than my macbook pro i5--end result was images loaded to agency, and I was out of there before all the fans were. Big plus was size--it sat easily on my lap during game, even thought I got hit twice by pucks. I could easily upload and edit during period breaks without running all the way back to the press room. With the i5, it is too heavy and cumbersome to do that--and making it back and forth to the press room is tough given you don't want to miss a goal in the early parts of a period.

Yeah, but it ONLY has a 1.86 processor and ONLY 2 Gigs of Dram and the 256SSD: (btw, spend the $100 and get the 4G models for piece of mind more than anything)

Good things:

Fires up photoshop in seconds--simple edits like crop, curves, sizing reasonably quick--as quick as the i5 from a practical standpoint

Runs simple actions fast--mine are primarily captioning/renaming zipping through a 50-100 shots folders

13" at 1400 by 900 works for quick edits (move dock to side)--not any worse than the 15" i5

Dumb ethernet adapter works GREAT on a fast line--like the one at HP Pavilion. 40 shots uploaded to server before I could pack my bag. Apple should have hard wired this thing. one USB slot for a card reader, a mouse--that's it. Need a hub or have to yank something if you need a hardwire connection. Or live with bluetooth stuff (yuk)

One can dwell on the speeds of buses, processors, dram all day long. But in the end it's the real world performance doing what YOU do that counts. Hey I worked at Apple, so maybe biased.

For us simple editorial guys, this is a real machine. For folks wanting to do commercial video or insanely large pictures, not the right weapon for the fight.

Also, I usually have a usb hard drive with me--so a quick backup after the game and I can transfer files to my larger machine at home for storage--that 256 drive has its limits.

I paid around $1470 for mine with corp discounts

For bigger jobs, still love my MacPro tower at home. Not so sure I need the i5 MacBook Pro though

 

[jonoslack]

Aftermarket SSDs are a lot cheaper and better than Apple OEM...

Hi Jack
Yes indeed (I've been buying them) but they still put the price of the MBP well over that of the MBA

More to the point:

13" MBA 1.86, 7 hours of battery life max, no onboard DVD drive, no back-lit keyboard, no user swappable drives, 2G RAM, 12"x7.5"x.6.8", weighs 2.3 pounds and costs $1599

13" MBP 2.66 processor, 10 hours of battery life, 4G RAM, 14"x10"x1", weighs 5.6 pounds and costs $1499.

add $100 to the MBA for 4G ram, and another $100 for the 2.13 Ghz processor, so that makes $300 difference

can you get good quality 256 Gb SSD for $300? you certainly can't in the UK, the best I've found are $600

 

[jonoslack]

gee, not much love for the Air here I guess.

Well, I'm impressed - having spent 1/2 hour with one in the Apple store - it seemed to stuff a standard 13 MBP into a stuffed hat.

Jack doesn't seem impressed though

 

[Jack]

My other issue is lack of a firewire port which my Phase back (and Hasselblad too) needs for tethering to our respective softwares --- and that IS a big issue for me really...

Since I already have a 15" i7 that I can tether to, I actually could see the 11" for me as a better alternative to the iPad -- but NOT a replacement for a power laptop.