MacBook Air

I want one .

OK, I had hoped for a bigger GPU and don't really need something that's quite as small, but this is a great start. And someone's gotta tell me whether there's another way to install a new system version without an external drive.

But boy, I wanted the PowerBook Duo back, and it is !

Update: OK, as more information has become available, it looks like I'll have to revise that statement. Yes, it's a nice form factor and a neat piece of tech, but the RAM is soldered on and fixed at 2GB, the hard disk is at most 80GB and slow, you can't install Windows on it easily (because you can't do a Windows install via Remote Disk), and there's no way to quickly swap batteries without a screwdriver. So, it's definitely not a WWDC machine for me (though it may be for others).

In general the optical drive seems to be the limiting factor, and I don't wanna lug around oodles of dongles or hubs ... that's bad enough with my mini, and that one has four USB ports, not one, and is stationary.

On the positive side, for Mac installs it uses NetBoot to start up from the shared install DVD, so as long as you have another Mac you can use that. Also, it can drive external 23" screens and does the screen spanning thing that they'd turned off in software on my old iBook. So, it's good, but not what I'd want.

Reader Comments: (RSS Feed)

Ahruman writes: Not just another system version. Most commercial software comes on DVD. A lot of games use the DVD as a dongle, too, although I appreciate gamers aren�t the main market.

Ahruman writes: Actually, you can ignore my previous question. The product page knows all.

Chuck writes: The MacBook Air can use the optical drive of any computer you own. So as long as it's not your only computer, you don't need a separate, external drive.

Uli Kusterer replies: ★ I didn't find it on the product page, but in the little movie where 'john' explains the device, he mentions that you can even restart while using a Remote Disk. So, looks like one can reinstall the system that way. Good enough for me.

Dan writes: Can I use the screens of all other computers in range so when I walk in a room, you see a movie of my face yelling "Spatch! Spatch!! Nine Minutes!!" or something? If not, what's the 144 megs of graphics RAM for anyway?

Mark Aufflick writes: You're not the only one who has been waiting years for a Duo replacement, but USB, bluetooth pairing, power & video connectors - there's still no convenience replacement for the Duo Dock. Not to mention the battery :( Sure - 5 hours is a heck of a lot longer than the 2-3 you used to get from the Duo, but with 3rd party fast chargers we used to keep a bank of batteries at the ready for travellers.

Uli Kusterer replies: ★ Yeah. I was hoping to use this critter at WWDC, but without the ability to swap batteries midway through, that'll be less likely, particularly as it seems the time Apple specifies generally doesn't include much Wifi traffic or CPU load, both of which I have a lot of at WWDC when downloading and compiling sample projects. With the charging stations in the corridors, it was very convenient to drop off one battery when going into a session, and then swapping them out two sessions later.

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