Sarah Ward’s Blog

So here I was waiting for the Macworld 2008 Keynote to begin. Lots of stuff about the iPhone which was nice, but still won’t be getting one until the 3G version is released and we have a lot more options for service provider. I’m not going to be stuck with an 18 month contract from O2. And rentals on iTunes, nice idea but we are so behind with what’s available in the UK iTunes store that I don’t think rentals here is going to change the world just yet. And then they bring out the Macbook Air, which was not entirely unexpected as it has been doing the rounds on the rumour circuit for over a year now. And I agree it looks absolutely sweet, but functionality wise it’s still not what I want or need. And here’s why…

• Lack of ports- one USB I doubt will cut it.
• No Superdrive - probably not a big deal as the only disc I have put in the my Powerbook in the last 6 months was drivers for installing a new printer. I don’t want to have to buy another one, but they don’t say if any 3rd party drives like the Lacie one I use on my G4 will also work.
• 2 Gb RAM max… and its soldered on!?!?! Great if that gives up and you can’t replace it. Call me power hungry but I would rather run Photoshop, Parallels etc on 4Gb Ram that I can replace if needed.
• Max processor speeds are low compared to the current Macbook Pro lineup. I’m assuming this was probably due to the amount of heat and size generated by the higher speed chips.
• Only supports up to the 23 inch HD Display from Apple. Now I know I like to dream a little, and hope I might one day be able to afford that dream 30″ model (like I can afford to do that any time soon - not) I don’t want to be limited in my choice either. Plus no dedicated graphics, so it’s already eating into that 2Gb RAM.
• Do I need a 64Gig Solid State Hard Disk, sure it should last for 50+ years, but to pay over £800 for the privilege of one. Will the rest of the Macbook Air still work in 50 years? I know what I’m like, I could quickly pack that 64 Gig with all sorts of junk. I need more space please.
• Can’t replace the battery. Apparently they will install it for free and the price is equivalent to any of the other portables, but what do you do in the mean time while they are installing it.
• It’s only going to be about £100 less than entry level Macbook Pro.

I’ll probably think of some more reasons why I shouldn’t pay for the Macbook Air. So for now, I’ll keep waiting for that Macbook Pro update that I have been hoping for the past 3 months. Just hope my 8 year old Ti PowerBook holds out that long, and my Dual 500Mhz G4 doesn’t need another power supply in the mean time while I wait.