Apple releases new MacBook
The new MacBook Air pushes the boundaries of what is on the market in terms of portability and weight in a laptop.
According to Apple’s Web site, The MacBook Air is 0.76 inches thick at its thickest point and weighs three pounds. The Web site also explains that Intel redesigned its Core 2 Duo processor to fit in the dimensions of the computer.
The MacBook Air also features a full sized keyboard and an oversize trackpad, which functions as the computer’s mouse, with multi touch capability like on iPhones and iPod Touches. This allows users to swipe through pictures as well as increase or decrease document sizes without touching a key, which uses are well demonstrated in Apple’s guided tour of the new product.
The Web site also claims the MacBook Air will be the first laptop to sacrifice a CD/DVD drive while still being able to get information from a CD or DVD by streaming it wirelessly from another computer that does have the proper optical drive.
The Apple Store’s biggest option available to consumers is the choice between an 80GB hard drive or a 64GB flash drive, which is about $1299 more. The advantage of a flash drive is that it has no moving parts and therefore is more durable than a normal hard drive.
“I think that flash drives and no optical drive is the way of the future because they will get rid of the need for physical media,” said Sam Bush, a junior economics major.
While some people may be eager to have a computer with a flash drive, others are still skeptical.
“Most people will probably go with the hard drive because it is expensive to go with the flash and not worth it for the typical consumer,” said an Apple store team member who asked to remain unnamed in order to avoid employment termination.
The Air’s processor, which sacrifices performance for size, is not as fast as the processor in the MacBook or MacBook Pro and will not be able to utilize the full capacity of the flash drive, the employee said.
“The limitations of the processor will eliminate the benefit of having the flash drive,” said the Apple employee.
The flash drive will still make everyday work run faster, but the little benefits are not likely to justify paying $1299 more for most consumers according to the Apple employee.
“Purchases beyond the tech geeks that always like to buy the newest thing will be scattered until the processing speeds increase or they scale down the optical drive to make it more suitable as a primary computer,” said the Apple employee.
While the MacBook Air may not be everyone’s dream computer with its price and limitations, it is a great step forward in technology and will lead to better, smaller laptops in the future.
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Andrew Nute at Andrew.nute@colorado.edu