The New IPHONE

[ragboy]

ok, so I am at a tradeshow, and I need to take a laptop. My wife didn't want me to take her macbook pro, which is what we normally do. I rarely travel. So I figured I would just get a macbook, about 1200 bones. I don't need a pro when I am away from my mac pro. My mac pro is a beast, and when I am away, I just need email, programming stuff, but no apps that need the beast.

So this was last minute, so I had to go to best buy instead of buying online.

Now, I saw the mac air intro at macworld keynote via video, and seen all the specs and articles. Seemed cool, but macbook is faster, and I didn't see myself needing/using the air.

So we get to best buy, and they have an Air. I touched it. That was it. I am typing this from the tradeshow, on the Air. It is thin, but almost bullet proof. It is VERY well made, doesn't flex at all. It is unbelievably light.

I bought a 24" dell monitor with me for my room. The air drives the 24 no problem, and you can do in clamshell mode. That means, you connect kb and mouse and monitor, and close the air. you keep working with just the one big monitor, like a desktop.

Anyway, very cool.

[dogbert]

Ok, so doesn't dragging a 24" monitor, keyboard & mouse kinda defeat the purpose of the air?

[ragboy]

I just set that up in my room, and use air in clamshell mode, and do real work, but take the air with me around the show, and in meetings and presentations.

Its a lightweight, solid piece of aluminum.

[dogbert]

Just messin' with ya

[Matt Garcia]

Nice Robert. What version of the Air did you get? I fell like I am going to break that thing whenever I touch it. It's so damn thin.

[ragboy]

I didn't get the one with the SSD, just couldn't justify the dough, and less space. So the regular version. It is thin, it even feels funny carrying by itself, its so thin. but it is durable. If you grab it by the corners, and try to flex it, it won't, its very rigid. Its a complete aluminum clamshell, and real durable. I also thought that little port door would break off, but not after I played with it. That door is on there good. Leave it too apple to engineer something so thin, so durably.

[Domsz06]

Very nice ragboy!!

[Matt Garcia]

Ya I dont blame you, that solid state drive one is pricey.

[Domsz06]

The solid state is not worth it IMO.

It's just a option for people with more money then sense IMO?

[da.bell]

Also, I am sure you can purchase it in 6-12 months and then install it without a problem. But again, I am not that aware of Apple laptop computers. But windows based laptops, you can upgrade.

[Domsz06]

i think I read on some website that someone is making an aftermarket one.

I'm sure ragboy will chime in and let us know.

[ragboy]

Several are working on it.

http://www.macworld.com/article/1323.../256gbssd.html

I have seen others sooner, with biggest being 160GB.

[Domsz06]

see

[ragboy]

The solid state is not worth it IMO.

It's just a option for people with more money then sense IMO?

Well, it depends. I manage my own server farm, and in that farm, I probably have 200 SATA II hard disks running in RAID systems or standalone. There are 3 things that fail in computers/servers. Power supplies, fans, and hard disks. Basically, the stuff with moving parts. CPUs and memory, almost NEVER fail.

Hard disks fail the most out of all of those, and when they fail, they usually fail disastrously, recovery not possible. Now add to that, that this HD is in a laptop, getting thrown around or even dropped once in a while. How important is your data? For me, my laptop doesn't contain anything critical. SSD drives have no moving parts, and can take a HUGE shock without any damage at all.

In the future they will be cheaper, and more laptops will have them.

As a side note, many don't realize, that macbook pros have accelerometers in them. The reason for this, is they can sense any sudden change in speed, like when you drop your laptop. The accelerometer will trip a safety, that will park your hard disk heads, hopefully before the laptop hits the ground. This greatly minimizes the chance of damage to your disk. This is because the greatest damage occurs when the disk head touches a platter, which can't occur when heads are parked.

Cool, huh? That's apple for you.

[Domsz06]

Well, it depends. I manage my own server farm, and in that farm, I probably have 200 SATA II hard disks running in RAID systems or standalone. There are 3 things that fail in computers/servers. Power supplies, fans, and hard disks. Basically, the stuff with moving parts. CPUs and memory, almost NEVER fail.

Hard disks fail the most out of all of those, and when they fail, they usually fail disastrously, recovery not possible. Now add to that, that this HD is in a laptop, getting thrown around or even dropped once in a while. How important is your data? For me, my laptop doesn't contain anything critical. SSD drives have no moving parts, and can take a HUGE shock without any damage at all.

In the future they will be cheaper, and more laptops will have them.

As a side note, many don't realize, that macbook pros have accelerometers in them. The reason for this, is they can sense any sudden change in speed, like when you drop your laptop. The accelerometer will trip a safety, that will park your hard disk heads, hopefully before the laptop hits the ground. This greatly minimizes the chance of damage to your disk. This is because the greatest damage occurs when the disk head touches a platter, which can't occur when heads are parked.

Cool, huh? That's apple for you.

i heard that about the accelerometer before and that's sweet.

I realize the need if your running servers like you are, but in a laptop they are more expensive cuz they are smaller. I mean your servers are not as pricey as the solid state for an air are they? My last hard drive crashed I think due to that. I wish I could get it fixed, so many pics on it I would like to retrieve.