Blog of a Long Distance Worker Tech

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Tag Archives: air

Apple Netbook

Rumours abound on the Internet over the weekend about Apple testing an Arm A5 based variant of the MacBook Air. That is an interesting proposition with the same limits as recent discussions about the Windows 8 variant for Arm – it leaves behind legacy completely. However this could just so easily be called the Apple Netbook, as one of the big reasons to use the Arm would be to seriously extend the battery life of the device and also to lower the price for the hardware, although as always Apple would still likely charge a premium – say £500/$600 for it.

On the very first episode of TiPb TV we joked about the 11 inch MacBook Air being more like an iPad pro, but deep inside Apple’s secret labs they might be working on making it exactly that according to Japanese blog Macotakara

via Apple secretly working on a MacBook Air with an iPad A5 chipset? | TiPb.

What do you think? Would you even buy it?

Something in the Air

As a mobile worker, I slathered over the original Macbook Air however it simply was not attractive enough considering the recent launch of Netbooks from Asus and Acer. I found netbooks to be so much more cost effective without losing any of the functionality I needed. The fact that I am a confirmed PC user also helped. Since then I have gone from the original EeePC900 through the MSI Wind, on to the absolute lovely (and very Air ‘like) EeePC 1008 and now running with a workhorse Asus UL30A.

macbook-air-new2010Now with the new Macbook Air 11.6” and 13.3” models, Apple has reignited my desire. Well initially it did, but since then I have had a more considered set of thoughts (maybe it had something to do with the fact that I was enjoying a couple of jars in my roaming local whilst reading the tweets and web from the ‘Back to the Mac’ event).

Firstly the use of Flash SSD for mass storage is something that I can get excited about but its utility is extremely limited as I do not suffer from disk failures (in fact my most recent disk failure was an SSD on the original EeePC701) and find that having more storage that is slower is better than having less storage that is quicker. I struggle now whenever I have less than 250GB mainly due to the utility of having all my files with me and ubiquitous file sync.

Secondly the battery life, something that is one of the most important (if not THE most important) capabilities of a laptop. The new Air’s have battery lives of 5 hours and 7 hours respectively, something that is quite respectable and I understand that Apple normally hits the nail on the head with their lifetimes. These may seem good and they are compared to my old Asus 1008 which could get 4 hours, but not when it is compared to my Asus UL30 – a machine that I get a real 10 hours out of. The new Airs will not get me through  a working day without a charge, my Asus will.

Thirdly and finally, size/weight… once you get below a certain size and weight I believe there is a law of diminishing returns, and the extra thin and light Macbook Airs do not offer much advantage over my existing crop of machines. It is enough to be light and small, they do not have to be wafer thin and ultra-light.

The final point I have is also an important one… Apple have priced these machines well … for Apple Macs. However, I still bought both my Asus machines for the price of just one Air (the lowest cost one at that). I have the best of both worlds – the ultra light Asus Seashell 1008 (with 2GB of RAM) and the fuller body Asus UL30 (with 4GB RAM) without any premium being paid (and with both of them running Windows 7 Home Premium at that).AsusUL30 I also do not have to pay £21 for proprietary DisplayPort to VGA adapter, or however much it is for an Ethernet adapter… these come built-in to my little machines Smile

I can suggest that you also look at alternatives, and Crunchgear have some for you to look through… there is even a higher spec variant of my Asus UL30 in the list!

WiFi on Aircraft

800px-Air_travel_as_it_was_-_Heathrow_1960 Recently I had time to ruminate on the availability of WiFi on aircraft. There is much written and said about this in the US, and on the face of it, it seems that this would be a Nirvana of tech. However there is a big issue with it in the short haul flights of Europe, compared to the US.. at least the little hops that are popular say between London and Paris, and London and Amsterdam. The big issue is that out of a 1 hour flight that is common within Europe, you probably only have 20 minutes to actually get your laptop up and running, and then browsing the Internet. In fact, I have seen reports via Twitter of people who have paid for the WiFi literally only to be able to send one or two tweets before the messages comes to shut the electronics down.

advent-4211-msi-wind-mini-laptop-small The big blocker here is that generally your electronics have to be off from the time you enter the departure gate and move to the plane, through to that magic ‘SeatBelts’ light goes out. Then it has to be off from the beginning of the landing procedure to the time you are into the arrival gate. This is by far the longest time of the flight.

This is even true of the slightly longer flight, not quite a real benefit to the commuter traveller. In fact the real benefit is about NOT having technology.

One thing though, the real saver is the smartphone which does not have the start up and shutdown time… for the snatched email and web browse on the ground, but then WiFi is not required for that.