Macbook Air is not an Apple innovation
Charlie's Rant Intel deserves all the credit
AFTER SEEING ALL the hype last week about the Macbook Air, I am left in complete awe at how stupid the mac fanbois, the general public, and sadly almost all of the IT press is. Some get it, and I think Anand was the only one to put 2 + 2 together, Apple did diddly squat here, Intel did, but it gets no credit.
Lets go back to square one, Apple does not engineer a damn thing, it designs. For the longest time, it has taken very reliable reference designs and wrapped them in stylish plastic that magically lowers the reliability by orders of magnitude. People only see the plastic, fanbois are far too dumb to question anything, and people wonder why they break down so often. Silly Mac addicts, real computers are for those with triple digit IQs, regardless of the temperature.
If you have been paying the least bit of attention to Intel over say the past two years, you will have noticed that one of the drums they have been beating is packaging technology. This has nothing to do with semiconductors, just the little bits of green fiberglass you stick them to and, equally important, how you stick them. It is not glamorous, it is not sexy, and it sure as heck isn't Slot 2.
So Intel innovated, or at least refined like mad, and the result is the Macbook Air. Apple did jack all to make this a reality, and Jobs gets all the credit while snubbing his fans like always. Let me repeat that, Apple didn't do anything here but design a shell, Intel did. Apple get the credit, Intel gets, well, I am not sure what.
This realisation will probably make the true fanbois go crying into their closet of dead Ipods, but it is true. The only thing Apple added other than the design ethic is a warranty three days short of adequate. Let's see if the failure rate with these uber-expensive toys is any lower than the last three or four new things big fruit introduced. I will bet it isn't.
In the end, the saddest thing about the Apple dog and pony fawnfest is that the first decent product to come from that part of California in a long time, the revamped Apple TV, is being overlooked and forgotten.
As you will see soon enough, the technology is not exclusive to Apple, and everyone and their brother will have similarly thin models out in short order. Lenovo has one imminent, Sony will make something as stylish, and by the end of the year, every Taiwanese ODM will be there too. If you find this interesting, thank Intel, not Apple. µ
Comments
Bitter hater
I'm simply a defender of factual accuracy. I am not an Apple fanboy. It's a shame Charlie doesn't have the IQ to write more worthwhile articles that are better researched. History means nothing to him clearly. He has also assumed Apple is another PC vendor that just sticks the bits together. He also excludes the tight integration with the software which itself can contain innovations. Apple used to engineer its own chipsets. Nowadays they integrate, but still engineer some of their own unique hardware components. Try reading the hardware developer notes at developer.apple.com. The MacBook Air one will probably be online within the month. This article just wants to spread hate. I applaude the other writers here who do their best to remain impartial, whilst still being funny with the odd little jib.Sure
The industrial design team just gave Intel a sketch and said design this that is exactly how it went. apple doesn't employ any hardware engineers. Of course why don't we see any PCs that look like this designed by intel because it was designed in partnership you idiot don't buy one if you hate but get your facts right.Well Doh
Apple is a designer, they help with specifications, but they take technology and put it together in a package that is usuable, thats what they have done, since they started, whats wrong with that?It took the release of the iMac before USB hit the big time.
Without their design influence we would still all have beige boxes, it is down to apple consistently making the PC look like a minger, that has pushed designs forward.
Seriously this was just an excuse to rant at apple, for being good at what they do, when you were listing all those companies that would bring out something like apples airbook in the next couple of months you missed the most important point..yet again they are all following its lead!
I use PCs I don't even have an Apple, I do have an Ipod, and even I'm willing to admit, without them, this industry would b very very dull indeed.
I suggest you grow up, this article has let down the whole site.
Bad article.
I don't necessarily care about the 'innovation' of Apple; I don't really think the MBA is an innovative product. At all. I do own a mac, but it's because it the system which best supports the work I do. I don't defend Apple to the death and, as such, I try not to label myself as a 'fanboi'. However, in what could have been an insightful article, it merely turned into a series of attacks and insults towards a particular demographic. Journalist? You should be ashamed to call yourself that after publishing this article.Credits due
Credits go where credits due...I completely agree with the author. Still, I think the move by Intel to create the new Apple computers was a bit too much. I hate the senseless marketing campaign Apple does and the pure extorsion on, the latest, batteries, the AT & T plans for the Iphone and all.. They are pretty and that's it... Build a box, put linux on it and blam... a Mac clone.
I will never buy a Mac in any shape or form because of that, don't like to swallow updates I don't want to or pay through my eyeballs for a battery...
Shame though... They are so pretty I'd like one of those ...
Hurray for Intel (again)
Macbook Air
I wonder if the geek who wrote this article is as dumb in real life as he is on paper. We may never know!AND ? Where is the News...
Dell tells everybody they have the largest R&D budget - because they count MS, Intel and all the others ??? Most of the innovation comes from Intel, Nvidia and the suppliers...nothing new...and again - NOT New that most credit is given to the "Manufacturer", BUT - in that case Apple made the best possible design instead of others - so they receive the credit...And - to you Inquirer guys - mostly you are beating Intel, so why the opposite now ????
Ummm did you see keynote?
Did you actually watch the keynote speech from Jobs where he got Intel on stage and congratulated them on the hard work they did and basically... umm well recognised them for their work!Seems like you’re on an Apple bashing rant to me... Are we going to see Levano or Sony publicly thanking Intel when they release their thin notebooks? I guess not… oh wait, their just a customer buying and using Intel’s product in their product.. That’s like what Apple did… except… ermm… Apple commissioned the work from Intel as its customer and other manufactures will now be able to enjoy innovations that resulted from this work. All manufacturers will be able to use the new chips too so everybody wins even if you don’t like Apple notebooks... So what’s the point of your article?
Charlie rules
You are so right. Glueing stuff together got their first quad core a lot earlier than AMD.Innovative?
How come removing your Optical Drive is innovative? Is just plain stupid; I bet someone on the design team thought the same. Let's say I pass from PC to mac buying a Mac Book Air, I want to watch my favorite DVD and damn, I can't cause the damn thing ain't got no Optical drives! Ohhh I forgot that I have to buy the Mac Book Air SUPER Drive by shelling out an extra hundred bucks. Thank You, you made my life more complicated.Point taken...
..sheesh, get over it. I've no particular axe to grind on either side, but I have to say you're sounding rather like a fanboi yourself there Charlie - yeah, they can get on your nerves, but calm down eh ? Secondly a couple of points...> Lets go back to square one, Apple does not engineer a damn thing, it designs.
I missed the point where Apple claimed it 'wuz all me own work guv'.
Perhaps because it didn't happen.
Also there's a broad area where design and engineering meet, but that would spoil the flow of your rant so, pray continue... and, no, Apple isn't in to hardware like they used to be, but their designs are still well thought of generally. Live with it.
> For the longest time, it has taken very reliable reference designs and wrapped them in stylish plastic that magically lowers the reliability by orders of magnitude.
This is just bollocks, to be honest. Get a grip.
Tim
I Can't Freekin Believe It
WOW,I can hardly believe it. Charlie ALMOST said something good about intel. What..... What..... Did I just enter the Freekin Twilight Zone or something?
Interesting
Do you know how stupid you sound in this article dude?If I am not mistaken, Intel aren't in the retail business ie. they sell their product to other businesses and not the end user of a computer. Do you really think they should get or expect credit for the end product.
Steve Jobs pretty clearly gave Intel a wrap at the keynote saying the only way the Macbook Air was possible was due to their innovation and ability to reduce the chip size. You make it sound like Intel are being shafted here. The intel CEO (can't remember his name) didn't look like someone who felt he was being shafted as walked off the stage.
Apple is about design and innovation. Don't discount the packaging because for most users that is all they care about. You can list a heap of specs off to me and chances are I won't have a clue what your talking about...but you show me the worlds thinnest computer that looks far cooler than anything else I've seen with a camera built in the screen, an intuitive and easy to use operating system thats good for my music and photo's....SOLD!
Maybe I'm not looking hard enough for an equivalent...but hey, I shouldn't have to.
But it's Apple!
Let's not forget this is also the company where some people believe each computer is lovingly made by hand in Cupertino, with Birkenstock wearing workers in an evergreen factory. I actually had a fanbois tell me that, and worse thing is he was serious. The truth is they come off the assembly line in China straight to you.Apple is also the company that prides itself on having innovation in its "DNA," so making an ultra thin package out of a modern notebook using existing tech isn't a big deal.
I do wonder how well these things will hold up. My current laptop is a 7 year old HP that's been dropped, scratched, knocked around, and generally had a rough life.
Most recently it dropped on the floor and the pins on the underside of the CPU punched through the plastic cover and began contacting the EMF shield, so it would die arbitrarily die when it was set on just the right spot. Take it part, two pieces of electrical tape, and here I am typing.
I doubt the Macbook AIR would survive any of that; the first light drop and 2 grand out the door. But to the "Do I look Good?" crowd it won't matter, they'll just buy another.
A real miss
While there is plenty to criticize Apple about (and the other PC makers as well), this rant misses the mark in many ways. His first note, that Apple simply encases in plastic other peoples' work that lowers reliability is not supported by real world data, where Apple routinely scores at the top of computer makers in terms of reliability (and customer service as well). I appreciate that many commentators write this sort of thing in an effort to provoke fanatic responses, it is very poor journalism and, frankly, a very tired approach. I am much more impressed by an analysis that examines the strengths and weaknesses of a product than a boring "I hate Apple" rant. Most of us are not "fanbois" and simply want what works best for our tasks and budgets - the frothing is meaningless.Ahh
This is why I love the Inqforest for trees
You ignore the "touch" gesture interface incorporated in the Air. Gestural interfaces are new enough to be called innovative, and well-designed ones really ARE innovative. As for Intel: thanks for the small chips. I own your stock, too!Oh dear
Google has a lot to answer for. I followed a link to what I thought would be well researched, balanced and informative article. Instead I find this bile written by a fifteen year old. Not only is the content a utter garbage its whole premise is completely illogical and lacks any kind of mature thought. To have a title that claims "MacBook Air not an apple innovation" is not only misleading but completely untrue. Apple bought a component, one of many which combined make a product....strange I thought that was what every manufacturer does? They also publicly recognised that supplier in front if the worlds press for making their product a possibilty. Some of the stuff written in the web is utter garbage written by morons. Honestly Inquirer get some quality control please.Oh dear
Google has a lot to answer for. I followed a link to what I thought would be well researched, balanced and informative article. Instead I find this bile written by a fifteen year old. Not only is the content a utter garbage its whole premise is completely illogical and lacks any kind of mature thought. To have a title that claims "MacBook Air not an apple innovation" is not only misleading but completely untrue. Apple bought a component, one of many which combined make a product....strange I thought that was what every manufacturer does? They also publicly recognised that supplier in front if the worlds press for making their product a possibilty. Some of the stuff written in the web is utter garbage written by morons. Honestly Inquirer get some quality control please.Intel Metro
http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/24/intels-metro-laptop-prototype-is-worlds-thinnest/Indeed Intel.
Allow me to paraphrase
"My God, don't you know? This stuff is simulacra of simulacra of simulacra. A diluted tincture of Naoto Fukasawa, who had himself diluted the glory days of Shiro Kuramata, who himself had stepped on theproduct of Raymond Loewy and Bauhaus, flavoring their ready−to−use with liberal lashings of gloss and shiny surfaces. But Apple surely is the null point, the black hole. There must be some Apple Macintosh
event horizon, beyond which it is impossible to be more derivative, more removed from the source, more
devoid of soul. Or so I hope, and don't know, but suspect in my heart that this in fact is what accounts
for its long ubiquity."
filthy lucre
> Apple get the credit, Intel gets, well, I am not sure what.Same thing as you get for writing this jank.. money.
designer
Just like why should Leonardo get all the credit for the Mona Lisa? We should applaud the guy who supplied the paint!I am sure some clothing "designers" and architects may also have an issue with your viewpoint.
laughable specs
Has anyone seen this things pointless an laughable specs?no optical drive
1 usb port
no fire wire
only wireless internet connection
mono speakers
64-80 gigs
1.6ghz dual core
really wtf would i use it for every app i have to download on a 5 hour battery.
for $3000?
whoever buys this thing is an idiot
Intel prototype
Three words: Intel Mobile Metro. Their reference design is from May 07.http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2007/tc20070523_272039.htm
Apple sucks and you know it.
It's funny that most of of these comments are from Apple fan-boys.Face reality. Apple sucks. This article may be mostly aimed at ranting about Apple, but it is because there is a void to be filled. Too many people (idiots) today have been suckered into this lame "Apple is great" mentality. Their products are typically over-priced and therefore sub-standard. Get over it!
huh
Another hate article from another Apple hateboy. From phillosophical perspective there's no difference between a fanboy and a hateboy they are the exact same thing of two opposites.Nothing New
Just out of interest I've been and measured my... wait for it... Sony Vaio PCG-505E which is getting on for 10 years old now, and it comes in within 1mm of the macbook air, ok so it only runs '98, but still, nothing new from apple as usual.Did Hypocrites invent Windows?
My God, the Apple hatin' has gotten out of hand.Kaiser, above, whines about the optical drive being separate from the computer.
Ever HEard of, um, Lenovo? Maybe their highly-acclaimed Thinkpad Series? The tablet models "T" and "X" as in T61 and X61? Seems they don't come with the optical drive built in either. It comes on a separate docking base, the idea being you load up what you need for the day's business and take the very light notebook out to work. Oh, and there these new-falootin' things called, um "Flash Drives".
Seems PC Magazine editors don't mind sticking their seal of approval all over these optical-drive-less Windows notebooks (and I like 'em too), and consumers seem to eat them up, even at $2000+ of hard-earned American Moolah!
Get over it. Apple is eating away at Windows-based laptop's market share.
And if you NEED an optical drive....then get a regular MacBook Pro. See, the "Air" is simply one choice in a line of MacBooks.
Get over the hatin', people! To quote Rodney King..." Damm, you honkey cops! Quit beatin' my head in with those clubs!!"....no, that's not it...."Can't we all just get along?"
While I would never buy an MBA
I have to say that I'm happy that it exists. Now, when I buy a 2nd gen 10" eee, there's an affordable, slot loading slim dvd-r drive available.Oh wait, I forgot. Apple, in it's overzealous pursuit to be the greatest company on earth, claims that the MBA superdrive only works with the MBA. Oh well Apple, yet again you lose my business by being aggressively anti-competitive.
Fanbois
Got call a kettle black and they come out of the woodwork. They removed the optical drive so you can get 5 hours of battery life, ahem, not replaceable battery. looks pretty. pretty expensive for an incomplete product. If it came with an external optical drive maybe for the price.No credit's due to Intel?
Clearly the author didn't even watch the keynote (I'm no fanboi, but I was interested). RTFA Charlie.And until you can prove that the motherboard is also not designed by Apple, I wouldn't be so quick in accusing Apple having done nothing for the MBA. If the diagram on the keynote is proportional, the motherboard itself is an engineering marvel. I don't know who designed that piece, but historically Apple has designed boards aside from chipsets.
And what is wrong for Apple to just integrate everything in a sweet little package. All you optical drive fanatics can rant, but I don't really need to use my optical drive at all in my day to day use, so excuse me if I'm going to borrow my PC's DVD burner when I do need it.
Now to be frank, the MBA is pretty neat, and if I was made of money, I would buy it. But for my uses, I could just get a standard dell latitude, and swap out the optical drive with a second battery, and upgrade the primary, and I would have an insane battery life for a system that has a tolerable weight and bulk profile. But I don't hate them for doing it. If Apple didn't innovate, then why don't we see one of these from Dell, or Lenovo, or Sony now? Is it not suspicious that Sony tends to copy the MacBooks (like the chiclet keyboard) that the PC laptop manufacturers are the ones who _aren't_ innovating?
Just because they didn't design the hardware anymore doesn't mean they don't push the envelope. Despite having the 1st generation MacBook, and suffering from some heat problems, my Macbook is still having less problem than some of the PC laptops that I've seen. I've known a Sony thin-and-light that the AC plug on the board died days after the 1-year warranty. I've not had serious problems like that with mine, so bug off with the "unreliability" of a Mac laptop.
No complaints from Intel, Charlie
Apple seems to have done a spectacular/enviable job engineering and innovating the hell out of it's supplier relations. Naturally, "everyone and their brother will have similarly thin models out in short order", but they weren't first, which on sheer brand equity alone you well know counts for a lot.(...when you're done spitting venom and counting IQ points, Charlie)
Apple's thank you.
Of coarse the real thank you is in the PO for lots of chips. Hardware companies are used to working behind the scenes and way ahead of customer visible products without anyone saying thanks.Those throbbing veins are a bad sign, you know
Dude, go out and get laid before you have a freaking embolism. You'll feel better for it, I promise.Apple Fanbois need to read more and increase their IQ ...
To all you Apple Fanbois who are new to real technology Charlie has a point, that this is not innovative and the primary catalyst is intel, not Apple.You boys obviously missed the InQ/Engadget articles about the intel Metro LAST MAY !
http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2007/05/28/intels-metro-laptop-revealed
And hey it's got a Sideshow external window in addition.
So really, don't tell me that Apple was so innovative with the design when really it's more of rounding the edges of a concept that intel came up with, and also Apple didn't invent the colourful computer they copied that too, they are just better at marketing it. Just like they didn't invent the MP3 player they simply improved upon someone else's design.
Also to those who complain about the journalistic part of this article, it says at the top "RANT" as in it's like an Op/Ed page. Jeez Fanbois of the world Un-Tie...
What Intel gets...
Charlie said:--[Apple get the credit, Intel gets, well, I am not sure what.]--
Intel gets the MONEY. Because it'll be an Intel chip in every one of these MacBook Airs that gets sold. I'm sure they are more than happy to walk away with massive orders for what is essentially a mid-range Core 2 chip (at 1.6GHz nearly a Celeron!) and leave Steve Jobs with the "credit" in the non-financial sense.
Apple and Intel
I've been in the industrial control and automation business for thirty years, have developed sophisticated control systems using a variety of hardware, but have yet to see a Mac or other fruity piece of equipment. If Macs are so damned great, how come they are not used for real-time control systems?Macbook Air is not an Apple innovation
The 1.8GHz model should be known as the iDiot version.Seriously... compared to the 2.2 Macbook... same size other than thickness, slower, less storage, no Optical drive, fixed ram, non-removable battery, single USB, and a HUGE (with a captial F) leap in price... for what?? a few millimetres in thickness and a bit of weight (largely as a result of removing the Optical drive).
Apple: Less is more.
Really bad article
Does the Inq hire its writers from the Youtube comments section?hehe
i'd get u one for christmas anywayDon't Feed Trolls
I disagree with the idea that this was a win for Intel, and Apple is just riding on their coat-tails.Apple demanded these changes to the current-production Intel CPU's. With plenty of push from Apple, Intel got on the ball and did what they had to do to make Apple happy.
This is not typical Intel behavior. Would a sane cpu manufacturer push their process technology to the limit to satisfy the 5-10% max market share that Apple represents?
However little you think of Apple, you must admit that they are the innovators in the field of product design. They make beautiful machines, even if they may be a little less functional than the high-end beige box. I'm glad Apple is around, for the simple reason that I always like looking at their next innovation, even if it isn't world-changing.
Oh, and the fact that they left out the optical drive should send a rocket up the asses of the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray crew: your war doesn't matter. People will downoad/stream content from the net and watch it on their machines, regardless of HD format. Your war has cost you precious time. Everybody sat this one out: the winners are the pirates, which Charlie mentioned in a previous rant.
Optical media has been eclipsed by the massive increases in HDD space in the years that the HD-format wars have gone one. It's really the twilight of shiny plastic discs, but no one is willing to admit that, now.
I look forward to a time when I can back-up my entire hard drive on high-capacity tape (no DRM), or a giant plug-in flash drive (also no DRM). The idea of burning an HD-DVD-R or Bluray-R/W seems so anachronistic. Apple either saw the writing on the wall, or just wanted to give the entire shiny plastic disk industry an "up yours".
Hey, Apple killed the floppy? Why shouldn't it try to kill another removable media format?
Anyway, this is tiresome. Real innovation isn't going to be pushed from this direction. Desktops, Laptops, and Servers have their place, but real innovation is going to be coming from the smartphone, and will gradually be integrated into the functions of a computer when everyone finally realizes what people want to do all day: talk non-stop on the phone like a bunch of teenage girls.
Optical drive
Kaizer, people were crying foul at the loss of the 3.5" floppy drive Apple purposely neglected to include on their computers. Do we care now? I think Apple products are overpriced, fruity machines as much as the next fellow, but I applaud their decision to ax the one piece of weight on my laptop that I have never needed to use. Consequently, I just swapped mine out for a second hard drive. Good riddance.The real irony is that Apple includes a rescue DVD to recover a busted system. They ought to have just included a bootable jump drive to increase the "style" factor. I can already do that with Linux.
Oh my...
The Airheads are a humourless bunch, aren't they?Try harder
Most of the other laptop manufacturers don't do any engineering either. What you pay for, ultimately, is design and with Apple you pay more for better design. Whether or not the premium they charge is worth it is really up to the individual.Either way, whichever laptop you choose, you can sleep safely at night knowing it has been 'engineered'. Just not by the company whose badge is on the case. Are consumers supposed to care that their Apple laptop was designed by Apple and engineered by Intel? Sounds like an OK combination to me.
Apple's new notebook has plenty of compromises due to the design, so if you wanted to bash it there is more than enough ammunition out there. But to go after their their engineering prowess seems a little odd and ultimately serves no purpose.
So Charlie, If there are any valid points floating aimlessly around your head, they were all but drowned out by the kind of vitriolic rant I would normally expect to find in Gizmodo's comment section.
well
seems someone just doesnt like macs, and probably doesnt know a great deal about them, so I suppose you can run logic studio on your pc can you, na you can't, theyre not for everyone but theyre awesome for the things they are used for , I'll agree a lot of apples stuff is expensive (im writing this on a iPhone -which is the nuts, whether you can afford one or not) but the integration with the software is what its all about really isn't it, I really do expect to read something a little less biased on a supposed news site, as for the air having no cd drive I thought that was obvious - map one over a network , no one is going to buy an air unless they have other machines really are theyEvery one can make on a CAD a small thing ... but
Hi Charlie,you are right if you say that the hardware industry brings the biggest innovation in that thin MacBook Air and that without all those fast working parks "nothing" would work, but all together with an ultra thin design is the Idea of the MacBook Air.
No fast CPU, GPU, MoBo Controller and no ultra small and for high speed clocks designed MoBo, no thin and flat HDD or flat TFT Display (and so on), all that and an good looking Case (with an good and stable working OS) you need for that Idea as a MacBook Air.
If nobody would have an idea for an very thin Notebook and nobody would design a small and flat MoBo for an new fast CPU and Memory, and the industry would not design an ultra thin TFT Panel, you can't make an MacBoot Air.
Today you can create on a CAD Workstation all what you need if you have an good idea for a product what you can sell as a factory to hold your workers and to make more profit. (1.000 Workers a year cost around 30 million in Europe or USA)
I would say that 50 points for the design and the working OS goes to APPLE and 50 points goes to the Hardware Industry for all the working small parts like CPU, GPU, Memory, TFT Panel, an well created small MoBo and so on.
The best football player is nothing if he could not eat an good steak a day what a butcher him sales! ;)
Apple deserves a chunk bitten out of its core
I use pcs and macs, while each have their benefits I would choose a pc any day of the week. I am a designer and the last thing that bothers me is the design on my machine.Macs have always lagged behind in terms of computing power, the 'Media Machine' that can't play games? Its limited scope os in terms of customization and tuning.
They may have had a part to play in design innovation but lets remember all their rubbish 'innovations' - the 1 button mouse - the all in one 'impossible to upgrade or repair' systems - the powerpc cpu - apple tv - the iphone/glove combo - itunes - the crazy shortcut key combos!
I feel apple gets too much praise for very little effort, and the general public is being suckered into the pretty looks and fad advertising.
Take one apart
Charlie,If you had ever taken a mac apart you would have found that most of the design effort was put into the inside. The pretty exterior was just an after thought. Get one - take it apart - swap a hard disk, and you will change your mind.
I am not a fanboy. My MacBook Pro runs windoze, and replaced a 13lb Sager quite nicely. It is also the only(!) laptop that can drive a Dell 30" monitor at native resolution (which makes going to work easier). And don't forget the firewire - 2x faster than usb. That will get you to the pub while the rest of your friend are struggling to finish copying files.
Having taken apart 4 brands of laptops I can tell you that no one builds them better.
Not just about hardware
For the Apple crew it's as much about the OS as it is the hardware. What makes the Macbook Air compelling is that it runs OS X - if it was released running Linux it would just be a lovely door stop. The OS is what brings function to the form.PC fanboy
You sound like a pc fanboy! Have even looked at the macbook air. Of course they designed it and they have to be given credit for what they created. They may not have built the machine, but they developed new software and hardware. They have created one the thinest notebooks ever and been one of the first to adopt ssd with a large LED screen. It has been criticized for its lack of features but has also achieved a lot.I'm not a mac fanboy, I don't even own anything apple. You give no actual evidence and this simply sounds like a mac hating opinion from a pc fanboy.
Apple's "Air" is Intel's "Lorado" design, so Charlie is correct
Intel's Concept ‘Lorado’ Laptop Innovation RecognizedDecember 19, 2007
Intel's concept ‘Lorado’ laptop is thinnest ultraportable ever to feature the cutting-edge Core 2 Duo processor at 2.2 pounds and 0.7 inches thick. The notebook also has a large 13.3-inch display. Laptop Magazine awarded the concept for its innovation. Elements of the design could be adopted by Intel’s PC customers sometime in the future.
I just saw the No Optical Drive...
So let me get this right, when Te dumb public who buys this thing has it for a while after the all the issues they are going to have with it, Apple then releases a new OS Lets call it Mac OS AllyCat, cause it will be as useless as an ally cat. You either have to get an external drive or download an entire OS over the net. STUPID. I am also amased at the fact there is no ethernet port. Granted wireless is almost everywhere, ALMOST!!! Apple is the Spawn of satan... And Steven Jobs is the antichrist....Quite unique nevertheless
Well, regardless of the way Apple develop their laptops, there is something I cannot understand.Apple now use the same Intel processors (and many other parts as far as I understand) that other (Windows) laptop makers. Hence, the two camps build essentially the same hardware.There is only one Apple, and several large Windows laptop manufacturers, so the development brainpower and competition on the Win side should be stronger.
So how does it happen that a 15 inch MacBook weighs 5.4 lbs and is 1 in thick, when all other Windows 15 inch laptops are weigh at least 6 lbs and are at least 1.5 inch thick. Same with the Air - how come no other manufacturer came up with a 13.3 inch laptop that light and thin??
Is there some strange marketing conspiracy on the Windows side, or is there really some kind of fundamental technical difference that I miss?
I agree that the innovation came from Intel
Hello,In spite of the author's obvious and unwarranted hatred toward Apple Computer Corp., I have to agree with his point that the major innovation behind the MacBook Air was provided by Intel. The processor that Intel designed for the MBA is very similar to their upcoming low voltage Core 2 Duo SL7100 LV processor which is up to 60% smaller than current mobile chips. Both processors are manufactured using the same using the same 65-nanometer process however the SL7100 LV uses less power than the MBA's chip and runs at a lower clock speed. What this means essentially is that we will soon be seeing lots of ultra mobile laptop offerings from vendors such as Lenovo and Fujitsu that match the MBA's size and weight characteristics stride for stride - and probably with an optical drive thrown in as well :)
See this article: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/laptopadvisor/news/index.cfm?newsid=12099
yo
I bought a G5 back in 2004 as a music making platform. I had wanted to convert to Mac since starting my training on Logic in 2002, so i think it's fair to say that i'm not exactly a fanboy jumping on the iEverything bandwagon. But I must say that my machine is now just touching on 4 years old, it has 2 gig ram in it with the space for another 2 gig, and it runs every app I need, perfectly. I never had the same luck with PC's.I've gotta say though, I think the Mac Book Air may look nice, but it's a pointless machine for most media related people. big gripe for music makers is the lack of Firewire. If you want serious power for nearly the same price, is gotta be the Mac Book Pro each and every time.
The only thing I miss about having a PC is Half Life, but the benfits of running a program like Logic is what makes me committed to owning a Mac.
I love the fact this article stated that it's Intel who basically created the Air, I mean in a sense I can see the authors point, without the Penryn chip the Air would not exist, but as far as i'm aware Intel does not manufacture the Airs shell, screen, keyboard, touch pad, power unit, mouse, motherboard, hard drives, software, memory, cooling fans, graphics card, sound card (both built in i imagine) airport extreme card etc etc..
so yeah Intel deserve some credit, but claiming they developed it is stretching the truth somewhat
3 Digit IQ
For you saying that computers are basically for people who need to have a three digit IQ, I am assuming you are including yourself in that group of people (seeing as how you wrote this on a computer and all). The sad thing is that even a person with a double digit IQ would be intelligent enough to use spell check.Appalling
Never seen such a bad article.Lack of research, biased, the total value brought to the discussion is Zero...
Articles like this make you wonder what kind of bad information is spread on the internet.... Freedom of speech, yes, but lack of respect for readers intelligence is another story.
For YOUR information:
Quote from : http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/006304.html
"
Intel CEO Paul Ottelini comes onstage. He's talking about the impossible thinness of the Air, and how tiny the Core 2 Duo inside it is. He's giving a CPU to Steve as a souvenir.
Steve: "This is awesome technology...thank you Paul, thank you Intel." "
PS: PC world is not an Apple fan.......