Yesterday Brooke Crothers over at Crave reported that she considers the MacBook Air a seminal computer…That’s certainly one heck of a powerful statement! She then proceeded to back up her claim and provide 5 reasons why. They are:

1. Very thin, very light but comparatively fast.
   Sure. For the size, the MBA does pack a lot of punch into that small frame.
2. Solid state drive (SSD): The SSD is revolutionary.
   She calls it ‘one of the most useful hardware improvements to a notebook computer since the active-matrix color liquid crystal display’.
3. Sturdy. For a sub-one-inch-thin notebook, it feels remarkably solid.
   I can’t argue with this one. The machine is solid indeed.
   
4. Battery life.
   Brooke argues that she has compared the Air battery life vs. other PC notebooks and the Air beats them all hands down.
5. Looks.
   Ok, you got me there again Brooke. The MBA is a great looking machine for sure.

So what’s your take? Is the MacBook Air simply Revolutionary or just an overpriced gizmo that under performs?

Leave your comments here or discuss with us in the forums!

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: MacBook Air

The ultra-professional PBS talkshow host Charlie Rose loves his tech. Some might say it’s more than love.

The other night regular viewers of the Charlie Rose Show might have been just a tad bit shocked when they first saw Charlie with one heck of a shiner, and bandaid above his left eye to match. Turns out that Rose tripped in a pothole while walking in NYC, dropped the newly purchased MacBook Air he was carrying.. and well… you can see the results. He chose to sacrifice his face to save the computer. What a guy.

The MacBook Air did survive the fall thanks to Charlie’s efforts… a show staffer reported:

“The Macbook Air is fine, he showed us the blood stains on it this morning.”

Well done Charlie, we have a newfound respect for you and your love of tech. Two thumbs up.

View more pics of Charlie in the Forums.

[via TechCrunch]

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: Charlie Rose, MacBook Air

So, you’ve bought your macbook air! You spent $1,799 or $3,098 US, right?

Ok, now you have to look for a case for your Macbook Air? How much will that cost you? Which case should you get?

Well, be prepared to spend about $400 if you want to go top-of-the-line. To see what I mean head on over to www.vajacases.com where they sell cases for many mac products from the iPhone to MacBook Pros. They still don’t have one for the macbook air, but you can send them your email address and information for the new model they are going to create. (Click Notebook > Apple > MacBook Air)

Nice? Well, how much will that be? I’m still curious, since some of their MacBook Pro cases start at around $400!

Let’s say your macbook air case starts at $450, plus what you have spent for your macbook air, plus the Applecare protection, plus any extra accessory, plus the external hard drive… let’s see… wait… I guess I’ll buy a car instead!

P.S. Mr. Mayor tells me that he has reviewed and used a bunch of Vaja products in the past. He says ‘while they are expensive, the quality of the product more than makes up for it. You get what you pay for, and Vaja is a quality, durable brand.’

written by Mike Santos \\ tags: MacBook Air, Notebook Cases, Vaja

Taking things to a whole new level, iFixit has fully disassembled the MacBook Air. In doing so, they have found quite a few things about its components, from size and weight of the screen to the number of screws used to hold everything together.

Here are some of the key points with pictures to follow after the jump:

• The MacBook Air uses 88 screws. The back panel uses 10.
• It has 16 RAM chips in two columns of 8.
• The multitouch controller is exactly the same as the iPhone and iPod Touch.
• The LCD LED display is 3 millimeters (0.11 inches.)
• Entire LCD assembly is 465 grams (16.4 ounces.)
• Drive has foam padding and rubber bumpers, like the iPod.
• Drive is the same as the one in the 80GB iPod Classic.
• It has a 20mm speaker.

Continue reading »

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: MacBook Air

Well, today is the retail launch of the MacBook Air, and as suspected pictures are starting to pop up all over the web. Apple Store employees were hurriedly setting up the airs overnight to get ready for the big day. 24 hour stores had the MacBook Airs ready and on display at midnight.

If you want to pop by an Apple Store to pick one up, individual stock does vary… So don’t be disappointed if they’ve run out of ‘air’.

A big thanks to MacRumors for the great pictures.

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: Apple Store, MacBook Air

Sounds like MacBook Airs are finally being delivered around the US. The usual suspects at Gizmodo, Engadget and Macworld have all received their units and are in the process of putting the MacBook Air through its paces.

Some early notes so far via MacRumors:

• Wireless Remote disk details: can’t play DVD media, can’t burn a CD, can’t listen to a music CD.
• The Novatel U727 (3G USB modem) won’t fit in the MacBook Air without a USB extender.
• MacBook Air’s MagSafe charger works in the MacBook/MacBook Pro and vice-versa but the regular MagSafe won’t stay attached to the Air when it is sitting flat on a desk.
• Engadget provides some Xbench 1.3 benchmarks of the MacBook Air compared to a MacBook, MacBook Pro, and iMac, though with a mismatch of configurations. Unsurprisingly, the MacBook Air came in at the lowest speeds amongst the machines tested.

Looks like the reviews are not very positive so far!

written by Mr. Mayor \\ tags: MacBook Air