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February 1, 2008

hardware

MacBook Air Q&A Part 2

Posted Feb. 1, ’08, 1:30 PM PT by Dan Pourhadi
Category | Hardware

mbairFront1.jpgWell, apparently there’s some interest in the MacBook Air…and not just from the guy sitting next to me, ogling it in a somewhat creepy manner.

There were some questions in response to my original Q&A post that I figured I should probably answer, and I have some more personal observations I want to mention, too.

So click on for more of my brilliant insight on the miniscule Mac.

And dude, stop looking at it like that. Seriously.

Does the optional external Superdrive work with other Macs?

Nope. It uses special power drawn from the MacBook Air’s above-spec, divinely-blessed USB port, and thus will not function with other, lesser USB ports on any other computer.

Will you be selling your MacBook Pro?

Already sold. The beauty of Craigslist.

I’d be glad to still take your money, though, if you’re looking to get rid of it.

How’s Remote Disc?

I haven’t had a chance to really try it yet, but I can give some basic facts.

Speed-wise, it’s obviously limited to the capabilities of your wireless network. Just transfer a file from one computer to another to get a subjective feel for how fast it should be.

And no, you can’t watch DVDs, burn CDs, or even rip music through Remote Disc.

Do you have the version with the hard drive or the flash drive?

I’ve got the hard drive version, 1.6GHz, 80GB stock model.

How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?

Wish I knew.

The damn owl keeps screwing it up.

What are the boot times like?

Boot time is not a MacBook Air strong point — it takes about 1:25 for my machine to boot, from the time I hit power to the time the desktop is fully loaded.

What’s really impressive, though, is the time it takes the Air to come out of sleep: as soon as you open the display, it pops on and the machine wakes with barely a hiccup of a delay.

I put it to sleep and wake it just for fun.

My life’s not that interesting.

How do you deal with the limited storage space?

Excessive stinginess.

I also used the slick xSlimmer to trim down the size of applications already on my machine.

On top of that, the Mothership has a great article by Joe Kissell on cramming your files onto the Air’s small hard drive.

Can you drink coffee and watch a rented video on your Air at the same time safely?

I’ll be the first to admit: I’m a terrible multi-tasker.

Fortunately, I don’t drink coffee. Kinda gross.

But I did simulate the drinking of coffee while watching a rented video on my Air. Burned my tongue, wound up spilling it all over my shirt.

The Air did well, though. There was some concern that rented movies are actually kind of choppy because of the slow…well, everything. But I didn’t notice this at all: Oceans 13 played flawlessly, even while downloading, with several other apps open.

My only question is one of heat. How would you compare the MBA to the MacBook Pro after an hour of it sitting on your lap? I really disliked the MBPro’s heat level. Thanks!

Heat hasn’t really been an issue. The bottom back-left gets remarkably warm if left on a non-flat surface like a couch or a rug, but it’s a small area and the fan kicks in right away.

The bottom-left gets warm after 30-40 minutes of continuous regular lap-use, but it’s not unbearable, or even that annoying. Definitely not comparable to the MacBook Pro’s double-function as a room-wide space-heater.

You’re welcome!

Is the hard drive proving to be a bottleneck?

Well, sorta.

Remember, all I use the Air for is basically IMing, web browsing, word processing, and emailing. Nothing really hard drive-intensive, so I haven’t noticed anything painfully slower on this than any other machine I’ve used.

The situation where I’ve experienced the most slow-down is when I’m moving files between volumes — i.e., from a USB drive to the Air, or even over the 802.11n network. But that’s to be expected.

How’s AirPort reception?

I’m sitting in a classroom where my MacBook Pro had a near-impossible time maintaining a consistent connection with the school’s wireless network. It would connect for a few minutes, then drop out totally.

The MacBook Air, on the other hand, is flying smooth at two-to-three bars, no network interruption at all.

Which is great, because it’s a pain to have to pay attention in this class.

Alright, that’s all for now. Again, if you keep askin’ the questions, I’ll keep doing my best answering them.

In the meantime, I’m going to get away from this Air ogler, before he’s tempted to cheat on his girlfriend with a hunk of aluminum.


2 Comments

netdog Author Profile Page said:

How is the boot time?

February 1, 2008 4:59 PM
sdkay said:

netdog: RTFA

February 1, 2008 9:15 PM

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