Macbook Air Archive

This might be the best deal of Black Friday on an Apple laptop – especially if you have been wanting a Macbook Air. 9to5Mac has a scan of the Apple Store Black Friday ad showing the Apple Macbook Air starting at $898 which is $100 less than the price as of today. I assume that this $898 price is for the base 11.6″ display model. As usual, the better deals are outside the Apple Store.

Best Buy is running a deal for the same 11.6″ display base model for $849 but they charge tax for all.

Good news! For those in a non-taxed state, Amazon is the way to go on this deal. Enough people asked Amazon for a price match and Amazon has dropped the price to $849 with no tax for most (aff link). If this deal is anything like last year, you better be quick because Amazon removed the deal a few hours after posting.

Just to give you an idea, if you purchase the laptop from Amazon with no tax, you will save approximately $120! That’s 120 apps or songs at 99 cents and you don’t have to deal with the mall crowds.

This is definitely the entry level model with the following specs: 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 2GB memory, 64GB flash storage and Intel HD Graphics 3000. Take note that I believe the memory is not upgradeable. The other 3 Macbook Air models all come with 4GB memory.

If you have been wanting a Macbook Air and don’t want to shell out for the upgraded spec models, this is the way to go.

I am starting to wonder if Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is trying to clear out all of their inventory of the current Mac lineup. Last week MacMall offered the MacBook Air base model for $849. Today MicroCenter is offering the base model 13″ 2011 model of the MacBook Pro for $200 below the Apple Store price.

MicroCenter is offering the MC700LL/A model for $999 although you must pickup the laptop at a local MicroCenter store. You will need to pay sales tax since you will be purchasing the laptop in a local store.

Currently Amazon is offering the MC700LL/A model for $1,164 but there is no tax for most so if you don’t live near a MicroCenter, Amazon might be the way to go. I have seen the Amazon price drop to $1,113 a few times over the past week so you might want to track the price for a few days before pulling the trigger.

There is talk that you might be able to get your local Apple Store and/or Frys to match the MicroCenter price.
Continue reading “MicroCenter Offers 2011 MacBook Pro 13″ for $999” »

If you have been wanting an Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) MacBook Air, today might be the best day to pull the trigger. MacMall through eBay is offering the base model 11″ MacBook Air for $849 with free shipping. This is the best price I’ve seen on the MacBook Air since Amazon dropped their price to $899 last November (their price is back up to $990). Also, it seems if you aren’t located in New York State, there is no tax on this unit.

Purchasing this unit at Apple.com, the total price will be about $1,080. If you are not in NYS, this deal will save you a huge $231.

In speaking with a few Apple fanboys, the only real downside to this unit is the low 2GB ram which cannot be upgraded since the ram chips are fused to the motherboard using a 50,000 ton press. You should also note this machine only has a 64GB flash hard drive which Engadget noted yesterday on a review of a different laptop was somewhat small. Lastly, I will note that it seems you need a lot of dongles to make this unit effective.

Specs on this MacBook Air from the auction, “1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR3 SDRAM, 64GB Flash Storage, NVIDIA GeForce 320M, 11.6″ LED-backlit glossy widescreen display, AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1, FaceTime camera, Built-in battery, Precision aluminum unibody”

In all my years of online shopping around the Black Friday-to-Cyber Monday weekend, I’ve never seen Amazon so aggressive in their pricing. First Amazon drops the price on the new 4th generation Pod Touch to less than $200 (it’s at $200 now). I have to believe Amazon is eating a lot of the discounts since Apple rarely provides such heavy discounts from their base retail pricing.

Now I’ve found the brand new 11.6″ Macbook Air for $899 on Amazon. This is $100 less on the base price of the Macbook Air at the Apple Store. If you add in a typical 8% tax rate (sorry NY’ers!), the total savings is $172 by buying today at Amazon versus buying at the Apple Store.

Most of the reviews I’ve read suggest that the 13″ Macbook Air is the way to go because it has an extra USB port. Yesterday I was doing some Macbook Air research and noticed that the device has no Ethernet port (an extra $29 gets you a USB dongle) and you will also need to spend $29 extra for the Displayport-to-VGA adapter if you plan to hook up the Macbook Air to a projector for presentations.

My suggestion is to head to your local Apple Store and play with both the 11.6″ and 13″ versions of the Macbook Air to make sure which one you will be comfortable so you don’t have to deal with returning an open laptop.

I briefly held, photographed and played with the MacBook Air at MacWorld on Tuesday. I plan on spending more time with the laptop later today and over the course of the week, so this is just an initial post (and photos) likely more to follow.

First, the MacBook Air is really thin. Seriously thin. It is hard to underemphasize this point, the numbers don’t do it justice. While I played with the first one I managed to get my hands at a friend stopped by, in her bag she had her 6 month old  15″ MacBook Pro. We stood the two laptops on their sides and compared them, the MacBook Air was, literally, about as thick as the MacBook Pro’s screen.

The MacBook Air is also really simplifying the laptop experience, it is as if every bit of cruft and rarely used part of most more typical laptops had been removed and only the very few key bits were returned. Many argue that perhaps too much was taken away, though I almost never have to use an optical drive with my laptop (most software I install is downloaded from the web, yes I rip CDs but can and do easily do that with my desktop computer, and while I do watch the occasional DVD my laptop’s graphics capabilities and audio leave something to be desired – and I can already load a lot of video which I purchase from iTunes or other similar services, or which I freely download as in the case of a podcast such as the Onion News Videos).

I do, to a degree, agree with the criticism that only having one USB port may not be enough – I certainly frequently attach both an external HD and my iPod or iPhone, it may be possible to solve this problem via the use of a USB hub but that can offer some complications at times – specifically if it is not a powered hub some devices may not have sufficient power and a powered hub requires an outlet and the power cords to reach that outlet usually.

And just minutes ago I loaded my SD card from my camera to the SD slot on my laptop and uploaded my photos from the camera. A very simple yet frequently useful thing to do.

All that said, however, the MacBook Air does have the following highly crucial ports:

• external power w/magsafe connector to protect against people tripping on the cord – as a frequent user of laptops in cafes and at conferences this is an appealing feature for any modern Apple portable
• a headphone jack – which I and many others use on our laptops quite frequently, laptops are very often used in places where public noise can be an issue, so listening via headphones is often very useful. And while there are now some bluetooth stereo headphone options they are far from widely adopted.
•  a USB port. I use USB devices (my iPod, iPhone, external HD, USB memory sticks) on a nearly daily basis. And there are countless more ways I can use a USB port
•  a mini-DVI port w/adapters. Most crucially this allows the MacBook Air to connect to an external monitor – or more likely in case at least – an external projector which can then be used to give a presentation, for example.

And that is it for ports. No microphone in (but there is a built in microphone), no smart card readers, no slots of any type which might then be used for an EVDO/wireless data card. Not even the ability to swap out the battery while traveling.

So then what is my opinion of the MacBook Air? Would I buy one?

Short answer – yes, I would buy one as I am absolutely the target audience for a MacBook Air, but slightly longer answer, I’m not going to be buying one immediately as so many of my friends already have.

Why would I buy one? Allen has raised a bunch of questions about the MacBook Air and on quite a few other blogs issues and questions about who the laptop is intended for, why someone would buy one etc have been raised.

Weight and portability are vital features for me, the lighter the laptop the more likely I am to actually carry it with me, since I walk many miles every day (and spend the rest of the day using public transit where as often as not I am standing) the weight of my bag is very important to me, a lighter laptop thus has a great deal of impact on my daily life and comfort. Years ago I swore to never again buy a laptop which weighed more than 5lbs and quite truthfully that was a major reason I did not buy a MacBook or MacBook Pro the last time I shopped for a laptop (about a year ago). I also travel frequently, spending a week or more each month away from San Francisco, again a lighter laptop makes business travel that much nicer.

Between the ability to use software such as VM Fusion or Parallels of Apple’s own BootCamp I also know that should I need to use Windows only software modern a Mac can handle it (and really there are now very very few occasions when this is the case) plus as this year’s MacWorld shows there are many exciting companies developing great software for the Mac platform – and even more developing software for the web which is agnostic about the OS you are running.

So in short the MacBook Air offers a truly beautiful laptop, with a weight & performance point that is ideal for my primary uses of a laptop (i.e. not video editing or complex graphic design but lots of web work, writing, entertainment, and presentations). When I do need to shop for a new laptop, I fully expect to seriously consider the MacBook Air – while also hoping that some of the many innovations embedded inside of it have made their way to the rest of the Mac laptop line.

Shannon Clark is a founding partner at Nearness Function, a new ad network for the publishers of dynamic content. He is the organizer of MeshForum – an annual conference on the study of networks and the one day MeshWalk series of walking conferences. He has been blogging for many years at Searching for the Moon where he covers technology, economics, food, and the life of an entrepreneur.

The post-keynote Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) buzz is all about the new MacBook Air and yes it is thin & sexy. Already my friends are tweeting about orders for them, in some cases for multiple. I’m absolutely in the target audience for the new Air, I try to always buy an even lighter laptop than my last one and there are very few laptops with full sized keyboards which are as light as the MacBook Air and certainly very few indeed that come anywhere close in terms of the sheer design elegence.

That said it is certainly not without some issues to quibble about, my current laptop does not have EVDO built in, though it was an option, and I do have a slot in which I could add an EVDO card (which I expect I’ll do later this year). Likewise though I didn’t realize that this machine came with it when I ordered it, I do have an SD card reader as well, a feature I use quite frequently and which saves me from carrying (and losing) another cable to pull photos from my camera. My current laptop does not have an optical drive and with only very few occasions I don’t miss it – there are a few times each year when I need to install new software or I want to rip a CD – that is when I use the dock which I have to add the optical drive – but that’s quite rare.

And though I don’t have a need for it at the moment I certainly see the appeal of the 1TB Time Machine as an all in one network router, hub, print spooler and backup storage – and when I upgrade my desktop to Leopard I could certainly see getting one (though I’d also love to be able to use Time Machine with other network attached storage devices). It makes a lot of sense to use wifi access to backup laptops – far more sense than plugging in and unplugging external storage devices.

I will be interviewing a bunch of people with booths here at MacWorld over the next few days, on deck at the moment are Plasq about Skitch and their other new products [full disclosure I know a few of the founders from various events around SF] (Wed) and some of the designers from Google in charge of their recent Mobile applications for the iPhone (Thurs).

Much of MacWorld are various accessories and hardware products, but there are some notable differences this year from years past. There are far more business focused applications and companies here this year. Lots of graphic design products, cameras and the like but also small business products and much more. While there are still a few small booths with very small companies, in general this year has a highly professional polish to it, far more so than I have seen in past years and previous MacWorlds. The Mac community has grown considerably in the past few years and this show reflects it.

I will be here all week, if there are specific companies and questions CN readers want me to talk with and ask please leave comments here and I will make my best effort to reach them. The schwag this year is not plentiful, but there are many exhibitors with show specials and discounts, I’ll try to collect them and put up a post with all of them w/links before the end of the show.

Shannon Clark is a founding partner at Nearness Function, a new ad network for the publishers of dynamic content. He is the organizer of MeshForum – an annual conference on the study of networks and the one day MeshWalk series of walking conferences. He has been blogging for many years at Searching for the Moon where he covers technology, economics, food, and the life of an entrepreneur.

I’ve been considering moving from a pc laptop and pc desktop to a Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Macbook for both home and travel use. Everyone told me to wait for today to see what would come out. Here is my take from a non-Apple user and a common man. I currently use a Dell 700m 12" laptop which I absolutely have enjoyed from the day I purchased it almost 3 years ago.

The Macbook Air is beautiful looking like most Apple products. It would be a great choice for me as I visit loads of companies and travel a bit.  And for me, carrying lighter weight items is better. It might even help me with the ladies.

But here’s why I am not rushing to the pre-order button:

• has no ram upgrade ability
• the connectors are all only for the Air – so no asking a friend to borrow his or hers on a presentation – meaning you will need to buy another set – so much for getting a “free set” with purchase
• no firewire connection
• there’s no wired internet connection – how do you connect from a hotel/office with only wired internet? oh yea, another $30!
• priced almost 2x as much as a standard Macbook and the same price as the Macbook Pro (this is the big factor in decision making)
• slower than the slowest standard Macbook
• has a non-replaceable battery – James updates me by saying this Air has a 5 hour battery while the normal Macbook has a 1.5 hour battery – for comparison, my Dell 700M has a 5.5 hour battery
• not sure if it can run all day with no fan as I would use it 24 hours a day

I totally get the crowd that Apple goes for with their products. I’ve got 3 weeks to decide and read the reviews from the gadget blogs and experts. If you do plan on getting one, Amazon has them listed at $1794 with no tax and free shipping – might work out to about a $200 savings over purchasing at Apple retail/online stores.

Do you plan on getting one? If so, leave a comment on what you will be replacing please.

Allen do want though :)