The recent departure of Steve Jobs from his position at Apple is most certainly a loss. Of interest will be just how drastically Apple’s products are affected in the next 5++ years or so. Steve always had the last say on each item’s release so no matter what anyone says, Steve IS apple. Thankfully, he is still on the board [chairman in fact] and I have a feeling that he’ll be having the final word for some time yet. I’m personally viewing this as an “official resignation” in name only. I can only hope that my feeling turns out to be accurate.
I had a few minutes to kill this morning (and I needed access to a computer), so I waltzed into the Sydney Apple Store to try out the latest MacBook Air [you've got to love Apple - you can visit their store and use EVERYTHING - you could run a business out if it - really!]. So anyhoo, whilst I’ve been a windows/microsoft whore for years and years I feel that the time has arrived to embrace what my heart has ALWAYS craved. Okay, okay, AND Apple’s products are now more reasonably priced compared to say, 2 or so years ago. Regardless, I’m on my second iPhone and believe me, they are the GOODS. They aren’t the standard must have phone for nothing. They just plain work [you hear so many people bitch about their crackberries]. And not only do the iPhones work, they work brilliantly and intuitively. I remember wanting one purely because I was sick and tired of carrying an iPod AND a mobile phone. Funny thing is, my iPhone has become so much more. I’ve still got a 3Gs which, whilst not the latest and greatest, is to me, a prettier version than the newer 4G. Fingers crossed the upcoming 5G will look [at least slightly] better. Industry rumblings are that in won’t really look that different – but Apple has an uncanny way of surprising everyone.
Which brings me back to the MacBook Air I was playing with this morning for a fair while. Let’s be frank: the very first “Air” released by Apple was a complete disaster. It overheated. It was slow – it was a pretend laptop, strictly for posers only. But the new one? Besides weighing LESS than a magazine, it has dual i7, 1.8Ghz chips driving 4GB ram. Whilst being 64bit, the ram currently isn’t upgradable to 8Gb, HOWEVER, you do get solid state memory for blinding speed AND you get the new, uber Thunderbolt port [13 inch model only] which is purportedly 20 times faster than USB 2.0!! Mate, that is quick. And for someone like me who stores and crunches 25Mb photo files, that speed is a god-send. As an option, you can buy a RAID system with up to 12 terabytes of memory [and link it via Thunderbolt]. Crazy. Even crazier still is that we’re discussing terabytes so casually these days.
It wasn’t all beer and skittles though. My initial feeling [a while ago] when these didn’t ship with disc drives was one of disappointment. But since I’ve thought about it – you don’t really NEED a drive. Virtually anything you can think of is online and if you absolutely, positively need it, you can ratchet off an existing drive on another laptop or computer OR buy a separate, Apple drive for a measly 89 bucks. Hello cloud computing!
Have I mentioned the battery life? 7 hours straight my friend. Beat that. That’s right. 7. Hours.
The reason I’m looking at these Airs is that my super duper PC laptop [which is still "current" even though it's 2 years old] weighs as much as a small car. Yes, it’s uber fast and powerful with a nice large screen – but I need something lighter without sacrificing outright grunt. The Air, solves [virtually] all these problems – and now I’ll get to my point: It is SUCH a delight to use. The keyboard feels great (I’m a fast typist – quiet in the peanut gallery, my parents insisted that I learn at aged 12). All the apps open up relatively quickly. You have “instant on” thanks to the solid state memory. I plan on going back so I can download and test Nikon’s Capture NX2 program which is severely RAM intensive – I’ll be interested to see the Air’s response and churn time. I promise to let you know how it goes. But what really gets me is that the entire unit is just so damned slick. It’s been said that Steve Jobs knows what his users want before they even see it. Boy are they right. His stuff also has that quality feel that even the most expensive Toshibas lack. How many manufacturers do you know that make you lust after everything that they release?
Au revoir Steve, I hope you finally get some well earned rest.
