Events Calendar
In This Section
A. Schulman CEO recounts working to turn company around before recession hit
Natural gas plunges 15 percent this month
Region's stocking full of ideas for those on the prowl for holiday gifts
Ohio unemployment rate rises to 10.5 percent in October
Seeking 'power shoppers' on Black Friday hunt
Download available to try Microsoft Office 2010
Michelin might double car-tire plant in Russia
Facing more uncertainty, investors leave stocks for safer alternatives
Most Read Stories
NFL star Chris Spielman's wife loses cancer battle
Man found dead in North Akron home is identified
Dad accused of forcing son into field, killing him
Coventry man killed in crash at I-77 ramp
Poor machine maintenance blamed for fire at Akron business
College student mistaken for deer, shot to death
Indians add 7 players to 40-man roster
Man allegedly paid teens to spit in his face
Body with gunshot wounds found in Canton Township creek
Blogs:
Pets:
Sick Pets Get High-tech Health Care
The Heldenfiles:
Friday Night Notebook
Patrick McManamon:
The proposed new LeBron mural doesn't do it for me
Akron Zips:
Two blowouts, one night
Tribe Matters:
Seven players added to Tribe’s 40-man roster
Cleveland Browns:
Hey, somebody's gotta stick up for the Browns
Kent State Sports:
Singletary update
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs at Indiana Pacers – Here’s to LBJ and Free Throws
Buckeye Blogging:
OSU – Michigan college football rivals meet in Baghdad
Varsity Letters:
Bowling season starts today
All Da King's Men:
Attention Haters, Palin And Hannity Together
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Muslim McCarthyism & Death Prayers
Akron Law Café:
Federal Judge Declares DOMA Unconstitutional
See Jane Style:
Vintage Chic
Car Chase:
TIME TO GET YOUR COLLECTOR CARS WINTERIZED
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Silverdome Potentially SOLD!
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Norma asks if Barkitecture is still at Stan Hywet.
Sound Check:
Steely Dan Plays "The Royal Scam" at E.J. Thomas Hall
HRLite House:
Colloquium at University of Akron
Akron Gamer:
Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go
There's a lot to love about its slim design, but it's thin on storage
By Eric Benderoff
Chicago Tribune
Published on Monday, Apr 21, 2008
I adore Apple's MacBook Air so much I'm starting to think I can live with its shortcomings. At 3 pounds and about as thick as a weekly magazine, this is the most endearing laptop I've ever used.
But if you've read anything about this remarkably thin beauty, you know it achieved its fine figure because it lacks an optical disc drive, offers only one USB port and, perhaps its biggest blemish, has a hard drive of only 80 gigabytes.
Those are serious sacrifices, especially when you consider how we use computers and laptops today. We store so many songs, photos and video for personal use that there would be precious little space on the Air for vital work content.
Oh, and at $1,800, the Air is not a cheap date. It costs notably more than new laptops that offer more storage, more USB ports and a DVD-burning disc drive.
But then you pick up the Air and hold it. ''Wow. This is awesome,'' you think. Then you fantasize how you could fit it into your computing life.
Here are two scenarios:
• You already own a Mac with a bigger hard drive, but you need a laptop for business trips or to transport to a client's office. This scenario is an ideal one for the Air — Mac users needing a secondary computer, not a primary device. A feature that emphasizes this is a ''remote disk'' lets the Air tap into another computer's disc drive (Mac or PC) to wirelessly install software.
• You completely rethink how you use a computer. Do you really need a disc drive? Do you need a lot of storage? Maybe you could use an external storage device to hold your growing collection of digital stuff and just tap into it when needed? What can you purge?
I fall into the second scenario because I use a laptop as a primary home computer. Now I'm starting to think that with some discipline and a modest spending spree on auxiliary storage gear, I can change my computing habits.
That's the magic of the Air. You're willing to make life-changing sacrifices, like moving across the country for a woman, to have one.
But can I afford to fall in love with a computer?
Besides its remarkable lack of heft, I adore the keyboard. It's a full-size, ''webbed'' design — there are spaces between the keys — but the distance from the center of one key to the next is the same as on a standard keypad. The keys are soft and slightly spongy, making it comfortable to use. As a bonus, the keys detect low light levels and automatically illuminate for easy use in darker conditions.
Then there is the track pad, which includes what Apple calls multi-touch gestures. If you've used or touched an iPhone, you're familiar with multi-touch.
In Apple's Safari Web browser, you use two fingers on the track pad to expand or decrease the font on a Web page. So if you're of a certain age and need reading glasses, do a reverse pinch by spreading two fingers apart to enlarge the type.
This technique doesn't work on Firefox, but it does wonders for scrolling through photos on Apple's iPhoto software. It works similarly to how photos are enlarged on the iPhone, a feature Apple prominently shows on its TV ads.
The Air is a powerful laptop. It has a 13.3-inch LED-lighted display (it's at full brightness the instant you turn it on), has a built-in video camera, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB of RAM.
Yet the drawbacks, depending on how you want to use a laptop, are just as powerful.
When using the laptop at my office, having just one USB slot is a serious drawback. I don't have Wi-Fi, so to get online I need to use the Ethernet adapter that's included with the Air, which inconveniently connects to the USB port.
If I want to attach Apple's $99 SuperDrive accessory — very elegant, by the way — to burn a CD, I'm out of luck. Sure, I could unplug the Ethernet connection, but then I wouldn't get the song information, accessed through an online database, for the disc.
When it comes to the hard drive, I can't imagine having only 80GB of space on my primary computer. Even after a healthy spring-cleaning purge of digital detritus, which might clear a dozen gigabytes, I'm certain I'll have storage regrets soon.
Apple acknowledges these limitations might turn off some buyers.
''For computer users doing the basics and not building up huge masses of data, the Air could be perfect,'' said Todd Benjamin, Apple's director of portables marketing. ''But if you're a heavy user, it might not be right.''
I don't think I'm ready for the commitment the Air wants.
I adore Apple's MacBook Air so much I'm starting to think I can live with its shortcomings. At 3 pounds and about as thick as a weekly magazine, this is the most endearing laptop I've ever used.
Get the full article here.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
