[Shacs] Apple Releases World's Thinnest Notebook Computer

[Byron Ray]

Don't forget only ONE USB port and NO optical drive.

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Byron Ray                                    Technology Department, Conroe ISD 
Email and Web Security Analyst  3205 West Davis #C208  
Tel:   (936) 709-7626                   Conroe, TX 77304
Email: byron at conroeisd.net 
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ekeown at swbell.net on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at 11:00 PM -0600 wrote:
>
>It's very cool and light, but three quirks they fail to mention in the
> sales pitch:
>
>It's factory sealed, meaning:
>1) You can't replace or upgrade the hard drive
>    - OK, not a huge deal because if you use all the hard drive space
> on a machine that is no means meant to be a desktop replacement (it
> doesn't have an optical drive) it's probably old and therefore by Apple's
> standards out of date, and two they offer pretty good service on their
> machines if you don't mind going to an apple store or sending it off.
>
>2) You can't upgrade of replace the RAM
>    - This is a bit of a bigger issue to me because while we all know
> that laptops aren't generally upgrade friendly, it's nice to know that
> you can always add more RAM to get a little more performance out of the
> machine.
>
>3) You can't replace the battery
>    - This is the biggest issue for me.  The battery is internal and
> therefore sealed...so no spare battery, and worse, when the battery
> decides to loss it's charge capacity, you have to be without your machine
> while Apple get around to replacing the battery for you.
>
>As I mentioned there is no optical drive which isn't that big of deal
> since there is always the option to use an external drives, and they
> have a piece of software you can put on other machines so the MacBook Air
> can use their optical drives.  Also the machine excluded a network port
> choosing to go exclusively wireless.  Again these are both very minor
> issues, especially compared to the whole factory sealed issue.
>
>To me, these factory sealed issues are the kind that should be found in
> something like the OLPC XO-1, not a system you paid $1800 for.  Thin
> is neat and compact is neat, but to me they shouldn't sacrifice such
> common features, at a premium no less.
>
>Eric
>
>----- Original Message ----
>From: Dr. Tim McGuire <mcguire at shsu.edu>
>To: shacs at shsu.edu
>Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 3:36:54 PM
>Subject: [Shacs] Apple Releases World's Thinnest Notebook Computer
>
>
>This is one sleek computer.  The question is: "Is it usable?"
> 
>http://www.apple.com/macbookair/guidedtour/
>
>-- 
>Timothy J. McGuire, Ph.D.
>Department of Computer Science
>Sam Houston State University
>Huntsville, Texas  77341-2090
>(936)294-1571    mcguire at shsu.edu    http://www.shsu.edu/~csc_tjm/
>
>
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