MacBook Air in the air?
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Jan 14th 2008 7:02AM
posted Jan 14th 2008 7:02AM
The kids over at 9to5Mac are making the case that Apple's rumored ultra-portable will be dubbed the MacBook Air. Besides all the anecdotal evidence supporting their case, one of their readers discovered a machine identifying itself as a "MacBookAir" in a January 9, 2008 Adium usage log -- 3 days before the "There's something in the air" MacWorld banner was revealed. If true, it's thought that the name could refer to the ultra-portable's weight, WWAN capability, or even Wireless USB support. As odd as the name might sound, just remember how strange we all thought "Wii" was back in the day. Ok, Air is still bad.Read -- 9to5mac
Read -- week 2, 2008 Adium log in Google's cache
For all of those interested in the MacBook Air (or plan to purchase one in the future), there's an online community and message board forming here: MacBook Air Lounge & Forum (http://www.macbooklounge.com/). It looks like it will have a mods & hacks section when the product starts to get tweaked.
Sounds like Steve is entering the shoe business
Nike +
Thomas Ricker, you are full of shit. I'm sick of Engadget hating on every Mac rumor just to get "street cred" from the Microsoft fanboys, and then turning around and kissing the ass of every newly-introduced Apple product. It happened with the new Nano, and you all talked shit about how "fat" it was, then when it came out you all loved it. I don't mind your editorial interjections from time to time, but going and saying that a name like "Air" is worse than the fuss that the name "Wii" got is a little excessive.
If this rumor turns out to be true, then Apple's marketing team has made a wise choice. "Air" describes the ultra-portability and the connectivity of the rumored device, while still following their philosophy of introducing new and complex ideas in simpler terms. Furthermore, if you're looking at the competition, I don't see how "MacBook Air" is any worse than, "Dell XPS M1330,""HP Pavilion HDX," "Inspiron," "Latitude," and "ThinkPad."
OK MacBoi... settle down. You are a prime example of why Mac users have a bad name. You are on a hair-trigger... it's scary.
timbobsteve, IF YOU DON'T AGREE WITH MY OPINIONS, I'LL RIP YOUR FACE OFF AND FEED IT TO YOU!!!!!!
....just kidding!
I think the MacBook Air will be geared exclusively towards business executives. After all, its acronym is MBA.
Damn you, Thomas Ricker! How dare you have an opinion on the possible name of this product!
Excellent point, John.
John, it is okay to comment on someone's skills as a journalist but it's another to personally attack said person for his opinions.
Personal attacks are childish and, overall, they're just wrong, you stupid face.
[Per usual, jk, but only about the "stupid face" comment, the rest, totaly meant it. Now, calm down, Macboi, and drink a refreshing glass of Windows ChillPill Aid.]
as long as the touch pad has two clickers, I'll be happy
would be pretty sweet if they made it as thin as the new keyboards O.o
chances are low that it will have two clickers, but you and me both would want it. I'd love to have a mac, but too many school apps require windows, and I wouldnt get a mac for its styling, but the OS, and if I can't use the OS I might as well get more power for my money.
"chances are low that it will have two clickers, but you and me both would want it."
hehe... I can see it now
apple: we're proud to announce a laptop revision featuring two mouse buttons!"
fanboi: oh cool that's the best thing ever invented, so original in every way :D
anyone else: welcome to 1980...
another thought...
what if it's a big iphone?(smaller than lightweight laptop though) maybe more of a leopardish os on it? multi-touch screen...
that would be neat...
@ customh:
You could always get a Mac and run Windows in virtualization. Then you could use the Mac OS for all tasks that don't require Windows and have your required school apps running among them. Of course this is not nearly as direct or inexpensive as picking up a $500 Dell or something, but it's a way to avoid having to spend 100% of your time in Windows just because of a few apps. Personally, I don't think you can put a price on that ;-)
I used to think that the Mac portables needed a second mouse button, like the mighty mouse, but then a colleague showed me a feature I had overlooked. Under System Preference>Keyboard & Mouse>Trackpad, there is an option called "Place two fingers on trackpad and click button for secondary click". This combined with the "Use two fingers to scroll" and "Allow horizontal scrolling" and I am a happy PC convert!!
I always hated the middle click button on my Ubuntu ThinkPad. I would click it on accident 50% of the time. I would curse Lenovo for not putting only two buttons instead of three. I can see how hard it is to please everyone. I think that it took Apple this long because they couldn't find the perfect solution. But now I think they have.
Now, I just wish they would round off the front edge so it would be more comfortable to do "mouse" intensive work with the trackpad. If this wasn't company property, I'd take a rasp/file to it.
Meh. I'd rather have a big single button on just use the two finger click function for right click. I tend to click with my right thumb in the middle of the button, so I'd just end up having the seem between the buttons irritating my thumb, and I'd right click when I didn't need to.
I prefer the single button touch pad.
idk.. I'd rather have a right button instead of having to reach up and push ctrl every time I want to right click...
it would be nice if they'd at least have two sensors under there... like the mighty mouse ~barf~
Juice Daddy, did you even read the comments before you? You don't need to hit CTRL, you use one hand with two fingers to right-click on a Powerbook track pad. It's actually a very elegant solution for regular joes and power users alike. I wish my Thinkpad had this option. Having 3 mouse buttons sucks on a sub-notebook.
Silly rabbits, clicks are for kids. Use keyboard commands, they're
the foundation of Mac OS.
... and back in my day, we had to click and HOLD a menu for it to
drop down. Have you ever tried finding conflicting extensions when
Conflict Catcher is the one causing a conflict? You and your
"macbooks" with their "portability." Back then, a SE was as portable
as it could get! You ever lug a 30lb computer 3 miles in knee deep
snow? Well, neither did I, but it was probably pretty tough.
grumble grumble command-option-g grumble grumble
"Juice Daddy, did you even read the comments before you? You don't need to hit CTRL, you use one hand with two fingers to right-click on a Powerbook track pad. It's actually a very elegant solution for regular joes and power users alike. I wish my Thinkpad had this option. Having 3 mouse buttons sucks on a sub-notebook."
I don't prefer this method so I didn't acknowledge it
heh, why do I care anyways.. I'd plug in a usb mouse before I'd use a trackpad
Nike Air!
Awesome...
Oh, wait it's MacBook Air... (oh, I get it...... Not..)
The black and red one will be the Macbook Jordan.
Hi all
Just giving the obligatory "i dont care" post
thats all
thank you and goodnight
I don't own a single Apple product, but I'm still interested in what they get up to... why bother posting a "don't bother" post?
@Peter
Sorry, i have nothing better to do with my time :)
airport ?
Just going way out on a limb here... airport built into a blu-ray drive?
Think about it: People are already a bit upset that the new Mac Pros don't have an HD optical drive. So, you have your Mac Pro sitting on the floor humming away and a separate Blu-Ray drive sitting on your desk, connected via 802.11n. The optical drive would work on battery, a wall plug, or (if you don't mind the extra wire) USB.
This also makes sense for an optical-drive-less subnotebook. It gives users a miniature notebook while still giving the option of an optical drive.
PS: Blu-Ray over Bluetooth would be cool, but bluetooth is nowhere near fast enough until the next rev.
Lame name but his Steveness will sell it in such a way that we'll all want one.
We all hated Mac Pro, Macbook, Macbook Pro names initially didn't we?
I still hate the name MacBook Pro. Awkward.
I love the macbook naming scheme, it brings the line together. ibook and powerbook were so far off...
Mac Pro sucks. Really. Why didn't they go with Tower Mac - to follow PowerMac (since it's the same case as the PowerMac G5 - STILL - after 3 years as an Intel). MacBook makes sense. MacBook Pro is a little awkward, especially when it came out first (about 6 months with no "MacBook" - MacBook Pro seemed stupid.) My Money is on "MacBook Nano" or "MacBook Mini" since they seem to want to keep the naming theme consistant now. Or maybe iMacBook. This, of course, means the so-called "iTablet" would be the MacBook Touch or the Mac Touch.
@ Chad,
Yes, but if they do have a MacBook Mini, would you also be expecting an iPod Pro??
Why are we all slaying a name that we don't even know to be the real name of the product. That's as stupid as saying "By the by, Sony's new Walkman is going to be call the Sony Gay. What a stupid name. Awesome product, but stupid name. Change it Sony."
We'll see tomorrow, though, won't we.
I think the name is ok. It's short, easy to remember, and descripes their concept.
Well, maybe this can be a viable competitor to the eee pc.
Hell, i need to buy an ultraportable laptop for when i start uni later this year, maybe this can offer me choice.
Umm, competitor to the EEE? If apple did something like that it would be at least four times the price. Buy an EEE and have a couple of good weekends :D
how much max space u can get out of current SSD at the moment?
I think they're at 64GB, or maybe 128
Samsung just announced 128 gigs, i believe.
yeah, but currently ssd that are worth of (i mean speed and size) are very expensive. mtron has the fastes around (110m/s read, about 50mb/s write) and a 32gb is like 700$ or so..
Why don't Apple employ the Hypnotoad instead of doing all this tedious advertising malarkey? The curtains would be drawn back to display the toad in all his glory, after a minute of so we'd all march off down to the nearest Apple store and Steve wouldn't need to get out of bed.
ALL HEIL THE HYPNOTOAD!!!!!
All hail the Hypnotoad!
http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/5317/applehypnotoadaw6.jpg
I had a dream last night about this rumored "air" device. It was a portable speaker with an integrated AirPort Express.
Putting the name of the product directly in the teaser banner is not clever at all.
Shame on Apple if they release a MacBook Air...shame.
MacBook Air? Ah, then it'll come with three girls: one suicidal, one amnesiac, and one just mopey... and a fourth one buried in the legacy layer that has wings and a dead mother.
Oh, wait, sorry, wrong AIR. Wake me for MacBook Kanon.
(Actually, I'm hoping this isn't the only announcement-- I've been waiting on an iPod Touch purchase and hope an upgrade to those gets announced.)
Are you AIRhead?
Air? Can it be some cheap wireless terminal, with most of apps and files hosted in .mac? They already showd the concept of server app + aqua-ish fronend works nicely, with googlemaps on iphone. Also, Mossberg asked Jobs a question about .mac once, and Jobs was quite upset with "the ship leaking from top"...
Just another wild rumor :)
is this it?
http://flickr.com/photos/superfrunny/2192321716/
I don't think apple would that foolish to have a touchpad like that. Also, anyone remember the pictures engadget already posted with the new MB or whatever next to a regular MB or MBP? The touchpad was the same, really fat....and stupid.
If you look hard enough you can see that it is just an iMac that has been cropped at the bezel and a new BT Wireless Keyboard..... nice concept though. I'd buy it if it were real.
AIR is a copyrighted term used by Adobe for Adobe Integrated Runtime and is a product that they publish. They have already sued other companies for using it.
Yeah, and the iPhone was used by another company also
...what's your point?
Or Touch for that matter - HTC already used that before Apple presented the iPod Touch...
They don't care about trademarked name parts apparently.
And so was Macintosh... :)
Sounds good! But I wonder how the price will be...
Sounds good! But I wonder how the price will be...
First of all you can't copyright a term like "Air", "Water", or "earth" alone. It can be copyrighted with another non general term, as in "Nike Air". Secondly it is an acronym .
So in theory, you could have a product called Apple Zune?
erm, no, Zune was an invented word... you can't use generic words as a trademark unless you very narrowly define their use, like 'Apple Computer' or 'Windows Operating System' or something
Zune wasn't a standard English word, they made it up, so they own it outright as far as I know
If Microsoft made a product called Apple Zune yes they could possibly get away with it. Remember Apple Inc. is Apple's actual legal name and before that it was Apple Computer Inc. There is nothing stopping a company from naming a product with a generic term, if another company made a product that was similar in its function the company could still try to say they have rights to that name and that the product would cause consumer confusion suing on the way the product functions and any patents they may have on that product. If you remember Apple computer Inc. at times was fighting with Apple Records which was actually Apple Corps Ltd. They didn't have a problem with each other till Apple Computer started making music products.
My guess is that this air thingy might be:
Wireless HD TV streaming to (a new) Apple TV + HD movie/video support in iTunes + Movie rental that we know is coming....
YES! I am hopeful for this too. The iPod is not a solution for digital video and Apple knows it. A Hobby? yeah right... Apple TV is the key to digital videos for the iTMS. It hasn't taken off yet because it's nowhere near easy for the average user to convert their DVD's to iTunes videos. Apple is obviously working on a solution to this in creating movie rentals, and signing deals with movie companies to include iTunes versions of the movie on every DVD you buy. If only they could come up with a solution to get all of your current DVD's into iTunes legally and easily, I bet you'll see the Apple TV take off like the iPod did with music. They really just need to get with the times and have HD content, and a much larger hard drive for storage.
Imagine being able to select and play any movie in your DVD library without even having to get up!
Hi !
Something very strange here in France !
Nowadays it's Sales Time. Every Time, recent Apple Stuffs are never price low down. But 8GB Ipod Touch is 25% price down !!!
A clue for Tomorrow ???
Could it be an tiny notebook-like creature like the Asus EEE but running Mac o/s? 7-10" screen maybe. IT COULD BE LIGHT AS AIR.
I am still thinking about getting an EEE just for mobile basic stuff. Writing and such.
I would say don't hold out if you're looking for apple to release a similar product in anywhere near the same price range =/
I want one... already
What if the "There's something in the air" MacWorld banner is just about the new video rental option?
"just remember how strange we all thought "Wii" was back in the day. Ok, Air is still bad."
Wii is still bad, too.
On a more serious note, I'm still hoping for ultraportable. I haven't upgraded my 12" Powerbook because I don't want anything larger as a laptop.
And If "in the air", was just something about wifi sync between Ipod/Iphone and Itunes.
Or/And something similar to new starbuck's command system with iphone/ipodT ?
I seem to remember a Apple filing patent application for wireless power charging, could these be in the new MacBook Air
It should be called MacBook Cash. Because eveything Apple makes is overpriced
Wow, what an original comment. You are so witty!
Not everything they make is overpriced... it's just when you add upgrades to their systems that costs are higher than the competition.
Oddly enough, I was downloading an updated driver for the Canon MP610 today, and noticed this comment in the CUPS driver...
1. Use the CUPS drivers in the following cases only: -When performing 16-bit color printing -When printing from the 64-bit application 2. Mac OS X v10.5 Printing from Air Mac is not available.
I'll assume they really meant Airport, but still caught my attention. The file was posted on 13-Dec-07.
"As odd as the name might sound, just remember how strange we all thought "Wii" was back in the day. Ok, Air is still bad."
Umm, at least "Air" is a word. I could understand calling it corny, or uninspired- but weird? I don't follow. Is the Nike Air "strange"?
ANYwho- I hope this is an ultraportable. People always say that Macs are overpriced- but you have to admit that the bigger storage iPods were a great value. What is it for the 160GB classic? $350? Hopefully this thing provides a similar bang-to-buck ratio.
Holy mother of salmon!
you seriously think $350 for a 160gb is worth it??
Juice Daddy, that's 160GB of 1.5" harddrive. Yes, it is worth it.
1.8" rather
blegh
I could find much better uses for $350
No value?
The closest thing I could see with triple digit gigs at a decent price was the Wolverine Data MVP (100GB) clocks in at $325 which isn't a brand name (to say the least), and most likely doesn't have a decent interface. I didn't do a thorough search yet but I'd imagine you'd be hard up to beat the price with those requirements (>99gigs and
sorry, my 'less than' sign bugged out the html:
...those requirements (over 99gigs and less than $400)
Archos will actually go up to 160gb, but goes for $540 for what I'm looking at on newegg right now.
I've always pointed this out as a reason for the iPod's success, but everyone always tells me that "it's the user interface" and so on and so forth. Not to say that doesn't count- but I think us nerds will always be looking at the dollar-to-gig ratio.
As for "better uses" for your $350, yes I understand that it could be a cheap computer running a linux server or some thanksgiving day flatscreen sale... but in terms of what I was actually talking about I think my point still stands.
Point being: If they can throw us a decent sub-notebook/ultraportable/whatever at a bargain price, I'd be really tempted. If it's light on features or high in price it won't be a complete media circus "omg everyone has to buy this right now" kind of thing- just a quality product for a certain kind of application. Kinda unfortunate for apple that people want 'grand slams' all the time.
I think Apple has been unwilling to compromise on their PowerBook 12" replacement. That's why nothing has been announced ever since they went intel. They wanted to do it with a bang, to make a statement and show us why the heck one should choose Apple's subnotebook and not a Vaio. Anyone could produce a good subNotebook, but Apple is one of the few that would dare to break new ground like this. I, for one, would have to buy a whole new audio card to go gigging with this one, and pray that the latency wouldn't be affected... I would do it though.
This MacBook Air name sounds almost as funky as "MacBook" did at first. Which means.. yeah, why not?
Er, sorry to be the boring guy in the group, but couldnt that Adium usage log have captured MacBook Airport Extreme as MacBook Air?
Nonetheless, something to look forward to tomorrow!!!
I'm getting a vision... Steve Jobs... getting on stage while Phill Collins' In the air tonight is playing... holding the new MacBook Air as the holy grail of portable computing. Hmm good times :).
sounds like a louf ov hot air
I recently got a MacBook from work. I am annoyed by the "single button" nature of the mouse.
The "two finger right click" doesn't work for some applications, especially those where you need to do two clicks in a short amount of time. In particular mouse gestures and mouse "rocker" gestures (e.g. leftclick-rightclick means "go forward"; rightclick-leftclick means "go back"). I have been using those in Opera and Firefox (with extensions) for some time, and the lack of them on the Mac annoys me. The "rocker" gestures also don't work on the "mighty mouse" since you can't register the clicks fast enough.
I'll bet it's NOT called the MacBook Air, but
The AirBook -
!
Wii is still a horrible name.
Maybe it's a reference to the MacBook that would be as "light as air." A nice reference for an ultraportable computer.
C'mon, this one seems easy to guess. This is probably a subnotebook MacBook with an iPhone-style GSM/EDGE modem built in. Get a $50/mo data plan from AT&T and you have a lightweight MacBook that you can take anywhere and have internet service (3G, please!?)
It keeps everything in line with the always-on wireless internet access philosophy of the iPhone.
What does it matter what it's called? People will still buy it.
can it fly?
Seems strange that if it's called the "Macbook Air" that Apple waited until January 11th 2008 to purchase macbookair.com.
I'm going to comment that Asus has a internet enabled radio already called the Air.
Apple wouldn't go through the trouble to negotiate deals to use that trademark for a name as stupid as the Air. I mean, at least the iPhone was a name that made sense....... and iAir just doesn't roll off the tongue.
Q.how will apple sell MacBookAir?
A.Steve jobs + MacBookAir + 3 Whores = $$$
---------------------------------------------
Look at the "There's Somthing in the air" banner they have that proves that mac is only better on running photoshop :)