There's nothing quite like hearing a group of network talk-show hosts heaping praise on a piece of technology they barely understand to jumpstart your day. We think you'll agree that listening to Matt Lauer loudly declare "It's awesome!" and watching Meredith "
You're blowing the whole schtick" Viera vigorously mime licking the new MacBook Air is pretty wretch-inducing stuff -- though Al Roker informing us that if you want the SSD, you'll only have to pay "a little bit more," was definitely one toke over the line. Thanks for ruining our breakfast guys. Every breakfast.
Watch the video after the break. We've included the crew's earlier encounter with the iPhone just in case you needed your memory jogged.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Robots, Take Over, Please @ Jan 26th 2008 4:14AM
Hahahahahahhahahahahh! Is this the funniest post on Engadget, ever?
Yeah, and about the SSD: well, Roker was just a little bit off there...
WS @ Jan 26th 2008 4:32AM
Did you even watch the entire clip. First off, Roker said, "a little more expensive" not a "little bit more." If you are going to use quotes, quote the guy correctly...
Second, later in the clip is says "over 3 thousand if you get the flash drive."
Tom @ Jan 26th 2008 5:29AM
VS: Which is still wrong, it's over 3000 if you get the model that has the flash drive AND the upgraded CPU, the flash drive upgrade itself is "ONLY" $999, so it'd be $2800 with flash, not "Over $3000"
John @ Jan 26th 2008 9:15AM
Wretch-inducing? I love the Today show's technology segments! It's hilarious how they can always manage to make the gadgets that people bring on not work, and how they have to recover from it by quickly moving to another product. Plus, I'm pretty sure all four of them have (second, third) homes in the Hamptons, so $1800 is a drop in the bucket.
I was actually pretty impressed that they knew (or at least the teleprompter knew) the drawbacks as well as the advantages over other sub-compact notebooks.
Mike10010100 @ Jan 26th 2008 12:03PM
@Tom
Actually, if you go to the Apple website, you can only choose the base model or the fully decked out model.
So he was right.
Jeff @ Jan 26th 2008 12:08PM
hahahah the best part was when the said "I don't even OWN a laptop!"
I think this was just a weird bit of bitterness coming from Engadget for no apparent reason.
Erik Stern @ Jan 26th 2008 3:44PM
You CAN upgrade the cheaper one. Check apple.com Roker. Perhaps you should study the product more before the take than eating dunkin donuts?
dg @ Jan 26th 2008 12:34PM
@Mike10010100
What are you talking about? You can configure it however you want. You can choose the base model, and choose a CPU upgrade for $300, and/or the SSD for $999. The top model is the exact same thing as adding both of those individually to the low model.
Ellianth @ Jan 26th 2008 1:04PM
Engadget doesn't want anyone else sucking up to Apple? lol
Joe Anstine @ Jan 26th 2008 1:33PM
good job copying G4 and Olivia Munn Licking the apple TV...screw the media..and more importantly...screw the airbook.
Eric @ Jan 26th 2008 4:29PM
It's a paid-for plug...what else do you expect?
aguiluz @ Jan 26th 2008 5:04PM
Gawd, I was suprised the macbook did not melt.
nikster @ Jan 27th 2008 12:59AM
The beginning segment, oooohing and aaahing - reason I don't watch TV.
But the rest was good - I was impressed on how much information on advantages/disadvantages these guys could squeeze in this short segment and at the same time be pretty entertaining. That's no mean feat, hats off to the today show.
Engadget: The harshing was uncalled for.
Gremlin @ Jan 26th 2008 4:14AM
Hiro Nakamura told me she was gonna get herpes...
D.L. @ Jan 26th 2008 12:18PM
If you watch it, she didn't actually lick it. She pretended to lick. She's no Olivia Munn.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v515/bloodylamer/bastardly-photos/0505/album69/?action=view¤t=Olivia_Munn_Licking.flv
Matt @ Jan 26th 2008 12:23PM
From the Macbook?
Jreg @ Jan 28th 2008 7:26AM
@Matt
lol
skulldriveshaft @ Jan 26th 2008 4:15AM
You mean Al Roker said if you want the Meredith Viera STD, you'll have to pay a little bit more.
Maybe it's just Herpes Simplex B (or is it A) the one that gives you nasty cold sores around your mouth.
DO NOT WANT!
Mike @ Jan 27th 2008 7:58AM
Allow me to explain once more. LCD display is improper grammar no matter how rude you decide to get. However, things like 'LCD screen' and 'LCD monitor' *can* be correct grammar if you use LCD as an acronym: liquid and crystal are adjectives, and 'display screen' or 'display monitor' are compound nouns. Put simply: LCD by itself is a noun, and LCD screen is an acronym and a noun. LCD display is incorrect due to the redundancy (since 'display display' can't be used as a compound noun).
Honestly dude, you're trying to argue against the Merriam-Webster dictionary, which specifically states that LCD can only be used as a noun or an acronym. Just give it up already.
WS @ Jan 26th 2008 4:28AM
I love it when people say "LCD display." Its like idiots saying, "I need your PIN number"... *rolls eyes*
booticon @ Jan 26th 2008 8:34AM
ATM Machine.
John @ Jan 26th 2008 9:24AM
Oh lord, I bet you're also one of those people that corrects others on saying "Q-Tip," "Kleenex," and "Band-Aid" instead of the generic.
Jim H @ Jan 26th 2008 2:18PM
Actually, those aren't really errors. LCD does mean Liquid Crystal Display, however, LCD is simply a type of display and the acronym is used as an adjective to describe that kind of display. It's therefore perfectly acceptable to say LCD display as opposed to a plasma display or a SED display.
Similarly, with PIN number. PIN is an adjective being used to describe the type of number.
Mike @ Jan 26th 2008 4:45PM
@Jim:
No, you're wrong. Plasma is a type of display just like liquid crystal is a type of display. LCD is unique enough on its own to not require the word "display" after it to let people know what you're saying.
Also, PIN is a noun, not an adjective. Even my dictionary (in the Mac OS X widget) has an entry for PIN being a noun.
Jim H @ Jan 26th 2008 9:23PM
@Mike.
Jeez, you clearly don't even know what an adjective is. A quick English lesson:
an adjective describes a noun, e.g. a LCD display - LCD is an adjective, display is a noun;
a noun refers to a person, place or thing, e.g. a PIN - where PIN is actually an acronym meaing Personal Identification Number but is being used as shorthand for a thing which is a number.
Hope that helps and God knows you need it.
Jim H @ Jan 26th 2008 9:12PM
@Mike.
You know, I've a feeling you haven't a clue what an adjective is. Figures.
WS @ Jan 26th 2008 9:47PM
@ Jim H
There is a reason why people don't say: "I spoke with a nice officer at the SFPD department," "I think my PC computer caught a virus," "I need to look for another ISP provider," or "I'm sorry miss, but he was DOA on arrival."
What the guy should have said was, "it comes with a 13" TFT display" or "it comes with a 13" liquid crystal display."
Mike @ Jan 26th 2008 10:22PM
"an adjective describes a noun, e.g. a LCD display - LCD is an adjective, display is a noun;"
No, because LCD display is WRONG. You're trying to force it into being an adjective to prove your previous point, but your previous point was also wrong. Check any modern dictionary and stop wasting my time.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lcd
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/LCD
http://www.yourdictionary.com/lcd
Jim H @ Jan 27th 2008 5:11AM
@WS and Mike
Clearly neither of you guys have a clue what you're talking about. You really ought to just STFU because you're just digging an even deeper whole for yourselves.
I'm not forcing any to be an adjective. If a descriptive word comes before a noun then it's a f*&^ing adjective, ok? Perhaps you should consider remedial English lessons or something and come back when you've reached the level necessary to enter High School?
As for your online dictionaries, I consider the ultimate reference to be the Oxford English Dictionary from those people who brought us the English language, i.e. the English. If you look up the wrong thing in a dictionary you're bound to find the wrong thing.
End of lesson.
Mike @ Jan 27th 2008 8:09AM
Allow me to explain once more. LCD display is improper grammar no matter how rude you decide to get. However, things like 'LCD screen' and 'LCD monitor' *can* be correct grammar if you use LCD as an acronym: liquid and crystal are adjectives, and 'display screen' or 'display monitor' are compound nouns. Put simply: LCD by itself is a noun, and LCD screen is an acronym and a noun. LCD display is incorrect due to the redundancy (since 'display display' can't be used as a compound noun).
Honestly dude, you're trying to argue against the Merriam-Webster dictionary, which specifically states that LCD can only be used as a noun or an acronym. Just give it up already.
(oops, originally replied to the wrong comment)
Mike @ Jan 27th 2008 8:30AM
Probably should have mentioned this in the previous post:
The part you don't understand is the way acronyms (or initialisms) are handled. Put simply, they are grammatically equivalent to the words they represent. (Abbreviations are handled the same way grammatically, which makes sense since acronyms are actually a form of abbreviation.)
So, when you write down something like 'Mr.' or 'the FBI,' you're really referring to 'mister' or 'the Federal Bureau of Investigation' and the expanded versions of the acronyms are what should be used to determine grammatical correctness. When I said 'LCD screen' is correct in the previous post, it's because the acronym expansion rule states that we must treat it like 'liquid crystal display screen.'
By the way, the Oxford dictionary only has LCD listed as an acronym - no noun listing available for some reason. However, saying 'LCD' by itself would still be correct: since 'LCD' is grammatically equivalent to the words it represents (according to the expansion rule), saying LCD is the same as saying liquid crystal display. That's still a noun.
Hopefully that's enough of an explanation.
Jim H @ Jan 27th 2008 10:45AM
@Mike,
When people are rude to me I tend to feel it's ok to be rude back to them. The trouble is that I'm generally much better at being rude than the person who was rude to me in the first place and they tend not to like it for some strange reason. If you don't want people to be rude back to you then you should learn treat them with kindness and respect from the word go.
Now, this isn't a matter of grammar or anything else. There are no real grammatical rules governing the use of acronyms, merely conventions which people can choose to use or not.
The OED doesn't say that LCD is a noun quite simply because it isn't: it's an acronym. In short, if you were to say "I've got a new LCD" I'd be inclined to ask you "A new LCD what?" because what you said didn't really make sense on its own. I could infer that you meant that you'd bought a new display which was LCD rather than CRT but I couldn't be sure unless I questioned you further. In other words, the LCD usually is simply a component of something else and you need to specify what in order to be clearly understood. Of course, you may simply buy LCDs straight from the manufacturer, lean them against the wall and hook them up to batteries but I, as most other people, like to have mine as a component in a display with plastic covers, on/off switches, power cables, that kind of thing, i.e. a LCD display. Each to their own though.
There is also the concept of common usage. It's very common to see the expression LCD display, so it has entered the language and become common parlance for an awful lot of people. Your objections were therefore pretty petty, pointless and, quite frankly, ridiculous and I politely said so. You then impolitely chose to argue the point with me and failed to demonstrate that you were in fact correct IMHO.
Incidentally, it is actually incorrect to put a fullstop after the abbreviation "Mr". There. I feel great having been able to educate you and perhaps a few other people today. A job well done, even if I do say so myself.
Mike @ Jan 27th 2008 6:41PM
"If you don't want people to be rude back to you then you should learn treat them with kindness and respect from the word go."
If you think someone taking time out of their day to *help* you learn is rude and a free ticket to be a complete ass to everyone, then I think grammar should be the least of your worries. You honestly think people were being rude to you, and you're just returning the favor? Yikes.
Anyway, there *are* rules governing acronyms. As I mentioned before, acronyms are a type of abbreviation (check Google or Wikipedia if you don't believe me), and abbreviations are treated precisely the same as the word they represent. For example, the abbreviation "Tues." does not have any new and special rules associated with it - you treat it exactly like you would the word "Tuesday" when forming a sentence. Acronyms follow the same rules since they are also a type of abbreviations. I even checked this grammar book I still have (old college book) and it says the same thing.
If you want to tell someone you bought an LCD display, by all means go right ahead. Nitpicky things like that only matter when you're writing something important, like an English paper or a press release for a new product. In everyday situations, rules like that should be the least of your concerns.
Jim H @ Jan 27th 2008 8:38PM
@Mike,
You're clearly beyond redemption. Keep deluding yourself that you have a clue what you're talking about if you like but it is evident to all and sundry that you do not. I pity you to be perfectly honest so, rest easy, I'll leave you alone from now on.
rickane58 @ Jan 27th 2008 8:54PM
Ok, there is only one way to look at it. Acronyms represent the words they are formed from. In english you can't have redundancy. The OED gives the definition of LCD as Liquid Crystal Display, or Lowest Common Denominator. Since Liquid Crystal Display Display breaks the redundancy, the only thing LCD display can mean is a display that shows only whole numbers. Maybe that would be useful as a clock or stopwatch, but as a monitor or television screen, completely useless.
Now have fun, everyone wins... technically
Jim H @ Jan 27th 2008 11:57PM
@rickane58
Mike, is that you?
Johannes @ Jan 28th 2008 6:22AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAS_syndrome
Jim H @ Jan 28th 2008 9:32AM
@Johannes,
Thanks for that. Interesting artice which elucidates well on what I was trying to expain to my buddies here.
I found the HIV example from French a little strange though as, as a fairly fluent French speaker who has lived and worked in the country for several years, I've only ever heard HIV referred to as le SIDA. HIV spelt in French is very clumsy and doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. It's unlikely, in my view, that a French person would say that.
Jim H @ Jan 28th 2008 11:56AM
P.S. Great how being right gets you a Low Rank here on Engadget. I think it says more about the average quality of the readership than anything else.
Ah, forgive them Lord, for they know not what they do.
Jim H @ Jan 28th 2008 11:56AM
P.S. Great how being right gets you a Low Rank here on Engadget. I think it says more about the average quality of the readership than anything else.
Ah, forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.
STUD HUNK @ Jan 26th 2008 4:28AM
Meredith Viera licking the Mac.... boy oh boy,
... who wouldn't have wanted to trade places with the Mac at that moment
Erik @ Jan 26th 2008 6:05AM
I think I threw up a little in my mouth.
Galley @ Jan 26th 2008 9:21AM
Man, I would plow through Meredith Viera like a stack of pancakes!
wrabbit @ Jan 26th 2008 11:23AM
Yikes! That's what you do with pancakes?!? I just eat them. But I guess to each his own.
Bona-Phone @ Jan 26th 2008 11:11PM
Next thing you know, she'll be reviewing the Bona-Phone.
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/schwing/bona+phone-stealing-iphone-thunder-273948.php
BobTurbo @ Jan 26th 2008 4:28AM
"I'm not doing a commercial here"
Well you had me fooled! I could have sworn you were just reading from a PR script.
Reader @ Jan 26th 2008 5:54AM
I couldn't make it all the way through the clip, it was ridiculously pro-apple and uncritical. Wonder how much they were paid; although it's probably profitable just to be pro-apple by looking at the most commented stories on Engadget.
kL @ Jan 26th 2008 10:18PM
Pro-apple? They've listed all the things it lacks, said it's expensive... and then drooled over its thinness. There isn't much else to say about MBA. What did you expect!?
demonic_pascal @ Jan 26th 2008 4:33AM
...lol...
Its people liek that Apple;s banking on to actually SELL some of those units to people out of the reality distortion field...
mike @ Jan 26th 2008 11:48AM
Even though Apple had selling those laptops in mind when they made them, however, that is not the main reason. The main reason is to establish their superiority in that field and show the world that they are an awesome company.. and don't tell me that anyone was not impressed to see that laptop, even apple haters were impressed.