Gold-plated MacBook Air breaks Steve Jobs' heart
By Donald Melanson 
posted Apr 22nd 2008 10:53AM
posted Apr 22nd 2008 10:53AM
We've already seen the MacBook Air bathed in gold and crystals, but it seems that people just can't leave well enough alone, with the folks at Computer Choppers (no strangers to gilded Macs) only the latest to spare no expense in taking the laptop to heights of tackiness that no one from Cupertino would ever dare dream of. That includes 24kt gold plating over the entire laptop and, in a final stake through El Jobso's heart, an Apple logo ensconced in multi-colored sapphires -- not to mention a polished gold SuperDrive to go along with it. If your eyes can take it, you can find a few more pics in the gallery below.
Given the price of gold now, you could probably buy 5+ MBAs for the same price, not that you'd want to...
I didn't know paris hilton knew how to use a mac
The MB Air upgrade to SSD is finally worth the price!
Why would anyone buy this thing? Do you have any idea how many starving kids you can feed with that money? What a waste!!! I would only get the MB Air if it was free such as this one http://www.thetechbrief.com/giveaways/macbook-air-giveaway/
Jeez...I wonder how much weight that added....
it's gold plating. as in microns thick.
QQ, buzzkill. QQ.
Expensive and hideous. Just like ya MOM, only expensive.
Eat it!
*Sigh*
@ the MBA and at your comment.
Pretty, but ridiculous.
I thought it was a pretty good poke at yo mamma, but not as good as I poked yo mamma. LOL. Geez, can't anyone joke about people's mammas anymore?
No, Johnny. Here at Engadget, we realise that gadgets and the internet are serious business.
whew...can't imagine how much it's cost...and also, could you really use it on public? talk about crime here...
When I saw the list price of the MBA, I assumed this was standard issue. You mean it costs that much without gold plating?!!
would it be more scratch proned now??
or is gold much more scratch resistant?
i m curious...
Gold is extremely soft for a metal so this would make it even MORE scratch prone...
Yeah like the above person said Gold is an extremely soft. That laptop will have more scratches than an iPod! I guess Apple fans are used to them though.
I'd love to play Doom on this.
Why?
because MBA gold will help you remember your golden days :D
I got a Platinum plated MacBook Air with diamonds as the keys on the keyboard and just the regular apple logo on the back. I'm not into all that flashy stuff. I also have snipers on my roof in case anyone tries to steal it.
There goes that weight advantage. Macbook Lead.
MBA Lead will protect you from harmful x-ray and gamma radiation and it is much more heavier than the air.
...and Kryptonite.
Anyone else open up the Engadget front page thinking that someone just smashed the side in of the Air?
That's what it looked like to me.
You are not insane. That was my initial reaction too.
Then again, we could both be insane.
That makes three of us.
Ugh, thank god Dell's aren't popular. I'd cringe if I saw my manila-envelope certified Latitude (with three fully-accessible USB ports) turned into a ghetto-top like this.
Why was he low ranked? :?
Because I compared an apple product to a product superior to it in many ways. Simple.
Proof: http://i29.tinypic.com/25re3og.jpg (not the kind with the little string-tie end, but you get the idea.)
"ghetto-top".. haha
Yay another gadget/device covered in gold, I'd like to take it and blend it then snort the gold dust! I like gooooooold!
Well, I love gold, the taste of it, the smell of it, the feel of it, I love gold, and I'm from holland, isn't that weird?
This is the ultimate waste of resources!
bling bling
Man, isn't there a better use for people's money? Like feeding hungry children, or helping to cure diseases or something?
If it doesn't directly benefit the potential buyers of this (or Macbook Airs in general), then no, there is no better use for their money in their eyes.
Holy crap I'm not getting in to this again. those of you that remember that crystal studded cofee machine a few weeks ago will know why.
But to cut a long story short, yes. I agree with your comment.
One could argue that there are better uses of your time posting here, too. Albeit in a smaller scale, but hey, add up all these types of comments.....
I could be helping starving people in my community,and I'm sure someone could still argue that my time would be better served helping the starving in some war-torn/more impoverished area.Also, I bet the money you spent on your computer could have been put to good use somewhere- why not give it up and help the less fortunate? And if you have a desktop AND a laptop...you might as well just save God the trouble and send yourself straight to hell...
But seriously, as frivolous as things like this seem (and I can agree with you on that), for the people who have ton of money it's nothing to them. And rich people buying frivolous things helps out the economy, which does help everyone. It's really not all bad.
Frank - posting here is the same thing as throwing away thousands of dollars? Really? That's a direct comparison in your mind?
mac - Yes it is frivolous, whereas my computer purchases are not. That's the difference. And as you pointed out it's nothing to people with tons of money, so why not put it to better use? I'm sorry, but there's really no good defense for buying something like this, or making it in the first place. It's pure excess.
No.
Should I forgo my Lamborghini purchase? =]
I'm trying to find your real argument. Is it that a percentage of everyone's earnings should go towards helping the less fortunate? That big corporations and the wealthy owners/executives of those companies are morally obligated to be more helpful to their community than the common man and, thus, can't buy things the "middle class" deems frivolous? Why wouldn't there be a parallel with the impoverished deeming the purchase of multiple computers/anything above a $500 Dell by the middle class as frivolous?
From your perspective, your argument makes perfect sense. Now try to think from the view of others.
Yes mac, you missed the point entirely. Possibly because you didn't actually read what I wrote.
I didn't say computers were frivolous. I'm saying a gold plated computer is frivolous. See the difference? I dare you to find anybody who wouldn't call a gold plated computer frivolous. Anybody, from any class.
All I'm saying (which I said in my first post) is that if you're going to spend money on something so completely frivolous and unnecessary as a gold plated computer, why not spend it on something useful instead, like my above suggestions?
It's not about spending a lot of money on things. Take yachts for example, they generally cost a lot of money. A yacht is a luxury item but it's not necessarily frivolous. a GOLD PLATED YACHT is frivolous, and THAT money could be put to better use.
Do you get it now?
Look at it from Zak's point of view. Basically he is saying that the money you spend on a computer goes into how much performance it has, etc, but the money spent on gold plating a computer doesn't make the screen better or make the performance better.
Now look at it from Mac's point of view. He is saying this is the same as jewelry. Does your wife own any Jewelry? This would be the exact same thing as you are paying money to carry around something shiny. So it's as much a waste of money as jewelry and MANY people have Jewelry and I don't see people telling them they are wasting money.
@Abuzar
Are you kidding?? Do you know what my wife would do to me if I told her that her jewellery was all frivolous and she was wasting money??
That's what Zak is basically saying. This computer is also Jewelry of a kind.
Now regardless of your stance on the value of the base model Air, this certainly falls into the more money than sense category. And for its name, how about the MacBook Aur?
All this needs now is a set of chrome spinners... :E
What no picture of Gold Member, Austin Powers, as the post's main image? Disappointed.
That is absolutely hideous. Anyone who would buy one is a tasteless prat who cannot be trusted with money.
Anyone who would buy this has more dollars than sense.
Normally I find these mods hideous but I think you're way off base here. This does not look hideous at all, even the usually tacky use of crystals/jewels is done nicely here. Maybe you should take a better look first before handing out summary judgments.
"Normally I find these mods hideous but I think you're way off base here. This does not look hideous at all, even the usually tacky use of crystals/jewels is done nicely here."
Oh I agree, it's nice. Some of the crystal encrusting is just unattractive but when it's just a touch as it is here, very nice. It's still a bit silly but if you have money to burn, who is to tell you how to spend it?
Dear Andrew,
I took a second look. It is still hideous, and I hereby question your taste.
My Macbook Air is plated in platinum and the keyboard letters are composed of diamonds backlit by LEDs. Gold macbook Airs are so last month
Oh yeah?
Well MY MacBook Air is bound in human flesh, with bone keys upon which the letters are scribed in the blood of innocent virgins. The LCD display is covered by human retinas and the trackpad is the breastflesh of a queen.
It is powered by hatred and fear and saves information in a chunk of brain from a tortured genius.
Being un-funny is so last month!
So who said anything about being funny?
Why don't you come over some time? I could use a new mouse pad.
I can wear this around my neck.
a perfect rig for C3PO
..or distant cousin.
You would think that they would choose a more 'photogenic' place than the bathroom of some crappy backoffice.
For this sort of coin, you would expect some better marketing.
Just my 0.02c, adjusted for inflation and currency conversion
Better taste licking my own arse!
Mac Air bling bling!
now i understand why our planet is suffering from the worst disease = money. rich people are like pigs, eating our world. this thing is hideous.
If rich people were actually buying things like this, you would have a point. However, this is not a commercial product for which there is demand, this is just a publicity stunt.
Just because you can do it ... doesn't mean you should ...
"You can kick an old man down a flight of stairs but that dosn't make it a good fu*#in idea"
Is this the Jeff Koons model?
They can call it "ensconced in multi-colored sapphires" if they want, but we all know someone has a secret love for bedazzling.
Whether you like the look or not, the quality of Qtip42's work is amazing. I dislike the bright gold myself, but credit given where credit due. He's got tons of projects over at hardforums, and they all are interesting in more ways than one.
So this is what my gas dollars are buying...
No wonder gasoline hit $4.01 per gallon, they must have ordered the SSD in their MBA.
Or maybe you should just lay off the whine for a while, over here in Sweden a gallon of gas costs the equivalent of $8.28. You just don't know how lucky you people are, and it makes me sad.
Sweden is like 1/10th the size of the US...you should be paying 10 times as much as us, not double.
I predict this will be huge in the DJ scene.
Wonder how the Airport reception has been affected.
and I thought the black macbook smudged a lot
oh sweet! The color mac logo means that the screen is now in color! I Cant wait to try out the new color mac paint!
You speak like breaking "El jobso's" heart is bad thing?
Dozy bastard, him.
Is it a jewelry or a computer? Also, I wonder what is the TSA going to think about it and if the TSA agents will be trained again to "recognize" these shining babies?
Wonder how long until it overheats sitting on that towel
Ugly
OMG, there goes breakfast!
The only two models sold were to that weird British woman who appears in the gold commercials and Flava Flav.
tell me it's a joke, who is enough of an asshole to buy that
and i'm sure it's now twice heavier than it's supposed to be, thus negating the benefit of the air in the first place,
but come on, what kind of moronic asshole will buy that (besides crappy bling rappers/r&b bitches?
Q. "Who is enough of an asshole to buy that?"
A. The following, most likely:
Paris Hilton
Sean Combs
50 Cent
50% of all professional athletes
25% of all politicians
100% of all televangelists
100% of the girls who are featured on MTV's "My Super Sweet 16"
That's just the most wrongity wrong wrong thing I have ever seen done to a mac.
Oh dear...
Dats pimpin' dope yo! Just whats I need to keep track of my bitches in mah office! (office = blacked out Escalade riding on gold spinner 22's)...
"Next on the lifestyles of the rich and shameless: You too can be the 'belle of the ball' with your very own gold and jewel encrusted Macbook Air.Celebrities and the elite alike are staying connected while making a stunning fashion statement."
Who's game for a gold Dell XPS M1730? Now that's a work of art!!
Finally, Li'l Kim has a laptop to call her own.
If this was standard on the MBA, it might actually justify the price.
This belongs to Donald Trump. If anyone tries to steal it, he'll send a troop of golden robots to attack them.
It's tacky. The only point would be to look stupid while being ostentatious
Wow, I just wouldn't feel right using that in public without a serious amount of gold chains and a gold-capped tooth. It's just that classy.
Did they take that photo in a bathroom? Nevermind, I don't want to know.
If you can afford a Ferrari, you can afford the petrol.
therefore
If you can afford a MacBook Air, you can afford the gold-plating.