Macbook Air Personal Experiences thus far?

I really want to know what sites people are visiting that are so Flash-dependant. I can’t think of a single site worth visiting that relies on Flash to show content.

A common one I bumped into a while back was automobile product sites. Lots of product information all locked up in flash. Some searching would get me to a 3rd party site with the stats and prices I was looking for, but that's a huge FAIL for a website as your customer is going elsewhere. It's gotten better over the past few years, but that was the one that I ran into the most last time I was looking.

Movie promotion sites are/were also commonly unusable, but I can generally get the information I wanted from IMDB. (but note again - user is going elsewhere and finding the information)

And recently there was the Final Fantasy XIV site - cant go anywhere ... of course you could just say that it's par for the course with that game.

The last thing I can think of are just local businesses (pizza places, bars, etc..) that just want to bring whizbang to the web rather than deliver content that people want such as hours of operation, food menus, etc... - you know the ones.. if they even have that information, it's buried in weird animated rollover triggered by clicking some cartoons ear or whatnot.


Soo... No. I agree with you. Generally not websites worth visiting, but that's because the web designers and content providers don't make it worth visiting.

edit: Played with a new Air at BestBuy. The SSD makes things REALLY snappy. It's on my lust list for sure.
 
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I have owned a base MBA 11" for a little more than a week so far.

My thoughts on it;
Light (really light)
It runs various websites just fine however when I watch Youtube or Hulu and if the video is long enough - I will encounter maybe a one second pause somewhere in the video, may be several times throughout the video depending on the length.
Battery life is respectful for what I've been using - web browsing, writing, light duty stuffs. It hits just about at the advertised battery life of five hours +/- 20 minutes depending on usage.
Read/Write speeds of the SSD/Flash storages are respectful and it's not too fast either but it ain't a slouch.
Gaming, not tried yet but I got steam installed - mostly due to friends / chatting but will be trying maybe couple of games to see how it pans out.

All that being said, I think personally it would've been nice to get a MBP 13" myself mainly due to more beefier base RAM of 4GB, better CPU and in addition to this, you can burn discs and watch dvds without having to rely on an external. However these two products are different and their purposes also do differ.

That all being said I think I'm 85% happy with my purchase. I may do a more of in-depth review later on when I get all of the right apps installed and such. However I do worry about TRIM support as it's to my knowledge that MAC OSX does not have trim support which is important for SSD/Flash storages but I've not yet observed any degradation in performance myself, if any.
 
Last night I played around with a friend's 13" MBA that he'd just bought. Upgraded with 4GB, upgraded CPU, 256GB SSD, etc etc. He sold his 15" MBP in exchange for it.

Even though it isn't necessarily for me, it is still very nice. Same MBP keyboard, same multitouch trackpad, but only a little heavier than an iPad and you can totally do work on it. The boot up, wake from sleep, and shut down times were stupid fast. It's a super slick notebook, but you're obviously paying for it when you load it up with all the options.

Honestly, my ideal notebook would be a hybrid between the 13" MBA and the 15" MBP.

You combine the beefy CPU/GPU and 15" screen of the MBP, with the slim SSD and lack of optical drive of the MBA. You'd have a machine that is thin, light, and fast fast fast all the way around.

Hopefully we'll see such a machine in two years or so. People will bitch and complain about the MBP losing the integrated DVD burner. I personally can't wait, those things are superfluous now, especially now that the OS X installation disk is just a USB key. The only applications I currently have installed from disc are Final Cut Studio and Office, and I don't see why those couldn't be installed via USB or download. Every other application and game that I own has been via download (the last time I bought a PC game on CD or DVD was in 2007, Steam is just too good).

I think it's inevitable.
 
I have noticed now that the skipping occurs in ==when using plex viewing the apple trailers plugin. Isnt all of that html5 or mp4?
 
Typing this from my MBA right now. It is now my main productivity machine - I do everything but gaming on it, and actually this weekend I've been running dungeons in WoW just fine while at my parents over thanksgiving. I am completely satisfied with this machine thus far.

"Ultimate" 11". 1.6GHz C2D, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD.
 
I had to jump on the sale Blizzard was running last week (vanilla WoW, TBC and WotLK for $20 total?), and so I tried it on my base 11" MBA. Surprised to see it runs at the thing's native resolution, all settings on "good" (no AA or what have you, naturally, though it doesn't make *too* much difference), and it's just silky smooth, at all times (run through some of the capital cities, though admittedly not some of the *really* demanding areas, like the big cities in WotLK). This MBA keeps impressing me!

So yeah, travelling back home yesterday, I was in the passenger's seat with a wireless stick and WoW going. Not a bad way to travel!
 
the mac book air has made the ipad obsolete for most people. I still want the 13" inch though as it would be nice to have a little more horsepower and memory.
 
Can someone with "Ultimate 11" try this 1080p trailer from you tube and tell me if it lags?
I know in fact the 1.4gz model plays like a slide show(really crappy slide show at that), how is the 1.6gz?
Remember to change mode to 1080p HD from the video.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i2RCBa3l-g
I know the 13" base has no problem once it loads.
Thanks
 
my macbook 13 didnt skip at all on that even 1080p.. Why then do I have problems with all the other flash videos I come across?
 
Can someone with "Ultimate 11" try this 1080p trailer from you tube and tell me if it lags?
I know in fact the 1.4gz model plays like a slide show(really crappy slide show at that), how is the 1.6gz?
Remember to change mode to 1080p HD from the video.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i2RCBa3l-g
I know the 13" base has no problem once it loads.
Thanks

Smooth as butter on my 11" MBA "Ultimate"
 
the mac book air has made the ipad obsolete for most people. I still want the 13" inch though as it would be nice to have a little more horsepower and memory.

Thats a laughable quote.
 
Can someone with "Ultimate 11" try this 1080p trailer from you tube and tell me if it lags?
I know in fact the 1.4gz model plays like a slide show(really crappy slide show at that), how is the 1.6gz?
Remember to change mode to 1080p HD from the video.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i2RCBa3l-g
I know the 13" base has no problem once it loads.
Thanks

I don't know what your problem is, but on my base model 11" MBA, that video runs completely smoothly at 1080p, as does all of the other 1080p video I've tried on it. So... *shrug*
 
Can someone with "Ultimate 11" try this 1080p trailer from you tube and tell me if it lags?
I know in fact the 1.4gz model plays like a slide show(really crappy slide show at that), how is the 1.6gz?
Remember to change mode to 1080p HD from the video.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i2RCBa3l-g
I know the 13" base has no problem once it loads.
Thanks

Try the 1.4 again w/ flash player 10.2 beta.. it's butter.

cpu utilization on the avatar trailer @ 1080p after the video has loaded is about 19.8%.. it played perfectly.

Here's a screen capture.. I'm using a Dell P2310H 1080p monitor with the MBA..

 
About that trailer, I don't have the air yet, I was trying it out at the apple store. I asked because I didn't know which one I should buy, going to buy one soon.
Did you guys specifically set that trailer to 1080p hd mode? the link is default to the lowest resolution, you need to specifically click on the mode and change it to 1080p hd.
When I checked it out at the store, it lags really bad, that's why I didn't buy it right then, I was thinking if I should custom order the "ultimate" version. At the store, the 13" air plays no problem though. That's why I asked the problem, if you guys did set the mode specifically to 1080p HD and still plays smoothly, then it's a great news, that will also mean the ultimate will be sufficient for sure.
 
Huh, again, that's strange. I specifically set it to 1080p HD mode (I *am* familiar with how the multiple resolutions work on Youtube...), and as I said, it ran completely smoothly. Did you perhaps not let it load first? If the network speed was the bottleneck, that could cause the problem...
 
I got a fully upgrade 11" a few weeks ago and it's been quite nice, though I'm not using it as much as I should. It was sort of a "should upgrade my old laptop even though I don't really need to" type of purchase. It's been a little hard for me to get used to the keyboard because my old laptop had keys that were flush against each other and the mac keyboard seem to be more spaced out, but it's just a matter of time. Things run really well for the most part, but I'm only doing web browsing and development on it. The android emulator does not run well at all, but it doesn't run well on most computers in general. If you want to do android debugging, you'll need to use an actual android device hooked up via USB.

Side note, the "instant on" feature is sort of true, but it does take more than a few seconds for the OS to become usable. Although it shows the desktop within 2-3 seconds, things just don't react very well for another 5-6. Still very respectable though.

Dual booting Windows 7 ultimate via rEFIt, works perfectly. Tried using vmware fusion as well, but the little guy can't seem to keep up with that very well.

All in all I'd say it was worth it, but barely. I almost considered returning it in the first two weeks and swallowing the restocking fee, but ultimately I was too lazy.
 
Typing this from my MBA right now. It is now my main productivity machine - I do everything but gaming on it, and actually this weekend I've been running dungeons in WoW just fine while at my parents over thanksgiving. I am completely satisfied with this machine thus far.

"Ultimate" 11". 1.6GHz C2D, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD.
Try OnLive for gaming, you'll be surprised.
 
I just received my 13" 1.86GHz/4Gb/128Gb MBA today and I have come away with two initial observations:

- The antislip feet on this thing suck even worse than the antislip bottom on the unibody Mac Minis. I can push this thing around the wood desk with a pinky finger and no effort. A slight tug on the power cable will yank it right off without pulling the magsafe connector out.
- The fan ramps up very quick from minor work like a file transfer and its really loud. Being loud isn't much of a surprise having owned a MBP before but ramping up so quickly just to copy a 600Mb file was surprising. That and the Mac Mini with a SSD makes no noise and has spoiled me something awful.

Otherwise I'm happy with it for its intended purpose which is to give me a machine to use while relocating without a permanent residence for a desktop.

Ordered a carry bag for it from: http://www.sfbags.com/products/sleevecases/sleevecases.php
Horizontal + Flap + Strap + Piggyback + Leather trim but it hasn't arrived yet. $110 is a bit steep for a bag but out of all the options it seemed the most desirable without spending way more for a bigger bulkier leather briefcase-like bag. I'd probably have settled for another Marware Sportfolio for less than half the price but it was terrible for carrying accessories such as the power adapter. I'll post my impressions of it when it arrives.

Edit: Wifi seems extremely problematic with the MBA. Mac Mini, iPhone, iPad, AirPort Express, AppleTV all work fine with my AirPort Extreme but the MBA drops out left and right when it works. Most of the time trying to ping it results in "host is down" even with it within a few feet of the APE and what replies I get tend to have very high latency (300+) where as everything else on the network is around 0.x-1ms. :|
 
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The SSD in these Airs are very impressive. Everything loads very quickly.

The only downside to these is if they are used for video editing, they only have 4GB memory tops which can be a limit if HD content is used.

Otherwise, they are very thin, lightweight, and awesome to carry around.
 
@Ankle I'll absolutely agree on the "nonstick" feet - why are they even there? The only thing I can figure is, they're there to get the base off the table/whatever. Ah, well. However, my personal experience with the wifi has been essentially opposite yours - my MBA has the best wireless adaptor I've ever encountered, and the sheer range at which it can get a good signal has shocked a lot of my friends.

I haven't found a bag I like for it, yet. It's just so small - normal laptop bags are gigantic, compared to it, and the ones that closely fit... look too much like purses for me.

Also, lately it's been really slow to come out of sleep. Instead of "nearly instant," it's gone to "several seconds" and a few times a day "requires rebooting." I don't really know what changed/what the problem is... Will update if this changes, but it is NOT a pleasant experience.
 
@Ankle I'll absolutely agree on the "nonstick" feet - why are they even there? The only thing I can figure is, they're there to get the base off the table/whatever. Ah, well. However, my personal experience with the wifi has been essentially opposite yours - my MBA has the best wireless adaptor I've ever encountered, and the sheer range at which it can get a good signal has shocked a lot of my friends.

I haven't found a bag I like for it, yet. It's just so small - normal laptop bags are gigantic, compared to it, and the ones that closely fit... look too much like purses for me.

Also, lately it's been really slow to come out of sleep. Instead of "nearly instant," it's gone to "several seconds" and a few times a day "requires rebooting." I don't really know what changed/what the problem is... Will update if this changes, but it is NOT a pleasant experience.

I get a good RSSI of -25 as its on the desk next to the AirPort Extreme but I end up with latency and drop outs for some reason. It seems fine now but yesterday it was killing me trying to transfer my documents and apps over the network. I'd be impressed by the instant on from sleep but my Mac Mini is already that fast with a Intel X25-M SSD when resuming from sleep provided the power hasn't gone out and everything is still in memory. Otherwise it takes a little while to resume still but not very long.
 
No issues with mine. 13"/2Gb/1.86/128Gb

I love the size and weight, and was amazed by the build quality. It is great having something small and light without feeling flimsy or plasticy

I was able to play CS:S at 1920x1200 with some of the settings turned up, which really impressed me. The fan is quite noisy when gaming, but the bottom never got hot like my MBP does.

Pros:
Size
Weight
Performance
Battery life
Gorgeous screen
Nice Keyboard
Fast SSD
Excellent trackpad

Cons:
Keyboard not backlit (Don't really care, but would be nice)
Noisy fan (again, I don't really care what my laptop sounds like)
Anti-Slip feet are slippery
My TimBuk2 Laptop Messenger bag is too big for this laptop :(
 
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