{"id":3258,"date":"2009-01-15T07:42:13","date_gmt":"2009-01-15T12:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=3258"},"modified":"2009-01-15T07:42:13","modified_gmt":"2009-01-15T12:42:13","slug":"impressions-of-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/impressions-of-air","title":{"rendered":"Impressions of Air"},"content":{"rendered":"

I got a Macbook Air<\/a> yesterday. It was a refurbished model from the first generation: 1.8ghz, 64gb SSD (a solid-state drive, instead of the 80gb hard disk option). It cost 45% of the original price (it debuted a year ago): down to $1,299 from $2,899.<\/p>\n

My rationale for buying it \u00e2\u20ac\u201d once the price got so low \u00e2\u20ac\u201d was to have a lightweight computer for travel. I know it may sound like a useless extravagance, but there’s a big difference between 5.5 lbs. and 3 lbs. when you’re on the road.<\/p>\n

First impressions:<\/em><\/p>\n

Man, this thing is light and thin. My IT guy said it feels like it’s half a laptop, as if the monitor had fallen off or something.<\/p>\n

I don’t have a case for it yet, so I put it in a 10″ x 13″ Tyvek envelope when I left the office yesterday.<\/p>\n

It runs pretty cool. I haven’t tried playing a video on it yet, but just doing my standard internettery (Firefox, NetNewsWire) generates a lot less heat than my Macbook Pro does.<\/p>\n

The screen is insanely bright. I maxed out the brightness last night and had to look away because the whites were so glaring. The screen also doesn’t have to warm up; it reaches regular brightness instantly when you wake it up or start.<\/p>\n

Because there’s no optical drive and no platters for the hard drive, it was difficult to tell whether the laptop had turned on when I hit the power button. I accidentally shut it off twice while trying to get it to start. It’s really weird, not hearing any of the minute clicks-and-whirrs of a hard drive.<\/p>\n

The audio is tinny.<\/p>\n

My USB drive feels a little snug in the flip-down USB port, but my Verizon 3G antenna fits in there just fine, as does my Flip video. The port does snap shut a little too easily when I’m trying to get a USB item in there. I’ll probably need to bring a USB-extender cable along when I travel (since I’m a big Boy Scout).<\/p>\n

The long, narrow button of the trackpad is a little less responsive than the one on my main laptop.<\/p>\n

It seems to boot up faster than my Pro, but I’ll have to test that sometime.<\/p>\n

I felt a little weird about getting a computer that only has 64gb of memory, but that limit has made me think about what I actually need to keep on a laptop, and how much space I’m wasting on that Macbook Pro.<\/p>\n

In fact, the Air may become my primary laptop, as I reassess what I need\/use a laptop for. Since I do all my layout work on my desktop computer (a 24″, 2.8ghz, 4gb RAM iMac), as well as most of my photo-tweaking, I don’t need a\u00c2\u00a0 laptop with a crazy-fast processor, tons of memory or a big screen. As long as playing a 2-hour movie doesn’t cause the computer to overheat and shut off, it should be just fine for travel.<\/p>\n

It’s early days; I’ll try to update this if I have any more impressions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I got a Macbook Air yesterday. It was a refurbished model from the first generation: 1.8ghz, 64gb SSD (a solid-state drive, instead of the 80gb hard disk option). It cost 45% of the original price (it debuted a year ago): down to $1,299 from $2,899. My rationale for buying it \u00e2\u20ac\u201d once the price got … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Impressions of Air”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[520],"class_list":["post-3258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-macbook-air"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-Qy","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5974,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/running-on-empty","url_meta":{"origin":3258,"position":0},"title":"Running on empty","author":"Gil","date":"April 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The new Macbook Air: so awesome it'll run with no power:","rel":"","context":"In \"macbook air\"","block_context":{"text":"macbook air","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/macbook-air"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/runningonempty.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4876,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-jan-22-2010","url_meta":{"origin":3258,"position":1},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Jan. 22, 2010","author":"Gil","date":"January 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"No Unrequired Reading for you this week! That's due less to my malaise, and more to my laptop being in the shop. It suffered the hinge-break that first-generation MacBook Air models are prone to (\"so take \/ this broken hinge . . .\"). Apple is replacing the monitor and hinge\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3266,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-11909","url_meta":{"origin":3258,"position":2},"title":"What It Is: 1\/19\/09","author":"Gil","date":"January 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: Re-reading Montaigne's \"On some verses of Virgil\" and a few chapters of Cultural Amnesia. Clive James just dropped the unmitigated smackdown on Walter Benjamin. (Boy, I really oughtta start watching these sometime.) What I'm listening to: Pretty random stuff on my iTunes, as I think about compiling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=039333354X","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6053,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/far-from-the-tree","url_meta":{"origin":3258,"position":3},"title":"Far From the Tree","author":"Gil","date":"July 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"To quote Kip Dynamite, \"I love technology.\" I'm not a super-geek, but I am a geek. I admit it. I like neat gadgets. During our trip to Louisiana last weekend, my mother-in-law asked me how I knew about the Kindle and the iPad and all this technology. I was stuck\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Apple\"","block_context":{"text":"Apple","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/apple"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6237,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/its-my-party-and-ill-pod-if-i-want-to","url_meta":{"origin":3258,"position":4},"title":"It’s my party and I’ll pod if I want to","author":"Gil","date":"January 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories - season 2 episode 1 Gil Roth - Pale Horses at the Burger Joint I managed to make it through a whole year of being 40! Today I'm turning 41 and I don't know what to do with myself. (That sounds like a Morrissey song title.) In honor\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcasts"","block_context":{"text":"Podcasts","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/podcasts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B002VA464S","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5772,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-112910","url_meta":{"origin":3258,"position":5},"title":"What It Is: 11\/29\/10","author":"Gil","date":"November 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: The Odyssey, some goofy Johnny Ryan comics, and a ton of magazines I needed to catch up on, like Monocle, New York, Fantastic Man, GQ, Esquire, and Interview. What I'm listening to: Barking, The Lady Killer, High Violet, This is Happening, and Ain't Nobody Worryin'. 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