
 |
|
May 13, 2013
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
March 14, 2008
/ 7 Adar II 5768
Yes, It's Really Thin and Really Light!
By
Mark Kellner
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
NASHVILLE, Tenn. Let's concede the first and most important point:
the $1,799 MacBook Air from Apple, Inc., is really thin and really
light. At its thickest, the computer is 0.76 inches tall, slimming
down to an amazing 0.16 inches at its thinnest. It weighs only 3
pounds, and that's less than half the heft of the 17-inch MacBook Pro
that's in my office.
If you travel frequently, or if you have any care for your shoulders
and back, the MacBook Air is as close to a must-have as any computer
can be. The incredible lightness of this computer's being is so
alluring that not even the strongest of restraints could keep that
ultimate road warrior, Odysseus, from its clutches.
This was most plainly evident when I wandered the halls of a
convention in Nashville, Tennesse, toting the MacBook Air in a
briefcase. The computer itself was almost negligible in terms of its
presence: I didn't really feel it in the bag. Yet, when I needed to
check e-mail or do some writing, the power of the MacBook Air was
there, ready to respond in an instant.
As you might imagine, there are tradeoffs for any "downsizing" of a
notebook computer, and the MacBook Air, announced in January, is no
exception. Most obvious among the "omissions" is the lack of an
optical drive: you can get an external one for $99 extra. The built-in
speaker is mono; if you want to have stereo sound, headphones are
required. You can connect the computer to an Ethernet network, but
it'll require a $29 adapter and the "sacrifice" of the computer's one
and only USB port. The battery is not user-accessible; Apple stores
can replace a worn-out battery for you. There's no express card slot
for add-ins such as a broadband wireless card.
Those are the negatives, if you elect to view them as such. On the
plus side, the MacBook Air's built-in 802.11n wireless
networking, the top level of Wi-Fi at present, is available, as is the
latest version of Bluetooth. At my hotel, the Wi-Fi worked quite well;
at the trade show, I used a Sierra Wireless broadband adapter and
AT&T's 3G data network with good results, even deep within the Gaylord
Opryland Convention Center.
In operation, the MacBook Air performs as well as any portable Mac
I've used. It comes with 2 Gigabytes of RAM; no more can be added. The
$1,799 model ships with an 80 Gbyte hard disk drive. Add $1,299 to the
price tag and you get a MacBook Air with a "solid state," or
flash-memory chip, 64 Gbyte hard drive, the advantage being no moving
parts in the hard drive.
The 13.3-inch (diagonal measure) LCD display is quite nice, as is the
full-sized, backlit keyboard. The MacBook Air's trackpad
incorporates new technology that lets users employ "pinch," "swipe,"
and "rotate" gestures to perform various tasks. It takes a bit of
learning, but the end result is rather pleasant.
The lack of an optical drive made things a bit challenging at the
start of my evaluation. Apple has revised its "Migration Assistant"
program to handle transfers from an old Mac to a new one via Wi-Fi,
but I wasn't thrilled with the estimate of a 19-hour transfer process.
Instead, I opted to use a Time Machine backup of my old system and
restore those files to the new unit. All went well, I'm happy to say.
Apple later told me users could create an ad hoc Ethernet link for
such transfers.
I'm jazzed about the MacBook Air, but will do some more testing of its
newer features, such as the one that lets you use another computer's
optical drive, via Wi-Fi, as your own. The results, and more analysis,
will appear here shortly.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Mark Kellner has reported on technology for industry newspapers and magazines since 1983, and has been the computer columnist for The Washington Times since 1991.Comment by clicking here.
Archives
© 2008, News World Communications, Inc. Reprinted with permission of The Washington Times. Visit the paper at http://www.washingtontimes.com
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|