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January 16, 2008
MacBook Air Smells Bad
Yesterday at Macworld 2008, Apple announced their newest model of notebook computer, the MacBook Air. It falls short of being a complete product in a number of ways:
- It does not have an optical drive (for CDs and DVDs) built in. If you need an optical drive (Who doesn't now and then?) you can either buy an optional external USB drive or share an optical drive attached to another computer on your network.
- The USB optical drive can only be used with this MacBook, not any other computer. It must be plugged directly into the MacBook, not through a USB hub. This is due to some nonstandard things Apple has done with the USB connection, including higher power output. This makes me wonder how many USB peripherals will be fried when the power is accidentally kicked up to optical drive levels. Or it could happen intentionally, as part of a virus or other malware.
- The battery is not easily removable. Changing the battery requires partially disassembling the computer. That is a real problem for me, because I carry an extra fully-charged battery around with my MacBook Pro, which I can easily swap for the battery currently in the computer when its power is low. (I also will not buy an iPod because the batteries aren't easily replaceable.
- The screen is reported as being glossy. An anti-glare screen would be much better.
- The computer doesn't have a "target mode" for the hard drive. That's a feature that users of prior models of MacBooks and PowerBooks enjoy. Rebooting the computer into this mode makes it act just like a FireWire disk drive, which is great for performing backups, repairing a corrupted OS, or data recovery. FireWire isn't available on this computer anyway, but at least target mode could work through the USB connection instead.
- MacBook Air has only one USB port. This is not a major problem, as long as a USB hub can be used. However, as I mentioned above, the optical drive can't be used through a hub. So any time the optical drive is in use, you can't use any other USB devices.
Don't misunderstand me, though. Apple did get a few things right with the MacBook Air:
- It's smaller. I like the 15-inch screen on my MacBook Pro, but some people might like smaller. The Air has a sturdy aluminum case, which makes it more rugged than the regular MacBooks (non-Air, non-Pro models) with plastic cases. But being small just for smallness' sake at the expense of all the drawbacks I already mentioned is not worthwhile.
- The trackpad is larger and has more capabilities, similar to the iPhone. It can use the pinch and stretch gestures with two fingers, two fingers can also make a rotation gesture, and three fingers held together can "swipe". However, I don't understand the difference between that last gesture and the two finger scrolling gesture that's been available on MacBook trackpads for a couple of years.
What I would really like Apple to release is an iPod Touch that I can easily install or write applications for. If I had one, I would put a terminal application (probably iTerm, which is much better than Terminal.app) and ssh on it so I can access servers. (Hey, Apple! Give us a new Newton!) Or else, give us a tablet computer with touch sensitive screen, but don't strip out all the nice feature we already have on our MacBook Pros!
Posted by lsloan at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)
January 08, 2008
MOSX Tiger to Leopard Upgrade Leaves Old Manpages
Apparently, upgrading a computer from Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) to 10.5 leaves old manual pages on the system and the new, compressed pages aren't displayed. A hint at macosxhints.com fixes this:
macosxhints.com - 10.5: View the new 'man' pages on upgraded systems
Posted by lsloan at 09:47 AM | Comments (0)
Build Your Own Space Shuttle!
While looking for large, detailed pictures of the X-33 spaceplane, I noticed this page with patterns to build space shuttles. Print them out, cut out the parts, and assemble them. They also have documents for other space vehicles and the space station. Instruction sheets are available, too.
Posted by lsloan at 08:43 AM | Comments (0)
January 07, 2008
Obey The Kitty!
There are some very funny pictures and products over at Obey the Kitty!, obeythekitty.com.
Posted by lsloan at 07:54 AM | Comments (0)