13-inch MacBook Air

I no longer use my iPad or 27-inch iMac after buying a loaded 13-inch Air. The Air and my iPhone do everything I need. I didn’t expect that to happen; it just did. It’s actually a relief to have my large files on an external drive. The 15-inch MacBook Pro seems huge and heavy now, and I can’t imagine going back.

—Terry

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I bought the 11-inch MacBook Air to use as a writing tool. It is unquestionably the best writing computer I’ve ever owned. I rarely use my 15-inch MacBook Pro. (I’m thinking of selling it.) The Air joins my iPod and iMac as the workhorses around the house. In the field, the 11-inch MacBook Air does it all. Best computer I’ve ever owned.

—Richard Taylor

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Nice article. I use the 13-inch MacBook Air for my daily personal use. No need to use launchers other than Command-Spacebar. I’m convinced that Lion will make it even easier to do everything on a limited size screen.

—Ronald

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iOS actually does grant pairing of Apple’s standard Bluetooth keyboard, although the benefits derived from such a union differ little from that of using a dedicated iPad keyboard dock. Having the same drawbacks that you’ve outlined. Nice review.

—Lynn Singleton

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I own the previous 15-inch top-line MacBook Pro and the 11-inch Air with larger 128GB SSD but the standard 2GB RAM.

I thought I would miss a lot moving to the 11-inch Air and that it would, as many reviews suggest, be an “second computer” with the 15-inch remaining the workhorse. Honestly, I almost never use the 15-inch anymore, despite its big and fast hard drive, 8 GB of RAM, and its gorgeous high-res anti-glare display.

The Air isn’t fast, but it feels like it is. The screen isn’t large, but it doesn’t look tiny in use. Actually, the only thing I really find myself missing is the backlit keyboard, which in itself may be enough for me to upgrade to a future Air if so equipped.

Even with the pokey 1.4 GHz Core 2 Duo, 720p video plays back beautifully and high-end games play (in Boot Camp) at medium settings (Mass Effect 2, DragonAge Origins). No, it isn’t powerful enough for large video edits or game play on a high-resolution monitor or at high settings, not that it has enough hard drive space for those games anyway, but for an ultraportable, there is nothing better. Strangely, the Air has convinced me that my MacBook Pro, when I replace it, will be replaced by a cheaper PC desktop just for games, with the Air remaining my primary laptop for both travel and regular use.

—Andrew

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I purchased the original MacBook Air and have since passed it down to my wife. I have been using a 17-inch MacBook Pro and with a new job comes the need for mobility. So I just got the new MacBook Air. The only thing I see right now that gave me pause is that the stroke on the keyboard is a bit less than on other Apple keyboards. I am already more comfortable just in the commute.

I am using the iPad for personal stuff. It is fast for news reading and some sharing stuff. Different use cases.

Silent operation standby and battery life are what make the pair of the MacBook air and iPad a great set of work tools.

—Bob Fairbairn

Shock of the New

These companies that are building tablet computers are a lot like the dog chasing the rubber ball in the park. Apple gives the ball a good hard throw, and they take off chasing it with all the speed they can muster. I was in Thailand last October, and visited a place called IT CITY. Cell phones, cameras, Appliances, TVs, a ton of computers, and yes, an Apple licensed reseller. Some guy was selling an Apple iPad clone running Windows Vista. It was a total piece of junk and definitely not worth $300 USD. Apple leads, the dogs follow.

—Grover Watson

Caliander 1.0.2

I can see why Caliander does not suit the reviewer, but my take is that it is an extremely useful extension of iCal, just not for the sort of uses the reviewer has in mind. It gives a much more spacious look onto the long view than iCal (or BusyCal) can manage, so comparing it to a congested day view in iCal gives a somewhat misleading impression of what Caliander is really for. The reference to Gantt charts is much nearer the mark: Caliander does essentially present the iCal database as a simple Gantt chart, where the horizontal axis is the only reliable measure of time. And what Caliander may miss by not having dependancies etc., it gains in simplicity and a tight integration with the rest of the calendar data.

I too use BusyCal every day, and I would not dream of using Caliander to look at my daily—or even weekly—schedule. What I do find it very useful for is roughing out time blocks three, four, or five months into the future (using a calendar that I don’t have showing in iCal/BusyCal); this is something that it can do very well, but which is simply not practical in the other apps.

Seen in this light, I believe that the aesthetic objections also lose weight. I would like to see more options to customise the text that is displayed alongside the bars, but as a fellow admirer of the principles of Edward Tufte, my feeling is that the overall design is actually pretty good.

—Nicholas Sloan

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I tried it for a couple of days. I then erased it. I didn’t like the display.

—David Johnson

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Downloaded the demo. Actually like it a bit. And I’d buy it if I could.

But I don’t want to buy my apps from my computer OS vendor [the Mac App Store].

—Chucky

We’d love to hear your thoughts about our publication. We always welcome your comments, criticisms, suggestions, and praise. Or, if you have an opinion or announcement about the Macintosh platform in general, that’s OK too. Send your e-mail to editor@atpm.com. All mail becomes the property of ATPM and may be edited for publication.