Review of the MacBook Air

Today, I'm going to do a review of the MacBook Air. 

Firstly, I want to mention that the MacBook Air is great for travel.  It's extremely thin, light-weight and can fit into most laptop bags and backpacks.  You could probably even fit it into a binder and no one would know you had it with you.

The MacBook Air is one of the thinnest laptops in the world and yet it also packs a punch of processing power.  It includes a 1.4 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo, 120GB SSD, and a Nvidia GeForce 320M.

The surprising thing with this laptop is how much it can do with specs like it has.  It's very good for everything from web browsing to basic movie editing in iMovie.  It can usually multitask very well and is comparable to my "27 i7 iMac in a lot of cases.  I've also used it to make screencasts before for my YouTube channel and it works very well while doing that.  It also think it isn't too bad for importing or exporting video in iMovie but not nearly as fast as my iMac and don't recommend it for advanced editing. 

I also like the battery life.  The battery life isn't that great when the WiFi is turned on but when you turn off the Bluetooth and the WiFi it can last for usually about 2-3 hours on a full charge.

My Rating: 8/10

It's a great laptop but I wish it could have a better GPU.  Other than that, it's a great laptop!

What do you think?  Post it in the comments!

-Carmen (or SuperPC)

Apple Device Combinations

Basic

MacBook Air 11”/13” | Mac Mini | MacBook Pro 13” | iMac 21”

iPhone 

For the computer, all you need is the smallest model if you’re looking for a basic set up, but I would try to at least get the 13" model of the MacBook Air because the 11" model is not very powerful. Also, most people need a cell phone so why not get an iPhone.

Intermediate

MacBook Air 13” | MacBook Pro 13”/15” | iMac 21”/27”

iPhone 

iPad

A MacBook Air 13" will most likely work, but if you can afford it, go for the MacBook Pro and iMac. Also, paying more for a larger screen always pays off. Lastly, an iPhone is portable, but does not work well if you are trying to write a paper. That’s why I suggest you also get an iPad.

Professional 

MacBook Pro 17” | iMac 27” | Mac Pro

MacBook Air 11” | iPad

iPhone 

A top of the line MacBook Pro and iMac will work okay, but if you can afford it, go with a Mac Pro. Also, aMacBook Air 11” is a great second computer, especially if you have an iMac or Mac Pro because they are not portable. If you can’t afford the MacBook Air, then I would get an iPad because it still has a lot of functionality and is portable. Lastly, if you need a phone, get an iPhone.

Leave your favorite Apple device combination in the comments below.

YouTube: http://youtube.com/yourtechzone

"Back to the Mac" Recap

Here's my video recap of the "Back to the Mac" event. It was held on October 20, 2010 at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California. This was an event that was focused around the Mac platform. It's been way too long since we've seen an event focused on the mac. Lately Apple has been paying most of their attention to their mobile devices such as the iPods, iPhones, and iPad. So let's get started with iLife '11.

iLife '11: iLife '11 was my favorite announcement at this particular event. Apple started talking about iPhoto which is a vast improvement over iPhoto '09 in my opinion. The interface is a lot cleaner and easier to use. iPhoto '11 brings Facebook enhancements, an easier way to e-mail photos, full screen mode, and more. You can also create new letter pressed cards with iPhoto '11 which is perfect timing for the holiday season. There's also many more options for you to create books in iPhoto. Now to iMovie '11. The interface hasn't changed but we will now see movie trailers just as professional as anything you'd see straight out of Hollywood. This an amazing feature for a simple editing system like iMovie. There's also improved audio editing and audio effects. Garageband also has two great new features for better music creation. Groove matching helps you're composition get all the instruments into sync. Flex time lets you get the timing of all the instruments matched so every instrument sounds great together. You can pick up iLife '11 today for $49.

Mac OS X Lion preview: There are a lot of great things coming in the future of Mac OS X. Apple has named their newest one; Lion. The first feature which I think has a lot of potential is the Mac App store. Developers could make really mind-blowing applications for the Mac. I can't wait to see what will happen. But the Mac App store is open within 90 days for Snow Leopard users. Another really neat feature is the Launch pad. With a simple multi touch gesture you will get a view of all of you're applications right on the screen. Think about an iPad when I say this. The last feature Apple gave us a sneak preview of was Mission control. This feature is like Expose on steroids. It lets you show all of you're windows at once if you're desktop is clustered which is great. You can also swipe between screens with a simple multi touch gesture. So you could switch between dashboard, you're desktop, and another application.

New MacBook Airs: The new MacBook Airs come in at 11.6 and 13.3 inch models. Apple is claiming this will be their next generation of notebooks. It's 0.68 inches at it's thickest part and 0.11 inches at the thinnest. It's very light at 2.3 (11.6 inch( and 2.9 pounds (13.3 inch). It features core 2 duo processors and it has flash memory. So, there's no optical drive or hard drive. This could be a risky move on Apple's part. You can pick one up starting at $999. For full specifications and pricing you can head over to Apple.com. 

YouTube

Tek Nation Episode 8: "Back to the Mac" Event

Today I'm presenting you with episode 8 of Tek Nation. We're also in a MacBook Air, because it may get updated come October 20th. In this episode we talked about the BlackBerry Playbook, Windows Phone 7, and the "Back to the Mac" event. 

The BlackBerry Playbook has potential to be a very legitimate contender to the iPad. I think the specs for the device are pretty impressive. It packs a 7-inch capacitive display, a 1 GHz Dual-Core Processor, and runs on BlackBerry Tablet OS. For more information please refer to the video. 

The "Back to the Mac" event came as a bit of surprise to me. Usually Apple doesn't schedule events right after their annual music event until January. I hope to see an update to iLife. I'd really like an iWeb update and/or an iMovie update. I use iMovie to edit my videos, so I'd like more features to play around with. Rumor has it that we may also see an update to Mac OS X. I've heard it will be called Lion. I don't know what to expect with the new operating system will improve or do different than previous versions, but it will be very interesting to see. Many technology websites such as Engadget, Gizmodo and Technobuffalo are also reporting that we may see an update to the MacBook Air as well as the MacBook.

Windows Phone 7 was unveiled by Microsoft last week. It's a very interesting platform. The interface looks pretty great. It looks almost identical to the Zune HD. You can also access Xbox LIVE content right from your phone. I use Xbox LIVE like many others, so this feature could potentially go a long way. For more information, please refer to the video. 

YouTube