Low supplies of aging Apple models have traditionally indicated a hardware refresh, and the latest herd to run thin is the great wild MacBook Air. Few retailers have any, and those asking for resupply are being told not to expect any until the week of October 12th at the earliest. October is one of the several months in which we find Apple activity, so it’s not such a far-out idea. → Read More
With the look of an Apple-fied Asus Eee Keyboard and the internal workings donated from a partially-defunct MacBook Air, one ordinary man created something special: the MacBook Air Project. → Read More
Computer manufacturers generally update their notebook lines every few months — except for Apple. At best Apple updates their notebook lines twice a year and even longer for the MacBook Air, which received its last major update in mid-2009. Even that was just a processor and battery bump as the storage, graphics, screen, and memory were carried over from the late-2008 refresh. → Read More
The Macbook Air needs some help. It’s woefully underpowered compared to every other ultraportable and its advertised 5 hour battery life is nothing special these days as the new MacBook Pros can rock-out twice as long. But just maybe Apple has something in store for the razer-thin notebook as soon as this week. → Read More
Take the MacBook Air, shrink the screen down an inch, slap in some netbook components, and load it up with Windows 7 Release Candidate and — drumroll, please — you’ve got the iiView A2 out of Singapore. Oh, and lower the price to $468. That’s kind of important there. → Read More
MacMall.com has a $200 rebate on Apple’s netbook, the MacBook Air, bringing the price down to $999 if you’re diligent enough to fill out and send in those rebate forms. → Read More
Unibody Macbooks and MacBook Pros, along with newer MacBook Airs, have gotten a firmware update from Apple, ostensibly addressing “stability issues.” I think they’re talking about that RAM thing because a firmware update isn’t going to change your 9600M’s faulty high-lead solder into eutectic. Oh yes I went there! → Read More
Is the MacBook Air overpriced at $2,499 fully loaded? Seventy percent of us here at CrunchGear think so—Apple worshiper Biggs calls it a “great machine,” however—but what do we know? Nothing, apparently, if we’re to believe CNet, which comes to the conclusion that the MacBook Air, compared to other ultraportables, isn’t overpriced at all. The argument goes: ultraportables writ large are expensive, so to single out the MacBook Air is unfair. The similarly spec’d Dell Latitude E4200, for example, costs $2,495. Same thing with the Toshiba Portege R600, which is even more expensive at $2,999. → Read More
Once thought to be wildly overpriced (by me, anyway), the MacBook Air almost seems like an okay deal at $1,349. It’s refurbished, yes, so you’ll have to decide if that’s a big deal to you or not. It still has a one year warranty and you can extend it if you like. The $1,349 version is the one with the 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 2GB of RAM, and the 80GB hard drive. The 1.8GHz version is also available for $1,499 along with the 64GB solid state drive version for $1,799. Have at it. Refurbished MacBook Air (scroll down) [Apple Store via dealnews] → Read More
To be fair, you don’t have to own a MacBook Air in order to purchase Iomega’s eGo Helium portable hard drive. It is, however, “a perfect match for the new MacBook Air notebook” according to Iomega. It’s even pre-formatted to the HFS+ file system. The drive itself has 320GB of storage space, weighs less than half a pound, and requires no external power supply. You’ll also get some software included: EMC Retrospect and MozyHome (2GB version), although you’ll have to download it. Oh, and you can get 2GB of Mozy service for free no matter who you are. So not a huge deal there. You’ll get a license for the EMC software, though, which is nice. It’ll be available in October with an MSRP of $149.99, although it’s currently listed at $142.49 on Iomega’s site (not in stock yet, of course). → Read More
Please stop with the manila envelope comparisons! → Read More
Come September, we’re expecting a whole bushel of Apple improvements. I’m looking forward to a completely new MacBook Pro for use with Snow Leopard, but those of you more concerned with form than function will be happy to hear that the MacBook Air will be getting spec’ed up too. It’s been reported that the new line of Airs will sport 120GB/160GB optional HDDs, a Penryn-based processor instead of the custom Merom Core2 touted at its debut, and will have a better battery. The upgraded parts will probably suck up the new battery’s capacity, so don’t go looking for extended life, but at least you’ll be able to get more done during those few hours. Expect a new charger as well. I’d still go for a MacBook or MBP over one of these prissy little things, but at least they’re a little less underpowered now. → Read More
Apparently it’s Tuesday Laptop Madness, for Lenovo has announced a new laptop, the ThinkPad X200. It also released the IdeaPad U330, but that’s hardly as interesting. The Intel Core 2 Duo (2.26-2.40 GHz)-powered ThinkPad X220 is supposed to compete with the useless MacBook Air, and has similar specs. It weighs 2.95 pounds and has a 12.2-inch LCD. As far as storage goes, you can select a standard 320GB hard drive, or pony up for the 64GB solid state drive. Whether or not that has any noticeable impact on your computing performance, there’s conflicting reports. The usual wireless options are here like BlueTooth and Wi-Fi. In other words, a tiny, fully functional laptop, just one without an optical drive. She’ll set you back $1,199 in August when she’s available. via PC World/Yahoo → Read More
Apple has dropped the price of its solid state drive MacBook Air by $500. Now, the useless laptop equipped with a solid state drive can be had for the low, low price of $2,598. That’s with a 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo processor. Note that the upgrade price from the 1.6GHz to 1.8GHz has also dropped, from $300 to $200. Not that solid state drives save you any battery power, mind you. via AppleInsider → Read More
I guess these guys figure that if you’re willing to shell out a few grand for a computer less powerful than a MacBook, they might just be spendy enough to drop another G on a solar panel to keep the thing alive. These three “Juicz” chargers from Quickertek appear to do the job if you’re willing to modify your adapter or buy their pre-modded one for a bill. As fun as it would be to run on sunlight (might be handy if you’re a hermit), it’s really just far, far too expensive at this time. The cheapest option is $500 and it will take half a day to recharge your Air. If you have money to burn, you could do worse than a nice, foldable solar charger, but right now the performance isn’t really justifying the price. → Read More
Here is a protective apparatus from Agent 18 for your precious MacBook Air, called the MacBook Air Shield. It costs $50 and comes in white, black, or pink. Guess what else?! It allows you to plug stuff into the ports on the side of your MacBook Air and “features an opening for the notebook’s vents to prevent overheating,” which you can see in that U-shaped area of the above photo. It’s made from “durable polycarbonate” — hard plastic, in layman’s terms. You’ll need to trade in $50 to get one of these, and you can do so at Apple Stores or on Agent 18′s website, although I’ll be damned if I could find it there. More photos after the jump… → Read More
