Archive for MacBook Air

Circumstances

I have ended up in my (well, not mine but anyway) lakeside home for the week, due to a broken down car that’s in the shop right now. This isn’t all bad, although I’m not looking forward to the mechanic’s verdict and what it’ll cost me. Since my lakeside home is free of anything resembling real broadband, which in my world is 100 Mbit in both directions, this means I’ll have to adapt to a different working style. I’ve got a decent 3G connection (1-2 Mbit) so I can get just about everything done that I otherwise would’ve done from home or the Odd Alice office in Stockholm, so no worries there. However, I don’t have all the equipment I usually rely on.

No Apple 27″ LED display for massive screen real-estate
No Wacom Intous 4 drawing pad for logos
No ergonomically correct chair nor desk
No 120+ GB of music
No movies, TV series, nor the will to download it over 3G
No Nespresso coffee machine

Continued →

On Lion: Full-screen apps on small screens are a blessing

Wreen in fullscreen

Lion’s fullscreen feature is truly a blessing. While the minimalistic Twitter app Wren might look great in fullscreen, it isn’t the type of software that truly benefits from this feature. The killer mix is the 11″ MacBook Air, combined with the Safari web browser for example. All nonsense disappears, your app is everything.

Wren above shows that it looks awesome even if you have almost no functionality, and while I do think fullscreen makes more sense on smaller screens, I do occasionally use it on the 27″ screens at work as well. It just is so focused, and sometimes we need that little extra help to stick to what we’re doing.

The MacBook Air, redux

I have owned three MacBook Air models. Luckily I skipped out on the first one, which had serious issues with heat and sudden crashes. The minor update that led to the second MacBook Air was the first one I got, and then it struck me. This is the perfect typewriter, way beyond any laptop I had ever owned, and those are numerous I can tell you that.

I loved that Air, all its 1,6 GHz of low voltage processing power, the touchpad and even its awkward two buttons, the whole package. It was underpowered with its 2 GB of RAM and the 4200 rpm hard drive, combined with heating issues that firmware updates and some sensible usage sorted out for me personally. Still, best typewriter ever, thanks to its wonderful keyboard and the form factor. Love it. Continued →

iPad vs. MacBook Air

This is the big one that a lot of people are asking themselves, and probably even more so now that the iPad 2 is out in the open (albeit not in stores just yet).

Should I get an iPad, or should I get the MacBook Air?

I’ve got both. My Air is the 11″ version, because frankly although the 13″ version is portable and excellent, the size difference makes it less of an option for the ultraportable road warrior.

So, iPad vs. MacBook Air 11″ then. It’s on, what should I buy, which is right for me? Continued →

Getting productive with change of scenery

I’ve been told I’m crazy, in the “you’re stupid doing all that” way. You see I’m not only addicted to words, I’m also addicted to projects. I love firing up something new, I get ideas and jot them down, revisit and suddenly I find myself building something.

You might say I’m a doer.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t hit walls, getting bogged down with what is commonly referred to as writer’s block (I’ll save my thoughts on that for another post), and just get the feeling that I don’t want to do what’s necessary. A ton of projects will do that to you, it’s a mental battle.

A change of scenery will help. I’ve been meaning to get Notes Blog ready for the public beta for two weeks, but I just haven’t been able to pull myself together to actually do it.

Today I am. In five minutes time I’ll have a Talisker single malt by my side and I’ll be watching the 17″ Macbook Pro fire up, leaving the Air for the first time in a long time. The change of scenery is my tool – which Macbook I’m working on – this time around.

But it helps. Change is good.

Yes, I’m thrilled about the new MacBook Air but you won’t get my verdict for another week or so since I’m waiting for my 11.6″ version with everything maxed out. Stay tuned as they say in Old Media Land.

Why I’ll buy the 11,6″ MacBook Air

It’s not even announced yet, Apple’s most recent MacBook refresh. The long neglected Air, overpriced and underpowered but the best writing machine ever (as in EVER), is rumoured to get a second chance on Wednesday.

The Wednesday event is the annual MacBook event, back the Mac after quite a focus on iOS devices. We’ll get a refresh across the line of course, processor bumps and things like that, but my bet is that the focus will be on the next OS X, featuring a lion it seems. That, and a new iLife, the current one is a bit dated, and these are things that add to the Mac platform value overall.

And the Air, that’s the sole truly new piece of hardware we’ll see, is my bet. Continued →

I was hoping to get to spend a hideous amount of money for a new version of the world’s most stylish typewriter, but Apple denied me yet again. The new iPod nano could be used as a Dick Tracy-like watch though, at least that’s something.

My hopes and dreams for the Apple tablet

I’ll confess, at first I wasn’t particularly thrilled about an Apple tablet. Oven the months that have changed, along with the way my workflow have done the same. Today I don’t even want to imagine a day without the iPhone, in fact I’ve got two, not for the eventuality of one breaking down really but for other things. No matter what, it makes me a bit more calm.

You see, I write somewhere between 20 and 50 emails a day from my iPhone, I tweet and connect on Facebook, I read up on news and I entertain myself. It is a brilliant multi-purpose device that saves me time, something that is really valuable to me.

Realizing that, I would be a fool not to be the least curious, nay, thrilled about the prospect of an Apple tablet. Continued →