• 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

What I do have is my light travel gear:

• 11″ MacBook Air with charger
• iPad and iPhone, with iOS cable and charger of course
• A stylus pen for said iOS gadgets
• Mifi 3G router with USB charger cable
• Battery for charging USB powered devices
• The X100 camera
• USB flash drive

That’s it, not counting clothes and stuff like that.

What does these circumstances really mean for my ability to get work done?

Not much, it would seem. Most of my work at present is either light coding (no worries, not even on the 11″ screen) and/or writing (the Air is the best typewriter available) which means I can do that right here. I even have all the necessary data thanks to Dropbox (aff link), where I store everything, and the 3G connection is fast enough to keep it snappy.

I did find fixing a logo took longer than expected on the Air, but that was because the source files were for Adobe software and I’m keeping the Air free of those bulky beasts, relying on the excellent Pixelmator. And then I realised we had screwed up with extension cords for MacBook chargers so there were no extra ones here, but that’s really not an issue.

I had planned to be here for two, maybe three nights, a long weekend. Now we’re looking at perhaps as many as ten.

And work won’t suffer.

Circumstances, sometimes they just don’t matter much.

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.

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.

The Air refresh was something I’d been waiting for a long time. I ordered the 11″ version, maxed out with 4 GB of RAM and whatever SSD storage I could get (128 GB, right – don’t have it here so can’t check and I’m writing this offline, go figure). I had always said that when Apple released a computer with a smaller screen than 13″, which I think is overkill most of the time, I’d buy it.

My initial take on the 11″ Air was mixed. I loved the form factor, but the keyboard wasn’t as good as my previous Air. Also, going from 13″ to 11″ for writing was fine, but anything besides writing felt unnatural. That was obviously a mixture between being used to larger screens and the difference in resolution, but still, it bothered me a bit. Almost to the extent that I, when the next Air generation would arrive, contemplating giving 13″ another go. Also, I hated the lack of backlighting on the keyboard. That’s essential when writing in the dark, not just for finding keys (I don’t need any characters or labels) but for the balance in light between screen, computer and you when writing in the dark.

A few weeks ago Apple released an upgraded Air, with a backlit keyboard, and I ordered the 11″ model again, maxing it out with 4 GB of RAM and the i7 processor choice as well as 256 GB SSD.

And I’m at peace. This is everything that was so awesome with the previous model, the form factor and the snappy SSD, but cranked up a bit. With a backlit keyboard and a Thunderbolt port.

This computer is still new and one can never tell how a computer performs early on. Everything will load fast, feel fresh, and so on. Two months in, then we can talk, but I’m not the least worried. The possible problem with performance won’t be hardware (unless Apple screwed up somewhere in the manufacturing), it’ll be the new OS, Lion. I’m not worried about that either, but that is the Achilles’ heel here.

Why aren’t I worrying? Well, the previos Air ran circles around my 17″ i7 MacBook Pro with 4 GB RAM, thanks to the SSD of course. It was so bad that I had to order a 240 GB Vertex 3 SSD from OCZ and swap out the old hard drive. Pecking order was restored, the MBP was faster than the Air, all was well.

Still, my first 11″ Air could’ve easily have been my primary computer. It was that fast. Still is, by the way.

And the new Air? Well, benchmarks tells me it kicks my old Air’s butt thanks to the i7 dual core processor, which makes sense since it is superious to the old Core 2 Duo. Other than that, there aren’t so many things that differ between the old and the new Air, this is a classic hardware upgrade within a product line generation, nothing more.

I’m on the road right now, and will be for several weeks to come. I’m not bringing my workstation (aka the 17″ MBP), I’ll manage with the Air and an iPad. In a way I’m dreading how this will work out, because I’m pretty sure that when I get home I’ll question why I need the MBP at all. The old 11″ Air had no problems powering the 27″ Cinema Display at the office, and the new one won’t either (although I won’t be able to link two Thunderbolt Displays thanks to the underpowered Thunderbolt chip in the Air, keep that in mind if you plan on swapping your workstation with that setup). While my MBP is a quad core i7 at a higher clock frequency than the Air is, I seriously doubt I’ll miss that horsepower 95% of the time. So why not just bring the Air to the office, hook it up and work as I always have, making the MBP obsolete?

Why indeed? I have no idea, but I already know I’ll ask myself that question when I get back into the everyday life again.

It has never been this easy being a road warrior. Between the Air, the iPad, the iPhone, and a mifi 3G router, I can do just about anything. Incidentally, that’s exactly what goes in my bag, along with a Moleskine notebook and some pens, when I need to go work. And I can work wherever, whenever, as long as I have a decent 3G connection. In Sweden, that’s not really a problem – I’m sitting by a lake in the forest right now, and when I turn on the mifi I’ll have a 2 Mbit connection right away. Sure, that’s pretty crappy overall but it’ll do, I am in the woods after all. The same might not apply all over the world, but the complete sense of freedom this brings, bringing the office with me whenever I need to (which incidentally was why I swapped out my Mac Pro with triple screens for a 17″ MBP) and being able to set up shop wherever I need. I love it, plain love it, even though I might not take advantage of it all the time. It is the possibility that makes it great.

I wonder if I’ll ever buy a big heavy laptop again. I also wonder if I’ll ever buy another desktop, despite being really happy with my brand new 27″ iMac that sits in the apartment at home. SSD in particular have gotten us so far, and we’re only grasping at the surface on what we’ll be playing with in the future.

For me, it’ll be lightweight and pleasant to write on. Since my first contact with the Air product line, that has been the only computer fitting the description, and I’ve fiddled and tried so many. Right now, I can’t even begin to imagine what I’d want more, besides more horsepower of course. Not that I really think I need it, that’s just the greedy geek talking.

He should shut up, that geeky guy, and let me focus on the one reason I actually bought this thing in the first place: To write on, because it is still the world’s best typewriter.

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?

Here’s the thing: the iPad and the Air are two different things that occasionally overlap.

Again: they are different things!

Buy the iPad if you

• want to get in the App game
• want a tablet to consume web content on
• want to read books
• want to watch movies
• want to do social web stuff on the go
• want to play games
• want to write the occasional email or text

Some of these things are more than possible on the Air as well, just not as well or easy. After all, pulling out the iPad to read up on Twitter on a cramped bus is a lot more convenient than doing the same with the Air.

Buy the Air if you

• need a ultraportable Mac
• need to produce content on the go
• need dedicated software for heavy lifting
• need to publish content

The Air is a fully fledged computer. You can do anything on it, including almost everything you can do with an iPad.

Wants and needs for most of us.

There are no obvious winner, it all depends on what you want to do. I both consume and create on my iPad, but the creation is limited to light writing, compared to being able to do anything on the Air, which incidentally is the best typewriter on the market.

Wants and needs. Buy both.

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.

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.

I’ll buy it. I don’t care what it costs (cheap, says the rumour, which I think means cheaper than the current Air but still somewhat pricey – hey, it’s Apple after all!) because it fits me perfectly.

Why?

The current Air is underpowered, but it is by far the best writing device out there, no question about it. The keyboard is just marverlous, it is light and there’s no bulky DVD drive.

I feel 13,3″ is a bit big for a truly portable laptop. Today I use my iPad when on the road, only bringing the Air when I need to work one of my technical books since they need code editors and localhost. When I just need to write, the iPad suffices.

An 11,6″ Air would fit me perfectly. Light, a solid state drive (or flash drive, which is my bet)” preferably with 3G built in, great keyboard (please please please don’t mess with that, dear Steve Jobs) and decent power. I’d like to be able to do some minor image editing on this thing, and please make it powerful enough to roll HD video without hassle.

Or, to put it simply: With a decent processor, 4 GB RAM, and a smaller form factor than the current Air, this is my dream computer.

I’d still use my iPad, just less for serious writing.

I’d still use my 17″ MacBook Pro monster, when working with graphics and coding websites.

The rest of the time, the bulk of my day, an 11,6″ Air would be the perfect companion to someone as addicted to words like me.

Please give it to me on Wednesday, Apple. Thanks.

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.

There are a ton of more or less likely predictions out there. Some I truly believe, like the fact that this will be a kick in the Amazon Kindle’s nuts because Steve Jobs wants to rule the media industry and newspapers, books and magazines would look and work great on a nice touchscreen interface. I also think that it is a no-brainer that the tablet will play games, and the success of the iPhone means that the developers are onboard. Jus don’t expect it to be a game changer just right now, it’ll most likely cost more than two PlayStation 3s and that means that the install base for gaming will be a lot smaller than for iPhone and iPod touch. That being said, obviously it’ll run games and it will do it good.

Moving on, I do believe we’ll get cameras so that we can Skype, and this thing without 3G would be a crime. Most likely we’ll also get some sort of iLife package with great multitouch support, and everything we got in our iPhones, only more Macish.

All that is pretty uncontroversial stuff. You’ve heard it before. I want all that.

Now here is what I really hope for, but really can’t believe will happen. Still, one can dream right?

I want the tablet to be no bigger than 11″, hopefully smaller so that it will be really portable. I want it to have an onscreen keyboard, obviously, but also support Bluetooth keyboards. Maybe that is one off the reasons Apple made the wireless keyboard so small, for portability? Hardly, but it is an encouraging albeit unlikely thought for my reasoning. Anyway, the tablet needs a stand so that I can put it on a table, in both landscape and portrait mode.

Now here’s the killer: I want the tablet to replace the MacBook Air!

“What? Why? And don’t you love your Air?!”

I most certainly do, but I would love a stronger oversized iPhone with multitasking, decent image editing, video viewing, hyper portable Mac with an optional keyboard even more! I don’t care if the tablet is priced as an Air, or worse – that I would buy. As a writer, that Is the ideal machine to take on the road and to use at home. I could set it up on the living room table, lie down on the couch and type away on my wireless keyboard, now wouldn’t that be grand? It would for me at least.

Here’s hoping my dream will come through, however unlikely. Until then I’ll have to make do with a jailbroken iPhone, the BTstack Keyboard driver, and the Gorillapod to top it off. But it just isn’t quite enough.

Please Apple? Pretty please?

Footnote 1: First image swiped from CrunchGear’s unicorn post, and the second from Gizmodo’s post on Apple Bashful, which I would’ve loved by the way…

Footnote 2: I wrote this whole thing in WriteRoom on my iPhone. That might tell you how much I’d love an Apple tablet geared toward me as a writer…