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Darren Waters

MacBook Air unboxing

  • Darren Waters
  • 1 Feb 08, 20:56 GMT

Unboxing photos and videos are one of the defining features of a true geek. I'll admit I love the sights and sounds of a new gadget being released from its cardboard and polystyrene prison.

The first MacBook Air laptops are beginning to land in the hands of users and predictably the net is all a-quiver.

Here, Betty, gets to grips with her new toy:

from TUAW.com

Comments

That is. in god's honest truth a sexy looking laptop.

But it doesn't have an optical drive....
You wouldn't catch me buying that thing...

By the way, fan boys an add on for £99 does not count as an optical drive.

  • 2.
  • At 04:44 AM on 02 Feb 2008,
  • Jay wrote:

Oh dear god will you give the sycophantic Apple worship a rest.........

  • 3.
  • At 08:45 AM on 02 Feb 2008,
  • Bernard wrote:

Nothing comes close to the design of Apple packaging.. its always this good!

  • 4.
  • At 01:02 PM on 02 Feb 2008,
  • steve wrote:

What next in the advertising campaign being held by the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú on behalf of Apple?
I hope somebody with some governance at the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú is asking what is behind this.
Now one of your stories is the un-wrapping of one of its products. Lazy journalism is the most polite thing I can think of.

  • 5.
  • At 03:32 PM on 02 Feb 2008,
  • MrBobla wrote:

Another piece of crap from Apple that just is for fashion. How can this be any use to anyone? Why not just make a normal size laptop that is twice as powerful based on the tech.

  • 6.
  • At 04:12 PM on 02 Feb 2008,
  • debbie wrote:

On TUAW is says Betty is a FRAUD.

Bad, Betty. Bad, bad, Ugly Betty...

Not that it matters.

I've got into Macs now that Microsoft have released Vista and the new office software that now looks like Vista. I've always been into the latest products and software generally, but Vista put the end on it all for me. So I am now a big mac lover and the Macbook Air just has to be one of the sexiest products ever. I just wish you could roll it up and put it in your pocket!

  • 8.
  • At 04:46 PM on 03 Feb 2008,
  • Peter wrote:

Not the most informative of interesting article. If we wanted to see an unboxing we could have just looked on Youtube, I'm sure. I agree with Steve, lazy journalism at it's finest.

  • 9.
  • At 05:14 PM on 03 Feb 2008,
  • Martin D wrote:

I despair at those who describe computer equipment as 'sexy'..

  • 10.
  • At 07:04 PM on 03 Feb 2008,
  • Phil N wrote:

1. You can also buy ultraportable laptops from Toshiba that come without optical drives, and you have been able to for years. And nobody in the business world thinks this is an odd idea - if you want a laptop that weighs next to nothing, you accept the compromise, and if you need to you buy the external drive. How often do you actually use the DVD drive anyway?

2. They do make a laptop that's normal sized, it's called the MacBook Pro. Honestly, you would think this is the only computer Apple makes.

  • 11.
  • At 07:04 PM on 03 Feb 2008,
  • Phil N wrote:

1. You can also buy ultraportable laptops from Toshiba that come without optical drives, and you have been able to for years. And nobody in the business world thinks this is an odd idea - if you want a laptop that weighs next to nothing, you accept the compromise, and if you need to you buy the external drive. How often do you actually use the DVD drive anyway?

2. They do make a laptop that's normal sized, it's called the MacBook Pro. Honestly, you would think this is the only computer Apple makes.

  • 12.
  • At 07:21 PM on 03 Feb 2008,
  • wrote:

LOL - usual brace of Micros***/PC detractors.

Once again we see superb design, aimed at a very important area of the market. Of course people need an ultra lightweight, ultra-portable notebook...Mac users do more than load games you know!

As to the groans and winges about the lack of the optical drive - I seem to remember the same moans and groans when Apple took the unpresidented step of not putting a floppy disk drive in it's first iMacs...

The doom-sayers forecast dire warnings and prophesied that the iMac would flop because of this omission.

And now - who has a floppy drive?

I think the real problem here is that Apple are SO far ahead of PCs in design and innovation that PC gurus just cannot even guess where the future really is.

  • 13.
  • At 07:44 PM on 03 Feb 2008,
  • wrote:

@Steve: As I said at the top, unboxing videos are a geek tradition with new products. And hugely popular to boot.

This blog is a celebration of technology, and any new product that is talked about, dissected, revered, reviled, will get featured here.

This blog is also about 4 weeks old - so expect plenty more links to people's unboxing photos/video.

We've started with an Apple product. Is that relevant?

If we haven't linked to any more in the next 4 weeks - email me and tick me off.

  • 14.
  • At 09:55 PM on 03 Feb 2008,
  • David Ellis wrote:

In response to MrBobla, who considers this a 'fashion' item, which is 'crap'. Having actually used the Mac Air I can say that it is a joy to use and is not only nice to look at, but also holds an intuitive design. Will I be buying one? Well no, they are just too expensive when you consider a Macbook Pro is not much more.

  • 15.
  • At 02:14 AM on 04 Feb 2008,
  • Matt wrote:

What a nice machine! Fast too! The lack of an optical drive is no problem since it links to my other machines and uses their optical drives.

  • 16.
  • At 07:50 AM on 04 Feb 2008,
  • Neville Jones wrote:

All that packaging is hardly environmentally friendly.

  • 17.
  • At 11:04 AM on 04 Feb 2008,
  • Mark wrote:

@Stephen Beat - you do realise that optical drives don't feature in previously released ultraportables including the market leading Lenovo X61 so Apple aren't leading the way here?

Apparently not, thus showing that you're just another Apple fanboy who doesn't know what he's talking about. No change there then.

Anyway, the Macbook Air is blogworthy but I'm unsure why a similar amount of attention isn't being given to its competitors. Where, for example, is mention of Lenovo's X61 or even its forthcoming X300?

The Macbook Air is a niche product which will appeal to the usual Starbucks crew. That's about it really. Anyone else is going to look at the specs and back away slowly wondering where the new improved Macbook and Macbook Pros are.

  • 18.
  • At 12:32 PM on 04 Feb 2008,
  • Ben wrote:

Once again Apple are leading design, watch & wait as others now copy (iPod, iPhone etc). Interesting to see if this new "toy" lives up to real life, you can't change the battery (without a screwdriver and maybe soldering iron so others say) so maybe 1 film on the train and thats it? I noticed the video showed an insert to stop the keys indenting the screen in transit - this used to be a problem with older laptops, will have to see how it gets on. And, with it being so slim, will it take the weight of my cat trampling over it? (so far my 299 Asda laptop has!)

  • 19.
  • At 12:42 PM on 04 Feb 2008,
  • Jamie Kelly wrote:

"By the way, fan boys an add on for £99 does not count as an optical drive."

OK then William Tildesley, how about an optional optical drive for £65? Seeing as that is the price Apple are selling them at.

Honestly, sometimes I think people are too concerned about writing 'fanboy' than getting their facts straight.

What amuses me is we went through this when Apple released the iMac without a floppy drive - I remember people saying it was crazy, and would never catch on. That was 1997, and here we are 11 years later and how many of us still use 1.4MB floppy disks?

With Apple going headfirst into Movie downloads, Disk Sharing (use the DVD/CD drive of another Mac or PC on your MacBook Air), the DVD drive is beginning to become an accessory rather than necessary.

  • 20.
  • At 01:03 PM on 04 Feb 2008,
  • Tom wrote:

"All that packaging is hardly environmentally friendly."

Indeed. Nor is buying a shiny new laptop just because it's very thin.

  • 21.
  • At 02:06 PM on 04 Feb 2008,
  • wrote:

William Tildesley wrote:

"By the way, fan boys an add on for £99 does not count as an optical drive."

Er...yes it does. It counts as an external optical drive. So called because it's external to the computer, and when you put optical media into it it can read/write data to those beautiful shiny disks. Or what would you say it counts as, if not an optical drive? An attractive arrangement of Bavarian carvings, perhaps? Paperweight? Extremely inefficient CD wallet?

Oh and according to the Apple UK store it's £65 for the external drive, not £99. It's $99 on the Apple US store, but then you wouldn't make an obvious mistake like that, would you mister Tildesley?

  • 22.
  • At 02:16 PM on 04 Feb 2008,
  • John-Paul Jones wrote:

Dear God! is this what I pay my licence fee for, I also agree with Steve that this is boring lazy journalism mated with free advertising for a global company.
p.s-cant wait for the recalls and complaints!

  • 23.
  • At 03:21 PM on 04 Feb 2008,
  • Richard Costin wrote:

I didn't realize Steve Jobs had an advertising deal with Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú?

  • 24.
  • At 03:45 PM on 04 Feb 2008,
  • Col Birkett wrote:

"The greatest adventure is what lies ahead
Today and tomorrow are yet to be said
The chances, the changes, are all yours to make
The mold of your life is in your hands to break.

The greatest adventure is there if you're bold.
Let go of the moment that life makes you hold.
To measure the meaning can you make delay
It's time you stopped thinking and wasting the day.

A man who's a dreamer and never takes leave
Who thinks of a world that's just make-believe
Will never know passion, will never know pain
Who sits by the window will one day see rain."

Mr Yarborough puts it well; change comes along all the time, and there will always be those who fear it - you get the feeling its the PC brigade who fear it the most.

I'm very happy to see Apple continue to offer up new ideas; this is one of them - the optical drive will be dead in five years, this is the first nail in its coffin.

  • 25.
  • At 04:32 PM on 04 Feb 2008,
  • wrote:

The MBA looks great but what happens when there is no WiFi? What then? Break out your USB network adapter? And the USB splitter (with power supply) for the other stuff you'll need - like a bigger hard disk, a burner, your iPod. Nope. Not me.

I'm calling EPIC FAIL for the MacBook Airhead V1.0

Now, when the V2 product comes out - it'll be a different story. Remember, Appl€ gets it right with the Version 2 of a product. Micro$oft takes until Version 3.

  • 26.
  • At 04:59 PM on 05 Feb 2008,
  • boink wrote:

yeah but the software is still the same , no? seems a bit dumb to me.

  • 27.
  • At 05:02 PM on 05 Feb 2008,
  • Greg wrote:

"no optical drive" "utterly pointless" "toshiba make one themselves" "everyone overloves Apple"

simply a glimpse at what Apple are doing for the future - FANTASTIC!

  • 28.
  • At 07:40 PM on 08 Feb 2008,
  • Jay wrote:

The likes of Stephen Beat and every other iSheep forget/refuse to acknowledge that the floppy disk was already in its final death throes when it was left off the iMac! So stop claiming Apple were blessed with foresight/changed the industry/revolutionsied our lives/whatever.

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