Ok, it may be a bit pricey, but we have always paid higher prices for miniaturization. Most of the things that have been cut out to reduce size and weight most people don't use at all or very often. And one USB port is nothing that a small USB hub won't take care of for those few times you need more than one device connected. Most of the time when I do need to USB devices connected to a machine I have to use a hub anyway because the ports are too close together. My only real wish is that the solid state drive for this thing wasn't such an expensive option.

I seriously think they will sell a lot of these machines. Not to serious geeks and machine freaks, but to executives and writers and people on the go. People to who one extra pound makes a huge difference and who don't watch movies on their laptops because they are actually doing work to which this machine is well suited.

I saw this for the first time yesterday. My husband showed me their website. OH my, that thing is SOOOO sleek. Amazing!

I had no idea it sucked so bad. And I fell for the hype. Must be Steve's "reality distortion field."

You've obviously never tried a neat ultraportable yourself :P My LG is soo much better when I'm on the go than my G4 12" iBook. Who needs lots of extensability in a laptop? That's what desktops are for.

The cpu is actually fast for a ultraportable-machine, but not that it matters. Give OSX some memory and it's slick. 800mhz is plenty enough for me on my lappie, kde & firefox runs reasonable. 1.2ghz just gives me more heat.

Treat a lithium battery well and you'll replace the laptop for the next best thing before it starts to wear out. Ethernet is no big deal, where don't you have access to wifi? And the optical - who cares? Only usefull when you need to reinstall the os, which doesn't happen everyday. Ofcourse, this paragraph is highly subjective.

Now, for the harddrive issue - it being dog slow at seeking and barely ok at sequential reads has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it's p-ata and not s-ata, the interface is not the bottleneck with a 1.8" drive, platter density and rotation speeds is!

Pricewise it's neatly comparing to other laptops of the same weight. Actually it's neat enough to tempt me, apple yet again has a laptop I actually could imagine buying if I were to get a new one.

I think you miss the point of the machine entirely. Many people are disappointed with the machine, because the do not understand the machines intent or market. Many were expecting it to be a MacBook/MacBook Pro replacement. It is not a replacement in any way. The MacBook Air is in fact a specifically targeted machine.

The intended audience for the MacBook Air is not the geek or developer. It is not even the run of the mill human. The intended demographic for the MacBook Air modern executive. Executives often gain a lot from a machine that looks flashy, regardless of the technology that it actually delivers. Further, those that are willing to purchase the machine for this price will not think twice about a further $100.

The other group that will benefit from the MacBook Air of those that are always on the road. Again they are often willing to trade off features for portability. Ever lugged a MacBook Pro around for a day, I can tell you its weight will be noticed. With the MacBook Air, it will be like another small manilla folder.

So when you take these points into consideration the MacBook Air is genius.

cool n thnx for sharing too ;)

Great website! Looks great and should do very well.

Steve

Thanks for the lovely comment steve.

Good post, about macbook air. I shall wait and see on this one. Like the iphone, still have not bought it due to technical limitations et all. Should be fun what with the likes of dell, hp and sony have in store for us over the next, 12-18 months.