MacBook Air refresh features SSD storage, smaller sibling

I'll take an iPad over the 11-inch any day thanks.

Did anyone notice that the MBA's do not have backlit keyboards?

@ Tony
It's not right!
So light and slimmer than the AIR, you might not even know it’s there, NOT because of a small battery.The battery stays Double the new MAC AIR "With a combined battery life of up to 14 hours, you’ll be able to stay unplugged through the day and into the night. Not bad for a PC that’s about ½” thin and weighs only 1.6 lbs because of "A carbon-fiber casing adds durability without extra weight".

*The 128GB solid state drive is also less prone to damage than a standard hard drive.

*A seamless aluminum keyboard panel adds structural integrity to the X series while a scratch resistant LCD protects against wear and tear to the screen.

*11.1"4(1366x768) widescreen, LED backlit display uses power efficient technology and delivers incredible picture clarity with 100% color saturation.

*Mobile Broadband : Verizon Wireless Mobile Broadband Built-in

*Built-in real-time GPS lets you navigate even the most unfamiliar places with ease.

When you talk about SONY, you are talking about like.no.other :)

regards,

Currently using a 2.4 GHz 13.3" MacBook (purchased Q1 2008). Do you suppose I'd notice a difference in processor speed if I switch to the new 13.3" MBA? Or would the increased "hard drive"* speed compensate for it?

*(Yes, I know it's not technically a hard drive. Vernacular!)

Anybody notice Jobs was wearing a belt. He hasn't worn a belt in a looooong time. I think he only hiked his pants one time, too. :)

Also, I can see why Apple had to do it, but the MacBook Airs have the Mini DisplayPort connector opposite the MagSafe connector. Thus, hooking up to an Apple display with the 3-in-1 connector may prove to be awkward.

Instant-on means nothing - all Macs wake pretty much instantly from sleep, and the Mac Book Air is no different. I think all Apple are saying is that the battery life is long when it's asleep... I'm not entirely sure why that's considered 'instant-on'...

"Flash [...] gives MacBook Air the astonishing ability to remain in standby mode for up to 30 days. Which means your MacBook Air snaps to in an instant, whether you open it tomorrow, next week, or next month."

As I understand it existing Macs don't use the hard-disk when asleep, so I'm not sure why flash helps. Also, presumably this is refering to a MacBook Air that isn't plugged in, as you'd expect any Mac to "snap to in an instant, whether you open it tomorrow, next week, or next month."

So to me this sounds like marketing nonsense.

I have both the first MacBook Air with 64GB SSD as well as the next one with 128GB SSD. Both are the best laptops I ever had in the last 15 years (13 of them with Windows laptops tough). Even the relatively small SSD space is not problem as long as you don't load music/pictures/video on it. I use these machines as an everyday business tool, so basically Office and iWorks stuff.
All my files are on Dropbox.
The new MacBook Air is great, but not enough value for me to buy one.
Even the 4GB internal memory is not enough to buy one. Now I have 2GB RAM and I can even run VMWare Fusion on it with Windows7 without any performance issues.

and dam.. why do apple give so much with one hand and always take something with the other... looking this does NOT support the apple remote.. so its a lot less useful as a presentation device.. shame.. oh well guess i can get a good usb wireless one for a few pounds

My only concern is that what happens after 30 days of standby. Regular HDD do not require any battery to retain data.

Hey, anybody know if these are in Apple Stores yet? I don't think I'll buy one, but I do want to drool uncontrollably on it for awhile, I just don't want to make the hour long trek to the Apple Store only to find the now-dead-to-me old models still there.