It looks like Apple has a nice little surprise for anybody in the market for the SSD equipped MacBook Air. The price on the Apple Store for the 64GB SSD upgrade on the 1.6GHz Air has dropped to $599 from $999. Similarly the price of the 1.8GHz Air (equipped with the SSD standard) has dropped to $2598 from $3098.
Needless to say, the SSD is still a pretty penny and there's some controversy about how much it helps battery life. But if you've been waiting for one it looks like this is your lucky day.
This is a good news, bad news story. Let's start with the good news!
DisplaySearch, a market research firm, is reporting that Apple's sales of notebook computers are up 61% from 1st Quarter, 2007 to 1st Quarter, 2008. In that fiscal quarter, Apple shipped over 1.4 million notebooks, compared to almost 900,000 the year before. That puts Apple just behind Asus in terms of growth year-to-year, as the Taiwanese board and component maker saw a 67% growth rate. Most other notebook manufacturers saw growth rates in the 20 - 40% range.
The bad news? Apple's still in seventh place in overall notebook market share at 4.6%, trailing behind leaders HP (20.8%), Dell (15.1%), and Acer (14.7%) but still ahead of Asus (4.3%) and Sony (4.2%).
My personal speculation is that Asus is seeing huge increases due to the Eee PC subnotebook, which has been extremely popular with geeks wanting tiny Linux or Windows computers. If trends continue, Apple's notebook market share numbers should continue to grow into 2008.
Fortune has an interesting article detailing how Apple and Intel are fast on the way to becoming best buds. Apparently Intel has been more willing to accommodate Apple than some of its other customers, as demonstrated by the MacBook Air. It seems that in the design phase of the Air Apple went to Intel with the processor spec they wanted and the response was "'We don't have that,' or 'We have that on a roadmap 3-4 years from now,'" but after digging around Intel realized that they had a processor concept on the shelf that "had been put on the back burner after PC makers gave it a ho-hum reception." So they revamped it slightly and delivered it to Apple within a year. And the Air was just the beginning with several "equally aggressive" projects in the pipeline for the two companies. In short, it seems like the relationship is good for both partners, with Apple making demands that push the technology forward and Intel responding in ways that look to benefit the larger PC industry as a whole.
Engadget has a silly, but mildly humorous post up on a German MacBook Air user who claims his elbow was sliced open by the sharp front edge of the Air. In addition to his sliced up elbow (bis aufs Fleisch!), he says that his couch was ruined by all the blood. Just what we need, another reason for the TSA to ban the Air: it's a deadly weapon.
So Air owners out there, have any of you been attacked by your ultraportable Mac?
Update: As one of our commenters pointed out this story was generated by a mistaken translation. The guy's elbow was cut by a regular MacBook, not an Air.
Yesterday was Memorial Day in the US, a Bank Holiday in the UK, and apparently big honkin' solid-state drive (SSD) day in South Korea.
Samsung, which provides the 64GB SSD drive that is available in a pricey configure-to-order version of the MacBook Air, announced a 256GB 2.5-inch SSD drive. While the 64GB model in the MacBook Air has been criticized for having leisurely performance, the new MLC (Multi-Level Cell) flash SATA II drive boasts 200MBps read and 160MBps sequential write speeds. Those are double the speeds of the 64GB drive.
The new model features power consumption that is slightly less than that of the 64GB drive (.9 watt in active mode, compared to 1.0 watt), as well as sophisticated data encryption.
There's no word on whether or not the new drive will show up in future MacBook Air models. The monster SSD will be widely available in September, with a 1.8-inch version expected in the 4th quarter of 2008. Does a faster, bigger, and hopefully cheaper SSD-based MacBook Air sound like something we can expect to hear Steve mention as "one more thing" at Macworld Expo 2009?
Since the MacBook Air was introduced with its iconic envelope commercial there have been a variety of envelope style cases. However, the Thinvelope from BeyzaCASES is really in a class by itself, combining high quality leatherwork with what looks like an extremely elegant design. Over at Gear Diary Judie Lipsett has a rave review with plenty of pictures, comparing it favorably with designer leather goods costing much more. That said, the Thinvelope is itself a pretty penny at $215. But, really, isn't your MacBook Air worth it?
Set condition one for bargain hunters! The U.S. Apple Store is now offering refurbished MacBook Air models with 1.6GHz processors, 2GB of memory, and 80GB (non-solid-state) hard drives for $1,549.
Playing on the MacBook-Air-in-a-manila-envelope meme started by Steve Jobs at Macworld Expo 2008, Marware has announced the sexy leather C.E.O. Envi sleeve for the MBA. The $89.99 C.E.O. Envi features a premium leather exterior and a soft lining, and is designed to be used either on its own or in another bag. A magnetic closure keeps the sleeve safely shut, while the interior lining protects the exterior of the MacBook Air from scratches.
Of course, it's too late for my MacBook Air, which is beginning to look a bit scuffed up on the bottom. But I may still look into one of these sleeves as a way of preventing even more scratches.
John Mayer has been closely related with Apple for years. He has played after multiple keynotes and he got his MacBook Air earlier than anyone else. I wonder how Apple feels about his latest blog posting? Yeah, that's right, his new cell phone is a... erm, how should I put this nicely... a Blackberry? Seriously, John, did you ever even consider that your friend Steve might give you an iPhone?
We first noted John's two-timing tech ways when Blackberry/RIM sponsored his concert tour in the summer of 2007, but we always held out hope that his heart was in the right place. So much for our shattered popstar dreams.
If you're a Del.icio.us fanactic like I am, then you have hundreds, going on thousands of bookmarks. How do you view your 1,000+ bookmarks? If you use a web browser, then you're living in the dark ages. I am going to show you a better way to view your bookmarks that may leave you speechless.
Delish is a completely new way to view your Del.icio.us bookmarks. You may ask, "What's so special about this. Can you not do this with other applications"? Well, no, because Delish is a way to view your bookmarks similar to the way you view your iPhoto images; as a matter of fact, the user interface is almost identical to that of iPhoto. When you load your bookmarks, Delish will automatically download a new snapshot of the page and use it as a thumbnail which can be enlarged for your viewing pleasure. You can also search through your bookmarks and view all of your tags in the left sidebar.
Another killer feature is reserved for those of you with one of those fancy new MacBook Pros or MacBook Airs, because you can zoom into your bookmarks by "pinching" the Multi-touch trackpad -- the very same way you can in iPhoto. The only thing missing from the application is the ability to add bookmarks directly from it, although this software is currently in beta and definitely has time to add this support later on.
Delish is currently free while in beta and can be downloaded from the Pine Point Software website.
A brave MacBook Air owner (capitalizing on the Air's internal USB onnections we posted on previously) has embraced the wireless promise of Apple's ultra-thin notebook by installing a USB727 Verizon Aircardinside the Air. The hack involved disassembling both the Air and the USB EVDO modem and soldering it to one of the Air's internal USB connections.
Unfortunately, the hack also required removing the internal Airport and Bluetooth card (both to get the space and to use the Airport antennas), so I doubt most Air owners would be interested. Nonetheless, the end result is quite impressive and looks great. He has also started a forum thread to discuss the hack.
Thanks Amy!
Update: The hacker who put the EVDO card into the Air is not the same as the one who previously discovered the USB connections.
There are so many ways to get your hands on a MacBook Air (and apparently several ways to lose your grip on one, as well). You could visit the Apple Store, or Best Buy, or shop online. You could take up a collection with friends and family, or prevail upon your spouse to get one for you.
Here's another idea: make a video about how VMware Fusionhas helped you switch to the Mac is now your virtualization tool of choice, and you could win an Air. Submit your video by May 15 (every entry gets a Fusion t-shirt, so there are no losers) for your chance to walk, or trip, away with the laptop.
Despite a couple of high-profile callouts on the Fusion 'switched' minisite, I'm afraid that Mat and Chris aren't entering the contest. Too bad, guys!
Update:The VMware team has clarified that the video contest is about users who have switched to VMware Fusion from another way of running Windows on the Mac (Boot Camp, Parallels, Virtual PC, the power of the mind). Adjust your artistic vision appropriately.
According to a recent posting on Phillip Elmer-DeWitt's Apple 2.0 column over at CNN, JPMorgan analyst Mark Moskowitz has issued a "cautiously optimistic" report on Apple based primarily on "stronger-than-expected" MacBook sales" for the quarter ending in March. According to Moskowitz, computer sales usually fall-off after Christmas, but Apple has actually had a sales increase -- albeit a small one at only 0.2%.
However, that increase is still better than sales for other PC's, which according to the report, fell 9% in the same quarter. In spite of the sales increase, there still may be other issues that have an effect on Apple's bottom line this year. According to Moskowicz, there may be some difficulty for Apple if the company is not able to deliver a 3G iPhone by Summer.
"As long as there is nothing to suggest that a summer launch of the 3G phone is not a possibility, we would expect investors to look past any near-term disappointment in iPhones," said Moskowitz in his report. The report doesn't specify which MacBook model is responsible for the slight increase in sales for Apple. But with the MacBook Air having just been released during the last quarter, perhaps it deserves the credit?
Apple will release its quarterly earnings report on April 23rd.
Today, Apple updated the MacBook Air with the Bluetooth EFI update 1.0. Apple has yet to tell in any support notes what this update actually does.
However, for those souls that are willing to download and install the latest (un-noted) updates, you can find this update in your MacBook Air's Software Update app (Apple Menu > Software Update). You can also download the 1.2MB update from the Apple support downloads website.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
[Update:] Since posting this story, Apple has updated the link information and has taken off the "EFI" on the title of this update. You can find the update information here.
Today, Apple updated the EFI Firmware for the entire notebook line. MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air all received the EFI update. Here's what Apple says about the updates:
This update fixes several issues to improve the stability of [MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air] computers.
You can download this update by opening Software Update on your notebook (Apple menu > Software Update) or by downloading the installer package from Apple's support website.
Apple also notes: To complete the firmware update process, please follow the instructions in the updater application (/Applications/Utilities/MacBook EFI Firmware Update.app). The updater will launch automatically when the Installer closes.
It looks like Apple has a nice little surprise for anybody in the market for the SSD equipped MacBook Air. The price on the Apple Store for the 64GB SSD upgrade on the 1.6GHz Air has dropped to $599 from $999. Similarly the price of the 1.8GHz Air (equipped with the SSD standard) has dropped to $2598 from $3098.
This is a good news, bad news story. Let's start with the good news! 
Fortune has an interesting 
Engadget has a silly, but mildly humorous 
Yesterday was Memorial Day in the US, a Bank Holiday in the UK, and apparently big honkin' solid-state drive (SSD) day in South Korea.
Set condition one for bargain hunters! The U.S. Apple Store is now offering 
Playing on the MacBook-Air-in-a-manila-envelope meme started by Steve Jobs at Macworld Expo 2008, Marware has announced the sexy leather 
John Mayer has been closely related with Apple for years. He has played after multiple keynotes and he got his MacBook Air 
If you're a 
There are so many ways to get your hands on a MacBook Air (and apparently several 
According to a 
Today, Apple updated the 
Today, Apple updated the EFI Firmware for the entire notebook line. 
