New MacBook Air Released – $100 Cheaper(apple.com)
apple.com
New MacBook Air Released – $100 Cheaper
https://www.apple.com/macbook-air/specs.html
98 comments
Why is this news? I am a proud Apple fan, but I don't think a slight bump in their cheapest laptop needs to make the front page of HN. I feel like I am missing something.
Because people browsing https://news.ycombinator.com/newest decided to click on the upvote button. It seriously only takes 3 upvotes for something to end up on the front page.
This opinion might be unpopular, but I've found over the past decade or so that any reasonably sized tech community seems to have a huge hard-on for Apple. I saw it on Engadget in the early days, reddit as it grew, now HN and so on.
They're a cool company and all but I agree, fortunately things like this have a way of sliding off the HN frontpage fairly quickly.
They're a cool company and all but I agree, fortunately things like this have a way of sliding off the HN frontpage fairly quickly.
People might be waiting for a new one to come out, that makes it news.
I totally missed some events, or Apple just "dropped" those in the store without any writeup/presentation?
Even if this is a minor upgrade (price cut and slightly faster processors), it still feels very weird to me.
Even if this is a minor upgrade (price cut and slightly faster processors), it still feels very weird to me.
They're just minor bumps to specs and a reduction in price, they normally don't do big announcements for something like this. Now if/when the retina MacBook Airs come out you can be sure there'll be an announcement for that...
They do that from time to time; announcements are mostly only for substantial changes.
The non-retina 13" Macbook Pro seems less and less relevant.
I really hope they keep the 13" Macbook Pro around.
The Macbook Air is a fantastic machine but being able to stick a reasonably priced SSD and 16GB of ram into my work 13" MBP has improved my output dramatically.
I wonder how long it will be before Apple prevent after purchase customization at all.
I wonder how long it will be before Apple prevent after purchase customization at all.
The 13" Retina should persist for some time. That model's entry price is only $100 more than the non-Retina 13" MBP entry price. I don't really see the appeal of the non-Retina version at this point. The Retina display is really great and worth the extra $100, in my opinion, and I think the MBA offers much better value.
The appeal is you can upgrade to 16GB RAM after you've bought it.
OWC $142 Apple $300
Apparently the SSD in the retina models is upgradeable but only to PCI based SSDs
OWC $142 Apple $300
Apparently the SSD in the retina models is upgradeable but only to PCI based SSDs
It has a slightly faster processor (don't be fooled by "1.3GHz", the MBA's top CPU speed is 2.6GHz) but there's a 500GB non-solid-state hard drive, it's heavier, the graphics are older, and it has a lower-resolution screen. Why would anyone want it?
It's probably a diminishing use-case, but I personally still need an ethernet port. There's a surprising number of times when I visit somewhere (offices, universities) and they can't figure out how to get me logged onto the guest wifi, but I can just plug in to the wired network without a problem. Also some hotels have only ethernet, though that's getting less common.
Yeah, go and buy a thunderbold ethernet cable, they are really cheap and work fantastically.
The only downside is on Linux you have to reboot if you unplug the ethernet, but apparently that's being improved in 3.15.
The only downside is on Linux you have to reboot if you unplug the ethernet, but apparently that's being improved in 3.15.
I think the reason Windows and Linux seem to behave awkwardly with Thunderbolt is that Thunderbolt is actually PCI-Express, and they're not exactly used to hot-plugging PCIe devices! But that's just speculation on my part.
What happens if you don't reboot?
It doesn't work :).
I see :-)
RHEL 7 will be a problem then, I assume, as it seems to be based on 3.10?
RHEL 7 will be a problem then, I assume, as it seems to be based on 3.10?
I run the 2013 on Arch, and apart from the thunderbolt issue it actually works very very well. Totally silent laptop with incredible battery life is a major winner.
Or get a (third-party) USB 3 adapter.
Yes, I suppose the Ethernet is useful. But it doesn't seem worth sacrificing everything else for. Why not just get a USB or Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter?
"Oh, you want to hook your Firewire drives up to it? That's another adapter. Oh, you want to play or burn CD's? You need to get an external drive then. You want to use your old Magsafe power bricks? Sorry, we changed the connector. You want to lock up the computer while it's at your desk? Sorry, there's no Kensington slot anymore."
At which point the SSD and Retina display sound nice, but that other stuff seems like it's going to a pain in the neck on a daily basis.
At which point the SSD and Retina display sound nice, but that other stuff seems like it's going to a pain in the neck on a daily basis.
Apple tend to deprecate and remove stuff often and quickly. The PC world and Microsoft don't. For those of us who like living on the cutting edge, we're fine with it, but it's not really for everyone.
Remember when the iMac was the first USB-only computer, and had no floppy drive? Both were really unpopular at the time.
(Lack of Kensington is stupid though, I'll agree on that.)
Remember when the iMac was the first USB-only computer, and had no floppy drive? Both were really unpopular at the time.
(Lack of Kensington is stupid though, I'll agree on that.)
It's not thick enough to fit a Kensington slot unfortunately.
Ah, so that's the reason. Apple's relentless pursuit of thinness is nice, but it has its drawbacks. That's also why it lacks Ethernet, AFAIK.
Huh, I hadn't seen the Thunderbolt ones. The USB ones are notorious for not really working (they seem to have driver issues). Hopefully the Thunderbolt ones are better?
Thunderbolt is just PCIe under the hood, so it would hopefully work as well as a PCIe Gigabit Ethernet one.
Although the fact it's Apple-made is probably more important, since they'll have made sure it works.
Although the fact it's Apple-made is probably more important, since they'll have made sure it works.
I'd second the thunderbolt recommendation but I would question the concerns about USB – until upgrading to Thunderbolt, I had no problems with daily heavy usage (along with several coworkers). The main drawback is that the USB devices can't go over 100Mb.
I don't know for MACs but for 2 years at work I used a Windows laptop with a USB to Ethernet adapter and it ran absolutely fine.
Or you can get an Airport Express or similar adaptor, and use it in bridge mode.
I think for a lot of people the issue is storage. Most don't know the difference between an ssd and a mechanical hard drive and don't want to have to pay an exorbitant sum to get to 500+ gb. They have lots of pictures and music and other things they want to keep around, even if they rarely access them.
Yeah. They go in to the Apple Store and the salesmen says that SSD is faster. But the buyer has heard that computers will be faster a lot in their lives, and usually it's only a 10-25% performance increase, which isn't that noticeable. So they don't put much stock in that. We're all so used to SSDs that the huge performance gains don't surprise us anymore.
Given that, the MBP is also turbo-boost to 3.1 GHz.
just to play devil's advocate on this one, you can put 16 GB of memory in it (not from Apple, but by user replacement)
I'm surprised they didn't get rid of it today.
I agree. One thing Steve Jobs seemed pretty keen on was a rational, minimal product line.
Allowing the product line to evolve and fit all the little niches crevices is not Apple's style.
Allowing the product line to evolve and fit all the little niches crevices is not Apple's style.
OTOH, keeping some out-of-date products around just for the educational market is a long-time Apple trend.
The education discount for the non-retina MBP 13 is (and has been) $200, rather than the $50 for other models around that price. At least now the MBA 13 starts at a lower price after the discount.
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They will, after MacBook Air with retina display.
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except for the price and 100mhz faster processor is there anything else different than on model from 2013 (i am asking since i bought 2013 model couple days ago :))
Along those same lines: be careful if you buy an Air at a retail store for a little while. It might be different now, but a few years ago when I got my MBP I waited until the day they were released, called to confirm they were in stock, and when I got to the store they tried to sell me one of the older models that were still in stock.
As far as we know so far, nope, no other differences. Maybe a teardown my iFixit will reveal something new but I doubt it.
an extra hour battery life
My 2012 is fine! I think the only upgrade that will make sense is to the Retina version.
Anyone know if new MB AIRS still make a ton of noise with their fans? (BTW ton = any noise) I have a 15" MB Pro and love the fact that it's dead silent, unless I'm rendering video in Adobe Premiere or After Effects.
I'd like to get an 11" form factor for all my pogramming stuff, and migrate the 15" into some form of desktop computer.
Edit: Probably what I'm looking for in a non-existant 11" MB Pro.
I'd like to get an 11" form factor for all my pogramming stuff, and migrate the 15" into some form of desktop computer.
Edit: Probably what I'm looking for in a non-existant 11" MB Pro.
I have a slightly older (ivy bridge) 13" MBA and it is totally silent. The only time I have ever heard fans was while rendering some high definition video in iMovie.
1366x768 in 2014?
I imagine Apple are optimising for battery life and cost here, rather than for sheer resolution.
Edit: Also, that's the 11", I doubt they can squeeze many more pixels in there before it becomes unreadable. The 13" is 1440x900, which is more reasonable (I'm using it as we speak, actually!)
Edit: Also, that's the 11", I doubt they can squeeze many more pixels in there before it becomes unreadable. The 13" is 1440x900, which is more reasonable (I'm using it as we speak, actually!)
This argument won't stand. New phone displays have significantly lower battery consumption than the old ones and substantially higher resolutions. And you can always employ tricks like reducing refresh rate to lower the consumption even more.
New phones are also not tied to the x86 platform, and generally run software that has been optimized from the start for performance.
There are other considerations too. Phone usage patterns are way different to computer usage patterns. The vast majority of phone usage occurs in small blips of activity during which execution can be optimized for the CPU to race to sleep state as soon as possible. Computers don't have the same usage patterns at all, and have a legacy of first and third party software (on all major platforms) that have not yet been optimized for performance.
There are other considerations too. Phone usage patterns are way different to computer usage patterns. The vast majority of phone usage occurs in small blips of activity during which execution can be optimized for the CPU to race to sleep state as soon as possible. Computers don't have the same usage patterns at all, and have a legacy of first and third party software (on all major platforms) that have not yet been optimized for performance.
There isn't a retina notebook yet with the kind of battery life the Air has.
Why not? If they push the resolution of the 11" much more, it'll become harder to read the screen. If they double the resolution to make it "retina", the battery will take a hit, as will the cost.
I'm still quite happy with my late 2010 13' Air, as a second/travel/coffee shop laptop.
About your edit: remember that how Apple does it in the "Retina" models is increasing the definition, without affecting the actual size of the UI elements.
I would buy a "Retina Air" in an heartbeat.
About your edit: remember that how Apple does it in the "Retina" models is increasing the definition, without affecting the actual size of the UI elements.
I would buy a "Retina Air" in an heartbeat.
Explain high density 10" iPads, then.
People are defending the 11" Macbook Air with that resolution, but you make a fair point.
I have the 2012 model, and it is an absolutely superb machine, but the lack of vertical pixels is its weakest feature. Reading documents is far from ideal: it is distracting to read a wide-columned pdf with a relatively small number of lines on the screen, and the screen isn't quite good enough to allow much zooming out. There is a noticeable difference in the usability of the machine when my eyes are tired. A higher-resolution screen would presumably help on both counts.
Because the software is generally well-put-together and the touchpad is excellent, the resolution is not so much a problem for actively using software, creating documents and so forth. But scrolling around and zooming in and out has an overhead, which again, more pixels would reduce the need for.
I have the 2012 model, and it is an absolutely superb machine, but the lack of vertical pixels is its weakest feature. Reading documents is far from ideal: it is distracting to read a wide-columned pdf with a relatively small number of lines on the screen, and the screen isn't quite good enough to allow much zooming out. There is a noticeable difference in the usability of the machine when my eyes are tired. A higher-resolution screen would presumably help on both counts.
Because the software is generally well-put-together and the touchpad is excellent, the resolution is not so much a problem for actively using software, creating documents and so forth. But scrolling around and zooming in and out has an overhead, which again, more pixels would reduce the need for.
This is their cheapest option and has an 11" display. If you want pixels then you should pay a little more and not complain when it is a little heavier:
http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-retina/
http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-retina/
I have a 15" rMBP. This is about MBA. iPad doesn't have a problem having retina display, just MBA.
This is for the 11" model. The 13" has a more appropriate 1440x900.
Retina would be nice though.
Retina would be nice though.
If Apple made a retina Macbook Air then nobody would buy the Macbook Pro.
They could differentiate by making the MBP a lot more powerful than the MBA with things like a high end quad core CPU, up to 32 GB of RAM and a fast Nvidia GPU.
Admittedly the market for high end powerful 13" laptops might not be that big.
Admittedly the market for high end powerful 13" laptops might not be that big.
You couldn't fit all of that in a 13" MBP.
Look what they did with the Mac Pro. Squeezing lots of power into small containers is one the things Apple is quite good at.
Lenovo can fit most of that it in their 14" T440. I'm sure if Apple set a team of top engineers on the problem they could find a way to make it work.
Lenovo can fit most of that it in their 14" T440. I'm sure if Apple set a team of top engineers on the problem they could find a way to make it work.
I believe that it would be more profitable for a company to offer their best instead of artificially segmenting the market.
Could be. 13" rMBP won't be much different from a 13" rMBA then.
12 hours of battery life in 2014? puff
How many other laptops of similar spec can beat it though?
I think it was a joke. Jokes don't always come out well on the internet.
Ah, possibly. I guess I'm too used to the rampant comment-scorn about everything to spot jokes reliably.
Suddenly I don't regret buying a 13" Retina MBP at all.
Consider all prices to still be +249 because owning one without the extended warranty is at times worthwhile, it can help resale if you sell it within the warranty period
I thought Apple was waiting for new chips from Intel before the laptops would be refreshed. I'm surprised.
No Thunderbolt 2 upgrade. I was going to pull the trigger on a couple of these, but I'm not sure now.
Now I can only buy three decent chromebooks for the price of one MacBook Air instead of four.
I guess this means they won't be announcing Retina MacBook Airs at WWDC in June.
I still wonder, how well is windows 7 or windows 8.1 supported ?
how fast does xcode runs on it ?
how fast does xcode runs on it ?
Windows is supported. I imagine Xcode is almost completely unusable with that CPU and the tiny amount of RAM.
I use XCode on the previous generation, it's fine. Interface Builder bogs down on large Storyboard situations but aside from that it more than happily runs XCode, Photoshop, Simulator and all the usual expected tools (iTerm 2, Chrome, Sublime, Spotify/iTunes/whatever music player) without much complaining.
Is Xcode so much resource hungry? VS runs nicely on that spec, and I thought VS was the hungriest ide ever
Still, no 16 GB memory. The only thing left tying me to the MBP.
The combination of SSD + absolutely ridiculous efficiency sharing libraries on OS X, means that it's entirely reasonable to be running 25-30 applications simultaneously, including a VMware instance of Windows 7, All the Office Apps, Network Simulators, etc...
While there are obviously users that can use more than 8GB of memory (or heck, even more than 128 GB of memory) it's probably less than 1% of the Mac Using population that requires more than 8 GB of memory, and Apple expects that 1% to use the MBP. I don't think the Air will see more than 8 GB of memory for at least another 5 years.
While there are obviously users that can use more than 8GB of memory (or heck, even more than 128 GB of memory) it's probably less than 1% of the Mac Using population that requires more than 8 GB of memory, and Apple expects that 1% to use the MBP. I don't think the Air will see more than 8 GB of memory for at least another 5 years.
Really ? With an SSD you can even go with 2GB of RAM you won't see any difference.
yeah the 2GB part was a bit too much. Especially for Mavericks requirements (I was not aware).
My point is, with an SSD, you can swap, it won't be slow as the good old HDD days. On my workstation with 8GB of RAM and a 512 SSD (MBPr), I often have 8 or more GB swapped, it's not noticeable at all.
The only downside is that yeah, the VM file size will reduce your actual available disk space until you clean it up (reboot).
My point is, with an SSD, you can swap, it won't be slow as the good old HDD days. On my workstation with 8GB of RAM and a 512 SSD (MBPr), I often have 8 or more GB swapped, it's not noticeable at all.
The only downside is that yeah, the VM file size will reduce your actual available disk space until you clean it up (reboot).
My wife has the entry level 11in MBA with 2GB RAM. Limited RAM+limited disk space is a problem, even with the SSD.
You completely misunderstand memory. 4GB is the bare minimum for Mavericks, any less and even on an SSD you're delving into swap hell. 8GB is really skimpy to have just as an upgrade option, I'm constantly hitting my limits on 16GB (though admittedly my workload isn't typical).
yeah with 4GB you'll swap a lot, but as an SSD is really fast (no as fast as RAM of course, but still..) you won't notice it a lot.
You are joking, of course?
Anyone heard if you can upgrade the SSD on these?
Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the top line MacBook Air had 8 GB of RAM before, now it is 4.
When you select a model to order you can choose 8GB as a $100 upgrade.
That was my point, Apple reduces the price by $100 but reduces the memory to 4 GB. Which you can get by paying the $100.
It would have been better if the price stayed the same but with 8 GB instead of 4.
It would have been better if the price stayed the same but with 8 GB instead of 4.
Put another way, 7.6 - 10% price reduction
http://www.macrumors.com/2014/04/29/updated-macbook-airs-fas...
> All standard models of the 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air now come with a faster 1.4 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor along with the same 4GB of RAM. Both entry-level configurations of the 11-inch and 13-inch models now sell for $899 and $999 with 128GB of flash storage, while the higher-end 11-inch and 13-inch models now come in at $1099 and $1199 with 256GB of flash storage, respectively.