The big buzz leading into tomorrow's keynote speech from Steve Jobs at MacWorld is the potential announcement of a mini-laptop, possibly along the size of a portable DVD player or smaller.
Back then it was just a "what if" question. Now it's possibly a reality in less than one year from that entry. I'm really curious to see if our discussion turns out to be a winner tomorrow!
Was hoping for more of an 8"-9" mini laptop type deal. It's just a really really thin laptop that to me is limited to graphics, internet and mail. No Firewire port will certainly make it difficult for use by video professionals.
Light, thin, easy to travel with yes. Worth replacing my current MacBook Pro. Nope. Especially with processors that are the slowest in the fleet. Great concept, now just waiting for it to even smaller.
Hopefully that ad is legit and hopefully the laptop will much much slimmer and lighter than the current MacBook. And let's hope they put the faster processors in there from the MacBook Pro.
And of course, look at Apple's website, "Something is in the Air" certainly lends some legitimacy to a "Macbook Air."
Wired's Gadget Blog has a picture of the ad for a case for the not yet confirmed MacBook Air. Wired speculates that this is possibly an Apple-driven bit of misdirection, not the first time this would have happened. But I think their OTHER speculation is right, that this is a genuine leak.
Not the first time THAT happened either. I thnk it was 1999 that AMD announced some partnership with Apple on something before Apple announced it. Apple undid the deal on the spot. They made up soon, but I can't think of a similar leak since then. Until, apparently, now.
This is interesting, but it's a MacBook with a modified screen that just flips around and replaced the keyboard. I'm kind of hoping the "mini-laptop," if it is truly announced today, will be somewhere more like the Mac Mini in size. Obviously much much slimmer, but along those lines.
This is an interesing idea, but it's just a MacBook with a slick screen. For the same price, or even less, I can get a MacBook Pro with a faster processor and better performance. I would take the faster processor and better performance.
I don't know how I missed this, but there's a slick tablet computer running the Mac OS already - the Axiotron Modbook. It already won the MacWorld Best of Show....in 2007! Oops.
It finally graduates from the world of demoware when it starts shipping this week.
(BTW, "vaporware" is a product that never becomes more than a rumor. "Demoware" is a product that has a prototype to show and demo, but hasn't shipped yet. Pretty much ALL legit software and hardware lives as demoware for a while. Over a year - not exactly legit.)
Maybe I missed it because the only distributor is Other World Computing, nice guys who've tried to exploit their niche...but their niche is pretty small. Anyway, it looks really, really slick. Here's the full announcement.
Hey, and maybe I missed the news before because it's from a company called Axiotron!
Nice to see somebody give something like this a try, but it looks to me that these guys have not only missed the train -- they're about to get run over by it. Even if they'd shipped a year ago.
Of course all of this depends on whether Walter's prediction from a year ago is true...but you argue with Walter at your peril.
Professional Video Editor, Producer, Director since 1990.
Credits include multiple Emmys, Tellys, Aurora and CableAce Awards.
Owner / Operator of Biscardi Creative Media, a full service video and film production company with about 65% of our work in HDTV. The show you know us best for is "Good Eats" on the Food Network. I developed the HD Post workflow and we also create all the animations for the series.
Favorite pastime is cooking with pizza on the grill one of my specialties. Each Christmas Eve we serve the Feast of the Seven Fishes, a traditional Italian seafood meal with approx. 30 items on the menu.
If I wasn't in video production I would either own a restaurant or a movie theater.
