Re: [NTLK] No New Newt

From: Norman Palardy <npalardy_at_great-white-software.com>
Date: Wed Jan 16 2008 - 18:47:18 EST

On 16-Jan-08, at 1:50 PM, Ed Kummel wrote:

> I dunno...Dell has their 13.3" widescreen ultra portable at 3.9
> pounds...sure it's heavier, but you get a faster CPU, double the
> size HD, CD/DVDRW, and all the IO ports you could need..And
> honestly, it doesn't look as delicate as the Air MacBook.
> And heck...JVC has had a lightweight notebook since 2003! Just
> UNDER 2 pounds!
> And don't forget the Panasonic Toughbook W4...rugged and under 3
> pounds (2.8 pounds) and it Sure doesn't skimp! and oh-yeah...this
> came out in 2005!
> There are several dozen others out there that are under 4 pounds
> and fully capable and yet to not skimp on anything...like the Air
> does.
> Honestly, a slow drive, a slow CPU, no connectivity, and the DVI
> port (I don't konw about you, but I don't have one of those cables
> lying around anywhere) I'll definatly pass on this all show, no go
> laptop.
> Sure, I can see if you have to support a massive ego or
> compensate for inadequete self esteem, then yeah, this computer may
> allow you to carry on that facade a little longer...And of course,
> it will look good sitting in the passenger seat of your new
> Massaratti as you drive up to your weekend house in the Hamptons...
> Ed
> web/gad.get guru

I got this reply about a similar post on another list.
It's a reasonable anwwer to "What the hell is Apple thinking"

Seems to me that the concepts included in the Air are more important
than the machine itself. This may be the introduction to a new
orientation in computing. It would not surprise me if Apple does not
expect to sell many of these but rather wants to see how the public
reacts.
        
        Look at what is presented in the Air:

        --What people are going to end up amounts to a wireless laptop
dock. You set your Air down on your desk, and it wirelessly connects
to the peripherals around it: the CD-DVD drive, the external HD, the
router, the printer, the other computers on the network, and so on.
I think this will catch on. Within a couple of years people will
expect this. Plugging something into something else will be a thing
of the past.

        I think also that within not very long, places like Kinkos and
Staples and maybe even Starbucks will have stations with all the
peripherals at them. You bring your Air in and set it down and they
all connect.

        I think also, that this fosters a new idea about what constitutes a
network. Now people think of the home network and their office
network. They see them as things grounded in space. I think people
are going to start getting more used to the idea of temporary
networks that form spontaneously and ephemerally.

        You go into a coffee shop or a college student lounge and you not
only automatically get access to the WiFi signal, you join the social
network going on in the room, much the way people go see what's going
on at a chat room or a social media site. People will probably
expect this to happen also at events. A political demonstration is
one obvious example, but it seems to me that it will happen at just
about any gathering of a large number of people.

        Or in a work setting, I can picture a project going on in a
conference room or something and people coming and going, bringing
their computers and joining the network in the room to collaborate in
the project. Over the course of a day, perhaps all the participants
change, but the network and the project keeps operating as people
join and leave.

        --Doesn't open. Until now, people thought of computers as a
collection of parts. Want to upgrade? Fine. Take something out and
put something else in. The Air breaks with that. Computer users
don't open the case. It's more the way people relate to phones or a
disposable lighters. It works or it doesn't. When it stops working,
you throw it away and get another one.

        --Touch pad capabilities. Until now, touch pads did a few tricks
besides moving a cursor around, but they were considered tricks. Now
they are considered capabilities. One does not expect to find a
touch pad that only moves the cursor any more than they would expect
to find a new, one-button mouse. The Air makes this attitude
official. Within a very short time, Apple keyboards for desktops
will probably include touch pads. The mouse may be on the way out.

        --Solid state memory. Within a few years, having a disc spin will
be as out of date as spinning an LP.

        Other features fit this same pattern.

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Received on Wed Jan 16 18:47:33 2008

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