Why Does the MacBook Air Still Exist? [MacBook Air]

The iPad is clearly Apple’s vision for the long run of ultra-portable computing. You don’t must look any longer than Apple’s new OS to work out that. So why is Apple releasing new MacBook Airs ?

The iPad, it’s been said, is Apple’s netbook. It easily handles most of what people want out of a netbook: It surfs the internet, plays YouTube and videos, deals with light email. It’s really, really portable with instant on and a crazy-long battery life; and it costs around $500.

The new, smaller MacBook Air is effectively a really nice netbook. Apple even says it took every part it learned from the iPad to create it. The 11-inch MacBook Air has roughly an identical screen size, and weighs a pound more, however it runs OS X and costs $1000 . But why build this when the iPad is the right go-anywhere machine? I mean, which you can’t top magic, right?

Well, it turns out that magic isn’t quite enough for a definite breed of road warriors: those that create.

You can make stuff on the iPad. It’s doable, but not always effective or easy. The iPad is usually designed for content consumption. It’s an out of this world reading device. It’s a killer movie player and film viewer. But attempt to shoot a photo, drop it onto the device, edit it in Photoshop and throw it up in your blog. It’s harder, even supposing you happen to exploit systems which might be entirely compatible with the apps which can be available. The iPad doesn’t have an accessible file system. It’s difficult to go files around and open them inside the correct app sometimes. The apps, like Photoshop, aren’t always as powerful or capable. The keyboard solution is a hacky compromise. (And have you seen that iPad keyboard dock? Ugh.)

An ultraportable-but-full-fledged computer remains the simplest strategy to do a lot of these items-or a minimum of do them well. The keyboard practically says it all. The MacBook Air isn’t going to be any easier to read on, or more portable, however’s going to be significantly better to tap out an extended document, create and tweak a spreadsheet, edit a movie or trim a photo.

Besides, the Air is bringing among the best parts of the iPad with it-like instant on, and with Lion, most of the iOS features which may well totally define computing, like modal, full screen views with fast task-switching. While the iPad and iOS could be the long run of computing, those that still have the desire to make things without delay must live inside the present. Something’s gotta bridge the two.

Original image by contributing artist Walter C. Baumann .

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This post is tagged: battery life, content consumption, portable computing, reading device, road warriors