Working Title Blog - green perspectives around technology

Why does it have to be so hard. A modem is supposed to be something that simply gets you online. But oh no - nothing will ever be that simple. If someone at Huawei is reading this; please swap tha usb for at standard ethernetRJ45 jack and never look back. Please rid me of installation procedures alltogether.

People like me already have my network in place, and if you want to be the one to supply me with internet access - please just do that. Don’t do anything else. The people that make and sell these services certainly would love not to be the ones installing it too. But that sucks.

As of today 3 has announced a 3g router from Huawei at a reasonable price. DKK 999,- or $200. $63 monthly. This is the solution that comes the closest to the one pictured above. I’m sorry if jumped to conclusions. It takes cables to loose cables. And apparently also an extra wall socket.

Preface

There has been som really delightful to read news about the MacBook Air lately. Teardowns, analysis, photos of what ever, and insightful comments to all of this. All contributing to widening of the perspective.I Love my MacBook Air. It’s brand new and bests my wishes for a notebook. But the fact is that it is made up partly by OLD technology and HEALTHY compromises. It’s as simple as new packaging. But this time, it might be worth paying attention.

Introduction

The Macbook Air is Apple’s newest product in more ways than are bluntly obvious. The last time we saw a visionary product was the iPhone. And before that it was the titanium PowerBook. And that is quiete a while ago. Enough to blog about it.The macbook air is important because the market is bound to reflect upon it.

And that is exactly what some japanese engineers were doing, unintentionally creating quite a quarrel upon reporting their discoveries.A fresh take on the way we are headed in the portables market is evident in this new product, and I believe it powerful enough for the industri to take notice. Short version; loose the optical drive asap.

The last comparable product was the Titanium PowerBook. With it Apple raised the bar so high that it just recently caught up with the same standard in the most recent macbook pro update. I’m talking about 5.3 lbs and 1” thick, while being a full featured laptop. The newest macbook pro is still heavier than that old g4 PowerBook. And it has been 7 years(!)When it comes to beating the PowerBook G4 Titanium only the new MacBook Air does this when it comes to the experience.

Build finish, color, proportions, curves, weight, feel, sound, etc. of the new MacBook Air simply is in a league of its own. It even makes current Apple laptops look dated.So the MacBook Air is recieving a lot of attention. So Apple’s approach in engineering and designing an experience that users will forgive compromises for and also pay a premium for seems like a good business.

Background

The macbook Air was born out of an envelope. It’s parents are Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive. I say born, because it still needs to grow up. We will definetely see more of these kind of books in the future.Steve Jobs invented the whole industry. And reinvented with the iPhone, the concept of a computer. But also what its place is in the world, that being the market, in the scheme of products. First with it being personal, and second with it running applications not written by apple, meaning the software market. That is pretty much how the modern IT marketplace is structured today.

Jonathan Ive was able to establish the same with his design. The same way Apple believes in integration of software and hardware and maybe for the same reasons, Jonathan Ive shaped Apple’s way of making products understandable and personal. A personal experience. Not that Jonathan Ive was the inventor of all good product design per se, but he really was the first person to recognize what needed to be done and then doing the solution too.

Apple is now the posterboy for Experience design, a filosophy uncovered by Don Norman. When I called MacBook Air a visionary product above, this is where i edge a sketch. The latest laptop to be designed to add something radical new to the experience is the MacBook Air.

The Experience

The machine is so light, that you don’t comsider is a computer. In effect it put’s (back) into perspective what a modern computer should be. And that is; a screen, a mouse and a keyboard. Only the things you use, anything else than aforementioned is a waste of space (and weight) to ordinary people, when it comes to notebooks.To achieve this all new experience a lot has been “compromised” if you will.There is no optical drive, limited space and only 1 port for periferals. But, if you are a first mover, and a lot of Apple fans are, you probably don’t use these things very often. Chances are, that you wouldn’t mind doing away with them.

Some people don’t value these choices. The macbook Air is basically a 2 year old macbook pro in a new package.In an extended note, I would to make you aware, that sooner or later a computer will be built into everything. But that doesn’t mean everything will be a computer. The mere recognition of a computer as a valid object in itself, is an dated point of view. The real deal lies in utility and functionality. MacBook Air is an advanced notebook. Not a computer.

And the first in the category to be designed with that objective so specifically in mind. MacBook Air a milestone achievement in this direction.

The ugly compromises,that no-one cares about (including me)

Expert Japanese engineers did a teardown of the MacBook Air. Being engineers and japanese caused their article to stir a lot more attention than anticipated. American Apple fans reacted strongly to their views on the MacBooks less than perfect design. The whole debacle was born out of the clash between filosophical and cultural differences. If you really want to stretch the matter is was like an Artist debating with a craftsman.

These compromises have obviously been nesescary to produce the most covetable laptop of todays world. And this is not understated. The birth labor is evident in all the choices necessary to be able to produce this wonder of a new world.. If you’re planning to buy a MacBook Air you should be aware of these.

The chosen harddrive is low in capacity and speed Apple has resorted to the ancient ata standard for connecting the drive. They simply didn’t have other options. Now, it is just a matter of time before this practice will be widely adopted, but I feel safe to say that things will keep getting smaller. And one day, I will be able to configure it with a 250GB SSD that is faster than you can say lucky luke.

Superdriveless? As it is today an optical drive is good to have at home in the drawer for legazy purposes.I don’t know about majority on this particular subject. But I consider it normal practice to rip feature dvd’s and afterwards storing the physical remnants far far away. Thank god for 8GB usb drives, that you can use over and over again.

Fixed memory = Not expandable. It would be nice, but would not make sense, since your machine was not made for heavy duty computing. If you use it that way, then just be patient. 2GB of memory is adequate for the intended use in light of expected life span.

Conclusion

MacBook Air presents a shift in focus. It is now apparent to most users what it is that computers do. The demand for slightly more, slightly faster, slightly more advanced technology etc. is in decline. This is also evident in the general market, in japan at least. Computers are not that interesting because they have nothing new to offer.The MacBook Air offers a new experience to that of a notebook, just like the iPhone. Currently cellphone manufactors ar scrambling to meet the competition, from it’s newfound competitor that introduced with it a whole new ball game. Same is true of the Air to a lesser extent, but Apple’s approach is garnering momentum.

A small problem:

Anyone that knows enough about computers to be the ones giving advice on what to buy will probably not recommend the MacBook Air as a good buy, simply because it’s made up of puny dated hardware.This perspective of a dubious confidence in a product because it is so new might be the biggest bump on the road to success. People might not trust it because the concept is hard to grasp.

Apple has just been hosting the event presenting the iPhons SDK to the world.

A lot of worries about security on Apple’s behalf has now been solved apparently. Developers of app’s for the iPhone must be approved by apple. This works by paing Apple $99 for a certificate that will be incorporated into the application. 

This means that programmers will have to pay, to join a club, and by consequence openly state motives, reveal identity and surrender the code to Apple for approval.

The new iPhone software available in june 2008, will only run software with a valid certificate. A very comforting thought considering that your private mail, cantacts, sms etc sits like a duck on the same device that you surf the web with. 

The concept of trust has been carried over to modern technology.

It seems that google was hit, either by downtime or malware. I have never seen this, and the thought that this can actually happen had never crossed my worried mind!

If you have an iPhne and miss real buttons this is good news. Pushing the buttons of a touchscreen have always felt a little numb, but no more.

Using the ‘vibrator’ of you iPhone (aka an actuator) 2 clever students from Glasgow have made some code available that will trick your senses. The feel of buttons and their edges are accomplished by controlling the vibration of the device. In reality the phone moves, but you virtually feel something.

Nice going. I foresee Apple to contact these guys and make them rich or famous, or maybe both. It seems that gizmodo first reported this news, but there might be a way to see when the project was created on google code. If not, lets just say that if finally got around to my reader, and I’m reaaly excited.

Apple’s 3′rd gen. portable.

MacBook Air is apple’s newest notebook. You pay 2 Grand for being able to fit your new notebook inside a manilla envelope. What kind of notebok you actually get for that sum of money can be quiet hard to figure out.

Ultraportable notebook 1.st edition.

The answer is that mba is a brand new category. One could be bold and say that it’s apple’s 3rd generation portable. Apple has been the market leader in notebook innovations since that product category’s inception (portable computers that is…) (more on that in a later post)

Generally speaking I have nothing bad to say about the macBook Air. It’s a very likeable machine, maybe even loveable. In fact I have plenty of good things to tell you about.
However there are things that I don’t like, and I’m not going to censor anything here. This is my review based on subjective facts.

Disappointments:

I HATE the fact that i need to have my battery replaced which means that I will have to live without it for a week or so. Batterytime is roughly 2 hours and drains to 17% while in sleep mode overnight.
But I’ll give it a week of so if Apple should release any updates.

I HATE the fact that the general experience is that the batteries are far from 5hrs. This sucks bigtime as it implies that i will never see those good battery times. You know; when you actually don’t need to bring your power brick.
I hav now had it for 4 days, and tonight I saw 5hrs+ on the batteri guessing menu item for the first time. Nice. It’s now at a more realistic 4:07 but that fine too.

I HATE that it is so noisy. It’s fan is at 6000rpm or above most of the time, and the cpu is mostly at 75 celsius og above. No hard work being done at all. This has been the expeience untill tonight. I pray for silence to prevail.

To those furstrated that the mba doesn’t have what they need; patience dear… same design will arrive mb pro update this summer or fall.

What’s it like?

Feels solid.
I LOVE the feel of it. And the finish in craftmanship too. One might even get close to calling it rugged. If you don’t mind scratches that is… The battery is a structural element. Very clever.

It really is light. Almost too light.
It really is light as a feather. Sometimes is feels like cut out of cardboard and painted silver. In fact I paid steep to get there.
But certain habbits need change or it won’t survive more than a year. It easely slides around on a table. Lifting the machine in one hand results in very swift movements that sometimes are dangerously close to violence on the screen hinges and in time will apply a fair amount of torque to the cabinet. Best to be careful.
It has a new feel to it, for being a notebook.

It’s snappy! Amazingly so…
If you’re planning on buying this thing odds are that your already own a laptop and want to replace it. Along with those in the market for their first apple *book this would make you majority target. Don’t fret and do not doubt. Your old machine did the job, and the mba will do it too. Most likely faster than your old machine (if it’s laptop) and in a nicer package for added value
This might be due to extensive caching technology, but whatever tricks -it works. It feels very responsive, and that harddrive is more than capable. It took me 10 minutes to transfer 10gigs og backed up stuff. I was impressed by the 1.8″ 4200rpm iPod drive. BTW

It’s roomy (enough)
Let’s face it. Realistically it won’t satisfy needs more than 2 years at most. But chances are that I will want to replace it before this deadline anyways. So the limited capacity is something can be dealt with.
Initially i migrated wirelessly witoh the assitant. That took alnight and didn’t complete properly because i’d left the display nearly closed, and it closed all the way during the night and thus went to sleep mode.
So I did a lean and clean install instead, no iDVD, no languages etc. I migrated manually and with all my music and photos (6000 tracks + 6000 pics) now on the air, I have 20GB available. Pretty decent taking into consideration what kind of machine this is. An ultra portable.

The backlit keyboard
is an amazingly functionalist solution to dimmed light conditions. It’s winther in Denmark right now and dusk arrives early in the afternoon. So from around 3 o’clock i have the light on and like magic i can clearly see the letters on the keyboard.
Why not just use white letters on all the buttons you might be asking yourself. Well, firstly it might rub off but that can be solved in a simple manner. But being soft on the eyes is a deed white on black doesn’t do.

The conventional keyboard
Simply the best ever. It has the layout of the macbook and the feel and sound of a mb pro.

Sound, what say you?
It sounds impressive. No visible speaker grill kinda gives the impressionthat there is no sound. None worth mentioning you’d assume. But actually the is one feisty speaker underneath the arrow keys more than capable of presentations and movie playback.

State of the Art

The MacBook Air resembles a 2 year old macbook performance wise, only it feels more responsive and it’s all delivered in a delicoius aluminum clam, that you don’t mind carrying everywhere.

Apple has made some wise decisions. Both on behalf of the industry and behalf of end users. When looking forward there really is no need for the industry to stick with 2.5″ drives. We all know that size does matter, and what Apple is doing with this is paving way.

It’s only a matter of time before other notebook vendors will follow the same path concerning hardware choices. As they did with the mouse, and the floppy disk drive, eventually the optical drive, and hopefully not too lagging when it comes to 1.8″ drive architectures.

This is the ultimate personal notebook available. Period. Portable -not luggable.

Nu er fremtiden landet i T-mobile’s hænder. Linket her er til stemningsbilleder fra lanceringen. De giver en god fornemmelse for hvordan selv helt almindelige mennesker (læs; ikke-fanatikere) kan begejstres af et apparat. Ganske vidst et fantastisk et af slagsen, en iPhone, men stadig kun et stykke dims. Kan det være genvunden barndom?

Det gælder desværre ikke overalt i systemet. ÆV
(….de satans prikker! forsvind!)

Det ny Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, er nice! Så er den klaret.

Leoparden byder dog på nogle ret teknisk saftige nyhder. Det er IKKE dem alle taler om; bluetooth AD2P hist og imap notes synchronization pist. Næh nej.. der er skam langt mere indviklede ting at prøve at få hovedet omkring (dårlig undersætning - i know).

Tag for eksempel External Accounts, der lader dig have hele din hjemmemappe på en usb nøgle!

Eller Quarts Composer + Dashcode som giver dygtige folk mulighed for at lave sindsygt vilde widgets. Den Jeg har taget billede af er bare en default der følger med. Det er en 3D terning-ting man kan dreje ved at hive i den.

Og hvad med Time Machine! Den fantastisk avancerede backup løsning. Som aldrig er blevet tænkt så simpelt.

Tjek dem ud!