http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/14/leaked-dell-laptop-brings-the-sexy/
"with an aluminum extrusion and carbon-fiber chassis"
Bitchin!
Posted on 01/15/2008 1:33:15 PM PST by Cagey
(AP) Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs took the wraps off a super-slim new laptop at the Macworld trade show on Tuesday, unveiling a personal computer less than an inch thick that turns on the moment it is opened.
Jobs also confirmed the consumer electronics company's foray into online movie rentals, revealing an alliance with all six major movie studios to offer films over high-speed Internet connections within 30 days after they're released on DVD.
Always a showman, Jobs unwound the string on a standard-sized manila office envelope and slid out the ultra-thin MacBook Air notebook computer to coos and peals of laughter from fans at the conference.
At its beefiest, the new computer is .76 inches (1.9 centimeters) thick; at its thinnest, it's .16 inches (0.4 centimeters), he said. It comes standard with an 80-gigabyte hard drive, with the option of a 64GB flash-based solid state drive as an upgrade.
The machine doesn't come with a built-in optical drive for reading CDs and DVDs, a feature Jobs says consumers won't miss because they can download movies and music over the Internet and access the optical drives on other PCs and Macs to install new software. They can buy an external drive, however, that will retail for $99 (euro66.51).
Trading in Apple stock was heavy Tuesday, the first day of the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco. It fell 5.52 percent to $168.91 at midday.
The new laptop, which has a 13.3-inch (33-centimeter) screen and full-sized laptop keyboard, will cost $1,799 (euro1,208) when it goes on sale in two weeks, though Apple is taking orders now. The company's Web site is already touting the machine. The price is competitive with other laptops in its market segment.
The machine helps fortify Apple's already-sizzling Macintosh product lineup and burnish its polished image as a purveyor of cool.
Apple's Macintosh business hit record sales of 7 million units in the company's fiscal 2007, up more than 30 percent from the previous year.
After hovering for years with a 2 percent to 3 percent share of the personal computer market in the United States, Apple's slice has grown to almost 8 percent, making it the nation's third-largest PC vendor, according to the latest figures from market researcher Gartner Inc.
Other revelations during Jobs' speech reflected the Cupertino-based company's intensifying efforts to push deeper into consumers' living rooms with technologies that blend Internet technology into home entertainment devices.
The movie-rental announcement capped months of speculation that an Apple movie rental service was in the offing. The service launched Tuesday in the United States and will roll out internationally later this year.
Apple will have more than 1,000 movies for online rental through iTunes by the end of February, with prices of $2.99 (euro2.01) for older movies and $3.99 (euro2.68) for new releases. Users can watch instantly over a broadband Internet connection, or download and keep the movie for 30 days while having 24 hours to finish the movie once it's started.
Apple is partnering with 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Walt Disney, Paramount, Universal and Sony on the service, which will work on Macs, Windows-based machines, iPhones, iPods or Apple TV set-top boxes.
Jobs cut the price of Apple TV from $299 (euro201) to $229 (euro154) and announced new software that allows users to order movies through the device and play them directly on their TV sets, eliminating the need to route the content through a personal computer first. The software is free to existing Apple TV customers and will be included in new Apple TV devices shipping in two weeks.
Jobs also unveiled a string of new features for the iPhone, showing how users of the combination iPod-cell phone-Internet surfing device can now pinpoint their location on Web maps, text-message multiple people at once and customize their home screens.
Jobs also said Apple has sold 4 million iPhones during their first 200 days on sale.
The crowd applauded when Jobs demonstrated mapping upgrades to the iPhone. Other features rolling out Tuesday included the ability to switch around icons on the iPhones home screen. Users also can create up to nine home screens.
Jobs also unveiled new software for the iPod Touch music player. New models will have be able to process e-mail and perform new mapping functions.
Just like a woman.
Flame suit on!
The HD format wars ended this last week - Blu-Ray won when the last major studios said they were going Blu-Ray only. HD-DVD is toast.
That said, Blu-Ray will probably, in the end, wind up being a computer data disc format because of the iTMS Movie Store.
(Also, the HD-DVD consortium was never able to make a burnable HD-DVD disk.)
Hehe ...
I know..there are some out there that have suffered this random shutdown problem. When this started to happen to mine, I took it in,,they looked at it, reseated everything and the problem started getting worse..adding these panic kernels to boot. Then the techs tested the logic board ( mother board) and it was bad..without Apple care the computer of only 6 months would have to be used for parts as it would have been too costly to repair, I was told.
When this computer was in for repair I did google search on the problem and found sites were folks discussed and cusses this problem. Most of the entries were 2006 and my first laptop was built in 2006 and my new one is built 2007. I took it in the first time it did this and was told it had Bad RAM and they put in new RAM. Then the other day...it happened again so I am keeping a log on it. I do not leave the computer on for extended lengths of time..and never over night. For lots of the heavy lifting work I use my PC..yes I still have a windows PC..so I guess I am becoming bilingual !
If anyone else has had this random shutdown problem I’d appreciate a hollar about it and what you did to solve the issue.
just took a few minutes to catch up and caught the notice on the heatsink grease on the processor..will ask the techie about this when I go in to the MacSuperStore in San Luis Obispo
That is a nice computer. Everything you need (Bluetooth, camera, Wi-Fi, etc.) and nothing you don’t, in a really tiny package.
I don’t even like or own any Apple stuff, but that is a really nice piece of technology. If it can run Windows like I’m told other Macs can....nah.
Yes, it can run Windows.
But, of course, the neat gestural/multitouch touchpad doesn’t work under Windows. The best you can get there is two buttons plus scroll control. Too bad.
I assumed it ran Windows, which is why I made my joking speculation. But if the touchpad doesn’t work under Windows, that’s actually a pretty big downside - although I recognize it’s not a downside to the faithful, who’d never deign to run Windows. It would be kind of a pain to those on the fence or not fully converted to buy an ultra-compact laptop and then have to carry a USB mouse around with them to be able to use Windows.
As I said, I’m just being complimentary on what looks like a neat piece of technology. I’m not about to buy one or anything, so the touchpad doesn’t actually concern me.
Oh, no, the touchpad DOES work under Windows. It does scroll control and of course the left and right mouse buttons.
But all the neat gestural stuff (zoom in/out by pinching, rotate picture with your finger and thumb, etc.) does NOT work under Windows.
Wow, d@%%, that’s thin. Full-sized keyboard is an attractive idea. I’d also pop in a USB mouse, as I find those scratch pad things loathsome and difficult to use.
Fair warning I speak as a Mac fanboy, but I like the Mac touchpad way better than those of other makers. Especially the dragging two fingers to scroll function.
:’)
Not to rain on the parade (and i do own a few apple products)
BUT No user replaceable battery?!?!....I’ve replaced mine in two of my ipods myself as its not real hard , but a laptop that you have to send in for a reported 130 dollar battery replacement...course there may eventually be a user option to do it like ipods and such but the thought again of a laptop that i cant hot swap batteries in when needed on the go seems odd to me.
Plus that solid state drive is a 1000.00 dollar option?...ouch!
http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/14/leaked-dell-laptop-brings-the-sexy/
"with an aluminum extrusion and carbon-fiber chassis"
Bitchin!
Not bad... if it weren't crippled by Vista.
“Not bad... if it weren’t crippled by Vista.”
It may come with an XP option. With Vista being such a RAM hog, it would be a good idea. You can still get new Dells online or by phone with XP. Through the end of June, anyway. As of now...
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