Airing on the Optimistic Side
In one of my first posts on this blog I talked about Apple's MacBook Air which had just been released.
Well, today I enjoyed this review of the MBA written by Paul Stamatiou. (For reference, Paul is a 21 year old student of Computational Media at Georgia Technical Institute. His blog is a popular destination for tech reviews, tips, and How-Tos. I've been reading it for nearly 2 years and highly recommend it. No, he did not pay me to say this.)
On the whole, he's happy with his MBA, (he gives it a 9/10) even though it's a technical downgrade from his old MacBook Pro. I think it's interesting that someone with such an investment in computers would sacrifice functionality for convenience. Granted, convenience is supposed to be what laptops are all about, and Paul doesn't seem to feel the loss in performance is enough to worry about. Still, this makes me wonder if we'll see Apple's "think[ing] different" start a trend where fun factors start taking precedence (for general consumers, at least) over practicality. I got my video iPod for Christmas, 2005, and less than a year later I had people saying to me, "Oh, you've got one of those big ones.." Because, by that time, the popularity of the Nano and the Shuffle had taken hold - even though mine holds 30g of data. I still use that iPod daily, and I still prefer it for its carrying capacity over its light-weight, more gym-friendly cousins.
I wonder if popular computers will eventually experience as much of a divide as we see with something like cars. Perhaps the MacBook Air is the first Lambo of computers. (Lamborghini doesn't look so different from Apple - at least, their site is pretentious enough. Enjoy the background music.) As for the other end of the spectrum..."Built Panasonic Tough?"
What does that make Nicholas Negroponte's XO? A smartcar?
Well, today I enjoyed this review of the MBA written by Paul Stamatiou. (For reference, Paul is a 21 year old student of Computational Media at Georgia Technical Institute. His blog is a popular destination for tech reviews, tips, and How-Tos. I've been reading it for nearly 2 years and highly recommend it. No, he did not pay me to say this.)
On the whole, he's happy with his MBA, (he gives it a 9/10) even though it's a technical downgrade from his old MacBook Pro. I think it's interesting that someone with such an investment in computers would sacrifice functionality for convenience. Granted, convenience is supposed to be what laptops are all about, and Paul doesn't seem to feel the loss in performance is enough to worry about. Still, this makes me wonder if we'll see Apple's "think[ing] different" start a trend where fun factors start taking precedence (for general consumers, at least) over practicality. I got my video iPod for Christmas, 2005, and less than a year later I had people saying to me, "Oh, you've got one of those big ones.." Because, by that time, the popularity of the Nano and the Shuffle had taken hold - even though mine holds 30g of data. I still use that iPod daily, and I still prefer it for its carrying capacity over its light-weight, more gym-friendly cousins.
I wonder if popular computers will eventually experience as much of a divide as we see with something like cars. Perhaps the MacBook Air is the first Lambo of computers. (Lamborghini doesn't look so different from Apple - at least, their site is pretentious enough. Enjoy the background music.) As for the other end of the spectrum..."Built Panasonic Tough?"
What does that make Nicholas Negroponte's XO? A smartcar?
Labels: computers, immediacy, Remediation, tech
posted by Dave at
3:15 PM
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