Home / Videos / News Videos

Farber's Memo: Reviewing the MacBook Air

February 6, 2008, 4:45pm PST | Length: 00:02:40
ZDNet's editor in chief Dan Farber shares his views on Apple's new MacBook Air. He discusses why the notebook is perfect for fashion aficionados but lacks the features that he wants in a notebook.
Breaking into a MacBook

Breaking into a MacBook

In this video from Black Hat, two security researchers show that they can break into a laptop,...

Assessing the MacBook Pro

Assessing the MacBook Pro

Apple's 17-inch MacBook Pro has a solid array of components, a terrific set of features and is...

Apple's new MacBook

Apple's new MacBook

CNET's Michelle Thatcher takes a First Look at this laptop from Apple.It has a magnetic lid...

Jobs shows off the MacBook Pro

Jobs shows off the MacBook Pro

Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs debuts an Intel-based laptop that he says is four to five times...

TripIt, getting organized for travel

TripIt, getting organized for travel

Dan Farber and Rafe Needleman sit down with Gregg Brockway of TripIt.com, a Web site that helps...

Daily Debrief: Yahoo turns the page

Daily Debrief: Yahoo turns the page

News.com's Charles Cooper and Dan Farber discuss the aftermath of the company's long-awaited...

FriendFeed, the glue for social networks

FriendFeed, the glue for social networks

Dan Farber and Rafe Needleman interview Bret Taylor, co-founder of FriendFeed.com, a Web site...

Scaling fast-growing Facebook

Scaling fast-growing Facebook

Jonathan Heiliger, vice president of technical operations at Facebook, talks with CNET News.com...

Talkback Most Recent of 5 Talkback(s)

  • There you go Dan
    Nailed it!

    Clearly, this is a niche machine. And it may be the thinnest, but it's not the lightest nor does it have the most computing power vs weight.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    LBean
    21st Feb 2008
  • RE: Farber's Memo: Reviewing the MacBook Air
    would love to watch the video, but, as usual, the american web-sites think that everybody is connected extra-high speed and so the video download is something a bit less than spontaneous.

    but i live in germany, at the top of a hill in a village with 350 people where my max throughput is 45K/sec. hardly enough to handle streaming video with pauses every 1.2 seconds.

    but why do i bother? because ZDNet, in all its criticims of other people's lack of know-how, can't bother to implement a video-player than, when paused, will continue to load the vide so that the poor pitiful internet creatures such as me will be able to muster up enough patience to sit and wait for the download to compete so as to watch the video glitch-free.

    as it is, i can't watch it, and am left to having to completely waste my time writing this comment not a single american soul will care one whit to.

    or, living on the top of a german mountain in a small village leaves one to have to find creative ways of spending time, and criticizing american's singular sense that there is no world beyond its ubiquitous borders, and behave every day as if to prove it.

    and to be fully self-disclosing, i am born and raised american mid-west. my right to assail is implicit in my existence.

    how annoying...

    richard
    ZDNet Gravatar
    ivor.boaz@...
    21st Feb 2008
  • Too true
    I normally can view these videos without glitches but today the connection was slow so I thought I would pause it to allow it to buffer. Nadda luck, it really is a useless video player, hopefully one day the Tech site will get a video player that has a bit of 'texh' in it.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    kurt@...
    26th Feb 2008
  • Not To Worry Folks...I'll Let You Know What He Said...
    He basically said the MBA is a FASHION STATEMENT, and not a useful computer.

    OK Apple faithful...it's time for your rebuttals now on my terminology. It really sticks in your craw when someone dares to criticize Apple, doesn?t it?
    ZDNet Gravatar
    IT_Guy_z
    27th Feb 2008
  • Reality is Different, Dan
    For the non Geek crowd like my wife or sister, they value style more than functionality. You need to see how the non-ZDNet reading crowd really uses a laptop PC at home:

    - Battery: I've never seen anyone carry spare battery packs for laptops. So the people that do are a real minority.
    - Ports: The only ports I see people like my wife & sister use are to plug in a digital camera or MP3 player from time to time or for an external mouse. So one or two USB ports are enough.
    - No CD/DVD drive: This medium is still being used but is quickly being replaced by digital downloads, so in a year from now I don't see many people using it anymore in a laptop either. So an external drive makes a lot of sense.
    - No Ethernet: These non-geeks like to sit on a couch with the PC or take it with them and never plug it into ethernet. Hotels with ethernet only are in the real minority.
    - 80 GB HDD: this is my only concern, since photos and videos will quickly fill that up, but I expect that to be rectified soon by Apple as HDD technology catches up. In any case it would be advisable to buy an inexpensive external 500 GB HDD for backup and offloading anyway.

    So the MacBook Air really is targeted at the majority since the majority of users are not geeks.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    philippz
    7th Mar 2008

Talkback - Tell Us What You Think

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources

Facebook Activity