The Newton MessagePad is known for a few things: fast boot time, and long battery life.
Mac|Life challenged one of those features with the new 11″ MacBook Air, whose SSD allows for faster wake time. The results, as you can see above, were pretty stellar: both devices woke up lightning quick.
For years now, with the iPod, iPad, and the newer MacBooks, Apple has engineered ways to keep batteries lasting longer. Now that they’ve got that pretty well down, maybe they’ll concentrate on faster boot and wake times.
Pop in a few AAs into a Newton and it could last for weeks. Combine that kind of battery life with a faster boot time, and you’ve got one heckuva device.
I can’t help but feel sorry for any Macintosh computer being sold at my local Best Buy.
Usually, they sit in the back of the computer aisle, alone and untrusted, with no intelligent human being around to give it the love and customer assistance it needs.
Take the above Macbook Air. I found it harnessed against an aisle wall, together with a Sony Vaio, looking very unattractive. For starters, it was off (the Vaio was turned on). Second, that damned harness took away every bit of aesthetic beauty the Air possessed.
I lingered for a minute, picking it up, acting like I was interested in purchasing for, I don’t know, a relative for Christmas. Yet no Best Buy associate came by to help me out. Were they scared? Did they not trust the machine? Was that why it was turned off?
So, for free, I decided to help Apple out with their Macbook Air marketing. I turned the laptop on, got it logged on to that store’s wireless connection, and shrank the OS X 10.5 Leopard dock down to a mortal size. Then, I launched Photo Booth. What better marketing tool than a laptop that will take your picture?
It was a real attention-grabber. Customers would walk by, catch their own image on the screen, and stop to play around with the Mac.
Since Best Buy started selling Macs, I often wonder if they’re getting the attention they so rightfully deserve. The first Mac I ever saw in a Best Buy – a Mac mini, back when it was first released in 2005 – was at least turned on and ready for me to poke around the desktop. This Air, an even lovelier computer, was abandoned like a Packard Bell in some dusty, remote corner of the store. Shame on you, Best Buy.
No need to send a check, Apple. This is the kind of thing your fans will do for you, if only you treat us well once in a while (see: iPhone). Hopefully that Macbook Air finds a good home – before it’s too late.
That’s right: you can now make your own “world’s thinnest notebook” – a MacBook Paper.
See the apcommunity for video and complete instructions, including a print-yourself PDF to make your own MacBook Paper. I did their version with some scrap paper, a pair of scissors, a glue stick, and a toothpick for the tricky parts. Also, I went ahead and made my own iPhone Paper (print out courtesy of Gizmodo), aka iPaper.
Fun stuff, and a great stand-by project until (like me) you can save up for your own. It’s up to you, though, to attach pieces of string to make the iPaper fully functional.
I’m just excited about that MacBook Paper/envelope trick Steve Jobs demonstrated at Macworld 2008.
