2

7/26/2011 10:40:46 PM

lol, i was pretty sure i read the benchmarks correctly, so my previous posts at least make a little sense if you consider what i was going off of..


one other thing, i have never used any computer that puts a webpage up on the screen quite as fast as this air...that coupled with Lions gestures has sped up my workflow for posting glass auctions and replying to stores and customers at least 10 fold.
i have about 5 desktops that i switch between most of them set for full screen use...god i love this thing.

[Edited on July 27, 2011 at 12:04 AM. Reason : ..im obsessed ]

7/27/2011 12:01:02 AM

this thread is fucking terrible

7/27/2011 12:04:05 AM

^ lol

7/27/2011 12:48:55 AM

glasssss starting drama and shit!

7/27/2011 7:45:40 AM

Quote :

"It may not be "outstanding," but it is new architecture using nehalems die shrink production methods."

He means that it isn't "new". Sandy Bridge processors have been out since January.

Quote :

"Something is fishy. It HAS to be due to the SSDs. Everything is better about that i7 than the i5 in the Air. They're both Sandybridge."

It almost definitely is. Despite having decent hardware, anything involving the hard drive on my work MacBook Pro (2009, I think) under Boot Camp is slow as balls. I'm convinced they put the worst possible hard drive in these things.

7/27/2011 8:53:15 AM

Gotcha

7/27/2011 10:20:31 AM

If someone is kind enough to give me a free MBA, I'd use it everyday... just sayin

7/27/2011 12:11:17 PM

Quote :

"It almost definitely is. Despite having decent hardware, anything involving the hard drive on my work MacBook Pro (2009, I think) under Boot Camp is slow as balls. I'm convinced they put the worst possible hard drive in these things"

All I know is that the Geekbench developers say it doesn't test hdd/sdd performance and that back to back tests after swapping hdd for ssd don't show any real improvement.

As for the stock hdd, I definitely agree. I'm going crazy with the drive in mine. I really need to make up my mind and get it switched out if I don't buy an air.

7/27/2011 12:49:23 PM

Quote :

"but as a gamer, its still PC all the way (unless you are a console fag, well then fuck you)."

I probably play games on my PC 85% of the time, but I have an xbox and don't see what people have against them. They have their advantages, especially local mulitplayer.

7/27/2011 1:57:32 PM

http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/27/ultrabooks-to-start-arriving-in-september-more-expensive-than-e/


The future air competitors may not be the price conscious alternative after all.

7/27/2011 8:14:38 PM

^^ I don't have a problem with consoles, its just that the people who only play consoles act like faggots. Almost as bad as people who only use Mac... almost... I had a ps3 for awhile and about to get an xbox 360 again, but 95% or more of my gaming will still be on PC.

You will always get into that annoying debate with your console fag friends how console gaming is going to be only way to game in the future. I'm sorry, give me a fucking keyboard and mouse on a console and I'd be a bit happier with shitty ass 5 yr old graphics and believe its state of the art.

Shit, I'd bet Intel HD integrated graphics is just as powerful as an xbox...

7/27/2011 9:19:58 PM

I love how console gamers tout he controller as superior to a keyboard and mouse even though MS decided not to integrate 360 and PC online play specifically because the best players with a controller were getting curb stomped by shitty players with a keyboard and mouse

7/27/2011 9:22:51 PM

^that was with halo series. I do admit that some games are better to play on a controller like driving and casual games, but not fps.

7/27/2011 9:31:32 PM

7/27/2011 10:06:40 PM

Controller isn't a good argument, you can use a 360 controller with PC, and 90% of cross platform games will recognize it as a 360 controller and assign identical control schemes.

It's all about the local multiplayer. 2-4 people on a couch is often more fun than people playing in different houses, or at best dragging their PC from home and playing on different screens.

7/28/2011 1:37:01 AM

I dunno, I'd prefer a LAN party over console multiplay

7/28/2011 1:41:43 AM

How about if I try to convince you that you should be a Democrat when you are a Republican?

7/28/2011 7:45:02 AM

lock this thread

7/28/2011 6:02:28 PM

exchanged my base model 13 mba for the top one..i needed more storage..and for $100 bucks i figured why not go for the i7...i shit that daily..


seems to have better battery life if thats at all possible..

7/29/2011 2:57:15 AM

Quote :

"Controller isn't a good argument, you can use a 360 controller with PC, and 90% of cross platform games will recognize it as a 360 controller and assign identical control schemes."

It's the actual consoles and the stigma that goes with "console gamers" that we are arguing, not the actual controllers. I use my 360 controller on my PC to play driving games occasionally.

Quote :

"It's all about the local multiplayer. 2-4 people on a couch is often more fun than people playing in different houses, or at best dragging their PC from home and playing on different screens."

I donno about more fun... but its easier to have a few friends over to play the same game on a console. I still prefer a good LAN party once in a while, but its far fewer now days.

7/30/2011 6:37:37 AM

Agreed. A lan party with a bunch of computers in a room is by far more fun than 4 people sitting on a couch having to split a screen. Now the console is easier of course.

7/30/2011 8:26:33 AM

Hey glassssssss I found you a new coin:

http://imgur.com/AUy9w

7/30/2011 12:22:58 PM

Ahhh a good old fashion e-peen and pissing contest.

Look, it doesn't matter why someone else buys what they buy. It's also doubtful you'll ever change someones mind.

Driving games are best played with a wheel you plebs.

7/30/2011 1:38:08 PM

I think my first laptop will be an Apple, possibly the new Air. I have a beast of a desktop for video editing, so performance specs on the laptop dont matter as much as the weight, screen quality, battery life, and ease of use. I bought my wife has a Acer Timeline about two years ago, and while it has some of the qualities I am looking for, such as 8hr battery, multitouch trackpad, semi-alloy body, durability, and fairly light weight, after playing with Macbooks at the Apple store I can tell that Timeline is an obviously a much less refined machine. Of course it did cost only about half the price of a MB Air, so I cant fault it for being such.

I am not all that familiar with Mac OS, so can anyone tell me whether I will be able to attach my NTFS-formatted external hard drive and open compatible files such as pictures and videos with the Macbook?

Additionally, if I instert an SD card formatted in-camera into the Macbook, can I edit RAW pictures with the Apreture straight on the card and then import them into Lightroom and be able to see all the changes I made?

One last question, will Macbook Air with its integrated graphics play 1080p H264 videos without hiccups?

Thanks fans

[Edited on August 1, 2011 at 11:03 AM. Reason : I specifically would like to use Mac OS as opposed to installing windows on it]

[Edited on August 1, 2011 at 11:09 AM. Reason : .]

8/1/2011 11:02:21 AM

You will not be able to read NTFS-formatted drives natively but there are several different options there. I used NTFS-3G on one of my older macs but I honestly can't remember if I ever needed it or not so I don't know if it's a solid option or not.

Aperture will import the photos just like Lightroom. I don't understand why you'd use both though. Aperture is a great program but I much prefer Lightroom (I find it a lot more powerful and just easier to use) and if you're already used to it, use it. It's not like you're saving any money or anything by choosing Aperture. Also, if I understand correctly, RAW files do not store any of the changes you make so they would not show up if you're switching programs. The changes are stored in the program's library instead.

The new MBA will play 1080p video just fine from all reports that I've seen while researching them.

The one negative that I've seen about the new Air is that it will apparently only support ONE external monitor. Apparently the Thunderbolt card used in the Air is half the size of every other Mac and is under-powered. I don't know how much of an impact this will be but I can see it being an issue in another year or two when it's possible that you'd want to daisy chain a few devices. Hard to tell at this point whether it will be possible.

8/1/2011 11:43:58 AM

^Thanks for sharing. The reason I was thinking about getting Aperture is that I already have a LR licence for Windows, but would have to buy another for a Mac version Mac, and Apreture is $80 from App store while Lightroom is 200 dollars from Amazon (and 300 from Adobe Store, WTF?). Since they both have slightly different functionality, I'd like to have both if im paying for the second copy anyhow. According to the Apple site, Aperture will read XMP files, which carry metadata from LR edits, doesn't say anything about going the other way. In regards to imaging, i'd only use the Air to edit and upload photos when I'm on the road, maybe preview and tag raw HD video footage, and also show already edited videos to other people. And of course do the regular e-mail/office stuff.

As far as NTFS drives, google supports your advice on third-party software and says natively OSX and later will read NTFS partitions but not write to them.

[Edited on August 1, 2011 at 2:01 PM. Reason : .]

8/1/2011 1:42:41 PM

Yeah I forgot that Apple offers such a big discount on Aperture through the app store. It's $200 if you get the disks (which is all that was available when I tried it pre-App store). I'd still recommend LR though. It'll be easier to use going back and forth between them.

I also didn't know that OSX could natively read NTFS. Last time I hooked up a NTFS drive to reformat into a Time Machine backup, it didn't see anything. I guess that was before some updates. Sorry about that.

8/1/2011 2:55:51 PM

The student license of lightroom is $100, surely you can find a student to snag a copy. Would be easier than having both aperture and lightroom databases to keep up with. I liked how lightroom archives works both in windows and mac. Just load the archive on my PC at home and then work on the same database at school on the macs the next day.

Not sure if they do this for LR, but for my CS5 copy, I bought the windows version then registered on adobe's website and got windows and mac cd-keys, both are unique keys. My old boss had the same thing.

OSX can't read or write to NTFS natively.

8/1/2011 6:26:57 PM

Cool, i'll have to look up whether I have both Win and Mac keys keys. That'd be awesome if my CS5 came with both keys too. I did not think it did but i'll find the box for it and look tonight. In that case, maybe I will consider installing using the whole CS5. Hey Jeff, did you try doing any video editing of your DSLR files on a i7 macbook pro? Is it worth trying or is it a painful experience and I should abandon the thought and just go for the Air?

also, apparently there is a way to read AND write NTFS natively (without any third-party software), but the functionality has to be manually enabled. Dont have a mac so obviously can't test it, can anyone confirm this works? http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=785376

[Edited on August 2, 2011 at 7:38 AM. Reason : .]

8/2/2011 7:33:27 AM

Quote :

"OSX can't read or write to NTFS natively."

This is wrong. OS X can read but not write NTFS natively, and has been able to for some time. According to the bastion of knowledge that is wikipedia, since 10.3 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS#Mac_OS_X)

That said ^ appears (according to the same link) to be unstable, probably not something you want to do on anything you're working with production stuff on.

8/2/2011 8:14:43 AM

Quote :

"then registered on adobe's website "

i just checked all the e-mails I got from Adobe after I registered, and all of it was basically "join adobe live" and Adobe Seminars type of spam. Nothing about mac serial number. When I log in to my adobe account all I see is [serial number]- Production Premium - 5.0 - Windows - March 10, 2011.

The user licence does have this clause: "Dual Boot Platform. The Software is licensed for use on a specific operating system platform. You must purchase a separate license for use of the Software on each operating system platform. By way of example, if you desire to install the Software on both the Mac OS and Windows operating system platforms on a device that runs both of those platforms (i.e., a dual boot machine), then you must first obtain two separate licenses for the Software. This is true even if two versions of the Software, each designed for a different operating system platform, are delivered to you on the same media".

Jeff, can you look into your registration info and see if there is any specific reason you got the Mac serial number (special promotion or corporate licensing maybe?)

8/2/2011 9:04:38 AM

I donno, its when CS5 first came out, bought it through macmall.

Quote :

"OS X can read but not write NTFS natively"

weird, I could never get OSX to recognize the drive out of the box on any of my external NTFS formatted drives. Always had to use a 3rd party program to get it to work, even then, they would mount and dismount randomly.

Igor, the only editing I've done on a mac for video editing has been on a supped macpro desktop at my old job or at school. If I had to choose between MBA or MBP for just video editing, that's easy, it would be the pro. These new Airs are seriously much more powerful than their original counter parts and should be adequate for simple edits and cuts; provided you aren't running any crazy amount of filters or post work, unless you like to wait.

Shit, any computer for the last 3-4 years should run premier pro just fine.

8/2/2011 11:55:32 AM

Thanks. Editing 1080p H264 or AVCHD video with Premiere does tax computers pretty hard, I used to have a core2duo with dedicated graphics card and 6gb of ram and it did not want anything to do with it. Now I have i7 desktop with 12 gigs of ram and NVidia CUDA based acceleration, and after a few hour in Premiere even it boggs down once in a while. I do preview at full res on a external monitor and mix AVCHD and MOV files in the same timeline, so that may be part of it.

Anyhow back to the Mac Air discussion. Sounds like it would be enough to edit my pictures and maybe play and trim some video files. At that weight, that is all I expect it to do. LR vs aperture will be decided later. In the topic about OSX Lion i hear a lot of people complain about it. Are the hardware improvements in the new Airs worth the software pains? Did i misread that thread and everything is actually peachy as far as the OS upgrade?

8/2/2011 12:34:31 PM

^ Most of the complaints are about things that Apple changed that no longer work the way they used to. Since you're not currently a mac user, you shouldn't have any problems with those changes other than how they're different to what you're used to with windows. The only major change you might find weird for you would be the "natural" scrolling change. You can choose to change it back, but I've found if you have a track pad (which you will on the laptop) that it's fairly easy to get used to and in some instances does feel more "natural". At the same time, I'm so used to the old scrolling stuff that there are definitely times it doesn't feel more natural. Ultimately if you think of it as panning your content rather than shifting the scroll position, you won't have much trouble with it.

8/2/2011 12:51:58 PM

The mercury engine in premier does use CUDA, but it only accelerates the pre-rendering process during cutting. It doesn't do any calculations during post processing work for encoding. It's only advantage against non-CUDA apps is the real-time preview of files even with heavy filters and such. But if you only do simple cuts, it doesn't matter if you have CUDA or no CUDA, the playback will be ok.

The most perplexing decision that apple has made in the past year was dropping Nvidia as a supplier and went with ATI for their workstations. Right now, CUDA has a leg up on Opencl for gpu accelerated apps and we won't see opencl support for another few years. Even then, CUDA support on macs is severely limited to a certain number of specialty cards since you need an EFI supported card, unless you are gifted with the ability to solder a memory chip on a 460 and flash it with the proper firmware to work on macs.

8/3/2011 11:12:19 AM

OH YEA, how difficult is it(and how expensive) to replace the battery in the air?

8/3/2011 8:07:06 PM

^^CUDA cores do the post processing rendering as well, difference in processing speed is especially noticeable when you use Maximum Render Quality setting. The difference between MRQ and regular rendering are most apparent to naked eye with dissolve transitions, which are a lot more gradual with MRQ enabled from what I have experienced so far (I have not played with color grading and multiple layer overlays as much so far). But even with the playback acceleration, CUDA cards are huge help. When I switched to an unsupported videocard for a short period of time there was a notiveable differences, such as AVCHD playing at 1/2 res in a non-avchd timeline. Yeah i dont know what is the deal with Apple/nvidia relationships, but it sure would not affect mac airs I have some hd footage that i will take with me to apple store in the next couple days on an SD card and see how they deal with it.

8/4/2011 9:58:04 AM

^Not in adobe premiere.. yet. There's other programs that actually take use of CUDA for post processing. Adobe is taking their sweet time with that, hopefully CS6 will support CUDA and/or Opencl post processing. It's funny how final cut pro is behind on CUDA and opencl support considering a lot of hardcore video editors use it on insanely powerful mac pro's. I honestly think apple shot themselves in the foot by dropping nvidia. A significant number of editors are switching back to PC just to use CUDA supported premiere.

8/4/2011 10:04:24 PM

igor, i have been using my air for pretty much everything since getting it..
nothing really slows it down, photoshop especially is no issue whatsoever. Also, playing 1080p h.264 files works perfectly fine, even if they are flash video..
honestly the only thing I do regularly on this machine that gets it nice and heated is Zbrush or Sculptris...they will heat this bitch up in no time (although they run fine)
I am currently using it plugged into a 28" monitor with my bluetooth kb and mouse and its a nice quick desktop experience. the lion gestures translate to the multitouch mouse very well

8/5/2011 2:03:05 AM

^^you are right that Premiere does not use CUDA decoding and encoding, but it does use it for rendering final output http://blogs.adobe.com/premiereprotraining/2011/02/cuda-mercury-playback-engine-and-adobe-premiere-pro.html

^thanks, that's what i hoped to hear. I think I will pull the trigger on one of the new 13 inch ones soon.

8/5/2011 8:56:50 AM

Rendering for final output is just the pre-rendering step that CUDA skips, which is nice, but encoding is the real number cruncher. If Premier got their game on and supported CUDA and/or OpenCL for encoding... I'd jump on a SLI/Crossfire setup instantly.

They didn't exactly explain the mercury engine very well from the get go, everyone thought it was replacing the cpu for all it's processing workload on launch.

8/7/2011 4:26:24 PM

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/07/how-charlie-miller-discovered-the-apple-battery-hackhow-a-security-researcher-discovered-the-apple-battery-hack.ars


Apple, a security vulnerability? SAY IT AINT SO, STEVE

8/7/2011 11:24:24 PM

that's not new macbook air-specific......

8/7/2011 11:34:50 PM

have i mentioned recently how much I love my macbook air?

8/14/2011 1:59:36 PM

i <3 mine too

8/15/2011 1:02:55 PM

seriously considering replacing my 5.5 year old macbook pro with the new macbook air

and i could do all my work stuff on it with some simple program adding

i never travel with my mac anymore. it's too heavy. i remember when i got it, i thought it was the lightest thing EVAR.

i'd like to pull the trigger this weekend for tax free weekend (tx)

should go into the apple store and get a trade in quote...

8/16/2011 3:57:44 PM

i went back to the store and upgraded to a bigger hard drive mac air over the tax free weekend here..definitely worth the savings

i use my air at home mainly, have it connected to bt keyboard and mouse and a 27" monitor. its nice to be able to take my main computer out with me when i need it.

8/16/2011 5:21:19 PM

Another great reason why Apple is behind the times. They'll never sneak into the business world unless they sell their own docks. The aftermarket ones aren't that great and still use each individual port:

http://www.hengedocks.com/

The nice thing about my work laptop is being able to have a mouse, keyboard, monitor, etc plugged into it and quickly pull it out to go to a meeting then set it back down and not have to plug every single component in.

8/16/2011 5:25:39 PM

^who the hell uses wired mouse and keyboard on a mac these days?


and the thunderbolt display is essentially a dock and display in one.

8/16/2011 5:50:35 PM