Showing posts with label Hardware. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hardware. Show all posts

Friday, March 21, 2008

MacBook Air: Hands On ...

Bestellt wurde das MacBook Air am 26. Januar zusammen mit einem HP Drucker sowie dem MacBook Air USB Lan Adapter. Als Liefertermin wurde der 11. März genannt.
Das Book kam wie erwartet früher an. Genau 1 Monat später am 26. Februar.

Verpackung:
Die Verpackung ist schlicht in schwarz gehalten. Die Deckelinnenseite ist wie bei der iPhone Verpackung mit Schaumstoff versehen. Im Vergleich zur MacBook Verpackung ist diese ein ganzes Stück geschrumpft, wobei es selbst hier noch Einsparpotential gegeben hätte. Im Karton selber befindet sich nämlich noch ein Einsetzer, welcher diesen in fast 2 Hälften teilt - die untere ist ungenutzt.

Inhalt:
Zusammen mit dem MacBook Air befinden sich noch diverse Kabel, Adaptern, Booklets und Installations CDs im Karton.
Mitgeliefert werden:
  • MacBook Air
  • Anleitung
  • Installations CDs
  • Netzteil
  • Verlängerungskabel für das Netzteil
  • MicroDVI to VGA Adapter
  • MicroDVI to DVI Adapter
  • Putztuch

Optik:
Die Aluoptik, die bei Apple derzeit sehr in Mode zu sein scheint, und die schwarzen Tasten, welche sich schön vom Rest der Oberfläche absetzen, bilden das insgesamt gelungene Design des MacBook Air. Das (Multi-)Touchpad ist erheblich größer als das eines normalen MacBooks, dafür musste die „Maustaste“ etwas geschrumpft werden.
Das Gehäuse hat spitz zulaufende Kanten, welche das MacBook nochmals erheblich dünner erscheinen lassen.

Display:
Das Display ist mit seinen Abmessungen dem eines normalen MacBooks gleich zu setzten. Sehr positiv fällt die enorme Leuchtkraft der LED Technik auf. Selbst in extrem lichtstarken Umgebungen mutiert der Glossybildschirm nicht zum Schminkspiegel.
Empfehlenswert ist eine Helligkeitstufe in der unteren Hälfte zu wählen, da bei voller Helligkeit der Bildschirm ehr als „blendend“ empfunden werden kann.

Performance:
Im vorliegenden MacBook Air werkelt ein 1.6 Ghz C2D Prozessor, zusammen mit einer 80 GB PATA Festplatte sowie 2 GB Arbeitsspeicher.
Die gefühlte Geschwindigkeit liegt zwischen einem MacBook C2D 2,0 Ghz und einem MacBook Pro mit einem C2D 2,4 Ghz.
Auch das Benutzen einer Virtualisierungslösung für Windows stellt das Air nicht vor unlösbare Aufgaben. Ein Windows XP läuft ohne zu zucken in VMWare Fusion in allen Modi (Vollbild, Einzelfester, Unity).
Zum Spielen sollte man lieber auf ein MacBook Pro oder einen anderen, grafisch besser ausgestatteten, Mac zurückgreifen. Prinzipiell funktionieren alle Spiele die auf einem MacBook laufen auch auf dem Air.


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Anschlüsse:
Spartanisch, praktisch, gut?
Zugegebenermaßen sind die Anschlüsse des MacBook Air recht karg gesäht. Zur Verfügung steht neben einem MicroDVI Anschluss und einer Kopfhörerbuchse lediglich ein USB Anschluss. Ein CD/DVD Laufwerk fehlt komplett.
Für den Sound unterwegs sorgt ein eingebaute Mono-Lautsprecher welcher für den mobilen Einsatz mehr als ausreichend ist.
Im Normalbetrieb vermisst man gestrichene Anschlüsse wie FireWire oder einen zweiten USB Port so gut wie nie. Auch auf ein optisches Laufwerk greift man ehr selten zurück.
Wünschenswert wäre ein Kensington Anschluss für das "sichere Stehenlassen in der Mittagspause" gewesen.
Den LAN Anschluss erhält man in Form eines optionalen USB-LAN Adapters.

Akku:
Der Akku überzeugt auf ganzer Linie. Die von Apple angegebenen 5h „Wireless Produktivity“ werden zwar nicht erreicht, allerdings hält das Air im „Wlan-Office-Betrieb“, je nach Einstellungen (Bluetooth / WiFi / Displaybeleuchtung) gute 4h durch.
Je aufwändiger die Programme (zB Photoshop oder VMWare Fusion) desto kürzer die Akkulaufzeit.

Fazit:
Was ist das MacBook Air? Es ist kein Notebook für PowerUser, es ist kein Desktop-Ersatz. Vielmehr ist ein mobiles Arbeitstier das in erster Linie durch sein flaches und leichtes Design vom Rest des Marktes abhebt.
"Brauchen" tut man ein MacBook Air nicht wirklich. Der "wollen"-Faktor ist bei diesem Notebook nicht zu unterschätzen. Wer sich für ein MacBook Air entscheidet sollte auch in einer entsprechenden Umwelt leben und arbeiten. D.h. Viel WLAN, wenig Steckdosen, wenig (besser keine) CDs und viel unterwegs, denn nur hier Zeit das Air seine wirklichen Stärken ...


Personal Stuff:
Ersteinmal möchte ich MB-Switcher dafür danken, das ich diesen Gastbeitrag hier publizieren darf.
Ich bin Marc und schreibe normalerweise
hier (German) über Macs, Sichereit, OSX, iPhone .... etc. ...Kommt mich doch mal besuchen.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Unboxing: iPod Touch

Yesterday my long awaited iPod Touch arrived! Here are some unboxing pictutes:


Much smaller box than expected... no place for an iTunes CD.As usual: the cable, the new earphones, and the dock-plastic-thingy. One small plastic stand (that transparent thing) to place your Touch neatly at an angle so you can watch your movies without holding that thing the whole time :D
first impression: Very nice design. Love the screen (amazing quality!). Also extremely thin... But: a bit heavy imho.
Well that's it for now. Expect some articles related to the iPod Touch in the near future!

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Have you ever seen a 26.000 Euro notebook?


Here is a modded Macbook Air that costs 26.ooo Euros. Why does it cost that much you ask? It's modded with 12.000 crystals. Now, I won't comment on the looks but apparently some people think that this modded MBA looks better than the original I guess.

MB-switcher

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Updated Macbooks and Macbook Pros

Well, like many of the rumor sites had predicted the Macbook lineup got an upgrade today.
While there have been some rumors around, the main upgrades just involved minor hardware improvements. The MBP got a multi touch trackpad, however not the cool one like the MBA. More details on the Apple site.

MB-switcher

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Firmware Update for Keyboard Macbook and Macbook Pro

Finally an update has been released that is supposed to fix the keyboard problems with all the Macbooks. The keyboard of the Macbooks are known to just ignore the first keystroke which has been a bug for a while now and wasn't fixed with the 10.5.2 update. However, there has been an update at last - so if you haven't downloaded the firmware update yet, now is a good time to press the Apple logo -> Software Update:)


MB-switcher

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Just ordered myself 2 gigs of Crucial RAM for my Macbook

Today, I finally got around to order myself 2 gigs of RAM by Crucial. Just having 1GB in my Macbook C2D (Nov. 2006), my Macbook would get laggy from time to time so I hope this will fix the performance problems. Even though I seriously considered putting in 3GB of RAM I finally decided to go with a paired kit of 1GB*2. I guess this should be more than enough considering I do not use any heavy memory draining apps like VMware or Parallels. Anyways, I can't wait for them to arrive and see the performance boost. I surely will post about it (maybe some benchmarks) when they arrive.

MB-switcher

Monday, January 21, 2008

Lenovo's Macbook Air killer?


Source: Gizmodo.com


There is a new ultra portable Lenovo notebook to be released soon according to gizmodo.
Now this notebook doesn't look as sexy as the Macbook Air I must admit but the specs are pretty interesting.
13.3-inch LED 1440X900
2.5 pounds
Intel Merom Santa Rosa Dual Core CPU (2.0 Ghz / 880 Mhz )
64 GB SSD
up to 4GB RAM
4 hours of battery
and an optical drive (DVD DL burner)

MB-switcher

Monday, January 7, 2008

The Macbook and Gaming = Mission Impossible?


Now while the Macbook truly isn't a gamers' machine (I own the Nov. 2006 revision model with 64MB of integrated graphics memory), to my big surprise it does have more graphics power than I have ever imagined. Some of my regular readers might know that I have recently purchased the Samsung 2032bw monitor, which is a 20inch widescreen monitor with a resolution of 1680*1050 pixels (it rocks by the way:)

Two of my most favorite games ever are Unreal Tournament 2004 and Warcraft Frozen Throne and I had my doubts whether it would be possible to play both games on the new monitor in decent quality. To my huge surprise they both run very smoothly with medium video settings. What surprised me the most however was how smoothly I am able to play UT 2004. So before you reject the Macbook I'd say try one out. If you are like me and play older games and don't really like the new ones the Macbook just might be enough for the occasional round of death match or a Warcraft battle with your friends.


MB-switcher

Saturday, January 5, 2008

My new Samsung 2032bw monitor


So today I bought myself a new monitor: the Samsung 2032bw. It is a 20 inch wide screen TFT monitor and I really like the design and the quality of the display. I haven't played around too much since I just finished hooking it up to my Macbook.
You can expect a more detailed review by me in a couple of weeks after I have played around and set up everything the way I want.

MB-switcher

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Make calls with the iPod touch?

I have come across an interesting blog where some hackers try to get the iPod touch to be VoIP ready. Apparently, they are pretty close to getting the job done. Now this would be very interesting since it would be kind of like the iPhone without the contract.


Here is the link to the blog: iPod touch Mods

MB-switcher

Friday, November 23, 2007

Santa Rosa Macbooks: more USB power

According to Hardmac the Santa Rosa Macbooks feature more powerful USB ports. They provide 1,1 Ampere compared to the 0,5 Ampere of the previous models. Now, this is a cool thing, especially for people using a lot of high power USB devices (like external HDs).
One thing that I was wondering about though was, is the new Apple Aluminum keyboard more compatible? In the sense that I can connect my iPod to charge it via the port of the keyboard? If anyone knows I'd appreciate a comment on this because many Mac users were in fact very unhappy that the new keyboards were fully compatible with the new iMacs only.

MB-switcher

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Macbook Santa Rosa benchmarks

As usual the guys at primate labs have published a benchmark.
The Macbook (Santa Rosa) show some impressive performance gains in this benchmark; especially in memory performance (plus 15%) and in stream performance (plus 25%).

For more details read the whole article here.

MB-switcher

Monday, November 5, 2007

Macbook (Pro) and Mac mini owners at risk of losing data?

According to this article at Computerworld some Macbook (Pro) and Mac mini owners are at risk of losing data due to a hardware flaw. Only these Macs with certain Seagate HDs are at risk.
For more details please check out the article and cross check your HD in System Profiler. Fortunately, I am not affected.

MB-switcher

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Macbooks updated

The portable Macs (Macbook and Macbook Pro) have been updated. It was a rather small and silent upgrade (similar to the Mac mini upgrade earlier). The Macbook now features the Santa Rosa processor and the graphics chip (X3100). The pro line got a processor bump.

Btw. same old casing...no aluminum Macbooks for now...maybe next year.

Apple store Macbook
Apple store Macbook Pro

MB-switcher

The fastest Vista Notebook is...the Macbook Pro


According to PC World (using their own benchmark software as it seems) the Macbook Pro is the fastest Microsoft Vista notebook out there. It even beats Alienware notebooks which are known for their extreme configurations and performance.

For more click on the picture (Link to PC World page)

MB-switcher

Friday, September 28, 2007

Apple releases firmware updates for Macbook (Intel Macs)

Apple has released EFI updates for their Intel Macs. This being the first firmware update since my switch to Mac (MB EFI 1.1) I have to say, very pleased how easy everything went down. Download update, shut down, keep power button pressed till sleep light starts flashing, wait for a gong, wait and drink a cup of coffee and it is done. However, being a newbie to firmware updates I must admit that the high pitch gong before the installation of the firmware update really kind of scared me;)
Well, at least now I know.

MB-switcher

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Gateway's One...a not so cool iMac clone


Gateway's One is a rather not so cool clone of the new Aluminum iMac in my opinion...
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Ein nicht so toll gelungener iMac Klon, wie ich finde...
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あまりかっこ良くないiMacのコピー、、、

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Apple and Steve vs. the iPhone Hackers

Now, as many of you already might have read, Apple announced that with the next firmware update of the iPhone, hacked iPhones might turn into bricks. This has caused quite a stir the last couple of days and even a hack appeared that will "unhack" your iPhone.
So what will happen to the iPhone? Will the iPhone hackers disappear and start hacking other products? Unlikely. If you use all the hacks available at this moment, you get a more powerful iPhone than the shipped version by Apple. If Apple should decide to "brick" all hacked iPhones there probably will be a way to unbrick the iPhones but do you really want to?
I think if Apple should decide to brick all hacked iPhones that might be the wrong thing to do. This could even motivate the hackers' community to start developing their very own firmware and you can bet that this would be more powerful than the regular Apple iPhone. As mentioned above an iPhone with all the available hacks applied is already more powerful than the standard iPhone (you can install a chat application, colloquy and much more). It will be interesting to watch if Steve and Apple really do make their threat come true.

MB-switcher

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Software Update for Macbooks and Macbook Pros (mid 2007)

Apple has released a software update for Macbooks and Macbook Pros today to fix the issue with disabled journaling on some mid 2007 MBs and MBPs.
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Apple hat heute ein Software Update für Macbooks und Macbook Pros veröffentlicht, die das Journaling auf den MBs und MBPs aktivieren soll (nur für Modelle Mitte 2007).
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今日アップルがマックブックとマックブックプロのアップデートをリリースしました。このアップデートは2007年中旬MBとMBPのためのアップデートです。OS Xのjournalingをつけてくれます。


MB-switcher

Unboxing pictures of Dr. Bott's T7 USB 2.0 hub

Here are some unboxing pictures of the 7 port USB 2.0 hub by Dr. Bott. It sure is in pretty white to match the Macbooks and the last generation iMacs perfectly. The review will be posted soon so watch out.
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Dr. Bott T7 USB 2.0 hub


Hier sind die unboxing/unpacking pictures meines 7 Port USB 2.0 Hubs von Dr. Bott. Das Weiss des Hubs passt hervorragend zu den Macbooks und den alten iMacs wie ich finde. Das schlichte Design gefällt auch auf Anhieb. Ein ausführlicher Testbericht wird bald gepostet.
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Dr. Bott T7 USB 2.0 hub


今日はDr. Bottと言う会社のUSB Hubのunboxing picturesを記入させて頂きました。デザイン的にとてもマックブックと古いiMacと合うと思います。レビューは後ほど記入したいと思います

MB-switcher