New MacBook Air

[wattsy]

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The M9 raw files are far from small.

 

But they are not very big either. I used to work with much larger layered PS files (16 bit scans from film) quite happily (if not as quickly) when half a gig of RAM and a 1GHz Power PC processor was a decent set-up. 4GB RAM and 2Ghz C2D is fine for getting stuff done.

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[Nicoleica]

If you really need the 'power-user' processing speed, and storage, and you have a MobileMe account, then just use the 'back to my Mac' facility. Upload the files to your main machine, and do the processing on that using the screen sharing.

[dkCambridgeshire]

I showed the video to a friend and she immediately said, "I want one! ... Must have one! ... Do they do it in pink?" I've persuaded her to wait for the reviews and promised to find her a pink case if she decides to buy.

 

dunk

[d2mini]

But they are not very big either. I used to work with much larger layered PS files (16 bit scans from film) quite happily (if not as quickly) when half a gig of RAM and a 1GHz Power PC processor was a decent set-up. 4GB RAM and 2Ghz C2D is fine for getting stuff done.

A kodak brownie will get stuff done too.

As an art director/designer, I work with 300-500mb files all day. Sometimes more. Hence the need for a fast machine and the sense of WTF when I have to work on anything slower, even for "tiny" M9 files. I used to do the same thing as you on the same machines, but the software now is the burden, not the file size. The UI and feature sets are so complicated. Although I did used to wait for certain operations to complete before. Now everything is instantaneous. Aperture wouldn't even install on the Macbook Air before.

 

If you really need the 'power-user' processing speed, and storage, and you have a MobileMe account, then just use the 'back to my Mac' facility. Upload the files to your main machine, and do the processing on that using the screen sharing.

Mobile Me is fine for emergency use, but controlling the computer through the network is cumbersome and slow. And ATT Uverse makes Mobile Me use nearly impossible, or nearly impossible to rely on anyway. Copying a file over mobile me is horrendously slow. You'd be much better off copying to your idisk or separate ftp server and then downloading it on the other side. In this case I think I'd rather work on the mobile machine.

Even if Mobile Me was fast enough, you just can't do proper color work with a laptop.

You pay the price for mobility. Literally.

[SJP]

I must admit the design is appealing, nevertheless I would actually like to stick to Windows (as I basically grew up with it and know a few useful tricks). Is it possible to strip the whole Apple OS out of a Mac and install Win7? The underlying electronics/architecture is the same AFAIK. The only difference is the Apple mouse (1 button) vs. PC mouse (5-6 buttons in some cases).

 

Ik know this is probably heresy for the Apple lovers.

[dkCambridgeshire]

I must admit the design is appealing, nevertheless I would actually like to stick to Windows (as I basically grew up with it and know a few useful tricks). Is it possible to strip the whole Apple OS out of a Mac and install Win7? The underlying electronics/architecture is the same AFAIK. The only difference is the Apple mouse (1 button) vs. PC mouse (5-6 buttons in some cases).

 

Ik know this is probably heresy for the Apple lovers.

 

I think you can split the drive in two using Bootcamp and then install a Windows OS on one half with all your PC programmes ... assuming the flash drive can be split.

 

dunk

[stunsworth]

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I must admit the design is appealing, nevertheless I would actually like to stick to Windows (as I basically grew up with it and know a few useful tricks). Is it possible to strip the whole Apple OS out of a Mac and install Win7

 

Not quite.

 

You have two options, to run the machine using a free Apple utility called Boot Camp. This will allow you to boot the machine into Windows rather than OS-X - though you need to have a legit copy of Windows to do this, and you need to partition your hard drive to give you a Boot Camp partition. Once you're using Windows you can't 'drop back' into OS-X without rebooting.

 

An alternative is to use a program such as VMWare Fusion or Parallels. This will allow you to run OS-X and Windows at the same time - again you will need a copy of Windows. The advantage this has over Boot Camp is that you don't need to reboot the machine to use OS-X.

 

When I got my Mac I also bought a copy of Fusion because I thought I was going to be using Windows. In the end I found I hardly needed Windows and I haven't used Fusion for months - in fact I've been thinking about deleting it for some time.

 

Apple mice have come with two buttons for ages. I'm currently using the touch sensitive mouse, and it's excellent.

[Nicoleica]

I must admit the design is appealing, nevertheless I would actually like to stick to Windows (as I basically grew up with it and know a few useful tricks). Is it possible to strip the whole Apple OS out of a Mac and install Win7? The underlying electronics/architecture is the same AFAIK. The only difference is the Apple mouse (1 button) vs. PC mouse (5-6 buttons in some cases).

 

Ik know this is probably heresy for the Apple lovers.

 

I use Parallels on my Macs, as I (sadly) need to run some Windows applications for my work. I find that with 4 GB of memory, I can quite happily run 2 concurrent Windows sessions, and my Mac applications too. At a pinch, I can run 3 Windows sessions, but things slow down a bit then.

 

It's a misconception that the Apple mouse is only one button. It depends upon which mouse you are using, but there are a minimum of 2 buttons, plus the scroll wheel/surface.

[Guest WPalank]

Nice comparison of the MBA to the iPad by Terry White (Adobe Evangelist and Tech Blogger):

Photographers: MacBook Air vs. iPad | Terry White's Tech Blog

[Rick]

A kodak brownie will get stuff done too.

As an art director/designer, I work with 300-500mb files all day. Sometimes more. Hence the need for a fast machine and the sense of WTF when I have to work on anything slower, even for "tiny" M9 files. I used to do the same thing as you on the same machines, but the software now is the burden, not the file size. The UI and feature sets are so complicated. Although I did used to wait for certain operations to complete before. Now everything is instantaneous. Aperture wouldn't even install on the Macbook Air before..

 

Again, I think you are taking this thread away from its intent. I understand that you are an art director/designer of some sort and you have a need for a lot of computing power. (By the way, if you think your Dual Core Intel Xeon Mac Pro with 10GB is fast, take a look at a MP 12 core Xeon that threads to 24 virtual cores! That with the new ATI Radeon HD 5870 with 1GB memory on the card is smoking fast if, you can stomach the price).

 

Anyway, back to reality, my main point of pointing out this new MBA to people was that, there have been a few threads about the iPad and some of us thought it would be a great travel computer for viewing, editing, and saving photo's while away from our humble home machines. And, for most it was a bit of a disappointment mainly because you couldn't run real programs and you can't view DNG files.

 

The thread is about the fact that a new MBA is out and it has some increased horse power, a better display, a card reader, 4GB of memory, and up to 256MG of storage. And, most of all... you can run C1 or LR3 or Aperture or iPhoto or CS5 and you can edit! This is a big deal if you travel.

 

So, I just want people to not be misled by you and conclude that you can't edit M9 file sizes very well on this machine. You can. Simple as that. For M9 files this thing will rarely slow anyone down.

 

Edit: Apple's fastest desktop MBP all decked out is $16,000. You can run LR3 and Photoshop on the new Mac Air for $999 and it will fit in a manilla envelope.

[d2mini]

Again, I think you are taking this thread away from its intent.

 

Which was not my intent. Carry on.

[pico]

Is it possible to strip the whole Apple OS out of a Mac and install Win7?

 

That makes as much sense as replacing the guts of an MP with dirt.

[Johnny_Johnson]

Who writes the Apple ad copy anyway - pimple faced twenty somethings?

 

For example:

 

"When you strip this computer down to its bones, it looks like the blast shield from a futuristic tank, or a robot designed for battle (a killer android, perhaps)."

 

And this:

 

"Well, in the years since the first MacBook Air was announced, the Apple family has undergone some considerable changes. A new relative named iPad showed up out of nowhere (outer space perhaps),"

 

I guess that I'm just not hip enough to be a part of the target market.

 

Later,

Johnny

[dkCambridgeshire]

d... - pimple faced twenty somethings?

 

 

I guess that I'm just not hip enough to be a part of the target market.

 

Later,

Johnny

 

I do not understand why some people who of course never had a pimple in their lives, discriminate against relatively young adults with acne and often stereotype them as being fringe people with little to offer.

 

Andrew Marr's recent comments showed his ignorance of the subject too but perhaps his film star looks make him into an authority on skin diseases.

 

dunk

[Rick]

This makes a lot more sense for traveling than the iPad. You could even put your copy of L3 on it if you just bought an M9. What do you think?

 

What is so hard about the OP of this thread? Just, what do you think?

[d2mini]

If you need to do photo work while traveling, It's most certainly better than the iPad. No question. Easy decision.

 

So then the question becomes, IMHO, more of a choice between the Macbook Air or the plain white Macbook. Both start at $999 usd, but the Air can go as high as $1599. For the extra price (assuming you don't get the base model Air) you get a much thinner package and at half the weight of the macbook. That right there could be your deciding factor. Also, the SSD is super quick to start up both the system and individual apps. But on the other side, the macbook come with a faster processor, bigger hard drive (unless you get the most expensive Air), double the battery life, ethernet connection, extra usb, etc.

 

I'd say it's quite the conundrum and comes down to two things.

1. How light you want to travel

2. How much power will you be happy with

[Rick]

D2, I agree with that. And, probably for some how important is it to have the cool factor. What do you do with your 2 iPads? Real question.

[d2mini]

D2, I agree with that. And, probably for some how important is it to have the cool factor. What do you do with your 2 iPads? Real question.

 

Well, one is my wife's. But we pretty much both use them the same way.

To start, email and internet. Not as streamlined as a laptop, but way better than a smart phone. These two will also improve a bit with the new OS update due this last quarter of the year. Of course it's also good for twitter, facebook, etc. Either with their stand alone apps, or this other great app called Flipbook which turns all your social networking and new feeds into one magazine style layout. Exactly what the ipad was meant to be like and something you can't really do with a desktop or laptop. And then there's games, books, and magazines. I've gotten a few magazines through Zinio for next to nothing and it's pretty nice. I was sitting in the doctors office waiting room the other day flipping through MY OWN magazines on my ipad. Much better than reading some old issue of Home and Gardens or People. :rolleyes:I've also watched the occasional tv show and i have some movies loaded up on it for travel.

Finally, photography related... i have a bunch of images loaded so it works like a digital portfolio. I also used it to show family our vacation photos which was very convenient and impressive. I have recently dabbled with an eye-fi card and transferring images wirelessly from the M9 to the iPad, but it's iffy at best and I haven't had time to really investigate it deeper.

Oh, and i have note taking app and a stylus. Works pretty good but the nature of this particular touchscreen technology is that it requires a pretty large contact area (like a fingertip) so the stylus is more like writing with a piece of chalk on a chalkboard. Big and clunky. But I've used it to take notes in meetings and sketch and it's doable. The app i have is kinda like a moleskin notebook and you just flip through the pages and you can make a bunch of separate notebooks to help organize your notes. Then email yourself a pdf of them.

So that's pretty much it for me. Mostly entertainment with a touch of biz.

 

When the iPad first came out I was kinda pissed that it wasn't more of a functioning computer that could run real applications. I basically wanted an Air without the flip top and with a touch screen and wacom styled stylus. But the idea grew on me and it does have its place.

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[hoppyman]

Rick I suggest that you go for a 13 inch screen to give you more working space in LR (for sorting through multiple thumbnailed images especially) With a couple of menus open it starts getting crowded.. I have that size (a Sony) and I think that the resolution is similar to the Mac that you are considering. I recommend that you get the extra RAM certainly.

Much depends on how you intend to use your machine of course. Laptops are not ideal for critical colour work etc but great for getting copies of your images off your cards and starting sorting, keywording etc as you go.

In addition to all of their usual computer powers naturally.

[lars_bergquist]

How large a screen do you know to work really comfortably with LR, anyway? Subjective of course, but I have hesitated to install it on my MacBook Pro. It seems you have a very small picture in the center and big control panels on each side -- not ideal for any laptop.

 

The old man from the Age of House Size Computers