Tag: MacBook Air

Gear by Joe WilcoxNov 8, 20176:10 pm

Artifacts: MacBook Air

In late December 2014, I commanded: “Writers, Own Your Content“, because if you don’t it may some day be gone. They say the Internet never forgets. Oh, but it does, as I so bitterly learned—you shouldn’t need to repeat my mistakes; heed my advice.

For today’s remembrance, I wanted to link to an amazing Apple Store customer service story from 2008. Turns out, it’s gone. I didn’t post to my personal site as I had thought but to the long defunct Apple Watch blog, which Ziff Davis Enterprise evaporated not long following my layoff about a year later. The detailed experiential account was priceless. Now the content is worthless. This should never happen to you.

Gear by Joe WilcoxOct 27, 20166:51 pm

Apple’s New Mac Family is Frightening

The Mac laptop line, following today’s new announcements, looks lots less like Apple and more like Compaq—where Tim Cook worked much earlier in his career, incidentally, long before the original IBM PC clone-maker’s demise. Confusing. Complicated. These are apt descriptions that might just send the ghost of Steve Jobs skyward on either—take your pick—Halloween or Day of the Dead.

Among Apple cofounder’s first tasks when returning to the chief executive’s chair in 1997: Simplifying product families. Jobs cut the deadweight, surprising many people by killing off Newton, for example. Complex product lines define Apple under successor Cook, by contrast.

Gear by Joe WilcoxJul 6, 201611:43 am

How Much Storage Does My Mac Need?

The question nags as I prepare to review TarDisk Pear flash memory expansion. The doohickey is available in 128 or 256 gig capacities for either MacBook Air or Pro. It fits neatly and snuggly into the SDXC card slot, which is required; color and finish match, too. Windows users must look elsewhere, though, and many may be glad to. The tech lists for $149 and $399, respectively. But, hey, the Apple fan club is accustomed to paying more for everything.

I will test TarDisk Pear on my 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display, 3.1GHz Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB RAM, and 256GB SSD. I recently, and unexpectedly, filled up the hard disk with photos and podcast raw recordings. (Hehe, using Chromebooks for so long spoiled me and my awareness of such things.) Doubling storage, particularly with San Diego Comic-Con coming in 14 days, could prove useful for editing audio, pics, and video on the laptop. But is it necessary or contrivance?

Apple by Joe WilcoxJan 20, 201610:15 am

Apple Needs to Think Differently

I watch with wonder and concern about Apple, as a longstanding customer (starting in December 1998). As a journalist, I developed a reputation for hating the company (I don’t) so long loved because my stories aren’t kiss-ass fanboyism. What’s that saying about being hardest on the ones you love most? Kind I am not.

Today’s theme isn’t new from me and repeats my analysis that Apple has strayed far from the path that brought truly, disruptive innovative products to market. In 2016, the company banks on past successes that are not long-term sustainable. We will get a glimpse after calendar fourth quarter 2015 earnings are announced on January 26th. You will want to watch iPhone and international sales, particularly emerging markets.

Apple by Joe WilcoxAug 12, 20155:56 pm

Measuring Apple’s Laptop Sales Success

Through the U.S. consumer retail channel, Macs notebooks reached rather shocking milestone during first half 2015, according to data that NPD provided to me today. You can consider this a first, and from lower volume shipments. By operating system: OS X, 49.7 percent; Windows, 48.3 percent; Chrome OS, 1.9 percent. That compares to the same time period in 2014: OS X, 44.8 percent; Windows, 53.1 percent; Chrome OS, 2.1 percent. The data is for U.S. consumer laptops.

While data junkie journalists or analysts often focus on unit shipments, revenues, and subsequently profits, matter much more. Looked at another way, Mac laptop revenues rose by 10.9 percent during the first six months of 2015, year over year, while Windows PCs fell by 9 percent, and Chromebooks contracted by 9.5 percent.

Critters by Joe WilcoxMar 28, 20153:15 pm

Say, Hello, Sammy

Happy Caturday! For months, I have wanted to introduce you to the kitty who resides at local Mac dealer DC Computers. But Saturday comes, I forget, and is gone. Finally, I remember, while the sun still shines brightly overhead and Modest Mouse blasts form Chromebook Pixel LS. Mmmm, cat and Mouse (song “The Ground Walks, with Time in a Box“, BTW).

Sammy is about four years old, and she amazes me for her territorial confinement. During hot summer days, DC Computers cracks wide the doors and circulates the breeze blowing from the ocean, just 9 kilometers away. Sammy may sit inside, nose held up sniffing the air, but she doesn’t cross the threshold into the bustling parking lot. She never ventures outside.

Gear by Joe WilcoxMar 11, 20159:33 pm

New MacBook Gasps for Air

Across tech sites and forums there are rumbling complaints about Apple choosing to provide just one port on the 12-inch MacBook and the compromises the design presents. The flawed approach is much bigger, and the laptop line has been this way before—where thinning down means giving up something many users want, which is why I am so surprised that little of the discussion focuses on the original MacBook Air.

Stated simply before the long explanation: If you don’t mind paying $1,299 or $1,599 for the performance equivalent of a souped-up tablet, running OS X but lacking touchscreen, Apple’s tiny laptop is a good choice. Otherwise, stop whining and buy something else. There is no shortage of choices in the slim-and-portable category.

Gear by Joe WilcoxNov 5, 20107:54 pm

MacBook Air is Netbook Enough for Me

Last week, at the suggestion of Betanews founder Nate Mook, I asked question: “Is MacBook Air a netbook killer?” I first posed it to Betanews readers who responded by email to an earlier post and then to some analysts. The majority of folks emphatically said, “No”. I was surprised because my answer would be something like: As a pair iPad and 11.6-inch MacBook Air are netbook killers. I put aside my own opinions and let the reporting lead the story. As I explained later, in “MacBook Air will redefine personal computing“, Apple’s little laptop—and its itty-bitty tablet, too—are category redefining products because they share so much in common with consumer electronics devices.