Verily, it is written that Apple will selleth you the Air

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Brian Randell [Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk]
Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2008 6:05 PM
To: David Farber
Subject: Verily, it is written that Apple will selleth you the Air

Hi Dave:

I thought that you (and IP if you so wish) might
be amused by how the Observer, a leading Sunday
newspaper here in the UK, has reported on Steve
Job's announcements at MacWorld.

Cheers

Brian

-----


Verily, it is written that Apple will selleth you the Air

The (UK) Observer, Sunday January 20 2008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/20/apple

It's that time of year again. Last week the
Church of Apple Resurgent gathered in San
Francisco for its annual congregation. The
faithful were granted an audience with the
Blessed Steve Jobs, who revealed unto them what
miracles he had wrought since they were last
gathered together. First, he showed them a Time
Capsule, which can bring back the past and
preserve memories of days gone by.

Then he comforted them by narrating the Great
Success of his Personal Communicator, the iPhone,
of which four million have been sold in 90 days.
This heart-warming news was followed by
information about a scheme whereby the faithful
may hire moving pictures from Steve's Celestial
Music Store.

But all these were merely the prelude to the
greatest revelation of all - Apple is to sell
Air. At this, he produced a simple A4 envelope
from which he drew forth a magical device, not
unlike the blade of an elegant hatchet, ranging
in thickness from 0.16in to 0.76in. This is the
MacBook Air, and hath no wires or - said the
Blessed Steve - any need for them. Many of the
faithful swooned, while others waved their
wallets in an orgy of technolust and were only
quieted by the appearance of Randy Newman,
Musician to the Court of Steve, who sang two
ditties and accompanied himself on the pianoforte.

There is no parallel with the annual Jobs Keynote
Address in any other industry that I can think
of. But this year's seemed more muted, somehow.
In the old days, every new product or upgrade
would be greeted by cheers, whistles, cries of
'Yee-haw!' and foot-stomping. But last Tuesday
there were just ripples of polite applause from
an audience whose members seemed suspiciously
well-dressed. Could it be that the Jobs Keynote
has become just another hot ticket on the
corporate hospitality round?

As for the new laptop, it's chic but expensive
(£1,199) and technically compromised. If you need
to use optical disks, for example, you have to
buy (and cart around) an external drive. The
battery is sealed in the unit (as in the iPhone),
so replacing it involves returning the machine to
Apple. There's no obvious way of plugging in an
ethernet cable (which means that the Air is
restricted to relatively slow wi-fi connections).
The hard drive holds only 80GB, and if you want
the 64GB diskless version the solid-state 'drive'
will set you back another £829. So much for what
Apple calls 'thinnovation'.

Blogosphere comment was sniffy. One prominent
blog held that the name derived from the fact
that air is all that would be left in the wallets
of those who pre-ordered the machine. And there
was a distinct geeky consensus that for all its
design virtuosity and aesthetic attractions, the
MacBook Air looks like being more of a fashion
accessory than a machine for Serious Hacking.

But similar objections were levelled at the
iPhone, and look what's happened with that. It
has captured a fifth of the US smartphone market
in its first quarter. So let's see what happens.
--
School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/


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