Spaces

Spaces has been a good tool to use in order to manage several applications on a 13" screen.  So far I have 4 spaces configured in a 2x2 configuration.  Entourage has one as well as iTunes on another.  I put all the Office apps on one with Safari as the last.  Once I remembered the command + <#> it is pretty easy to perform the shortcuts instead of referring to the spaces icon on the menu bar.

The Mac Air is not supposed to be a production machine

I have heard a lot of feedback as well as reading posts on other forums and blogs that comment how the Air lacks functionality, memory, HD space, and a variety of other criticisms.  I guess this happens no matter what new innovation comes from Steve Jobs.  The Apple hardcore are going to have to get used to the fact that Apple is trying (rather successfully) to expand its user base beyond the traditional niche Apple-ites.  I often wonder if the criticism comes from the fact that traditionalists view Apple as theirs and therefore Apple should fold to the whims of their input.  

Well, to start, the Air is not a production machine.  Can it be used for business?  Sure, maybe small business travelers or additional machine in the office.  Is it a workhorse for the technology industry?  Maybe not.  For the personal user, it is a great machine that allows you to carry it around the house, vacation, or wherever.  I used it at my daughter's swim academy while she was taking lessons.  Is it fun to use?  You bet.  I have actually enjoyed my learning curve so far and like the new things I discover which make life easier.  Now would there be better add-ons that would make the Air even better?  Yes.  For example, to take advantage of the form factors reduction of technology clutter, the Air could utilize wireless or bluetooth with iPhone or iTouch.  Bingo, eliminated 1 cable.  The wireless bluetooth mouse is a great example.  The Air already does a great job (after working) of syncing with peripherals such as network drives and printers.

Now addressing all the Apple traditionalists.  Don't think of it as Steve Jobs going traitor and becoming like Microsoft (at least not yet).  He is really looking to expand the family and bring more people into the fold.  And after all, this is a business...the company has to be accountable to shareholders (of which I am one).  Therefore, as a shareholder, I expect Steve to increase my share price while maintaining the integrity of the Apple brand and the innovative nature of the company.  Extremism has already cost the company once...almost too much...so if the extreme Apple fundamentalists want Apple around they gotta bend a little.

Mac Air lasting 3+ hours

I am on this thing as much as possible.  I have generally found that unplugged and with a full charge, the Air is lasting about 3 hours and 15 minutes, +/- a few minutes.  I perform various activities on the Air including surfing the web, working with Entourage, an occasional look at a word or excel file.  There are times where I do walk away from the Air or I am doing something else.  This will typically extend the life of the battery.  Some days, the Air goes through two battery cycles, but that's because I am using it so much.  It's very easy to sit with it on the couch and do things during commercials or during boring parts of the program.

Mac OSx starting to find shared network folders

Maybe it is the reboot after the installation of the latest release of OSx that all of the sudden has the Air auto-adding the shared drives on the network.  However, still somewhat annoying are the shared drive not found pop-ups each time the Air is not connected to the home network.

On a different note, I ventured a little more with Entourage since I installed Office 2008 a few weeks ago.  I have two emails configured.  After reserving some flights, I had the option of downloading a .vcs file to add to my calendar.  iCal opens instead of Entourage.  There is no option that I have found yet that will allow Entourage to be the default instead of iCal.  In Entourage, there is an option to sync with iCal, but I have not seen the two sync yet after adding an event to iCal.

A few days after receiving the Air, I brought it into work.  The wireless available is not open nor discoverable.  With a few minor settings and a certificate, I was able to connect with no problem.  Today, I managed to connect to the print servers and connected to the printer near my desk.  It was a very simple process using the Air and really Mac OSx.

Satisfaction rating to date?  9 out of 10. That's a pretty good net promoter score all things considered.  Almost everyday, I am using my air to the fullest extent of the battery; sometimes through 2 charges.  There is still a learning curve involved.  I have definitely not explored everything yet.  I have yet to make a movie!  I have made my first ringtone using GarageBand. I also used Spaces, but not sure that I completely am used to it.  Office 2008 has been okay;  I have done a couple word docs and worked on a loan amortization sheet in excel.  Each day, the learning curve gets easier, however, I still wish it was easier to get answers that I want online.

File sharing is a problem with Leopard?

In my quest to understand how I can auto-connect to share drives on a Windows PC as well as network locations, I have come across articles online indicating that Leopard is having problems with file sharing.  Many accounts claim that even with the 10.5.2. release there are still problems in getting Leopard to see other shared folders.  

If this is truly the problem that I am experiencing, then I don't feel as bad.  I have been racking my brains to figure this out and it could have been an OSx problem all along.  Does that mean I am disappointed with my Air?  By far no.  Steve has done a good job at bringing me over.  Several products I have been through have worked so well, that Steve has built up some "cred" with me.  However, forgiveness is not indefinite.  If it turns into the Microsoft typical problems, then my love and affinity with sexiness in Apple products will start to wane and my desire for working and stable products will take over.

Is the Air sexy?  Heck yah!  There is still lots of simplicity in the OS that I enjoy and married with the lightweight, small footprint form factor is still keeping me in that "honeymoon" phase.

Trying to figure out networking

So I hooked up the NAS and got both the PC and Mac working.  However, there is a couple things that are bothering me.  First, I can't seem to get the Mac to auto recognize the NAS.  The share section in finder does not come up unless I manually try to search for it.  Second, when I get on networks that are not mine, the Mac decides it's going to tell me several times that a network connection cannot be found to the NAS at home.

I have yet to figure out how things work when it comes to networking.  That's the one thing about Windows I didn't have too much trouble with.  When it comes to Leopard, everything is done for you, at least attempted.  So looks like until I figure it out, I will have to live with the nuisance.

NAS for MAC and Windows

So I haven't got to play with my new Air for the last few days.  I had a business trip and had to shop around for a backup storage option.  80Gb is not a lot and when shipped the Air takes up about 25Gb just for all the stuff they put on the HD.  Initially, I thought I would go with a mini-drive.  A fellow Mac enthusiast recommended the WD 250Gb miniHD from Costco.  Prices really have come down.  That mini is about $2 per Gb.  However, I also contemplated some sort of NAS solution so that I can store on 1 drive between a Mac and Windows based PC.  

I decided to get the NAS.  I went to Fry's and picked up the Maxtor Shared Storage II - 1Tb.  It was a heck of a time trying to get the network to recognize the device.  After a final reset on the Maxtor, I achieved success.  

A part of me thinks that I picked up a unit that was returned.  

I wasn't completely sure given that there was not a return label on the package.  However, that doesn't mean Fry's didn't re-package it.  After opening the unit, it looked fine even though I still felt it was a return.  So far it is working fine...we'll see.  The setup 

process was fairly easy once the unit was recognized.  As of this post, I am transferring files, including iTunes library.  Both the Mac and Windows PC can see the same files.  The one test will be whether or not I can point the Mac and PC to the one iTunes library file.

After about a week...

So it's been about 5 days since I received the Air.  I have to say that I am still very impressed and delighted with the product.  In the last week, I have networked my Air at home, networked my Air at my in-laws, and just yesterday, I was able to configure it at work.  Interestingly enough, with the right amount of instruction, the configuring at work turned out to be easier than the home networks.

Thus my biggest frustration has been around the learning curve and what I feel is a lack of appropriate instruction in one place for people migrating from Windows to Leopard.  Of course, I have to put my downside experience in proportion to overall.  I still rate this around 8 or 9 out of 10 when you put everything together.  My biggest pain point has been trying to get the Air to recognize the share drives on my HP laptop.  Sometimes it is auto-there.  When it is not, I have a heck of time trouble-shooting.  There are no instructions yet that I have found which tells me how to connect.  Bonjour, which I installed on the HP is supposed to be zero-config, which makes me think the Air should see it.  I struggled with this last night and finally gave up.

First full day of use

Today I got to play with the Air in more detail.  While some things are still foreign to me, overall it has been fairly easy.  Yesterday, I was able to add my Gmail account to iMail.  In fact, because I used the email that is registered with Apple, the Air knew all my settings already to get configured.

I spent some time at the Apple store in Walnut Creek.  There are no case accessories available yet for the Air.  No one has a clue as to when there will be any either.  So I bought an In Case but I may end up returning it.  After getting to my mother in law's house, I busted out the Air to show some videos I transferred from a shared drive.  Sound was good as was the brightness of the picture.

Bringing the Air is a novel idea, especially if you are going to the in-laws.  It helps even more if you can connect to the internet.  The Air immediately told me there were wireless networks around.  I found the one that my brother in law configured and after getting the WEP key from him, I tried tirelessly to connect.  For some reason it kept timing out on me and would not connect.  I checked all the settings on his router and there were no limitations due to the fact I had a Mac.  Things just somehow seemed to work after I set up a Location with the right settings and it started working.

While there has been some frustration in acclimating myself to my new Mac, I am attributing it to a learning curve that I must traverse having never owned an Apple computer product.  Things are otherwise going well and I am really happy that I made this decision to acquire the Air.

The MacBook Air has arrived

Delivered 11 days earlier than promised, the FedEx guy never saw a happier face greeting him at the door; 9:30am in the morning!  The box was sooo light. Unfortunately, I was in the middle of a meeting so I didn't have a chance to open it right away.  However, you can bet between meetings, I had that package open faster than a SSD drive could boot a MAC.

So enjoy some of the pictures I took after opening the box.  Once again, Apple has delighted with the way they have packaged everything so efficiently, y

et with ambiance and elegance.  The Air came in a bl

ack box with a picture of the Air on the front.  The plastic wrap was so well done that it was ha

rd to find an end to start my cut marks.

  I was afraid to scratch the box!

Once the box was open, the Air was seated 

in a plastic tray and had a pull tab to gently remove it from the secured seating

.  Belo

w the tray held the power adapter, the usb cable, and micro-usb ca

bles for monitor attachments.  Disks were provided to allow DVD

 & CD sharing from a non-MAC optical drive.  

Start up was very easy.  I didn't have to worry about migration from another MAC so I got to ignore

 the first step around migration.  Setting u

p wireless was a cinch.  Once turned on, a list of networks was provided

 and upon choosing a network, I only had to provide the WEP key.

Browsing was a cinch, although I have to get used to the keyboard and keypad.  After all, I am a product of Microsoft usage.  

Also, shared drives from a windows based laptop was a cinch...after I understood what I was looking at.  In fact, when I thought I could not access a USB  external drive through the windows based laptop, I plugged the Maxtor One-

Touch external HD into the USB port of the AIR and immediately it was recognized and I could access files.  I was able to direct my iTunes library to the external drive.  In fact, once I accessed the share through the w

indows based laptop, I plugged the Maxtor back in and was able to point my iTunes library through that connection. The wireless is fabulous and fast.  Compared to my HP laptop, I have a great connection when using the AIR downstairs.  Usually the HP laptop has some signal degradation.  Typing is fairly easy with the full keyboard.  I love the back lit keyboard.  Not only is it nice is low light conditions, it's just

 darn sexy.  

The battery is supposed to last for 5 hours s

urfing, so we'll see what happens.  However, another nice feature is the magnetic plug-in for the AC power.  Equally nice is the drop-down bay that grants access to headphone, USB, and micro-USB ports.  I still haven't figured out the power settings and how to make the screen saver work accordingl

y, but again, it's my first foray into the Mac world of laptops.  

Standby mode is really easy...just close the top.  Open it again and it comes out of sleep mode almost instantly.  The touch pad incorporates pinching as well as two-finger twisting to rotate things like pictures.  One thing I am trying to get use

d to is the two finger tap with the click-button.  I have enabled one-finger tapping so that I can select with out clicking.

While creating this post, I just figured out how to make the lighting on the screen brighter!  There is 

definitely a lot I have to get used to.  I also finished importing my bookmarks from Firefox this afternoon.  I started up Garage Band in the early evening.  I read on forum boards that you can just drag  a file onto Garage Band to start using it.  Unfortunately, you can use any of the copy protected stuff.

I think the biggest challenge will be how to utilize the space on the Air.  At only 80Gb,  space gets eaten up fast.  In fact, after booting up, I only had approximately 56Gb left.  Good thing for being able to connect to the networked drive.  The other consideration will be the limitation of only 1 USB port.  Plug your iPhone or iPod in and you are done.  I am hoping there will be a way I can sync my iPhone with the bluetooth functionality.

I plan on getting Office '08, I just can't seem to get away from what I know well.  However, I like the fact that I don't have to run dual OS even though it is capable of doing so.  

As far as the sexy factor, this thing is one sexy laptop.  The 13 in screen feels bigger than it is.  The casing is made up of the same material that the back of the iPhone has.  Everything is relatively simple to use.  So far one of the biggest pluses is that Apple has thought of the experience.  For example, when connecting to a network, the setup doesn't make you try and figure out the name you want.  It doesn't make you refresh the list of seen networks.  As far as size, as you can see by the pictures I have posted, it really does fit into a interoffice envelope. 

Overall, I am really happy with the most spontaneous purchase I have made of this size.  Apple has done a great job at convincing me that their products are worth moving away from tradition.