I'm ecstatic

[John Young]

This must be the correct Group!

I just (yesterday actual) ordered an Air. This is what I get!

MacBook Air, 13-inch
Ships:  1 - 3 business days
Delivers  Sep 4 - Sep 6 via Standard Shipping
Configuration
2.0GHz Intel Dual-Core Core i7
8GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
512GB Flash Storage
No Pages Preinstalled
No Numbers Preinstalled
No Keynote Preinstalled
Keyboard/User's Guide
Country Kit

What has me overwhelmed with happiness and just about to piss with
excitement is that Keyboard/User's Guide. How could they offer so much
at the LOW LOW price. I guess I don't get Pages, Numbers or Keynote but
thats ok I get the Keyboard/User's Guide.

In all seriousness I am really excited about this new computer. Just
think what one can get in a small portable package. I did not know they
offered 512GB Flash Storage. Then think how polished it is. It really is
a very attractive little machine. I will use it on the road as my Mac
Pro resides in my office. Sold my iPad2 as that did not quite do it for
me.

[SMS]

On 8/28/2012 1:36 PM, John Young wrote:

> I will use it on the road as my Mac
> Pro resides in my office. Sold my iPad2 as that did not quite do it for
> me.

One thing I noticed about tablets is so many users on the road now using
USB or Bluetooth keyboards with them. Without a keyboard, a tablet is a
good media player, GPS, and web browser, but it's tough to do real work
on one even though the tablets with quad-core ARM processors are fast
enough to do most business related tasks, as long as you don't need a
tremendous amount of storage.

The $20 spent on a roll-up Bluetooth keyboard was well worth it. It even
came with a keyboard/user's guide that provided endless amusement, i.e.
"The effective electricity-saving can let two AAA batteries maintain
over 1 year in a normal condition for daily use."

Asus had a good idea with their Transformer, but their problem is that
when people are buying a tablet they think that they'll never need a
keyboard again, until they actually try to write something longer than a
short e-mail.

[Flint]

I like Asus's newer Transformer design concept like the Asus TaiChi.

It's basically a netbook sized ultrabook with a 2nd display built into
the back of the cover so as to switch between notebook mode, or with
the lid closed, a tablet mode for Win8's touch UI. Plus it's x86
based. It's supposed drop in October when Win 8 launches.

--
MFB

[SMS]

On 8/29/2012 7:51 PM, Lewis wrote:

> I have a keyboard for my iPad, but I rarely use it. It has to be quite a
> lot of typing before I will pull out the keyboard. Several pages.

It's only when I'm going on a trip and I have to decide if I'll take the
laptop, netbook, or tablet. The netbook often wins because it's much
more versatile than the tablet, while still being pretty small.

One other thing I've found recently, at least outside the U.S., is a lot
of hotels that have wired Ethernet in the rooms and wireless only in
public areas. So with tablet you have to either take a USB to Ethernet
adapter (not for iPad because there's no USB port), or a travel router.

I hope that when Apple redesigns the dock connector for future iPad and
iPhone products that they include USB functionality and offer an adapter
that can be used with USB peripherals. I know that not offering ports on
the iPad was both a philosophical decision and a support decision (users
would expect every USB peripheral in the world to work).