The four riders of the MacBook Air

Gallop, gallop... so Mr. Jobs finally give me a choice to replay my trusty 12" PowerBook G4. I had my prediction, was I right?

• Similar form factor, thinner would be nice
• I would say a profound YES
• Proper keyboard, i.e. a MacPro not a MacBook keyboard
• Another YES
• Faster processors, my 1.33GHz is not coping well these days
• 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz... not Flash Lightening, but much faster
• 2GB Memory
• YES
• Better battery life (hell this is a wish-list)
• YES
• 2 x USB 2.0
• NO. This is a real bummer, one USB... dude come on!
• 1 x Firewire
• NO. How exactly am I going to transfer my account info?
• iSight built in
• YES
• DVD burner
• NO
• Line in
• NO
• Headphone
• YES
  

So I think I got the key things right. Love how it looks, not sure I love only one USB and no Ethernet... but as the acid test defines it, I order one as the Apple Store opened... :-)

The cult of the 12" PowerBook

So I sit here on my aging but much loved 12" PowerBook after a coast-to-coast trip in the USA. I still smile like the Cheshire cat when I see people with there jumbo 15" or 17" machines trying to open up their laptops in economy class. The 12" PowerBook, now discontinued, is probably the best form factor I have ever used if you spend your life in 9B (substitute your own favorite seat). I was happy to see that on my last trip I counted four other people who still hang on grimly to their beloved machines, waiting for that day when Apple thinks small is beautiful again. We can only hope.

So what would I like? Well
- Similar form factor, thinner would be nice
- Proper keyboard, i.e. a MacPro not a MacBook keyboard
- Faster processors, my 1.33GHz is not coping well these days
- 2GB Memory
- Better battery life (hell this is a wish-list)
- 2 x USB 2.0
- 1 x Firewire
- iSight built in
- DVD burner
- Line in
- Headphone

Things I could live without
- Modem
- Firewire 800
- If I really had to I could loose the DVD burner, if I have USB then I can plug in an external burner

Its still great to see so many of these machines in use, but Leopard is coming and Apache + MySQL + Eclipse just about brings my machine to its knees.

Coming up next time: "Stop crying over spilt beer"