I'm curious as to how Zero's getting on with his newish Air.
Air-related posts from other members also welcome.
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Well, its early days yet. Still not a convert to OS X Lion yet, too many multi touch gestures to get my head round still. Not keen on the way the interface tries to hide everything from you.
Hardware* wise its a super little bit of kit, nice bright sharp screen and the keyboard is lovely to use and the hardware / OS is fast and nippy. Very fast and nippy for a net-book. My only complaint is a lack of SD card slot, which is available on its bigger brother.
As for "its Apple everything just works" - far from it. If you want to see media types other than the approved apple .mov format, you have to parp around with new codecs or a new media player. Connecting it into a home network so you can share (mount) drives and devices (printers) is far harder than it should be, all far outside the scope of non savvy IT users. Parts of the included software are tied to the original owners Itunes account so cant be transferred.
In short if it ain't apple approved, its a pain.
However, I think we shall get along just fine, Icloud is superb in linking the Iphone.
*Its the 11.7" 128Gb SSD / 4GB ram model. I was going to get a new laptop anyway, and when this appeared at only a 100 quid more than i was going to pay, its was a no-brainer.
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Forgot to add, you just have to love a machine that has a magnetic plug for its charger.
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...you just have to love a machine that has a magnetic plug for its charger...
It saved my MacBook from a possible tumble off the sofa in the caravan when I was hobbling about a few months ago.
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I'd agree about the media player and sharing printers bit. But something like MplayerX is very good IMO.
I'd say things are not hidden as such is OS X. You always have a proper Unix based command line too. And some settings can be tweaked that can't be via the UI - something I suppose backs up they hide things.
I can only assume the apps that are not working are perhaps iWork apps that they purchased in the App Store - hence linked with their account. I've never bothered with iWorks but I did purchase an iLife 11 to upgrade to the latest apps in 2010 and that didn't ask for any credentials.
So do you have iMove, iPhoto etc. all working. If not perhaps contact me in an email Z.
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Yeah, I got iPhoto and iMovie working in the end thanks.
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Will it take DVDs Zed ? Let me know I have a iLife11 on DVD. (Legit !)....let me know if you want it.
Last edited by: R.P. on Sun 11 Mar 12 at 20:23
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That's what I was saying above RP - but giving a copy wouldn't be legit. Hence saying email me ;-)
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...but giving a copy wouldn't be legit...
Sense of proportion needed here.
RP - or me - giving Zeddo our bundled copy of iLife is hardly likely to start an international breach of software intellectual rights investigation.
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But Apple needs the money! :-)
I did say to Z he could contact me too.
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Ok Ok guys, I know I am gorgeous, but no need to fight over me.
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No worries Zeddo - there for you if you want it !
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The rumoured MB Air 15" looks tempting.
Z... would you be interested in some 'how to' videos for some of the Mac software etc. Maybe take a look at screencastsonline.com. I know Don who runs/owns it. It has some very good material and a subscription gets access to the older stuff too - and you can download and keep it.
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The 13 inch air is surprisingly heavy for a netbook, I guess the 15 inch will be heavier still, and at 15 inches its more of a laptop, so its just the new macbook i guess.
Thanks for the offer but I have got to grips with using the mac now, still got issues with printing via the Win 7 server, and remote cd/dvd won't play.
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Just got my Macbook Air 13". It's faster than the Dell it replaces and has more hard disk (well SSD) capacity. So I guess the lines between laptops and netbooks have become rather blurred. I'm well pleased with it. Brilliant display, mouse functionality and keyboard and great usability.
Installed MS Office 2007 using the DVD Player built into in my 8 year old iBook G4 which was a doddle, synchronised my iTunes and hooked up to my iCloud account. All totally straightforward.
In fact the only thing I don't like is the lack of Calendar Week display in Outlook. I'm still looking for a solution to this. It's a small but infuriating ommission - when I make appointments with customers, the first thing they say is - are you available in Calendar Week x.
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>> Thanks for the offer but I have got to grips with using the mac now,
>> still got issues with printing via the Win 7 server, and remote cd/dvd won't play.
Yes, I managed to connect remotely to the DVD Player in my old iBook with literally a couple of keystrokes, to install MS Office. Didn't manage to connect remotely to the DVD player in my Dell though.
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Didn't manage to connect remotely to
>> the DVD player in my Dell though.
I installed all the required software on the windows machine, sorted out the firewall, and had it appear in mac finder, see the folders on the mounted remote cd, but wouldn't open them (it was an audio cd)
Now the drive won't appear in finder.
I have full access to the shared hard drive on the windows machine, read and write no problem
I have also installed the correct drivers for my Canon printer thats attached to the windows server, my mac can see it, but won't print, no messages, no errors. All the wireless windows machines can use it.
NOt really worked hard on resolving it, but its typical "not invented here" syndrome from apple.
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My Pro will print wirelessly to the Canon MP560 we have, but you can't scan remotely from it - crazy
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>> I have full access to the shared hard drive on the windows machine, read and
>> write no problem
That's good to know. Thought it might have been connected with something our ex-IT Administrator had done with the Dell. His response to everything was to ban it or block it. If I've got time I'll experiment with our Toshiba laptop and see if I can connect up to that.
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Well I have cd share working, sometimes.
I have nearly fixed the printer, at least stuff goes into the queue now but nothing comes out the printer.
Good old apple, it all just works - NOT.
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On the other hand, I don't have a print server and the MBA just found my network printer, offered me the driver and 2 minutes later I was printing. Never had that "experience" on any Microsoft machine.
Also impressed by getting my iTunes so painlessly coped via the Cloud from the Dell to the MBA.
Still scratching my head with transferring my old iPhoto setup from the iBook to the MBA though. Might have to resort to copying it from the external disk drive backup - though that would be admitting defeat!
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Well I have got the printer to print a couple of test pages, but there are authentication issues. It comes up with a comms error, so you stop the job, restart the job, put your password and user id in the authentication box and it prints. next time you have to do all that again despite the fact you saved the id in on the keychain.
Seems to be a common issue with no real resolution when printing through windows servers.
Discovered the PDF viewer built in to the OS is pretty useless too, wont allow other pdf links to open from chapter links in the index.
Guess I will download adobe reader
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>> Discovered the PDF viewer built in to the OS is pretty useless too, wont allow other pdf links
>> to open from chapter links in the index.
I have to say I've never had a problem. I understood the entire UI is based on PDF too. The underpinnings of OS X is NeXtStep and that was DisplayPostscript based.
Not saying your PDFs aren'r working.
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>> Not saying your PDFs aren'r working.
Well not from remote cd thgey are not. I have ordered a usb dvd r/w drive, the Samsung SE-208AB for 20 quid, it will be useful for Nicoles windows netbook as well.
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>> >> Not saying your PDFs aren'r working.
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>> Well not from remote cd thgey are not. I have ordered a usb dvd r/w
>> drive, the Samsung SE-208AB for 20 quid, it will be useful for Nicoles windows netbook
>> as well.
Well the Samsung Drive arrived. It works fine on the Mac. I put in my CD with the lancer workshop manual on. Its a series of PDF's with clickable links to the other PDFs making a full indexed manual.
Using the inbuilt PDF reader of the Mac, the links don't work - each one claims problems with permissions even tho they have all been set right.
Downloading the PDF reader from Adobe, means it works as designed.
More "Not designed here" nonsense.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 20 Mar 12 at 10:50
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>> Thanks for the offer but I have got to grips with using the mac now
I was suggesting getting to grip and getting the best out of the iLife software to be honest.
Sounds like you've experienced what most Apple users are in denial over - it only works and causes no issues if you do it the Apple way. Part of the reason why I went Android for my phone in 2010. But some of the missing features I wanted (like decent notifications) are in iOS now. And maybe there will be a bigger screen now Steve Jobs can't stop it. He could be stubborn.
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>> >> Thanks for the offer but I have got to grips with using the mac
>> now
>>
>> I was suggesting getting to grip and getting the best out of the iLife software
>> to be honest.
To be honest the Ilife stuff is not that useful to me. The video suite is fairly limited for my needs and I have powerdirector on the main machine, I have photoshop cs4 so Iphoto is limited in comparison, and garage band? well franky wtf!
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Who uses GarageBand?
I think you ought to look at iLife. If you don't think you need it etc... it does most things very well. Leaving the rest of the tasks for Aperture, PhotoShop etc.
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>> Sounds like you've experienced what most Apple users are in denial over - it only
>> works and causes no issues if you do it the Apple way. Part of the reason why I went Android for my phone in 2010.
Exactly the same reason I went Android - well, that and the fact Nokia have lost their way...
>> And maybe there will be a bigger screen now Steve Jobs can't stop it. He could be stubborn.
I think one of 2 things will happen to Apple now Jobs has gone.
1/ They will either open up, allow things to be done the way users really want, not just the way Apple wants them to, or.....
2/ Without his vision and leadership, Apple will crash and burn.
Believe it or not, I would hate to see option 2/ result.
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What's the Air like, Zeddo? - Zero
