Gizmos, Gadgets and Steve Jobs, Too

Instead of burning music CDs for the car, Apple says you should get an iPod. Instead of playing movie DVDs, you should download movies from Apple. Instead of backing up onto CDs, you should use Apple’s new Time Capsule service.

Obviously, these arguments aren’t exactly convincing, especially since so many of them involve buying more Apple stuff. At least when it comes to the most critical use of a CD/DVD drive — installing new software or running disk-repair programs — Apple offers a free workaround.

The laptop comes with a little program called Remote Disk, which you can carry around on a CD or a U.S.B. flash drive. It turns any other computer — Mac or PC — into a glorified wireless CD/DVD drive for your MacBook Air. It works seamlessly, even when you’re accessing a Mac software installation CD in a Windows computer.

More sacrifices: the Air has only three jacks. They drop down as a trio from one edge of the machine. You get one U.S.B. jack, a video-output jack and an audio output.

In other words, there’s no Ethernet networking jack, dial-up modem, audio input or FireWire connector. Apple and other companies sell external U.S.B. versions of these items for $30 to $40 each. But even if you buy a U.S.B. FireWire adapter, you can’t use FireWire Disk Mode, which, on all other Mac models, lets you connect two computers with a single cable for superfast file transfers.

In other words, the name “Air” is particularly apt. It describes not only the laptop’s aerodynamic shape, but also its nearly complete inability to connect to cables.

Finally, this machine comes with a 1.6-gigahertz Intel Core 2 Duo chip (a 1.8-gigahertz chip costs $300 more). That’s faster than most ultraportables, and not underpowered by any means: During my day with one of Apple’s display models at the show, I didn’t experience a single hiccup editing video in iMovie, playing nine audio tracks simultaneously in GarageBand, or even conducting a wireless video chat with a friend in Paris. Still, technically, the MacBook Air, which arrives in stores in two weeks, is the slowest Mac available today. Even Apple’s starter laptop, the $1,100 MacBook, is faster.

It’s hard to compare the MacBook Air with Windows ultraportables, since every company plays the compromises differently. Toshiba, Sony and Fujitsu all make near-three-pounders with built-in CD/DVD drives and more jacks. But they generally have smaller screens, slower chips, thicker bodies and half the memory (1 gigabyte instead of 2). And they all cost more.

Most of them also lack the standard Apple laptop goodies like an illuminated keyboard, built-in video camera and a magnetic power adapter that doesn’t drag the laptop off the desk when you trip on the cord.

The new MacBook also runs cool, can use Windows and wakes from sleep in one second. Finally, of course, it’s free from viruses and spyware, and comes without any installed junk heap of trialware.

Even so, the Air isn’t for everyone. Bargain hunters, feature counters and people who don’t see the value of elegance — in general, the same people who despised the iPhone before it came out — would be better off with a bigger, less expensive, more complete laptop. Thanks to the small drive capacity, limited connectors and missing DVD drive, the Air doesn’t make a great primary computer, either.

But as a satellite machine for travelers, executives and presenters, it’s spectacular. Full-size screen, full-size keyboard and five-hour battery in three-quarters of an inch? Get psyched; this laptop is a razor-thin slice of heaven.

David Pogue is a columnist for the New York Times and contributor to CNBC. He can be emailed at: .

Copyright © 2009 The New York Times

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