Many people ask the question.. “Does the 11″ MacBook Air actually have a fan?”. Well, as if a teardown wasn’t enough to prove that it has. I had to find out the scary way, and this is exactly what happened!

Woke up this morning having left my MacBook open and downloading all night. Got ready for work, shut the MacBook lid and slipped it into my Waterfield sleeve (snug fit). Come lunchtime (aprrox 5hrs later), I go to get it out to practice a bit of coding only to find the back of my rucksack to be VERY warm (to say the least). At first I thought maybe there was a hot water pipe running where my bag was stowed. Wrong. Take the sleeve out and it too was hot hot. The poor Air was suffocating inside, the fan immediately coming on full blast. For some reason (unknown to me), it hadn’t gone into sleep mode when I shut the lid. The poor bastard had been stuck in my bag all morning running as hot as a the sun.

My immediate concern, after five hours in the material oven, was whether my pride and joy was now just a paperweight. I let it cool down then turned it on….. nothing. Held down the power button down for 10 seconds, then retried the power…. BOOOOOM. That reassuring tone. It was all working fine, but for the fact it had only 4% battery left. So I got no coding done after all. Goodnight.

Incase you were wondering, this is the ‘prototype’ laptop Google have been shipping to the 60,000 or so beta testers of their new ‘Chrome OS’. The machine itself bears a striking resemblance to the black 13″ Apple MacBook, although nowhere near as refined. Anyway, you had to be a US resident to get on the beta list, and even then you have to sign an online disclaimer preventing you from selling or shipping the unit out the US. That hasn’t stopped a select few appearing on eBay though. I spotted one on the UK site a couple of weeks back, the guy was asking £500 (or best offer) for it. I made him a decent offer but he rejected it. The auction finished without a winner, and it’s never been relisted. There’s also been about four on the US eBay site, but all seem to have been taken down before the auction ended (Google is watching you!)

The spec sheet isn’t all that impressive, an Atom processor, 16GB of storage, 2GB RAM, Intel GMA GPU. Nothing fancy. The Trackpad is meant to be unresponsive and the whole unit is just generally a bit slow (especially playing Flash video, surprise surprise). But that doesn’t stop me wanting to have a play with Google’s unique OS. Everything is stored online, from Word Processor apps to simple Photo Editing, you do it all online. The advantage of this is, you can access your work and files from pretty much anywhere, and it’s all saved automatically. The downside? You need some form of Internet connection, otherwise it’s pretty much a paperweight.

I’d love to get my hands on one of these, not just for testing purposes, but also because it could be a piece of history. The first ever public ‘prototype’ running Google Chrome OS. Must be worth keeping hold of? So if anybody out there fancies the risk of sending one to the UK then drop me a mail from the contact page.

After ditching my mostly unused iPad on eBay the other day, I was pleased when my recently ordered MacBook Air turned up to fill the void. I’d fallen out of love with the iPad. It was neither here nor there. I couldn’t get productive on it. Initially the lack of Flash wasn’t a problem, but I soon found out there was always one site you needed to view that still used it. I also grew quite frustrated with the various inconsistencies when form filling on web pages, sometimes selection boxes would be unusable, the keyboard wouldn’t pop-up etc. I think I should save the iPad rant for another blog post to be honest. Anyway, onward to the replacement, the gorgeous 11″ MacBook Air.

Maxed Out

Slightly worried about the speed of the 1.4GHz model, I was pleased to see an option for a 1.6GHz upgrade. This might not seem like a massive boost, but I believe it was worth the cost, especially for future proofing the machine. I also boosted the RAM from the paltry 2GB standard config to a much healthier 4GB. Basically I pushed the 11-inch as far as it could go. Ooo-er.

Small Footprint, Big Personality

This is the first time since the much loved PowerBook G4 12″ that Apple have put out a sub 13″ laptop. I know people today who still swear by their 12″ PowerBooks, portability is the key for them. Sadly, the PowerPC architecture is long gone, as is it’s performance. So in steps the 11″ MacBook Air (or 11.6 to be precise) Does this mean Apple have given the public what they were craving, an Apple Netbook? Well yes and no. Yes, as in it’s small, it’s light, it’s ultra thin, and most of all, very portable. No, as in it doesn’t use a dreadful Atom CPU, it doesn’t have a laughable GPU, and it doesn’t have a keyboard and trackpad that make you want to shoot yourself in the face. I’ve been using it for a couple of days and it’s a joy to behold. If you like browsing the web or even blogging in bed, this machine is a dream, the full size keyboard makes typing comfortable and proficient. The large glass trackpad is as wonderful as ever, and the sheer weightlessness of the unit makes it very comfy to use.

Glossy Screen, High Resolution

One of the main problems with the slew of 10-inch Netbooks on the market is their lack of screen resolution. Most go with 1024 x 600, it’s just not dense enough to show enough on screen. Apple have upped the ante with the 11″ Air by throwing in an 11.6″ 1366 x 768 resolution screen, that’s higher def than 720p. The result is great, a 16:9 ratio full widescreen display with a higher DPI than any other Apple MacBook, and even higher than a 27″ iMac. There’s no ‘edge-to-edge’ glass here, they’ve kept the aluminium screen bezel, and I honestly quite like that. Contrast ratio is high, colour reproduction top notch, and the viewing angle as good as can be expected. Overall the screen is a beauty. One point I would like to add, Apple have not fitted these Airs with an Ambient Light Sensor, so you’ll have to manage your screen brightness manually. This is obviously a cost saving move, but I can’t say I’ve missed it as a feature.

Questionable Spec, Snappy Performance

What about performance? Many people, myself included, questioned the 1.4GHz processor’s credentials. That was the main reason I upgraded to a 1.6GHz. But after using the machine for a few days, I can safely say I would probably have been happy with the 1.4GHz model. Having said that I’m glad I took the decision to upgrade, as you will see below.

Benchmarking

I ran the CINEBENCH tests and got a CPU score of 0.91. If you want a comparison, the 1.4GHz scores 0.80 in the same test. Putting these scores into perspective, the 2009 MacBook Air 2.13GHz got a score of just 0.83. Many people are wondering how these slower clocked processors can outperform faster ones? The reason seems down to heat. The older proccessors ran too hot and would automatically throttle down their speed to manage the heat. The new ULV (ultra low voltage) CPUs can stay full speed and still remain cool. Infact, it’s a struggle to actually get the fan spinning at all! I also ran the GEEKBENCH 64-bit test and ended up with a score of 2519. This score is on par with the 2009 1.86GHz Air. Interesting that Geekbench didn’t seem to show up the improved processor performance as much as other tests did.

In real world performance these machines are very snappy, aided by the fast SSD drives they open apps quicker than my i7 iMac on most occasions. Talking of the SSD drive, benchmarks show they haven’t got the quickest drive controller on the planet, but they certainly aren’t the slowest. Close the lid and let the machine go into standby mode, when re-opened the screen comes to life in an instant, and you’re right back where you left off. Boot times are excellent, I counted 15 seconds from cold start to being in a usable desktop environment, not to shabby eh?

Netbooks Aren’t Meant For Gaming

In the past I have tried running a few games on Windows based Netbooks, most notable the Samsung NC10, for which I made a video podcast of it running Half-Life 2. It was more of a tech demo, just to show it could actually run it, I wasn’t about to play the whole game through again. The MacBook Air comes with a GeForce 320M GPU with 256MB of shared DDR3 memory. This is Nvidia’s successor to the very successful 9400M, which made its debut in the original Unibody MacBooks. I didn’t really hold high hopes for this latest GPU, I’ve seen a lot of people ridiculing it on internet forums. I was quite surprised though, it runs Half-Life 2 flawlessy at native resolution (1366 x 768) with all effects on high (and even a bit of AA thrown in for good measure). Sure, HL2 is an old game, but I always test my computers with it, so I’ve built up my own benchmark in my mind!

I also loaded up EVE: Online, and that also ran fine in native resolution (and looks spectacular with it). The most recent experiment was Left 4 Dead 2, again it played great at 1366 x 768 with all settings on High. I’m not saying this machine is a polygon pushing powerhouse, but it can certainly hold it’s own on the gaming front. It’s always nice to have the option anyway. What would be nice to have as an option, especially on the 4GB models, would be a choice of upping the VRAM to 512MB. I could see that helping out immensely in texture hungry titles.

Great Looking, Amazingly Useable

Let’s get this straight, the MacBook Air does not choose form over function. It has both. Over the years I’ve seen a slew of good looking Netbooks with decent spec and small form factor, but the minute you start using it, it doesn’t feel right. Cramped trackpads, squashed keyboards, out of line keys, all little annoyances that’ve plagued many a Netbook in the past. Not so with the 11″ MacBook Air. This thing has a full size Keyboard, and a huge (by Netbook standards anyway) Glass Trackpad. Both of these input devices feel absolutely spot on. I could type all day long on this thing, in fact, this entire review was written on it. The Trackpad is typical Apple quality, the Glass is so smooth it’s just perfect, and that reassuring ‘click’ you get when selecting something, brilliant.

Use your laptop in bed? If so, then you will love the 11″ MacBook Air. Lying down with your knees up it sits there perfectly and feels almost weightless. Typing feels great, but the lack of backlit Keyboard can sometimes be an issue. Luckily Apple seem to have made the lettering on the keys very reflective, so the light bouncing off the screen is enough to make the keys visible.

What’s Missing

The new low price of these MacBook Air’s hide some interesting omissions. The most obvious being the lack of Backlit Keyboard. But that isn’t the only thing they left out. There’s no sleep light on the front anymore, the official reasoning behind this is that it doesn’t actually go to sleep, it goes into standby. I think it’s just money saving myself. Also missing is an infra-red port, so no using your Apple Remote. I find this a bit of a let down, but it wasn’t really a feature I used all that much on my old MacBook. As I mentioned earlier, there’s no Ambient Light Sensor, so you will have to adjust screen brightness manually. Lastly, it lacks the SD card slot of it’s big sister, the 13-inch MacBook Air.

Conclusion

I could not be happier with this machine. The battery life is great, I regularly get 6 hours of web browsing, tweeting etc, and today even managed around 7 hours. It’s quick enough for everything I’ll be throwing at it, and it’s very portable. If you’re looking for a machine you can throw in your bag and take out and about, the 11″ MacBook Air is perfect. Okay the price might be high for the specs, but isn’t that always the case with Apple. It’s the all round quality that counts.

Whilst watching the Special Event on Wednesday evening (here in the UK) I was very curious about the new 11-inch MacBook Air. Within 30 minutes of the event finishing I’d ordered one. It was an impulse buy that I’m not regretting! The only two little niggles I have is the lack of SD slot and no Backlit Keyboard, I like a Backlit Keyboard.

I went for the 128GB FLASH version, which is the top end 11-inch model. When I first saw the spec I thought a 1.4GHz CPU was a bit paltry, and I was a bit miffed it still only had 2GB of RAM. Anyone who’s used Snow Leopard will know, 4GB is pretty much a minimum these days. To my surprise, on checking out I noticed a few BTO options, namely a 1.6GHz CPU and a 4GB RAM upgrade. These were immediately ticked. I was shocked to see this only changed the ship date to 3 days. In the past my BTO options usually delayed it by over a week.

So now I just sit back and wait, hopefully by this time next week I could be typing a blog post on my new Apple, dare I say, Netbook!

After all the pain in waiting, my Apple TV finally made an appearance on Friday 8th October. The reason for it’s delay over other pre-orders was I’d made the mistake of ordering the Apple Battery Charger with it. This meant the dreaded ‘Merge In Transit’ had to take place, something I’ve found to completely mess up the tracking in the past. I basically didn’t know it was getting delivered till the night before. Not something to appease a die hard fan!

Anyway, was it worth the wait? Well, yes and no.

The first thing that struck me was how tiny this thing was compared to the older model. The only way I could distinguish which box it was in (over the Charger) was the fact it was heavier. Once unpacked I had doubts this thing would stay in one place next to my TV, it seemed a stiff enough HDMI cable would just move it where it wanted to go! Luckily though, this thing is still weighty enough to hold a sure footing.

When I actually came to plug it in I was wondering where on earth the ports were. Apple have shipped these with a protective black strip around the perimeter of the unit, not entirely sure why, but I suppose it’d prevent any minor marks during transit?

Setup was pretty straight forward and I was soon hooking up to my Time Capsule and logging into Home Sharing. First impressions of the main menu were, sparse. Gone are all the links to buy Music and TV Shows, it’s Movie Rentals or nothing. I thought once I’d connected to my iMac that it’s content would beef up the main menu. Wrong. Instead you are given a Front Row style menu in which to browse your computers content.

That is pretty much it feature wise. Us UK folks have no additional features worth mentioning, no Netflix, no iPlayer, nothing. One thing of interest is I’ve recently read that these units have 8GB of flash memory in them. That seems odd to me, I cannot see streaming a video requiring 8GB of buffer space? Have Apple secretly prepped this for an AppStore? I certainly hope so.

One of the gripes with my old Apple TV was that it would frequently crash my Time Capsule when syncing, and sometimes even when streaming Music. I’m pleased to say the new model hasn’t done this once. I also love the fact it doesn’t get scorching hot. The old one would almost burn the wooden TV unit it was sitting on.

Overall I’m fairly happy with the purchase, streaming content from the iMac works flawlessly, the unit is nice and cool, it’s more responsive than the old one, it works great as an AirTunes (or should I say AirPlay) device. I would’ve liked to have seen more content available, ie BBC iPlayer, especially with the lack of TV Show purchasing. Anyway, the fact I sold my 1st gen unit for £150 and got this for £99 has made me happy enough to not be too disheartened!

Let the Apps commence..

Well they promised it’d ship in September, and Apple have pushed it right to the limit. Just checked the tracking on my Apple TV and it’s finally changed to ‘Prepared for shipment’, after nearly a month of waiting. I’m hoping the fact I ordered the Battery Charger with it won’t delay things like it sometimes does. Oh well, here’s to the next few days of constantly checking my tracking app!

I’ll keep you posted on the shipping times, not that you’re bothered! Hopefully I’ll have it soon enough, lookout for a review of some sort, and maybe a picture of me opening the box with my teeth.

[Update]

Just got a nice email from Apple regarding my order.

Thank you for choosing the Apple Store.

With reference to your recent order, we are pleased to advise that we have upgraded your shipping method at no extra charge.

Your order will be delivered by carrier during business hours and a signature may be required.

 

So here’s hoping it could be delivered even quicker!

Since Bungie announced they were making their last game in the Halo series, the world has been waiting for Reach, Halo: Reach. The final chapter in the legendary franchise goes back to where it all began, a prequel of epic proportions. Not to be content by signing of with a great game, Bungie went all out and created a customised Xbox 360 Slim, much in the same way they did for the first [image] and third [image] games in the series. I went out and bought one. Well, I say went out, I ordered from GAME.co.uk who shipped it to me in barely over 24 hours, good work folks.

Unboxing

Once I got the new console setup, I used the Hard Drive Transfer Kit I’d got with my Elite to transfer all my files over. It was fairly easy to do. It kind of went like this..

1. Start new Xbox and go through initial setup phase
2. Create generic offline profile, then turn off Xbox
3. Connect Elite HD to new Xbox with Transfer Kit
4. Turn on new Xbox and say yes to transferring data
5. Delete the generic offline profile, and you’re good to go

The console itself is very nicely detailed, the paint job looks very tough wearing, and I love the little decals here and there. Not exclusive to this Halo model (feature of new Slim model), the touch sensitive Power and Eject buttons are a nice addition, and make it feel futuristic. What is exclusive to this model though, are the sound effects played when you push either button. Both make sounds straight from the Halo universe. I made a little video, just to give you an idea of what to expect.

Pretty neat eh? If any of you were wondering, while turning on/off you are treated to the Invincibility Power-up sound, while hitting eject plays a Shield Charging effect.

Anyway, on to what you actually get inside the box, and it’s less that I thought:

• Xbox 360 Slim 250GB Console
• Two custom designed Wireless Controllers with Batteries
• A/V Cable (don’t!) and Power Brick
• Halo Reach Standard Edition
• Code to access Limited Edition Elite Armour Set

Overall it’s a pretty sparse set for the price, would’ve been nice to have included a limited edition copy of the game. Instead you get the standard edition, emblazoned with ‘Bundle Copy’, and a disc lacking any form of artwork.  What really does stand out to be an utter joke in my opinion, is that you get a standard A/V composite cable! Yep, that’s right, in the day of High Definition and 3DTV, Microsoft ship this with a cable from the 90′s. Absolutely ridiculous. No component, and no HDMI anywhere in sight. Well at least you get batteries for the controllers…

Pros
Quiet, Loads of storage, WiFi, Halo: Reach paint-job,  2 Controllers.

Cons
No HDMI or Component Cables, Standard Edtion of Reach, tad pricey.

Conclusion
Overall this is a nice set. The console itself has built in N-spec WiFi, is a lot quieter and has a smaller footprint. These are just benefits of the ‘Slim’ upgrade though. If you’ve been looking at upgrading to a Slim console (like I was) and love Halo, then it’s well worth a look. If, however, you already own the newer Slim model, then I don’t think this bundle offers enough to warrant an upgrade.

After selling my original Apple TV on eBay the other day, I decided to go all in and order the new model. I got a good price for the old one, which I mainly used as an AirTunes device to listen to music through my home cinema. Similar thing will be said for the newer one, as it doesn’t benefit from hardly any new features. The fact I got more for my old one than I’m paying for the update, swayed it for me.

One thing I am looking forward to finding out is whether the new one will constantly crash my Time Capsule when synching (and even sometimes when streaming music) At least it’s a process of elimination, with a bit of profit thrown in for good measure! Will also be nice to have a much cooler unit, the original would get seriously hot, and seemed to suffer with stuttering menus and general unresponsiveness.

The hawk eyed of you Apple lovers will notice the Apple TV is the second product in my order! Well I decided on treating myself to the new Apple Battery Charger. It comes with 6xAA batteries, two each for my Keyboard, Magic TrackPad and Magic Mouse. Incidentally I do not have a shipping date yet, and a quick check on the Apple Store shows the Apple TV is now saying 3-4 Weeks! I guess I’ll just have to sit and wait. Keep you posted.

When Apple announced the latest iteration of it’s Apple TV last Wednesday, many, including myself, wondered if the original unit would be treated to a software update to bring it in line with the newer model. Well the simple answer is no, no it won’t. In typical Apple fashion (think iPods) the older system will be left where it is, hot and bothered.

This does have it’s bonuses though, the new Apple TV is a rental only model, while the original will still allow you to purchase media. I’m wondering if further down the line Apple will re-enable purchasing? They could get around the lack of hard drive by downloading it directly to the main streaming client.

Incidentally, the new Apple TV does not seem to be impressing, especially not in the UK. The addition of Netflix streaming is a big bonus for US peeps, probably the biggest selling point to be honest. What do us UK users have to look forward to? Nothing really. I would have liked to have seen a deal struck to get iPlayer on there? But then I suppose that would stop us renting BBC content. Really is a strange situation where we can watch it free on the computer, yet have to pay to rent it on the TV. One things for sure though, this new A4 unit should run far, far cooler than it’s Intel powered predecessor.

Somebody posted this on Twitter earlier today and thought it’d be cool to share with you. During the recent Keynote, Steve Jobs joked about the new iPod nano being used as a watch. Hell it even has an analogue clock app that looks gorgeous! Well this Flickr user decided to try it out with a suspect looking strap! (I think a nice leather band would look better.)

The original image lies with it’s creator, Kei Ogikubo Go and check out his Photostream.

Incidentally, I am still very tempted to get one of these new nanos. I know I don’t need one, but they seem different enough for me to want a play. Seeing pictures like this only make me want one even more!