I'm looking forward to Ars' full review and rundown of the Macbook Airs. I hope that while the 1.4/1.6gHz CPU of the 11" may be a little sluggish for CPU intensive tasks, the added speedy/snappy feeling by a faster processor will be nullified by the SSD access speeds. For general purposes, at least from the first impressions I've read from people at the event, it should feel pretty speedy.
But we'll see what the reviews and the benchmarks say. I know people are generally happy with other underclocked Ultraportables like the Alienware M11x (which has a default configuration of a 1.2gHz C2D), so I think benchmarks and user satisfaction should end up looking pretty positive.
Pretty much. Have yet to see a single piece of hardware that is designed as well as an Apple product.
I think the Intel chips inside them are better designed. I mean, have you seen the i7 datasheets? They're nuts.
Also, I very much wish the iPhone was indestructible. Maybe I accidentally bought the destructible version, I dunno.
Durability is very much anecdotal. You can easily find someone who will speak highly of their iPhone's indestructibility and then find someone else who hasn't even dropped theirs and there's a crack in it (that's me). It's hit and miss. As a result I don't touch on that when discussing the pros and cons of the product.
I would say that Apple products all feel good to the touch, though. MacBook Pros are made from a solid chunk of aluminum. With the exception of the screen's backplate there's hardly any flex. iPhones also feel very solid in your hand.
It's basically at a halfway point between netbooks and full laptops, at least CPU/GPU wise. A netbook can barely handle anything more than webbrowsing, some word doc stuff and watching youtube vids. The Air added power means it can run all of the iLife and iWork stuff pretty well and can actually watch/output HD video. It's not going to be doing photoshop or aperture work, but thats what the full laptops are for.
edit: the reason any company has to choose at all is because of Intel's fucking retarded setup for the iX series chips. They all have intel HD GPU shit on them, which apple rightfully thinks is terrible. So a better GPU option has to be used instead, which is too big for small laptops like the Air and 13' MBP. Hopefully the Sandy Bridge (i think thats the next line) are better about this
Do you mean you don't want an on-die graphics processor or do you mean you just want a better one? Integrating it with the processor cuts down on size and gives you the low-power integrated solution needed to complement a discrete graphics chip. I like being able to fall back on the Intel graphics processor for better battery life when I'm disconnected from a power source. Its performance is not ideal, but to me it's better than nothing.
Sandy Bridge is supposed to have faster on-die solutions with Turbo Boost so it'll be better probably.
If you read Ars' article on the subject, they claim the i3 aarandale CPUs actually take up more room in the case because they require a separate controller. Using the i3 would mean there's no room left on the logic board for another graphics chip, leaving Intel's underpowered onboard GPU as your only option.
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SarksusATTACK AND DETHRONE GODRegistered Userregular
edited October 2010
Oh, I was speaking more generally. I had never heard about Arrandale's need for a separate memory controller. That's odd.
Man, my local store still doesn't have the new Airs in. The store in question is in pretty much the largest mall in the Baltimore city/county area. Wtf.
InkSplat on
Origin for Dragon Age: Inquisition Shenanigans: Inksplat776
Airs make me so happy in the pants. Should I suddenly find myself with a well-paying job thrown in my lap I know what I'd celebrate with.
I'd go at least 128 gigs though - 64 just isn't enough for developing stuff with XCode being 8 gigs in addition to whatever else you need.
And it's silly how little space in the Air is actually the hardware - so much of it is taken by the batteries. Where's my fingernail-sized fusion cell!
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syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
edited October 2010
I still stand by my assertion that if I had not gotten an iPad earlier this year, I would be using an Air right now. It is the most lust-worthy laptop I have ever seen.
And I am pretty sure I would have gone with the 11 inch model; the portability is far more important to me than the muscle, as my iPad currently proves.
I am certain that this is the death knell of their bottom-tier MacBooks, and it will be only this and the pro in the next refresh cycle.
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SarksusATTACK AND DETHRONE GODRegistered Userregular
edited October 2010
I could sell my two month old MacBook Pro and get an Air and have leftover cash.
But I really shouldn't. The MBP is my only Mac product and I need the power.
Syndalis I am really stunned by your statement. You love your iPad! It practically replaced your laptop!
Sarksus on
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syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
I could sell my two month old MacBook Pro and get an Air and have leftover cash.
But I really shouldn't. The MBP is my only Mac product and I need the power.
Syndalis I am really stunned by your statement. You love your iPad! It practically replaced your laptop!
It did replace my laptop; I am making my posts on mine today while I convert music here.
That said, if I never got an iPad or this class of device were not available to me and I didn't get a chance to see how well it would work for me, I would have gotten the air, no question.
In a way, I am sad I don't have a use case for it.
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Mr_Rose83 Blue Ridge Protects the HolyRegistered Userregular
edited October 2010
A question to those of you who have more Mac experience than I; how feasible (cost aside) would it be to run a Mac Pro tower headless by remoting in with something like an Air or iPad?
A question to those of you who have more Mac experience than I; how feasible (cost aside) would it be to run a Mac Pro tower headless by remoting in with something like an Air or iPad?
Perfectly fine.
Depending on your needs, though, an Xserve might be a better choice.
I would love to be able to replace my macbook with an iPad, but I'm not confident in it's ability to run forum games that require me to edit maps, or if I'd be at all interested in writing novel-length prose on the thing.
Though I suppose the blue-tooth keyboard would solve that.. but then, why am I not just buying a laptop if I'm going to have to carry a keyboard around with me anyway?
InkSplat on
Origin for Dragon Age: Inquisition Shenanigans: Inksplat776
I would love to be able to replace my macbook with an iPad, but I'm not confident in it's ability to run forum games that require me to edit maps, or if I'd be at all interested in writing novel-length prose on the thing.
Though I suppose the blue-tooth keyboard would solve that.. but then, why am I not just buying a laptop if I'm going to have to carry a keyboard around with me anyway?
An iPad + foldable stand + keyboard still takes up less space in your bag and weighs less than pretty much every laptop out there that isn't a netbook.
Also, having an iPad + keyboard lets you use it without the keyboard, which beats the pants off a laptop for watching movies, reading, etc.
I would love to be able to replace my macbook with an iPad, but I'm not confident in it's ability to run forum games that require me to edit maps, or if I'd be at all interested in writing novel-length prose on the thing.
Though I suppose the blue-tooth keyboard would solve that.. but then, why am I not just buying a laptop if I'm going to have to carry a keyboard around with me anyway?
An iPad + foldable stand + keyboard still takes up less space in your bag and weighs less than pretty much every laptop out there that isn't a netbook.
Also, having an iPad + keyboard lets you use it without the keyboard, which beats the pants off a laptop for watching movies, reading, etc.
But is there a decent Vector/GIMP-like drawing program out there for the iPad? I asked before but no one answered, so I assumed that was a no.
InkSplat on
Origin for Dragon Age: Inquisition Shenanigans: Inksplat776
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syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
I would love to be able to replace my macbook with an iPad, but I'm not confident in it's ability to run forum games that require me to edit maps, or if I'd be at all interested in writing novel-length prose on the thing.
Though I suppose the blue-tooth keyboard would solve that.. but then, why am I not just buying a laptop if I'm going to have to carry a keyboard around with me anyway?
An iPad + foldable stand + keyboard still takes up less space in your bag and weighs less than pretty much every laptop out there that isn't a netbook.
Also, having an iPad + keyboard lets you use it without the keyboard, which beats the pants off a laptop for watching movies, reading, etc.
But is there a decent Vector/GIMP-like drawing program out there for the iPad? I asked before but no one answered, so I assumed that was a no.
It depends on your needs. There is nothing as full fledged or feature rich as gimp or Photoshop. Nor is there really the muscle or input granularity to pull off that kind of fine-grain work. If your mobile needs demand Photoshop level functionality, the iPad will not deliver.
There are tons of really impressive drawing apps for the iPad though... They are just tailored to the device and come with caveats. Google up best iPad drawing apps and see the stuff that comes up.
syndalis on
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I would love to be able to replace my macbook with an iPad, but I'm not confident in it's ability to run forum games that require me to edit maps, or if I'd be at all interested in writing novel-length prose on the thing.
Though I suppose the blue-tooth keyboard would solve that.. but then, why am I not just buying a laptop if I'm going to have to carry a keyboard around with me anyway?
An iPad + foldable stand + keyboard still takes up less space in your bag and weighs less than pretty much every laptop out there that isn't a netbook.
Also, having an iPad + keyboard lets you use it without the keyboard, which beats the pants off a laptop for watching movies, reading, etc.
But is there a decent Vector/GIMP-like drawing program out there for the iPad? I asked before but no one answered, so I assumed that was a no.
iDesign? Freeform? MiniDraw HD? iDraw? TouchDraw?
I haven't used any of these but they all came up when searching the App Store
I would love to be able to replace my macbook with an iPad, but I'm not confident in it's ability to run forum games that require me to edit maps, or if I'd be at all interested in writing novel-length prose on the thing.
Though I suppose the blue-tooth keyboard would solve that.. but then, why am I not just buying a laptop if I'm going to have to carry a keyboard around with me anyway?
An iPad + foldable stand + keyboard still takes up less space in your bag and weighs less than pretty much every laptop out there that isn't a netbook.
Also, having an iPad + keyboard lets you use it without the keyboard, which beats the pants off a laptop for watching movies, reading, etc.
But is there a decent Vector/GIMP-like drawing program out there for the iPad? I asked before but no one answered, so I assumed that was a no.
It depends on your needs. There is nothing as full fledged or feature rich as gimp or Photoshop. Nor is there really the muscle or input granularity to pull off that kind of fine-grain work. If your mobile needs demand Photoshop level functionality, the iPad will not deliver.
There are tons of really impressive drawing apps for the iPad though... They are just tailored to the device and come with caveats. Google up best iPad drawing apps and see the stuff that comes up.
No. I don't need photoshop-level. But something like Inkscape with different layers and vectors would be what I'm looking for. Layers are really the most important aspect.
InkSplat on
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syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
edited October 2010
Check out ArtStudio for iPad; it has layers, is only a few bucks, and has fairly positive reviews.
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KalTorakOne way or another, they all end up inthe Undercity.Registered Userregular
edited October 2010
I'm very lucky I bought my school netbook before the new Airs came out. It was $600 cheaper, but damn, I do love me some Apple engineering. And this trackpad is just embarrassing.
I could sell my two month old MacBook Pro and get an Air and have leftover cash.
But I really shouldn't. The MBP is my only Mac product and I need the power.
Syndalis I am really stunned by your statement. You love your iPad! It practically replaced your laptop!
It did replace my laptop; I am making my posts on mine today while I convert music here.
That said, if I never got an iPad or this class of device were not available to me and I didn't get a chance to see how well it would work for me, I would have gotten the air, no question.
In a way, I am sad I don't have a use case for it.
I don't know what effect buying an Air would/will have on my iPad usage. I really love the iPad for pretty much all browsing, TV/movie watching outside of the living room, and eBook reading. I think it still has an edge over the air battery life and form factor -- the tablet is so much better for these tasks than even the smallest clamshell laptop.
But fuck is the Air sexy, and it's really putting the age of my 3 year old Macbook into perspective. I feel like I'm almost definitely going to upgrade it, I just can't decide between the 11.6" Air and the 13" Pro. And, if I do go for the Pro, I'll need to decide whether to jump now or wait for a Spring refresh.
The Pro is more powerful. The Air is silent and gives off barely any heat, two things I've grown to hate about my old plastic macbook and wouldn't improve with a Pro.
Decisions are hard.
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Big DookieSmells great!Houston, TXRegistered Userregular
edited October 2010
Screw it, I'm done waffling. I'm selling my iPad and getting one of these.
If it weren't for the fact that I write all the time, I probably would stick with the iPad. Yeah, I can set it up with a BT Keyboard and it pretty much works okay, but having a real laptop will just make things so much easier. I will miss it though, especially iBooks.
Once I sell it on eBay and get the Air in, I'll make sure and post some impressions.
I would love to be able to replace my macbook with an iPad, but I'm not confident in it's ability to run forum games that require me to edit maps, or if I'd be at all interested in writing novel-length prose on the thing.
Though I suppose the blue-tooth keyboard would solve that.. but then, why am I not just buying a laptop if I'm going to have to carry a keyboard around with me anyway?
An iPad + foldable stand + keyboard still takes up less space in your bag and weighs less than pretty much every laptop out there that isn't a netbook.
Also, having an iPad + keyboard lets you use it without the keyboard, which beats the pants off a laptop for watching movies, reading, etc.
But is there a decent Vector/GIMP-like drawing program out there for the iPad? I asked before but no one answered, so I assumed that was a no.
It depends on your needs. There is nothing as full fledged or feature rich as gimp or Photoshop. Nor is there really the muscle or input granularity to pull off that kind of fine-grain work. If your mobile needs demand Photoshop level functionality, the iPad will not deliver.
There are tons of really impressive drawing apps for the iPad though... They are just tailored to the device and come with caveats. Google up best iPad drawing apps and see the stuff that comes up.
No. I don't need photoshop-level. But something like Inkscape with different layers and vectors would be what I'm looking for. Layers are really the most important aspect.
I can recommend Sketchbook from Autodesk. Its not near PS nor Gimp feature wise, but it still has very nice functionality (layer transparency for example) and lots of drawing tools. Before you ask further - all pencile for the ipad suck. The ipad registers only finger sized touch'points' - the actual coordinates within the "finger print" vary - making small strokes and detail work an exercise in frustration. The touch area of Most ipad pencils are at eraser size and feal like you are drawing with the eraser back of an actual pencil.
I would love to be able to replace my macbook with an iPad, but I'm not confident in it's ability to run forum games that require me to edit maps, or if I'd be at all interested in writing novel-length prose on the thing.
Though I suppose the blue-tooth keyboard would solve that.. but then, why am I not just buying a laptop if I'm going to have to carry a keyboard around with me anyway?
An iPad + foldable stand + keyboard still takes up less space in your bag and weighs less than pretty much every laptop out there that isn't a netbook.
Also, having an iPad + keyboard lets you use it without the keyboard, which beats the pants off a laptop for watching movies, reading, etc.
But is there a decent Vector/GIMP-like drawing program out there for the iPad? I asked before but no one answered, so I assumed that was a no.
It depends on your needs. There is nothing as full fledged or feature rich as gimp or Photoshop. Nor is there really the muscle or input granularity to pull off that kind of fine-grain work. If your mobile needs demand Photoshop level functionality, the iPad will not deliver.
There are tons of really impressive drawing apps for the iPad though... They are just tailored to the device and come with caveats. Google up best iPad drawing apps and see the stuff that comes up.
No. I don't need photoshop-level. But something like Inkscape with different layers and vectors would be what I'm looking for. Layers are really the most important aspect.
I can recommend Sketchbook from Autodesk. Its not near PS nor Gimp feature wise, but it still has very nice functionality (layer transparency for example) and lots of drawing tools. Before you ask further - all pencile for the ipad suck. The ipad registers only finger sized touch'points' - the actual coordinates within the "finger print" vary - making small strokes and detail work an exercise in frustration. The touch area of Most ipad pencils are at eraser size and feal like you are drawing with the eraser back of an actual pencil.
Well that is pretty stupid. I fucking hate Steve Jobs sometimes. "I don't think you need a stylus, so I'm going to make sure you can't use one at all!"
InkSplat on
Origin for Dragon Age: Inquisition Shenanigans: Inksplat776
I would love to be able to replace my macbook with an iPad, but I'm not confident in it's ability to run forum games that require me to edit maps, or if I'd be at all interested in writing novel-length prose on the thing.
Though I suppose the blue-tooth keyboard would solve that.. but then, why am I not just buying a laptop if I'm going to have to carry a keyboard around with me anyway?
An iPad + foldable stand + keyboard still takes up less space in your bag and weighs less than pretty much every laptop out there that isn't a netbook.
Also, having an iPad + keyboard lets you use it without the keyboard, which beats the pants off a laptop for watching movies, reading, etc.
But is there a decent Vector/GIMP-like drawing program out there for the iPad? I asked before but no one answered, so I assumed that was a no.
It depends on your needs. There is nothing as full fledged or feature rich as gimp or Photoshop. Nor is there really the muscle or input granularity to pull off that kind of fine-grain work. If your mobile needs demand Photoshop level functionality, the iPad will not deliver.
There are tons of really impressive drawing apps for the iPad though... They are just tailored to the device and come with caveats. Google up best iPad drawing apps and see the stuff that comes up.
No. I don't need photoshop-level. But something like Inkscape with different layers and vectors would be what I'm looking for. Layers are really the most important aspect.
I can recommend Sketchbook from Autodesk. Its not near PS nor Gimp feature wise, but it still has very nice functionality (layer transparency for example) and lots of drawing tools. Before you ask further - all pencile for the ipad suck. The ipad registers only finger sized touch'points' - the actual coordinates within the "finger print" vary - making small strokes and detail work an exercise in frustration. The touch area of Most ipad pencils are at eraser size and feal like you are drawing with the eraser back of an actual pencil.
Well that is pretty stupid. I fucking hate Steve Jobs sometimes. "I don't think you need a stylus, so I'm going to make sure you can't use one at all!"
They are completely different technologies. The screen couldn't be glass if it were pressure sensitive and most people aren't artists anyway. I'm going to guess none of the Android models coming out will be pressure sensitive, either.
if you DO use one of those styluses for ipad, you also have to wear a glove that only exposes a couple of your fingers -- Because if you rest you palm on the iPad surface it will register as touches.
Even given the lack of pressure sensitivity and that you can't rest your palm on the surface, I 'm amazed at some of the insane things people have drawn on the iPad.
There are better devices out there if your main focus is mobile drawing/sketching.
They are completely different technologies. The screen couldn't be glass if it were pressure sensitive and most people aren't artists anyway. I'm going to guess none of the Android models coming out will be pressure sensitive, either.
if you DO use one of those styluses for ipad, you also have to wear a glove that only exposes a couple of your fingers -- Because if you rest you palm on the iPad surface it will register as touches.
Even given the lack of pressure sensitivity and that you can't rest your palm on the surface, I 'm amazed at some of the insane things people have drawn on the iPad.
There are better devices out there if your main focus is mobile drawing/sketching.
No, I realize the screen isn't pressure sensitive. I'm fine with a capacitive stylus. It's the fact that the touch zones are all gigantic and unreliable.
It's not that I need it as a sketchpad, but even if I don't personally need the feature, I still can't understand why it's not there to be able to use a reasonably accurate stylus.
InkSplat on
Origin for Dragon Age: Inquisition Shenanigans: Inksplat776
A question to those of you who have more Mac experience than I; how feasible (cost aside) would it be to run a Mac Pro tower headless by remoting in with something like an Air or iPad?
Perfectly fine.
Depending on your needs, though, an Xserve might be a better choice.
As a home user (if you don't need OSX server- which you probably don't need) you don't want an xserve.
You are paying more for less drive bays AND bays that take "special" SAS drives from Apple only.
I have a headless Mac Pro that I use as a server right now - thing is absolutely bullet proof. It has about 22tb of internal and external (ESATA) RAID. I almost exclusively control it from my laptop or other Mac Pro however I have used the iPad to control it.
Honestly I haven't found a VNC for iPad I like. I have an awesome mac-specific one on the iPhone but it hasn't been ported yet.
They are completely different technologies. The screen couldn't be glass if it were pressure sensitive and most people aren't artists anyway. I'm going to guess none of the Android models coming out will be pressure sensitive, either.
if you DO use one of those styluses for ipad, you also have to wear a glove that only exposes a couple of your fingers -- Because if you rest you palm on the iPad surface it will register as touches.
Even given the lack of pressure sensitivity and that you can't rest your palm on the surface, I 'm amazed at some of the insane things people have drawn on the iPad.
There are better devices out there if your main focus is mobile drawing/sketching.
No, I realize the screen isn't pressure sensitive. I'm fine with a capacitive stylus. It's the fact that the touch zones are all gigantic and unreliable.
It's not that I need it as a sketchpad, but even if I don't personally need the feature, I still can't understand why it's not there to be able to use a reasonably accurate stylus.
Well I don't think the ipad was designed on purpose to piss people off regarding this functionality. I think some key decisions have to be made in order to make it work. Smaller touch areas might cause more accidental input - or a touch system with finer resolution might increase the price formthe device.
The programer of the drawing applications could simply fix this issue with an cursor which would control similar to the ship in espaluga 2 (iphone game). This cursor / tool could be controlled by "dragging" it. The line wouldn't appear directly under your finger but a bit to your right - this would also circumwent any jitter resulting from the toucharea of your finger.
I can recommend Sketchbook from Autodesk. Its not near PS nor Gimp feature wise, but it still has very nice functionality (layer transparency for example) and lots of drawing tools. Before you ask further - all pencile for the ipad suck. The ipad registers only finger sized touch'points' - the actual coordinates within the "finger print" vary - making small strokes and detail work an exercise in frustration. The touch area of Most ipad pencils are at eraser size and feal like you are drawing with the eraser back of an actual pencil.
This is pretty much complete bullshit. There's no requirement for something that controls the iPad to be "finger sized", but there is a requirement that the touch point provides enough change in capacitance for the touchscreen to consider it a "touch" and not an accidental or irrelevant input. In high sensitivity capacitive screens, factors like humidity and condensation can cause false-positives. Consumer-focused capacitive touchscreens are built to accept the normal change of capacitance applied when touched by a human finger, but have no "finger-sized touch point" requirement. In order for a stylus to work, it needs to create enough capacitance change for the screen to register it as a touch and not an errant piece of dust that fell onto the screen. To do this with something like conductive foam, a larger contact point is required.
Touch your iPad very, very lightly with the tip of your finger. See how it registers the touch, even though the point at which your finger actually made contact is smaller than a Pogo Sketch stylus?
No, I realize the screen isn't pressure sensitive. I'm fine with a capacitive stylus. It's the fact that the touch zones are all gigantic and unreliable.
It's not that I need it as a sketchpad, but even if I don't personally need the feature, I still can't understand why it's not there to be able to use a reasonably accurate stylus.
They aren't. Stop taking what random people tell you on the internet to be factual information and then getting yourself worked up about it and raging over Steve Jobs. All capacitive touchscreens require the use of the same kind of stylus.
RIM also filed a patent for a combination resistive+capacitive screen a while back to provide stylus precision and ease-of-use fingertip multitouch, but have yet to produce anything that uses it.
imported some video from a couple SDHC cards of mine using iMovie '11, but I ran into a small problem: It imported the video weird. And by "weird" I mean when the clip should end, it now adds another loop or the video of each clip, sans audio.
Any idea why it's doing this, and how to fix it?
EDIT: Hmmm, wait, it seems to be affecting the MP4's I had converted from an earlier batch of raw HD video, not the SDHC files. huh.
I meant to post yesterday, but I used the 11 and 13" airs for about 30 mins in the apple store yesterday while my friend had an appointment. Notes where:
1) Holy crap the 11 is tiny! It feels overall smaller than the 9" Aspire One I'm using right now (thinner but obviously a little wider due to the extra screen size) and the keyboard is obviously full size and really nice to use
2) Double holy crap! The screens on both are stunning, the 11" again is especially nice, the rez works really well, things aren't to small but theres plenty of real estate. Bright and crisp as well.
3) They are both surprisingly fast, even with the 2 gb ram in both stuff opened super rapidly (SSD I guess) and I opened every program i could find and surfed the net, not a stutter. With 4 gb I would imagine even some of the more taxing programs (that apple don't install in store :P) wouldn't have a problem.
Very impressed, shame I can't afford to upgrade my Acer
I can recommend Sketchbook from Autodesk. Its not near PS nor Gimp feature wise, but it still has very nice functionality (layer transparency for example) and lots of drawing tools. Before you ask further - all pencile for the ipad suck. The ipad registers only finger sized touch'points' - the actual coordinates within the "finger print" vary - making small strokes and detail work an exercise in frustration. The touch area of Most ipad pencils are at eraser size and feal like you are drawing with the eraser back of an actual pencil.
This is pretty much complete bullshit. There's no requirement for something that controls the iPad to be "finger sized", but there is a requirement that the touch point provides enough change in capacitance for the touchscreen to consider it a "touch" and not an accidental or irrelevant input. In high sensitivity capacitive screens, factors like humidity and condensation can cause false-positives. Consumer-focused capacitive touchscreens are built to accept the normal change of capacitance applied when touched by a human finger, but have no "finger-sized touch point" requirement. In order for a stylus to work, it needs to create enough capacitance change for the screen to register it as a touch and not an errant piece of dust that fell onto the screen. To do this with something like conductive foam, a larger contact point is required.
Touch your iPad very, very lightly with the tip of your finger. See how it registers the touch, even though the point at which your finger actually made contact is smaller than a Pogo Sketch stylus?
This. I'm currently developing a tangible interface iPad game - it uses a game piece that you place on the iPad's screen, and the piece contains three distinct touch points so that I can calculate what the angle of rotation is. The prototype pieces I'm using are about the size of a finger, and yet the device is able to recognize the three distinct points within a finger-sized radius with awesome accuracy.
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Big DookieSmells great!Houston, TXRegistered Userregular
I meant to post yesterday, but I used the 11 and 13" airs for about 30 mins in the apple store yesterday while my friend had an appointment. Notes where:
1) Holy crap the 11 is tiny! It feels overall smaller than the 9" Aspire One I'm using right now (thinner but obviously a little wider due to the extra screen size) and the keyboard is obviously full size and really nice to use
2) Double holy crap! The screens on both are stunning, the 11" again is especially nice, the rez works really well, things aren't to small but theres plenty of real estate. Bright and crisp as well.
3) They are both surprisingly fast, even with the 2 gb ram in both stuff opened super rapidly (SSD I guess) and I opened every program i could find and surfed the net, not a stutter. With 4 gb I would imagine even some of the more taxing programs (that apple don't install in store :P) wouldn't have a problem.
Very impressed, shame I can't afford to upgrade my Acer
Alright, someone go on eBay and buy my iPad so I can buy this thing already.
I can recommend Sketchbook from Autodesk. Its not near PS nor Gimp feature wise, but it still has very nice functionality (layer transparency for example) and lots of drawing tools. Before you ask further - all pencile for the ipad suck. The ipad registers only finger sized touch'points' - the actual coordinates within the "finger print" vary - making small strokes and detail work an exercise in frustration. The touch area of Most ipad pencils are at eraser size and feal like you are drawing with the eraser back of an actual pencil.
This is pretty much complete bullshit. There's no requirement for something that controls the iPad to be "finger sized", but there is a requirement that the touch point provides enough change in capacitance for the touchscreen to consider it a "touch" and not an accidental or irrelevant input. In high sensitivity capacitive screens, factors like humidity and condensation can cause false-positives. Consumer-focused capacitive touchscreens are built to accept the normal change of capacitance applied when touched by a human finger, but have no "finger-sized touch point" requirement. In order for a stylus to work, it needs to create enough capacitance change for the screen to register it as a touch and not an errant piece of dust that fell onto the screen. To do this with something like conductive foam, a larger contact point is required.
Touch your iPad very, very lightly with the tip of your finger. See how it registers the touch, even though the point at which your finger actually made contact is smaller than a Pogo Sketch stylus?
This. I'm currently developing a tangible interface iPad game - it uses a game piece that you place on the iPad's screen, and the piece contains three distinct touch points so that I can calculate what the angle of rotation is. The prototype pieces I'm using are about the size of a finger, and yet the device is able to recognize the three distinct points within a finger-sized radius with awesome accuracy.
Given the limited amount of information you've shared about your game, I'm unreasonably excited.
Here's what I want to do...I think I want a Mac Mini. I've got a few (re: 2-3) external hard drives which I would like to be able to use to watch things on my home theater setup.
So I can either set up the Mac Mini to stream to my PS3, which is basically how I work things now from my now deceased PC...OR...I can have the Mac Mini connected directly to my Sony receiver via HDMI.
Is that possible?
Part 2...can I just buy some RAM off say, newegg and install it? I believe it's PC3 8500 but other than that I don't know.
I guess as a part 3...whats the best way to back stuff up? Can I do a semi-RAID setup with USB externals?
Here's what I want to do...I think I want a Mac Mini. I've got a few (re: 2-3) external hard drives which I would like to be able to use to watch things on my home theater setup.
So I can either set up the Mac Mini to stream to my PS3, which is basically how I work things now from my now deceased PC...OR...I can have the Mac Mini connected directly to my Sony receiver via HDMI.
Is that possible?
Part 2...can I just buy some RAM off say, newegg and install it? I believe it's PC3 8500 but other than that I don't know.
I guess as a part 3...whats the best way to back stuff up? Can I do a semi-RAID setup with USB externals?
Part 1: Sure. The Mac Mini has HDMI out, so I'd just hook it directly up to the receiver.
Here's what I want to do...I think I want a Mac Mini. I've got a few (re: 2-3) external hard drives which I would like to be able to use to watch things on my home theater setup.
So I can either set up the Mac Mini to stream to my PS3, which is basically how I work things now from my now deceased PC...OR...I can have the Mac Mini connected directly to my Sony receiver via HDMI.
Is that possible?
Part 2...can I just buy some RAM off say, newegg and install it? I believe it's PC3 8500 but other than that I don't know.
I guess as a part 3...whats the best way to back stuff up? Can I do a semi-RAID setup with USB externals?
Part 1: Sure. The Mac Mini has HDMI out, so I'd just hook it directly up to the receiver.
Part 2: Yep. Just make sure it's the right kind.
Part 3: I'll let someone else get that.
Hmm interesting. Now how far can one be for the magic mouse/keyboard to work? At the moment my desk is probably 15' away in a straight line through 2 concrete walls. I'd like to have the mac mini on my desk connected to my monitor for normal PC type use and just output to the receiver as a second one.
I should clearly just buy one and mess around with it, obvious solution.
syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
edited October 2010
Macs are pickier about their memory (and the footprint of said memory). I am almost 99% certain you won't be able to use that memory because of the retarded heatsinks.
Google up otherworld computing and see what they Re charging for RAM for your device. Much cheaper than apple, and guaranteed to work.
syndalis on
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Let's play Mario Kart or something...
0
FFOnce Upon a TimeIn OaklandRegistered Userregular
Macs are pickier about their memory (and the footprint of said memory). I am almost 99% certain you won't be able to use that memory because of the retarded heatsinks.
Google up otherworld computing and see what they Re charging for RAM for your device. Much cheaper than apple, and guaranteed to work.
I haven't looked into the new minis, but I'm pretty sure the only Macs that have heatsinks on the RAM are the Mac Pros. And really the heatsinks are only there to keep the fans at a minimum. Not sure if you need paired RAM in the minis either, guess I should read up on them.
I would recommend crucial for RAM. Been using them for years at home and work, never had a problem.
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But we'll see what the reviews and the benchmarks say. I know people are generally happy with other underclocked Ultraportables like the Alienware M11x (which has a default configuration of a 1.2gHz C2D), so I think benchmarks and user satisfaction should end up looking pretty positive.
If you read Ars' article on the subject, they claim the i3 aarandale CPUs actually take up more room in the case because they require a separate controller. Using the i3 would mean there's no room left on the logic board for another graphics chip, leaving Intel's underpowered onboard GPU as your only option.
I'd go at least 128 gigs though - 64 just isn't enough for developing stuff with XCode being 8 gigs in addition to whatever else you need.
And it's silly how little space in the Air is actually the hardware - so much of it is taken by the batteries. Where's my fingernail-sized fusion cell!
And I am pretty sure I would have gone with the 11 inch model; the portability is far more important to me than the muscle, as my iPad currently proves.
I am certain that this is the death knell of their bottom-tier MacBooks, and it will be only this and the pro in the next refresh cycle.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
But I really shouldn't. The MBP is my only Mac product and I need the power.
Syndalis I am really stunned by your statement. You love your iPad! It practically replaced your laptop!
It did replace my laptop; I am making my posts on mine today while I convert music here.
That said, if I never got an iPad or this class of device were not available to me and I didn't get a chance to see how well it would work for me, I would have gotten the air, no question.
In a way, I am sad I don't have a use case for it.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
Perfectly fine.
Depending on your needs, though, an Xserve might be a better choice.
http://www.apple.com/xserve/
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Though I suppose the blue-tooth keyboard would solve that.. but then, why am I not just buying a laptop if I'm going to have to carry a keyboard around with me anyway?
An iPad + foldable stand + keyboard still takes up less space in your bag and weighs less than pretty much every laptop out there that isn't a netbook.
Also, having an iPad + keyboard lets you use it without the keyboard, which beats the pants off a laptop for watching movies, reading, etc.
But is there a decent Vector/GIMP-like drawing program out there for the iPad? I asked before but no one answered, so I assumed that was a no.
There are tons of really impressive drawing apps for the iPad though... They are just tailored to the device and come with caveats. Google up best iPad drawing apps and see the stuff that comes up.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
iDesign? Freeform? MiniDraw HD? iDraw? TouchDraw?
I haven't used any of these but they all came up when searching the App Store
Watch my music videos
No. I don't need photoshop-level. But something like Inkscape with different layers and vectors would be what I'm looking for. Layers are really the most important aspect.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
I don't know what effect buying an Air would/will have on my iPad usage. I really love the iPad for pretty much all browsing, TV/movie watching outside of the living room, and eBook reading. I think it still has an edge over the air battery life and form factor -- the tablet is so much better for these tasks than even the smallest clamshell laptop.
But fuck is the Air sexy, and it's really putting the age of my 3 year old Macbook into perspective. I feel like I'm almost definitely going to upgrade it, I just can't decide between the 11.6" Air and the 13" Pro. And, if I do go for the Pro, I'll need to decide whether to jump now or wait for a Spring refresh.
The Pro is more powerful. The Air is silent and gives off barely any heat, two things I've grown to hate about my old plastic macbook and wouldn't improve with a Pro.
Decisions are hard.
If it weren't for the fact that I write all the time, I probably would stick with the iPad. Yeah, I can set it up with a BT Keyboard and it pretty much works okay, but having a real laptop will just make things so much easier. I will miss it though, especially iBooks.
Once I sell it on eBay and get the Air in, I'll make sure and post some impressions.
Oculus: TheBigDookie | XBL: Dook | NNID: BigDookie
I can recommend Sketchbook from Autodesk. Its not near PS nor Gimp feature wise, but it still has very nice functionality (layer transparency for example) and lots of drawing tools. Before you ask further - all pencile for the ipad suck. The ipad registers only finger sized touch'points' - the actual coordinates within the "finger print" vary - making small strokes and detail work an exercise in frustration. The touch area of Most ipad pencils are at eraser size and feal like you are drawing with the eraser back of an actual pencil.
Well that is pretty stupid. I fucking hate Steve Jobs sometimes. "I don't think you need a stylus, so I'm going to make sure you can't use one at all!"
if you DO use one of those styluses for ipad, you also have to wear a glove that only exposes a couple of your fingers -- Because if you rest you palm on the iPad surface it will register as touches.
Even given the lack of pressure sensitivity and that you can't rest your palm on the surface, I 'm amazed at some of the insane things people have drawn on the iPad.
There are better devices out there if your main focus is mobile drawing/sketching.
Watch my music videos
No, I realize the screen isn't pressure sensitive. I'm fine with a capacitive stylus. It's the fact that the touch zones are all gigantic and unreliable.
It's not that I need it as a sketchpad, but even if I don't personally need the feature, I still can't understand why it's not there to be able to use a reasonably accurate stylus.
As a home user (if you don't need OSX server- which you probably don't need) you don't want an xserve.
You are paying more for less drive bays AND bays that take "special" SAS drives from Apple only.
I have a headless Mac Pro that I use as a server right now - thing is absolutely bullet proof. It has about 22tb of internal and external (ESATA) RAID. I almost exclusively control it from my laptop or other Mac Pro however I have used the iPad to control it.
Honestly I haven't found a VNC for iPad I like. I have an awesome mac-specific one on the iPhone but it hasn't been ported yet.
Well I don't think the ipad was designed on purpose to piss people off regarding this functionality. I think some key decisions have to be made in order to make it work. Smaller touch areas might cause more accidental input - or a touch system with finer resolution might increase the price formthe device.
The programer of the drawing applications could simply fix this issue with an cursor which would control similar to the ship in espaluga 2 (iphone game). This cursor / tool could be controlled by "dragging" it. The line wouldn't appear directly under your finger but a bit to your right - this would also circumwent any jitter resulting from the toucharea of your finger.
This is pretty much complete bullshit. There's no requirement for something that controls the iPad to be "finger sized", but there is a requirement that the touch point provides enough change in capacitance for the touchscreen to consider it a "touch" and not an accidental or irrelevant input. In high sensitivity capacitive screens, factors like humidity and condensation can cause false-positives. Consumer-focused capacitive touchscreens are built to accept the normal change of capacitance applied when touched by a human finger, but have no "finger-sized touch point" requirement. In order for a stylus to work, it needs to create enough capacitance change for the screen to register it as a touch and not an errant piece of dust that fell onto the screen. To do this with something like conductive foam, a larger contact point is required.
Touch your iPad very, very lightly with the tip of your finger. See how it registers the touch, even though the point at which your finger actually made contact is smaller than a Pogo Sketch stylus?
They aren't. Stop taking what random people tell you on the internet to be factual information and then getting yourself worked up about it and raging over Steve Jobs. All capacitive touchscreens require the use of the same kind of stylus.
edit: there are ways to get precision out of a stylus used in a capacitive screen, but currently the only two companies working on them that I know of are HTC (who have had this patent for a while and haven't done anything with it), and Cypress who built one for their own TrueTouch screens.
RIM also filed a patent for a combination resistive+capacitive screen a while back to provide stylus precision and ease-of-use fingertip multitouch, but have yet to produce anything that uses it.
imported some video from a couple SDHC cards of mine using iMovie '11, but I ran into a small problem: It imported the video weird. And by "weird" I mean when the clip should end, it now adds another loop or the video of each clip, sans audio.
Any idea why it's doing this, and how to fix it?
EDIT: Hmmm, wait, it seems to be affecting the MP4's I had converted from an earlier batch of raw HD video, not the SDHC files. huh.
1) Holy crap the 11 is tiny! It feels overall smaller than the 9" Aspire One I'm using right now (thinner but obviously a little wider due to the extra screen size) and the keyboard is obviously full size and really nice to use
2) Double holy crap! The screens on both are stunning, the 11" again is especially nice, the rez works really well, things aren't to small but theres plenty of real estate. Bright and crisp as well.
3) They are both surprisingly fast, even with the 2 gb ram in both stuff opened super rapidly (SSD I guess) and I opened every program i could find and surfed the net, not a stutter. With 4 gb I would imagine even some of the more taxing programs (that apple don't install in store :P) wouldn't have a problem.
Very impressed, shame I can't afford to upgrade my Acer
This. I'm currently developing a tangible interface iPad game - it uses a game piece that you place on the iPad's screen, and the piece contains three distinct touch points so that I can calculate what the angle of rotation is. The prototype pieces I'm using are about the size of a finger, and yet the device is able to recognize the three distinct points within a finger-sized radius with awesome accuracy.
Alright, someone go on eBay and buy my iPad so I can buy this thing already.
Oculus: TheBigDookie | XBL: Dook | NNID: BigDookie
Given the limited amount of information you've shared about your game, I'm unreasonably excited.
Here's what I want to do...I think I want a Mac Mini. I've got a few (re: 2-3) external hard drives which I would like to be able to use to watch things on my home theater setup.
So I can either set up the Mac Mini to stream to my PS3, which is basically how I work things now from my now deceased PC...OR...I can have the Mac Mini connected directly to my Sony receiver via HDMI.
Is that possible?
Part 2...can I just buy some RAM off say, newegg and install it? I believe it's PC3 8500 but other than that I don't know.
I guess as a part 3...whats the best way to back stuff up? Can I do a semi-RAID setup with USB externals?
Part 1: Sure. The Mac Mini has HDMI out, so I'd just hook it directly up to the receiver.
Part 2: Yep. Just make sure it's the right kind.
Part 3: I'll let someone else get that.
Hmm interesting. Now how far can one be for the magic mouse/keyboard to work? At the moment my desk is probably 15' away in a straight line through 2 concrete walls. I'd like to have the mac mini on my desk connected to my monitor for normal PC type use and just output to the receiver as a second one.
I should clearly just buy one and mess around with it, obvious solution.
EDIT: Also, thanks for the info!
Double Ninja Edit: So this would work?
Google up otherworld computing and see what they Re charging for RAM for your device. Much cheaper than apple, and guaranteed to work.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
I haven't looked into the new minis, but I'm pretty sure the only Macs that have heatsinks on the RAM are the Mac Pros. And really the heatsinks are only there to keep the fans at a minimum. Not sure if you need paired RAM in the minis either, guess I should read up on them.
I would recommend crucial for RAM. Been using them for years at home and work, never had a problem.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop
They won't steer you wrong on what RAM you need.
Switch: 6200-8149-0919 / Wii U: maximumzero / 3DS: 0860-3352-3335 / eBay Shop