The marketplace will deal with that, just like it did for the ipod and iphone. Anyway, that's what I believe.

I'll be at the mothership next Friday. I'll find out how hard it is to replace the battery.

-David

Me too. This is exactly the point I made in post #4 of this thread.

At some point between when my Air is delivered and when I need to replace the battery I will skip 2 lap dances that I was planning to get. That should cover the difference.

This is what Gizmodo says about the battery:

http://gizmodo.com/348753/macbook-air-review

I ordered one. My old traveling computer (HP nee Compaq TC1100 Tablet -- but I never use it as a tablet ) is in need of replacement. I'm not much for working on the plane, so battery use is mostly when I'm too lazy to plug in. Mostly don't need an optical drive when traveling (but I bought the add on). I would have like to seen an Ethernet port, since sometimes at customers I have to use a wired connection, but I can live with the dongle.

Looked at the Sony VAIO -- I owned a used one back in Pentinum I days that I liked very much -- and if I could buy it with XP or even Win2K I might have

A client bought a bunch of Toughbooks for their salesman, and they have problems -- not that tough and a long, long time to get problems fixed so I was leary of them.

Just sad it won't come in time for my next "Beer Run" to Germany in a couple weeks.

They talked about it on the Today Show this morning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZPklZE8b_Y

Yeah right, on my next transcon or Europe flight I will be sure to check for all you Mac heads with your tool kits out disassembling your Air's on your seatback tray tables after the first battery conks out after less than 3 hours.

Hey, I am no Mac-hater:

* Minimalist industrial design with attention paid to even small details - good
* Mag-safe power connector - good
* Unix-based OS - good

* The Air - self-indulgent, masturbatory exercise in style over substance.

I typically use the empower or regular ac plug on transcons, trans-atlantic / pacific flights. The power ports are getting very common, even in the back of the bus. I fly at least twice a week and between the airport clubs and power ports in flight have never ran out of juice when I needed it.

Well, people used to make-do without toilet paper when they had to as well.

The idea of paying $2K and having to adapt to the laptop instead of the other way around seems odd to me.

In all seriousness I have never understood why just about every Mac-head deflects any criticism of a Mac with the revelation of their own anecdotal experiences.

In the "review" of the Air and Sony TZ up-thread a lot of the comments went like, "why would you need a Firewire port, I can't remember the last time I used one", or, "who needs an optical drive, I put my movies on my hard drive."

Well I for one need a small, light portable laptop but I also need to be able to connect to digicams and scanners while on the road - Firewire.

I am constantly downloading full, 8 GB CF cards to my laptop - ExpressCard cardbus slot for fast CF adapter and DVD burner to back-up all of those important images.

As for power, there are still more airline seats without Empower than with it.

And truth be told, my anecdotal portable laptop needs are not unique.

Sorry, but the Air just strikes me as a wireless web-surfing/e-mail appliance at best.

I think the Air is just not for you. Try the Macbook Pro, that has firewire and ExpressCard, though not very small.

Let me change that.

We all do, except for anrkitec. Most of us understand it isn't the right product for everybody, nor was it intended to be.

-David

What other way can you discuss the merits of something if not by relating your own experiences?

Aren't you doing the same when you bring up the things you need which the Air obviously doesn't have?

Tummy, don't encourage him.

-David

That was exactly my point, that many a Mac-defender can't see the other guy's point of view - it's too much like religion -which is part of what creeps me out about the whole Mac World thing.

I appreciate much of what Mac does, I just don't dig the fan bois/proselytizing thing.

Proof-positive that religion doesn't like being criticized/questioned.

Why not ask the mods for a Mac-only forum where you have to prove Mac ownership to post. ^

You could circle-jerk in there all day long without being interupted.