wow factor

Ars Technica reviews the MacBook Air

One way to look at the MacBook Air is as the largest and most capable iPod in Apple's line—think of it as an iPod touch Extreme with a built-in keyboard. It is not meant to be your only or main computer—rather, it's a secondary (or even tertiary) computer. It has to be, because it depends on the presence of at least one other computer in order to install anything from an optical drive, unless you buy an external optical drive

This comprehensive review left me with the impression that this is stage one in the development of a light, thin, stylish and capable laptop.

The summary below has me marking this clever MacBook Air with...
some major improvements expected.

Article summary.....

The Good

• Form factor is indisputably thin and light. Photos don't do it justice
  Sturdy despite its looks
• Works great as a full-size portable Internet device

The Bad

• Migration Assistant is incredibly annoying to use without FireWire
• Most of your USB devices won't fit into the tiny port door—stock up on your extension cables
• Performance isn't exactly the Air's strong point compared to other Macs

The Ugly

• 4200rpm drive causes major machine slowdowns when there's lots of disk activity
• Battery life is disappointing—only half of advertised life on lowest screen brightness

The laptop and Steve_Jobs hair.

Image source: SMH - Digital Life

Captain FTP 5.2
This upgrade answers my wish for File Compare on the Mac. It’s simple and it works.
If only the purchasing and upgrading information was just as simple.

As the better half puts it..

it’s a confusing registration system that sucks so much you’d swear it wasn’t a Mac app

New features:

* Compare Files.
* Edit files with Leopard Functionality.
* Text File handling for SFTP servers.
* Any editor can now be used to edit text files remotely. This improves on previously only supporting ODB text editors.
* Import shortcuts from Fetch v.5.x.

The time was right to plunge into Leopard despite the "blue screen of death" postings everywhere

There are three Macs in the house. First cab off the rank was the MacBook Pro and the upgrade was seamless.
Next the better half's little G4 which wouldn't let the upgrade get to the first furlong.
The various forums repeatedly said that any third party addons could stop it like a ton of bricks. So, the missus gets out the screwdriver, removes the additional 512k ram and bingo, it installed faultlessly. Slotted the ram back in and it's purring like a kitten.

The iMac is next and should be fine.

First observations are it looks sharper, runs faster and Spaces is nifty, especially on the smaller laptop screens.

I'm not an early adopter of anything more expensive than a good wine.

When it comes to computers, phones, audio etc, I'm as slow as a wet week.

This has downsides. Whatever I buy, especially from Apple, is usually followed within milliseconds by the next best version.
Within a month of purchase, our iPod, MacBook Pro and Imac made quantum leaps.

However it does have upsides. Just ask Jeffrey Zeldman

My next Tech Toy has landed in OZ and I'm still procrastinating. Maybe the iPhone will be debugged and available by the time I make a decision.
And don't even ask me about upgrading to that very spotty Leopard. I'm reading everything John Gruber writes on it, if I can find it, before jumping in boots and all.