Tetsuo Time

I just read about someone who bought a Macbook Air intending it to be for his girlfriend. He bought it off of ebay for around $700 which is a steal for a MBA (They start at more than twice that). When he received it however he noticed there where things different about it. Things such as the bottom being black, the battery being non-standard and it was running Tiger rather than Leopard. Seeing pictures of the internals one can see that it also has a bulkier red motherboard.

It turns out that the unit that he received was a prototype. He was concerned as some mentioned to him that it may be stolen. So he went to the Apple store and asked the workers there about it. They told him that he could do whatever he wants with it but he wanted to be sure. So they called corporate headquarters and asked and they said he could keep it or sell it. So he got a card from the manger for just in case so they could keep in touch.

Well, he was thinking of putting in on ebay because it's not really ideal for everyday use. It's probably best off in a collectors hands. At this point however the news was already all over the Apple rumor web sites. He received a phone call from a phone number that showed up as "Unknown" on his caller ID. It was someone purporting to be from "Apple Security" saying they would like to make arrangements and that they would call back. Well they never did and he had already recieved permission from Apple to sell it so he listed it on ebay.

If the auction goes well I think this person is really lucky. It may fetch a good price from a collector and he may be able to get a brand new MBA and something extra depending on how much it ends up going for. It's pretty interesting that Apple wont support it or even acknowledge that it's an Apple product. The original seller probably could have gotten more for it if they where honest about it now that I think of it.

Someone at the Mac Users LJ community was asking what people thought of the current Mac Mini with Superdrive. Some of them said things like, "My friend told me that it's only good for light web surfing and word processing and it can't even handle streaming video". That's simply untrue.... I've had the older Mac Mini since 2005 and it can do those things and more. I've even beaten what was considered the latest games of these past couple of years on it albeit on low settings thanks to its ATI Radeon GPU. The new Mac Mini with the Core 2 Duo may not be able to play the latest games but it can play all the videos including HD that you can throw at it... as well as do graphics work and all other general computing tasks that you'd want to do.

I had to say something in defense of the Mac Mini although it may also be true that if you are having to buy peripherals and a monitor with it that an iMac especially a refurbished one might be a better choice. But I get the feeling that the person doesn't care too much about games and so either computer may suit her just fine.

Here's the thing... even though the Mac Mini pretty much is just an entry level computer (especially now that it's on integrated graphics) it's still a better value than the MacBook Air which features a slower CPU, Slower smaller iPod hard drive, and less of everything else. Now, before anyone yells at me I understand there is a small market out there for "ultraportable" laptops that tend to sacrifice features and power for portability.. but I'm just thinking about the real world for those who can't afford such stuff. Also when I'm out and about I know I can live without an optical drive and the other things its missing but it still stands for me that you are paying more for less.

For example if I put 1,7000+ dollars (with accessories) into one of those that would have been money that I could have sunk into building a good gaming PC or even getting an iMac or something. Heck, someone put a list of parts from newegg that shows you can put together a pretty decent gaming PC for around 700 dollars so that would be the path that makes sense for me personally.

But for someone who needs a simple little computer that can do most tasks a regular person needs to do on a daily basis a new Core 2 Duo Mac Mini fits the bill. Heck I'm still pretty much happy with the older G4 Mac Mini for those tasks and for older games... and I'm probably going to keep it for as long as it works as a spare computer even when I get me a new one.

Someone at the Mac Users LJ community was asking what people thought of the current Mac Mini with Superdrive. Some of them said things like, "My friend told me that it's only good for light web surfing and word processing and it can't even handle streaming video". That's simply untrue.... I've had the older Mac Mini since 2005 and it can do those things and more. I've even beaten what was considered the latest games of these past couple of years on it albeit on low settings thanks to its ATI Radeon GPU. The new Mac Mini with the Core 2 Duo may not be able to play the latest games but it can play all the videos including HD that you can throw at it... as well as do graphics work and all other general computing tasks that you'd want to do.

I had to say something in defense of the Mac Mini although it may also be true that if you are having to buy peripherals and a monitor with it that an iMac especially a refurbished one might be a better choice. But I get the feeling that the person doesn't care too much about games and so either computer may suit her just fine.

Here's the thing... even though the Mac Mini pretty much is just an entry level computer (especially now that it's on integrated graphics) it's still a better value than the MacBook Air which features a slower CPU, Slower smaller iPod hard drive, and less of everything else. Now, before anyone yells at me I understand there is a small market out there for "ultraportable" laptops that tend to sacrifice features and power for portability.. but I'm just thinking about the real world for those who can't afford such stuff. Also when I'm out and about I know I can live without an optical drive and the other things its missing but it still stands for me that you are paying more for less.

For example if I put 1,7000+ dollars (with accessories) into one of those that would have been money that I could have sunk into building a good gaming PC or even getting an iMac or something. Heck, someone put a list of parts from newegg that shows you can put together a pretty decent gaming PC for around 700 dollars so that would be the path that makes sense for me personally.

But for someone who needs a simple little computer that can do most tasks a regular person needs to do on a daily basis a new Core 2 Duo Mac Mini fits the bill. Heck I'm still pretty much happy with the older G4 Mac Mini for those tasks and for older games... and I'm probably going to keep it for as long as it works as a spare computer even when I get me a new one.

Some person at Macthemes2.net accused people like me who are complaining about the MacBook Air of being against progress. I was like.. the reason why I say things isn't to hold things back. If a company sees what I say and decides to hold things back they need to grow thicker skin. I for one can't be accused of being against progress and I love the idea of a razor thin laptop. It just isn't too practical for now. Maybe in a few years if the price of components comes down.

They said, "If they listen to people like you we wouldn't have cool cell phones today"... right....

Another thing:

Sometimes in a forum thread when talking about different models of Macs someone sometimes mentions how a particular model could "cannibalize" another one. But I question why Apple would suffer if that did happen. Either way they are making their money off of it. For example if they came out with a mid-range headless Mac and people bought one and a Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse etc with it it may end up being more expensive than an iMac.. is Apple suffering here? Even if they don't buy it with those things if a lot of people bought it and lot of those people wouldn't have bought a Mac otherwise why is that such a bad thing if that Mac was more successful than a different model? People have their reasons for picking different models and I'm not for forcing them to pick something that doesn't fit their needs for fear of "cannibalization".

One could say make the argument that the MBA is already cannibalized by even the regular MacBook or the MacBook Pro.