12th
All MacBooks Need Air!
The “Air” in “MacBook Air” actually means “it only has wireless”. Only a company like Apple can make such an audacious marketing play and still emerge without a black eye.
(Though it didn’t stop reviewers from pointing out that the notebook lacks an Ethernet port, nor much of any port either since it only has one pathetic USB port, DVI out and headphones jack.)
iPhones work great because they have ubiquitous internet access, which lets you use the web wherever there’s cellular service. It works much better when you’re in a moving vehicle, and you don’t have to bother using annoying Wi-Fi hotspots that require you to sign in repeatedly.
Notebooks, by virtue of being portable computers, now have the affordable near-range 802.11 Wi-Fi incorporated in all of them. Its an essential feature and works nicely if you’re connecting to networks at a stationery location, like your home or office.
Back in the late 90s, Apple was one of the first to embrace Wi-Fi by building empty slots in the iBook and PowerBook for 802.11b/g Wi-Fi cards. I still remember Steve Jobs putting a colorful iBook through a hula hoop to demonstrate the then-amazing technology that we all take for granted these days.
Unfortunately, Wi-Fi doesn’t cut it while you’re on the go and traveling from place to place. Hence the popular Huawei 3G/HSDPA modems in some countries, again making MacBooks really unsightly with dongles sticking out of them.
Sprint recently launched its WiMax service. WiMax is billed as a 4G technology, giving notebooks many Mbps of internet bandwidth blanketing a huge area. Notebook makers like Asus, Toshiba, Acer and many others have responded by launching notebooks with built-in WiMax. That’s just awesome.
With new MacBooks coming on Oct 14, I’m really hoping that Apple has the foresight to repeat what they did back in the late 90s by supporting 3G/HSDPA and WiMax networking.
Give all MacBooks the Air that they need!
