Light is right for many PC users

KARLIN LILLINGTON NET RESULTSONE OF the most painful technology anecdotes I've ever read popped up on the Newsweek magazine website a couple of weeks ago.

Newsweek writer Steven Levy related how his new Apple Mac Air - the ultra-thin laptop launched in January, thinner than an index finger - just vanished. His guess is that his Air was left on top of some newspapers, and more newspapers were thrown on the pile, and his wife tossed the lot down the recycling chute in his New York apartment.

I suppose that's one of the risks of having a laptop so sleek it can be pushed under a door or fit in an office envelope. However, thinness isn't likely to be seen as a downside by most of the people who would be seriously considering buying this beautiful machine.

I've been test-driving an Air for a couple of weeks and would consider its 3lb weight and slim physique to be its major selling points. Certainly, those are the features which make it a show-stopper. Like the iPhone and iPod Touch, the Air is one of those pieces of technology that can actually make people gasp. After the gasp comes the need to touch - people instinctively want to reach out and handle the Air.

Along with the aesthetics come some very nice features - a full-size keyboard with Apple's very cool backlight feature, which is linked to a light sensor. If the ambient light begins to dim, the Air automatically begins to illuminate the keyboard, making it easy to type in low light or darkness.

The Air also has incorporated the touch controls of the iPhone and iPod Touch onto its oversized touchpad. Hence you can use gestures such as a three-fingered swipe, or a pinching movement, to scroll rapidly though a document or expand a browser or resize an image for viewing. Very nice. This is the likely future of the touchpad - gestures are an efficient, ergonomic way to accomplish tasks.

The Air has a lovely, decent screen at just over 13in - this keeps web browsing and other Windows tasks a lot more comfortable than the subcompact-class laptops of a similar or smaller weight.

The cons? Achieving that slim profile on the Air required some sacrifices in terms of functionality that will make this laptop unappealing to some. The hard drive is of a fixed size; the battery cannot be swapped out (you need to have Apple replace it when it wears out - though that said, I haven't owned a single laptop whose battery has needed replacing before I have wanted to opt for a new laptop); there's only a single USB port; and there's no optical drive for CDs or DVDs.

For the latter, you can buy an external optical drive or use a new software feature that allows the Air to wirelessly use the optical drive of another PC or Mac. Apple's decision to jettison the built-in optical drive is interesting - and also much criticised.

Apple's argument is that people increasingly will not use a physical medium such as a DVD for storage or accessing information, they will simply go to the internet for online or downloaded content.

Undoubtedly that's true, but that time is not quite now. And yet, and yet - Apple came in for similar criticism when it dumped the disk drive for the optical drive; and these days, who still uses disks? In the case of the Air, the missing optical drive is definitely a practical choice due to its overall skinny design, but I wonder how long it will be before more laptops dump the drive?

Overall, the Air is definitely a premium laptop - but not a primary computer - that will suit the business traveller or anyone who values thin and light over certain kinds of functionality. Oh, and those who love a computer that is a thing of beauty. That definitely isn't everyone, but that isn't the point. Horses for courses.

Back to subcompact computers - it was very interesting to see HP release an inexpensive (sub-€500) machine into this sector of the market last week, to go head to head with the unexpected success of the Asus Eee PC. Both of these are little notebooks with small keyboards and screens, aimed at the education market but finding fans among travellers and business folks too - again, people willing to sacrifice functionality for form.

Apple had been rumoured to be ready to release a subcompact of its own, but the new device turned out to be the Air, at about four to five times the price of these mini-laptops. However, watch this space with Apple - they have pioneered some low-cost laptops into the education market in the past, and I'd wager an inexpensive, tiny option in the Mac line-up would go down a storm.

[  klillington@irish-times.ie  ]

weblog: www.techno-culture.com