Yes, The MacBook Air Is Practical.

11" MacBook Air

 I finally did it.  After lusting after the original MacBook Air (MBA) for years, I went ahead and purchased a (refurbished) Air. I bought the 11' model with the 1.4Ghz processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 64GB SSD drive.

Since buying the Air, or even just talking about buying it, the people I've talked to about uniformly agree on two things: the first being that they all think the Air is super sexy and most would like one.  The second think they ask me is why I "need" the Air.  The want to know how it will suit me better than the 13' MacBook Pro and iPad 2 I had at the time.

Friends would tell me all the reasons why the Air was such a terrible decision and that I should just stick with my Pro.  "Think of everything that you will lose going to an Air! Smaller screen, no DVD drive, less storage, less ports, less, less, less...  But what people don't understand is that almost all of these "killer features" of the non-Air laptops are typically never used.

1.4gHz 4GB RAM 64GB SSD

I've been using the MBA for almost a month now, not once have I regretted the decision. I've used it to surf the web, made a video with iMovie, used iTunes, and even used Photoshop. Not once did I feel "compromised", I didn't need a bigger screen, nor a DVD drive, or even 4+ USB ports to get any of that done. I'm not pressed for storage either; the limited 64GB SSD has about 30GB free currently and since it's my laptop (and second computer) I don't need to store all my media on it.

2011 MacBook Air vs 2008 MacBook

Most people could easily get away with the Air being their only computer; of all the computers I get in to work on most people's media collection (music, picture, documents) is less that 5GB. Now that's just for your 'average' consumer, I know there are people out there with enormous media collections; my personal media collection is over 30GB. But even then the 128GB SSD would be more than enough to hold a large media collection. 

2011 MacBook Air vs 2011 iPad 2

The Air is fast, light-weight, with a great battery life. I can't recommend enough to someone, either as there only computer or as a great companion computer. Unless you really "need" a DVD drive (the Air can install software from any computer DVD drive on the same network PC or Mac) or lots of processing power the Air is hands done the best computer I've ever owned.

The Super Envelope.

Everything but the kitchen sink.

Macworld Expo 2008. "Something's In The Air".

The MacBook Air, man I want one. I've wanted a Mac for a while but this device seems like a perfect fit for me. Since I have a decent desktop and laptop, I don't really need to replace either and this wouldn't be technically replacing them. Plus what better way to get my first steps into OS X than with a MacBook built with a bunch of great new features. At $1,700 dollar (for the base model) it's a steep entry point, but you don't buy a Mac to save money.

Here's a Guided Tour from Apple about the MacBook Air.

Apple also talked about the new 1.1.3 firmware for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Watch the Guided Tour from Apple here.

• On the iPhone they added the ability to send multiple people the same SMS (text) message, something in my opinion should have been around from the start.
  
• They also added GPS of sorts to the iPhone and the iPod Touch. On the iPhone they use a combo of cell towers and WiFi hotspots to triangulate your location, on the Touch they only use the WiFi hotspots.
• On the iPhone you now how the ability to rearrange you icons on the home screen. A very cool easy feature that us iPhone users have been asking for since day one. Now it's so much easier for me to text and drive!
• A new feature Apple is calling "web clips" is where you basically put a bookmark to a website on your home screen. The iPhone also now supports multiple home screens (up to 9) so you just swipe left or right to get to a different screen. So you can now have a total of 144 icons on all of your Home page, this will be most useful with developers start making "official" apps for the iPhone.

The only news that people didn't like is that when iPod Touch users go to get all these new features they will have to fork over $20 dollars for the apps, iPhone users get it for free. Lame.

The Apple TV is also receiving a substantial upgrade in the near future. Apple is looking to dominate in video just like it has in the music industry. The new Apple TV is completely functional all by itself, no Mac or PC is needed just an internet connection. Once it's up and running you can rent movies in HD or SD, buy movies and TV shows, and download podcasts right from your TV. It's like an Xbox 360 without the gaming part...

The last thing Steve Jobs talked about was backup features for all your Mac needs. The newest version of OS X 'leopard' has a feature called "Time Machine" which would backup your data to any external HDD that you plugged into it. Now while this sounds like a good feature you still have to buy and then always have plugged in, an external HDD. Apple announced a new product called "Time Capsule" which is a wireless router with a HDD shoved in it. So not only does this Frankenstein product facilitate your wired/wireless needs but it also backs up your Mac's for you automatically. There's a 500 GB and a 1 TB version available for $300 and $500 respectfully.