I’m seriously looking at getting another Mac (although I already have an iMac, Macbook Pro, iPad and iPhone) purely for writing on the move, and when I can’t sit at the iMac… and I just want to write blog posts (i sometimes do live blogging of events, and write a lot of niche blog posts), or write in scrivener… If i go away on holiday I take the macbook pro, but its a bit of a lug purely for writing…
The macbook pro is great but a little heavy for light trips out… and I’m pondering getting a nice little 11inch Air (128gb drive 4gig ram) which i can get from Apple fro £939 inc my corp discount.
anyone have any views, pro or con on using it for a pure writing machine to supplement the other machines ?
In short: best portable I’ve ever owned. As a writing/Scrivener companion it is perfect. The screen is small, but as you can see from the screenshot I took in that thread, because the resolution is high it isn’t actually that small. Depending on how old your MBP is, it might not even be all that different from what you are used to. It is, in my opinion, a supplemental machine. There are some who have a 13" and nothing else around here, but for my needs it is a little too pure-portable for a sole machine. It’s a definitive portable, and its success at that means it is a bit light on features and power. I love it, use it daily as a matter of fact. It weighs next to nothing, is a solid chunk of metal when closed, runs at about room temperature for normal tasks with no audible sounds at all, and is surprisingly swift for its size.
martin thanks for that thread… I should have put a bit more effort into searching
AmberV, My current Macbook Pro is a mid 2009 15inch, so runs 1440x900. Its a bit daunting that the MBA 11 is actually only slightly bigger than my iPad. I also am looking at the MBA as a supplemental machine, if i’m at home for a long write, or I’m doing some more hungry tasks like photoshop, or similar I can use the MBP, or the iMac. For just sitting down, writing as and when, and keeping ‘some sort of machine’ with me all the time, I cant see why the MBA 11 isnt perfect… I guess i’m just trying to convince myself that its the right choice… your thread really has helped a lot. and its good to know you think so much of it!!!
lately because of my cognitive impairment (brains a bit foooked medically) I need to write things down as soon as it pops into my head, otherwise I cant retain it and its gone forever, an instant on, small, keep in my bag etc machine seems a wise idea. I also hate having to cart my MBP around when I’m just heading out, its just a little ‘too’ heavy for casually carrying round in a crumpler bag on your shoulder
It did occur to me a while back I’m not writing, because I’m not writing… this might help get me back in the swing
In my experience they don’t care if you install programs on the demo Macs, some may even have Scrivener installed already if any of the employees are users. They are allowed to select applications to put on the machines.
Well i had a wonder in today (post ‘new’ iPad queues had cleared)… they are a thing of 11inch beauty !!
I did install scrivener on it… looked pretty good… and more real-estate visible than I’d imagined (although your screenshot did kind of make me aware it was going to be ok)…
Seems the machines are on some kiosk/reset, as when I rebooted the machine, scrivener vanished… so I guess they go back to some default on boot… even though boot was very snappy!!!
I’ve just not got to convince my conscience (also sometimes called my wonderful wife) that I should get one purely to write on… sadly I’m a little light on cash… so i’ll need to do some pretty good convincing
Yup, that’s why they don’t care if you install stuff.
Reboot is extremely fast. I used to always sleep my laptop (MBP days) because it was just easier to do that than bother with shutdown and startup times. But with the MBA it’s just as convenient to fully power down the system, and that’s better for long-term health of the battery anyway—important since it is virtually sealed inside!
Even though I have a MacBook Air (13") myself, for taking the kind of quick notes you describe, I actually find my iPad best. Since you already have one of those, an external keyboard for it would be a lot cheaper than buying an Air for note taking.
However, I can certainly understand craving the 11" Air because it’s easy to keep it with you all the time. Since you mostly need it for note taking and writing, you might consider a truly low end model from Apple’s refurb store, maybe a 2010 or 2011 model with 64 GB. Today they’re showing one for as little $850. Apple’s refurbs come with the same guarantee as the new models and I’ve never had a problem with one. You might be able to earn back a chunk of that by selling your MBP if that’s an option. Good luck!
its a little more than just ‘note taking’ I currently use simplenote for note taking on both the iPad and my iPhone and then sync with scrivener on the MBP or the iMac…
the air is more for using scrivener on, with the ability its going to be dead easy to carry round with me regardless…
I’m probably going to wait to see what happens the the MBP/Air refreshes, see if they bump the battery and possibly screen a bit on the 11"
I can’t sell the MBP as its my machine i do heavier weight work stuff on… and needs a large drive and a fair bit of power…
Yesterday a lovely shiny 11" 8GB 2012 MacBook Air turned up…
It runs scrivener wonderfully… and battery seems quite good (I’ve been on it over wifi on and off since early afternoon, and I’m now sat on 19% (1hr remaining) at 11pm in the evening… not too bad!
So thanks to all who gave me the benefit of their experience to the MBA’s
In Scrivener’s preferences, under Appearance, tick “Always auto-hide toolbar in full screen mode”, “Hide binder and inspector when entering full screen mode”, “Use different colors in full screen”, “Use dark gray theme” and “Use dark gray theme in full screen only”.
I live in full screen on my MBA11 with these settings.
