Scrivener + MacBook Air = ♥

Scrivener
21

First is good to know … I wonder if it’s smaller than the one that came with the original MBA … I’ve still got that from the disappeared one. I could keep one in the office desk on campus, I guess, and keep one at home.
For the second, yes … crazy isn’t it … they’re made here and they have been available in Hong Kong since the start, but they’re not available here for another two or three weeks!

Incidentally, thinking back, although in general I prefer the keyboard on the 17" original MBP … the silver one … and the screen real estate is useful, I have to admit that I probably spent much more time in Scrivener on the MBA once I got it, even at home sitting on the sofa with the MBA on a large wooden kitchen-board — bought for the purpose, I hasten to add … not used for cutting up meat and things — rather than sitting at my desk on my less than comfortable desk-chair using the MBP. MBA + Scrivener always had a great feel to it, using a vertically split screen and the inspector hidden until required.

Mark

22

From bottom to top: 15" MBP; iPad in a black sleeve; 11" MBA.

The sleeve nearly doubles the height of the iPad; take that into consideration.

23

For anyone worried about the longevity of the SSD drives in the Air, don’t. I’ve been using a first generation Macbook Air since they came out, on a daily basis, for work purposes as well as personal projects.

My Air has travelled all over the world with me, it’s been dropped, sat on, left on for days at a time, exposed to 50degC temperatures in July in Dubai and -20DegC temperatures in February in Virginia. It has been in more aeroplane holds than I care to remember, it’s covered about 250,000 miles in its life, it’s never been re-installed, it’s been used every day for about 3 years and it’s never let me down once. It still boots up in tens of seconds and shuts down in a 3rd of that time, I’ve never had it crash on me (really, not once) and I can’t recommend them highly enough.

Even after all this time and usage the battery lasts several hours (not as long as it used to, but plenty long enough to be useful) and the trackpad button is a little clunky but as for data or disk errors, no problems at all.

I shall probably buy another one in due course, but to be honest I don’t really feel the need at the moment, it’s still going strong.

I back up important data from it to my Mac Pro at home, or USB when on the road. It’s great for scrivener and as a bonus, women love it so I can do techie stuff without looking geeky :slight_smile:

I <3 my Air.

Eddy

24

You guys just about have me convinced.

Does it have a port for a VGA-DMI adapter? It will be rectangular, and smaller than other ports.

I use that to connect laptop to video projectors.

25

Yes, look on the right side … there’s the mini-display port. The adaptor for VGA is not included but won’t break the bank In the UK 20-odd pounds, so slightly less in the US. It’s what I used on the disappeared one all the time and never had a problem with it, and will do with the new one when I get it.

Mark

26

That’s the story with all of Apple’s laptops these days. In my opinion, it was a great move. Standards change and some of these laptops have been through several. A universal port that can have adapters hooked up to it works great, and it’s easier to plug and unplug them than those old 9-pin or even the DVI ports are—it just slides in like a USB connector.

27

AmberV, this is an ambush !! We are in a deep economic crisis … :blush:

28

OK Ioa. Let’s talk “more practical” use for us tech dorks.

Parallels: Any chance of working? If so just vanilla XP or would stripped w7 be manageable?
Ergonomics: will I want to keep using my external kb (not the developer) for input in the course of an 8 hour day?
Compile: how bad is something like an apache source?
External monitor: You mentioned the mini port, but what is the real hit to processor/battery when driving a 24" cinema?

My MBP is starting to get a little… senior. I am due. Maybe an air. Maybe just a MBP 13.

29

A little info for you:

Mine runs VMware Fusion. I have Windows XP SP3 running within that without any problems. It’s not as snappy as my Mac Pro, but it’s certainly perfectly usable. Can’t comment on W7 as I don’t have a licence.

Probably not, at least I didn’t. What you may find though is that plugging a USB mouse into it is a good move if you are using it for extended periods of time.

This is not an area the Air shines in. It’s about elegance, small footprint and portability, not raw performance. It’ll do it, but you may have to wait a little longer than with a laptop with more actual grunt.

I watch iTunes movies using an external 47" HD TV as the second screen. No problem with the resolution or framerate. However, I do not do this on battery power, so can’t comment on that.

I’m pretty sure mine is slower than the new ones. It’s a 1.8Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, with 2Gb of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM. Also it’s running OS 10.5.8.

Eddy

30

I’ll need to get back to you on some of the specific stuff. I haven’t installed any dev tools on it yet, so the proper environment for an Apache install is out of its reach at the moment. While I agree with Eddy: it’s probably going to compile Apache more like a MacBook would than a MacBook Pro—there is one important consideration: compilation is a very disk heavy exercise. So while the CPU might not be able to crunch through it as fast, there would be much less bottlenecking from the SSD.

Ergonomics: Have you ever used any of the newer (2008+) MacBook or MacBook Pros? The keyboard is nearly identical. The only difference with it is that it uses 1/4 height keys for the F-row, which alas includes the Esc key, instead of 1/2 height keys like on the MB/P. The thinness of these keys causes them to feel a little “cheap” to me. They click a little louder than the other keys, and don’t feel as steady in the sockets. Small quibble and it might diminish over time. I’ve found, strangely enough, my MBP keyboard has improved over time. The surface texture has rubbed off and the keys have a nice feel to them.

So, everything below the F-Row: typing experience is identical to a recent MB/P, and that is in my opinion a very good thing. I think I’ve stated it elsewhere, but I feel the black non-removable keyboard is one of the best Apple has ever put out. Great tactile feel and perfect size.

I have no problem with the trackpad—in fact I almost prefer these newer large multi-touch trackpads to mice. They are just so nice to use, and with BetterTouchTools, are capable of quite a lot. Even when I’m sitting at my disk with a mouse beside me, I probably still use the trackpad half of the time. It’s right below the spacebar—need to select some range of text? Can do it without going for the mouse since the entire surface is clickable.

Input aside, the other only ergonomic issue of long-term use is going to be the screen height. This is a problem with any laptop, but it is more-so a problem with netbook scale laptops with their short screens. You have to keep your head angled down for extended periods of time, and this can end up damaging the back of your neck and upper spine. It’s best to be looking straight out at your screen, but really no laptop on earth can offer that without compromising your forearms by setting it on a high surface.

That’s a strange scenario, driving a large monitor with a laptop for extended periods without power? Obviously, the situation is not portable, why not just plug it in? I’m now curious to see just how much that impacts the battery. Never tried it, and always assumed it would be huge. Does the MacBook Pro handle this well? If so, it probably won’t be dissimilar on the Air, given that the mini-port circuitry can’t be that different.

31

Think meetings. I use keynote on the MBP over puker-point on the windows box. Often these go long or I get pulled into one meeting directly from another. I am too lazy to take the power adapter all the time. The MBP actually does worse then a MB. I think it has to do with the dedicated vid card.

Now that I have you wondering I will give an evil laugh then await your test results.

BWAHAHA!

while ($Ioa-test != TRUE) { sleep 10 }

32

Jaysen, as I say, I used my original, series 1 MBA to give nearly four hours continued use while driving an OHP and using keynote, with wifi turned on — though not originally bluetooth, though latterly that too and it made little difference — and if started from a full battery it would come up with the “reserve battery warning at somewhere around 3 hours, 40 minutes. So if your meetings, or strings of meetings are going on that long, with the new 11 inch, which seems to claim better battery life, you might be OK; the new 13” with longer battery life will be safer. (And the MBP definitely will not last out a full morning of lectures on one fully charged battery!)
That said, (1) I don’t know how driving a large monitor … and I believe an adapter for that is available … compares with driving an OHP in terms of battery drain; (2) I have no experience of virtual machines, nor certainly of compiling and running Apache or anything similar … obviously Ioa can help better on that one. But my reaction, as soon as I read all you have said was, “In that situation, I’d take the weight penalty and go for a 13” MBP with bigger hard disk, maxed out memory and the more powerful cpu and video processors."
My use will essentially be for Scrivener, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner (a bit), Nisus Writer Pro, Tables the spreadsheet and Keynote – with Pages there in the background for .doc and docx files with badly designed tables. For those, I won’t need the extra power of the MBP, and I will appreciate the light weight of the MBA. I’m still tossing up between 11" and 13" … how important will that half-pound difference in weight be, vs longer battery life.
To use the classic phrase — not that he did — the reaction of the Apple sales-person here to my colleague who rang them on my behalf to find out when the new MBA will be available here and how much with educational discount, “Why on earth would he want to get one of those? You get more bang for your bucks with an MBP.” Just what I would expect from such a person … they assume you’re going to be a first time Apple buyer, basically going for the style and probably going to run a pirated version of Windows under Bootcamp with a pirated version of Office, not someone who has long experience of Apple and is making a rational choice on the basis of real needs.
Mark

33

ctl-z
[1]+ Stopped sleep

Mr X

My usage has changed, and while I will occasionally need to perform these activities it is nothing like the previous several years.

OHD would be the same in terms of performance/battery hit. Thanks for the info.

$ fg
sleep

34

Looking through all this again, OK, it’s decided … 13". Tell you why. The thing that made it click was Ioa’s screenshot seen in full size … the disappeared one had a screen resolution of 1280 x 800, if I remember rightly, i.e. 16 x 10, as the 13" has — this MBP is 16 x 10 too; the 11" is 16 x 9 at native resolution, which I’d rather use, and as soon as I saw the full-size screenshot my reaction was “That looks cramped vertically”, even allowing for the fact that I have my dock hidden on the right, and Ioa’s is not hidden and at the bottom.
So I went and weighed the power-pack from the disappeared one; 175 grammes. In other words, if I have one at home and one locked in a drawer in my desk in the office, I shouldn’t have to carry it around, given the longer battery life of the 13" and the difference in weight of the two machines is 260 grammes, so I’m talking about a difference of 85 grammes, 3 oz to carry around … not worth troubling over.
Right, now to get it set up. I’ve discovered that a former student friend in Hong Kong has a spare room in their flat and can put me up, no hotel charge. Flying to Shenzhen is half the price of flying to HK, as it counts as internal as opposed to international, and train between them only takes an hour … And if I get it in HK, it looks as if, basically without academic discount, I can probably get it with 4GB of memory for over 1000 RMB less than the standard 2GB version here with academic discount. That should cover travelling expenses.
Woohoo!
Mark

35

I am kind of leaning for the 11" for a different reason: portability. I have externals at all the work stations. The biggest problem I have with the MBP and the Dell is that I find them cumbersome. It is understandable with the MBP (17") but the dell d620 is basically the size of a MB 13. What I really want is a mini 10 which is basically a tad larger then a MA 11.

But now you have me doubting myself. Darn you Mr X.

36

$ kill -15 sleep

Installation of development tools: unfortunately (though not in the least bit surprisingly) the ROM shipped with the computer does not come with a distribution of XCode. But, that means I got to test out the WiFi based remote disc installation ability. Turns out, it’s quite simple: you just put the disc into the host computer, and enable CD and DVD Sharing. The Air can then find the disc on the network, mount it, and about 40 minutes later XCode is ready to go.

Apache tests: Compiling for 64-bit Snow Leopard; Apache 2.2.17; basic configuration layouts for OS X 10.6 (merely to overwrite the Darwin supplied Apache installation). Tests run with power not battery, of course.

configure : 1m05s
make : 3m01s

CPU utilisation: both cores at about 65–75% the entire time. I was also interested in heat during this test. Up until this point, under normal usage, the machine has run as cold and silent as a brick. Doesn’t even get slightly warm. After 4m of reasonably saturated CPU usage, there was only mild amount of heat if you hold you hand against the bottom of it. This thing is amazingly efficient with power. Fans never spun up—I’m not even sure if it has fans (okay, installed iStat Pro and yes there is one exhaust fan that hovers around 1,400 to 2,000 RPM. I have to hold the thing up to my head to even hear it though). CPU temperature stable at around 37º; enclosure units and heat sinks at 27º. So yeah… like I said, it runs cold. For comparison my MBP runs at about 65º CPU and 70º for the GPU when basically idling.

So, 3m to compile is not shabby. To compare, here are the stats for the MacBook Pro.

configure : 1m18s
make : 4m50s

Given that the MBP is way more machine than the 11”, I think my earlier hypothesis on disk I/O bottlenecking hold true. It would be interesting to see what a more involved compile like Firefox would result in.

Machine comparisons:

MBA11 : 4GB DDR3 RAM; 1.6Ghz C2D w/ 3MB of L2; Sys bus 800Mhz
MBP : 4GB DDR3 RAM; 2.8Ghz C2D w/ 6MB of L2; Sys bus 1.07Ghz

External monitor tests:

These are more difficult to do, since I don’t want to actually test for hours on end, and the estimation system must be taken with a grain of salt. But, preliminary results look quite good. To reiterate the above post, with all antennas off and screen brightness at 1, battery time fluctuates at 8:30 to 9:30 for a full charge. With the antenna on, that drops to 6:00 to 7:00. With an external 27” monitor plugged in, estimation dropped to 5:30 for a bit, and then went back up to 7:50. With the WiFi antenna on, it stayed at around 6:00. Now for the external tests, I operated the machine in clamshell mode to conserve more power, I didn’t test with both monitors on, but I suspect at 1 brightness it wouldn’t make a huge impact.

So unless you have all-day meetings, you might not need a power supply. The big question I have is whether or not this will apply to a non-Apple DVI monitor. Unfortunately my old Dell 24” crapped out a few months ago and I sent it off to get recycled so I can’t provide a control.

All in all, very impressive results for something that is in all but name, a netbook.

I’ll have to run tests with Parallels later. I’m guessing stripped down w7 would do fine though, especially with the extra RAM.

37

Yeah, I left all of that stock for the screenshot. In actual usage I always keep the Dock on the side and hidden. Even so, it is only 768 pixels tall. The increased DPI means you can run text smaller than you might on an ordinary screen, but for writing you are looking at less 132 pixels of text. For me, the extra portability trumped that. In full screen at 12pt you can see about 45 lines of text (in full screen). That’s plenty—but it’s important to consider that 12pt looks like 9pt on this screen; I’m fine with that, but my eyes are relatively young. At 12pt equivalent magnification, it’s about 32 lines of text.

38

3min for an apache build?

You’re not helping me not buy this.

39

Mmm … my eyes are not so young, so having more options will be good. Also, I was perfectly happy carrying the disappeared one around, and still have the bag etc. for that, so the extra size is not something I’m too concerned about, and since we’re only talking about a few ounces in weight …
Part of my problem is that since I want to get the extra memory in it, the delivery time in HK is 3 days, but even though I’m going to go and pick it up from the store, I think I’ll need to find a way of ordering it in advance to make sure they’ve got it in stock for me, so I guess I’ll have to make a decision without being able to go and play with one of the 11" ones. I’ll need to investigate that.
Mark

40

Heh. Glad to not be of no help.