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Macbook more interesting than Apple Watch
Apple's newest laptop upstaged the Watch during this week's announcement.
The MacBook is thinner and lighter than the already skinny MacBook Air. It has a 12 inch display with the same high-resolution Retina display found on flagship MacBook Pros.
There's just one port and that mainly works as a fast battery charger. There's a new keyboard design and you can choose from three iPhone-like colours.
Best of all you can buy the MacBook in New Zealand for $2000.
The new MacBook is hands down the most exciting new computer in recent years.
There are possible flaws. Reviewers who got early looks at the MacBook report the keyboard takes a little getting used to. There are question marks over the Touch Force feature on the redesigned Touchpad.
And some geeks complain the computer isn't powerful enough. As Owen Williams notes, that's missing the point.
Geeks have never loved Apple. They wouldn't love the MacBook. The rest of us will.
Journalists like me need a device we can carry all day more than we need to number-crunch the data coming out of the Large Hadron Collider. There are lots more people who prize, compact, light and long times between battery recharges over raw power. That's why I chose the MacBook Air.
As for ports, who needs 'em?
Not me. Not even for back-ups. Most of my back-ups live in the cloud.
By chance, there's an external drive plugged into my MacBook Air USB port as I write this. It's busy making a secondary Time Machine back-up.
Plugging drives in ports is handy, but not necessary, The main back-up sits on a network drive connected to my wireless router. I've also got a Seagate Wireless Plus drive which would be just fine with a one port MacBook.
The only other time I use the USB ports on my MacBook is when my iPhone battery is running low and I'm too lazy to hunt for the wall-charger. That'll have to stop.
What about that Apple Watch?
The first crop of so-called smart watches do nothing for me. They don't have features I need. I'm happy to go on living without another device that needs charging every night.
Apple's Watch is more interesting than what has gone before, but we are a generation or more from a computer watch being as compelling a buy as a smart phone or a tablet. And I'm the kind of person who sported a digital watch with a built-in calculator at the end of the 1970s.
So I'll let the geeks and hardcore gadget fans get excited about the watches. Meanwhile I'm working on a business case to replace my MacBook Air with a new MacBook.
This post first appeared
at
billbennett.co.nz as Macbook
more interesting than Apple
Watch
Bill Bennett
Freelance journalist.
Auckland-based Bill Bennett writes technology and business stories that are directly relevant to New Zealand readers.
His emphasis is on telecommunications, but he also covers other aspects of technology and business. You can find his features in the New Zealand Herald and hear him regularly on RNZ Nine to Noon and the NZ Tech Podcast.
Bennett's The Download Weekly newsletter is published every Friday. You can sign up for it here.
If you want to support his work, you can make a donation to his PressPatron account.
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