Apple Air

So, I just got back from the Apple store to check out the new Air notebook. I have to say, they almost got me again: if they had had any in stock (they sold the original lot in mere minutes), I would have made the purchase on the spot. It's that bad ass. Bad ass looking, anyway, and bad ass design. That said, it definitely has some serious flaws, in my humble opinion.

The main reason I would get this is that so I can turn over my current MacBook to the kids, who are beating this thing to pieces. The Air would become our second laptop and would be off limits to everyone in our house under the age of nine.

The other reason I consider getting it would be for my business travels: I travel to LA virtually every week, and it would be a great relief to my aching shoulders not to have lug around a seven pound laptop and all its accompanying accoutrements. But what I really need to understand prior to purchasing is whether it would be feasible for me to run Outlook versus Webmail, if I install Parallel. That is what will make or break my purchasing decision; I could not work for two or three days at a time off of Webmail.

So, I think my "review" will be the same as all the others. Let's first look at "likes":

-- The design is incredible. It's as slim as you can imagine, yet it does not at all feel flimsy
-- The 13.1 inch screen is beautiful and I love the fact that is is a full keyboard and not at all condensed
-- What other "likes" do you need -- the thing just looks absolutely killer.

Dislikes:

-- Embedded battery is a bummer, but for me, not the biggest deal as the most I'm travelling on a plane is SF to NYC, and I can deal with a five hour battery life (or even threee hours if I am watching a movie). I think international travellers will be bummed by this however.
-- lack of firewire and only one USB port. I get it that this is a quasi-experiment on Apple's part to see if consumers readily move to a wireless environment ... but still. One more freaking USB port and a firewire port would have GREATLY -- and I mean GREATLY -- enhanced its appeal. I imagine it was probably near impossible to add from an engineering standpoint but man, it would have been worth it if it added even a little more weight to the unit. I'm sure I would eventually get used to working wirelessly (of course, there's the not so significant issue that most wireless networks are password protected), but I'm comfortable with working in my current manner. And already, the guy at the store was trying to sell me Time Capsule to accompany it, and that's yet another $299 or $500, depending on size.
-- lack of a CD/DVD drive. I know there was no way they could have included this in a unit so small, bu I use my drive regularly. Getting the $99 external drive is non negotiable. They would have bought a lot of goodwill if they just included it for free as part of a bundle.

So, we will see. Now that I have touched one I am pretty stoked, but this one merits greater consideration. Not an "impulse" purchase like the iphone by any means.