If you told me a new MacBook would inflame the tech sphere more than a $10k Apple Watch I’d have laughed my ass off. Yet that’s pretty much what happened. Apple announced a new MacBook with one port and the Internet lost its shit.
Letting go of the idea of a power user
Peter Cohen called out power users in this excellent NSFW article.. Here’s the funny thing about so-called power-users: they don’t really exist. People just have different computing needs. A co-worker bought the shut-up-and-take-my-money MacBook Pro. If she ever pegs that processor and fan it’s probably because Flash got over-active. She just doesn’t dig into the depths of OS X. However, I bought the 11” MacBook Air – a $1200 difference. I’d say I dig far more into the inner workings of an OS than she does. Which of us is the power user? Even fi I had the money I doubt I have bought that MacBook Pro.
So, back to the MacBook
I absolutely love Apple brought back the MacBook name. Like other writers, my money is solely on the eventual retirement of the MacBook Air line. You’ll have the MacBook, and the MacBook Pro. I’d take a side bet on Apple going with MacBook and MacBook Plus, but I think that’s a stretch.
The MacBook has one port. Rumors of Apple sneaking into people’s houses and ripping the USB ports from their existing laptops seem to be unfounded. This port is a USB-C connector. It can drive a display, other USB devices, and power the device. It also has a 12” Retina screen and roughy the computing power of a 3-year-old MacBook Air. Like the original Air, you’re paying for a super light laptop. This is not the laptop you want to edit a Final Cut Pro movie on. It is the laptop for people who just live in Microsoft Word or iWork and browse the web. You know, most of us.
Here’s the thing: most people don’t care, or need to know what processor, ram, or storage space is on their laptop. People that care about any one of those probably care about all three. That said, if you gave me the new 12” MacBook for a week and forbade me from researching anything about it, I’d probably fall in love with it and want to take it home with me.
But would I actually buy one?
That’s a good question, isn’t it?
Two weeks ago, I bought a new 11” Air. My needs were somewhat immediate: a laptop died and needed to be replaced. Time was a luxury I didn’t have. As of this writing, I’m within the two week return window and will not be returning it.
A lot of that decision is based on the new MacBooks still aren’t available until April 10. If they were, I’d actually seriously think about it. It has double the RAM in my Air and starts at 256 Gb of storage all for just $100 more than my Air.
The decider would be if it’s bigger (I don’t know how it compares to the Air) than the Air. Most of what I do on my Air is writing and web surfing, and the 12” would be good for that.
Mark Crump 