2012 MacBook Air Wish List

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Gretchen

As much as you can love inanimate objects, I love the MacBook Air.  Its light, small and easy to use. But it needs two things:

  1. Better battery – the battery is good for a laptop at 5 hours for the 11″ and 7 hours for the 13″, but in many ways the Air competes with the iPad with its 10 hour battery life. Right now I still carry both my iPad and Air because there are times when the iPad cannot do something that the Air can.  They are both thin enough that carrying them together is not a problem, but the power cords are a different thing. Not worrying about the battery dying would be nice.
  2. 3G option – John Gruber mentioned last year in a podcast that Apple should have offered this option. At first I thought why would I need Internet access with a laptop all the time. I know Wi-Fi is not as readily available as you think it would be, but do you really need a 3G option? I have been working at a facility with no Internet access and had to bring a MiFi unit.  MiFi units are portable units that provide WiFi access to up to five devices.  While convenient. they are not perfect.  Battery life is poor, and the electrical outlets where I’m at aren’t the best.  As such, I didn’t have access to the Internet all the time.  That’s when the 3G option made sense.

I realize there is no perfect device of any kind, but with these two improvement, this wonderful device would be closer.

This entry was posted in Technology and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.
  • Apinaud

    I see the 3G option, even that f the use it’s not constant I will most likely consider the Thether option on my iPhone, since most likely it’s not going to be more expensive than an MBA plan but can be used for the iPad and the MBA.

    Regarding the power cords, are you amiliar with the PlugBug (http://twelvesouth.com/products/plugbug/) that will be a cool thing to carry in the bag, that will solve the charging issue in a nice way.

    • Gretchen

      I have the plugBug. Its cool, but I was thinking more of when outlets weren’t available. I would like a longer battery life in those instances. Thanks for commenting Augusto.

  • BigAl

    I couldn’t agree more, although I can understand that Air uses more battery power than iPad.
    Even though you can buy a ‘tethering plan’ from some operators (e.g. AT&T) and use your iPhone as a bluetooth modem (that’s what tethering option in iPhone is for) not all operators offer them, and they usually cost a lot more than you’re ready to spend monthly.