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Macbook Air Hinge Failures Not Covered by Apple’s Warranty (VIDEO)

Aviv — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:09:56 +0000

A large number of first generation Macbook Air owners are claiming that the hinges on their notebooks are failing. Unfortunately, early responses from Apple claim these issues are not covered under the company’s warranty.

The issues seem fairly widespread with Macbook Air owners explaining what is going wrong both in Apple’s Discussion Threads, as well as the MacRumors forums.

Image via flickr user landung2008

“I have recently noticed my 3 month old MacBook Air has 1/2″ to 1″ “play” or “slop” in the hinge. In other words, the screen will move 1/2″ to 1″ with little or no resistance. The hinge does not seem to have any adjustment or an easily fixed remedy,” one frustrated owner explains on the MacRumors forums. “…my apple air has a defect with the hinge. could apple please change your policy to accept hinge as warrant on apple air models,” another owner explains in Apple’s threads.

Both videos shown here address the issues, which Apple says are not covered under warranty. This makes for an unfortunate situation given Apple and CEO Steve Jobs’ level of pride when unveiling “the skinniest notebook in the world.” The level of attention to detail Apple claimed went into the notebook’s hardware design and manufacturing was staggering. They painted a picture of the Macbook Air as if it were chiseled by da Vinci himself. Now that the issue seems moderately spread, we’re curious to see how Apple responds, if at all.

Apple Working on a 15-inch MacBook Air?

Dave — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 18:20:41 +0000

Chinese site, Apple.pro, who we have previously run reports about, is now claiming that Apple is hard at work on a larger 15-inch MacBook Air, noting that further details should be released in the “second half” of 2009.

Apple.pro states, “It is understood that Apple is producing more than the current MBA size MacBook Air (15-inch?),” which may seem a bit vague, given their questionable track record. Yet the site goes on to add further details about the alleged MBA’s big brother, noting “Core architecture will use the latest Intel processors from the current ultra-low voltage processor “Core 2″ modifications made to make a stunning ultra-portable suitable for the older poor eyesight.”

Given the somewhat shotty past performance of the site, it is difficult to determine the validity of these claims. Back in August, photos claiming to be early shots of the new MacBook wound up being a sham, while July photos of the new MacBook Pro ended up being rather legitimate.

While a 15-inch MacBook Air would be possible, would there be enough widespread demand to warrant this product? Apple notes that the current 13.3-inch MBA trails behind the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and iMac on the top sellers list, so it is hard to tell whether a 15-inch MacBook Air would jive with the rest of the notebook line as it stands now. The first question that comes to mind would be, “How expensive would it be?” In an age of modestly priced netbooks, it is hard to imagine that a well over $3,000 portable even be considered by many.

Carbon Fiber Mackbook Air Rumors Debunked?

Casey — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:17:33 +0000

Carbon fiber sounds good in theory, but an in depth analysis leads industry veterans and product designers to believe it is the wrong material for a laptop shell.

From AppleInsider: “The high strength-to-weight ratio of carbon fiber has made it a popular choice for the aerospace, sporting, and racing industries, where it’s used for aircraft parts, bicycle frames, and performance car bodies. More recently, however, its application has spilled into the computing industry, with vendors such as Sony and HP’s Voodoo PC brand all using it to construct lightweight notebook enclosures.”

As an engineer who designs carbon fiber parts, I know it’s an amazing material, but it has its limitations. Ultra light and strong organically shaped structures: Yes! Small intricate parts: No. Laptops from Sony and VooDoo claim to be made from carbon fiber, but it’s not the woven type you see on a Formula 1 car. Its merely injection molded plastic with tiny little pieces of carbon fiber in it. One could call it a marketing ploy.

Why aluminum beats carbon fiber in Apple’s notebooks:

- Anodized aluminum is many times harder than carbon fiber in epoxy, thus very scratch resistant.
- You can easily tap screw holes into aluminum, not into carbon fiber.
- CNC machined aluminum has tolerances down to a few microns, carbon fiber is much less exact.
- Aluminum can be cast, milled and forged into almost any geometry. Carbon fiber cloth is limited by the geometries it can fit around and there can be no sharp corners.
- Carbon fiber cloth must be laid up by hand before curing – aluminum cutting and forming is automated.
- Aluminum is easily recyclable, carbon fiber less so.

A couple of years back, Mac enthusiasts were introduced to a carbon fiber-like sticker that could be skinned on a MacBook giving it the appearance of being made from the material. Unfortunately, it was merely an attempt at making your MacBook look cool, when in actuality there was no difference at all. So could the supposed carbon fiber material that has been rumored to grace the MacBook Air resemble this? Don’t count on it.

New Macbook Air Shows Slight Speed Improvements, Comparatively

Aviv — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:15:41 +0000

When comparing the new Macbook Air to the rest of Apple’s notebook line, some improvements when compared to the previous generation Air can be found in terms of speed and performance, however the machine still lags behind the rest of the notebook line overall.

The Macbook Air that Macworld tested was a standard configuration, 1.86Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 6MB of L@ cache. The frontside bus has been boosted to 1066Mhz in the new Macbook Air, and the SSD storage options have been doubled to offer an 128GB drive.

In Macworld’s lab tests, both models of the new Macbook Air eek out better graphics than the original Air, largely due to the new, more powerful NVIDIA GeForce 9400M GPU. This is the same GPU that can be found in the new Macbook and Macbook Pro models, only in order to conserve power and reduce heat, the GPU runs slower in the Macbook Air. In their Speedmark 5 benchmark results, the new 1.86GHz Macbook Air produced a 51% higher speedmark score than the previous generation 1.6GHz Macbook Air. “…the most impressive individual results being the Quake 4 frames per second score and the Zip Archive test, which took nearly 10 minutes on the older Air and a less painful 6 minutes on the 1.86Ghz MacBook Air.”

More telling were the new system’s results compared to our build-to-order Air from earlier this year, the model that featured the optional 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo processor, but kept the standard 120GB Parallel ATA hard drive. The new high-end Air posted a 39 percent higher Speedmark 5 score than that old CTO Air. It was also 28 percent faster in our Photoshop tests and 22 percent faster in our Cinema 4D testing. Compressor, iMovie and iTunes were faster on the new system, but not by as big of a margin. Again, the biggest gains for the new Air were in our game frame rate tests. The new Air was able to display 24.8 frames per second in our Quake 4 tests, as opposed to the older CTO Air’s 3.9 fps – that’s more than a 6x improvement.

Interestingly, when compared to the lowest end standard $999 Macbook, the new high-end Macbook Air still clocks in at slower overall speeds. The white entry level Macbook runs 13% faster that the new high-end Macbook Air. In nearly every single test, the white Macbook edged out the Macbook Air, except for the unzipping of a 2GB folder, where the solid state drive in the Air did the heavy lifting for the task.

Additionally, when stacking up the new high-end Macbook Air to the high-end unibody Macbook (2.4GHz, same GPU), there’s a much more drastic difference. The Air had an 18% slower Speedmark 5 score, 25% slower Photoshop test score, and a staggering 71% slower score in MPEG encoding tests.

Benchmark tests done by Macworld.

Comparatively, if you’re in the market for a new Apple notebook, unless the slender form factor and light-weight of the Macbook Air is explicitly what you’re after, you’ll generally find better performance in most of Apple’s other notebooks, for nearly a fraction of the price.

Greenpeace Reviews Apple’s ‘Greener’ Approach to New Notebook Family

Dave — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:46:17 +0000

In response to Apple’s ongoing environmental efforts, Greenpeace has recently offered up a commendatory look at the new MacBook line, yet notes there may still be some room for improvement.

In recent statements concerning a “Greener Apple,” Steve Jobs has noted the new MacBook line to sport reduced toxics, less packaging, and better overall efficiency. Greenpeace has taken a comprehensive look at the new MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and the LED cinema display’s specs. They have noted the results to be primarily favorable, indicating that the new notebooks feature internal cables and components that are free of PVC and BFRs.

Yet according to the article on the Greenpeace blog, the new MacBook’s sport toxic level reductions comparable to the Sony Vaio line on PVC and Lenovo Think Vision monitors, where they would have liked to have seen these toxins be reduced entirely. While these levels may not have been reduced across the board, Apple has been making strides to accomplish this in the near future.

“By far the most significant announcement that will resonate within the industry is fact that Apple is on course to be completely PVC and BFR free across in product range by end 2008. This will be a first for a computer maker and lays down the challenge to competitors such as HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer and Toshiba,” Greenpeace explains. While all of the above mentioned companies have made pledges to remove such toxins in 2009, if Apple can manage to accomplish this ahead of schedule, the others should be able to follow suit.

“While Apple, and other top electronic companies, still face many challenges on the road to truly green electronics, it can only be a good thing to see a top CEO and high profile a public figure as Steve Jobs devoting significant time to environmental concerns at Apple.”

These are remarkably optimistic statements for the notoriously scrutinizing eyes of Greenpeace. Perhaps not until notebooks are made solely out of corn will they ever truly be satisfied.

[Greenpeace]

Apple Speedbumps Macbook Air, Shipping November

Aviv — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 18:23:22 +0000

Apple has officially speedbumped their ultra portable notebook, the Macbook Air. Keeping it relatively simple, the enhancements include upgraded storage.

The new MacBook, 15-inch MacBook Pro and 17-inch MacBook Pro are now shipping and the new MacBook Air will be available in early November through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

“Today Apple also updated MacBook Air, measuring only 0.16-inches at its thinnest point, 0.76-inches at its maximum height and weighing just three pounds, now includes new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics and a faster architecture to provide robust support for 3D games and enhanced performance. Starting at $1,799, MacBook Air is available with a 120GB 4200 rpm hard drive, a 50 percent increase from the previous generation, or a new 128GB solid state drive.”

The 1.6 GHz MacBook Air, for a suggested retail price of $1,799 (US), includes:

— 13.3-inch widescreen LED-backlit high resolution 1280 x 800 glossy display;
— 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 6MB shared L2 cache;
— 1066 MHz front-side bus;
— 2GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM;
— NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;
— 120GB serial ATA hard drive running at 4200 rpm, with Sudden MotionSensor;
— Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);
— built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
— built-in iSight video camera;
— one USB 2.0 port;
— one headphone port;
— Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard; and
— 45 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.

The 1.86 GHz MacBook Air, for a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US), includes:

– 13.3-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1280 x 800 glossy display;
— 1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 6MB shared L2 cache;
— 1066 MHz front-side bus;
— 2GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM;
— NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;
— 128GB solid state drive;
— Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);
— built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth2.1+EDR;
— built-in iSight video camera;
— one USB 2.0 port;
— one headphone port;
— Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard; and
— 45 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter.

Read – Apple Press Release