Hasta La Gadget! Page not found

Nov 04

MacBook Air battery shown to last two hours longer when browsing the web sans Flash

Posted in: adobe, Apple, flash, macbook, macbook air, MacbookAir, Software, Today's Chili, web

Let’s be honest, Apple’s claim that it neglected to preload Flash on the new MacBook Airs so that users themselves could download and install the latest (and safest) version was a bit of a red herring. Behind that thin veil of corporate courtesy, we’re now seeing a pretty potent cause for Apple’s dumping of Adobe’s wares. Ars Technica‘s review of the 11-inch Air discovered that the machine could crank its way through six hours of web browsing when Flash was nowhere near it, but only four hours with Flash installed and giving it “the full web experience.” The primary culprit was Adobe’s penchant for using CPU cycles to display animated ads, which were typically replaced by static imagery in the absence of the requisite software. So yeah, it’s not a surprise that a “richer” web would require more resources, but it doesn’t speak well for Flash’s efficiency to find a laptop loses a third of its longevity when running it.

MacBook Air battery shown to last two hours longer when browsing the web sans Flash originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Nov 2010 19:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink AppleInsider | source Ars Technica | Email this | Comments

Nov 04

Lack of Flash Gives MacBook Air Two Extra Hours of Battery Life

Posted in: flash, macbook air, Notebooks, Today's Chili

We sometimes sneer at cellphones equipped with Adobe’s Flash browser plug-in: On tiny, energy-efficient mobile processors, the plug-in spikes CPU-usage, causing a big drain on battery life and often making the poor host browser so stuttery and unresponsive that it is rendered useless. But what of full-sized computers? They can handle it, right?

Maybe not. Much has been made of Apple’s decision to ship the new MacBook Airs without the Adobe plug-in, and in future all Macs will be made this way. In tests run by Wired.com’s sister site, Ars Technica, it turns out that having Flash installed can cut the notebooks’ battery life by one third. That’s right. Simply by not having a browser plug-in installed, the 11-inch MacBook Air gets two extra hours of battery life. Ars:

Having Flash installed can cut battery runtime considerably — as much as 33 percent in our testing. With a handful of websites loaded in Safari, Flash-based ads kept the CPU running far more than seemed necessary, and the best time I recorded with Flash installed was just 4 hours. After deleting Flash, however, the MacBook Air ran for 6:02 — with the exact same set of websites reloaded in Safari, and with static ads replacing the CPU-sucking Flash versions.

Anecdotal reports of the new Airs say that they run cooler and quieter than other Mac notebooks, unless they are using Flash. YouTube videos and Flash ads are pretty much the only things that cause the machines to heat up, and for their usually silent fans to spin up.

What to do? Well, there are lots of great Flash-blocking plug-ins for browsers, but these are rather heavy-handed. The sites you visit still think you have Flash, and serve ads and video only for them to be suppressed. If you uninstall Flash completely, though, the site will often have a fallback, serving static ads and — in many cases — plain HTML5 video. The content creators get their ad impressions, you get less blinking crap and better battery life, and the world gets the hint that maybe Flash isn’t as ubiquitous as it used to be.

The future of notebooks: Ars reviews the 11″ MacBook Air [Ars via Steven Frank]

See Also:

Nov 03

2010 MacBook Air owners reporting logic board and display issues

Posted in: Apple, macbook, macbook air, MacbookAir, Today's Chili, video

Early adopters typically run into weird issues when putting their first generation gadgetry to use, and owners of the new MacBook Air models are no exception. Indeed, on the day of its release Apple had to push out a software update to stop the system from locking up while in iMovie — but that wasn’t the end of the woes. Thanks to a YouTube video, we’ve seen for ourselves evidence of a display flickering in a most unappealing manner, and we’re hearing tales of other display issues, kernel errors that occur when the machines are trying to come out of sleep mode, and more. There’s not been an official response from Apple yet, we’re not sure how widespread the problems are, and we haven’t experienced these issues first hand on our devices — but we’ll let you know as soon as we hear something. Promise. In the meantime, it looks like some of you might have a date with the Genius Bar. Video after the break.

Photo credit: Cult of Mac

Continue reading 2010 MacBook Air owners reporting logic board and display issues

2010 MacBook Air owners reporting logic board and display issues originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Nov 2010 11:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Apple Insider | source Apple Support (1), (2) | Email this | Comments

Nov 01

11-Inch MacBook Air Review: A Tiny Miracle [Video]

Posted in: Apple, Laptops, macbook, macbook air, Notebooks, review, Today's Chili, top

Click here to read 11-Inch MacBook Air Review: A Tiny Miracle

The 11-inch MacBook Air is marvelously twee—most people will quite literally marvel at it. It’s stupid thin. And if it were any lighter, it would feel more like a trick than a tiny wonder of engineering and design. More »

Oct 29

13-Inch MacBook Air Review: So Long, Fatty [Video]

Posted in: Apple, Laptops, Mac, macbook, macbook air, Notebooks, review, Today's Chili, top

Click here to read 13-Inch MacBook Air Review: So Long, Fatty

The new 13-inch MacBook Air is Apple’s katana blade: thin, durable, powerful, sleek. But does it have enough mettle to be your weapon of choice? Abandoning the metaphor: can you ditch your MacBook Pro? More »

Oct 28

TSA: MacBook Air Can Stay in Bag at Security Check

Posted in: Apple, macbook air, Notebooks, Today's Chili

Going to the airport will be slightly less miserable for MacBook Air owners: Apple’s new ultra-thin notebook need not be removed from a bag at security checkpoints.

The Transportation Security Administration told CNN that the 11-inch Air, like the iPad, can stay inside bags when passing through the checkpoint. However, the TSA hasn’t yet determined whether the 13-inch Air can stay inside a bag or must be removed.

The 11-incher gains special clearance because it’s “smaller than a standard-sized laptop,” says TSA. (Netbooks and e-book readers fall under this category as well, according to a TSA blog post on smaller gadgets.)

The 13-inch Air, however, is the same size as most notebooks, so it can’t fly through the checkpoint just yet. Still, it’s puzzling why the 13-incher would get treated differently, considering it’s got the same insides: built-in flash memory, a battery and a fan — no optical drive to cram anything shady inside.

See Also:

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Oct 28

11.6-inch MacBook Air cleared to remain packed through security, but we’d remove it anyway

Posted in: Apple, laptop, macbook, macbook air, MacbookAir, security, Today's Chili, Travel, ultraportable

Really, TSA? Are you honestly so stoked to disappoint? If you’ll recall, the American Transportation Security Administration got up close and personal with a first-generation MacBook Air after wrongly assuming it was an Apocalypse-bringer, and even after adjusting rules so that iPads, netbooks and other smaller electronics could fly through carry-on screening equipment without being unpacked, we’ve still heard of (and personally experienced) occasions where agents have demanded that tablet PCs be ran through naked. If there’s a lesson to learn here, it’s that the TSA is consistently inconsistent, and you’re probably better off putting everything you own in a separate grey bucket for the sake of covering your bases. The same applies to Apple’s new 11.6-inch MacBook Air, which is cleared to undergo TSA scanning while packed under the aforesaid amended rules. In theory, you shouldn’t have to remove it from your backpack as you struggle to reach your gate, but if we had to guess, we’d say you’ll be ask to take it out and re-run it if you try. But hey, you’re only being victimized and scrutinized in the name of security, so it’s all good. Trust us.

11.6-inch MacBook Air cleared to remain packed through security, but we’d remove it anyway originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 10:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Gadling | source CNN | Email this | Comments

Oct 27

MacBook Air upgrade kit bumps capacity to 256GB, turns old module into USB 3.0 SSD

Posted in: macbook air, MacbookAir, solid state drive, SolidStateDrive, SSD, storage, Today's Chili, usb 3.0, Usb3.0

Sure, the only remotely user-replaceable component on the 11.6-inch MacBook Air are those tiny Toshiba SSDs, but PhotoFast’s got what might be one of the most elegant upgrade solutions we’ve ever seen. The Air USB 3 Adapter gives you not only a brand-spanking-new 256GB module with a Sandforce SF-1200 controller, but a speedy USB 3.0 flash drive too — which smartly doubles as the mechanism by which you move your old files over, as you can just transfer everything through the USB port. Once you’re done swapping modules, the company says you’ll see a 30 percent speed boost over the original drive, with reported transfer rates of 250MB/s on both sequential reads and writes. Shame the Japanese company didn’t specify any sort of estimated release date or price.

MacBook Air upgrade kit bumps capacity to 256GB, turns old module into USB 3.0 SSD originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Oct 2010 04:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Engadget Japanese | source PhotoFast | Email this | Comments

Oct 26

MacBook Air review (late 2010)

Posted in: Apple, macbook, macbook air, MacbookAir, review, Today's Chili

The MacBook Air has never exactly been a simple product to review. Since the laptop’s launch back in the heady days of 2008, we’ve always considered it a niche, high-end product and much less a mainstream system. Originally, the wafer-thin (and somewhat underpowered) laptop sold for a painful starting price of $1,799, and had its fair share of problems. Well, we’ve come a long way from Apple’s original play, with two all-new models of the Air. The first is an update to the standard 13.3-inch model priced at a significantly cheaper $1,299, while the newest entrant to the MacBook family is a tiny 11.6-inch model that’s nearly the size of an iPad — and not wildly more expensive, starting at $999. Of course, over time the market for laptops of this type has gotten quite crowded, with a slew of ULV-based thin-and-lights that offer lots of options for lots of budgets. Do the new MacBook Airs have enough to take on a crowded market, or have they been bumped out of the game altogether? Read on for the full Engadget review to find out!

Gallery: MacBook Air (13-inch) hands-on

Gallery: MacBook Air (11.6-inch)

Continue reading MacBook Air review (late 2010)

MacBook Air review (late 2010) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Oct 25

The Engadget Show – 014: Aaron Woodman, Windows Phone 7, Google TV, MacBook Airs, Palm Pre 2, Halloween Costumes, and more!

Posted in: engadget show, EngadgetShow, GoogleTv, macbook air, MacbookAir, Microsoft, the engadget show, TheEngadgetShow, Today's Chili, video, windows phone 7, WindowsPhone7

Get ready humans, because we have an all new, amazing Engadget Show fresh out of the box. For your viewing pleasure, Josh sits down with Microsoft director Aaron Woodman to chat Windows Phone 7 and demo nearly all of the new devices, including the Dell Venue Pro. Next up, Darren Murph joins the round table for a bunch of demos, including the new MacBook Airs, Palm Pre 2, and more Windows Phone 7. Nilay leads a thorough demo of Google TV via the Logitech Revue and Engadget editors Ben Drawbaugh and Tim Stevens make some unbelievable cameos. We’ve got highlights from the New York Reader Meetup, plus a Halloween costume contest that quickly gets out of hand. To round it all out, Kris Keyser brings the jams with a rocking set of chiptunes music with visuals from noteNdo. What are you waiting for? Watch it now! Hit up the new video stream after the break, now with convenient chapter markers!

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Nilay Patel, Paul Miller
Special guests: Aaron Woodman, Darren Murph, Ben Drawbaugh, Tim Stevens, Tim Stevens’ dog Bowser
Produced and Directed by: Chad Mumm
Executive Producer: Joshua Fruhlinger
Edited by: Danny Madden
Music by: Kris Keyser
Visuals by: noteNdo
Reader Meetup music by: Zen Albatross
Opening titles by: Julien Nantiec

Taped live at The Times Center

Download the Show: The Engadget Show – 014 (HD) / The Engadget Show – 014 (iPod / iPhone / Zune formatted) / The Engadget Show – 014 (Small)

Subscribe to the Show:

[iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (M4V).
[Zune] Subscribe to the Show directly in the Zune Marketplace (M4V).
[RSS M4V] Add the Engadget Show feed (M4V) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically.

Gallery: The Engadget Show – 014: Windows Phone 7, Aaron Woodman, Google TV devices, and our first Halloween costume contest!