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chucker
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: near Bremen, Germany
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2020-03-20, 02:40

So, two things about the MacBook Air that are puzzling and no huge deal but also not great:
  • no Wi-Fi 6. Strange to launch the iPad Pro with it but, on the same day, the MacBook Air without it. I also don't personally care much, and for virtually everyone with an Air, Wi-Fi 5 is plenty. But for future-proofing, not so good.
  • no cellular! I get that Apple doesn't want to do touch on the Mac because it overcomplicates the UI paradigm (and I saw in Windows 8 how retrofitting touch can make things worse for everyone, and I don't think Windows 10 has fully corrected all the mistakes just yet). But for cellular? All Apple has to do is put a $129 option (same as on iPads) in MacBooks, on the hardware side. Then on the software side, introduce an API in 10.15.4 and highlight it again with 10.16 that lets developers reduce data use while on metered connections, and include an iOS-style preference pane that lets you block cellular per-app altogether (TripMode is fairly good in this regard; if a third party can do it, so can Apple).

A bummer. But also, depending on your needs, probably not a big deal. But how cool would a cellular MacBook Air have been?

(Gruber also mentions the poor camera. But MacBooks will never have an iPhone-like front-facing camera. The MacBook camera is about 2mm deep; the iPhone camera is about 7mm deep. Could they put a better camera in there? Maybe. But to make it anywhere near as good as the iPhone's, they'd have to make the lid a lot thicker — no way.)
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