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My apologies for so many questions, but I not have access to an Apple store. I may drive to Ft. Worth (6 hour drive) in a couple of weeks to be able to visit one.

1. Best I have been able to determine, the just released MBA (13" with 1.8 processor) is limited to 4GB & 256GB? Anyway to add to that?
Answer: No.

2. My wife syncs her iPad 2/iPhone 4 with her PC and her account on our shared Laptop using her MobileMe account on our family subscription. I do the same thing with my iPad 2/iPhone 4 with my PC and my account on our shared Laptop using the family MobileMe subscription. This includes using Outlook (calendar, contacts, notes, and bookmarks) with the Windows MobileMe control panel (including sharing calendars via MobileMe). We use calendar, contacts, notes, and Safari bookmarks apps on the mobile devices.

If I get the Mac 2011 Home & Business Office will I be able to sync it with all my devices and how?

If I do not get Office, what will I use for calendar, contacts, notes, and bookmarks and how will it be sync'd?


Answer: As of May, 2011 Outlook Calander no longer syncs via MobileMe. That pretty well rules out Outlook. I will need to use the native MBA apps via MobileMe (and iCloud later this year).

3. I use Numbers and Pages apps on the mobile devices and have been underwhelmed with their capabilities. I lean toward Office rather than iWorks for that reason. The reviews on both are mixed. Given my background and current computing devices, is Office a reasonable choice?
Answer: Moved to an individual question.

4. I use Thunderbird 2 on the PC and Laptop and share its Local Files using DropBox. Will this be possible using Mac Thunderbird 3 on the MBA?

5. I use Kindle and Zinio apps on the mobile devices. Will the MBA run the same apps?
Answer: Yes

6. Apple has a lot of apps for the mobile devices. What about for the MBA?
Answer: Yes (although I have not been able to browse them using IE)

7. Should I get the: 3 year warranty; the external DVD reader/writer; anything else?

8. My primary need is for an ultraportable Photoshop 5 & Lightroom 3 capable laptop. Do you believe the MBA will be a good choice for that purpose?

I have more questions; however, these already impinge on your goodwill and time. Thank you for your assistance.

Mike
 
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7: Yes. Having Applecare goes a long way in the secondary market if you ever decide to sell the machine. Also, although nothing will probably go wrong, it's good to have just in case something does short out within 2 or 3 years. Spread out over that time, it's pretty cheap for the service it offers.

If you need to use DVDs, then you're obviously going to need the dvd reader/writer. That's self explanatory.

8) I think it would be able to do fine. Just go look at youtube videos and see if you can find one of people editing using the same machine. There's bound to be at least 10 examples up there already.
 
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1. Best I have been able to determine, the just released MBA (13" with 1.8 processor) is limited to 4GB & 256GB? Anyway to add to that?
Answer: No.

Correct, you cannot upgrade the memory but the flash storage can be upgraded. It is very expensive, but you can get 360gb for $779 and 480gb for $1399.
 
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I will get the Apple Care. I thought I would buy the Apple DVD reader/writer since that seems to be the easiest approach.

I have talked to other folks and they say I should have no problems. I will do a search for videos though.

Thank you for the assistance.

Mike
 
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Correct, you cannot upgrade the memory but the flash storage can be upgraded. It is very expensive, but you can get 360gb for $779 and 480gb for $1399.

I have not been able to find anything for the 2011 MBA. Possibly I am looking in the wrong place?

Mike
 
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I will get the Apple Care. I thought I would buy the Apple DVD reader/writer since that seems to be the easiest approach.

I have talked to other folks and they say I should have no problems. I will do a search for videos though.

Thank you for the assistance.

Mike
You can get an external drive for way under 50 bucks; getting the Apple one is just throwing money away.
 
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You can get an external drive for way under 50 bucks; getting the Apple one is just throwing money away.

That is what I thought. I posted a separate thread thinking might be easier to concentrate on one issue at a time. Responses there suggested that not all drives will work with the MBA. Evidently a difference of opinion. Might be difficult to find the one that does?

Thanks

Mike
 

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You can get an external drive for way under 50 bucks; getting the Apple one is just throwing money away.

You would be lucky to find an external that will work with the Air for under $50.00. Mike responded to your post correctly. The Air uses special firmware and there are few external optical drives other than the Apple one that will work with it.
 
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I have not been able to find anything for the 2011 MBA. Possibly I am looking in the wrong place?

Mike

No, Mike, you are correct and JohnCL is (probably very temporarily) wrong.

The 2011 MBA uses an Apple-designed SSD and there is currently NOT a model on the market that will fit there.

Other World Computer in particular, and other vendors in time, will make it their personal mission to bring out 2011 MBA-compatible upgrade drives, probably sooner rather than later. But at the moment, there isn't a third-party upgrade path for the 2011 MBA's SSD.
 
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Great. By the time it is available I may find that it is not needed. I have certainly made do with a lot less.

Regards

Mike
 
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No, Mike, you are correct and JohnCL is (probably very temporarily) wrong.

The 2011 MBA uses an Apple-designed SSD and there is currently NOT a model on the market that will fit there.

Other World Computer in particular, and other vendors in time, will make it their personal mission to bring out 2011 MBA-compatible upgrade drives, probably sooner rather than later. But at the moment, there isn't a third-party upgrade path for the 2011 MBA's SSD.

The 2011 Air uses the same SSD as the 2010 model and there are upgrades available like the one listed here. There is a 180, 240, 360, and 480gb upgrade available.
 
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Well, that was quick.

However, Apple needs to update their marketing information, to wit: And because we place the flash chips directly on the logic board, they take up much less space

The OWC SSDs seem to offer better performance?

I assume the use of the OWC SSD voids the AppleCare warranty?

As an aside, I wanted to buy the i7 version while I was in Fort Worth, but they are only available online. Strange. I guess I will order one when I return.

Regards,

Mike
 
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Well, that was quick.

However, Apple needs to update their marketing information, to wit: And because we place the flash chips directly on the logic board, they take up much less space

The OWC SSDs seem to offer better performance?

I assume the use of the OWC SSD voids the AppleCare warranty?

As an aside, I wanted to buy the i7 version while I was in Fort Worth, but they are only available online. Strange. I guess I will order one when I return.

Regards,

Mike
Well technically placed on doesn't mean soldiered on. To the average consumer and tech person it's easy to assume because it's been done in the past, however that includes but doesn't limit soldiering.
 

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