Preset formats include iPhone, AppleTV, Xbox, PS3, and you can even create menu-less chapter-less DVDs which are saved as ISOs on your Mac. Using the simple drag-and-drop interface, just add in your media, select a preset you want to convert to, and hit convert. It uses the FFMpeg engine making it faster in most cases than the QuickTime engine many of the others use.

$14.95 well spent.

The Notes application under iOS3 is very similar. Notes sync only when your device is plugged in and connected to iTunes. There needs to be an over the air syncing solution between all three devices utilising the MobileMe push data system.

Basically, at the moment Notes can be synced between the iPhone, iPad and Mail app, but only via a hard-wire sync — not through MobileMe. What I overlooked in the iOS4 feature list is the ability to sync notes over the air the same way mail, contacts, calendars, and bookmarks are done already.

The way it should have been from day one.

The iPad has meant I can use my MacBook Pro as a ‘desktop machine’ only having to take it off the desk when I need to take serious work with me on the go, namely when Aperture is needed in the field. No more do I need to open the lid of my laptop each morning, I can do all the morning email processing, feed reading, and web browsing in the comfort of my bed before I head off to work – completely skipping out the desk and the power machine.

Here’s a few initial impressions.

Data Syncing – Pages and Things are the main two applications which run into a problem using. Cultured Code have worked extremely hard to make the multi platform Things as user friendly as possible when it comes to syncing data across the Mac, iPhone and iPad. They’re currently working on a cloud based syncing solution.

Pages lack of syncing is a very worrying issue. The fact that Apple didn’t hit the nail on the head first time around worries me that they don’t yet have a proper solution for keeping documents organised between the Mac and the iPad versions of the program. Apple need a permanent, easy solution to sync over cloud between Mac and the iPad.

The Notes application under iOS3 is very similar. Notes sync only when your device is plugged in and connected to iTunes. There needs to be an over the air syncing solution between all three devices utilising the MobileMe push data system.

Downloads – I download a bunch of new music each day from a range of sites. This can be overcome by the iTunes Store on the device, however this really limits me to what’s available on iTunes.

A downloads manager built into Safari would be a welcome feature, where MP3 files are moved directly into the iPod application, movies into the Videos application, and so forth. This already works with photos, to save a photo directly to the Photos app you simply hold your finger down on a photo and tap save image.

Lack Of Flash – Haven’t missed out on anything that’s made me feel like flash should haven’t been left out. Whilst the New Zealand Herald is the only site I watch video on which hasn’t moved to the new HTML5 ‘standard’ – it’s only been an inconvenience to me once or twice.

Newspaper Applications – Most of the popular US newspapers have now been converted into iPad applications. However the newspaper I read daily, the New Zealand Herald doesn’t yet have an iPad application, and I haven’t heard about anything under development. As of now the full website view in Safari is more than satisfactory until they get an app into the store.

Uploading Images – It appears that websites allowing photo uploads operate best within a native application. Sites such as Facebook and New Zealand eBay like site TradeMe haven’t let me attach images from the photos application to upload forms.

Software Keyboard – In landscape mode, very easy to type a great amount of text comfortably. Sometimes feels a little slow to react to quick typing. Delete button located in a different spot than on the iPhone’s software keyboard which makes for a difficult transition between the two devices throughout the day.

Typing Angle – Without a case which alters the angle the iPad sits at, typing a lot of text is a less than pleasant experience. However it’s not impossible, this whole entry was written with the iPad lying flat on various surfaces without the aid of a case to prop it up.

Battery – Amazing. I’m not even having the charge the iPad once a day, generally charging it overnight every second day. This point appears to be the one thing everyone has been amazed by. It’s great having a device that does almost everything I need a portable machine to do last me two days of continuous on/off use.

Standout Applications - Apple has the developers to thank for making the device so attractive to a wide audience. Personally, I’ve been using Things, Instapaper & Reeder very heavily.

Rotation Lock – Following in the footsteps of other aesthetically pleasing Apple devices, the iPad has just four physical buttons protruding off the aluminum and glass casing, the home button, lock button, volume slider, and new addition the rotation lock switch. This switch is now invaluable. Ever hated using the iPhone in bed whilst lying down and having the rotation change on you, this switch takes away that annoying rotation when you know what position you want to use the iPad in.

Following up on the point made in the previous entry, in relation to the iPhone replacing the need for a point-and-shoot camera for a majority of users – the announcement of the iPhone 4 makes this statement even more plausible.

The largest complaint heard about the iPhone 3G S camera was poor quality images in any lighting condition apart from clear sunshine. The new LED flash ticks off this common problem and means images taken in overcast weather and enclosed rooms will be drasticlly improved over the previous phone. In addition to the image quality enhancements in the new rear camera, the system also supports 5x digital zoom, and the tap to focus I’ve grown rather fond of.

There’s even less of a reason now to carry around a Flip video camera for odd times when you’re wanting to capture better quality video as iPhone 4′s rear camera is now capable of recording HD video in 720p at 30 frames per second.

Aside from having to carry one (or two) less gadgets around, the greatest advantage the iPhone 4 holds over regular point-and-shoot cameras include the ability to send captured stills/video to the web at the press of a button. No need to plug in the camera, download media, head to a website and upload. It’s now a one step task to upload HD video to YouTube, send images and HD video via email, or send either still images or video via MMS.

Late 2008 when I picked up an iPhone it made for light pockets. I’d leave everything else home and pick up my wallet and iPhone on the way. Nothing more, it replaced my iPod, notebook, mobile phone, and point-and-shoot camera.

The Point-and-Shoot Camera

Whilst the iPhone replaced a bunch of gadgets, the most important was my point-and-shoot camera. There was no need to carry it around as its only purpose was quick snapshots. For more serious work, I’d throw the DSLR and the Canon L lenses into a bag and bring them along with me.

Megapixel wise, the iPhone doesn’t stand a chance against any of the consumer choice in basic P&S cameras on the market – however in good lighting conditions it’s more than ample for anything from quick snapshots to basic action and portrait photography. Anything you’re going to be keeping in digital form only, or small sized prints.

The iPhone segregated the middle ground between camera phones of past and DSLR cameras. iPhone for everyday photography, a DSLR for more serious professional and enthusiast. It eliminated the middle ground and the widespread market for a point-and-shoot camera. They were simply no longer necessary.

The Laptop.

The iPad has had the same effect to the laptop as the iPhone, and camera phones in general did to the point-and-shoot camera. It removed the need of carrying/owning a laptop for most consumers who are simply consuming content and media on the go.

With the 3G iPad, and the Wi-Fi unit to some extent you’re able to complete most, if not all of the light tasks you do daily on your laptop. Access your email and the internet anywhere, take notes, write essays, presentations and spreadsheets, catch up on the latest news, play games, watch videos, play music, and more from the comfort of a 9.7″ LED screen with a battery no Apple laptop can match.

Whilst users who rely solely on a laptop and require all their projects and data with them at all times may find it difficult to have the iPad fill in the portable computing need and move to a desktop platform for the serious work, those just needing to perform basic tasks on the go may find the iPad removes the need to carry around a bulkier laptop.

For a good portion of the market the iPad has had the same segregation effect the iPhone had on the camera market. By removing the middle ground where a laptop sat, a good percentage of consumers should be able to get by without needing a laptop computer to go with their desktop machine.

All Bases Covered. iMac + iPad + iPhone

The iMac, iPad and iPhone combo appears rather attractive for users who need a good amount of power but doesn’t mind if they can’t do much content creation, only consumption on the go.

iMac for long computing sessions, editing and processor intensive work. The light and portable iPad sitting in its dock. Easy to pick up drop in a bag and take anywhere for emailing, reading, the internet and media consumption on the go, and the iPhone for everything else – an internet connected device which remains in the pocket at all times.

My first machine was the late the 17-inch G5 powered iMac. A year of blood, sweat, and effort was put into obtaining this machine. Countless lawns were mowed each week as I put money toward the large (for a 13 year old child) purchase. This G5 introduced me to the Macintosh culture, while helping me begin a writing career and giving me an outlet to showcase my creative work online from an early age. I kept the machine for 24 months before progressing forward and beginning my journey through the product line.

The Second iMac

Next came the iMac Core Duo 17″. I sold the G5 and progressed to my first Intel based machine. I don’t remember much about this machine, however whilst owing this iMac my photography hobby continued to expand, and I moved to Aperture for image processing and cataloguing which the machine amply handled.

The First Portable

My introduction to portability came with the MacBook Core Duo 13.3″. This laptop was purchased to run alongside the iMac Core Duo.

Once I started using this laptop I began using the desktop less and less. I found writing to be a much more enjoyable experience in comfort. Blogging volume and quality went from strength to strength as I was able to blog while away from home, on the couch, and in the backyard. I’d been positively introduced to the portable world.

The Pro Workstation

After my introduction to the portable world, my next purchase was set to be a 15″ MacBook Pro and a 23″ Apple Cinema Display, however the fanboy in me took over and purchased the holy grail of Apple products, the Mac Pro 2 x 2.66Ghz and a 30″ Apple Cinema Display.

As a self proclaimed Apple fanboy, the thought of owning a Mac Pro was a distant dream I thought about from time to time but nothing I ever thought would come to life. With a large wad of cash in hand, I pulled the trigger on the baseline Woodcrest Mac Pro.

Packed with a quad-core processor, 10GB of RAM, two large hard-drives, and attached to a 30″ Apple Cinema Display the Mac Pro flew through any task I threw at it. For the first time Aperture felt snappy, not lagging on export or when making adjustments on RAW files. Yes – it was more power than I required or could put to use 90% of the time, but the sheer experience of power blew me away.

The Pro Portable

Whilst still owning the Mac Pro, I received a MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 15″ which I planned to run alongside as a writing and browsing machine I could use while out of the office. After a few weeks with both pro machines in my armory, I began using the MacBook Pro more than I had planned, the majority of my work moved from the office to the couch.

I made the decision to see rid of the Mac Pro to free up my cash flow. I was sad to see it go, but I was more than happy with how the MacBook Pro was coping with the light Aperture work, and day-to-day tasks. I still had the option of hooking it up to the Cinema Display when I needed to get some serious work done. However, after a month collecting dust I also sold the Cinema Display and made use of Spaces for virtual screen real estate rather than the cumbersome, quickly aging Cinema Display.

The Current Machine & Plans

12 months on I received an offer I couldn’t refuse for the 15″, I picked up the Unibody MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 13.3″.

For the past 18 months I’ve been settled using a MacBook Pro as my primary work machine. The 15″ was running on 4GB of RAM whilst the 13″ has been running stock since it arrived.

I’m playing more of a focus on photography in my free time once again I’m beginning to feel the constraints of both the power and limitations of the 13.3″ display. I’ve thoroughly thought out the logistics of adding a 27″ iMac to my office, however I’ve loved having all my data accessible in one location. The ability to simply pick up the laptop and move my work anywhere is invaluable, making a move to a desktop machine unattractice.

Instead of adding a second machine, I ordered 8GB of RAM for the MacBook Pro. In regard to display constraints I’m waiting for a larger Apple Cinema LED Display. The 24″ looks very attractive, however the extra resolution a 27-inch panel offers would be invaluable whilst editing in Aperture and viewing documents side by side. I wait in patience.

Notable issues included reports of far less than the advertised battery life/expectancy, and extremely noisy system fans which could have been easily mistaken for the sound of a small desktop fan. Not what you’d expect from a computer, let alone one manufactured by Apple.

All issues aside, the second revision of the MacBook Air corrected both of these issues, and further more in the third revision introduced at WWDC 2009, bumped the speed of the machine considerably. In the 18 months since the machine was first introduced, the base CPU has been bumped from a lowly 1.6Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Merom chip to a more than acceptable 1.86Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Penryn.

Memory limitation is still 2GB, soldered to the logicboard. However the latest inception of the laptop is powered by 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM, rather than slower 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM. The stock 64GB SSD which was available in the first generation can now be had in a 128GB SSD variation. Specifications wise, the MacBook Air has come a long way in its first 18 months on the market.

Most complaints regarding the heat issues, poor battery life, and less than adequate storage limitations have ceased.

The current lineup of portable Apple machines runs in three lines. The MacBook, the MacBook Air, and the MacBook Pro.

Not so long ago the MacBook was updated to feature the same unibody design as its older sibling, the MacBook Pro. Less than two months later with the Pro line was expanded to include a 13″ option, the unibody MacBook was discontinued in favor for a single cheaper plastic bodied laptop.

The current line leaves us with a choice of either a 13″ MacBook, two variations of the 13″ MacBook Air, and three sizes of the MacBook Pro.

The direction we’re heading in makes it quite clear that the merging of the MacBook and the Air lines would make sense, and is certainly possible. The Air becoming the MacBook whilst the Pro line remains as is in three excellent size choices.

This merge would make things much more simple for those out to buy an OSX-based laptop. A 0.16-inch super thin, design conscious yet powerful for everyday tasks MacBook. Or the MacBook Pro for those who want a little more expandability or screen real estate in their system, in 13-inch, 15-inch, and 17-inch variations.

The only way I see it making sense to have the plastic MacBook in the lineup is when bought in bulk for education faculty and students due to their cheaper build cost. In that case, why not just offer it in the educational store only?

It has been reported that QuickTime Player X now supports playback out of the box for .flv videos, and furthermore: it can save those videos to m4v. Think about this concept little further, once the QuickTime software is updated on the iPhone, we should be able to view .flv videos on the go, with no prior conversion needed.

QuickTime Player X takes some time to load the flv file first, before allowing its playback. This is very fast in short files, but noticeably longer when long files are played.

I do believe I can handle this short delay in return for the added function in Quicktime. Snow Leopard’s advancements look better and better as release creeps forward.

Goodbye Perian.

The latter of the matters is the most safe of all listed, as I purchased a hands free kit which sits above the dash. The others however, are hazardous to some extent in most, if not all driving situations.

Due to the nature of the touch screen input on the iPhone, data entry requires 100% attention focus, unlike other devices where you can input data/write messages by ‘feel.’ Once data has been input into the phone, for example Google Maps, it’s easy to follow without having to apply 100% of your attention span on the phone.

This is where the Voice Control feature on the iPhone 3G S has my attention. No longer would using the iPhone while driving be ‘as irresponsible.’ Simply feel for the home button, hold it down and tell the phone orally what I want it to do rather than take my eyes off the road and flip through applications and input areas.

Instead of scrolling through contacts to find the person I want to call, simply speak their name. Same with changing songs, speak out the name and artist or playlist and it will begin playing.

While focus has been more directed toward the increased speed aspect and the video camera capabilities of the iPhone 3G S, Voice Control is the only feature which has potential to prevent serious injury, if not death.

Don’t text and drive, purchase an iPhone 3G S instead.

Atebits software released Tweetie for Mac last week, immediately storming Twitter, holding onto a ‘trend’ spot for over 24 hours. A Macworld interview was held soon after, a few insightful comments were located in the transcript.

I really don’t know. One of the fantastic things about Twitter clients is how easy it is for users to jump from one to another. Just type in a username and password and off you go.

One of the strongest quotes from the interview, John Gruber commented on the point adding there is so little friction to switch between apps, there’s nothing to import or export, and zero commitment. This is what makes a developers job difficult when building a Twitter application. It’s difficult, if not near impossible to tie down a user to your application which the exception of them having purchased it.

Lack of feature additions in the future? With zero commitment users you’ve got a problem on your hands. However, for the public this converts into excellent applications which are regularly improved.

They serve some of the most beautiful ads around. Many people mentioned that they registered Tweetie but then opted to keep the ads on anyway (there’s a checkbox in the Preferences).

This goes to show the user-base using Tweetie and the attitude consumers have toward elegant advertisements. It’s simply no longer fair to connect ads and a negative view on the appearance and how it detracts from a publication/website. The Deck, and now Fusion have taken that view to the cleaners, quite literally.

The sidebar design in Tweetie for Mac solves these problems in an extremely elegant and scalable way. It’s new and different, which is hard for some people to swallow, but somebody needs to push the envelope and try new things or we’re all going to rot in UI hell.

It would have been simple to use an existing UI trend for many parts of the application, in particular the sidebar. The large sidebar is a UI trend found in an array of applications, especially those from Apple. Take for example iTunes, Mail, iCal, and iPhoto. The Tweetie user interface is out of the box down to the finest details, the sidebar been one of the larger and riskier attributes.

What’s sleep? But seriously, I’m throwing my weight behind Tweetie for Mac and iPhone. I have a fantastic new foundation with which to build a true next generation Twitter client. People have just seen the tip of the iceberg.

Perfect example of a committed and enthusiastic developer. Always looking to improve upon its product not only for the user-base, but for personal satisfaction.

It supports multiple operating systems and file systems (including NTFS, HFS Plus, FAT32, and EXT3), and has FireWire800 and USB 2.0 ports as well as a gigabit ethernet port for an iSCSI connection.

While the regular 4-bay Drobo suits consumers with needs like mine perfectly, there are some users who found themselves stacking multiple Drobo units up around their office as one wasn’t sufficient enough to hold all of their media.

The new DroboPro is aimed at creative professionals and IT managers and starts at $1,299. Current Drobo owners will receive a $200 instant incentive to assist with upgrading to DroboPro through a loyalty program at drobostore.com.

Since I was first enlightened with news of the Drobo it appeared to me as the optimal storage solution for anyone working with digital media. It’s remained on my shopping list for some time – eventually I’l’ pick one up and turn it into my sole storage location for my images, music, and movies.

The DroboPro is going to change the outlook on the cost, scalability, and hassle or mass storage for individuals with large storage requirements and smaller studios alike. According to the Data Robotics press release they’ve sold 60,000 original Drobo units. I expect this product to gain as much traction as the original product did. Though the companies best asset in my eyes is its attention to listen to what its customers want and deliver, period.

During the first year MacHeist developers agreed to be paid a flat fee for the duration of the event which once revealed to the media, in particular the strident writer John Gruber, hell broke loose as opinions flew all over the web regarding the fairness to the developer.

Second time around, MacHeist staff realized their mistake and adjusted accordingly, this time offering developers a percentage cut from the total number of sales. This method has carried over to the third year.

Sounds like a fair deal doesn’t it? Yet there are still a number of people out there crying out that MacHeist are ripping developers off. To those critiquing, look at it this way. No developer was forced into participating, those who have spoken out regarding their involvement seem over the moon with the results to date, and with still 13 days left in the bundle sale things aren’t going to get any slower.

The percentage cut deal has been around for the last two seasons of MacHeist, are these bloggers digging at an old matter for the heck of it or do they really believe the developers involved had a gun to their head when signing the papers?

Update: While we’re on the topic of poorly thought out criticism, have you seen this? Read into it as you will and make your own judgement.

The two new phone features over the original – 3G and GPS really didn’t interest me much on paper, however now having had the phone in hand for a few months I’ve really woken up to the true power of 3G and GPS capabilities.

I’ll be the first to admit when in larger cities, and on occasion even my own I’m a little directionally challenged, which becomes extremely frustrating when my mates pick up on the fact, and chirp in my ear sarcastically at every wrong turn.

Google Maps on the iPhone has helped me a number of times working out directions for myself, friends, and family including figuring out traveling times and distances to and from different cities/areas, including bus times and walking routes when available.

How has having GPS on your phone helped you in the past few months?

Sure, when I’m cruising around in the car with my mates I love a bit of punch in my system, but outside of the car I’ve realized there’s so much more to good sound system than one which represents the lower frequencies well. I’m now after a system which will really please my ears and accommodate to sound frequencies all over the board – exactly why I’ve started looking into studio monitor speakers.

Paul Stamatiou recently wrote a very informative article on his purchase of the Rokit RP5G2s, on the lower end of the scale of studio monitors (yet still very high performing). The post looks super helpful for reference down the line when hooking the monitors up to a MacBook Pro.

I’m looking at purchasing a pair of the M-Audio Studiophile BX5a Deluxe, which are 70-watt Bi-amplified Studio Reference Monitors. Basically, I’m after a little advice if anyone out there is knowledgeable in this area on the in’s and out’s of this, or a similar system.

- Initial product release.
- Processor updates and faster bus speeds.
- Slight increase in hard-drive capacity.
- Rinse and repeat every 8-12 months.

Apple has generally kept the same design on their products for an extended period of time. The first Intel Macintosh, the MacBook Pro kept the same design (following the above transition list) for close to 34 months, nearing three years. Over the past 6 months, consumers have started speculating the need for a refresh of the line – here we have it, 34 months after the initial design was revealed at Macworld Expo 2006.

Inclusion Of Innovation

- Two NVIDIA graphics chipsets: 9400M and 9600M GT

By far the most innovative feature on the new MacBook Pro is the inclusion of two NVIDIA graphics chipsets. When you’re unplugged and on the go the lesser power card is utilized for superior battery life, however when plugged in to your MagSafe adaptor the powerful card kicks in for some serious performance.

- User accessible hard drive

The single reason I haven’t changed the internal hard-drive in the Santa Rosa MacBook Pro is the long and strenuous process of actually doing it. I could pick up a 320GB drive for pocket change at todays rates, but the idea of ripping the machine apart doesn’t sound very attractive. The hard-drive is now as easy to change on this new generation of the MacBook Pro as it is to change the battery.

- Glass Multi-Touch trackpad with new Multi-Touch gestures

No – I doubt there’s much of a change seeing touch screens on Apple’s portable lineup anytime soon, however Apple’s made up for it with the inclusion of a new glass multi-touch trackpad in each of their new notebooks. Tap, flick, twist, turn – it all works to control various gestures within your favorite Apple applications.

Compatible with MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro systems with Mini DisplayPort, yet we’re still unsure on how, and if we’ll be able to connect the new display to older machines – including the Mac Pro.

One of the fancier features is that the LED Cinema Display includes a MagSafe connector that powers and charges your laptop. The connector sits on your desk, ready and waiting which means there’s no need to unravel the MagSafe which came with your MacBook/Pro. This should excite those working in office environments who take their machine home with them each night. No more lugging around an extra power brick all day long.

The display features three self-powered USB 2.0 ports on the rear, but consumers lose out on Firewire devices as there’s no Firewire ports like the previous generation. It also features an iSight camera, microphone, and stereo speaker system all in-built to the bezel. No more having to leave your laptops lid open for video conferences.

The new 24″ LED Cinema Display is 90% of everything people have been wanting in Apple branded displays for some time now. Personally, I’m hoping we won’t have to wait long for a 30″ variation and simple solutions to use it on an older Macintosh.

Three days before its arrival in New Zealand, Vodafone NZ released a statement saying the iPhone would retail for just $199. Two days before release, my initial plan of picking up an iPhone on the morning of release was darkened with the phone plans revealed by Vodafone. Sure, you could get the phone for $199, but only on the high end $250 per month contract – on the cheapest plan, the 16GB phone was $699.

Five weeks later & I decided it wasn’t just lust that made me first want the iPhone, I was still wanting the phone even though I had decided to stay well away from the phone/Vodafone after they way they treated their potential iPhone customers when revealing pricing and plans. I placed an order for the phone against my initial plan.

Yesterday, my 16GB white iPhone 3G arrived on my doorstep. The base plan of 120 minutes, 600 text messages, and 250MB of data transfer for $80 is ridiculously overpriced in comparison to AT&T in America, but completely worth it now I have the phone in hand and friends are all fighting for their chance to play with it.

While a switch to a MacBook Air may or may not be on the cards for various reasons, the decision turners for making the change (or not) will fall into its own post later in the week.

The increased use of Safari is also down to moving away from three desktop based applications (Mail, NetNewsWire, TextEdit), moving to three similar browser based Google applications – Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Docs.

After keeping a close eye on which applications I used over a seven day period, I came up with the above chart. Overall, it doesn’t really surprise me considering I spend most of my time on the computer writing, while listening to music, keeping an eye on email and RSS, while occasionally popping open iMovie to export video to YouTube and editing images in Aperture.

The only thing holding me back from the MacBook Air at this current point in time? The 15% area on the chart dedicated to Aperture & iMovie.

Late Addition: I’m going to stick with the MacBook Pro – install a new internal HDD, and see what Apple has in store with the next revision of the MacBook Air. I’ll keep riding this laptop until I see a need to change, adding a 2nd rev MacBook Air at a later stage looks likely – however.

My three points of consideration? Interface, simplicity and usability. Of course, an application needs to fulfill a suitable function, but these three pointers are what pulls me in to software and get me hooked.

I’m sure most of you have heard about AppZapper at some point or another. If not, AppZapper allows you to confidently uninstall virtually any application as easily as it was installed – just drag and drop. Drag one or more unwanted apps onto the main AppZapper window and watch as it finds all the extra associated files and lets you delete them with a single click.

The first thing which attracted me to AppZapper was not only the elegant ability to uninstall applications which has been carried out so well, but the complete usability and overall simplicity of the application, it immediately leaped into my dock and hasn’t left since, same goes with many other applications such as Delicious Library, Coda, MarsEdit, and Transmit. They are all so elegantly developed, with attention paid to both form and function.

Two standout examples of companies paying severe attention to detail are Panic Software with their lead applications Coda, Transmit and CandyBar. Along with Delicious Monster’s application “Delicious Library.”

Potential For Greatness In Form

Other applications, including DVD-ripping software HandBrake, have the potential to be amazing with some work on the usability and form. HandBrake is a wonderful application but it doesn’t come across as elegant and as easy to use as an application like AppZapper. Of course, it fills a much larger function than AppZapper and requires a large scale of features – which I believe could be carried out in a different manner.

Why is that? Because consumers want applications that are extremely easy to use. Austin Sarner, the developer of AppZapper, hit the sweet spot when designing it: he knew exactly what the people wanted and how to give it to them. AppZapper is so simple to use that it’s ingenious.

Companies like Panic and Delicious Monster have got all aspects right on design and user interface which in my opinion is a contributing fact to why they have enjoyed so much success. Form & function my friends. Pay attention to the vital details.

After publishing my first thoughts, I came to the consensus that the MacBook Air had a lot going for it, and a lot going against it. It would pair up perfectly as a second more portable machine for those already running iMac’s/Mac Pro’s, etc.

After viewing Macworld benchmarks, the last statement above that the MacBook Air would be suited as a second machine for the creative professional is a somewhat accurate one. The MacBook Air clocks in as the slowest Mac in Apple’s lineup.

Speed aside, if anything could be added to the MacBook Air, on my terms, they’d be as follows.

Extra USB Port & FireWire Port

The MacBook Air’s hub is home to a magsafe power port, one USB 2.0 port, a micro-DVI port, and a headphone jack. While the term less is more is often used in the Mac world (typically when talking about software), the same doesn’t apply here.

One extra USB port, along with a FireWire 400 port would be greatly received. It’s on of my major gripes about the machines design. While it can be easily fixed with a USB hub, it’s not the most aesthetically pleasing or simple solution.

User Replaceable RAM

I’d almost be fully content to use a MacBook Air full time if the RAM limitation wasn’t set at 2GB, tethered to the motherboard. While I’m not certain on the practically of it, having the ability for the user to replace RAM with standard DDR2 PC2-5300 667MHz DIMM RAM. It would take the RAM limitation to 4GB on the MacBook Air if two slots were open – much more acceptable for those multi-tasking on the notebook – although, that opens the question once again, if you’re multitasking heavily, why are you doing it on a MacBook Air? The irony.

Don’t get me wrong, the MacBook Air is super elegant in its current state. I still want one, and most of the problems above can be fixed with third-party products (well, not the RAM). All-in-all, the MacBook Air is shaping up to be much more desirable than I initially thought.