skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
So, the apple version of my netbook costs $1k. Wow. Apple makes gorgeous, intuitive products, but... Wow.

I bought an Asus Aspire 1. I put in 2GB of RAM($40), Installed a OCZ SSD ($160), and bought a 9 cell battery for it($55), and put Windows 7 Ultimate on it (TRIM support for SSD's and free with a BizSpark subscription).

I now have a machine a bit thicker than an iPad that runs a full version of Windows 7 Ultimate, has a 14 hour battery life, and an extra battery with 10 hours on it. It's "Instant On" because I never turn it off, it just hibernates, and the SSD I'm using is crazy fast and sips battery juice through a cocktail straw. All for a bit more than $500.

Oh, did I mention that I can replace the memory, battery and Hard Drive without voiding my warranty?

I understand the appeal of a MacBook Air. I do. But the appeal of beautiful design, a glowing logo rules telling me to keep my hands off my own hardware... It's just not work the extra $500 for me.
No. Just because I think this is fail doesn't mean I'm bearish on the stock.

I'm as much of an Apple fanboy as anyone else (I use a MacBook Pro, Cinema Display, iPhone, etc. I've been using a MacBook Pro since 2003), but I'm not going to give them a free pass on a necessary feature in an ultra-portable laptop.
Day job here is making Dynamics CRM awesome...have you tried Dynamics?
This is very exciting. The problem of distribution and monetization for desktop software is significant and largely unsolved. Steam is already proof that a digital store can make desktop users really happy, but it addresses gamers, who are cheerful early adopters. Most other people who don't game only know this model through their mobile device, but now they're ready for more.

As for developers? For more than half of 2009, the App Store paid for my rent and cell phone bill. It helped me move across the country to the west coast. This was huge for me. I barely had to do much more than write code, design UI, and ship things. A huge chunk of the business of actually selling bits to other people was abstracted behind a bunch of buttons on iTunes Connect. This was such a powerful thing – I couldn't have had anything close to the moderate success I did without Apple's App Store strategy.

This is going to enable a new wave of great work for OS X. This platform already has some of the best shareware and freeware ever. Now that indie Mac devs will have an easy way to get paid, they'll be able to devote even more attention to their wares.
I'm wondering the same thing, surely it makes sense to provide "IM" support as well.

It seems logical to attack BBM and gchat.
Lots of people are newcomers to the Mac. Windows uptimes (edit: especially in the workplace) are usually measured in hours. Unix uptimes are usually measured in months.

Also: you see the screen go dark, versus wait for the throbber after you close your machine, and people choose the finality.
I didn't downvote you, so I can only offer a guess. It could be that your particular wording came across a little abrasively, so some people may have felt that while the subject was interesting, the tone of the comment might discourage open discussion and instead lead towards heated and personal flame exchanges.

Compare and contrast to:

Odd that there's no 3G sim card support, this is a machine meant for portability and touted as what happens when a Macbook hooks up with an iPad... Which has 3G as an option.
But with rounded contacts! You know somewhere they had a meeting about how rectangular contacts would be off-brand.
If I remember correctly, Jobs said this thing had thirty days of standby time.

My MBP does not feature instant-on after twenty days.
Update: email jobs@wavii.com please.
Nina Paley on Creative Commons' Non-Commercial Problem
I'd say that everything that was announced about Lion was targeted at happy iPhone/iPad users who have perhaps been on the fence about buying a Mac.

"The new OS X? It works just like that iOS thing you know and love!"

"Back to the Mac" should have been "Come to the Mac".
Can't see Matlab or AutoCad or Adobe CS5 being sold through the App Store, and I'm sure Apple knows that. There's also lots of research apps and such.

Jobs mentioned that the store would be one way of getting apps.
What about Bitly?
And it only weights 2.3lbs. Wow.
Knock knock Nokia. A detailed report of mistakes of the mobile giant.
To us engineers/founders/people with knowledge on how the software business works, it might be obvious, but not for the average Joe. Google (or Yahoo) will be a name brand and they'll hold high expectations of them, especially with Google's "Do No Evil" mantra.
Expandable to 4G, but yeah, 2G really is a minimum these days.
Giving your select tags a makeover
As more and more devices come with 3G built-in, market forces would dictate that the supply side will change to meet this additional demand.

One possibility is that more network will be built out so that people can have more than one 3G plan for the price of one 3G plan today.
Oh, please, please tell me Adobe will work with the OS X app store. Adobe's updater needs terminated with prejudice.
Do other Apple notebooks have 3G? They are meant for portability too. It does have USB port. Get some 3G modem, problem solved (not being in US I just use my iPhone tethering with 1st gen Macbook Air for this).
I learned to program on a C64, and later in Turbo Pascal on an XT with 256KB. Now I code on an Air, (rev. A) and it works fine. I miss a really big screen (but you can plug one in) and it's slow for some tasks such as running tests (but you can run those on a server).

Maybe I'd be slightly more productive with a Mac Pro and two 27'' screens. On the other hand, with the Air, I can code in bed (and I do).
Arg! Apple, when are you going to add the i5 to your 13" MacBook Pro for me?
wait, I thought Jobs said that netbooks sucked and he refused to make one?
hdd versions discontinued... future is here
The best way to pay attention to compiler warnings is to turn up the warning level as high as you dare and then turn on elevating warnings to errors in your build configuration. You'll still be able to suppress warnings for individual bits of code that justifiably break compiler guidelines, but otherwise this is one of the most thorough ways to keep your code clean of compiler warnings.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but this is what Steve is referring to. 30 days of standby effectively makes awake from sleep the same as on, whereas before you had a fast drain during even sleep.
It isn't really the client owing me money that bothers me so much as him being a jackass(and not knowing what crap he might try next). Longterm it isn't worth the $150 deposit he paid me.

Ideally I wish I could just give him his $150 back and chalk it up as a loss to a jackass but my wallet super bit tight right at this moment.
I don't see a reason why they would disallow it at all, especially since they're launching it on 10.6.

And through their website Apple has long featured their own and independent OS X apps, this seems like a logical evolution. But not one that excludes regular power users, and savvy users, from using the PC the way they have for years.
I'm updating my CV so i can get a job for those days i am not in uni, also working on a small app made around someone elses work parsing Civilization 5 replay files into HTML5/JS in-browser replays. http://github.com/flexd/civ5replays -- Too little time, so many ideas!
Also, 2GB Ram and 64GB storage isn't something I could work with. Would need at least 4GB Ram and 256GB, but then I'd pay something like $1600 for a 13" notebook? I think the main problem about the MacBook Air and the previous one is that the MacBook Pro is a much more attractive deal.
I've had a MacBook Air since the day it originally came out, and it's been my favorite computer ever. This addresses all of my issues with it. As long as you don't need extreme computing power, you should get one. It's one of those cases where being twice as portable makes it ten times as useful.
He mentioned it was "up to 2x faster". I thought SSDs were significantly faster than HDDs?
It will be interesting to see if these 10.7 multitouch features work on my 3 1/2 year old Macbook Pro. Recent multitouch feature additions haven't worked, so I'm not terribly hopeful.
Hoptoad + delayed_job
http://blogger.com http://wordpress.com http://tumblr.com http://posterous.com
Yeah, this feature seems like a non-event to me. It might be marginally faster.
Assuming "All Flash Storage" => SSD
Why wouldn't they want to carry giant apps? Improves experience for the user, and they would still get 30% of the higher prices of giant apps.
Selling shovels to gold miners.
The advertising agency: "Agency Nil" created a business model where they create finished work for clients and the clients pay them what they think it is worth after completion.

http://www.onedayonejob.com/jobs/agency-nil/
Mac OS X.7 "Lion" preview
Use the bottom link. The top link is pointing to iWork 09
> Do people actually think that? That's beyond ignorant/naive.

Yes, people actually think that! Have you met 90% of your (ok, Google or Yahoo's) customers? Barely anyone tells them to worry about saving their data locally and these companies actively ask you to load your data into them listing safety as a feature. "It's in the cloud!" blah blah

You can call people ignorant/naive when Google/Yahoo/Hotmail et al. display prominent "Your data is going away in 6 months AND HERE'S HOW TO GET IT." Emphasis on the "here's how to get it" otherwise they're suddenly at a loss of how to get their data back.
Why the price of Windows was not in calculation?
Did you also get aluminum unibody, full-size backlit keyboard, camera, multitouch trackpad?
By the way, I am curious is Windows wake from sleep as instant as it is on OS X?
That is in fact a problem with the Air, the fans are simply not powerful enough to cool the CPU at full speed for more than 5 minutes. You're wise to wait (I'm not).
It's not really a netbook. It a full-fledged laptop, but minified. It has a good CPU, good GPU and plenty of disk space.
Apparently standby lasts 30 days for the 13.3" model. Currently my MBP burns through the battery in standby within 1-2 days. With a 30-day standby time, I'd worry a lot less about having it plugged in all the time.

http://www.engadget.com/photos/apples-new-macbook-air/#34886...
I don't think the ability to do whatever you want with OS X is going anywhere. A huge chunk of Apple's Mac business is with developers (of all types) and power users. A move like that (point 1) would be utterly suicidal.
There's an approval guidelines document for the Mac App Store up on the Apple developer site now. It's behind a login wall, so I assume it's under the usual NDA, but if you're a registered Apple dev, you should be able to get it at the following URL:

https://developer.apple.com/appstore/mac/resources/approval/...
$500 netbooks.
While I agree with the general idea behind the article, there are lots of specific details I disagree with. For example:

It is absolutely crucial to pick a first language with a deep, expressive vocabulary for this reason, and all programming languages are not created equal.

Not really. I started with BASIC, on ZX Spectrum 48, and I actually used it to write a real-world program which was used by real users; if you're curious, it was a pop quiz for biology classes. Yes, it's probably the worst code I've ever seen or written. Yes, it had all sorts of problems and bad practices you could readily think of and then some that would require you to be very imaginative. No, it didn't cripple my development as a programmer.

The problem is not in which language you pick as your first language. The problems start when you start believing that's all there is. Some of the most important things I've learned were things I encountered when learning a new, more powerful programming language, precisely because they were impossible (or extremely difficult, or too messy) to express using the old language. They challenged my understanding of programming and helped me develop even further as a programmer.
Yeah, absolutely. I've heard way too many stories about return policies and all that on Android, so I think I'd try to do the same thing they did. It really depends on the market at that point in time though.
There has been something like this for indie devs for a while.

http://appbodega.com/
I think it's going to be awesome. Between Google's store, Mozilla's, and projects like PhoneGap which allow web apps in native app stores, the Web is far from dead; I personally believe it's becoming the defacto development platform.
"The investor must hold the stock for more than five years"
and you must realize the gain before Jan 1, 2011. How does that encourage new investment?
But will it support more than one user account/profile? That's easily the biggest complaint I have about the iPad.
I interpret this as acting on and optimizing operations rather than simply data.

Natural evolution acts not just on the fitness of exhibited proteins, but also on the fitness of the DNA which, among other things, encodes them.
Yes, although the flash memory is not in an enclosure.
Exactly, but all it takes is the right mention from the right influential person, and it can snowball. None of this would have worked if I hadn't made a good game though.
It's not really a drive anymore, just individual flash chips, not replaceable.
"Won't be the only place, but we think it'll be the best place." -- Steve Jobs
Personally it's more of a "I want to see what website I'm about to open in my browser" ideology than pithy moral meanings. But sure!
Becky Worley was just talking to Steve Jobs on twit.tv
30,000 new OSX developers a month apparently... The iOS halo effect is pretty significant it would appear.
I for one am not interested in having a constrained application environment on my computer. I'm glad Steve's giving us a choice with this release, but as soon as the App Store becomes the way to buy and run OS X applications, my dual boot MBP is going to turn into a full-time Linux machine.

I think the rise of Ubuntu, the tightening of the OS X ecosystem, and the rising popularity of geekery are going to converge nicely into a solid market share for open source operating systems.

Just a thought.
This is precisely the sort of thing that no doubt scared away potential developers, including me. Having owned a smartphone that ran on Symbian, it was only natural (for me) that I'd want to look at how to develop for the platform. When I did, I was not encouraged.
True, but then again facebook's likes are not private either (nothing about facebook is, these days).
I was really hoping for more than 2GB of memory. I frequently want my entire application stack for whatever project I'm working on, dev environment, and a windows VM running simultaneously and that already can get tight with the 4GB I have in my MBP.
During the keynote, it was mentioned that this was an additional way to distribute apps, not the only way.
What's the difference between a book writer and a book publisher?

Same thing, except for games.
First person to ship a 99c fart app makes a million bucks.
I'm the same way. So have you ever come across any plugins or anything to assist in this environment? For example, a FF plugin that can perform a global search in all browser windows and open tabs?

Or a tab manager that can consolidate tabs from multiple windows into one, things like that??
That's 2009 thinking. You know how much work it is to round up 1,000 $2,300 donations?

Just get one guy to write a $2 million dollar check to the Chamber of Commerce and you're good to go. After all, it's freedom of speech, according to the Citizens United ruling.
Keep in mind that Apple uses the slowest SSDs available; they're so slow that stores like NewEgg don't carry them. The performance difference also depends on the workload; 2x is reasonable for sequential access.
You code in bed? Wow, your back must hate you. (And if not yet, soon it will...) Seriously, though, my back starts hurting if I don't maintain good posture while sitting; I can't even imagine what it would do if I tried to use a computer in bed.
First 2 times it didn't work, then I got it:
http://appldnld.apple.com/FaceTime/061-9589.20101020.Mbgt5/F...
That happened to me with my blog when they removed the ftp feature. I didn't want to convert automatically to a blogspot blog because I didn't have to time to deal with the privacy issues. Fortunately, I was able to download the data and I still have a web page for it that I could parse to convert it to another format but in the meantime I'm without blog.

I still haven't decided to which format to convert my blog but I'm very tempted to convert it to an emacs org-mode format and then decide later.
400k now. Yeah pretty crazy, I've almost used 40 gb of disk space, and if the traffic keeps up, it'll be a TB of submissions. That being said, it's also a bit unreliable and users often have connections fail when submitting, but it's really pretty solid. I've now switched to Dreamhost PS, so it's a little more expensive, just to make sure it's a bit more reliable.
Is there some serious reason you need to upgrade? If so, then I think you can just unzip a fresh install and copy over the plugins you want (as .jar files) into the new directory structure. Apparently there are more ways to do this, though I didn't try: http://www.venukb.com/2006/08/20/install-eclipse-plugins-the...
> This brings up another question. In iOS, there is no good way to charge for an update - user buys once and gets free updates for life. Will they change that with the OS X App Store?

The solution for this on iOS is the same as on Mac or Windows - release a new version. From 2.0 to 3.0, a lot of companies will charge for the update. Do the same thing on iOS by releasing a new app entirely. This also lets you fix bugs in the old version for users that don't want to update.

The only thing missing in that plan is an upgrade price. Apple really needs to consider adding something along those lines.
Well your fault for using an iPhone, just get a Froyo device and make your own WiFi around you!
Sorry, not a 007 fantasy yarn.
You would probably be able to reach a lot more people and give them a better purchase/install/update experience that could easily compensate for that lost %30.
I wonder if this means something for Steam? The UX for the Mac App Store is almost certainly going to be better than Steam's clunky app... And then I wonder about Game Centre too? It's not that great at the moment, but with Jobs meeting Zuckerberg the other day....

But yes - definitely excited!

/me stops speculating and gets back to work
No poets or poetry interested here?
When the i5 has a decent GPU.
I'm not so excited about this. Am I the only one who thinks this is Apple's first step in exerting more control over developers and users on the OS X platform like they do on iOS?

EDIT: to all the replies about how you still have a choice of distribution on OS X: yes, you do right now, but who knows how long that will last? As I said, this might be the first step in locking down the platform. I don't believe this will happen in 1 or 2 or 3 years, but maybe 5 years.
Sounds like an interesting service. If you could snapshot their pricing/plans page too, where possible, it could get very interesting.
I doubt it.

Adobe's installers are just a non-accessible custom UI on top of a normal (and perfectly accessible) OSX package installer. They're convoluted for the sake of being convoluted.
Why wouldn't it? It's OS X.
They can still use Skype, and "something else is better known" has never been a reason not to introduce an alternative.

And what you're seeing is branding. It used to be an iSight camera, now it's a FaceTime Camera.
It's also portable to when there is a version of FaceTime for Android/etc.
They had originally claimed it to be an open standard.
I've found myself designing apps for iOS that should really be Mac apps, simply because of the commercial convenience of the app store.

My hope is that this will lead to a renaissance of development for the desktop.
The big difference being that the App Store will be preinstalled, and probably have a default place on the Dock and a permanent home under the Apple menu in the top left of the screen.
I did enough math at college that complex data structures and algorithms were not at all scary. Recursion just reminded me of the infinite descending spiral of the ideals in Noetherian rings :) And working through the proofs of the equivalence of a dozen different versions of the axiom of choice helped me learn to reason about my programs. Never used more than a trivial amount of the math content, but the math processes of thought have been invaluable.
You can actually configure any new MacBook Air up to 4GB RAM when you buy it.
It's like boiling a toad.

Lets hope it doesn't go that way.
No intelligent disgruntled developer is going to ditch OS X for Linux. OS X has 10-20x more userbase than all Linux distros combined.

I'm not hating on Linux here, so don't downvote me for that. I'm just being realistic.
Thanks for clarifying that. I've been scratching my head over the $20m figure for the last hour thinking it was Rovio.
Ah, but if it were a netbook it would be under $400.
one of the first things i noticed too. 2 years ago it was $1600 for an 80gb macbook air. time flies.
I do the same but with an x200. It kicks ass and I do Linux kernel hacking on it all the time. Compiles a full kernel in 15 minutes. It also has a 128GB ssd like the air.
very informative excerpt by Do More Faster
But that only raises new questions. Can you even open the case and upgrade the RAM yourself, or do you have to overpay Apple when you buy the thing?
Is this different from yahoo messenger's video calls?
You know what I love? TWO USB PORTS. Finally.
I think they can still sell the normal way.
مشاهدة مباراة برشلونة و كوبنهاغن
lol. That is pretty funny.
Earlier I wondered where a multiplayer game like this (I know Worms, it is quite different) is. It would be fantastic round-based time-stealer. Pass the device around or even play by sms or over the net. It does not even have to be realtime. $$$ idea? :-)
In that you can video chat with someone with the proper iOS device.
It's the "Sophie's Choice" for mobile developers: Give up your sense of freedom and openness for smaller exposure but 2x the revenue, or work on your own terms in front of a large and receptive base of customers who loves the sizzle but is "meh" when it comes time to pay for the steak.

Perhaps there will be a critical mass that forms when the geek legion legitimizes the cool factor of Android devices and the consumer comes in and starts snapping up apps in the same way it does on iOS, but, if you _have_ to make a choice between the two right now, which would it be?

Unfortunately, I have to go where the money is.
I have owned 3 Macbook Airs. Two first-gen ones broke down too often, the second-gen one Apple gave to me for free.

Most people complained it's pricey. It puzzles me. Think of how many hours a day you spent touching it. A $2000 price-tag divided by 2 years, 10 hours a day, that's cheaper than your daily beer habit.

It is absolutely worth it to buy the best machine you can afford.
This is how it was supposed be for Java, provisioning your desktop apps on the fly, on demand, over the network. Another Sun idea resurrected, like Google are with Chrome (nee NEWS, with Postscript instead of Javascript). Maybe they shoulda hung on just a little longer...
I'm wondering what happens to AppBodega, now that Apple released an App Store for Mac (which I assume would be very tightly integrated with the OS).