I briefly posted on my Posterous blog that I hope to make the new 11″ MacBook Air my next laptop. After considering what I want out of my next laptop here is why I believe that the MacBook Air will be the ideal machine for me. Due to the quality of a number of web based apps and a handful of open source, light weight, desktop apps the 128GB (with 4GB RAM) 11″ MacBook Air offers more than enough power, speed and space for me. I thought I would share what I plan to use the laptop for and the apps that I would install. It offers some insight to the way I maintain my productivity, write and keep up with my day-to-day life. Here goes:
- Surfing the web – Google Chrome (and here’s why)
- Email – Gmail / Sparrow
- Calendar – Google Calendar
- RSS – Google Reader
- Twitter – Twitter for Mac
- Managing my iTunes library – Have added less than 300MB this year in comparison to 30GB over the previous four. 128GB is more than enough space for me to maintain my iTunes library.
- Blogging – Notational Velocity (I run a forked version which can be found here at elastic threads)/ WordPress
- Making Notes and Lists – Notational Velocity / Evernote
- Writing papers for my MA – Notational Velocity / Evernote / WordPress
- Presentations – Google docs / Preview
The footprint of the free and open source apps that I will be installing (Google Chrome, Sparrow, Twitter for Mac, Notational Velocity and Evernote) is very minimal – less than 300MB. This small footprint combined with the fact that the laptop is light weight (1.06kg), small and yet durable with a full size keyboard makes it the perfect laptop for a minimalist like myself. In addition to this, it is simply a beautifully designed machine. Now, I’ve just got to save up the cash.
Image: Dan Taylor