Elizabeth Mateo, founder of Casa Naranja, a newsletter and blog based in New York City that targets a style-conscious Hispanic market, often attends cocktail parties and other events where it’s hard to look chic while toting a laptop.
So, Mateo jumped at the chance to spend a few weeks with three sleek new computers designed to be extra portable: the Apple MacBook Air, the Everex Cloudbook, and the Sony VAIO Tz 298N.
MacDailyNews Take: Catchy name there, Sony. Some fools will never learn.
Mateo reports for CNN, “When I started this test, I was more inclined to use the VAIO, since I have been a PC user for 20 years… But as time wore on, the VAIO became less attractive. For example, high-def movie trailers played flawlessly on the Air and really showed off its screen. Sony’s processor was not powerful enough to render video smoothly, so it was a choppy, unpleasant viewing experience. “
“The Cloudbook (US$399), which uses a Linux-based operating system called Ubuntu, was the runt of the litter. Booting the machine up was dog slow, and the keyboard felt mushy and cheap. It could stall for minutes at a time,” Mateo reports. “The Cloudbook is designed to offer basics such as e-mail and the web, and the price is nice. The performance isn’t.”
“The MacBook Air is going to get approving looks no matter where you go… there’s no denying the thing is gorgeous. It feels great in your hands and somehow seems lighter than the VAIO, even though it actually isn’t. The trackpad is large, and scrolling is intuitive. You use two fingers to scroll, one finger to mouse, just like the iPhone. Using the Air is like Christmas, your birthday, and Valentine’s Day all rolled into one,” Mateo reports.
“The MacBook Air really won me over. It does not compromise on keyboard or screen size. The Mac OS was fairly easy to use (though I’ll never get used to not having a right mouse button),” ,” Mateo reports.
MacDailyNews Note: It’s somewhat strange that she knows about the two-finger scrolling, but not about the “two finger right click.” Mac notebooks do not have a physical “right button,” but they certainly do have a virtual one. Secondary clicking debuted on Macs with the release of Mac OS 8’s contextual menus on July 26, 1997. All Macs (except Mac mini) ship with multi-button mice (Apple’s Mighty Mouse) or secondary-click-capable trackpads on notebooks (enable in System Preferences>Keyboard & Mouse>Trackpad: Check the box “For secondary clicks, place two fingers on trackpad then click the button”). Plug in just about any third-party multi-button mouse and Mac OS X will support it.
Mateo continues, “If you need to use Windows, you can install a program called Bootcamp, which switches between Mac and Windows. I now lust for this laptop and will switch to a Mac as soon as possible.”
Full article here.
Yeah, exactly what is up with the Product Naming from Sony and HP and to an extent, Dell? Stupid.
BLLLLAHHHHHHHH
Bleating again, Paul Z?
Help me, I am being forced to use and Lenovo Thinkpad next year because my university business school requires it. I expect major Mac withdrawls within a few weeks.
Apple should just bite the bullet and start making their laptops with two physical mouse buttons. I am sure it would give their already great sales an even bigger boost. Why make it that complex?
Written on a PowerBook G4, using a Logitech two button mouse.
HAHAH the Sony Tz54154686431 is in stores now!
lmao what a name!!
“(though I’ll never get used to not having a right mouse button)” – wow, i thought everyone knew macs could double click in a better way than windows could?
another one has come to the dark side muahahaha!
Yeah, that continued right button click crap really irks me. Apple has supported this since 1997!
As bad as Sony’s naming convention, do you really want a plethora of names that the cell companies have been using? Chocolate? EnVy? Krzr? Idiot? Stupid? Moron? Seriously, do we really need more of these aspirational names, where the companies put more time and effort into coming up with, than actually creating a good product?
You see its these pimpled face “i have yet to hit puberty” TROLLS that talk garbage, without hands on use. Then again, they probably have zero hands on use with the opposite sex also. As far as those theoretical journalist who blogs smack about the MBA, I bet their cut from the same cloth as these virgins.
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How is it harder to say “Sony VAIO Tz 298N” than to say “Apple MacBook Air MB003LL/A”?
@GizmoDan….Because if you say the Air, you know the model (you do not need the MB003LL/A number), if you say Vaio, you don’t and you HAVE to say Tz 298N
DUH
@GizmoDan
Because if you were to say, hey i have a “Macbook Air” we would know exactly what you are talking about (and the name actually makes sense to the product, Macbook Air = Its Really Really Light)
if i said, “hey i have a Vaio” you would either say “Which one?”
or i would say “hey i have a Vaio Tz 298N” unless i were a real big sony fan, i would have no idea what model or if its even a computer at all. It sounds like a cable box or the a serial code.
or a* serial code
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And at its the same token with ” I have a Zune ” Everyone immediately relates it to piece of brown Turd! LOL
The ‘right-click’ (secondary click) issue is legitimate, but for a different reason. Anybody growing up on Windows (this sounds like ‘growing up on crack and booze’…) has already a well-developed habit of right-clicking and expecting a pop-up of some kind as a consequence. The ‘secondary-click’ option on MacBook trackpads is NOT a default setting. Is a Windows switcher expected to figure out on his/her own that he/she is to go to system preferences, look for keyboard/mouse/trackpad, read through the panel, figure out that ‘secondary click’ actually means ‘right-click’ in his/her own mind and change the option?
It would be very simple to make two finger- secondary-click a default option. That would make a helpful start. An indication somewhere that this is in fact possible could also help Windows switchers. Not much about this notorious subject is available on Apple’s switcher site.
Now that I think of it, I wonder if anyone has ever done a poll how many MacBook (pro) users have changed the default setting for the trackpad to enable two-finger secondary click? Of those who haven’t done so, how many haven’t heard that it is in fact possible? And of the latter group, how many would then change it, once they find out it is in fact possible? I would venture a guess that in all three groups, the number would be close to a 100%.
Message to Apple: make a simple change to a single configuration file in the Leopard Installation DVD and enable two-finger secondary click.
I wholeheartedly agree with the right mouse button issue. My microsoft mouse on my Mac Pro blew up so i am bag to using a horibble mighty mouse thing – the one where you have to disable the side buttons or every time you pick up the mouse your screen disappears behind dashboard. No right button means two hands are required – really Apple, sometimes less is not more (just like in the paltry documentation you ship with your iWork software).
As for three-fingered right clicking on the macbook air trackpad – what next? a foot pedal?
@byronic
The Mighty Mouse has Right click, just go to the Mouse Prefrences and change it. By default it is turned off.
Apple should change that little option, one less thing for me to find when i re-install OS 10.
@Jubei
LMAO! Zune = Brown Turd!!
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@byronic… I hope you are kidding.. you can’t be that dense.
The secondary-click thing is an issue, but I don’t think putting a second mouse button is really the answer.
Rather, Apple needs to do a better job of educating switchers (and even some long-time Mac users) on how secondary-clicking works on a Mac. They need some easy-to-find FAQ page explaining that:
1) control-click always works for secondary click, and
2) MacBook trackpads can be configured for two-finger secondary click.
I’m sure there are tons of people who don’t use this feature of OS X simply because they don’t know it’s there, or (for the trackpad) don’t know how to activate it. Apple really ought to address this.
Right-clicking is a handicap brought on by poorly-designed Windows software. People need to learn that contextual menus are shortcuts, and not the only way to access functionality. Software developers need to implement them properly and keep them as options only.
I hope Macs never come with two-button trackpads, as they are confusing as hell.
There is even larger point here which Windows switchers don’t understand at the beginning (being conditioned to right-click everywhere in order to find stuff), and which even some Mac evangelists tend to overlook when responding to the ‘right-click’ questions.
Mac OS X is designed in such a way that you rarely actually need your right-click. Most Mac applications (at least those that behave in a true Mac way) don’t rely on secondary click for features and functionality. The three-finger click on trackpad, and the pressure-sensitive zone on the mighty mouse, are perfectly adequate solutions for the little right-clicking that is occasionally needed on a Mac. A small (minuscule) subset of Mac users involved with applications whose GUI is extensive and relies more on right-clicking can of course get a $9 mouse with a physical right button (and a wheel for a scroll wheel, instead of a scroll ball). Vast majority of the rest will not have a serious issue with three-finger right-clicking (or with mighty mouse).
“The Mighty Mouse has Right click, just go to the Mouse Prefrences and change it. By default it is turned off.
Apple should change that little option, one less thing for me to find when i re-install OS 10.”
I couldn’t agree more! This has been the biggest complaint I have seen from new switchers, and a big reason why some say they won’t switch under a erroneous impression that Macs don’t even have the ability. The right click is one idea that MS got right.
Gabriel has summed it concisely. I see no reason for the trackpad option for two-fingered double click to be switched off my default. Put an “Activate Right Button Control in System Preference” sticker on the laptops and mice. Even many long-time Mac users are unaware of the trackpad shortcut, and those that are used to earlier Mac mice may not realize that the Mighty Mouse is a programmable, multibutton mouse (Apple has gone to unnecessary effort to hide that fact).
Love the single button on my the 4 Apple notebooks I’ve owned. Always have. Navigate with the index finger, click with the thumb, without taking my eyes off the screen. Whenever I try that with a Windows laptop, I hit the wrong button 50% of the time. The Windows sufferers are doing 1 of 2 things, either navigating with one hand and clicking with the other, or taking their eyes off the screen to carefully look at the button before they click (slow).
I don’t think it’s stubbornness on Apple’s part. The single button, on a laptop at least, is easier.