Goldilocks and the MacBook Air

Interesting post today on ITWire from Stephen Withers -- I wrote something along the same lines in a post back in December but think Stephen really nailed it with his Goldilocks analogy.
It will be interesting to see whether or not the news interest Apple's new MacBook Air attracted today translates into sales -- comments on the gadget sites like Gizmodo and blogs like TechCrunch have been mixed.

My first impression is the product is not sufficiently different to what's already available from other vendors (including Dell) to make much of a mark -- it's no EeePC in that respect.

I'm also surprised Apple elected to leave out mobile broadband as an option in an ultraportable -- particularly given Steve Jobs' claim during the keynote the ".. the MacBook Air was built to be a wireless machine". Personally, if I was going to use 'the world's thinnest notebook' I'd prefer not to have to drag along a soap-on-a-rope USB 3G modem in order to stay connected (since free WiFi may be common in the US but that's far from the case elsewhere).

Finally, the 'green' design credentials of the product have also received some attention but personally these improvements, while laudable, will seem a little hollow until Apple moves to offer recycling options for consumers and small businesses (beyond the occasional recycling event and participation in the Byteback trial) in Australia. Jobs correctly said the aluminium of the MBA's case is "a highly desirable material by recyclers -– they love aluminium" but it'll be an unrequitted love if these devices end up in landfill at end of life.

Update: Looks like Gizmodo agrees re the Dell XPS M1330.

Update 2: And so does Greenpeace on the MacBook Air.

Update 3: So does ZDNet (on the M1330) -- to me what's most interesting is, a couple of years ago, who'd have thought a Dell would have even been on this comparison.

PC recycling: where to in Australia in 2008?

One of the last things I was able to achieve before leaving Dell at the end of 2007 was to take a small number of journalists to visit the facilities of Dell's recycling supplier, MRI. Some early takes:

• Liam Tung at ZDNet
  
• Kylie Field at Sustainability Matters
  
• Charlie Brewer at news.com.au

Personally, the lasting impression I had from my I visits to MRI is just how much manual work in involved -- you begin to understand why the process of recycling costs more than the value of what is recovered.
Where to in 2008? I'd be both surprised and disappointed if by the end of this year Dell is still the only vendor to offer free recycling options to consumers and small businesses nationally.
There are signs they wont be:
- there's the Victorian Government's Byteback trial, in which 10 major vendors are now participating, lead by the AIIA, including HP (who've been involved since 2006) and Dell.
Unfortunately, at least one major brand does not participate or offer a recycling service of its own (starts with an 'A' and is not headquartered in the US, oh hell, no need to be coy now, it's Acer).
- late last year Toshiba quietly introduced a recycling service for consumers -- not sure why they've not yet done more to tell people about it, after-all a recycling service no-one uses is of little value.
- in 2006 HP produced a glossy document with the NSW Government committing to offer free recycling on HP products sold in the State. Presumably they'll be ready to implement this in 2008.
- IBM launched Project Green mid-year with a research paper that said recycling was the number one green concern among Australian businesses -- presumably they're listening and working on that now.

As an IT journalist ...

So begins the commerical for Acer's for Gemstone consumer notebooks running on Australian FM radio at the moment. The speaker, who goes on to promote the sounds features of the model, doesn't give his name (perhaps he's a dentist with a journalism degree from the Ponds Institute) but it's not a voice I recognise. It's not the first time a company has used an actor to play a professional in an advertisement of course and I suspect audiences these days tune out messages like this (perhaps Acer and Telstra share an advertising agency :-) but it made me wonder how actual journalists feel about it.
Update: Here's an Australian IT journalist who thinks Acer's tactic here is a bit dis-honest, Dan Warne, on-line editor of Australian Personal Computer, on his personal blog and APC . Kudos to Dan (and to fellow journalist David Flynn for tracking down the source).