After discovering this site in the latter part of this week, I am very, very amazed by it. Essentially everything on photoblog Deadendthrills is a screenshot of a video game, but completely unedited and looks absolutely, amazingly, awesome *insert different synonyms for aforementioned vocabulary here*. Check it out, and come back here when you’ve had enough screenshots for one day.

Image credit: Deadendthrills

It’s an Apple product, folks. If you’re a hater of the most close-minded and close-sourced manufacturer in the industry, read something else on LaptopMemo. If you’ve realized that Apple has been leading the market in design and innovation for mobile products (read: iPad and iPhone), then continue reading, because you’re smart enough to see things as they truly are. Moving on.

The Macbook Air 11.6-inch is in my favorite category of smaller laptops: thin, decently powerful, and designed brilliantly. The screen size is no doubt something that I’ve loved in machines of this age: personally, this is the coolest screen-size for an ultraportable. You can say differently, that’s fine, because there’s a 13.3-inch Macbook Air too, but I’ve received the smaller model from Apple as a review unit, so that’s what I’m testing (and typing on now).

Price as Reviewed: $1,199

Available at the Apple Store

Full disclosure: Provided by Apple for review.

Specs:

• 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3MB L2 cache
• 2GB DDR3 1066MHz RAM
• 128GB flash storage
• NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics (256MB shared memory with RAM)
• 11.6-inch 1366×768 LED backlit screen
• 802.11n/b/g WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• 2.3 pounds or 1.06 kg

Design: It’s All About It.

The only reason the Macbook Air is worth considering for anything is its size. It’s thin. Really, really thin. And light. And this model (price seen above, configuration in the next section) is a perfect match for the size. Apple’s Macbook Air borrows the usual unibody design they’ve been producing for years now, and while it may be getting old, it still has the better looks. The keyboard, for example? Barely any smaller than the 13, 15, and 17-inch Macbook Pros. The speakers? It’s average, but for a computer of its size, is loud enough and has just the smallest quip of bass that you’d listen to any song or video without having to shove your ears into the speakers.

And heat? Thanks to the design (again) there’s hardly such a thing. Of course, near the fan you’ll sense that there is actual heat emerging from the system, but when wearing jeans (and shorts), I’ve yet to ever feel the need to remove it, and place it on a table.

However, nothing is perfect. For example, there are many excuses for the lack of many ports, but attribute that to design which again is the only reason you’d buy a Macbook Air. You want something like an iPad 2, but you want an actual computer. This is close to your desire in a such a situation.

Simply put, you get the bare essentials (which is what you need, duh): 2 USB 2.0 ports (a Thunderbolt port in a future iteration would be genius), a Display Port, 3.5mm headset jack, and 45W Magsafe power port. The 13-inch model adds the SD card, something on the 11.6-inch model that I wish Jonathan Ive could have magically squeezed in, but it’s not there, so that’s that.

And let’s not forget it doesn’t have the classic back-lit keyboard. In testing, I would have preferred if it had one.

Performance

Pretty design or not, the Macbook Air uses much older processor technology: a 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor, an Nvidia Geforce 320M, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, and a blazing quick 128GB SSD (solid state drive). On a normal Windows mahine, this would deliver netbook-like speeds, slow gaming, and everything dreadful compared to a market of 2GHz+ Core i3/i5/i7 processors (however the Macbook Air runs Windows quite well, a trait mysteriously attributed to Macs).

By default, it uses Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and the optimizations are everywhere. Want to play Minecraft on full settings? Expect a decent 27 to 35 FPS (in Minecraft’s case, Notch has yet to make the Mac version as stable as the Windows version, so future updates should rectify this below-average performance). Counter Strike: Source and Team Fortress 2 also have similar performance due to using the same game engine, and can be played on high settings at an average of 35 FPS, 29 at the minimum, and 40 at the max. A Geekbench benchmark is available for analyzing below.

Snow Leopard On A 1.4GHz CPU

OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 doesn’t have any major slowdowns running on this hardware. It’s awesome. Cold startups usually take no more than 15-25 seconds. OS X’s famously fast shutdowns, standbys, and hibernations are all zippy, with help because of the SSD.  And of course, the golden question is whether or not the Macbook Air multitask with a full-blown OS running. The answer is: it’s okay. It’s impossible to throw what you would on a Core i5 processor at the Air without some occasional slowdown, but a Photoshop file, OmmWriter, Chrome 12 dev and iTunes playing music in the background is an everyday day at work for it. A great little machine, but is not to be used to play Crysis. And here is the self-explanatory software reinstall drive for Mac OS X, in the form of a USB thumb drive for the Macbook Air.

Battery Life

Normal web browsing should last you around 5 hours. However, which is unfortunately the case with Macs, Flash is a battery life-killer: disable Adobe Flash and the amount of time you have surfing the web is increased by 20-30 minutes. Heavy tasks (such as playing games, quite obviously) reduces battery life time to a less impressive 3 1/2 hours.

Compared To An iPad 2

I recently purchased an iPad 2 as my main tablet. A 16GB, WiFi model in white was all I needed, and since it will play host in its own review, I’ll simply say I am enjoying it quite a bit. But in this review, the iPad 2 will simply be a companion to the Macbook Air, since it is essentially an iPad 2 with a built-in keyboard, ports and OS X, right?

iPad 2 vs. Macbook Air

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The Conclusion

Apple’s Macbook Air late-2010 edition. Is it worth your the money? To answer that question instead of a simple “yes” or “no” (or if that’s how you roll, “yay or “nay”) depends on what you are looking for. A lightweight laptop with such a brilliant design and operating system that are both heavily intergrated makes everything feel natural, meaning that it’s worth every penny of the $1,199 that this particular unit costs (the entry-level model starts at $999). Needless to say as well, I’d buy a Macbook Air anytime, anyday. And you should too, if it’s portability, and functionality in that portablity that you’re looking for. Although I wish it at least had a back-lit keyboard.

Quick Glance Of Macbook Air in 720p HD

Listen up readers! My internet frandz at EA just gave me the O.K. and now they’ve been kind enough to hand me over 5 beta keys for Battlefield Play4Free! As a few of you might know, it’s like Battlefield 2, but with massively updated graphics with many Bad Company 2 elements. I’ve been toying around with this game for a while, and can’t say that it’s half-bad — it’s quite fun to play for a “free” title, actually.

Rules: Go ahead and leave a comment below saying why you want a beta key. One comment per person, no silly I.P. address trickery, and you must have the permission of your parents if you are under 18 and want to enter, as well as if you win, to play the game. Winners are announced on Friday, March 25.

Good luck!

Hello, email with numbers and dates.

Most of this is under very, very tight wrapping, but from the reliable sources I could squeeze this out of (and there’s more than one, hence the use of plural), this seems to be good enough to make the assumptions needed to state that, one, the iPad 2 is being announced very soon, and that two, the persons involved are very — ahem, dare I repeat the cheesy phrase used by print publications as, “people in the know”. But don’t hate on us if this turns sour. Via: TechCores

This is Astronaut Ice Cream. Space astronauts usually have a freeze-dried version of the delicious dessert we Earthlings know as ice cream, but in the form of a dried brick. After ordering some of this stuff for $3 at ThinkGeek (no affiliation with them), I chose the classic “Neapolitan” flavor, which consists of strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate. Read on for the full review, and learn how this stuff is made!

Ice Cream Like This Is Made Using Lyophilization

The art of freeze drying. As Wikipedia and the packaging itself explains it:

Lyophilization is a dehydration process typically used to preserve a perishable material or make the material more convenient for transport. Freeze-drying works by freezing the material and then reducing the surrounding pressure and adding enough heat to allow the frozen water in the material to sublime directly from the solid phase to the gas phase.

Which in the end, creates the tasty dessert somewhere in a stomach.

Turns Out, This Tastes Pretty Good

It’s dry. It’s crumbly. But when you pop it in your mouth it nearly dissolves, and creates a creamy texture. It’s tasty science, the best kind! Would I replace this as my primary form of consuming ice cream? Um, no. But for our astronauts, I’m sure they prefer the real thing over this. Oh, and for the people who are into diets, above are the nutritional facts.

Oh, and by the way, I’ve eaten half of it. The other half will be reserved for tonight’s organic beef burger. Good times.