"Michael Slavitch (76): Explain?"

If I have to explain this then BB has truly jumped the shark.

Perhaps you should ask Cory for an explanation.

When did BoingBoing become part of AOL?

I still remember the sniffs when the first iPod came out:

"it's an mp3 player. meh."

"no microphone! no AM radio! No gazillion buttons or features!"

"The Creative Labs one has more features!"

Whatg people miss about the Air is that the notebook computer is very much a consumer commodity just like ipods and iphones. The future will be less features and options, not more.

I'm really surprised at the vitriol.

It's a nice slim high-end notebook for people that primarily use Office for the Mac and browse the web, a perfect cafe computer that slides into a thin little case perfectly. High end consumers are the target market.

Such people don't upgrade RAM, such people don't have any use for gamer graphics, and they don't expect to use this device for video editing, and in three to five years it will be obsolete. When the technology that is needed is a commodity then all that is left is form.

The battery has been overengineered such that even as it degrades over time you still get 80% charge out of it. Li+ technology has improved drastically. In a small computer the cost of the Li polymer is trivial compared to the cost of manufacturing specialized removable components. Given that an oversized non-removable polymer is a better decision for the build dollar than a fancy custom battery pack.

Ethernet cable? Why? Firewire? Why? A gazillion USB ports? Why? This is a device that targets the generic user that primarily uses WIFI and is a test run for solid state drives.

90% of people who buy notebooks have no clue on how to upgrade hardware or even the battery, hence most notebooks are already disposable appliances. For the casual notebook user Ethernet is unecessary. It's got a large Li+ battery for its size, which means that even after 500+ full cycles it will still offer 4 hours of use at 80% capacity. It was likely a design decision to overengineer the battery size and give it a longer operating life vs. a removable battery.

There is "charge" and there is "power".

"Power" != "Charge."

A small 12v trickle charge PV will charge a notebook over time, it will not power it while running.

I used a low-cost fold-out PV from Canadian Tire, of all places, at a remote cottage last year. It would trickle charge both a Dell notebook and a Windows Mobile handheld during the bright summer days, enough to play a DVD for the kids at night and check up on emails and voice messages before dinner. 10 hours of charging time left lots of hours for the Big Blue Room.