After talking to others about the MacBook Air yesterday, one common theme seems to be appearing... the lack of mobile broadband (3G) is a deal breaker for many.
As I told many people yesterday... if the MacBook Air had included any sort of 3G internet connection, I would have bought one instantly. No questions asked. I probably would have loaded up on SSD Flash as well, knowing it would be my primary mobile device. But with the lack of 3G, I see no compelling reason to move off from my MacBook, which also has a 3G USB dongle hanging off its side.
Perhaps this is a skewed view of the world at the Macworld Expo, where there's a high concentration of power-users and bloggers, but it's a practical consideration for a product that is supposed to be an "ultra" mobile device.
In the days leading up to the event, it was clear that Apple was coming out with a super thin MacBook... but the lack of reliable 3G/WiMax rumors concerned me. In the days before I had hoped the "Air" name would refer to more than just the lightness of the device.
Some have suggested that Apple will be heading down this path later this year, though that would certainly annoy some of the early adopters of the MacBook Air. There are plans in place by Intel to start launching WiMax chipsets around mid year. The iPhone itself is rumored to be getting 3G towards the middle of the year.
Wednesday April 17, 2024 9:58 am PDT by Juli Clover
Game emulator apps have come and gone since Apple announced App Store support for them on April 5, but now popular game emulator Delta from developer Riley Testut is available for download. Testut is known as the developer behind GBA4iOS, an open-source emulator that was available for a brief time more than a decade ago. GBA4iOS led to Delta, an emulator that has been available outside of...
Tuesday April 16, 2024 6:54 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Last September, Apple's iPhone 15 Pro models debuted with a new customizable Action button, offering faster access to a handful of functions, as well as the ability to assign Shortcuts. Apple is poised to include the feature on all upcoming iPhone 16 models, so we asked iPhone 15 Pro users what their experience has been with the additional button so far. The Action button replaces the switch ...
The lead developer of the multi-emulator app Provenance has told iMore that his team is working towards releasing the app on the App Store, but he did not provide a timeframe. Provenance is a frontend for many existing emulators, and it would allow iPhone and Apple TV users to emulate games released for a wide variety of classic game consoles, including the original PlayStation, GameCube, Wii,...
Wednesday April 17, 2024 12:19 pm PDT by Juli Clover
A decade ago, developer Riley Testut released the GBA4iOS emulator for iOS, and since it was against the rules at the time, Apple put a stop to downloads. Emulators have been a violation of the App Store rules for years, but that changed on April 5 when Apple suddenly reversed course and said that it was allowing retro game emulators on the App Store. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel ...
Tuesday April 16, 2024 11:33 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
The first approved Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) emulator for the iPhone and iPad was made available on the App Store today following Apple's rule change. The emulator is called Bimmy, and it was developed by Tom Salvo. On the App Store, Bimmy is described as a tool for testing and playing public domain/"homebrew" games created for the NES, but the app allows you to load ROMs for any...
