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Why I Bought a Used MacBook Instead of a MacBook Air
The new MacBook Air is guaranteed to be on many a Christmas list this year, and I've been dead set on getting one ever since it was announced. So how did I end up typing this on a four-year-old black MacBook that I bought on eBay?

Price

I won this MacBook on eBay for $330, minus shipping. The starting price for the MacBook Air is $1000. Like many potential Mac buyers, I'm a full-time college student. Buying the MacBook saved me $670 that I can spend on other stuff, like tuition, or food, which helps me remain alive.

Upgradability

One of the biggest complaints I hear about the new MacBook Air is that you can't upgrade it yourself. The battery can't be removed and you can't upgrade the memory or flash storage after purchase.

I can do all of that on my used MacBook. I've already ordered a 1GB stick of RAM, and I'm looking at getting a 40GB Intel SSD. Currently, it has a whopping 150GB, 512MB of RAM, and a speedy 2 GHz Core Duo processor. Even if right now it's not winning any speed races, when I put the extra RAM in and upgrade to an SSD, it should perform almost as well as a new MacBook Air.

And yes, those upgrades will drive the price up by about $100, but that's far less than what I’d spend on an Air.

Need

I'm not a graphic designer, or a computer gamer, nor do I do any kind of video work. I'm a writer, and writing doesn't take much in the way of resources. My entire documents folder on my main machine takes up about 30 MBs of space. I used to write on a substandard Dell with broken hinges, and I managed. It’s nice to have the latest tech, but it’s also worth taking a step back and evaluating whether it’s also necessary, given your usage habits.

What About the iPad?

I've been using my iPad to take notes in class for the last few weeks, and it's been frustrating at times. I'm not fast enough on the virtual keyboard to take effective notes, and then it's annoying to have to go back and correct all the typos I make. That said, I do love how light the iPad is and how easy it is to stow it away. But that doesn’t make up for its deficiencies. For all the good an iPad provides, it still doesn’t have the power or versatility of a Mac running OS X.

Conclusion

I won't pretend I don't still want the MacBook Air, or that I don't drool over it when I pass by the Apple kiosk at Best Buy. But I'm also happy with my decision, since my Mac is doing exactly what I need it to do, and doing it well.

What do you think? Am I insane for using an older computer rather than getting the fastest and shiniest new thing? Or is choosing the right machine for your current habits a better policy than investing in the latest and greatest? Tell us in the comments.

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Rumor Has It: Mac App Store Arriving Before Christmas?
The Mac App Store might be an early Christmas present for Mac users this holiday. A new report from blog Appletell suggests it could arrive as soon as next Monday, Dec. 13. Steve Jobs originally gave the Mac App Store a release window of within 90 days of the Back to Mac special event, which took place Oct. 20, so the date from the new report falls pretty early within that time frame.

Generally speaking, when someone in the tech world says a product is launching “within” a certain period, it’ll come at the end of that range, at the earliest. Apple is pretty good about hitting its own deadlines, but I still wouldn’t have expected to see a Mac App Store arrive before January. However, an “inside source” speaking to Appletell claims it could arrive as early as next week, and, in fact, Steve Jobs was pushing for it to launch today or even earlier.

The Mac App Store is a software marketplace and distribution platform designed to centralize the sale of OS X apps, in the same way that the original App Store manages iOS applications. Unlike the iOS App Store, however, the Mac version won’t be the sole source for Mac software.

Jobs wants an early release badly, according to the source. Cupertino had reportedly told developers to have their apps ready to go for a launch as early as Monday, Dec. 6. Though his original preference of today likely won’t be met according to Appletell’s source, Apple is still said to be on schedule for a pre-Christmas release.

It makes sense Apple would want to have the Mac App Store up and running before Christmas. We’ve seen in recent years that the iOS App Store posts its highest sales volume by far on and around Christmas, as new iOS device owners break in their devices and iTunes gift cards find their way into stockings everywhere. Apps experience a 1,000 percent increase in sales on Christmas Day, and generally enjoy higher sales volumes around November and December.

Bottom line? If it’s at all possible for Apple to launch the App Store in December, it will. OS X 10.6.6 beta seeds are already making the rounds, with a second version released last week. That build includes support for the Mac App Store, and should see release either shortly before or coincidental with the Mac App Store’s launch, so watching its progress will be a good indicator of how close Apple is.

The second factor that could affect Apple’s launch plans is content. It needs a healthy library for consumers to choose from if it wants to capitalize on the holiday app rush. I think Apple will be happy with relatively few third-party offerings so long as it can get its iWork ’11 suite prepped in time for day one sales. If the marquee products on the App Store at launch are Apple’s own, it stands to gain even more. But since developers will also want to reap the benefits of a pre-Christmas release, I don’t think Apple should have much trouble filling the shelves.

Of course, if Steve Jobs isn’t happy with the product, we won’t see it released. He gave himself and the company 90 days to get everything right, and he’ll take all of that time and more to make sure the Mac App Store is up to his exacting standards. I hope it does arrive early, though, since it’ll make shopping for stocking stuffers that much easier.

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Apple Rules Mobile PC Market With iPad Sales
Apple is the number three worldwide mobile PC manufacturer, and the number one in North America, according to a new report from DisplaySearch, a company that tracks and analyses the display supply chain. The reason it’s doing so well? The iPad.

The iPad alone accounted for a grand total of 8 percent of worldwide shipments of mobile PCs in the third quarter of 2010, the period covered by DisplaySearch’s latest report. That category also includes other tablets, and notebook and netbook devices. Mobile PC shipments in general were at an all time high this past quarter, with 55 million devices shipped worldwide, up 19 percent from the same time last year.

The number one worldwide mobile PC producer remained HP for the quarter, who sold 9.5 million devices and took 17.3 percent of the overall market share. Acer came in second with 9.1 million units moved and 16.5 percent of the global share. Apple came in a fairly distant third, with 6.3 million shipped and 12.4 percent of the market. Dell and Toshiba rounded out the top five.

Without the benefit of the iPad, Apple would be in quite a different position. It would drop to number eight overall in worldwide sales, in fact, though MacBook shipments have increased overall both from the previous quarter and when viewed year over year.

The iPad is doing best in developed countries: 95 percent of all shipments of the device were to developed regions, and most of that was to North America. Japan’s iPad adoption is very slow, something DisplaySearch VP Chris Connery suggests is due primarily to language issues:

Questions of local language content and language-specific apps have slowed acceptance in this tech savvy region. As other players come to market with tablet PCs it will be interesting to see if they can move beyond the Western-centric nature of Apple's product and develop an infrastructure to support local needs, especially with the growth of consumer spending in China on personal computing devices.

If the iPad doesn’t appeal to Asian buyers, Apple may be missing a huge opportunity. According to DisplaySearch’s numbers, the markets with the biggest growth in mobile PC shipments are China and Asia-Pacific. Europe, the Middle East and Africa is also on the rise. Making an effort to introduce more content that appeals to non-English speakers would go a long way toward ensuring the future success of iPad in the worldwide market.

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Rumor Has It: Verizon to Pay for iPhone Semi-Exclusivity
Verizon seems poised to get the iPhone, but that might be where the buck stops, according to a new Kaufman Bros. analyst note from Shaw Wu to investors posted Monday (via AppleInsider). Wu says Verizon is going to pay extra to make sure that it and AT&T remain the only U.S. iPhone carriers for now.

We are hearing that (Verizon) does not want iPhone, the hottest selling smartphone, available on T-Mobile USA and/or Sprint and may be willing to pay for exclusivity to itself and AT&T. For these reasons, (Verizon) could be more willing to give in to Apple’s terms.

According to Wu, Apple’s success with the iPhone, which sold 14.1 million last quarter, is what is giving the Mac maker the leverage to negotiate favorable terms with Verizon. It doesn’t hurt that the shine has also reportedly gone off of the Android apple at the company, and that it also doesn’t have very high hopes for the future of BlackBerry, Wu said in his note.

If Wu is correct and Verizon negotiates such a deal, T-Mobile and Sprint will have to wait longer still to get on board the iPhone train. Though AT&T gains a competitor in selling Apple’s smartphone, it only gets one, and Verizon picks up the tab for making sure it only has to fight this battle on a single front. No word on how long the new deal could keep the iPhone out of the hands of T-Mobile and Sprint.

The U.S. remains one of the only major markets in which the iPhone still retains its exclusivity, besides China. In Canada and in some countries in Europe, the iPhone is available through every major carrier selling wireless network service. I won’t guess what AT&T originally paid for its U.S. exclusivity, or what Verizon is willing to fork over to keep the field somewhat limited. The price tag for keeping the competitor pool closed probably isn’t anywhere near what AT&T originally paid, since T-Mobile and Sprint together represent fewer subscribers than either AT&T or Verizon alone.

Of course, Apple is keeping silent on all things related to future products, and Verizon had no comment when contacted. What do you think? Are AT&T and Verizon enough, or would you rather just see Apple open things up to everyone the way it’s done elsewhere in the world?

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