Apple MacBook black

Looking at Dell's price for the last 10 years ( http://yhoo.it/fCdFBo ), that doesn't seem to be a great business to be in. The upgrade cycle is slowing, margins are falling and the mainstream consumer just don't care much about the "latest and greatest" any more when it comes to computers. The reality is that for most users (non-gamers) the power of computers long ago exceeded what they need. Does is really matter if a computer is 3X or 10X faster than you need? This is a classic market transition where once performance hits some level, other product attributes become important to consumers because they no longer see any material benefit from marginal performance increases. If you're mostly using your computer to check email and facebook, you don't need a quad core. (This applies to even fairly tech-heavy folks - I used to replace my desktop like clockwork every two years for almost 15 years, but I'm typing on this on a 4+-year-old MacBook black that's still plenty fast for coding, image processing and web browsing. I expect I'll use it at least another year and I only paid $1500 for it to start with. I'll prob replace it with a 13" MacBook Air, which won't be much of a performance bump - it will be a form factor bump.) I remember the days when it was all about having the 386/33 or whatever the latest top-of-the-line Mhz was. Now I doubt if you asked most folks, they could even tell you how fast the processor is in their system. It just doesn't matter much any more, same as

I have a very old netbook running FreeDOS. I have installed nothing but nano on it, and I use it as a distraction-free writing device. I also have a black MacBook running Xubuntu, and it works great. Got a new, non-matching battery for it for about CDN$60, and I get three or four hours of use on a charge. Only issue is the wifi is sometimes flakey on newer routers.

> custom color lid? who cares? I care. I have to use the machine(s) every single day, sometimes for hours on end. If it's ugly, I don't want to look at it. Same goes for accessories. It's impossible to find a half decent non-black or pink womens laptop bag (I believe there's a special and separate level of hell just for the color pink, that's how much I hate it). I just stick with nondescript messenger bags, which don't always fit the occasion but oh well. My black MacBook has an engraved lid ( http://flickr.com/photos/chix0r/2490375769/ ). The biggest benefit is that it sticks out like a sore thumb so I know it's mine, since so many people don't do anything to their MacBooks after getting one. Very convenient when you're in a sea of Apple laptops..which used to happen to me at WWDC but now also happens at pretty much any tech conference nowadays. It also makes a great conversation starter with lots of people who are very tempted to touch it..everywhere from airport security waiting lines to the apple store and all.

I am sorely tempted to tell you to wait just because WWDC is around the corner. Not much chance that the MacBooks will be updated, but you never know..but given your timeframes it seems you don't have a choice. My two cents: black MacBook and get extra ram and battery for the same price as an air. The air is a nice machine, but if it's going to be your only computer on the trip, you might want to reconsider (taking into account your budget, length of travel, et cetera). On a sidenote, I've been sorely tempted to buy an air but I've been sidetracked by the vastly cheaper ultraportables (like the eee and hp mininote 2133) that fit in my purse. Something to go between my blackbook and my iPhone. The air doesn't quite fit that niche well and I would be pretty mad if someone stole it or I lost it, while losing an eee wouldn't be as tear-inducing. They don't run (unhacked) OS X, so I can't do some development work (iphone iphone iphone ;) ), but I could do other things on there...and they all do email and web and what have you.

My black MacBook greased up a little bit at first, but it doesn't even pick up finger prints once I cleaned the whole thing with Brillianize. I'd say stay away from the Air until v2 or v3, the MacBooks have already had most of their issues sorted, plus you can get a sweet handle for it.