I suppose its no surprise that Apple’s latest hardware announcements have taken over the tech news waves today. After all, the announcement of sexy new 27″ iMacs, coupled with the future availability of Intel’s next generation Core i5 and i7 processors, is sort of hard to ignore. There were upgrades across the board for the Macbook, Time Capsule, and Mac Mini as well–but strangely enough, the most compelling announcement to me was that of a lowly input device: The Magic Mouse.

In general, I don’t hold too much fondness for Apple input devices, specifically their mice. Ever since the release of the “hockeypuck” Apple USB mouse with the original iMac, it seems as if Apple has aimed to purposefully torture their users. The Apple Pro mouse was an improvement (insofar as you could actually use it without wanting to harm yourself and others), but it was still stubbornly one buttoned–a trend Apple didn’t waver from until the two-buttoned Mighty Mouse in 2005. And yet, the Mighty Mouse remained far from ergonomic, and the rubber nipple scroll-ball was more a novelty than a true competitor to the scroll-wheel.

Basically, it seemed as if Apple was almost willfully ignoring the advances being made by the likes of Logitech, Microsoft, and other input device manufacturers. I’m honestly not sure why Mac users never raised a stink about it, but then I suppose it’s similar to how most people don’t realize how much the standard iPhone earbuds suck.

In contrast to their dubious history, the Magic Mouse appears to be much more ergonomic, and it eschews the rubber nipple for multi-touch capabilities. Wireless connectivity via Bluetooth is also the standard now. Just two weeks ago we saw some info trickle out about multi-touch mice being developed by Microsoft–but of course they were years from ever hitting the marketplace. As is often the case, Apple has leapfrogged the competition by releasing today what many considered years away.

The multi-touch gestures seem intuitive, and as a PC user the functionality actually makes me a bit jealous. I know that Windows 7 has multi-touch built in as well, and I’m hoping that someone eventually releases drivers to bring the Magic Mouse across the OS pond.

Check out a video demonstration of the gestures below:

The Magic Mouse will have a resounding impact on input devices moving forward–more than anything announced today. We’re going to see many different attempts at bringing multi-touch to the desktop, but once again we can thank Apple for being first and giving everyone else a swift kick in the pants to speed up their own innovation.

The Magic Mouse will be included with the newer iMacs announced today, and will be available separately for $69 at the end of October. You can hear me discuss the Magic Mouse, along with Apple’s other announcements, on episode 15 of the Symbiotek Podcast (coming soon).

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Why The Magic Mouse is the Most Important Apple Announcement Today

• The Android T-Mobile G1 is the Real Successor to the Helio Ocean
• Windows Mobile 7 with Zune Integration Coming Soon?
• Ubuntu’s Fiesty Fifth Birthday, And Linux As A Desktop Solution
• Do Verizon’s “iDon’t” Ads Miss the Point?
• Apple’s New Anti-Windows 7 Ads Hurt My Brain

(Honestly, I was waiting for the release of Google’s Android phones, but knowing that they wouldn’t show up until the end of 2008 (at the absolute earliest), I decided that the Ocean would tide me over for the next few years.)

But, like every underdog tech product/company I’ve loved (see: HD-DVD, the Rio Karma), it looks like Helio is ready to call it quits. They’re selling to Virgin Mobile, who will be getting rid of the Helio brand and making all Helio customers Virgin subscribers.

Honestly, I can’t say that I’m entirely surprised. While Helio has offered some great software improvements since the Ocean launched in May 2007, and they’ve even released a new handset recently (the Mysto), Helio simply couldn’t compete with Apple’s massive influence in the cellphone market. Sure, it took Apple until the iPhone 3G to match most of the Ocean’s features, but it was the iPhone that became a cultural phenomenon due to its groundbreaking user-interface.

(This is actually very similar to how the iPod took over the MP3 player market, even though Rio led the initial portable player charge.)

Now that the iPhone 3G is on its way, and practically every cellphone manufacturer is aiming to catch up to the iPhone’s innovations, Helio just can’t seem to do the same. Sure, they’ve got the mystical Ocean 2 on the way (some good spy coverage here), but it simply looks like a slimmer Ocean. Unless it has a bigger screen, along with touch capabilities, it won’t fair too well against the post-iPhone smartphones/mobile computing devices.

It’s a shame that Helio was never that successful. Their initial phone offerings weren’t all that great, but I appreciated their mission–to bring the high-tech phones from Korea to the America’s barren cellular marketplace. With the release of the Ocean, they succeeded in doing just that. 

I know many knock the Ocean for not looking “sexy” enough–which I suppose is true if you consider sexy to be an anorexic nightmare like the Motorola Razr–but the Ocean is sexy to me as a geek. It screams of well thought out industrial design with its unusual oval shape, the infamous dual slider design (which still gets me “wows” to this day), and the gorgeous screen. Hell, I even love the Ocean’s every-so-satisfying thunk when closing the phone. For those interested in an in-depth look at the Ocean’s fascinating industrial design process, check out this excellent cover article from Technology Review (registration required).

Software-wise, the Ocean launched with a decent feature set, but it is the upgrades that came later that really make the phone shine. Helio has since added a great mobile Youtube interface, push e-mail, and, taking a cue from user hacks, support for Mobile Opera. It aimed to compete with T-Mobile’s trendy Sidekick, and it put up a heckuva fight–the only problem was that they didn’t see the iPhone coming.

For now, I’m not itching to get out of my Helio contract just yet. Assuming Virgin doesn’t start disabling Helio services, and doesn’t start charging me more for my monthly bill, I still think I can ride out my contract and wait for an Android phone.

If anything, Helio’s demise has shown me that I truly have a knack for liking scrappy technologies. I’m not quite sure what to make of this yet…

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Lamenting the Death of Helio, and How the iPhone Helped Kill It

• The Android T-Mobile G1 is the Real Successor to the Helio Ocean
• My Thoughts on the Palm Pre
• Looking Forward to the Android Takeover
• Windows Mobile 7 with Zune Integration Coming Soon?
• What nVidia’s Tegra Means for Mobile Devices, and Why You Should Care

I think we all agree: The Macbook Air is a gorgeous machine. During his keynote presentation, Steve Jobs whipped the entire Macworld audience into a fervor with his trademarked Apple enthusiasm for this new member of the Macbook family. With the Air we have an insanely light computer that still manages to fit in a 13.3″ screen and a screaming fast Core 2 Duo CPU.

But while it’s undoubtedly a singular machine, is it really worth the $1799 price tag when you can get much of the same functionality with Asus’s $400 Eee? I understand that the Air is more in competition with Sony’s TZ line that Jobs mentioned in his keynote, but it seems foolish not to compare this sleek new laptop to Asus’s wunderkind subnotebook.

[Note: Please take notice that this article was written in January 2008 and is a comparison of the original 7" Eee, not the later models. Although I would argue the later models prove my case even further.]

Here’s a quick rundown of how they compare:

	Macbook Air	Asus Eee
Size (H x W x D)	0.16” – 0.76” x 12.8” x 8.94”	1.38″ x 8.82″ x 6.5″
Weight	3lbs	2lbs
Display	13.3″ LED-backlit LCD	7″ LED-backlit LCD
CPU	1.6-1.8Ghz Core 2 Duo	900Mhz Celeron Mobile
RAM	2GB	512MB
Hard Drive	80GB 1.8″ (or 64GB solid state flash)	2-4GB solid state flash
OS	Mac OSX Leopard	Custom Linux Distro
Price	$1799	$300-$400

Let’s go over some of these topics to further inspect the differences between these two tiny titans.

Size

The Air is being advertised as “the world’s thinnest notebook”, and for good reason. The machine is certainly going to draw its fair share of stares when it starts popping up in coffee houses in a few weeks. Its paper-thin design has set new standards for industrial design, which is not at all unusual for Apple. Unfortunately, that thinness has also led to all of the compromises that Apple has had to make for the machine.

The Asus Eee is nowhere near as thin, but its smaller screen allows it to be significantly smaller than the Air overall. When it comes to choosing ultraportable computers, the key of course is portability. The Air, while thin, is still going to require you to carry around a laptop sized sleeve, case, or bag throughout the day. Its thinness can also be a problem if you’re carrying it in the same bag as heavy textbooks.

The Eee, on the other hand, can be treated more like a paperback. Its small size means you have far more options when carrying it around, and as we’ll discuss later, it also has many hardware features which should make you worry less about jostling around your bag all day.

Weight

Here’s one area where the Eee has a considerable advantage over the Air. It’s also something that may make a significant difference to someone considering an extremely portable laptop. While it may not sound like much, the difference between 2lbs and 3lbs in your backpack is the sort of thing that’s noticeable over the course of a day.

Display

This may end up being a deal-breaker for some. The Eee admittedly has a small screen which may be too difficult to use for some users. It also has a tiny resolution compared to the Air, which means it would be less ideal for multitasking and working with photos and other media. Still, for web browsing, word processing, and other productivity-related tasks, the Eee’s small screen is adequate.

If you absolutely need a high resolution display, either for watching movies or for the breathing room when working with media files, then the Air is the clear choice for you.

CPU

The processor differences is another area where the Air has a clear advantage over the Eee. Sporting a custom Intel Core 2 Duo processor that is the “width of a dime” and “as thick as a nickel”, the Air packs a lot of power into a minuscule package. While it’s nearly a full gigahertz slower than the chips in the Macbooks and Macbook Pros, it’s still fast enough to handle media encoding and high-definition video playback.

The Eee, on the other hand, has a processor that’s often belittled among technophiles. The Celeron was never a very strong chip, but what it lacked in processing capabilities, it made up for in low power usage and cost. For the simple purposes of the Eee the Celeron chip is more than enough. In addition, using this chip is one of the best cost-saving decisions Asus made when developing the Eee.

RAM

The Air comes with 2GB of RAM standard, compared to 512MB of RAM with the Eee. The Eee is upgradeable to 1GB of RAM, however. While these numbers may sound like the Air is trouncing the Eee memory-wise, the truth is not that clear cut. The Eee needs less RAM to perform optimally than the Air due to its Linux operating system, whereas OSX Leopard eats up quite a bit of memory on the Air.

In addition, I’ve stressed that the Eee is meant to do less than a fully-decked out laptop or desktop. Since the practical use of the Eee is more limited than the Air, it’s a given that less RAM is required.

Hard Drive

The difference in hard drives is another wide disparity between the Air and the Eee. The Air uses an 80GB hard drive that is also found in Apple’s 80GB iPod Classic. There is an optional 64GB solid-state flash disk available, but at a $999 premium, it’s not worth the cost just yet. The Eee uses a 2-4GB solid-state flash disk, depending on which model you buy.

The size difference is certainly significant, but as I’ve stressed already, the Eee’s purposes are very different than the Air. For working with small documents, the Eee’s solid state disk is more than enough space. In addition, you can always expand the amount of available space by using a separate USB flash disk. With the rise of online office suites, I also suspect we’ll start keeping far less data on our computers than before.

The other benefit of the Eee’s disk is that it has no moving parts, which means less of a chance for data corruption when traveling around with the computer. In addition, the Eee’s flash disk is a much faster storage solution than the Air’s 1.8″ hard drive. As this Tom’s Hardware article shows, there is a significant performance penalty in using these sorts of hard drives.

While the Air seems like a clear choice for multimedia work because of the larger hard drive space, its 1.8″ hard drive may end up being too slow for people looking to do advanced multimedia editing and encoding.

Operating System

The Air is running Apple’s latest operating system, OSX Leopard. The Eee is running a customized version of Xandros Linux. There’s a lot written online about Leopard already, but simply put, if you’re a Mac lover your mind is probably already made up. If you want an operating system that’s well-known and compatible with a variety of popular hardware and software, then Leopard is the clear choice as well.

Asus’s chosen operating system, on the other hand, is more fine-tuned to take advantage of the particular strengths of the machine’s hardware. It consists of open-source applications like Mozilla Firefox and Open Office, and other useful software like Skype. You can install some other programs using the Eee’s rudimentary package manager, but it appears as if the choice of new applications is currently slim.

Both the Air and Eee are capable of running other operating systems as well. Techie types can still use Boot Camp to run Windows on the Air as well as take advantage of Mac Linux distributions. As for the Eee, you can easily wipe out the included operating system and install any version of Windows or Linux that you’d like.

Price

Here is where the Eee clearly triumphs over the Air. For a smaller, albeit less powerful, computer, you end up spending at least $1300 less for the Eee than you would for the Air. The Eee is clearly a much better value, especially if you only need basic computing capabilities in an ultra-portable format.

The Air’s $1799 retail price also puts it in competition with Apple’s own Macbook and Macbook Pro. For $1099, you can get a Macbook with a faster processor, faster hard drive, and a weight gain of only 2lbs. For $1999 you can get an even faster overall machine, the Macbook Pro, with a dedicated 3D graphics card, bigger and faster hard drive, and a weight gain of only 2.4lbs.

In short, it seems that the Air is a bit of a luxury item that I honestly wouldn’t recommend to any of my friends on value alone. On the other hand, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the Eee to someone looking for a cheap ultraportable laptop.

In the Air’s defense, it is priced competitively with the lowest priced Sony TZ ultraportable laptops while offering a bigger screen.

other considerations

I’ll throw the Air a bone and take some time to discuss its features that don’t fall into the above categories. Perhaps most importantly, the Air features a full-sized keyboard, which is a rarity among ultraportable laptops. While I know I can get used to typing on the Eee’s small keyboard, I could see it being a showstopper for some folks.

And let me just be frank about the Air: It’s a dead sexy machine in ways the Eee could never hope to be. If you’re the sort of person with money to spare and a penchant for high fashion, I’m sure you’ve already preordered your Air. The Eee is a cute machine, but it simply does not exhibit the sort of commitment to industrial design and drool-worthiness that Apple has built its reputation on. Then again, the Eee is also a truly amazing machine in its own right given what it offers for the price.

The multitouch trackpad is also another noteworthy feature of the Air, but I assure you it will be popping up in future revisions of the Macbook and Macbook Pro. If that is at all a major factor in your decision to purchase the Air, then I suggest waiting a few months until it’s transitioned to the other members of the Macbook family.

Final Words: Eee for value, Air for style

After comparing the Macbook Air and the Asus Eee, it’s clear that Apple’s new notebook is not that great of a value compared to Asus’s surprise hit. The Air wins in overall sex appeal, raw horsepower, and a bigger screen. At the same time, the Eee is simply a more practical machine for those who only need a secondary machine to word process and browse the internet on the go.

CrunchGear is running a great article on the “uselessness” of the Air which boils down many of my issues with it succinctly:

The MacBook Air is not a subnotebook. The Eee and Everex, and Redfly are subnotebooks. They are tiny, basic, and are designed from the ground up to be micro-sized and limited. The Air is trying to be a regular notebook but failing – what Apple has done is take a regular notebook and flatten it (very well I might add), while simultaneously crippling it.

In addition, it doesn’t fair that well compared to other ultraportable laptops like the Sony TZ series because it lacks an optical drive, and many connectivity options.

I’m a practical person, and the Air is simply not a practical choice. Your money is better spent with the Macbook, or Macbook Pro if you’re looking for a dedicated computer. And if you’re just looking for something to accompany your desktop, then the Asus Eee is by far the superior choice.

Update: Battery Follow-Up

It’s been pointed out countless times that I forgot to compare the battery differences of these two machines.  Silly me:

In the comments below, Wing pointed out the biggest difference between the two battery-wise:

One big thing that some sites mentioned was that the Air doesn’t have a user-replacable battery. [Emphasis mine] It can be switched by an Apple tech but that’s only for when it dies. The eee on the other hand has a user-switchable battery. I can imagine it being very useful when you;re on the road (where you will be taking these things) and need an extra battery or two. Asus is also coming out with six-cell batteries which will probably last quite a bit.

It sounds like Air users will run into the same inconvenient issue as iPod users whenever their batteries die.

As far battery life, this Laptop Magazine review of the Eee reports that it gets around 3.5 hours of uptime. Ars Technica reports 5 hours for the Air, which seems to be on par for other ultraportable laptops. Since the Eee’s battery is user replaceable though, you could easily take along an extra charged battery for double the battery life. This is a common strategy among road-warrior types and is unfortunate for Apple since they’re also the perfect target market for the Air.

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Apple Air versus Asus Eee: A Comparison

• Asus Starts the USB 3.0 & SATA 6Gb Hype Train
• Why The Magic Mouse is the Most Important Apple Announcement Today
• The Android T-Mobile G1 is the Real Successor to the Helio Ocean
• What nVidia’s Tegra Means for Mobile Devices, and Why You Should Care
• Do Verizon’s “iDon’t” Ads Miss the Point?

It has occurred to me that despite being some of the most heavily used devices in our daily lives, not enough people pay attention to their mice and keyboards. I’m not just talking about dirt and grime, although you should regularly clean them to prevent the “dirtier than a toilet seat” scenario. What I’m more concerned about is usability. In my experience, too many people continue to use the cheap and oftentimes barely-usable keyboards and mice that come with their computers. And if, perchance, they get the opportunity to purchase something different, they often just settle for the cheapest thing they can find.

The “Logitech Revolution” (Courtesy of darkphoenix939)

This seems to me a serious case of misplaced priorities among general computer users. After all, these are our main sources of interaction with our computers! They should get as much consideration as the hardware living inside your computer. It seems as if people just tend to settle for a lesser user experience either because they don’t know there’s something better available, or simply don’t care enough to make a change. If something is “good enough”, why bother to change it anyway?

I would argue that there are many reasons not to simply settle for the default or cheapest input devices that you can find. Choosing the right ones for you can offer many benefits, including those of the medical, productivity, and aesthetic variety.

Medical Benefits

Anyone using a keyboard and mouse regularly is at risk for Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI), the most common of which includes tendonitis, and carpal tunnel syndrome. While many things can contribute to RSI, for example, bad posture and lack of regular breaks, your choice of input devices certainly plays an important role.

Think about it: How often do you use a keyboard and mouse every day? If you use a computer at work, you’re probably working on it a majority of the time. And if you’re an internet addict like myself, you’re probably using them a great deal at home as well. It seems obvious that we should be putting in at least a bit of thought into these devices that we rely so heavily upon, especially when the costs for ignoring them can be so high.

If you’re worried about the medical hazards of keyboards and mice, your best bet is to go ergonomic. There are a wide variety of ergonomic input devices available, but the most popular are undoubtedly Microsoft’s line on ergonomic keyboards and mice.

Personally, I’ve been a huge fan of Microsoft’s “Natural” line of keyboards for the past several years. These are the keyboards that look as if they are split down the middle–they basically allow you to type while your hands are in a more naturally ergonomic position. The picture to above (kindly snagged from hufse on flickr) depicts one of these keyboards in their natural environment.

Don’t be scared away by the seemingly high price tags, you can often find them on the cheap at sites like Newegg and Zip Zoom Fly. Look for the “OEM” version of the product, which usually come in a white box and without the usual fluff of retail packaging.

For some reason, Logitech, the other major input device manufacturer, does not offer much in the way of ergonomic keyboards. They do have a couple ergonomic mice, however, and I have come to prefer their mice to Microsoft’s these past few years.

The best thing about considering Microsoft and Logitech devices is that you can usually find them on display at major stores like Best Buy. This allows you to actually get a feel for a particular keyboard or mouse. If you’re feeling a bit brave you can also try searching for other ergonomic devices online. There are quite a few sites like Ergo-Items.com that offer a host of exotic ergonomic devices that look more like instruments from Star Trek than a traditional keyboard and mouse.

Productivity Benefits

In addition to ergonomic options, both Microsoft and Logitech offer a wide range of general-use keyboards and mice. One thing you may notice among their offerings is that they tend to have many more buttons than the average keyboard or mouse. Keyboards tend to come with volume management and various shortcut keys that makes accessing frequently used applications a snap. Mice usually include “back” and “forward” buttons that allow you to quickly access the same functions inside your web browser.

This gaming oriented keyboard from Logitech is a good example of the added productivity that including more buttons can provide:

The Logitech “G15″ Keyboard (thanks to William Hook)

While such an unwieldy keyboard may be more than you need, lesser ones should still contain some helpful extra buttons. The key is finding what suits you.

Aesthetic Benefits

While this may seem like a more superfluous category compared to the rest, I believe it’s more important than most might think. You don’t have to believe in feng shui to realize that the look and layout of your surrounding environment may influence your behavior. If a cluttered desk or messy room can make it harder for you to work, how hard is it to assume that an ugly keyboard or mouse can affect it as well? It’s not as if I’m pulling this out of thin air either, just ask anyone studying environment-behavior relations.

Think about it: Don’t attractive looking things sort of beg you to use them more? This happens to me even with something simple like a shiny new pen–I basically find any excuse I can to use my new toys. Consider it an extra bit of motivation that can keep you working when facing writers block or the procrastination bug. In that way, this benefit sort of ties in directly with productivity benefit above.

The Logitech “DiNovo” series of keyboards embodies the aesthetic spirit I’m talking about:

The Logitech “DiNovo Edge” (Thanks to saschaaa)

If you can seriously look at that keyboard and not want to sit down and write the next great American novel, I would simply have to call your humanity into question. Of course, the DiNovo is a $200 keyboard, but pretty much everything Microsoft and Logitech offers will be an aesthetic upgrade to your default Dell keyboard.

Wrapping Up

As always seems to be the case, this post has gotten much longer than I originally intended. What I want you folks to take away is this: Give some thought to your keyboards and mice. After all, they are some of the most-used devices in your daily life! Not only are there medical benefits, but you’ll be more productive and feel better about working at the computer as well.

Also, I know I basically spent this entire article talking about Microsoft and Logitech products. This is simply because I have come to prefer them over the years. If you have any recommendations beyond what I’ve mentioned here please feel free to leave a comment!

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Why You Should Care About Your Keyboard and Mouse

• Why The Magic Mouse is the Most Important Apple Announcement Today
• My Thoughts on the Palm Pre
• Do Verizon’s “iDon’t” Ads Miss the Point?
• What nVidia’s Tegra Means for Mobile Devices, and Why You Should Care
• Finally, Netflix Streaming is Coming to the PS3

It’s long, but oh so worth it. Much has been written praising Apple for their industrial design sense already, but Turner’s article is by far one of the most enlightening. I especially liked this:

“Critical to Apple’s success in design is the way Jobs brought focus and discipline to the product teams,” ­Norman says. “[Jobs] had a single, cohesive image of the final product and would not allow any deviation, no matter how promising a new proposed feature appeared to be, no matter how much the team complained. Other companies are more democratic, listening to everyone’s opinions, and the result is bloat and a lack of cohesion.

“The difference between BJ and AJ, Before and After Jobs, is not the process,” he continues. “It is the person. Never before did Apple have such focus and dedication. Apple used to wobble, moving this way and that. No more.”

While Apple consistently churns out great products, it sounds like it would be a truly awful place to work if you cared about your opinion mattering when it came to design elements. And although I’ve decried it in the past, it seems that Steve Jobs’s tyrannical management style is also the key to their design success:

“Jobs is a dictator, but with good taste,” says Norman. “He is good and driven to the perfect experience. He doesn’t want good design; he wants great design.” Brunner similarly lauds Jobs’s “driven, singular focus.” And Rolston says, in what is perhaps the best explanation of Apple’s design ascendancy, “It’s a happy coincidence at Apple that the designer in chief is the CEO. He has a fantastic sense of what people want. And after all, that is design.”

Although Jobs sounds unbearable to work with, it’s talk like this that makes it apparent that he really is the single most important part of Apple. I don’t necessarily think this is a strategy that every company should adopt (you need Jobs’s charisma to really make it work), yet there are lessons from this singular top-down approach to design that Microsoft and others should recognize. It’s definitely part of the “magic” of Apple.

I also love that this article really makes Noah Wyle’s portrayal of Jobs in “The Pirates of Silicon Valley” all the more telling:

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On Apple’s Industrial Design

• Ubuntu’s Fiesty Fifth Birthday, And Linux As A Desktop Solution
• My Thoughts on the Palm Pre
• Did You Hear? I Think Apple’s Releasing a Tablet!
• Do Verizon’s “iDon’t” Ads Miss the Point?
• Apple’s New Anti-Windows 7 Ads Hurt My Brain