When you find somebody you get along with, you like them. When you find somebody you like despite the times you don’t get along, you love them.

Am I in love with MacBook Air?

I call this a review from 2012 because that is when I fell out of the loop.

There was a time that I followed all of the Apple buzz and latest happenings. I could tell what changed in OS point-releases, which iPhone offered what, and I could recite model numbers from memory.

In 2011, Steve Jobs was CEO of Apple, though it was clear that he was withdrawing from the daily dealings at Apple since at least 2009: The fabric of Apple exceptionalism was beginning to rip apart.
Jobs departed as chief officer, to succumb to illness shortly after, in 2011. I purchased my last Mac in 2012. Now looking back, I would find it hard to not perceive one fact in direct correlation of the other.

Here is how the love tragedy unfolded.

I remember shorty after Christmas one year an advertisement that was broadcast and has since never left my head. An annoying breathy and hooty cigarette-smoker cooed to an equally harsh piano melody as magic unfolded. A manilla envelope is opened and a full-featured laptop is revealed.

This was a time that I recall thinness equating to miraculous. I was impressed with the Motorola RAZR and had to fill my eyes at every opportunity. When I first saw the iPod Nano in person, I think I could not coax out a word in my stupor. I did not fully understand what a Mac was or what made it different from Windows computers but I knew that the cold sliver of metal that was the MacBook Air made me dream.

Until this revolution, laptops were portable though not the most convenient devices. Carrying a portable computer in a bag was often called “lugging” and, having experience with machines of such vintage, I can raise no objection. The first MacBook Air offered relatively good performance for what it was and made foreseeable compromises. These jettisoned functions, along with a social class-dividing price-tag, made justifying such a purchase for myself impossible.

Soon, though, I was convinced to make a switch. Seeing the features and refinements of OS X Leopard was compelling enough to sever my twelve-year bondage with the Hell-scape simulator called Windows. As I recall the days before I converted, I’m reminded of Dante’s witness of the doomed souls. The spirits, outcast by God and unworthy of Hell, stood for nothing in their life and so pursue an elusive symbol for eternity.

“Fame of them the world hath none, nor suffers; Mercy and Justice scorn them both. Speak not of them, but look, and pass them by.”

Toting my new circa-2008 Aluminum MacBook, and the MacBook Pro that replaced it, I enjoyed the convenience and power. I had great battery life and certainly adequate performance. I had the opportunity to edit videos on planes and a Greyhound Bus which, before, I couldn’t have imagined. I still longed for the wedged super-light form of the MacBook Air.

My desire was finally fulfilled shortly after the 2012 MacBook Air was released. I purchased a 13” model second-hand and sold my 13” MacBook Pro. From then, I never considered alternatives.

How did that model tick all of the boxes?

Firstly, the tapered shell made typing on the integrated keyboard comfortable in every circumstance. The squared bodies of every other Mac, including the plastic ones, made for a painful experience in every circumstance.

The PowerBooks and first-generation MacBook Pro’s were mercifully designed with plastic chamfers in the aluminum case but the micro-chamfered edge of the unibody models inflicted the same pain that was previously offered in glass table or desk tops.

These models always prioritized battery longevity. A necessary component of portability is untethering and I could enjoy most of a day using my notebook without meter-tending. (In reference to the battery meter of course.)

It has what you need and nothing more. The purpose of USB is universal interfacing. If, in the very rare circumstance, I require an optical disc drive, it can be attached. Extra storage and communication protocols are equally easy to interface. The emphasis, however, is that I am not carrying the weight of the spinning-drive and restricted to the size required for so many ports at all times. The size and complexity expands only when needed which turned out to be infrequent.

Traveling and commuting means moving. Movement introduces hazards to spinning storage media. The only motive part in the MacBook Air is the cooling fan, thus it intrinsically handles bumps, drops, and hurried deposits.

For my application, the MacBook Air from 2012 did not present a compromise.

I’m grateful to report that the two 2012 MacBook Air examples I acquired, (one 13” model, one 11” model), shined for over a decade. They performed faithfully and reliably. In any situation, I never considered these machines to be inadequate. There was, however, a dream I wished to see realized.

During a trip to a third-world country, I was frantically searching to access the internet so I would not miss the latest announcement. There, in data-rates too lewd for this forum, I witnessed Steve Jobs introduce something we had but had not expected. Jobs demonstrated that his new “tablet-sized iPhone” was not just a large iPhone.

Inspired, and awed, by the capabilities of the iPad and the iPhone 4, I fantasized of full-featured computers driven by Apple’s new mobile CPU. The A4 managed computing that equalled the most fierce PowerMac G4’s that preceded the A4 by less than a decade.

The MacBook Air was, in those days, often scorned and ridiculed for its poor temperature management and scant performance. Inspired, I imagined that one day we could have leading performance from a laptop that required no fan and was powered by Apple’s own silicon. I envisioned a MacBook Air blended with an iPad and iOS. When I first began to use an 11” MacBook Air, I wished that Apple would sacrifice the thinness of the lid so that a wider display could be used in the same form factor. I estimated that if Apple would design a display with much smaller bezels, they could make the 11” MacBook Air capable of up to 13” of display area.

The convergence of iOS and MacOS, conversion from Intel to Apple silicon, absence of a cooling fan, and upgrade from an 11” to a 13” display in the same form factor signaled to me that the time for upgrading was here. The release of the redesigned M2 MacBook Air, which lacked a tapered design, meant that I would be visiting the Apple Refurb section for the Mac that I actually wanted.

I ordered my M1 MacBook Air and it arrived the day after my 2012 model was excluded from any further software support. No Catalina updates were released along-side the major software releases that included security, bug, and OS version updates. Life in the purgatory of the unsupported was terrifying for a day.

So long, 2012 MacBook Air support.

How is the M1 MacBook Air from the perspective of somebody still living in 2012?

It’s fantastic. I hate it. It’s awful. I love it.

In the absence of Steve Jobs, Apple has become an aimless daycare for flighty man-children, shirks, woolgatherers and “artistés”. Steve represented the discipline that is now missing from Apple, much in the way any and all discipline has been purged from every industry and role. Schedules and deadlines are oppressive, rules are chauvinistic, qualifications are classist, math and grammar are racist and facts are decided by the prevailing agenda. It’s the kind of recipe that could collapse a whole society if anybody ever had such a goal, but who would ever want that?

As Steve’s role diminished at Apple, the cracks were ever apparent. More and more, I found it hard to recite the mantra, “It just works”. I can forgive oversights to an extent but the mistakes that arose were indicative of poor judgement, rushed last-second catch-up work, lack of planning, lack of basic understanding, lack of consideration for different life-styles, user preferences and living conditions, ignorance, unfamiliarity, short-sightedness, and bull-headed arrogance.

I can summarize most of my contempt for Apple with a like scenario from the team behind Fallout. Who remembers Duffle-Gate? Having worked with many people that resemble their behavior, I can give a reasonable assumption as to what happened as I saw such things personally.

The artisté, fresh in the industry and full of big dreams, devises a cheap add-in for the game bundle. They go along and make promo images of the bag they envisioned while certain that they will get what they want though they haven’t consulted with anybody. While they're required to clear the product and get cost estimates, instead they procrastinate and dilly dally around the office. When the penny-pinchers find out, they cry that it’s not profitable because of per-unit costs and will need a solution right away. Artisté sits back on their iPhone, grumbling and groaning, scrolls through wholesalers, finds a bag that meets the maximum costs, then takes a victory lap for their hard, original, brilliant work. So-what if the product doesn’t match the original expectation? The bottom line is that le artisté is an out-of-the-box thinker and everybody will see the result of their genius.

In these meritless subjective occupations, every project is a vanity project. It doesn’t matter that they did a good job, what matters is that they can show people that they are responsible for something in the end-product and that they are more important than you.

Why be the guy that ensures the external monitor refresh-rates are automatically adjusted? Nobody will see that. When you’re vain, egocentric and narcissistic, you want to be the guy that ruins the Apple startup bong for no other reason than to prove to people that you exist. I can’t differentiate the mentality of somebody that would turn the startup sound into ear-vomit and a person that vandalizes the pyramids of Egypt. They both exist and act this way for the same reasons.

That's where it starts. Unboxing the M1 MacBook Air was a fairly pleasant experience at first. I find it annoying that Macs now start up upon first-opening, but somebody at Apple is very proud of their self for thinking that somebody will be impressed. Right away, I heard the "Bongue Nouveau" and felt slightly sick. Once I found that there is no feasible way to change the sound, I disabled it entirely. I never thought it would come to this.

The notebook immediately loads the initialization screen and made it rather seamless to transfer information from my old MacBook Air. I merely entered Migration Assistant in the 2012 MacBook interface, and the M1 found it on an ad-hoc network and began to transfer all of my user data.

One-and-a-half-hours later, I heard that disturbing sound again, but at least I was "in".

How does a 2020 design compare to my 2012? Should I compare to the 11" or the 13"? Interestingly, I'd say it is a precise blend of both!

While I was first impressed by the 12" MacBook, I decided to wait and patience truly paid off. The 12" appeared, at least, to be everything I was waiting for in a notebook but failed in so many ways. This model is very well worth the wait!

Except for two points, I'll focus my comparison on the 11" 2012 and the 13" 2020. The 13" 2012 is so handily beaten in every measure that it is a non-contender. Of note, the 13" 2012 is described as being slightly heavier than the 13" M1, though I certainly feel more mass while holding the M1. The 2012 also included an SD-slot. I won't miss it.

As I first unsheathed the new Air, the heft immediately became apparent. I could feel that the new model is much denser than the 11". I can say that it is not merely more massive, but seems to centralize its mass in such a way that I feel I am holding something of great refinement. I can only compare this to holding a German pre-war Walther PP then holding the BB-lobbing replica from your sports outfitters. The German Walther is tight, refined, machined to such a precision that it can only be regarded as the product of a very proud and industrially advanced people. The air-variant is a hollow imitation that captures none of the soul, passion or pride of the original and clearly indicates that it is made to a price-point. It seems ridiculous to expect much from a BB-gun, but that is the comparison I draw when holding the M1 MacBook Air and 11" MacBook Air at the same time.

I mentioned the comfort offered by a wedged profile, and the M1 delivers. I'm glad that I patiently haunted the refurbished store until I found the computer I was waiting for.

I've received:
8core CPU
8core GPU
16GB RAM
1TB storage
Space Gray

I have zero interest in the M2 at any price. The only "feature" I feel I'm giving up is the Starlight scheme. Had the M1 offered such a gorgeous and classy color, I would have paid full-price at first-offer.

Before I can complete the initialization, the installer hangs at a screen with the status "Checking iCloud status..."

I tried clicking everywhere. I tried every key combination I could imagine. I tried restarting. Nothing would allow a successful boot. So I did what the experts would advise I do in this position and continually turn the machine off and on until it miraculously bypassed the screen.

Where do I find the Genius that made this screen a road-block? I promise I just want to offer some advice for their career.

Once past the screen of incompetence, I was pleased to see that they did not force their new desktop image onto my display. I'm greeted with all of my files, folders, and settings that I had previously.

Then the niggles.

The transfer did not preserve "date added" information. Every file and folder in every directory shows that it was added on the same day. Somebody definitely got promoted...

Force-touch to preview and look-up worked. Once. I've since just switched to three-finger lookup, which is what I previously had but somebody smarter and higher-payed than myself decided I probably wanted to change that without asking. Can anybody tell me what purpose force-touch serves?

Somebody also decided that I need "Tips" forced in my face every hour, with no clear way to tell it to f-off. There are old websites that magically gained my approval for notifications and I'd rather just NOT store this data at all. As a matter of fact, Monterey just allowed EVERY notification. Thanks, California. Big brain move, there. How do I delete items from my notifications preferences?

I can never view my WiFi networks without being nagged that "hurr durr you need a stronger password type".

No calculator widget in the...whatever that thing is. I'm starting to form a theory that Apple's new internal motto is, "It just works. Delete it."

The system sounds. I have a feeling that, assuming we ever recover from Bolshevism, we will look back on this era and cringe at how dated everything is. The last OS X system sounds were rather timeless. The new sounds are "BASS BOOSTED DUB STEP RE-RE-REMIX ELECTRONICA NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL VAPORWAVE VOLUME 21". The sound designers did to the original sounds what "artistés" on Etsy do to classic art. Throw a filter on a classic piece then add a deer skull silhouette and tattoos.

I'm certainly glad the controls for keyboard brightness were replaced with Siri and Spotlight: two apps that work so well and are so difficult to access otherwise. Oh, wait. I would be OK with automatic keyboard brightness control, but it doesn't work. It doesn't work. The feature simply does NOT work! How is something so simple so complicated? I guess they were too busy renaming siri voices to simply "thing 1" and "thing 2" that they couldn't get around to ensuring the basic functions of a feature that is probably older than they are.

The keyboard is the best I've ever used on a laptop. I am happy to type and do so for long sessions. Even the sound of the key-presses is pleasant.

TouchID! I will never give up TouchID! I'm so grateful that it is here now. Why would they take it from the iPhone? Long live TouchID! I've been so burdened with my long, secure, password for fourteen-years now that my hand-cramps were causing a slight hesitation to open my Mac at times. I would often reach for my phone instead of my MacBook because it was simply easier to open and load a browser on the phone than on the notebook. Now, I never hesitate to open and close my new Air. It is truly an always-on device like an iPad or iPhone.

Speakers. You already know. Absolutely fantastic.

I won't miss the illuminated Apple.

I miss the keyboard brightness controls again. Already.

Trackpad is what you expect now. Fantastic. Responsive. Feels like a genuine click. Am I imagining things, or did Apple previously offer a trackpad with a sensor at every corner that allowed you to truly click all over the trackpad as opposed to just near the bottom? My only complaint is that Apple axed the "double-tap to drag-lock" function. I don't care what anybody says or whatever consolation they offer, this is a feature that can not be improved on or replaced and I want it back!

I'm very pleased to see that this model has four hinges for the display. Long-needed improvement.

Camera. Check.

Battery. It's holding up in web-browsing with uncompromised display brightness. Auto-brightness is another nanny setting that the mega-minds in California forced with my update.

Display. It's almost on the same level as the 16" M1 MacBook Pro. Almost. Even though the blacks are not as rich and the contrasts are in different leagues, I really prefer the look of this display simply for the lack of the "blooming" that the Pro gives. The MacBook Pro blooms so badly that it's disturbingly off-putting. Apple is going to have to stop trying to be different for different's sake and adopt an illuminated pixel option. Compared to the 11" MacBook Air... don't make me laugh. The brightness is similar. That's all that I can compare. It is painful to look back on the washed-out older displays.

I waited nearly twelve-years for this. Does it satisfy?

Yes. Yes on price. Yes on features. Yes on performance. I can say that holding out this long was certainly worth it. I do feel as though I got everything I wanted and that I'm truly hoping Apple doesn't arbitrarily axe support for this machine in five or seven-years because I wish to keep it for another ten.

The machine hits all of the marks. If I have to fault it, I'd say I dislike the fake speaker holes and the array of holes in general. I don't mind a "grille" or holes, but they executed poorly and fake holes (blind holes) make it look tacky.

As for software... All I will say is that I doubt the Apple employees that are protesting going to work would be employed if Jobs were around. I liked Apple because it was a product of Steve Jobs. Without Steve, Apple always lost its way. There's no telling what the future of the "spaceship daycare" is going to offer, but at this point I'm really only a Mac-user because "it's not Windows". I certainly won't be giving up Leopard, and that should say something about what Apple have become.

My final message is; If you are using an intel Mac as your main machine, you're missing out.