You can also customize Exposé so that when you move your cursor to a specific area of the screen you can perform an Exposé function.Īs for launching programs, the Dock isn’t the only way to do it. There’s a lot more to Exposé as well Press F11 to get to the desktop, and F10 to see thumbnails of all windows open in your current application. But those dots are so faint and subtle as to be of very little use. Only after one of my editors pointed out that there are small, glowing blue dots underneath running apps did I find out that there’s a way to differentiate between apps that are running versus apps whose icons live permanently on the Dock. Because I was used to the pre-Windows 7 taskbar, I constantly checked the Dock first to see what programs I was running, but it was no help because the icons were a mix of those pinned there and those that I had recently launched. The Dock took some getting used to, because of its double-duty as both a program launcher and a task switcher. There’s a reason for that similarity, of course: Microsoft took the idea from Apple. Instead, there’s a single Dock across the bottom of the screen, similar to the new taskbar in Windows 7. Apart from an icon representing the hard disk, there are no initial icons on the desktop, no Start button or Start Panel, and no pinned programs.
With so many nice little touches, it seemed as if I was finding a new one every day.Īt first glance, the Mac OS X layout is spare compared to Windows. So with a few exceptions, I’ll focus more on the Mac OS X and the Mac way of doing things, rather than on this particular model.įor PC users, Mac OS X takes some getting used to, but once I did, I found it a more elegant, polished piece of work than Windows (either XP or Vista). However, my assignment wasn’t to test and review this particular computer, but rather to report on the Mac experience compared to the PC experience. Of course, it was safe, sound and snug in my backpack-I simply hadn’t felt the weight.Īt $2,500 for this configuration, though, this is not a machine for Everyman or Everywoman, particularly in these trying economic times. My backpack was so light, I was convinced I had accidentally left it at the cafe. How light is this machine? I took it to a nearby cafe to work, and when I left, I panicked halfway down the street. Plenty of other people have rhapsodized over it, so I won’t waste the space here extolling its virtues.
If you haven’t yet touched or used a MacBook Air, take it from me: This is the most beautiful piece of hardware you’ll ever see.