The new MacBook Air looks like an great machine, and I wish I had a need for one. I don’t have a desktop at home, and I doubt I would be happy with the Air’s performance as my primary workstation, so planning on sticking with my MacBook Pro for the foreseeable future.
What’s exciting to me (besides the multi-touch and other new features that should eventually make their way to the MBP) is that it seems like a great reason for Apple to push bluetooth data tethering on AT&T in a future software update or revision to the iPhone. Steven Frank mentioned this in a recent blog post, and I tend to agree. For a laptop that’s designed for portability, it makes sense to have some other option for network connectivity, and without an ethernet jack or ExpressCard slot, bluetooth tethering would fulfill that role nicely.
Bluetooth data tethering is one of the big reasons I haven’t seriously considered buying an iPhone yet. Although it’s slow and I rarely really need it, it’s invaluable when I need to get some work done and I can’t find a reliable WiFi connection. I’m sure AT&T won’t be quick to get behind it, but I still have my fingers crossed.
Tags: Apple · MacBook Air2 Comments
2 responses so far ↓
Wouldn’t you rather have wifi tethering, basically the ability to turn the iphone into an ATT wifi hotspot? Would be much better than bluetooth. Just a thought.
I don’t really see much benefit. WiFi networking would have a longer range, but since I only need an EDGE connection when I’m traveling and have my phone and MBP together anyway, that wouldn’t really matter to me. I think I’d actually prefer bluetooth, if just because it’s meant to connect devices like phones.
I know you can currently do WiFi sharing with a jailbroken iPhone, but with an official API on the horizon I doubt I’ll ever jailbreak mine if I do buy one. Maybe the official API will allow legitimate third party applications to do this kind of networking, but I doubt it.