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Student Name

College Composition II

Mr. Reynolds

November 10, 2010

The Scourge of the Earth

It is pure evil. It is forged from the tears of children and created for one purpose

only: to spread its plague across the land. Evil masterminds toiled hour after hour to

create it. The result is horrendous. The more I think of it, the more I shiver

uncontrollably.

It is the MacBook Air, and it has returned. There is nothing in this world that I

hate more than this device. The hate oozes from me proportionally depending on my

amount of exposure to it. To hear its name is torture. Seeing the praise of it so widespread

forces me to scream out in terror.

It is the MacBook Air, and it is frightening. Yes, it is frightening, not because it is

to be feared, but because of the people buying into its deceit. There is nothing more

frightening than human ignorance, and when it comes to MacBook Airs, human

ignorance certainly flourishes.

Never before would you see a laptop of those specifications sell for $1,300 or

more, depending on the model. It has a 1.86 GHz Core 2 Duo processor which will be

outdated shortly, as they’ve already placed it in the horrible machine as an outdated

processor. As for the RAM, it has 2 gigabytes. For a modern laptop, that is nothing, it is

merely another piece of technology that will go outdated soon. On a related note, the

MacBook Air doesn’t include a CD/DVD drive, so if you want to rip a CD or DVD onto
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your computer, you’ll have to buy a separate functioning drive that’ll take up one of your

two USB ports. The hard drive size is laughable, especially when considering the other

exponentially increasing areas in computing, although it is to be expected with the size of

the computer.

The question to ask your self is as follows: Do I want to increase portability

slightly to have a weaker, more fragile computer? Does this question need to be asked

when we have netbooks already that have more space, are slightly thicker, but conversely

more durable? Why does Apple need to release so many different models that are

superfluous?

In an edition of Consumer Reports, the MacBook air was reviewed. (“Ratings

Laptops”). It was given the following values for each of its categories:

Performance Ergonomics Versatility Display Speakers

Good Very Good Fair Very Good Poor

Now, as the rankings are set out in this fashion, what I want to know is this: is it

worth it to sacrifice some performance and a large amount of versatility for the small

amount of increased mobility? I guess it comes down to preference, but as for me, I want

a computer like Chuck Norris: tough, quick, and bearded (although that third category

can’t easily be filled). You wouldn’t see Chuck Norris using a MacBook Air. On a

slightly more serious note, a large portion of Apple’s audience is those that listen to

music extensively or those that create their own music. If they want the portability of a

laptop, this is certainly not the right choice. The speakers were rated very poorly in

Consumer Reports’ test.

As I continued conducting research on the MacBook Air, I came across this gem
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from Apple’s website: “All-flash storage. Big step. Small footprint.” (MacBook Air).

Only an idiot would want their computer to have a smaller environmental effect. This is

coming from a country that idolizes those who drive Hummers. And as for all-flash

storage, who would really want storage that’s actually stored safely instead of being

potentially lost when the computer crashes? Nice job alienating your audience, Apple.

You should know that as Americans, we’re looking to ruin the environment and take

risks with important information, not play it safe.

It seems that the more I read about the MacBook Air, the less I begin to hate it

and the more I seem to begrudgingly tolerate it. It’s not all bad, I guess, but for me, and

for my interests, I would never buy one. It doesn’t make sense to risk breaking your

laptop’s screen with the slightest drop (even though you shouldn’t be doing that in the

first place), and the fact that it is not customizable without voiding the warranty is just

another point for me to drag across. I dislike the MacBook Air, and Apples in general,

but I’ve come to realize that with time, Apple’s popularity will expand and I will have to

come to accept it. Maybe I’m just an arrogant fool, but I find myself comfortable with

Microsoft’s products. They may freeze once in a while or have other quirks, but that

defines the system more for me. As for switching to Apple in the future, I never will. I

find that the MacBook Air serves a better purpose than being portable: It shows

technological advancement, how we’re able to do so much in such limited space.

Works Cited
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“Ratings Laptops.” Consumer Reports. Dec. 2010. Pg. 37.

"MacBook Air - The Next Generation of MacBooks." Apple. 2010. Web. 10 Nov. 2010.

<http://www.apple.com/macbookair/>.