Airport security couldn’t believe MacBook Air is a laptop
The TSA has been known to take issue with products designed in Cupertino before, but for one particular traveler, it was Apple’s thinnest laptop ever that caused the latest holdup. Upon tossing his ultra-sleek slab of aluminum underneath the scanner, security managed to find enough peculiarities to remove it from the flow, pull it aside and wrangle up the owner for some questions. Apparently, the TSA employee manning the line was flabbergasted by the “lack of a drive” and the complete absence of “ports on the back,” and while hordes of co-workers swarmed to investigate, the user’s flight took off on schedule.
Thankfully, said owner was finally allowed to pass through after some more in-the-know colleagues explained in painfully simple terms what an SSD was, but the poor jet-setter most definitely paid the price for trying to slip some of the latest and greatest under the sharp eyes of the TSA (and cutting it close on time, of course).
Source: Engadget
Comments(77)
rofl, uni(n)formed securities
How can you not believe it’s a laptop after you’ve flipped it open…?
No usb ports? Thats lame, I don’t care if it’s as thin as a sheet of paper…
Haha, that’s cool.
MacBook Air is a laptop? What a joke! LOL!
Astroturfing or what?
How paid this schill to write this story?
They could not believe someone actually both APPLE products
this was all setup for publicity
@8
Think so too. It’s called a ‘viral’.
And thx to RLSlog we’re all part of it.
Apple Advertising department to lowly employee: Hmmmm….So what your telling me is that he didn’t know what a Macbook Air was…this is what your telling me…Stop me if i get something wrong here?
More reasons not to buy a Mac, as if anyone needed more..
looks lika viral to me
Sadly, this did actually happen. Even worse, this was first posted about a full week ago. Try to keep up!
Old news
Solid Slate Drives suck these days anyway. Expensive, smaller life-time, less storage and more power consumption than your standard disk drive.
There is just no point in using it. Just like those dresses you see in fashion shows. Completely stupid, extremely expensive and 100% impractical.
It being so thin is not even that much of advantage! Come on!
Note to editors: if the story’s about Apple, give it a once over, and consider it might be marketing propaganda. Please don’t let RLSLog turn into Digg.
Customs sees notebooks all day long, and would by now, be well familiar with Sony’s well established T series, and the Toshiba Libretto, which came out in the mid-nineties.
I’ve been presenting the Sony T series, including the latest TZ, to customs for years, and not once had even a cursory comment. Not even in India or China, let along the USA.
The only people wowing over the Air are those that have never shopped for a notebook and Apple zealots who seem to be unaware of anything that isn’t Apple and that Windows is still in the 3.1 era.
Stupid story. Stupid editor for propagating it.
Mark
No ports? I agree.
Mistake a laptop? Put down the crack pipe, learn American; none speak “English”, and get off FaceBook.
this site is really not the right place for such posts, as that news is absolutely not related to neither release nor scene in anyways, and it’s old.
thanks in advance
wow i read this about 2 weeks ago! old story but a good story!
There’s no story here. The blogger admitted that he got to the security check-in less than THIRTY MINUTES before his plane was to take off.
The airlines always ask people to come an hour and a half or two hours early for a reason. He’s a self-important blogger who assumed that a plane would wait for him. He gambled and lost.
This is very old news.
Well… at least they’re doing their job. I’d rather have them hold up some guy for a little bit than to have a bomb snuck on board.
Can never be too careful
The saddest part of this story is that Apple’s brand propaganda is so successful that most of us have already read it.
please, lets not let this place turn into digg or engadget, as another poster has previously stated.
The human factor could kill all of you one day.
i got to digg to digg stuff, i come here for scene release’s, stick to what your good at
According to most of you, this blog should post different news, but if it was something Microsoft related no problem at all just one more post to keep us updated. Get a life all you Windows small minded people…
This is yet another Apple real-life commercial. There is no person on the world to be that stupid.
for the people that think this product sucks and expensive,m whatever…
you GOTTA undestand. this products is around because THERE IS A MARKET for it. People who get the Air dont wanna play FPS on it or even use Logic (you can though)
So grow up, you can say all day Macbook Airt is lame, but here is one thing. There are people on this world who has money and we can afford 10K plazmas or 3K laptop thingies.
Fascist pigs.
Mazel Tov
This is sad news,
was watching Terminator tv series and e07 was talking about dual core processors in a mini computer as being the “Latest technology” coming from korea. Pfffttt! Heard of Quad core b!tches? Even the people who research for current hollywood have been falling behind the latest in tech and will further fall behind, it’s inevitable and I don’t feel sorry for their monk3y as(S)es one bit!
Oh and btw the way you l0ser(S) who said no usb ports, it does dumb f(u)cks. It flips out if you aren’t a womans tw4t to know that.
He must have been late for his flight.
Ref. Eps 08 for Quad Core.
To verifiy get eps here:
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/4084705/Terminator_The_Sarah_Connor_Chronicles_Season1_(XviD_asd)_-_
The only interesting part of that story was that theres such a thing as a notebook with no USB ports that people buy.
Truely, that is incredible.
@34
You’ll be banned in about 20 minutes for being inordinately abusive, which, as I am sure you know, is against the code of conduct around here. Buh-bye.
Been here longer than you Runcible wo-Man
and I haven’t changed the way I post.
So sod off!
@35 Dosh there is one(!)USB port. Do some research. It’s on the right-hand side in a drop down hatch for the less informed.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/15/lenovo-x300-vs-apple-macbook-air/
A major company such as Apple release a notebook WITHOUT any USB ports?. Who would be stupid enough to buy it and then be forced to pay over the odds for more overpriced Apple peripherals because they can’t use cheaper USB devices?.
captainkremmen, maybe someone so stupid to make comments when they didn’t check the facts before.
Truly, that’s incredible.
lmao pwned by a mac
the guy who doesn’t know what the laptop is is exactly the type of person apple markets to
Apple relies on dim-witted people. They are like sheep…
and Apple will lead them to the slaughter. PwND I think so my friend…
MacBook Airs are a expensive and underpowered computer, much like all their other computers.
I would rather have the extra 1cm of thickness for a dvd/cd rewriter and some more ports etc.
Its pretty lame if you take it away and want to watch a dvd on it on the plane or something. Sure you can rip the dvd on another computer and transfer it but thats just a massive waste of time.
Lame Macs
So what if I want to have my usb mouse plugged in and now I want to plug in a memory stick and my MP3 player to transfer some music. Oh right I need to carry round a usb hub.
A whopping 80gb harddrive, wow. Although it is used rarely but often very useful in some hotels, would it really kill them to have a ethernet port on? I mean now we need to buy the apple adapter.
The only good thing about this laptop is the screen (kind of) and the Core2Duo + 2gb of ram.
I think this laptop may be designed for newbies who only use their computer for internet, typing and their lame Ipods.
You people actually bought that news? It doesnt smell like an apple add rather then actual news?…seriously
This is a viral.
This is just like the other article I read where some “tester” for a magazing had been loaned a Macbook Air for review purposes. It had gotten mixed up with some papers and magazines and was “accidentally” thrown out by his wife. Apparently besides being thin and light, it’s so flexible that when you’re handling it with a stack of papers, you have no idea it’s there. Wow. Do these stories really make people want to buy one?
“Airport security couldn’t believe MacBook Air is a laptop”
of course not… mac air is the biggest pda ever, everybody knows that
The day you spend a day with a mac, you will never ever want to go back to windows again.
can’t beleive no one here has commented on how bullsh¤t it is that he had to pay for a new flight. he did, right?
if he was forced to, what a load of crap!!
its not his fault airport security are behind on their tech. totally typical security paranoia.
if this was in america, its just ANOTHER reason why not to travel there…
rant over
Lol at the comments about people who complain because it doesn’t fit their need and they rather have a bigger laptop for more functions.. Simple, don’t buy it! Not everyone will use this for every damn thing you might need. Those that don’t need it and prefer a small laptop and a great OS, they’ll get this one obviously.
Is that a fact Jutzuro?
Now that OSX can be run on duo2core normal pc why would I want to us a mac? Just to pay that crazed psycho Jobs so he can buy another Gulfstream V jet? You must be as crazy as him! ROFL!!
yet another martin mac post and then corksniffin mac fanbois jumping on it.
Termin4T0R,
Look, I don’t care if you hate macs for whatever reaseon, really. I have been owing PCs and win laptos until I bought a Mac. My PowerPC Powerbook killed in performance almost every windows laptop of the same pricerange. My MacBook just overkilles anything else, because “the rest” run Vista. Sorry.
My wife has a win laptop, so does almost everybody I kown and at office, including my office. And I can assure you that macs are much easy and intuitive to use than PCs including Vista, which is just as annoying as XP.
If you are happy with your windows, fine. I simply do not understand how easily some PC users pop up to criticize anything related to mac. Don’t buy them if you do not like them or do not have the money.
Hmmmm…. why are apple fans so smug? ‘In the know’…. why would anyone who doesnt watch the scene know about this heap of crap known as MacBook Air?
hahahahahaha… ONLY IN AMERICA
Listen, I said any1 with half-a-brain can run OS X (What is running on your macbook if you didn’t know((It seems mac users are high on glue or is it their ass fumes)) ) on a pc duocore2 and have $1000 in their pockets to spend on a mortage and a hot meal. If you didn’t know, it seems mac users don’t know anything that Steve Jobs doesn’t cram in their c()cksu(king mouths, duocore is what is in your mac-intel core now! So su(k on that you fU(k NUT!
Termin4T0R,
The sarah connor chronicles, after they jump into the future, takes place in ‘07 and was prob written even before that since they still had new episodes coming out during the writers strike.
57 wrote: ONLY IN AMERICA
So true! Such technology could only be developed here, in America. And such excellent security (that does not resemble a cross-eyed pimply faced European kid reading PC World instead of checking his scans) could only be found in America. It’s that work ethic thingy. We have it, you don’t.
I forgot to mention,
MARTIN: STOP WITH THESE TECH NEWS POSTS!
We can’t have early P2P releases but we can have Apple Adverts?
I don’t know where people get their tech new from but the Mac Air does has a USB port.
The airport staff probably just wanted to have a perv at it. I get this all the time from the cops with my car.
have u ever seen who works in TSA??? Well there is your answer to any question you might have regarding the use of a brain…
This is also 2 week old news
@50, jutzuro
Seriously>? I spend a day on a Mac, hated it.
Tried one of these things at the Apple stor; got it to freeze… freaked the hell outta the “tech experts” who work there.
I just started laughing. True story
jutzuro,
Really, spend a day on a mac? Any day or just a day when I’m not working?
Spending a day at work on a mac is easy, it’s also usually one of the more unforgiving / painful days I have. Nothing like having Maya lockup while rendering, having FCP take a dive rendering and exporting and wanting to throw the system out a window after wasting hours working on a project.
I’m sure if I spent a day on a mac using iphoto and taking 4 color shots of myself pretending to be Warhol I’d have a simple day, but then again I’d have a simple day on a PC variant as well.
People get bothered because garbage marketing like this pops up, Apple fans get in a huff about the TSA but anyone with half a brain knows that you don’t show up as your plane is boarding with electronics on you hoping for a quick pass through and if you do, you better be ready to miss a flight.
I’m not claiming either system is actually better in that working environment either, I’ve had both systems die quite easily and it’s not fun. Thinking one would be flawless though is amusing to say the least.
Your statements are amusing though, the G5 was a good processor, stepping down to x86 was cheap though on their part. The Macbook overkills? In what and better yet, in what configurations? I could say the same about many things, I could say a workstation 16 core system stomps the life out of the Mac Pro, but the configuration makes the difference and lends or remove credibility from your statement. Given the streamlining of OSX installs anyone with a bit of investment can run OSX as well so it’s no biggie there, remember, Jobs is the one keeping OSX out of the PC marketplace, why? Who knows, maybe he doesn’t like the idea of competition despite claims of superiority.
It’d be easy enough to not have to bring up dislike or even some users hate, but when you have cheap viral marketing shoved around it’s easy to be annoyed when Apple moved to Intel and essentially had their partners produce PC’s in Apple cases and the world around praised it as innovation. Sorry, the mac pro isn’t a regular consumer pc, it’s a workstation board running xeon chips, far from your regular consumer config.
@67
well put… I’d like if Apple released their OS to the PC comsumer market, so they could see in -a real world test- just how well their product really handles compared to.. well anything else (Linux,Vista,Unix,XP/Pro/Server).
I’d like take an iMac with an Intel dual core and OS X -vs- the same chip with the same OS on any other config and see how well they can render or compute in a real world environment.
jutzuro @18:11
When jutzuro wrote “my office” in his post, he meant his momma’s basement just so we clear.
what a stupid story! R ppl really that dumb?
They were right though. It’s not a laptop, it’s a piece of Sh!t.
Buy a Mac get Beaten Up!
Just kidding but funny to say the least!
http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/18/charlie-rose-sacrifices-face-for-macbook-air/
I don’t understand why so many like MacOS X so much. It isn’t half as intuitive as Windows is (which isn’t, really, we’ve just gotten used to using it over the years). Heck, you can have better times with just about any decent Linux distro if you’re a newbie. I bought Mac mini. The OS is laggy, slow, crashes all the time, and freezes up more than Windows ME. The system is non-intuitive and the one-button mouse drives me insane. My old 1984 vintage Mac that runs MacOS 7 is faster and better and less prone to crash. It’s just sad really. I would only buy a Mac again to install Windows XP on it.
If Mac is so excellent, why most people don´t have a Mac at home??? Please, give me good reasons, not a long rant about it. I like Mac, but I´m happy with my PC. I don´t have any problems with my Windows XP, although I like Mac OS too, it is so nice for my eyes, but I don´t know if it´s so buggy like many have said here.
i got a taste of airport security paranoia while i was carrying the bose wave radio. the wavy design inside it made security open my box and examine it much more closely, but of course i didnt miss my flight.
Have to agree with Jutzuro, if you don’t like it or more so don’t have money to buy it, just stick to your PC’s and stop hating stuff just because you can’t afford it. Mac has its flaws but so does Winxp/vista based laptop, no need to bash either of them. Maybe, just maybe if you haven’t sat on your (_!_)’s whole day and actually did something apart from 9-5 job (hint FOREX), you would be somewhere else by now and buy Mac for traveling just because of it’s ultra-thin design and for FPS big ol’ fat desktop. Lots of people are just shouting loud what they would do and end up doing nothing except making new and new excuses and hate others with different opinion. And life is too short for that, trust me on that one
don’t see why apple would put out a story like this, considering the reason the guard didn’t believe it was a laptop was because it had so few features!