In my 10 days of use, I have discovered several issues that may help those who are thinking of buying the MBA. I am sure that some of the issues are shared with other early buyers but not all are deal-breakers.

Issue 1. Remote Disc. This new feature comes with the release of Macbook Air. This is a utility that allows you to use another computer’s (Mac or Windows) optical drive remotely, i.e., you can mount the disk just like mounting it with a tethered drive. Cool, right?

Unfortunately, this has a slight flaw (or feature, depending on how you look at it). Remote Disc will be visible on your MBA but you will not be able to mount it if the firewall of the host machine is enabled. In the host Mac machine, you need to set it to allow *all* connections, i.e., disabling the firewall. I tried adding it to the supported applications but was unsuccessful.

With this flaw, it is highly recommended that you do use Remote Disc only within a secure network, maybe your home network. I don’t even recommend doing this within your office network.

Issue 2. Installing Mac OS X remotely. First time I re-installed the OS (I always do this with every new Mac that I buy), I used an external DVD drive, which I borrowed from my sister. I decided to try installing the OS remotely, similar to the Remote Disc.

First, Remote Disc will not work. At least when I tried it. You need another application, Remote Install Mac OS X, that came bundled with 10.5.2.

Similar to Remote Disc, you insert your install DVD in host machine (don’t know if this will work with non-Mac computers) and follow the instructions. Then you need to boot up your MBA whilst holding the Alt key, which will present you will all bootable images. If you are connected wirelessly, then you need to select the SSID and then connect to the network.

Sounds easy? Well, it is not quite. The issue is this, my network is using WPA encryption to secure my wireless network. Booting up with encryption (may also happen with WEP) takes a long time. I suspect that doing Mac OS X installation remotely via a secure wireless network may have issues.

Instead of opening my wireless network (removing the encryption), I opted to do this via the USB Ethernet cable. Connecting the host Mac and the MBA to a switch, installation was a breeze.

Issue 3. HDD Clicks. Some of the HDD-based iPods are known for having a clicking sound when the HDD powers up or down. The same holds true for the MBA HDD (am sure that the SSD does not have this issue).

It is really not such a big deal for me but some people might get a bit paranoid. I wonder how Apple will solve this issue.

Issue 4. Battery. Whilst I personally have not experienced this but some early MBAs take a long time to charge, i.e., reaching up to 6-8 hours from empty to full. In addition, some MBAs are affected with poor battery life -- only 2 hours of wireless use. Mine goes up to 4+ hours. :)

SO, some minor issues but buyers should be aware of these before getting an MBA. If you have questions about the MBA, I’d gladly answer or at least help you find the answer.