No MBA mods out there?

[Gadgetman99]

Ok, my MBA will be coming in the next few hours, and in preparation, I have been searching (for a couple days) for websites or posts about modding the MBA. The most ambitions mod would be to get a used bottom cover, reshape the battery area (cave it in) and make the battery external somehow. Then you could get one of those replacement batteries off ebay to use as a second battery to have for "emergencies". Of course adding internal GPS on one of those unused USB connections, or an internal SD reader or just modding the case with an additional USB port and connecting it up would be nice too. But I am amazed there does not seem to be much modding going on with the air (now I know you apple folks will be quick to say "because it is not a PC and is already almost perfect, we don't need to mod") But really, it seems this thing is just ripe to mod (not that I am planning on bricking my MBA anytime soon to try some of these wild ideas I have).

 

[MacModMachine]

i think you ment to buy a macbook pro.

you cannot mod the air...there is no room for anything at all.

i tried to put stuff in it before...no room...i gave up.

 

[Mactagonist]

The only real mod I have seen involves replacing the Airport/BT miniPCI card with a WWAN miniPCI card. It works great, but comes at the cost of wifi and BT so it isnt for everyone.

 

[darngooddesign]

...The most ambitions mod would be to get a used bottom cover, reshape the battery area (cave it in) and make the battery external somehow. Then you could get one of those replacement batteries off ebay to use as a second battery to have for "emergencies".

LOL..talk about the hardest solution possible. Instead of reshaping aluminum it would be easier to rig the MagSafe to a 17" MBP battery.

Of course adding internal GPS on one of those unused USB connections...

iPhone

 

[Gadgetman99]

LOL..talk about the hardest solution possible. Instead of reshaping aluminum it would be easier to rig the MagSafe to a 17" MBP battery.


iPhone

But then you need a way to swap it out.

As to the iphone, not very good coverage here, but my Palm Pre works well for that. Just seems cool to have the MBA "location aware".

 

[Scottsdale]

You can get the lid sketched with a cool picture or logo.

There is a thread in here about changing the keyboard out with white keys from a MB. It looks really nice IMO.

I wouldn't do anything else. If you want more battery life, buy an external don't cut a hole in your bottom case.

The MBA is an ultraportable not meant for altering. It's just too small to do radical things to it.

Good luck.

 

[ayeying]

You can make a Copper heatsink vs the Aluminum heatsink if you're really bored..

 

[Gadgetman99]

You can make a Copper heatsink vs the Aluminum heatsink if you're really bored..

If heat becomes a problem, I just might! Too bad I don't work in the machine shop anymore... But copper is easy to work with anyway.

 

[ayeying]

If heat becomes a problem, I just might! Too bad I don't work in the machine shop anymore... But copper is easy to work with anyway.

Copper is easy, I've made a copper heatsink with the same style as the original for the Rev C. The results weren't as I thought it'd be though. The fan isn't able to dissipate the heat from the copper fast enough. Aluminum dissipates heat faster than copper but has less storage capacity as copper.

Furthermore, Copper likes to store heat while Aluminum likes to get rid of it as fast as possible.