Lack of gigabit Ethernet on the big pro air makes me sad, though.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD463ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA3Ng

Presumably the logic is that its all wifi these days anyway.

Kind of silly given that the new Macbook Pro Air HD Super 15 has a better display than anything else I own, so I'm not going to necessarily want to put a 1920x1200 24" or even 2560x1600 30" in the center of my desk with it -- I'd treat the laptop display as primary, on a stand, with a keyboard. But Apple doesn't make a docking solution, and the Belkin/Matrox docks have been vaporware for over a year.

Their thunderbolt ethernet adapter is $30: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD463ZM/A

Even when setting up hotdesks for guests, it's unclear if you could put just a TB display in them -- enough people will have non-TB macs, or non-macs, to require something else. Maybe you could have some percentage TB display, but a good third-party dock + a display which can take multiple inputs (DVI, HDMI, MDP via adapter, TB to adapter to monitor) seems like a better choice. Uglier, yes.

For personal/home use in a dark room with only 2011+ macs, and if you have a spare 15" for other temporary use, then sure, it's a good option.

Keys/wallet/etc. remain in pockets when not in use, though -- so they're a LOT less likely to be abandoned than something which is small, connected to another long cable, etc.

But if you're going to do that, just sell your existing Air and buy a new one..

That happens. In my case, it's the "seen it all before" effect.

It would be exciting if something really noteworthy was happening, but a bump in resolution or a new I/O interface are not groundbreaking changes in computing.

Personally, i think the 2011 Air is a great machine and offering 8GB on it now is all that needed to be done to keep it a great machine for another year.

But definitely, certainly, the 2010 to 2011 update was important in terms of performance.