I'd say go for 8GB if you want to run parallels.

When I had 4GB on my work iMac and had to run parallels it was really slow. Mind you that was with Photoshop, all browsers, parallels with win7, and some other dev tools. Upgrading to 8GB made everything a lot smoother in terms of running parallels.

Guess ill upgrade the RAM as well. $90 is a small price spread out over the life time of this laptop for me. Too bad the i7 is dual-core for the MBAs, but I guess its asking too much and stepping into MBP territory lol.

run 8 with parallels. I have that running on both my mac mini and my macbook pro, and 8 gigs of ram is really what you want. I would also say that if you're running a barebones windows install (which I have and use to just use to remote connect to a windows box, and use a cisco IE login tool), 12 gigs for the Virtual Machine is enough...you can experiment with going smaller.

Does anyone know if there are any radio apps available for macbook? I've been able to bypass Spotify's country barrier but Pandora won't work.

10.8.2 update is out.

A few nice features added. Most important one for me is the addition of messages sent from your mobile phone being updated on iMessage.

If you don't mind paying about $5/mo. unblock-us is a great solution to be able to use a lot of US only services in Canada. Grooveshark isn't too bad either and you should be able to use it in Canada.

I like using rdio though to stream my music.

30 day free trial for US sirius/xm posted on RFD as well

Bought the Patriot EP Series 32GB SDHC as secondary storage.

Patriot Signature EP Series Flash 32GB SDHC Flash Memory Card Class 10

Fast speeds with the built-in card reader on the 2012 MBA. 28MB/s write, 37MB/s read. It's probably even faster with a dedicated card reader.

Perfect for storing my movie downloads. 720p videos load without delay with VLC.

Would recommend it for anyone looking for a minor space increase that's cheap, fast, and portable. However, it does stick out as all SD cards do. If you're looking for something flush, the Nifty MiniDrive comes out later this year.

^ that is pretty awesome, will pick one up when they become available.

What are some must have applications for a MacBook? New to the game.

Does a macbook air use a different ssd than a macbook pro?

Most likely. The Macbook Air uses I think a minipcie or some similar form of ssd while the macbook pro uses a regular 2.5" SSD drive. The Retina will probably use minipcie as well.

I thought the retina MBP used a 2.5"?
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From ifixit about the retina MBP: The proprietary SSD isn't upgradeable either (yet), as it is similar but not identical to the one in the Air. It is a separate daughtercard, and we’re hopeful we can offer an upgrade in the near future.

Not enough space for a regular 2.5"

Ah, I forgot the rMBP is smaller than the regular MBP.

The rMBP uses a unique SSD. There is one company that makes a third party upgrade and it is removable in the sense that it isn't glued or soldered in. I don't remember the procedure being super difficult on ifixit but harder than most people would be comfortable with.
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OWC makes one:

OWC SSD for MacBook Pro with Retina display 2012 - OWC Aura Pro Sandforce Driven

I just picked up a MacBook Air and I was wondering if anyone has a preference for an app that allows you to close the lid and not put the computer into sleep mode. So far I've heard of nosleep and insomniaX. I just want to close it when I have it hooked up to my tv while watching videos.

Was kinda surprised this isn't an option built into the OS
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^
Caffeine
InsomniacX
NoSleep...

Take your pick

Have you tried either nosleep and insomniaX yet? I remember seeing it(nosleep) posted in here a couple pages back and I finally installed it today. Did what I wanted to do and was pretty simple one click turn on and off.

No I plan to try out nosleep first after I get off work just because it sounds like the easiest to use
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NoSleep is the best one

Settings are saved, and each time you swap between battery and AC power, it automatically switches.

Does the computer get hot when it's closed? I always was under the understanding that the keyboard was part of the heatsink to keep the processor cool.

For the MBA, there are no vents under the keyboard. If the laptop does get hot, the fans will automatically start spinning regardless.

I find the whole top of the keyboard gets hot and because the unibody is aluminum, the heat just escapes that way. If I had the screen closed the extra heat would have no where to go except into the LCD which isn't as heat conductive as open air.