Steve Jobs‘ official MacBook Air announcement took place at Macworld today. The new laptop is incredibly thin but powerful. Hopefully, you didn’t buy a new Apple laptop recently. Otherwise, you might get a case of serious buyer’s remorse.
The MacBook Air: The World’s Thinnest Notebook
The MacBook Air is the “World’s Thinnest Notebook” – even thinner than the Sony TZ, which is 0.8 to 1.2 inches thick. It’s so thin it fits in a manila envelope. Seriously. See the image below! Apple’s goal was to make a high-performance 3-pound laptop, with a full-size keyboard, and a large display.
MacBook Air Ports
The MacBook Air is so thin, it only has 4 ports: USB 2.0, Micro-DVI, headphone jack, and a MagSafe 45w power adapter plug.
How Did Apple Get The MacBook Air To Be So Thin?
So what did Apple leave out? An optical drive. If you really want one, Apple is selling an optional external USB powered SuperDrive for $99. So how do you install software or get files off of CD/DVD? Apple has a new piece of software called Remote Disc which can be installed on any Mac or PC on your wireless network and will let you borrow that machine’s optical drive.
MacBook Air features:
- Magnetic latch
- 5-hour battery
- multi-touch gesture trackpad
- 13.3-inch widescreen
- LED-backlit display
- built-in iSight for videoconferencing
- full-size keyboard
- 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
- 2GB RAM standard
- 80GB drive (1.8-inch hard drive. Same as in iPods.)
- 64GB SSD option
- 802.11n standard WiFi (N is the most advanced wireless on the market).
- Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
You can pre-order the MacBook Air today. Apple starts shipping them in 2 weeks.
Additional MacWorld Announcements:
In addition to the MacBook Air, Steve Jobs also made the following announcements at MacWorld today:
- Time Capsule – A wireless backup hard drive companion to Time Machine
- iPhone & iPod Touch 1.1.3 software update – Adds cell tower and WiFi location triangulation data among other things
- iTunes Movie Rentals – The ability to rent new movies in HD
- Apple TV Take 2 – New Apple TV software allows you to instantly start watching movies that you rent from iTunes
Frank Wilson is a retired teacher with over 30 years of combined experience in the education, small business technology, and real estate business. He now blogs as a hobby and spends most days tinkering with old computers. Wilson is passionate about tech, enjoys fishing, and loves drinking beer.
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