At Macworld in San Francisco, Apple announced the MacBook Air. This ridiculously thin portable does away with optical drives (USB drives available as an add-on), Ethernet and multiple USB ports to deliver what Apple claims is the world's thinnest notebook. It's a believable claim too; at 4mm (0.16-inches) at its thinnest point, the MacBook Air is a veritable waif. At its thickest point, the Air comes in at 19mm (0.76-inches) which Apple says bests the thinnest point on competing books.
In among its firsts: first production notebook available in Canada with 802.11n on board (that we know of), the first to come it at 4mm at its thinnest point, first to 19mm at its thickest, there's a more disturbing first. The Mac Book Air is the first notebook we've heard of that has a non-user replacable battery. If your ultra slick ultraportable starts to lose its ability to hold a charge, that's a service issue as opposed to a quick (and admittedly expensive) trip to the store issue.
While their have been some sacrifices made in the overall specs of the MacBook Air as compared with similarly priced Apple and competing books, it's arguably a small price for a fully functional computer that is instant-on and that fits inside a manila envelope (that's how Apple guru Steve Jobs presented the new book at Macworld). The appropriately titled Air doesn't sacrifice too much screen real estate (13.3-inch), has a full size keyboard and that adds in a series of usability tweaks like backlit keys that automatically adjust to suit the environment, Apple's recent multi-touch gestures where users can tap, scroll, swipe and pinch the touchpad for iPhone-like control of their media are present and accounted for on the latest in the line.
The MacBook Air will begin shipping from US and Canadian Apple stores in two weeks at a base price of $1,899 (CAN).
MacBook Air base configuration
13.3-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display with 1280x800 resolution;
1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB L2 cache;
800 MHz front-side bus;
2GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM;
80GB hard disk drive with Sudden Motion Sensor;
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100;
Micro-DVI port (includes Micro-DVI to VGA and Micro-DVI to DVI Adapters);
built-in iSight video camera;
built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
one USB 2.0 port;
one headphone port;
multi-touch TrackPad with support for advanced multi-touch gestures including tap, scroll, pinch, rotate and swipe; and
45 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter
In among its firsts: first production notebook available in Canada with 802.11n on board (that we know of), the first to come it at 4mm at its thinnest point, first to 19mm at its thickest, there's a more disturbing first. The Mac Book Air is the first notebook we've heard of that has a non-user replacable battery. If your ultra slick ultraportable starts to lose its ability to hold a charge, that's a service issue as opposed to a quick (and admittedly expensive) trip to the store issue.
While their have been some sacrifices made in the overall specs of the MacBook Air as compared with similarly priced Apple and competing books, it's arguably a small price for a fully functional computer that is instant-on and that fits inside a manila envelope (that's how Apple guru Steve Jobs presented the new book at Macworld). The appropriately titled Air doesn't sacrifice too much screen real estate (13.3-inch), has a full size keyboard and that adds in a series of usability tweaks like backlit keys that automatically adjust to suit the environment, Apple's recent multi-touch gestures where users can tap, scroll, swipe and pinch the touchpad for iPhone-like control of their media are present and accounted for on the latest in the line.
The MacBook Air will begin shipping from US and Canadian Apple stores in two weeks at a base price of $1,899 (CAN).
MacBook Air base configuration
13.3-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display with 1280x800 resolution;
1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB L2 cache;
800 MHz front-side bus;
2GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM;
80GB hard disk drive with Sudden Motion Sensor;
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100;
Micro-DVI port (includes Micro-DVI to VGA and Micro-DVI to DVI Adapters);
built-in iSight video camera;
built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
one USB 2.0 port;
one headphone port;
multi-touch TrackPad with support for advanced multi-touch gestures including tap, scroll, pinch, rotate and swipe; and
45 Watt MagSafe Power Adapter
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