MacBook Airby Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 15 Jan 2008 12:40 PM One of the big bits of news coming out of MacWorld during Steve Job's keynote address today is the confirmation of the latest Apple laptop, which is something quite different. The MacBook Air boasts a slimmer than slim profile, with a thickness of only .76 inches at its thickest part. Apple is pronouncing the Macbook Air to be the world's thinnest notebook. Some of the coolest features of the MacBook Air include a large touch pad that utilizes multi-sensory touch. What that means is that you can use more than one finger on this touch pad, such as rotating a photo by virtually grabbing it through the touch pad and twisting your fingers. Another nice feature of the new MacBook Air is the ambient light sensor that works much the same way as some high definition televisions. A standard Mac keyboard and a LED backlit display round out the laptop. The MacBook air is the first in a line of computers that are bound to be known as "ultraportables," full-capacity computers that are lightweight and bound to be carried around everywhere, much like today's cell phones. How does the MacBook Air manage to be so slim? Mostly it is thanks to a specially made Intel Core 2 Duo chip that is made specifically to fit into the slim laptop. One thing you won't find in this "ultra portable" laptop is an optical drive, but the MacBook Air can use external drives or connect wirelessly to another computer that does have an optical drive. In addition to the 1.6Ghz or 1.8 Ghz CPU, the laptop features 2GB of RAM, and the choice of a 80GB 1.8-inch hard drive or 64GB SSD drive. You can pre-order the MacBook Air, which is expected to begin shipping in two weeks. Prices start at $1,799. Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here. Related Articles: A Larger iPhone and Other Apple Info Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevantcomputers tags User Comments  jscibona (10) 18 Jan 2008 05:27 PMAt first I thought it was short-sighted of Apple to not include a removeable media drive and then I remembered the first iMac. It was one of the first computers to not include a floppy drive. Everyone was screaming about how that was a terrible mistake on Apple's part. Ultimately, Apple was just ahead of the pack since its been years since the floppy was an every day use item. Maybe that will be the case with DVD drives and PCs in the very near future as well.  Mary Ann Romans (26876) 19 Jan 2008 11:34 AMMy guess is that soon to follow will be a media hub or "docking station" that these ultraportable laptops can connect to wirelessly. Community Tags apple, laptop, MacBook Air, MacWorld, notebook Discuss this article
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