the AIR BOOK -- MacWorld Update

the AIR BOOK -- MacWorld Update

At 10:00 AM PST this morning at MacWorld in San Francisco, Apple's Steve Jobs confirmed the rumors ofa new MacBook notebook computer - "Today we're introducing a third kind of notebook, and it's called the MacBook Air. In a sentence, it's the world's thinnest notebook!"

The "Air" is a sub-notebook, a smaller lighter laptop computer with a 13.3" diagonal screen weighing in at less than 3lbs. and just ¾" thick at the hinged edge tapering down to about 3/16" at the front. The Air so thin, it can fit inside one of those office-to-office manila envelopes!

The Air borrows heavily from the iPhone in styling - an aluminum case with black and glass features. As small as it is, the Air does not skimp on the important features. The screen is LED backlit, it has a full-size keyboard, 2 Gb memory and 80 Gb hard drive. This system utilizes a specially designed for Apple Intel Core 2 Duo chip set running at 1.6GHz on the standard model, with an option to step up to a 1.8GHz processor. The MacBook Air has MagSafe, a smaller 45 watt power adapter, and the usual ports and 802.11n wireless ships standard with the new MacBook, plus Bluetooth 2.1 and EDR.

The MacBook Air's Remote Disk feature allows you to install software from a neighboring (assuming it's friendly) Mac or PC's optical drive. However, no optical drive is built in the Air, Apple has designed an add-on optical drive available for $99.

Its 13.3-inch widescreen LED backlit display delivers 1280-by-800 resolution which produces vibrant images and rich colors. The LED technology also helps conserve battery life.

The MacBook Air trackpad adopts many of the innovative multi-touch gestures from the Apple iPhone, so you can pinch, swipe or rotate by simply moving your fingers. Double-tapping moves a whole window, rather than just the cursor. Moving around a photo is like on the iPhone, a two-finger approach on the touchpad when viewing a photo allowing pinching, as well as zooming in and out of photos.

The MacBook Air launches at $1799.00 for the 1.6GHz standard model. There is also an upgraded model with a 1.8GHz processor couple with a 64Gb "solid-state" hard drive (think flash memory) that is currently listed at $3098.00. Both models are currently in pre-order status and should ship in 2 to 3 weeks. Besides Apple's own stores and website, Amazon.com is taking pre-orders for the new MacBook Air computer.