MACWORLD: Apple introduces MacBook Air

by Peter Cohen

January 15, 2008 —

During his Macworld
Expo keynote address on Tuesday morning, Apple
CEO Steve Jobs introduced the MacBook Air Tuesday, a computer that the company
billed as the world's thinnest notebook -- small enough to fit inside an interoffice
mailing envelope. It's priced starting at $1,799.

Sporting a silvery finish, the MacBook Air features a 13.3-inch LED-backlit
widescreen display -- it saves power and provides "instant on" response
from the moment you turn it on, according to Jobs. The device has a slightly
wedge-shaped profile that runs from 1.2 inches down to 0.8 inches high. It weighs
about 3 pounds, and sports a thickness of 0.16-0.76 inches.

The MacBook Air also features a built-in iSight webcam and a full sized MacBook-style
black keyboard. The keyboard is backlit, similar to MacBook Pros, and has an
ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts brightness. The trackpad is
also capable of recognizing multi-touch gestures, similar to using an iPhone
or iPod touch.

The MacBook Air features a 1.8-inch hard disk drive with 80GB of storage capacity
standard. A 64GB solid-state disk (SSD) drive is also an option. The laptop
is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo chip running at 1.6GHz, with 1.8GHz available
as an option. Jobs noted that Intel
was willing to engineer a new version of the Core 2 Duo specifically to Apple's
specifications -- it's 60 percent smaller than others.

Like the MacBook and the MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air features a MagSafe connector
for power. It comes with a 45 watt power adapter. A flip-down door on one side
reveals USB 2.0, Micro-DVI (to connect an external display) and a headphone
jack. The MacBook Air also includes 802.11n-based wireless networking support
and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR.

Apple estimates that with wireless networking turned on, the MacBook Air can
get about 5 hours of battery life.

No internal optical drive is included, but Apple will offer a $99 USB 2.0-based
add-on. For users that opt not to get the optical drive, Apple is offering a
new software feature on this machine called Remote Disk; it enables you to "borrow"
the optical drive of another Mac or PC on the same network as the MacBook Air,
to use for installing software, for example.

Apple's frequently been in the crosshairs of environmental group Greenpeace
in recent years. Jobs offered information about the environmental goals behind
the MacBook Air -- it has a fully recyclable aluminum case, and is "the
first" to have a mercury-free display with arsenic-free glass. All the
circuit boards are BFR-free and PVC-free, and the retail packaging uses 56 percent
less material than the MacBook packaging.

Macworld.com