Apple CEO Steve Jobs has unveiled the "world's thinnest" laptop at the Macworld conference in San Francisco.
Jobs unwound the string on a standard-sized manila office envelope and slid out the ultra-thin MacBookAir notebook computer to the amazement of fans at the conference. It is 0.76 inches thick; at its thinnest, it's 0.16 inches, he said
Apple MacBook Air is a three-pound mini-notebook with a 13.3-inch light-emitting diode (LED) display, iSight Webcam, full-size keyboard, and 80-Gbyte hard-disk drive, which is standard. A 64-Gbyte solid-state drive is available as an option. "It's a little pricey, but it's super fast," Jobs said of the solid-state drive.
The notebook comes standard with 2-Gbytes of memory and an Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6-GHz processor, or an optional Core 2 Duo 1.8-GHz chip. It also supports Bluetooth and the fastest Wi-Fi standard of 802.11n, and has a battery life of five hours. "The MacBook Air was built to be a wireless machine," Jobs said.
Apple MacBook Air is a three-pound mini-notebook with a 13.3-inch light-emitting diode (LED) display, iSight Webcam, full-size keyboard, and 80-Gbyte hard-disk drive, which is standard. A 64-Gbyte solid-state drive is available as an option. "It's a little pricey, but it's super fast," Jobs said of the solid-state drive.
The notebook comes standard with 2-Gbytes of memory and an Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6-GHz processor, or an optional Core 2 Duo 1.8-GHz chip. It also supports Bluetooth and the fastest Wi-Fi standard of 802.11n, and has a battery life of five hours. "The MacBook Air was built to be a wireless machine," Jobs said.
It has a recyclable aluminum case and a mercury-free display with arsenic-free glass. Apple also added features to the touchpad, such as the ability to tap twice and then move windows around or rotate photos, use three fingers to pan across pictures, or move a finger diagonally to zoom in and out of a photo.
In reducing the thickness of the notebook, Apple worked with Intel, which reduced the size of its processor package by 60%.
However there is no optical DVD drive. Instead, Apple has added software called "remote disc" that can recognize an optical drive on a PC or Mac computer through a wireless network. Tapping into those machines, an Air user can install software from a CD or DVD. For an additional $99, Apple is selling an external DVD drive that plugs into the Air's USB 2.0 port.
The Apple MacBook Air will cost $1,799.
In reducing the thickness of the notebook, Apple worked with Intel, which reduced the size of its processor package by 60%.
However there is no optical DVD drive. Instead, Apple has added software called "remote disc" that can recognize an optical drive on a PC or Mac computer through a wireless network. Tapping into those machines, an Air user can install software from a CD or DVD. For an additional $99, Apple is selling an external DVD drive that plugs into the Air's USB 2.0 port.
The Apple MacBook Air will cost $1,799.
