Living Green

This new 3rd type of notebook to be born into the Apple family should be incredible and incredibly green.

Steve Jobs said at its unveiling: "In a sentence, it's the world's thinnest notebook."

Let's take a look at it.

What Does the MacBook Air Feature?

• 0.76 inches at the thickest part, and just 0.16 inches at the thinnest


• Weighs 3 pounds


• 13.3-inch, LED backlit display


• Mercury, arsenic, and PVC free


• Reduced packaging sizes


• iPhone type touchpad navigation (i.e. double tapping moves entire windows, pinching zooms in and out of photos, etc)


• Full size backlit keyboard! The lack of this feature is the bane of most ultra-portables' existence...and that of those who actually try to type on the microscopic thing


• 1.8-inch, 80GB hard drive


• Intel's Core 2 Duo at 1.6 or 1.8GHz (special 60 percent smaller version and possibly ultra-low voltage)


• MagSafe


• The usual ports


• 802.11n (standard)


• Bluetooth 2.1 with Enhanced Data Rates (EDR)


• 2GB RAM

What you will NOT find, however, is an optical drive. If one is needed, Apple has designed a new $99 add-on optical drive. I doubt many will need that as one more feature of the new MacBook Air virtually eliminates such a necessity.

From Tom Krazit's live blogging:

"Jobs outlines a wireless feature that allows Macs or even PCs to share optical drives. The MacBook Air's Remote Disk feature would allow you to install software from a neighboring (assuming it's friendly) Mac or PC's optical drive."

So how much will this big (figuratively speaking of course) boy set you back?

$1,799 at base configuration (which will be more than ample for most people shopping for an ultra-portable)...and unfortunately, they're not yet any cheaper at Amazon.

Hell, I just hope the MacBook Air drives down the price of the MacBook Pro for me!

The MacBook Air will start shipping in the beginning of February and, like Parrish at Ecorazzi hints, it'd be a great gift for your favorite green blogger...*ehem*.

For more information and a pseudo-experience of Apple's new laptop, take a guided tour of the new MacBook Air. Also check out the cats over at MacRumors.com who are continually adding thoughts and first hand pictures to this post.