Apple Macbook Air

The new Apple MacBook Air is thin and beautiful, and is able to do tricks such as borrow the optical drive of another computer on a network.

With MacBook Air, mobile computing suddenly has a new standard. The incredible thinness of MacBook Air is the result of numerous size- and weight-shaving innovations. The MacBook Air also features a built-in iSight webcam and a full sized MacBook-style black keyboard.

As a result, the MacBook Air's trackpad is disproportionately large, compared to the size of trackpads found on the MacBook or MacBook Pro. Like the MacBook and the MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air features a slimmed down MagSafe connector for power. Apple estimates that with wireless networking turned on, the MacBook Air can get about 5 hours of battery life.

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. The MacBook Air has arrived, a third MacBook model that brings incredibly small size to the MacBook line at a premium price.

The touchpad has a few unique qualities that are either not seen in most notebooks, or were a first for notebooks. Our MacBook Air from a dead state would only reach 25-30% after charging for one hour with the notebook turned off. On most notebooks, in this period of time the battery would be well above 50% if not much higher.

No one buys an ultraportable for its real ultimate power. This is the first Apple product I've ever considered buying for myself.