Macbook Air ... Hubba Hubba

So this is the big news to come out of Macworld.  Must say I'm disappointed that something iPhone-tastic wasn't trumpeted ... but this will have to do.  It's what "There's Something in the Air" was pointing to: the new ultra thin, ultra zazzy cool Macbook Air laptop.  And it really is one handsome piece of gotta-have-it.

Steve Jobs slipped it out of a manilla envelope during the keynote.  Nice.  It really is that thin, I guess as close to paper thin as a laptop can get at this point.  I'm not sure you'd want one any thinner, or it might feel too dainty.  But this bad boy would be a sheer delight to carry around, encased in special aluminum and weighing in at a scant 3 pounds.  At it's thickets point (it's teardrop shaped) it's .76 inches.  And it's thinnest, .16 inches.   

The glossy 13.3-inch, widescreen LED backlit display is the same viewable size as the screen on the regular MacBook.  It has a full size keyboard with backlit key illumination, making it easy to work in low-light settings.  A built-in ambient light sensor automatically adjusts keyboard and display brightness for optimal visibility.  Other specs:  2GB RAM, 80 GB hard drive, and a special Intel Core Duo processor that was custom built for the Mac Air, either 1.6 or 1.8 GHz.  Battery life gives you five hours without recharging.  Price starts at $1799.  Me want one!!  Apparently others agree.  Gizmodo's post, Macbook Air Looks Absolutely Amazing, has a Gimmie!! inserted next to the picture. Engadget is sizing the Macbook Air up against the competition, including a Dell, Sony, and its own Macbook relative.  Lots of discussion about this release today.  See it all at Techmeme. 

Notable:  today's Macworld keynote (Stevenote) really put a whipping on the internet.  Twitter went down in flames, as the micro blogosphere Twitted it to death (see MathewIngringram.com/work for his "Hey Steve, You Broke the Internet" perspective).  I agree with his assessment that MacRumorsLive was the best blog experience during the keynote.  Ajax apparently to thank for the smooth ride on that site.  A big black eye on Twitter, and I must say it was like slogging through syrup trying to load the live blog page at Techcrunch, and its sister site CrunchGear as well.  It's amazing to me that the big boys are ill prepared for events that they surely know might cause a traffic jam.