SAN FRANCISCO – On stage at Macworld Tuesday, Steve Jobs unveiled the "world's thinnest notebook" to a chorus of "oohs" and "aahs" from the capacity crowd.
Shipping in February for $1,800, Apple's MacBook Air is a super-thin sub-notebook that weighs three pounds and is less than an inch thick.
Ever the showman, Jobs pulled the new laptop from a standard manila office envelope. “It’s the world’s thinnest notebook," he said.
The silver aluminum MacBook Air has a 13-inch screen, a full-sized keyboard and a large trackpad that is sensitive to multi-touch gestures and can be configured to shrink or zoom web pages, or rotate photographs with a finger twist.
“The display is gorgeous,” Jobs said. "It’s an LED backlit display that’s instant-on."
Jobs' speech also included other advances on the Apple front, including a plan to offer movies to rent through iTunes from all the major Hollywood studios, a wireless backup device, a refresh of the AppleTV and a software update for the iPhone.
Positioned between Apple's entry-level MacBook and its pricier MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air measures only three-quarters on inch at its thickest point. It is made of aluminum – Apple is moving all it s products to eco-friendlier materials – and has a black, back-lit keyboard.
"How did we fit a Mac in there?" Jobs asked the crowd as he held it up on his fingertips.
When closed, the MacBook Air has an unusual wedge profile that tapers to a point less than two-tenths of an inch near the front latch.
With characteristic chutzpah, Jobs' said the thickest section of the MacBook is thinner than the thinnest competing sub-notebook on the market. And that, Jobs said, without suffering any of the compromises of the competitors, which Jobs said often have slower chips and cramped keyboards.
The MacBook and its full-sized keyboard is powered by a speedy Intel 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo chip, which Jobs said was specially shrunk by 60 percent to allow it to fit inside the new machine.
Intel CEO Paul Otellini, who joined Jobs on stage, said the CPU is the width of a dime and the thickness of a nickel. "We didn’t think we could do it," he said.
But like other sub-notebooks, Apple decided to omit an internal CD/DVD drive. Jobs said Apple will sell an external, USB-powered optical drive separately for $100.
The built-in iSight camera, 2GB of memory, and an 80 GB hard drive (64GB solid-state hard drive, which draws less battery power) will be offered as an option. It features 802.11n, the latest version of fast Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and includes Apple's magnetic MagSafe AC charging system.
Jobs said for standard tasks like browsing the web via WiFi , the MacBook Air will offer five hours of battery life.
Carl Howe, an analyst with the Yankee Group, said he was very impressed with the new MacBook.
"I think it's gorgeous," he said. "It is quire remarkable how small that device is. I think it will do well as a fashionable niche product. I expect it to do quite well."
Earlier in his speech, Jobs said the iTunes Store now offers movie rentals from every major Hollywood studio. The service will offer 1,000 titles at launch and eventually every title on DVD.
Howe was impressed by that, too. "Steve Jobs has really made it into the DVD player for the internet age," he said.
Priced at $3 for old titles and $4 for new releases, the movies can be kept up to 30 days before they are watched, and 24 hours after first hitting play. The movies will be DVD quality, or HD (for an extra dollar), Jobs said.
Jobs also announced a new version of the Apple's struggling set-top box, the Apple TV. Jobs said the Apple TV is now a standalone device: It no longer needs to be tied to a computer for storing and synchronizing media. The Apple TV is now $230, down from $300. Current owners will get a free software update for renting movies.
Jobs also unveiled a wireless network backup device called Time Capsule.
Time Capsule is a new companion device for Apple's Time Machine software backup software. Essentially an Airport base station with a built-in hard drive, Time Capsule will be detected by any Mac running Leopard and Time Machine takes care of the rest. It'll come in two flavors: 500GB for $300 and 1TB for $500, both with server grade hard drives. The box has four ethernet ports and 802.11n WiFi.
