Gizmodo
MACWORLD SAN FRANCISCO—January 16, 2008—Apple® today unveiled Manila® Case®, the world's thinnest case for the world's thinnest laptop, the MacBook Air. When empty, Manila Case measures an unprecedented 0.07-inches at its thinnest point, but its dynamically adaptable height goes up to a maximum of 6.9-inches, adapting perfectly to the MacBook Air shape as well as to a standard* Reuben sandwich, made with pastrami, sauerkraut, swiss cheese and russian dressing on rye bread.
"We've built the world's thinnest notebook—it's pretty," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO and famed giant carrots horticulturist. "But it didn't feel... complete. So I said to Phil, hey! Phil, yo! I think we need a motherflippin' case for this motherflippin' computer. And Phil saw that it was good, so he pulled out an empty box of Oreos and said: 'what about this?'"
Phil Schiller, senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing and really nice cuddly guy, explained the arduous engineering behind the product: "Steve thought the Oreos box was okay, but wasn't good enough," he said. "So then he looked at this envelope on my table, with my lunch inside and he said: 'Is that a Reuben sandwich? Boy I miss those.' And that was it: Manila Case. Right there."
The Manila Case ultra-thin surface allows for an extremely light weight, the smallest in its class, and can be easily customized using any kind of materials, from stickers to Crayola. Prices start at $300 for the base model.
Build-to-order options and accessories include the ability to upgrade the regular white string to a Red Kabbalah String, a 2B Apple Pencil and Woz's One Big Honky Eraser for easy note-taking on the Manila Case surface, a drawing of a landscape by Rob, the guy from supplies, and a aircraft-grade aluminum clip.
* Standard size at Carnegie Deli, 854 7th Ave. New York, NY 10019. Other Reuben sandwiches, with or without IEEE 802.11n support or additional mustard, may vary.
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. In the middle, a lot of LSD, tofu and grass were consumed. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, the OS X operating system, iLife, professional applications and a guy called Rob. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone. And Rob too.
[Yes, in case nobody has got this one, it's fake. File it under "Comedy" or "Too many drinks." Image by Richard Blakeley]
Comments
Just $300? Not bad man. I'm gonna have to save up a bit, but I'm getting one asap.
hehe...
Honestly, what is the big deal about the worlds thinnest notebook? Am I missing something here?
It looks cool but is that enough to justify $2 grand with tax for a thin notebook running a 4200rpm hd?
Someone please help me???? :)
I wasn't sure if this was a joke for at least 10 seconds.
but is it weather sealed?
It will be banned on flights - you could be a terrorist and give people paper cuts.
I bet they would at least put the Apple logo on the other side so the seam doesn't go through it.
Please tell me the picture shown is a beta model
this is so immature of you guys... probably because of your stupid little prank, bloggers all over the world won't get any manila envelopes from any manufacturer, after all they fought for them. shame on you.
Normally I would shrug this off as a joke and laugh, but considering that it's Apple, I'm not too sure
Warning: Manilia Case v. 1.2 will brick your Manila Case if it has been modified with third-party magic markers.
@Riemannian: Same here. Seems like the logical next step from the Air. Idiotic notebook -> idiotic "trendy" case. Kudos. mmmm kudos.
I love the "yes, THAT Richard Blakeley" tagline on the picture.
Dude! Too many drinks at 9am? Is that right? Jesus, I want to live your life. Gadgets and 9am drinking. Sign me up.
Manila Case - "It just works."
Hey give the guy a break he has to do something how that CES banned him
@josecardozo: that was hilarious.
Jobs will introduce at MacWorld 2008 an updated version with Velcro.
I said it here first!
@yoshi: I agreed with that. I wouldn't pay 2 grams just for thinness
Man, the Chinese OEM's are gonna jump all over this.
comedy???? I think not. the TRUE fanboys will all use a real manilla envelope to carry around their loser piece of crap machine with its irreplaceable (ticking time bomb) battery
What! The red Kaballah string should come standard!
:)
@TC2COOL: Dude, he's in Spain, they don't need a clock to tell them it's time to drink!
Plus, it's 6 hour ahead.
I think Jesus is vying for a job as an "A" Daily Show scab writer with all of these parodies. I think he should start the "GizmOnion" tech parody blog personally, since I'm finding his stories more interesting than the real tech reporting.
@endrewsmith1:
@yoshi:
For some practical purposes.. there is little point to the thinnest notebook. However, I can see this being popular with 2 types:
a) heavy-traveling professionals
b) people in Asia
I have no idea if Apple is intentionally doing this or not- but small laptops are extremely popular in some Asian countries- I know they are in Japan from first hand experience. Most of these tiny Japanese laptops (in fact, none that I've ever seen) ever make it stateside. In Japan, you might pay over $1000 for a tiny laptop that has an outdated processor it in. To some, buying a computer isn't about buying the latest and fastest, but buy something that has a formfactor that fits with what they need/like. If you compare the specs from the Air to some of the small Japanese laptops- it's really not so bad. I guess it goes back to space being at a premium in such a crammed country.
Anyway, yeah, no video or multimedia types are going to really want the AIR with it's slow HD- but, I suspect, that once SSD's become more affordable- they'll make them standard in the Air and that will help quite a bit.
That case is sweet, I don't know how apple does it but they always find a away to make there product shine with accessories.
God. You guys are hooked onto motherflippin Flight of the Conchords. lol.
Is manilla case good anough for apple? Shouldn't it be Manilla Case Whisp, or iCaseVanilla or Vanilla Case Little Breeze?
Wait, according to the article above, the word "Case" is now a registered trademark?
Jesus, awesome article! You get a gold star for the day. =)
I'm looking forward to what you'll pull off for April Fool's.
Apple´s shares keep going down
i'm still looking for the "vanilla folder"
Let me guess, the version with metal clip 'option' rather than the red string is $792.00
It's not worth it. I've already bought two of them, and my wife keeps "accidentally" throwing them out with the newspaper and junk mail. Luckily my MacBook Air wasn't in it either time.
@gizmo_dude: No kidding. Apple is EXACTLY the company that would charge you 20 dollars for a string.
That's hilarious, thanks gizmodo for reminding me why I don't have an apple.
I just used a pre-production prototype model, and let me tell you, this case will fit a two-year old Dell 700m like a glove.
Yeah, yeah, the 700m is a bit old, and a bit chunky in the rear, but she can at least burn a cd/dvd without a cable.
@Riemannian:
Same.
@Pope John Peeps II:
@gizmo_dude:
As scary as it sounds agreed.
Although it does seem like an awful lot of work/writing for the end result of a joke.
A Reuben without corned beef isn't a Reuben. A "pastrami" reuben is kinda like a vodka martini, and as for a turkey reuben...well, let's just say one needs to be beaten when uttering those words.
hey,.. retards.. quit talking about the macbook air on the page devoted to the macbook air's sweet cheap case.. there' like four other places to babble on repeating everything over and over again.
@yoshi:
It's obviously a big deal because love it or hate it, EVERYBODY has to say something about it. Over and over and fucking over again.
I have a suggestion for all of you haterz (this isn't directed at you, yoshi):
Why don't you guys just, you know, ignore all the Apple announcements and releases and articles? Skip them. Don't grace the fanbois running Gizmodo with your page view counts and comments. SHOW them how irrelevant Apple really is!
And once Gizmodo realizes what a piece of shit company Apple is, and what a bunch of sheeple fucktards are its fans, then maybe, just maybe, they'll stop shedding so much of their virtual article space on Apple products and start talking about REAL computers and cellphones and PMPs.
God dammit with MBA Blend that is the question. I got no time for you jibba jabba fools
@savager: Cheap case? $300 for a case with no handle or space or accessories. Where do I sign?
Thing about the "thinnest notebook", is that they depreciate out of the box, and become obsolescent very quickly. For some people, it's worth it to spend $3000 or more to get the cache of owning something that you'll want to replace in 2 years, and which is categorically inferior to most laptop that will be available in 2010 for $500.
I lust after great tech and I'd love to have one of these... but I can't justify the cash.
@Dearhaw: Because, sadly, this is their life. They don't have a life outside the internet blogs and forums. They don't interact with real people. The only semi-real interaction they have is by logging on and spewing garbage about whatever gadget is being discussed at the moment. If it wasn't for giz, these losers wouldn't have any life or "human" interaction at all. The end.
oh and this post, priceless. I predict that every person who buys an MBA will eventually find a manila envelope and put their new toy in it, giggling with glee. I would even wager that some case maker like Incase will even make a sleeve for it with an interoffice mail envelope print on it.
I think this was a very boring MacWorld (one of the worst?), they should have called it Upgrade World, Software update to the iphone, software update to Apple TV. The Macbook Air, should be called the super Iphone, (super expensive Iphone), I'm not that impressed with it.
All you haters need to learn how to have some fun.
ok, so now apple is trying to sell a manilla envelope, normally all of $.10 ... for $300. and a piece of red string for $20? i have to say, anyone that even considders buying that is a complete and total tool. you know what happens when you put the computer in there, and the envelope is in between 2 hardcover books, and a pen falls in between the book and the envelope? i do, the friggen laptop cracks in half.
this is a piece of shit if i've ever seen one.
This is the dumbest thing I have ever seen. More Style than Substance should NEVER apply to technology. You fan bois need to wake up that this is just a flagrant step backwards all in the name of style.
Not impressed one bit. Why this gets any type of buzz is beyond me. I nominate the Macbook Air for CRAPGADGET!
lame
shit, i just saw it's a joke. apple would sell something like that, though. they probably will after seeing this.