and a tray-loading superdrive nonetheless! Now, finally, I can go back to breaking off trays! Love it!!

Is there a version with a CRT screen?

Smells like a fanboy trying to make a witty point. Unsuccessful.

We get it... if the MBA had more ports it would be thicker. We don't care. We just like to have more than one USB port. Form isn't everything. Some of us like function as well.

Or maybe it was just meant to be funny. In that case. *mild applause*

And you guys haven't seen the other side yet!!!

but he forgot the CF, SD, SDHC, memory stick duo, trio and quattruo slots...

@kavendano14: oh, is that where the MD-drive, Express, PC-card slot and hot-swappable HD are?

@luciusad2004: Form is function.

come to think of it, what about a 5 1/4" floppy, nintendo- and atari-cartridge, midi interface and a rocket launcher

oK, oK, I can see I am overdoooooing it now.... So we can finish it off with the inevitable question: will it blend?

@yogibimbi: Come on. That's about as old as "What's an iPhone?"

@djtooshay: iPhone? Never heard of it;-)

I've written Policies prohibiting the use of Floppies...

If the floppy and half the ports are moved to the other side you could make the comp slimmer. And if you're going to use a damn floppy drive, couldn't it be one of those combo drives that reads memory cards too?

@yogibimbi: don't forget the tape drive

@wolfsingleton: the problem isn't the part of the drive that sticks out of the computer, its the part inside... yes there is plenty of room for a slot on the side of the laptop, no there isn't a place for the rest of the drive inside

And that mockup has more usb ports than my MBP I'm jealous.

i see the dvi output, but i would like a vga as well... hope thats on the other side...

May I suggest extra 5.25" and 8" floppy drives for greater compatibility? And a streamer for backups?

Of course, the punchcard reader would be an external option...

The all new MacFatty!!

And by the way, about half of you can't take a joke.

@peterlarson233:a Simple adapter gives you VGA from DVI. A VGA port would be quite unnecessary.

What about serial and parallel ports? Just in case you need to tap into some real legacy hardware?

A PS/2 port would be nice for an old external mouse, as well.

That rocks!

No, seriously, it's convex on the bottom so it rocks, see? Push right there.

Told ya.

I like the shuffle control there. very nice ;)

Can we have an 8-track cartridge on the other side please?

And I bet you STILL can't remove the battery yourself!

Where's the serial port and the parallel port? how the hell will I be able to use my Deskjet 500 or my thrustmaster joystick now??? damn you apple!!!!!

somebody should create a laptop thats fully customizable online. I'm not talking about choosing the amount of ram and processor speed, im talking about creating a very very flexible machine with nice aesthetics that can give you the ability to choose between 2, 3 or 4 usb ports, vga or dvi ports, a built in card reader, dvd-rw, expansion slots, firewire. all the good stuff, but not all at once. has any company ever asked you what ports you want?

And here I thought it would take Dell at least a year to get their MBA clone out the door. Kudos. Oh, wait, it's just a fake? Never mind.

i would have been happy with but an expresscard port on the mac air:(

i just thought this was funny

I'd rather carry around this 10-pound monster than a MBA. Actually, I'd rather just get the macbook pro.

@yogibimbi: My laptop has an SD card reader, and I absolutely love it. Can't imagine one without it.

@squirgle: Dell already has an ultra-thin. It's just about a quarter of an inch thicker than the Air.

STILL no dial up modem port? %*#& you!

@squirgle: I have the Dell "clone" of the Air. I have had it for a year now. Its 1"x11.6"x8.5". Its actaully smaller than the air and has a swappable battery (with 4, 6, and 9 cell options no less), PC card slot, SD reader, VGA out, 3 USB, gigabit ethernet, modem, firewire, and IR.

It also drops into a dock and in just a couple seconds recognizes all the ports and devices connected, including two 22" external monitors (yep, dock has one DVI-D and a VGA) and a drive.

All for only .24" thicker but still smaller footprint and same weight (if I dont put the giant 7 hour battery in).

I guess the one thing he Air has that might justify the extra couple hundred bucks is the LED display. I wish I had that but only really for battery life. Ive never felt my laptop to be too thick.

@Mio: Same here, my smartphone takes mini-SDHC and my D420 reads SDHC so its great for swapping large files back and forth between them (have a 4gb miniSDHC with an adapter).

Its also nice to have flash in the computer for a place to put my mission critical stuff, Ive never had a drive fail on me but better safe than sorry.

Where's the HDMI? I need an HDMI port so I can hook my Monster Cable up to my AirPort!

In all honesty though, this idea could be exactly what Apple needs to have the Air "take off" in the business world. Most business travel professionals want a docking station at work and a light travel. Making an AirDock like this would really solve a lot of those issues that are probably going to prevent many professionals from investing in the AirBook.

@bsbeamer: No VGA out and no WWAN will hurt it too. I forgot to list that in my list of things my dell has and I couldnt go without WWAN.

Its more secure and reliable than trying to travel on Wifi.

And VGA may seem dated but 99.9999% of the business projectors out there ONLY have VGA input. Nobody wants to have to carry around a little dongle to lose.

Problem with traveling with WiFi is it isn't everywhere yet, and a lot of places it IS wants you to pay for it. F that. I'd rather pay $50 a month for unlimited (1.3mbps average!) access everywhere I go. Maybe that's just ME

no funny...
nobody want an usb drive, nobody uses anymore firewire, no need for the ipod shuffle and so on...

what macair critics are pointing out is just the lack of usefull ports. i mean, why didn't they bundle the external ethernet and the external dvd?

@pek: sorry, "floppy drive" instead of "usb drive"

This looks great, when is it released?

All it's missing is a serial port and a 5.25" floppy drive but I'm guessing they are on the other side. Nice werk!

No-where to plug the power cord in?
Could the future be use-once, disposable laptops? :)

hideous

How am I going to play my laser-discs on this machine?

@archercc: An MBA hooked up to a business projector? (shudders at mental picture of unholy union.)

What, no SCSI?!?

Seriously, the Shuffle interface is pure genious. Pure, evil genious!

I'm digging the form factor too. Mold the bottom half of the case out of memory foam and you could use this thing as a travel pillow when your battery dies mid-flight.

if someone comes up with a neckstrap for this...you could use the shuffle with the aircraft closed. that's ingenious!

@pek: Internal > External. As was stated before, function needs priority over form. Form is good, function is vital. In all honesty tho, the fact that USB can take over 100 devices to a port, you really could just get a hub. BUT then you have aother piece of hardware, and that goes back to my first point.

@Mio: So, the dell is called the "almost air"

I know just give me every type of port in existance... i love that form factor too. I would like a VGA port thank you very much!

and a VESA compatable mounting system!

so...if you really had to lug a bunch of usb junk around to use the extra ports, would it really be a big deal to bring a usb hub?

hahaha

@squirgle: Dont worry, like the other macbooks it will spend more time in a dorm room helping it's stoned users make warped and mirrored pictures of themselves than it will in the hands of anyone who isnt living off of their parents and working at the GAP. They don't use powerpoints at the GAP and the mac owners are usually Liberal Arts kids so they dont do as many presentations as the B or E school kids so even those kids will rarely hook it up to a projector.

@willyboy: No, it was going to be called the "More useful and came before the Air ultraportable" but at the time there wasnt an ultraportable from Apple (or even rumors of one) so they just decided to give it a BMWesque letter/number designation.

Does it run on like, regular unleaded gasoline?

I would put parallel, serial, and VGA in there instead of a floppy.

Oo interesting, it's now as light as the average American.

macbook airhead--oops no ports and no removeable/replaceable battery. oh well, lazy richies will dispose of it next season...lets hear it for future landfill! apple is so not green.

u forgot the slot that ejects free porn... :P

looks like some fanboys have too much time on their hands.

The MBA is the Britney Spears of computers. I will let your imagination go from there.

LOL. That's hilarious. I only wish he made the picture bigger, I'd make it my desktop picture - with permission of course. ;)

4 USB ports on a laptop is just ridiculous (and I mean in real life, not in the Aircraft joke). It is a COMPLETE waste of space. The amount of people plugging more than 4 things in on the go has got to be exactly 27... the whole world has 27 of you.

Even if you can somehow think of some crazy "would never actually happen in real life" scenario where you need that many USB gizmos at once, why the hell wouldn't you be using a USB hub? Even if my computer had 22 USB ports, I would still be using a hub so I wasn't plugging things in and out one by one all the time like a moron.... I'd keep them all pre-plugged into the hub and just plug in the hub.

I'd also like to point out that the Macbook Air is the Xbox 360 of laptops it can do pretty much whatever you want as long as you are willing to pay for an extra, dongle, adapter, or online service. Oh the irony...

@Padriac: Hahaha what? I own a laptop with 4 USB ports, and frequently find myself wishing there was more. Two iPods, my USB mouse, an external HDD...boom, there's no room for my MicroSD reader.

Only three USB ports? WTF?

I think a better name might be the AirCraft Carrier.