The MacBook Air: Thinness at the Cost of the Optical Drive

At Macworld today, Steve Jobs did something that felt like a magic trick: he pulled the new MacBook Air out of a standard manila office envelope. It is, without a doubt, the most beautiful piece of hardware I’ve ever seen. But as a developer who still relies on DVDs for software and Ethernet for stable connections, I have some serious questions.

The Sacrifices for Portability

To get down to 0.16 inches at its thinnest point, Apple had to be ruthless. There is no optical drive. There is only one USB port. There is no FireWire. And most shockingly, there is no Ethernet port—you are expected to use 802.11n Wi-Fi for everything.

Inside, it’s using a custom-sized Intel Core 2 Duo processor and, for the first time in a mainstream Mac, you can opt for a 64GB Solid State Drive (SSD) instead of a traditional spinning hard drive.

The Wireless Future

Apple is betting heavily on what they call "Remote Disc"—a way to borrow the optical drive of another Mac or PC over the network. It’s a clever solution to a problem they created.

// The MacBook Air Specs:
- 13.3-inch LED-backlit display
- 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
- 2GB RAM (Soldered, non-upgradeable!)
- 80GB HDD or 64GB SSD

Outlook

The MacBook Air is a polarising machine. It’s not for the "power user" who needs to compile massive projects while connected to three peripherals. But it is a glimpse into the future of mobile computing. Eventually, all laptops will look like this. We’re moving toward a world where everything—software, storage, and connectivity—is wireless. I’m not sure I’m ready to give up my ports yet, but I can't stop staring at it.