Apple’s Latest Products

January 16, 2008: Apple has released details of two new products: the MacBook Air, an ultra-thin notebook and Time Capsule, a high-capacity hard disk drive with Airport Extreme wireless router.

Claimed as the world’s thinnest notebook, the MacBook Air has a maximum height of 1.9 cm and sports a 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen display, a full-size and backlit keyboard, a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing, and a spacious trackpad with multi-touch gesture support so users can pinch, rotate and swipe. It is powered by a 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB L2 cache, and includes as standard features 2GB of memory, an 80GB 1.8-inch hard drive, and the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi technology and Bluetooth 2.1.

Up to five hours of battery life is claimed. The included AirPort Extreme 802.11n Wi-Fi networking delivers up to five times the performance and twice the range of 802.11g. Apple’s Migration Assistant software allows users to quickly transfer files, applications and preferences across a wireless network. The new MacBook Air is expected to be shipping in February through the Apple Store (www.apple.com/au) and Apple Authorised Resellers for A$2499 (inc GST).

Time Capsule is a backup appliance that automatically and wirelessly backs up everything on one or more Macs running the latest Leopard OS. Combining an 802.11n base station with a server grade hard disk, it is available in 500GB (RRP $429) and 1TB (RRP $699) models. The wireless base station has five times the performance and twice the range of the modules in Apple’s desktop and notebook computers. It also has a built-in power supply and connections to print wirelessly to a USB printer. Up to 50 users can be supported from a single Time Capsule. Time Capsule is expected to be available in February through the Apple Store (www.apple.com/au) and Apple Authorised Resellers.