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On the very first day of the Macworld, Apple announced its new and world’s thinnest notebook called MacBook Air. This laptop sports a 13.3-inch Led-backlit widescreen display and yet measures a mere 0.16-inches and is just 0.76-inches in height.

The MacBook Air includes the usual iSight camera, an LED backlit display, an ambient light sensor, and a big touchpad that works with multitouch gestures, such as rotating a photo by twisting your fingers on the touchpad.

A 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB L2 cache, 2GB of memory, an 80GB 1.8 inch hard drive, and the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi technology and Bluetooth 2.1 are some of the specifications of the new MacBook Air.

Users of the MacBook Air will also be able to connect the notebook to Apple’s 20-inch or 23-inch Cinema Displays using a micro-DVI port, extending their desktop experience or even to connect to projectors and other displays via DVI, VGA, Composite and S-video adapters.

All of the newly launched MacBook Air notebooks come pre-loaded with iLife ’08, iMovie, Time Machine, Quick Look and iChat.

“We’ve built the world’s thinnest notebook, without sacrificing a full-size keyboard or a full size 13 inch display. When you first see macBook Air, it’s hard to believe it’s a high performance notebook with a full-size keyboard and display. But it is,” said Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple.

Given the common use of FireWire in Macs over the past several years, it's particularly surprising that Apple elected to remove this port. But more ports mean a bigger logic board, so in this case, form won out over function.

Another missing port is Ethernet. Out of the box, the MacBook Air is a Wi-Fi-only machine. While this may be fine where Wi-Fi is common, it does present issues in enterprise environments where wireless networking is frowned upon.

Another difference that could rankle the faithful is that the MacBook Air's battery is built into the computer. This space-saving design prevents users from carrying multiple batteries and simply swapping in a fresh one when needed.

Analysts at the Macworld were more bullish compared to Apple's longtime fans. Incremental improvements to products are useful for building market strength, argued analysts. "This was the fix-it Macworld," says IDC analyst Richard Shim. "You're looking at a lot of incremental, yet significant, improvements to existing products. It's a lot to ask of one company--to wow us every year."

Following a spate of accusations surrounding Apple and its use of toxic materials, it is a pleasant surprise to know that the MacBook Air has been made with aluminum, a material highly desired by recyclers and the notebook’s display claims to be a mercury-free one with arsenic-free glass.

The new MacBook Air notebook is scheduled to begin shipping in coming month and will carry a price of USD 1,799.