Getting Fingers on the MacBook Air

Medyo pasmado nga ang mga kamay ko noon (My palms were a bit sweaty), but I dared touch that surprisingly durable feel of aluminum on that ultra-thin new ultraportable that, though it didn't make as much waves as the iPhone, cooked up quite a storm. Yes, the iPhone part was a give-away because the thing that I tried was none other than Apple's new MacBook Air.

CAPTION: It even comes in a cost-saving, smaller eco-friendly box!

Greenbelt

We went in the Power Mac Center in Greenbelt because my mother was having a one-hour facial (Murad coupon.) and the first thing I would see is not the laptop, but Apple's upgraded

 Apple TV. We tinkered with the usual iMacs, MacBooks and MacBook Pros in display but later, my brother would find the Air in a sort of not so obvious location. Funny that they should do

 that, because when we started using the thing, people were crowding up behind this, because this was the most stylish piece of Apple tech inside.

Hardware

I inspected the sides of the machine, and yes, I missed the ports that could be found on the left side, but when I checked the right side, the pull-down door was instantly discernible and it would reveal the 3 magic wishes, err... ports namely, the USB port, VGA and mini-DVI ports (one each). I kinda miss the DVD drive (What's the use of iDVD then, right?) but still, at least they covered that itch with Remote Disc which I unfortunately did not have a chance to try.

Amazingly, Apple did not compromise the user by placing smaller keyboards and trackpads,

 but normal-sized ones, hell, the trackpad's larger than the MacBook I'm typing on, and it's quite fun to use. And when I say fun to use, I point to the "multi-touch gestures" that the

 mousepad supports. You can use three fingers to switch to another photo or whatever, you can pinch it to zoom in or out, and move your fingers in a specific way so that you can rotate something. These moves are surprisingly intuitive. And opening this MacBook, and organizing

 the photos for the II-1 DVD, makes me miss them. Hell, I wondered how I could've lived without them!

CAPTION: I adore the intuitive, innovative mouse gestures! How did I ever live 

without them?!

Features

Plus, the screen looks brighter than ever, especially with its power-saving LED backlight, plus it makes the screen super thin as well!

Other features that come standard include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and not to mention the very

stylish and functional Mac OS X Leopard (which is still in my list of "Pirated software to buy when we go to Greenhills"). It's pretty speedy too for a stripped down dual core processor powered machine and it's even got 1GB more (of RAM) than the MacBook I'm using!

CAPTION: LEDs allow the screen to be ultra thin.

Predictions

It won't really sell as much here. It's not yet as practical, nor future-proof, as it should be. But if Apple released the product, or at least another iteration of it... maybe after 2 to 5 years, it (the next iteration) will sell A LOT. Because by that time, most of our streets will probably have Wi-Fi access pang-masa (public), and software will rarely be distributed by CDs and be set up for download in the Internet instead. It wouldn't be really the best time to buy a MacBook with features like these, but it's quite the pioneer, and a daring one if I might add. Because it will lead the way towards the promotion of the death of CDs (which, on the bright side, is VERY

 eco-friendly) and the Internet will be where we go for music, and pretty much many things else. This is the future, people. But it's still too early to be used frequently, lest your house is a Wi-Fi hotspot, that is.

CAPTION: Great in the long term, not so much in the short term. (ON SCREEN: Me and my little brother.)

(I didn't see the price tag......... but I bet it's more expensive than this MacBook.)