Floating on Air

Air1

TAKE a look at the new ultra-thin MacBook Air . . . the slick new must-have laptop which is just three-quarters of an inch thick.
Despite that, the Air has space for a 13.3-inch screen, 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB RAM, 80GB hard drive and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1.
Overnight the design alone has made it the air apparent in the laptop market —depending on how it Air2 stands up to everyday use.
It will cost £1,199 when it arrives in the UK in two weeks.
A big reason why Apple managed to make this laptop so thin is that it has no DVD drive. Some might moan about this (there’s an external drive for £65). But think about what Apple are doing. Along with the Air, they’re

launching their new movie rental service on iTunes — signalling the future of how we watch movies at home.
You’ll probably pay up to £5 a film, depending on whether it’s a hi-def new release or a classic. It will stay on your laptop for 30 days, but as soon as you launch it, you must view it within 24 hours before it vanishes from the computer.
Air3 This kind of internet service could eventually make Blockbuster-style rentals a thing of the past. Why go to a shop or have discs posted to you if you can download it, cheaper, at home.
Apple has also teamed up with top movie studio 20th Century Fox so when you buy a Fox DVD, you will get a free copy of it in iTunes to play on the go.
You will simply stick the DVD of say, The Simpsons Movie, in your computer, enter a code into iTunes, and it will copy the file into your library. Then you just transfer it to your iPod or laptop. Sky TV is also revolutionising the way we view video and TV content with Sky Anytime on PC, allowing you access to films, sport and entertainment via the net.
Since its launch in January 2006 it has become the biggest legal internet download service in Europe, with over 2million movie downloads and over 1million downloads across sport and entertainment.
And with recent Paramount and Warner Bros deals, Sky Anytime on PC is now the first online download service to offer the latest movies from all six major movie studios.