An Apple insider told Wired today that the company's new ultraportable, expected to be seen in public for the first time tomorrow, has an extremely thin profile and is shaped like a teardrop when closed — thicker at the top behind the screen, tapering at the bottom behind the keyboard. "It's unbelievably thin," said the source. The device is made of aluminum and glass, and uses the same design language as recent Apple consumer products: black on silver. Sadly, we don’t have details on pricing, specs or availability. Expect reality to disagree with our photoshops. Is this cable-free design the face of things to come? Our own Charlie Sorrel pointed out earlier today that the rumor mill hints of a new MacBook utterly devoid of cables. However, he wouldn't speculate on its physical dimensions. But now we've got the, uh, skinny on what this new ultra slim, ultra portable actually looks like thanks to one source who says they saw this device in the wild. Steve Jobs is widely expected to reveal a new MacBook at Macworld on Tuesday morning, and with the rumored name being "MacBook Air." Most people are expecting a conventional sub-notebook — a super-thin, lightweight laptop that ships without an optical CD/DVD drive. The MacBook Air may also dispense with a wired Ethernet port, according to rumor. It will be a purely wireless device, relying solely on Wi-Fi or other wireless technology for its connectivity — hence the "Air" moniker. But the Air seems more like a ultra portable with a physical keyboard and multi-touch screen, according to our source (who we promised not to name but confirmed works at an Apple third-party vendor). We'll see tomorrow. Apple didn't respond to a request for comment. http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/01/breaking-macboo.html
