Will the MacBook Take Flight at Macworld?

MacBook rumors have taken hold of the news for the past few weeks leading up to Macworld, ranging from a tablet form factor to an ultra portable, but the craziest of them all has just come to light: the MacBook Air, now with wings.

The name comes from a banner put up outside of Macworld with the quote “There’s Something In The Air.” It could mean Apple has coupled forces with Al Gore to cut down on pollution using only MacBooks to raise awareness of global warming or what 99.9% of us were thinking: wireless, more specifically WiMax, and to take it a step further, no wires needed for normal use. 

The concept is great but the implementation would be very difficult and sudden for the computing industry; then again, Apple is no stranger to abrupt change. They’ve done it before, most notably with the original iMac when it abandoned Serial Ports for USB. The only problem is that there a lot more manufacturers and a lot more methods of data input, but the idea is still the same. Old ports (DVI, USB, FireWire, Optical Drive, Audio) are obsolete and a new method (in this case wireless) of data transfer is arriving that will work much better. The only way to pull it off would be an ultra portable form factor which would lack many conventional means of transferring data in favor of an under powered machine.

The other alternative is Apple implementing not a sub notebook design, but a full on MacBook with enhanced wireless capabilities such as WiMax and UWB Bluetooth/USB. This would be a much more reasonable configuration, as a totally wire free computer that meets the need of the average user is not realistic until drivers are made compatible and hardware manufacturers get in gear to add wireless capabilities to more electronics.

But adding WiMax to the MacBooks would be possible if Intel was working with Apple lately. Intel is a big proponent of WiMax, which could greatly benefit Apple.

Also, 9to5Mac (the ones who got an insider scoop on the 3G Nano and iPod Touch) says that there is some validity to the MacBook Air, such as usage logs and insider information.

Oh, and more thing: Apple also has been known for some odd naming schemes in the past, not so much confusing but, well, odd. In all honesty, I think MacBook Air is a horrible, horrible name. It falls into that same category where the name describes what it will do, but is kind of vague and will warrant some “huhs?” from consumers.