Speculation has been running rampant in recent days over a new ultra-thin notebook from Apple and today, during his keynote speech at the Macworld 2008 expo in San Francisco, Steve Jobs finally confirmed not only that it exists, but that recent rumblings on the grapevine have been close to the mark.


Dubbed MacBook Air, the new device features a 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen display, full-size and backlit keyboard, built-in iSight webcam and a spacious trackpad with multi-touch gesture support. It is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo chip running at 1.6GHz (with 1.8GHz available as an option), and includes as standard features 2GB of memory, an 80GB 1.8-inch hard drive, 802.11n Wi-Fi technology and Bluetooth 2.1.

But the real breakthrough stems from the device's form factor. The MacBook Air is amazingly thin, going from 0.76 inches at its fattest section down to 0.16 inches at the thin end - the notebook has lost the optical drive as a result though. Interestingly, Apple claims the ability to get the laptop reduced down to the size that it is came from a reduction in the size of the Intel chip to 60% of its previous dimensions.

The new MacBook Air will cost $1799 and starts shipping in two weeks, pre-orders start today. Check out three more pictures after the jump.