HOT off the presses... Apple's biggest hardware announcement at the Macworld Expo is a new laptop called the iMac Air. This is a very cool looking ultra portable laptop. It's a super thin 3lb machine with a full keyboard and a relatively large 13.3" LED backlit display. At first glance, I was "WOWED" but after careful review, I'm not sure the average user can live with the limitations of Apple's new laptop. The biggest omission is the lack of an internal Optical Drive (DVD/CD). Apple's reasoning is that most users will use Wi-Fi and the Internet to get content (it doesn't even have an ethernet port so it's Wi-Fi or nothing). I guess they want users to use iTunes' new Movie Rental option to download movies prior to a plane trip instead of taking a few DVDs with you. To me this is a fatal flaw for what otherwise is a very nice looking laptop. I've owned many,many  laptops, including ultra portables without built-in optical drives. In every case, inevitably I've cursed the fact that I need to carry an external drive. It's just too limiting to not have the option to pop a CD or DVD into your laptop.

The new Dell XPS M1330 at just over 4 pounds offers the same 13.3 LCD backlit screen, a DVD Burner and a 160 Gig hard drive (twice the size of Apple's). That's another issue I have with the iMac Air, the hard drive is only 80 Gig. That's small by today's standards but it's especially small when you consider that you'll have to store all of your music and movies on its hard drive because it lacks an Optical Drive.

My recommendation; if you want Apple's best ultra light mobile computer, skip the iMac Air, get the iPhone. If you want a laptop, look at other options.