MacBook Air - Because they can?

Though the topic of the MacBook Air is, I'm sure, circulating millions of blogs as I type this, I felt it my duty as a loyal nerd to report on this new item in the Apple lineup. Simply put- its the thinnest laptop created thus far. At a tapered height of 0.16-0.76 inches, this thing is definitely thin! The good and the bad from my point of view:

• The good: The geek factor is strong with this one- you've got to hand it to Apple, that's just mind-boggling that they can fit that much computer in that amount of space. I also heavily applaud the standard provision of 2GB of RAM in this unit (though this is something that many people seem to gloss over given the novelty of the unit's size). It's about time that computer manufactures in general armed their customers with a sizable amount of RAM. This is a standard that was long overdue in a world of computers that come sufficiently underpowered in this department. The multi-touch feature is also very neat and could definitely be used powerfully given the right application. However, I fear that this feature will be sorely underutilized in the general public. At 3 pounds, thats an extremely enticing payload for your backpack, messenger bag, or... manila envelope.

• The bad: I give my disclaimer on this section, because it is touching on a pet peeve of mine that has been buried under the surface until now. Just because we can do something doesn't mean we should. Don't get me wrong, this notebook is highly impressive, but there are some significant trade-offs for the benefits. The absence of an optical drive, the loss of peripheral ports, and a susceptibility to damage are all things one most take into consideration with this machine. My largest concern with this would be reliance on a wireless network for it to be useful/functional. The remote disk tool that lets you 'borrow' another computer's optical disc is highly suspect in my opinion. Time may prove that I am wrong in this regard, but I am boggled by how this might work wirelessly, and efficiently. Call me crazy, but I really am not too pumped about having to find an optical disc to borrow ("Excuse me sir... uh... are you using that? Gotta setup boot camp... you understand of course.").

Just because Apple can make a notebook this small, doesn't mean they should (though I'm sure the novelty will, again, post major profits). This trend has followed suit among cell phone and camera manufactures as well- smaller is better, smaller is better, tiny, tiny, tiny. In my humble (or not so humble opinion) this is a huge oversight. We've established that 'microfying' things is cool, hip and extremely possible, but at what point do we remove the functionality aspect from the very product we are trying to make better? This is the same reason I am a critic of the iPod Touch. This product has so much potential- a beautiful interface (albeit directly from the iPhone), a huge screen, intuitive design, and 8-16GB if space... wait... 8-16GB of space? So you've got this amazing, wonderfully-functioned, music-playing machine and the storage on it is limited to 1/10 of its more affordable brother, the iPod classic. Just doesn't make sense to me.

So, to sum up- this is definitely a geeky, mind-blowing release by Mac, but in the end I just have to ask- why?