Apple Ultraportables Anyone?

Andrew Fishkin muses over at Lowendmac about having an ultralight Mac notebook on his wishlist. True enough, with the arrival of the MacBook and MacBook Pro, gone are the “thin and light” 12-inch PowerBooks. Apple’s notebook line has now been replaced with the smaller 13-inch MacBook and its larger brethren, the 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pro. Sadly, the distinction that was previously the iBook versus the PowerBook (i.e., personal, cute, shiny, white iBook versus imposing, sleek, cool, metallic PowerBook) is gone. It used to be that you got PowerBooks of all sizes, but now it’s just the MacBook Pro in two flavors. What? No 12-incher?

Here is what I would like to see: A machine of similar size to the 12″ PowerBook or even the 13″ MacBook, but thinner, perhaps 3/4″. It can be that thin because it will not have an optical drive, placing that accessory in a 1/2″ or 3/4″ thick base.

This MiniBook will have a 5 hour battery (4 hours real world) and the ability to mount a second one in the media base. Of course, like the IBM it will be smart enough to drain any auxiliary battery before it starts sucking down the main cell, which makes it easy to swap out spent cells from the media bay without powering down and interrupting work in progress.

If I had the extra money to spend, I would’ve gone for an ultraportable instead of a regular-sized laptop. It’s easy to slip into just any container and it would probably be easier on the back. Also, ultraportables, because of their low-power processors and lack of built-in optical drives, usually last longer than their more fully-endowed counterparts.

I share Mr. Fishkin’s sentiments. Bring back the era of the small Apple notebook!