Apple announces the beginning of Macbook Air shipping

Cupertino (CA) - Apple’s latest personal notebook computer, the Macbook Air, is now on its way to eager consumers, as the company announced it has begun shipping orders today.

The Macbook Air is touted as the world’s thinnest notebook computer, with its thinnest point measuring just 0.16 inches tall. It packs in a 13.3-inch widescreen display, the standard iSight Webcam, and the much-talked-about multitouch panel in place of a standard touchpad. The multitouch technology allows users to perform "gestures" like rotating and pinching, with simple finger touches and movements.

The laptop also contains an Intel Core 2 Duo processor of up to 1.8 GHz, 4 MB of L2 cache, and an 80 GB hard drive.

Additionally, Apple announced today that it "is not quite finished" with the firmware update for the Apple TV. At this month’s Macworld convention, Steve Jobs announced Apple TV owners would soon be able to rent digital copies of high definition movies directly through the device, powered by iTunes’ new movie rental plan. Apple says the update will be ready "in another week or two."