The Newer, Smaller MacBook Air: The Storage Is the Secret? [Rumor]

An intriguing detail from AppleInsider concerning the new, 11.6-inch MacBook Air that’s expected to be revealed next week : It’s unlikely to exploit a troublesome drive or an SSD for storage. It’s going to take advantage of something else.

Instead, says AppleInsider’s sources, it’ll use ” something described as an ‘SSD Card’” for storage that’s more like a stick of RAM than a standard hard disk, a proprietary SSD alternative designed by Apple. It’s similar to an SSD that’s shed the bulk of a troublesome drive enclosure (since SSDs are basically just bundles of memory chips within a difficult drive casing), so it’ll absorb less room inside the notebook.

It makes plenty sense, actually, to dump a difficult drive enclosure’s weight and bulk, particularly in a machine that’s supposedly only 11.6 inches (and presumably even lighter than the original Air). It’s a whole lot like when Apple ditched replaceable batteries within the MacBook Pros. Using only flash storage would also mean that the Air can be instant on, and more like an iPad in that regard. AI also thinks we could see this in other Macs someday. (Though it wouldn’t be user replaceable.)

The new MacBook Air could be a fascinating little machine, although it’s not the forefront for brand spanking new multitouch tech in OS 10.7 . [ AppleInsider ]

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This post is tagged: appleinsider, flash storage, hard disk, memory chips, replaceable batteries, whole lot