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Apple, the MacBook Air and the CES

by Tim Cleves

Some thoughts on the new Apple Macbook Air and the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Published: January 16, 2008

Yesterday (01/15/08) Apple introduced its MacBook Air at MacWorld in San Francisco.
This slim, (supposedly the thinest laptop ever) is determinedly wireless. It doesn't have an Ethernet port (or an optical drive) so the only way for it to communicate with the outside world is via its built in WiFi or Bluetooth.

I wonder how well softphone clients like X-lite and Eyebeam will work wirelessly with the Leopard OS. Does Apple use the Broadcom wireless chipset? Assuming you can get a SIP softphone to work on the MacBook Air then this goes to the top of my wish list for must have hardware purchases!

Speaking of MacWorld there was another major hardware show recently. The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas finished a week ago. SIP (and VoIP) seemed to be a little unrepresented this year. Skype with everything seemed to be a main feature. The Play Station Portable Skype application got the most attention. There are some "homebrew" SIP stacks already available for PSP, no word yet whether anyone has used us to make a call with it!

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