The new aluminum-cased Macbook Air is less than an inch thick, weighs 3 pounds and boots up the moment it is opened. The notebook comes standard with an 80 gig hard drive, 13.3 inch screen and a full-size laptop keyboard. Planned to go on sale in two weeks, the Macbook Air will retail at about $1,800. Apple is already taking pre-orders for the new notebook through their web site.  

One thing the computer doesn't have, however, is the ability to play CDs or DVDs, though consumers can purchase an external drive for $99. Apple claims buyers won't be disappointed by the lack of internal media drives, however, as the Macbook Air can be connected wirelessly to access drives on other Macs or PCs.

The notebook will come equipped with Apple's first mercury & lead-free display and will contain no bromide or PVC, a concession to environmentalists who have criticized the company for its lack of environmental-friendly construction in its products.  

Jobs also announced a new video rental service from Apple launched this week. The rental service will provide more than 1,000 films for online rental through iTunes by the end of February. Movies can be downloaded and stored for up to 30 days and users will have 24 hours to finish the film once it is started.  

The movie rental service will work on Macs, Windows-based PCs, iPhones, video iPods or Apple TV boxes. Apple has partnered with Warner Brothers, Paramount, Universal and other studios to provide film rentals. Movies newly released on DVD will download for $3.99 and rental library films will cost $2.99.  

Apple also announced a new update release for the iPhone with new features such as sending text messages to multiple people at once, a user location map and customized home screens.