Appletell

9to5Mac posts a summary of the “MacBook Air” rumors and a history of the name.

Most importantly, it makes note that one of their readers found reference to a “MacBook Air” in one of Adium’s usage log reports. This was then verified from a Google Cache, which revealed that the entry was made before the revelation of the MacWorld posters on January 9th.

Therefore we can conclude that there are one of two outcomes:

1. The MacBook Air is real - our details may be off slightly but the name is real.

2. Either Apple or someone with knowledge of the Macworld 2008 ‘There is something in the air slogan’ 2 weeks ago sent the rumor sites false info and went to a few websites with public logs with a browser hacked to show “MacBookAir” as machine-type.

The second seems more likely to me, as “MacBook Air” just does not seem like a name that Apple would use, and on a personal level, I loathe it. More likely, I think is that the “Air” on the posters is referring to some sort of WiMax partnership that involve their new sub-notebooks, and perhaps the entire notebook line.

Via [9to5Mac]

• Appletell review - Racer-X laptop case [updated]
• Four finger multi-touch gestures on older Macs
• HTC, Russian carrier Scartel intro world’s first GSM/WiMAX phone

We saw yesterday that already Apple has put up banners around the Moscone Center, the banners simply have the following message: “There’s something in the air”. The latest craze in the blogosphere is to guess what it means, and Valleywag has a pretty good one. Valleywag assumes that Apple’s mysterious message is referring to a WiFi-like technology called WiMax. According to their source, the long-range broadband technology may be included in the rumored 13 inch ultra-portable notebook and in the MacBook Pro line. It all sounds like it should make sense: “There’s something in the air” and Intel including WiMax in their latest chips. But the Silicon Valley blog is only giving it “a 60% chance” of it happening according to their source.

If anyone can kick off a brand new technology like WiMax - Apple should be the ones to do it. But I still think unless there are more WiMax links around the world, this won’t be so successful. Don’t forget that Apple is streaming this keynote live to Europe, so they wouldn’t be too pleased if the new notebooks could only take advantage of this technology in the USA.

Via [Valleywag]

• New MacBooks and MacBook Pros require HDCP for some iTunes videos
• AT&T branded Nokia E71 spotted in-the-wild
• Rumor: Palm Treo Pro coming to Sprint this January

Sprint will be “soft-launching” there new WiMax network later this week. Named mysteriously as XOHM, this network will function much like using the internet over the 3G cell network, except this network is a lot less expensive, and is open to any device. They plan to make the network available in downtown Baltimore, Chicago, and Washington, D.C at first, and expand as their popularity grows. WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) has long been rumored as the technology that would replace 3G, but never really caught on because not enough devices used the technology. Intel has backed this technology for a long time, and is planning to incorporate WiMax-enabled chips in their upcoming successor to the Santa Rosa platform, code named Montevina. Apple has not publicly stated that they support WiMax, but with their Intel ties, it would not be unlikely to find WiMax in the upcoming Mac sub-notebook.

Via [Macrumors]

• Rumor: Palm Treo Pro coming to Sprint this January
• Sprint: Plug into widget overload
• HTC, Russian carrier Scartel intro world’s first GSM/WiMAX phone