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Same old, same new?

I want to buy the future.

If I can own what is to come, then I'll be ready to take advantage of it when it finally gets here.

I was deeply riveted, therefore, when Apple[1] declared at its latest event[2] last Tuesday that it had released "the future of the Mac." Even more riveted as the first pillar of that future is a new MacBook Air[3].

I've been an Airhead since the first one emerged from the womb of an envelope.

The MacBook Air was always light, neat and perfectly minimalist. I stuck with it even when Apple released a keyboard designed by the Marquis de Sade on one of his more inebriated workdays[4].

How could I not be excited, then, when Apple promised a new, faster Air -- and one without a fan?

Many will, of course, be marveling at the Air's new innards. The M1 chip[5] promises so much in terms of performance. Well, in vague terms of performance. Apple claimed a lot of three times better and five times better without necessarily defining too precisely what this would mean.

I watched and listened as my colleagues Jason Cipriani and Jason Perlow dissect the Air's entrails[6]. I understand why the new chip might excite many a nerd and developer.

Yet the Air has been the mainstay for a lot of real humans, too. They have appreciated it for its more emotional aspects.

Which is why I looked at the new, futuristic Air and thought: "Wait a minute, that looks exactly like the Air I have now."

I went to Apple's site[7] in case

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