New MacBook Airs Ship with Mac OS X Restore USB Stick

Apple is effectively killing the CD with every new MacBook Air sold starting today, as the company has done away with the restore discs it used to include with every new laptop, replacing them with an Apple-branded Mac OS X restore USB stick (flash drive).

Although the makers of the ultra thin laptop do not make a specific note about this change, the company’s press release announcing the new computers bears the first clues that Apple is doing away with optical media forever.

Yesterday’s report, titled “Apple Reinvents Notebooks With New MacBook Air”, begins with the company stating “Apple today unveiled an all new MacBook Air, the first of a next generation of notebooks which will replace mechanical hard disks and optical drives with Internet services and solid state flash storage.”

Thanks to the transition to SSD, Apple’s new MacBook Airs are faster, more reliable, lighter, and smaller. They can also hold up a battery charge much longer, thanks to these advancements.

Yet still no mentioning of any included USB flash stick containing the computer’s operating system for restoration purposes.

However, a report by techcrunch.com confirms that Apple is now shipping a super-slim USB stick with every new MacBook Air, packed in with the laptop’s manual, to deliver “all you need to reinstall your system now,” the tech-site reports.

An image of the device in question can be seen to the left.

As confirmed by Steve Jobs during yesterday’s keynote, the new MacBook Air  is available in 11-inch and 13-inch models.

Both models weigh as little as 2.3 pounds, making them Apple’s lightest and most portable notebooks.

Since MacBook Air uses the same solid state storage technology as Apple’s iPad, the computer delivers instant-on responsiveness, up to seven hours of battery life and up to 30 days of standby time, Apple said.

“MacBook Air is the first of a new generation of notebooks that leaves behind mechanical rotating storage in favor of solid state flash storage,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.

“We’ve taken what we have learned with the iPad—solid state storage, instant-on, amazing battery standby time, miniaturization and lightweight construction, to create the new MacBook Air. With its amazing responsiveness and mobility, it will change the way we think about notebooks.”

The 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Airs are now available for purchase through the Apple online store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

The 11-inch system system starts at $999 for 1.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB of memory and 64GB of flash storage. The 13-incher starts at $1,299, for 1.86 GHz, 2GB of memory, and 128GB of flash storage.