LAST week Apple announced a new line of laptop computers which the company says are made with a new manufacturing process. The most significant change is that both new MacBook Pro and MacBook are carved from 2.5-pound blocks of aluminum. “It’s not only incredibly light but it’s very, very strong,” says Apple chief Steve Jobs. But, to quote Jobs, “this is only part of the story”. Here is how Apple plans to change the world of laptops.

A block of metal: Instead of many minor parts, the new MacBook has just one: the new, solid-aluminum unibody enclosure which makes it thinner and much lighter.

A better keyboard:The illuminated keyboard, a popular feature of MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, now comes standard on the 2.4GHz MacBook model. To add to this the trackpad doubles as a button—just press down anywhere to click. No separate button means there is more room for your fingers. The Multi-Touch gestures bring all functions to your finger tips — use two fingers to scroll up and down a page, pinch to zoom in and out, swipe with three fingers to flip through your photo libraries, rotate to adjust an image with your fingertips.

Clear view: Inside, the aluminum enclosure is perfectly integrated with a glass overlay that stretches to the edge of the notebook, providing a completely unobstructed picture. The LED-backlit display is power efficient as well as mercury and arsenic-free, making it greener.

Better gaming: The NVIDIA GeForce 9400M brings up to five times faster, discrete-level graphics performance ensuring high-end, high-speed 3D game-playing power. Graphics-intensive features in iPhoto and iMovie are smooth and responsive.

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