Thinner at its thinnest point than even the edge of an axe blade, Apple’s new MacBook Airs could conceivably be used to split a skull or two, but according to the always-paranoid Transportation Security Administration, it’s still less dangerous than a small bottle of water: if you have to go through an airport security checkpoint with your 11-inch Air, the TSA has determined that it never once has to be taken out of your bag for closer inspection.
CNN caught up with the TSA and asked if the 11-inch MacBook Air would, like the iPad, be exempt from the rule dictating that computers must be taken out of a bag when passing through security checkpoints. Indeed it is: the MacBook Air gets special clearance because it’s “smaller than a standard-sized laptop.”
The TSA’s decree puts the 11-inch Air in the same security bracket as the iPad, netbooks and e-book readers, in that technically you shouldn’t have to pull these smaller computers out of your bag for closer inspection, but in the real world you’ll always be yelled at by gruff TSA guards for failing to follow their directions if you actually refrain from doing so.
