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TSA clears 11.6-inch MacBook Air for airport security

By | October 28, 2010, 7:48am PDT

Summary: The 11.6-inch MacBook Air is definitely Apple’s most portable laptop yet now that it has been cleared to pass through airport security without having to be removed from carry-on luggage for screening.

The 11.6-inch MacBook Air is definitely Apple’s most portable laptop yet now that it has been cleared to pass through airport security without having to be removed from carry-on luggage for screening.

According to CNN, the MacBook Air falls into the smaller gadget category (even if Steve Jobs doesn’t want to label it as a “netbook”), meaning it doesn’t have to be removed from knapsacks and suitcases to go through the X-ray machine like larger laptops and gaming consoles.

While this is certainly welcome news for frequent travelers with this device, don’t be surprised if a TSA official asks you to remove it anyway, especially within the next couple of weeks. You know that’s bound to happen.

The iPad has already been given such clearance (even if it did cause a stir in a few places), but a verdict on the DVD-less and hard drive-less 13-inch MacBook Air hasn’t been determined yet.

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Topics

Apple MacBook Air, Apple MacBook, Airport Security, Transportation Security Administration, Transportation, Travel, Notebooks, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Disclosure

Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

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RE: TSA clears 11.6-inch MacBook Air for airport security
photozac 29th Oct 2010
Why is a "gadget" less of a security risk than is a laptop?
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RE: TSA clears 11.6-inch MacBook Air for airport security
rhonin 28th Oct 2010
lmao!!!!
you still have to remove it to prove it is an MBA - and the "min wage" TSA security would have to recognize it.

Faster just to put it into a seperate tote.....

nice!
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How much?
danieladihardjo@... Updated - 28th Oct 2010
I wonder how much Steve Jobs bribed the TSA.
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RE: TSA clears 11.6-inch MacBook Air for airport security
ItsTheBottomLine 28th Oct 2010
@danieladihardjo@... Well - he got press...so it worked. I agree with above - Big F'n deal.
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RE: TSA clears 11.6-inch MacBook Air for airport security
MisterFish 29th Oct 2010
The TSA and their security theater make me sigh. Oh the stupidity...
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RE: TSA clears 11.6-inch MacBook Air for airport security
opcom 29th Oct 2010
The annoying garbage that people have to go through at the airports is all a bad joke and just a ploy to keep the sheep in a heightened state of fright. Being forced to take off shoes and who knows that else is pure BS and it is undignified. It's not worth the trouble of standing in the long moo-cow lines and submit to all the scrutiny. I don't fly any more because of the BS factor, y'all can have my seat.
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RE: TSA clears 11.6-inch MacBook Air for airport security
photozac 29th Oct 2010
Why is a "gadget" less of a security risk than is a laptop?

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