New MacBook Airs will ship with backlit keyboards, sources say

This week is not only said to see the release of Apple’s new Mac operating system OS X Lion, but there are also rumors saying that Apple will ship a new generation of MacBook Airs and Mac Pros.

People familiar with the matter,” according to AppleInsider, say that this new version of the MacBook Air, besides getting a Thunderbolt port, Sandy Bridge processors, a faster SSD and shipping with Lion pre-installed, will bring back the backlit keyboard.

Since the overhaul and redesign of the MacBook Air back in October 2010, the backlit keyboard is probably the most missed and asked for feature. There have been many opinions and reports that there were several reasons for Apple to leave this feature out (high temperatures for the thin computer to cope with, and too much energy consumption being the most popular ones).

However, AppleInsider claims today that they’ve heard from “people familiar with the matter” (no names or exact sources given), that the new MacBook Air range will bring the backlit keyboard back and that they will ship “during the week of July 21st,” i.e., next week.

Source: AppleInsider
Image source: Haydn Bagtas via iDesk

I'm a writer and student from Germany, interested in all things Apple. I'm passionate about (new) technology and enjoy living in the day and age where the development of cool new things seems to be faster than my three year old MacBook. I tweet about pretty much everything as @ener