iFixit has a new MacBook Air. You know what that means.Tearing it open and checking it out. So what did they find. There’s the new Thunderbolt port of course and the fancy new keyboard backlighting. But inside is where all the good stuff is.

There’s an Intel Core i5 processor of course and a Bluetooth 4.0 chip and we also learned that the MacBook Air scores a four out of ten for ease of repair, so it might be best to leave this job to the experts. After all this toy is expensive.

The updated MacBook Air was unveiled today and case manufacturers are already on the case, so to speak. WaterField Designs is launching a new lineup of cases for your new MacBook Air. The Smart Case will protect your MacBook Air and keep it looking great.

It comes in two sizes, 11.6 or 13.1 inches. The case features a nylon exterior that is water-resistant, with a padded interior, an Ultrasuede scratch-free liner and eco-friendly distressed brown leather. You paid quite a bit for your new toy, so you may as well protect it.

Need a high capacity hard drive? Well, lucky you, Western Digital has shipped its first 1TB notebook drive thin enough to fit most portable notebooks. The upgraded Scorpio Blue measures 9.5mm tall and is thin enough that a MacBook Pro or most other thinner notebooks can take it with ease.

They achieved the slimness through fitting 500GB per platter and cutting out the third platter. You can buy the drive for $139 at resellers. We aren’t sure when it will come from PC builders.

Apple has announced the new 2011 MacBook Air, which will come with the latest version of Apple’s OS, OS X Lion. There is an 11 inch MacBook Air and a 13 inch MacBook Air available and both feature Intel’s Thunderbolt technology. The 11 inch model comes with either a 1GHz dual core Intel Core i5 processor or a 1.8GHz dual core Intel Core i7 processor. Your choice. All models now have a backlit keyboard as well.

The base model has a 64GBSSD and the top model a 128GB SSD that can be upgraded to a 256GB SSD. Other specs include 2GB of DDR3 RAM, which can be upgraded to 4GB, Intel HD Graphics 3,000, a FaceTime camera, two USB 2.0 ports, a Thunderbolt port, WiFi, Bluetooth and a pair of stereo speakers.

Apple’s new Thunderbolt display is a 27-inch model with a 2560 x 1440 resolution 16:9 IPS display. It packs in Apple’s new connectors, an integrated 2.1 speaker system, and a Firewire 800 slot. If that isn’t enough, there’s also a built-in FaceTime HD camera and Mic, Gigabit Ethernet, three USB 2.0 ports and MagSafe charging for your MacBook.

The DisplayPort hookup can daisy chain up to six high speed devices. It will cost $999. Just when Apple fans had some money in the bank, they now have something more to buy.

Is that a MacBook Air? Why no, it’s MIC’s new Aluminum Keyboard Buddy Case, which offers both a protective case and an almost full QWERTY keyboard for your iPad 2. When you close it, the Buddy Case’s magnets will even put your iPad to sleep.

It is powered by a rechargeable lithium-polymer battery and will cost you $50. It only holds your iPad at one angle though which is annoying.

We knew that the new Asus UX 21 Ultrabook would retail for under $1,000 and now DigiTimes is saying that Asus will release the UX21 Ultrabook in September for $899. That would make it $100 cheaper than the 11 inch MacBook Air which retails for $999, and Asus certainly wants to compete with the MacBook Air.

The Asus UX21 features an 11.6 inch display and an Intel Core i7 processor. Will they take some sales from Apple with this one? We are eager to find out.

The Dell XPS 15z with it’s sweet aluminum and magnesium alloy is on sale in the United States starting at $999. In all, there are five different configs available online. The base model packs in a 2.3GHz Core i5-2410M processor, 6GB of DDR3 RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT525M graphics with 1GB of dedicated video memory, a 500GB 7200RPM hard drive and a slot-loading DVD burner, with plenty of connectivity including dual-band 802.11a/g/n and a pair of USB 3.0 ports. Pretty nice.

For $1,500 you get a 2.7GHz Core i7 rig with 8GB of RAM, 2GB of VRAM and 750GB of storage, plus a 1080p display. For another $100 you can have the 300-nit, 1920 x 1080 LCD screen in any config.

A leak has confirmed that Dell’s XPS 15z will formally launch on Tuesday. The 15.6-inch system had already been teasing us and its $999 price was already leaked. The WSJ also reinforces the notion that this will be a competitor to the MacBook and that it would be the thinnest notebook of its size “on the planet.”

The official teasers and leaks that we have seen so far show that the design is very similar to the 15-inch MacBook Pro, with it’s speaker grilles, aluminum frame with a black bezel, and a slot-load optical drive on the right, as well as other traits. It is expected to use Core i5 and i7 chips. Stay tuned on this one.

Amazon UK has listed the upcoming 13-inch Lenovo Thinkpad X1 at the equivalent of $2,120. This Macbook Air competitor is set to arrive in the UK on May 20. It may be priced higher than an equivalent Macbook Air, but it packs in a current generation 2.5GHz Core i5-2520M and includes 4GB of Ram and 320GB of hard disk space.

As for thinness, the notebook is just 0.85-inches thin at it’s thinnest point and you can have the hard drive swapped for a 160GB SSD if you want, and it can accept an 8GB of ram in a single slot. There’s also a USB 3.0 port, an eSATA port and an SDXC slot. Battery life is 8 hours. Other features include a Gorilla Glass scratch resistant screen and a backlit keyboard.

The video above shows off the the MacBook Pro G-Form Extreme Sleeve for Laptops, which is available in 11, 13 and 15-inch versions. This is one serious Laptop sleeve that will help your device survive some extreme abuse.

How extreme? How about dropping a 13-inch notebook off a balcony, from a very tall height? The computer survives just fine thanks to Poron Xrd, the name of the custom material used inside the sleeve’s outer shell that absorbs the force on impact. The MacBook Pro G-Form Extreme Sleeve for Laptops is available in black and yellow should you want to test it yourself. It will cost you $69.95 for the 11-inch model or ten bucks more for both 13- and 15-inch models.

Looks like Apple feels the need for speed, and so they have given a speed boost to the solid-state drives in newer MacBook Air models. Most batches were using Toshiba’s X-Gale SSD, but now a more recent model has been spotted using a Samsung-made 470 series drive.

The 128GB drive is of course much faster in reads and writes, taking things from about 210MB per second and 176MB per second in the old Toshiba SSD to 261MB per second and 210MB per second in the Samsung version. The upgraded drive, which Apple identifies as SM128C, also supports Native Command Queuing to optimize how it reads and writes to the drive. The X-Gale lacks that feature. Good news for those looking in a MacBook Air.

The MacBook Air is a real winner thanks to it’s super slim form and great battery life. Sony wants to roll out their own version with a Vaio notebook known as the Hybrid PC. It’s a fast ultralight machine with a Core i7 processor, a Solid State Drive, HDMI 1.4 connectivity and Wi-Di.

The whole package is less than 2.5 pounds. When you this machine, the Hybrid PC will is transformed into a full desktop replacement. Other specs include a Radeon HD 6700M graphics processor, a Blu-ray burner, Ethernet and VGA connections, and a connector that brings together USB with AC power. Battery life without the dock has been rated from 8 to 16.5 hours.

Thunderbolt is the new communication standard developed by Apple and Intel. You might remember that it was unveiled a few weeks ago with the new MacBook Pro computers. It was thought that Intel was mainly responsible for its development, with Apple playing a small role. However, Apple’s latest move seems to suggest that it played a larger role.

Apple has filed to trademark the name Thunderbolt, branding the high-speed data transfer as something they own, not something they share with Intel. So is Apple just trying to slide in and claim it or is there more to this?

Looks like some Germans have gotten their hands on a blurry photograph of the new MacBook Pro specs and posted it online. Spotted in the photograph, Intel’s new Light Peak port, which will transfer files at 10Gbps, has been renamed Thunderbolt.

But if this is the real image, it’s mostly unimpressive, beyond that Thunderbolt port, Intel HD 3000 Graphics, an SDXC slot and FaceTime HD capabilities. Maybe it will feature some great design to make up for it’s unexciting specs.