MacBook Air Patents - Ports! Lots And Lots Of Ports!

There is some indication in some Apple MacBook Air patents that they are looking to up the number of ports on the notebook from 4 to 7-8. One of the ports includes and integrated Ethernet adapter.

There also appears to be 2 USB ports, at least one FireWire port, and then a few other ports that aren't entirely clear what they are. The new patents also imply the possibility that they might make it so you can open and close individual ports instead of having to open the whole bay of ports.

It's a minor upgrade, but its significant to solve one of the major complaints of the MacBook Air. Now all they need to do is make a removable battery and upgrade the processor to the ones that Intel has road mapped for later this year that also use the small package that the MacBook Air's processor uses.

[via MacNN]