Honey, I Grew The Laptop

Size may not be everything, but you could almost see Apple grow in stature at Macworld in San Francisco last week. Steve Jobs, who typically unveils one mystery product at the end of his keynote address, this time revealed a surprisingly large heap of new gear. Two dimension-conscious laptops grabbed headlines: the world's widest, with a 17-in. screen ($3,299, as carried by Mini-Me actor Verne Troyer) and the world's smallest, with a 12-in. screen ($1,799, endorsed by NBA giant Yao Ming). Their coolest feature: keyboards that automatically light up in the dark.

But Jobs' boldest move was to aim two slingshots directly at Bill Gates. Safari is a speedy, free Web browser with a Google toolbar; it leaves Mac owners few reasons to use Microsoft's Internet Explorer (half a million have already tried an early version). And Keynote, a $99 slide-show program built for Jobs' own presentations, should steal a few million converts from Microsoft PowerPoint. Sometimes the smaller guy has a big advantage.