January 17 - 11:40pm EST   Apple's not only pushed the envelope with the industrial design of the MacBook Air, but also pushed Intel to deliver some advanced CPU technology, according to a new report. Rather than use Intel's newly introduced 45-nm Penryn mobile chips, the company used a modified version of current 65nm mobile chips with smaller packaging. According to Anandtech, the new MacBook Air uses a specialized version of Intel's Merom-based Core 2 Duo chip, the same chip used in Apple's other laptops (and from other PC vendors); however, it appears that the chip is actually uses technology originally slated to ship with its next-generation Montevina platform later this year. [full story]