BusinessWeek has recently announced the winners of its annual International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), with Apple nabbing the honor of four awards, including three Gold and one Silver. The MacBook Air, iPhone, and wireless keyboard all managed to take a top spot, while the aluminum iMac took a runner up position.

Run independently by the Industrial Designers Society of America and sponsored by BusinessWeek, the contest features 17 categories ranging from computer equipment to entertainment, and from design strategy to student design.

Over the past 5 years, Apple has earned a combined 13 IDEA awards, making them the second most winning company behind Samsung, who has managed to achieve an impressive 15. Yet to date Apple has had more gold awards bestowed upon them, than any other design firm. Other companies to make the top 10 include, HP, Philips, Nike, and Belkin.

“At this point, it’s likely Apple has earned more design awards than would fit on a standard trophy shelf. I imagine the design team at Apple has a huge vault where they collect all these design awards in a pile, and Jonathan Ive and Steve Jobs swim through them like Scrooge McDuck in piles of money. ” via arstechnica.

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I feel like someone 6 months into a strict Jenny Craig diet who can’t stop thinking about a $3,000 box of Kispy Kreme Doughnuts. It would make absolutely no sense to eat these doughnuts, let alone buy them. I don’t need them, I have a perfect meal right here, but I can’t stop thinking about them. Personally, I have absolutely no use for a computer such as the Macbook Air with so many physical limitations. It doesn’t have an optical disc drive (I’m installing component drivers all the time). It doesn’t have firewire ports (I’m neurotically backing up data all day long). It only has one USB port. The battery isn’t swappable (so you can’t carry around an extra battery while you travel). Unless you opt for the $3,000+ SSD version of the Air, your hard drive is going to spin at a lousy 4,200 rpm. Which means you better love beach balls. The screen resolution is only 1280-by-800. Let’s face it, these are some lousy specs any way you look at them. But I want, want, want, a Macbook Air. Even though they’ve been shipping for nearly 6 months now, I’m still considering irrationally buying one of these machines.

My current notebook is a Penryn based Macbook Pro, purchased after my Powerbook G4 was stolen by Steve Ballmer. I keep the Macbook Pro in perfect sync with my primary machine at the office, which is also a mac. The Macbook Pro is definitely one serious piece of hardware; The screen real estate is generous, the performance and overall speed is astonishing, it’s reliable, trustworthy and very responsive. But I can’t stop thinking about the Macbook Air, like a forbidden mistress. Daily, I find myself trying to justify purchasing the Macbook Air, but I just can’t go through with it. I scour eBay trying to see how much my exact model Macbook Pro is fetching, and ponder putting it up for auction… “Let’s see, Penryn based 15″ Macbook Pro. 2.6 GHZ with 3 years of Applecare should get me $2,200 if I’m really lucky.” If my numbers are right I’m still at least $800 short of the Macbook Air that I would want, or would even consider buying. One word… insane.

The thing is, the Macbook Air air is just sooo sexy. I find myself (as shallow as it sounds) lusting over this thin beauty. I may sound like the fanboyest of fanboys here, but there’s no denying the sheer design quality of the Air. It’s light-weight, the keyboard is perfect (combining the Macbook’s keyboard and the Macbook Pro’s backlit keys), the screen is full-size, there’s an SSD option, a large multi-touch trackpad and it’s just so damn attractive.

Can I justify buying a Macbook Air? Are any of you reading this post on your Macbook Air? If so, please let me know how you’ve adjusted to life with no optical disc drive and one USB port. My common sense speaks louder to me than my raw desire to max out my credit card and buy a Macbook Air. But it’s very, very tempting. If anything, I’d like to see what Apple offers up in the next Macbook Air refresh, perhaps I’ll splurge then.

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Set for the upcoming release of the Sex and the City movie on May 30th, a viral campaign has been released to explore the inner workings Carrie Bradshaw’s (lead character of Sex and the City) MacBook Pro. “Carrie Bradshaw’s MacBook Pro” allows visitors and fans of the show to explore the virtual desktop of the famous fashionista.

Re-created in Flash, users can explore a multitude of folders and applications such as her Stickies, iCal, and iChat. Seeing as how Carrie has been using a mac since the beginning of the show’s creation, I’m rather surprised that she’s using a Macbook Pro and not a Macbook Air. It seems as though the Air would do everything she wants, like fit in her little fashion purse. I guess she heavily relies on the optical disc drive. Either way, we’re stoked she uses a mac.

Check it out here.

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The LA Times reports that Apple has agreed to pay as many as 2.3 million Mac owners refunds of $25 to $79, to resolve claims of faulty power adapters. U.S. District Court Judge James Ware has granted the preliminary approval of of agreement entitling customers who had bought certain replacement power adapters for PowerBook and iBook.

Plaintiffs involved in the court filings claim that the adapter “dangerously frays, sparks, and prematurely fails to work.” A final hearing approval surrounding the matter is set for September 8.

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