The next MacBook Air is reportedly so small it needs a new USB port

Hey, Dell: you might not be the only one in town with an impossibly small laptop this year. Tipsters for 9to5Mac claim that the long-rumored 12-inch MacBook Air is not only real, but uses a "radically new" body that's much thinner and narrower than the already tiny 11-inch system you see today, despite the larger screen. Supposedly, it's so compact that Apple is ditching most of the usual expansion -- you'd have just the headphone jack and a next-generation USB Type-C port that would take care of everything else. While that's feasible given that Type-C can handle everything from power to displays, you'd have to rely on an external hub for virtually every wired peripheral you can imagine (à la the original MacBook Air). And where would you plug devices in when you're charging, unless there's a special power adapter in the works? Whether or not Apple goes that route, you may not see this miniscule machine until "mid-2015." In other words, don't hold off on buying the existing Air unless you can afford to wait.