For the last month I’ve been living with Apple’s diminutive MacBook Air as my sole production computer for all professional and personal use. My previous main Mac was a 2007 2.4GHz 4GB RAM MacBook Pro 17 with the highest resolution Apple offers in a notebook. So I went from one Apple portable extreme (highest resolution, most power, heaviest) to the other (smallest, lightest, least powerful, least memory, weakest video). There are a number of trade-offs, but the positive outweighs the negative.

It happened that late April through May is a slow travel period for me, so while I’ve attended local events offsite, I haven’t hit the road yet. But in a couple of weeks, I’ll be on a tour that includes D.C., NYC, Boston, and Miami. The east coast thang. I’ll give the MacBook Air a thorough travel test then. Once that’s complete, I’ll write a full long-term review of the MacBook Air on Computerworld.com.

My biggest single issue with the MacBook Air is something that you know going in: the size and resolution of the MacBook Air’s display. It measures 13.3-inches diagonally and has a maximum (native) resolution of 1280-by-800 pixels. The smaller size never troubles me on the road, where email and Web surfing are the main applications. I’m similarly unfazed by the MacBook Air’s small displays size because it’s connected to a 24-inch external LCD. But when I’m home, sitting on the sofa — where I sometimes spend hours researching, preparing PowerPoints, developing spreadsheets, juggling loads of documents, and writing — I feel the pinch of the small screen size. Like I said, I knew that going in, but the trade-off it’s not as bad as I expected.

It may be a case of just enough screen real estate. After years of using nothing but large-screen, high-res notebooks, I don’t have the “peering through a keyhole” feeling I sometimes got with pre-widescreen Windows notebooks (usually at 1024-by-768 resolution).

Another aspect that may help is the MBA display’s brightness and high contrast, both of which count a lot with me. What I’ve learned over the years is that display specs don’t matter. What matters is how it feels when you spend hours in front of it. The MacBook Air’s thin-film transistor LED technology creates the best notebook display I’ve spent that kind of time with. Though I haven’t spent the same amount of time with the newer MacBook Pro 15 models, the first to support the TFT LED displays, my guess is that they’re equally impressive.

All in all, I’ve adapted pretty well to the MacBook Air’s small display size. Even so, if Apple ever comes out with larger-screen MacBook Pro (such as a 15-inch or 17-inch) with the same incredible thinness, I’d probably break out the credit card the first week they were offered.

I’m also completely unperturbed by the on-paper lack of overall computing power that shows up clearly in the MacBook Air’s specs. My test unit has the 1.8GHz processor with the 64GB solid-state drive. Were I to spend my own money (or my company’s money), I’d get the 1.6GHz CPU and the 80GB 4,200-rpm conventional hard drive. For the things I use my main production machine 98% of the time, I don’t notice any loss of oomph. The 64GB drive is tight. In my ideal world, the MBA would come with 3GB or RAM and a 120GB hard drive, but so far I haven’t needed either.

The biggest problem I wasn’t expecting in the MacBook Air concerns the USB port. I was surprised that apparently Apple didn’t do the proper testing as part of its design work to ensure that virtually any USB device fits its one USB port. Or perhaps Apple just decided that form was more important than function. Either way, not only did I have to buy a new USB 3G EV-DO device for my company-supplied Verizon broadband wireless service, but when I paid extra for the smallest one (smallest in all three dimensions), it didn’t fit the MacBook Air’s USB port. Apple pointed out to me that the largest one Verizon offers has a fold out USB connector that does fit the MBA. But not only does that mean the darn thing flops around, it’s also massive at 3.6-inches long by 1.5-inches wide by .7-inches thick. It’s roughly half the size of deck of playing cards.

Bottom line, I think it’s a weakness in a computer using the name “Air” to refer to its wireless orientation that most USB air cards don’t fit it and it doesn’t have an ExpressCard port. Apple is quick to point out that every wireless broadband provider in the U.S. offers at least one air card that fits the MacBook Air, but to me, that’s not good enough.

Similarly, I have no issue with the MacBook’s optical SuperDrive being an external device, that’s a reasonable trade-off. But the fact that Apple’s device does not work through a USB hub and must be connected directly to the lone USB port is disappointing.

The biggest advantage I hadn’t fully appreciated — despite acknowledging it to be the killer feature of the MacBook Air from day one — is how freeing the small size and weight is. At work, I frequently just grab it and go to meetings. Since my business is Internet publishing, being able to refer to our Web site or those of competitors is a noticeable advantage to me. I haven’t even gotten to the travel part yet.

Stand by for my final Computerworld review in a month or a little more, which will address my travel experiences and also give details about my workarounds for some of the trade-offs I’ve experienced — as well as my final recommendation on the MacBook Air. In the meantime, I can tell you that I’m very much enjoying the research behind this evaluation.

And then my buddy Ken Mingis placed the one he bought — after pledging with me that he would not buy one, I might add — in my hand. The universe tilted. I entered an altered state of being. And my mouth dropped open. I had to have one. Had to!

So 3G or not, I’d probably be buying one. If I could. But my wife, Cyndy, would probably make me sleep out back in the shed (along with the mystery mammal that’s living beneath it). And she’d have cause. Apple’s iPhone is darn expensive when you consider the two-year contract. And as you’ll see, I haven’t exactly been frugal lately.

But that the iPhone is expensive is about all I can say bad about it. It’s much smaller than it looks on TV, offers a lot of cool functionality, and it would fit better in my jeans pocket than either of my current cell phones. The screen is gorgeous, the operation intuitive, and while the keyboard might be an issue, the many applications have some ingenious innovations, in the style we’ve come to expect from Apple.

So here I sit dreaming up a reason to buy an iPhone next year. Maybe. In the meantime, if you’re waiting on 3G, maybe you should reconsider and go out and gitcha one now. This article from AnandTech, which, naturally, Ken (my wife calls him a bad influence) passed to me, offers realistic reasons why 3G may not be coming to an iPhone near you any time soon: No 3G on the iPhone, but Why? A Battery Life Analysis (AnandTech).

It’s not just the battery life either. According to AnandTech, quoting a Steve Jobs interview in the Wall Street Journal, the 3G circuitry might have made the iPhone bigger. That would not have been good. Not at all.

Since you can connect your iPhone wirelessly to any Wi-Fi network, surfing speed isn’t as much of a big deal. Even AT&T’s EDGE network isn’t terrible at 100kbps. For Web surfing and email, it’s OK. It’s definitely not up to snuff for YouTube though.

I know you’re probably growing a little indifferent to all the iPhone coverage, but this is truly good content. Check out Computerworld’s iPhone reviews and video. The seven-minute video, in particular, gives the best view on what it’s like to use the iPhone.

• iPhone Demo: The Video
• First look at the iPhone: Tomorrow’s technology today
• Hands on: Five things I love, and three I don’t, about the iPhone
• Macworld Review: Apple’s iPhone lives up to prelaunch buzz

Let’s get down to business: How fast is it? On the Verizon Wireless website, the company claims an average of 400-700kpbs. But it really depends on where you are and how many others are using it in the same area. I’ve seen everything from less than 200kbps to more than 1,200kbps, and Verizon’s average seems reasonable to me. At all rates of connection, I’ve found Web surfing and email checking to be just fine. I’ve also yet to experience annoying interruptions or any hiccups whatsoever. Once you’re connected, you’re connected.

Verizon Wireless also offers a less expensive $60-a-month version of the service whose average speed is supposed to be 60-80kbps. In for a penny, in for a pound, I figured. I wanted to be wowed, and I have been.

To support the faster service, I opted for the top-of-the-line Novatel V740 ExpressCard/34 adapter. It sells for $180 with a two-year contract, but I opted for a one-year contract, which means I wound up paying $229. The Novatel card’s Rev. A support delivers the fastest performance available from Verizon, as much as 600-1400kbps downstream and 500-800kbps upstream.

The ExpressCard/34 form factor is very nice. On my MacBook Pro, it pops out when you press it in. My Dell Inspiron E1505 notebook has an ExpressCard/34 slot too. (Verizon also sells a $40 adapter that lets the V740 work in a standard PC Card slot.)

I was able to configure the service from both computers without too much difficulty, although I inserted the card too early in the process under Windows XP (Verizon’s onscreen wizard was a little vague on when to insert the card), which kept Verizon’s software from detecting the card. On both the Mac and Windows, Verizon’s VZAccess software has to be run before you insert the card — every time you use the service. A bit of an annoyance.

Verizon’s network consists of 242 metropolitan areas in the U.S. The coverage map that Verizon Wireless offers is next to useless, but the company does have a search-based tool that it is quite good. Visit this Coverage Locator page. Type the name of the town, select the state, and click the radio button beside “BroadbandAccess & the V CAST” to see a detailed map of coverage levels.

One of the upsides to Verizon’s BroadbandAccess service is purchase and installation. Verizon’s website is pretty bad. It’s easier just to use its local search than to try to actually make sense of it. But once you get past that, my total investment was about two hours, including my visit to the Verizon Wireless store (lots of waiting around) and the time it took to install and begin using the service (15 minutes or so). Installation on the Mac was incredibly fast and easy.

The biggest negative of this service is the price. Frankly, it would have made sense for me to take the Verizon’s WWAN service on a two-year contract. Verizon runs occasional specials that may reduce your monthly rate, even for the faster service, to $60. Plus, I would have gotten a $50 discount on the V740 card. From my perspective, though, I’m not sure I can justify the ongoing cost. Verizon charges $175 to break your contract. There’s also a 30-day trial period. I will probably wind up either paying for one year or breaking my contract — the point being to do this review and to play around with something cool.

Besides the steep price, the only other shortcoming is the fact that BroadbandAccess is incompatible with Cisco’s VPN client. I saw nothing in the contract information that prevents VPN access. Probably because the EV-DO card is more akin to a modem than a network adapter, Cisco’s VPN doesn’t seem to recognize it.

If 24/7 access to the Internet is your top priority, you’ve got to get this thing. (I imagine that similar WWAN services from AT&T/Cingular and Sprint are equally intriguing.) But at $80 a month, this is tough to justify. It’s ideal for businesspeople who travel frequently (Verizon promises significant airport coverage, for example). But if that describes you, maybe you can get your company to pay for it.

Hey, I’m just glad I could come up with a reasonable excuse to try it.