MacBook Air's Wifi Boot Menu (Photo)

What is this "Alt" key they speak of. I know of an "Option" key ;)

What is this "Alt" key they speak of. I know of an "Option" key ;)

Mine says "alt" in tiny letters at the top. it exists!

I'm not quite clear: surely all this fancy boot-over-wifi and mount-over-wifi must be a simple software function in the MBA? What's to prevent the other Macs from theoretically having access to these useful features (along with the enhanced multi touch)?

Apart from artificially hyping the capabilities of the otherwise reduced functionality of the MBA of course...

Yeah, I think I'll boot my Mac Pro from a Mac Mini in the other room over an 802.11g network. That makes a whole lot of sense.

Mine says "alt" in tiny letters at the top. it exists!

I said it because there was a post earlier in the day complaining about the "Alt" - "Option" issue. Mine says both for the record, but on a mac it is traditionally called the "Option" key, so I don't see why it's hard to say that, especially on a mac-related website (not MR's fault).

I'm not quite clear: surely all this fancy boot-over-wifi and mount-over-wifi must be a simple software function in the MBA? What's to prevent the other Macs from theoretically having access to these useful features (along with the enhanced multi touch)?

Apart from artificially hyping the capabilities of the otherwise reduced functionality of the MBA of course...

It's in the EFI as the software hasn't loaded when you first start your mac... therefore you'd need an EFI update to enable this on other macs, and it'd really only be useful if you were wired or had 802.11n.

UK Mac keyboards (at least on my first generation MacBook Pro) do not have a key marked "option". Instead, there is a funky switch symbol ⌥ (the same one as in the keyboard shortcuts listed in application menus) and the world "alt" on the top. So, it's not surprising people would call the option key the alt key, and leave new Mac users baffled as to what the "option" key is when asked to press it.

I think at least the newer laptops and desktops from Apple will soon have this same functionality. More preferably, to all older Macs as well.

I'm not quite clear: surely all this fancy boot-over-wifi and mount-over-wifi must be a simple software function in the MBA?.

I've never written any software to load an OS, but having read about it, I think it is save to assume it is anything but simple. I think this is a big achievement actually.

I think at least the newer laptops and desktops from Apple will soon have this same functionality. More preferably, to all older Macs as well.

And what would this functionality be used for, other than if your optical drive broke?

And what would this functionality be used for, other than if your optical drive broke?

Showing off.