MacNN is reporting about several patents that Apple filed for through the US Patent and Trademark Office. The patent applications were published yesterday (February 28, 2008) by the USPTO. The patents indicate what might have been for the MacBook Air, or possibly what will come in the future.
Significant is the collapsible port expansion originally slated for the rear of the MacBook Air (shown in the figure above). It would have included an RJ-45 port for physical ethernet/gigabit connections, as well as USB and FireWire ports.