Macworld 2008 Keynote Roundup
Here's a summary of what Jobs unveiled (for those three or four readers of mine who aren't nerdy enough to follow the whole thing in real time):
1. Time Capsule - a full-fledged Airport base station with built in hard drive. Nice! I wish I hadn't bought that blasted LaCie!
2. Update to iPhone software, stuff that doesn't affect most of the folks I know (since we're all too poor to own one!).
3. iTunes Movie Rentals - as expected. 3 bucks for library titles, 4 for new releases, 5 for HD titles. You have 30 days to start watching the movie, and after you start, you have 24 hours to finish. You can also transfer it to any Apple device - iPhone, iPod, Apple TV...and speaking of that...
4. New version of Apple TV software to handle this hot new video goodness. This includes a more robust video browsing interface to support the movie rentals. The hardware price dropped as well.
5. MacBook Air. Super thin, like, ranging from 0.16" to 0.76" - that's right, barely more than 3/4 of an inch...AT IT'S THICKEST. Dang. Magnetic latch and 13.3" LED-back-lit screen, built-in iSight, ambient light sensor for the keyboard (like my MBP)...MULTI-TOUCH TRACK PAD. And you can even order one with a 64 Gig flash disk if you want to pony up the dough. Battery life? Try FIVE HOURS. There's no optical drive (to save space and battery power), but you can wirelessly share another computer's optical drive, even reading a Mac disc on a Windows computer's disc drive! It starts at 1800 clams, and that sounds fair to me considering what they crammed into such a small form factor.
Everybody was counting on a more portable laptop, but man - I don't think anybody expected a full-spec computer this size.
And that's it, really. Gaze and enjoy:
![macbook air, partially open](http://images.apple.com/macbookair/images/design_gal01_20080115.jpg)
1. Time Capsule - a full-fledged Airport base station with built in hard drive. Nice! I wish I hadn't bought that blasted LaCie!
2. Update to iPhone software, stuff that doesn't affect most of the folks I know (since we're all too poor to own one!).
3. iTunes Movie Rentals - as expected. 3 bucks for library titles, 4 for new releases, 5 for HD titles. You have 30 days to start watching the movie, and after you start, you have 24 hours to finish. You can also transfer it to any Apple device - iPhone, iPod, Apple TV...and speaking of that...
4. New version of Apple TV software to handle this hot new video goodness. This includes a more robust video browsing interface to support the movie rentals. The hardware price dropped as well.
5. MacBook Air. Super thin, like, ranging from 0.16" to 0.76" - that's right, barely more than 3/4 of an inch...AT IT'S THICKEST. Dang. Magnetic latch and 13.3" LED-back-lit screen, built-in iSight, ambient light sensor for the keyboard (like my MBP)...MULTI-TOUCH TRACK PAD. And you can even order one with a 64 Gig flash disk if you want to pony up the dough. Battery life? Try FIVE HOURS. There's no optical drive (to save space and battery power), but you can wirelessly share another computer's optical drive, even reading a Mac disc on a Windows computer's disc drive! It starts at 1800 clams, and that sounds fair to me considering what they crammed into such a small form factor.
Everybody was counting on a more portable laptop, but man - I don't think anybody expected a full-spec computer this size.
And that's it, really. Gaze and enjoy:
![macbook air, partially open](http://images.apple.com/macbookair/images/design_gal01_20080115.jpg)