MacWorld Overview

The Keynote came and went, and let me start off by saying; I was disappointed.

The Keynote took off with the introduction of “Time Capsule.” Time Capsule is Apples version of an external Hard Drive, only wireless. I think having wireless backup is a great idea. I personally have both of my external hard drive hidden away under my desk. Thankfully, I was able to wire everything fine, but this might not be the case for some people. With Time Capsule, you can backup multiple computers in the house, all wirelessly.
I think it’s a great idea by Apple, but I really wish they would have come up with a more original design for it. It’s pretty much an Airport Extreme, only thiner, wider and with a silver Apple on the top. The 500GB goes for $299.00 USD, and the 1,000GB goes for $499.00 USD. A little pricey in my eyes, but then again, it’s wireless.
For now, I’ll stick with my LaCie Porsche Hard Drives, thank you very much.

iPhone and iPod Touch updates came next. Overall, these updates were just small little software updates and additions.
The iPhone received web clips, maps with locations, SMS with multiple people, customizable home screen, chapters and iPhone SDK is expected in February of this year. These software updates will be available as of today, for free.
When the iPod Touch was announced in September, talk of future updates that would include Mail, Weather, ect was circulating. Because the iPod Touch has Wi-Fi, people were scratching their heads as to why Apple didn’t include these features out-of-the-box. Well, today, these applications have been released. Like the iPhone, the iPod Touch can now have Mail, Weather, Notes, Stocks and Maps. Although a cool and useful update, it doesn’t come free. In order to get these extra little bells and whistles, you’ll have to cough up $20.00.
This next announcement, has been flying around the Internet for months now, and it’s finally here. iTunes Movie Rentals. Launching today (in the US only), the rental store will feature 1000 movies and movies will become available 30 days after their DVD release. The rentals can be watched on Macs, PCs, iPods and iPhone and once rented, you’re given 30 days to start the movie, and 24 hours to complete it. Each rental will cost $2.99, 3.99 for new releases and $4.99 for HD movies (only 100 titles available right now). This will make movie rentals easy! *iTunes Movie Rentals will be available to more countries later this year.

Apple TV Update came next. There isn’t to much new about the Apple TV. The only real new feature is that, you no longer need a computer. You can still sync stuff with your Mac or PC, but now you can buy music, download podcasts and view photos from Flickr or .Mac all from your Apple TV, no computer necessary. The price also went from $299.00 to $249.00.

Lastly, MacBook Air. The rumors proved to be right on this one. Apple releases an ultra-portable, ultra-thin, ultra-lightweight notebook today, by the name of “MacBook Air”.
The notebook is 0.76″ at its thickets part and 0.16″ at its thinest part. It features a full-sized, MacBook-like ambient light sensor keyboard, a 13.3″ LED backlit widescreen and a multi-touch trackpad, allowing you to zoom in and out of things just by moving your fingers. All packaged into a 3 pound machine.
Being ultra-portable comes with some downsides. A huge one for a lot of people, is the lack of an optical drive. For $99.00, an external one can be bought from Apple, but that just adds clutter to your desk, however, there is apparently software that’s in the works, which will allow you to “borrow” the optical drive from another Mac or PC. The machine comes with only 1 USB 2.0 port, and no Firewire ports. It also doesn’t come with an Apple remote.
Now to move onto the negatives of the notebooks specs. Being ultra-thin, makes it hard to hold a lot of power, which I feel is a major downfall in this product. Running a 1.6GHz or optional 1.8GHz with a standard 2GBs of RAM across the board and a 80GB hard drive or an optional 64GB SSD hard drive, doesn’t allow for that much performance. Although I understand it’s not a pro line notebook and it’s meant for easy and simple portability, I feel that, with the lack of an optical drive, USB ports and only sporting a small 80GB hard drive (which for todays standards, is quite small), the average consumer is getting ripped off. Of course, if priced a around $1,000.00, this notebook would be a pretty great option for many people, however, this isn’t the case. The bottom line MacBook Air has a tag of $1,799.00 and for the SSD hard drive with the extra 200MHz boost, you’re looking at over $3,000.00! That’s insane! For the same price, you can get an amazing MacBook Pro. Sorry Apple, but that’s way over priced.
Overall, I think the MacBook Air looks nice, but lack performance and is insanely priced. You’d have to be mad to actually buy one of these.
I have to say, this years MacWorld has been a disappointment to me. How do you guys feel about what was announced and released today?
Posted in Apple, Technology






January 19th, 2008 at 1:12 am
Just a clarification, the Apple TV dropped to $229.00.
Great job on the site!
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:21 am
-Overall, I think the MacBook Air looks nice, but lack performance and is insanely priced. You’d have to be mad to actually buy one of these.
If you want value for money, get a Macbook (or a Compaq for that matter). If you want performance, get a Macbook Pro. However, the Macbook Air is aimed at another market, those that are willing to pay to have small and slim. Different people require different features, and to some the Macbook Air represents a significant but worthwhile investment. To say you’d ‘be mad’ is a rather sweeping generalization.
In regards to the SSD drive, kudos to Apple for having the feature available to people if they so desire.
February 13th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
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