Macworld 2008 - MacBook Air, Movie Rentals, iPhone Firmware, Time Capsule, and more…
A lot of sites decided to go the Twitter route this year for providing fast updates to their readers who wanted to keep up wit Macworld. The excess traffic must have caused an overload because ironically, Twitter has been down (they weren’t the only ones either… Engadget was crawling!). For those of you who tried to follow Macworld and couldn’t get the complete details, we’ve got the full scoop..
All rumors can be put to rest. Steve Jobs’ Keynote is over and what came out of it was a brand new MacBook Air, the much anticipated movie rentals, Time Capsule, and more!
iPhone
- To date, more than 4 million iPhone’s sold
- That equals out to 20,000 iPhone per day on average that are sold
- During the 1st quarter it was on the market, it garnered 19% of the market share
New iPhone Features with Firmware Update (Press Release)
- Update available today
- Maps with location - find your current location in maps and then have a route calculated for you based upon your current location
- Text message multiple people at one time
- Create up to 9 different home screens and organize the home buttons the way you want them to be
Time Capsule (Press Release)
Time Capsule is a companion to Time Machine that will allow users to backup their computers wirelessly — all Macs in your house can be backed-up. They’ll be going on sale come February in two different versions:
- 500 GB priced at $299
- 1 TB priced at $499
Leopard
Mac OS X has been out for about three months now and over five million copies have been sold. It’s the most successful release ever and almost 20% of the OS X install base has upgraded
iPod Touch (Press Release)
- The iPod Touch also received some TLC with new apps being added like mail, weather, maps, stocks, and notes. Just like the iPhone, iPod Touch users can reorder their homepage. iPod Touch users can pay $20 to receive this upgrade.
iTunes
Jobs gave a quick rundown on some iTune’s stats:
- 20 million soungs were sold on iTunes on Christmas Day alone
- Last week they hit their 4 billion mark for songs sold
- 125 million TV shows have been sold in all
- 7 million movies sold
After Jobs mentioned that they had sold over 7 million movies, he said that it wasn’t good enough for them and this was his perfect lead-in to introducing the much rumored iTunes movie rentals.
Movie Rentals! (Press Release)
As we all expected, Apple has jumped into movie rentals. Somehow they managed to get every single major studio on board like Fox, Walt Disney, Universal, Paramount, Sony, MGM, and more. Here are a few important key details you need to be aware of:
- Movie rentals launches today in the US and internationally later this year
- By the end of February, 1000 films will be available
- 30 days after DVD’s are released, they’ll have them available for download
- Watch movies on your Mac, PC, and all current generation iPods, and iPhone
- Watch them instantly if a great Internet connection
Movie rental rules:
- You’ll have 30 days to start watching the movie when you rent it
- After you start watching it, you’ll have 24 hours to finish it
- Regular movies will cost $2.99 while new releases will be priced at $3.99
- Movies are transferable– from your computer to an iPod or wherever– it’s very simple to transfer the movie to multiple devices
Apple TV Take 2 (Press Release)
Jobs said that this was Apple TV Take 2 — it can sync to your computer but no computer is required. From it you can rent movies directly on your TV and rent them in DVD quality. You can also rent them in HD quality with Dolby 5.1 surround sound. Other important info:
- View audio and video podcasts as well
- Get photos from your computer or view photos from Flickr and .Mac
- Expanded selection of YouTube - 50 million videos
The interface was redone as well and is much improved with one menu. Users can read about the movies, see the actors, directors, etc. They can also get recommendations based upon what others have viewed.
- HD movie rentals are priced at $4.99
- The unit itself was received a drop in price from $299 to $229
- Existing Apple TV users will get the free software update in about two weeks
MacBook Air (Press Release)
Jobs described the MacBook Air as “The World’s Thinnest Notebook. It features a full-sized keyboard, full-size display, but it’s an unprecedented 0.76 inches in its thickest part. and 0.16 inches at its thinnest. It can even fit in a manilla envelope which Steve pulled out and demonstrated.
- iSight
- Multi-touch track pad
- 13.3 inch widescreen display
- Magnetic latch
- 80 GB hard drive is standard but you can also get a 64 GB Solid State Drive
- LED Backlit display
- Processor is as thick as a nickle and as wide as a time
- 45 Watt MagSafe
- 1 USB 2.0 port
- Micro-DVI
- Audio Out
- 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1/EDR
- 5 hours of battery life
- Doesn’t have a CD/DVD drive but you can “borrow” an optical drive from a MAC or PC or purchase one for $99
- 2GB Memory standard
Pricing is $1,799 and it will be available in just two weeks or you can pre-order today.
They also pointed out how this computer was easy on the environment:
- Fully aluminum case which is good for recyclying
- First fully mercury and lead free display
- Circuit boards are BFR free
- Retail packaging is small– 56% less volume than that of the MacBook.
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Tags: Hardware, Software, Apple
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That iPod touch thing is just a new low for Apple. Early iPod adopters should be getting it for free since the apps should have been included from the very beginning. I guess if enough people complain like they did with the iPhone then maybe Apple will come to their senses. There’s no way I’m paying $20 to get a software update. Isn’t Apple supposed to be trying to convince people to upgrade and not jailbreak their iPod touch units? This only makes me want to jailbreak my iPod touch more.
Been waiting for the Macbook Air…finally it’s here. Only problem is it costs an arm and a leg. Oh well by next year (when I am going to be seriously be looking for a laptop) hopefully the price would have come down a bit.
One of the main reasons i still don’t own any Apple products.
Well over priced and they know it
$20 for software update when it should be free for all. (How can you do that) and i though windows vista overcharge in the UK was bad
“Retail packaging is small– 56% less volume than that of the MacBook.”
They could of done that years ago but they will use that as a cheap selling feature
Regular movies will cost $2.99 while new releases will be priced at $3.99
Another chance Apple can screw over european/uk customers
Pricing is $1,799 and it will be available in just two weeks or you can pre-order today.
You have go to be kidding me.
:!: 
“iPod Touch users can pay $20 to receive this upgrade.”
WHAT? I already got this functionality for free thanks to the Installer.app hack! Give me a *bleep*ing break…
Where’s my Lepord update!
I CAN’T FREAKING BELIEVE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Itunes is pretty much the only problem program I have had since getting Vista64, and I have been reading TONS of forums and posting for help, and even sent Apple an email asking for an update on the progress of a 64 version. Then yesterday a guy in a forum posted how he had had the problem and someone told him about the GearSec CD/DVD Burning driver, and it fixed his. So I installed it yesterday and it worked. Was so relieved.
Now what do they do? Fix it themselves. Only a year + later.
Oh well, least it finally works.
Check out the article from today’s macworld, plus all the other crazy goodies at the homepage:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/0.....bit-vista/
Not only that, but another huge downside is the battery and the fact you’ll have to send it in to be replaced!
What kind of update were you hoping for?
It’s definitely not fair Max, but I think it’s only free for iPhone owners because Apple is getting a kickback from AT&T. I’m sure in the end Jobs’ will end up making the upgrade free.
Generally their computers never get cheaper, so I wouldn’t count on that. They typically get more powerful instead.
Guess they thought iPod Touch users weren’t already paying enough.
I was surprised that they added 64-bit Vista support as well, and it’s definitely about time. In reality it should have been ready at the launch of Vista.
That’s a terrible reason to punish early iPod touch buyers. If the iPhone is in fact costing them, then why are the iPod touch users, who have nothing to do with the iPhone at all, have to make up the difference?
Max, I don’t think it’s the iPod Touch users who have to make up the difference for everybody. Think of it this way- iPhone users are paying for this by subscribing to AT&T. Apple is thinking that iPod Touch users will pay for this feature for themselves by forking out $20. Is it fair? No… but I think that’s what they are thinking.
I heard on Buzz Out Loud that it had something to do with strange accounting rules forcing them to let their customers pay for the software. I can’t remember the details but you can find the episode at
http://podcast-files.cnet.com/.....011708.mp3
(It could have been the episode before that, though.)