Macworld 2008: aka what Apple is doing this year

[Easy Mac]

Four announcements, just the points here, commentary may follow:

1. New Airport Extreme with a 500gb to 1tb drive. Easy backups. $300-500.

2. New buttons for the Iphone/Touch. GPS Maps, Set bookmarks on the main screen. You have to pay $20 to "upgrade" the touch with these features and things they left out before to sell more phones. Also an SDK soon to make your own stuff.


3. Rent movies with Itunes. Also an upgraded AppleTV, lower price by $70. You can rent and but stuff with the AppleTV without a computer. HD rentals are $5, DVD quality for $3-4. Available 30 days after the DVDs, 30 days to watch after rental, but once you start a movie, you have 24 hours to watch. All major studios.

4. New MacBook "Air". Crazy thin, LED screen, base specs: 1.6 core 2 duo, 2 gb ram, 80 gb hd, 11" screen. $1800.

Thats all of it.

[oliegirl]

All sound cool except the $20 to upgrade your iPhone, if I still had mine I'd be pissed at that.

[ISiddiqui]

Really?

The only thing that sounded cool was the MacBook Air, but there are plenty of ultrathin notebooks anyway. The iTunes rent movies thing is silly. Besides the fact that you can already do stuff like that (XBox Live Marketplace for one), Netflix is a far better deal. How much does a wireless backup drive for Time Machine really matter? Far cheaper to just get wired ones.

[Easy Mac]

My thoughts on the above:

1. Wow, congrats, you've made Windows Home Server... only 6 months later. Way to go out on a limb Steve.

2. You have to pay to "upgrade" a touch to things that should have been in there, but weren't earlier so it wouldn't eat up another one of their products? BS man, BS.

3. I've always liked the AppleTV idea, but seriously, why would I pay per rental? Netflix has HD and Blu-Ray and DVDs for $18 a month. Even as slow user can go through 9 movies a month on that plan. That's $2 a movie. Why pay 3-5 with Apple? I understand the "ease of use" concept, but is waiting 2 days for a movie by mail a huge deal?

And anyway, Amazon Unbox has been doing this for over a year for the same price. Movielink and CinemaNow have been around since college. Aside from integrating with the Ipod (obviously the selling point), there's nothing Apple is offering over the competition.

If they did a subscription service a la Netflix, I would totally be on board. As it is, there's absolutely no innovation here. Just copying and giving it a Mac name. Even Unbox lets you move movies to your Tivo or mobile devices. Its literally no different than AppleTV. Its a shame Steve will never go for the all you can eat model, which I think makes a whole lot more sense than it does for music.

4. I like it, but its way out of my price range, so I really just don't care.

I'm sure blogs will go crazy over these four things and say how innovative Apple is, but I just don't see it. Everything they're doing has been done, and has been done well. The only difference is market share.

I'm somewhat pissed at the music labels for skipping out on Itunes and throwing everything to Amazon, if only because Itunes is so clean and easy... but I don't necessarily blame them when you look at how closed Apple is trying to make the entire media industry.

[oliegirl]

Really?

The only thing that sounded cool was the MacBook Air, but there are plenty of ultrathin notebooks anyway. The iTunes rent movies thing is silly. Besides the fact that you can already do stuff like that (XBox Live Marketplace for one), Netflix is a far better deal. How much does a wireless backup drive for Time Machine really matter? Far cheaper to just get wired ones.

By "cool" I meant I wouldn't/didn't have a problem with it...probably should have used "fine" or some other word...the iphone thing really irritated me and made me even more thankful that I sold my iPhone - I thought it was over hyped and that they should have waited until they had more bugs fixed and had more development like the ability to add 3rd party apps, etc...

[ISiddiqui]

I just looked at the MacBook Air and ugh... it's so "thin" that it doesn't have room for a DVD drive. I guess you have to connect it to the USB port. Kind of defeats the purpose of having it be so thin and light.

[Subby]

By "cool" I meant I wouldn't/didn't have a problem with it...probably should have used "fine" or some other word...the iphone thing really irritated me and made me even more thankful that I sold my iPhone - I thought it was over hyped and that they should have waited until they had more bugs fixed and had more development like the ability to add 3rd party apps, etc...
Maybe it wasn't the iPhone? Maybe it was you?

[ISiddiqui]

I just looked at the MacBook Air and ugh... it's so "thin" that it doesn't have room for a DVD drive. I guess you have to connect it to the USB port. Kind of defeats the purpose of having it be so thin and light.

On Apple.com it says:

However, for those times when you still need to install software on MacBook Air from a CD or DVD, a new feature called Remote Disc lets you wirelessly use or “borrow” the optical drive of a Mac or PC in the vicinity. So you can have full access to an optical drive without having to haul one around.

So basically, $1800 for a laptop that requires another computer or USB DVD drive.

[Passacaglia]

I don't feel like I missed out on anything getting my iPod Classic a few weeks ago.

[MacroGuru]

Didn't they just announe the 8 core Intel chip for Apple this year as well....

[Fidatelo]

I just looked at the MacBook Air and ugh... it's so "thin" that it doesn't have room for a DVD drive. I guess you have to connect it to the USB port. Kind of defeats the purpose of having it be so thin and light.

I disagree. I hardly ever use the DVD drive on my laptop anymore. I'd love to simply have the option of connecting one externally for the odd time I need it rather than carrying that bulk around all the time.

[Subby]

I disagree. I hardly ever use the DVD drive on my laptop anymore. I'd love to simply have the option of connecting one externally for the odd time I need it rather than carrying that bulk around all the time.
Word - this is the way it is going. External drives are a thing of the past, yo.

[ISiddiqui]

You mean thing of the future?

I'd rather have an internal drive myself.

[Cringer]

Apple does nothing I care about. Sure, a Mac would be a nice computer to have, but not worth the extra money to me. iPod can blow me, as can the iPhone.

[ISiddiqui]

Damn... if iPods and iPhones could blow me, I'd run out and get one right away! ;)

[Passacaglia]

Damn... if iPods and iPhones could blow me, I'd run out and get one right away! ;)

Me too. Well, I'd want to know the battery life first.

[Easy Mac]

Apple's stock has gone down 7 points since the keynote started.

[Dr. Sak]

iPod can blow me, as can the iPhone.

You must get real lonely on the road...

[Subby]

You mean thing of the future?

I'd rather have an internal drive myself.
Sorry I mean external media is a thing of the past. Your need for a big clunky media reader like a cd or dvd drive is a thing of the past.

[Cringer]

okie dokie, bad choice of words I guess.

I don't like iPods and iPhones. If they could blow me, then I guess maybe I would.

[Crapshoot]

Yeah, I can't remember the last time I used my DVD drive on any computer - laptop or desktop.

I'm also one of the 5 people I know who does not have an Ipod/Itunes in some way - I'm happy with Rhapsody and my Sansa. Naturally, I got an Ipod Touch for Christmas. ;)

[rkmsuf]

anymore smart, witty commericals with that dork from dodgeball?

[flere-imsaho]

No updated iMacs, then? I ask not because I expect any, but because I'm thinking of getting one.

[Passacaglia]

Yeah, I can't remember the last time I used my DVD drive on any computer - laptop or desktop.

I'm also one of the 5 people I know who does not have an Ipod/Itunes in some way - I'm happy with Rhapsody and my Sansa. Naturally, I got an Ipod Touch for Christmas. ;)

Don't you play FM?

[Crapshoot]

Don't you play FM?

After the saga, I went Direct to Drive - the FM I bought in 2006 was E-license (or whatever they were using).