Summery Of Apple's Stevenote

[robin1989]

Well apple had there annual macworld keynote and they announced some pretty amazing stuff.

Macbook Air



Apple stunned a nation today with the unveiling of a very ultra-thin new MacBook called the MacBook Air. 'The world's thinnest notebooks' starts at £1199 and comes with, a full sexy black keyboard, built-in 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, built-in iSight, and a multitouch trackpad that lets you use gestures to control a number of actions on the MacBook Air. Some other stats include:

    *  1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB L2 cache
    * 2GB of RAM
    * 80GB 1.8-inch hard drive (with optional 64 gig solid state drive
    * 1 USB 2.0 port
    * 13.3" LED screen

Alas it doesnt come with ethernet, firewire ports or optical drive. But  you can get an external drive or use the new drive sharing feature so you can "Borrow" another persons drive. also an Ethernet to USB adapter for those who absolutely must use a wired network. For $29 you get a 10/100Base-T Ethernet connection and the opportunity to use up your one USB port for connectivity

Movie Rentals



Library titles are $2.99, and new releases will be available 30 days after DVD release and will cost $3.99. Each movie will be available to download within 30 days, and once you start watching it, you'll have 24 hours to finish.
There is good news for HD viewers-- HD rentals will be available, but they'll cost an extra buck (so $3.99 and $4.99 for library titles and new releases. There'll be 100 HD titles starting today, and more all the time. And of course, movie rentals will be sync-able with the iPhone and iPod, or have the ability to be downloaded straight on to the revamped Apple TV.
US release today and europe later this year.

Time Capsule



Apple has released Time Capsule, a NAS (network-attached storage) unit that will wirelessly sync with multiple instances of Time Machine, all the while also working as an 802.11n base station (there are three included ethernet ports as well). Time Capsule has wireless backup, wireless networking, and even a USB port for networked printing, a networked hard drive, or both with a USB hub.

And perhaps most amazing is the sheer size available-- it's $399 for a 500gb hard drive, and $499 for a 1 TB hard drive. Sure, that's a little pricey if you've got only one or two computers at home, but $500 for a complete (and completely wireless) backup solution for a house full of computers is a pretty nice setup.

I am so getting this as it is a great solution for me and my families macs. apple ftw


Itunes Digital Copy

iTunes Digital Copy sort of snuck into the Keynote, but it is a pretty big deal (that we already knew about). Starting today if you buy any 20th Century Fox DVD that is labeled 'iTunes Digital Copy' you'll not only get the physical DVD, but a digital copy. Simply insert the disk into your Mac or PC, enter a unique code into iTunes, and iTunes will import a digital version of the movie onto your Mac/PC. You can view the movie on your Mac, iPod, or iPhone as many times as you like (since you own the movie) but the digital copy can only be imported into one iTunes library.


Apple TV Take 2



While the Apple TV's form factor remains the same, the software interface has changed significantly. The most notable feature is the ability to buy music, movies and iTunes rentals directly from the device, no computer required. Frankly, this is something I think should have been included from the very beginning. The Apple TV will be able to playback HD and standard definition movies and support Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.

Additionally, Apple TV will now support interactive slideshows via Flickr and .Mac accounts.

There's one more change - one I also think is a big improvement to the overall product - the price has dropped. The 40 GB entry model is now just $229 USD (down from $299) and the 160 GB model is $329. Now that users actually have the ability to buy content directly from the device, and that HD content will be readily available, it has suddenly become much more attractive.

Current Apple TV owners can get the additional benefits via a software update now.




more updates to come
watch the keynote here

[hamchapman]

I was severly disappointed to be honest. No update to MB or MBP lines, not even a suggestion of where they want to take them in the future.

The Air is very nice but unrealistic for mass markets in my point of view. If Apple really does want to take MORE of a market share then the Air is completely the wrong direction to be going in...

[robin1989]

yeh but you need to rembember this is still only the first 2 weeks of january and they have updated all of the above plus the mac pro and the xserve servers. and as steve said there is still another 50 weeks to go and one thing that isnt in that list is the updated firmware to the iphone and the release of the sdk in middle of february there are still pleanty of events to come in the year and another big one in june called WWDC then there is probably the usual one in september for the new ipod line up for xmas

i was actually pleased with the anouncements as it is apple doing what apple do best and thats push boundries and put a news spin on a product. in my view the best thing to come out of it was time capsule as between that and leapord you have a fool proof total wireless solution for backing up you compputer

[Reaper]

I wouldn't want a laptop that thin, I'm afraid my Razr might break if I didn't take perfect care of it. LOL 

[FreeK]

I wouldn't want a laptop that thin, I'm afraid my Razr might break if I didn't take perfect care of it. LOL 

i have that prob too reaper, and i wouldnt really want somehting thin either, id want soemthing ticker, that has about double waht the thin ones have,

one question about the movie rentals, seems as they are on itunes from the pictures
would you be able to rent them then transfer them onto your ipod or do they make it so you cant?

[Reaper]

would you be able to rent them then transfer them onto your ipod or do they make it so you cant?

Yeah but they would delete themselves within 24 hours of downloading

[robin1989]

no you download it and yo you can have it on your ipod, itunes, apple tv for up to 30 days but once you begin to watch them you have 24 hours to watch it as much as you want and then its finished. but itunes does also do full movies to purchase and there is the new itunes Digital copy that is been brought out on dvd and them you keep forever. and im sure if a studio lets it on itunes for rental they will let it on itunes for purchase