The beginning of 2008 with Apple

I spent yesterday night downloading the Macworld 2008 keynote by Steve Jobs and today morning watching it. Apple is out with the latest from its laboratory. Earlier in the year it announced new Mac series, fully loaded. But more buzz was created by the Macworld 2008 announcements. There were 4 mains announcements made at this keynote address by Steve Jobs.

1. Time Capsule

2. iPhone/iPod Touch software updates

3. iTunes Movie Rentals

4. Macbook Air

Let me start by discussing the Macbook Air first. On first impression the notebook looks quite stunning. The features like multi touch gesture, 0.16 to 0.76 inch thickness, 5 hour batter life, 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2 GB RAM, 80 GB HDD (64 GB Solid State Hard Disk - optional), back lit key board, 3 lb weight were all good. What was inconspicuous though were the features missing. This notebooks does not have 1) An optical drive 2) Ethernet Port 3) Firewire Port 4) Has only one USB port. Now, given these gaps, would the laptop succeed. My take is that if someone is planning to buy just a notebook, he is not going to compromise on the missing features. However, the category where this notebook really competes is the ultra portable device, and these devices are mostly used in conjunction with your regular laptop/desktop which are more powerful and can add more devices. That way, this machine has got the basics right. While on the move, I want longer battery life, wireless connectivity, light weight and backlit keyboard. So, this will be a good second machine but would not replace as my primary machine at home or office. At a price of $1799 it looks quite attractive secondary machine. Here is an interesting link.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid742148386/bctid1378313911 

Here's a picture taken from www.apple.com/macbookair

Do checkout the Macbook air commercial. I like the song "New Soul" by "Yael Naim".

On the iTunes Movie Rentals side, I am a little apprehensive about its success. Though it is a great technology and Apple has done some great work getting the 9 major movie studios on board, the simplicity of DVDs can still not be replaced. The downloads of over 1 GB still remain the pain, even with so called Broadband. At least, in India, it will take me over 16 hours to download a 1 GB video on a relatively fast connection. The best thing about this service though is the portability from PC to MAC to iPod to iPhone to TV. Though you will  probably need Apple TV ( Take 2 ) for this. Another feature that I didn't like was that after renting the movie was available to be watched for 24 hours only once you have started watching it. Why should there be any restriction like that. Even when I get a DVD from Netflix kind of service, I can watch the movie as many times as I want for the whole rental duration. I would like it to be available for complete 30 days. I would also like an option to renew the rental period for about $0.99 for another 30 days, without downloading a fresh copy. If I ever have a set up with a wide screen TV, T3 Internet connection, Apple TV only then I will be able to enjoy this service. This is one technology I don't foresee to use in India in near future.