tell me about it

Macworld debuted with Steve Jobs delivering much of the expected at Keynote (though without the ‘one last thing’ that has reduced many an Apple geek to wriggly paroxysms of delight over the years).

The biggest things that I’m really excited about are online movie rentals, Time Capsule, and of course, the MacBook Air.

Movie Rentals
“What’s the deal? Here’s the deal. Launch with over 1000 films by the end of February. 30 days after DVD release (that, I guarantee, was the barganing chip with the studios). Watch them anywhere: Macs, PCs, iPods and iPhone. You can watch in less than 30 seconds once rented (if you have a modern connection). 30 days to start watching it, and after you start, you have 24 hours to finish watching it. You can actually transfer to another device in the middle of watching, transfer it to your iPod before the flight (that’s going to be pretty killer for users). Renting a library title costs $2.99, new release is $3.99. Pretty reasonable: on par with the kind of stuff you’ll see from traditional rentals.”

This gets to impact us even though Singapore doesn’t work with the iTunes Music Store *shakes fist* because Joel gets codes from our well-placed friend in the USA. Woo!

Time Capsule
“Jobs talks about Time Machine: You wish you didn’t need that wire for connecting your Time Machine drive. And today we’ve got one— Time Capsule, a backup appliance. It’s a full AirPort Extreme base station and a hard drive. 802.11n networking and a server grade hard drive. All the ports of an APE. So now you can backup your notebook, or all the Macs in your house, wirelessly to one Time Capsule. “Really wonderful.” It’s going to sell in two versions: 500GB drive (whoops, he said “megabyte”) and one with 1TB. 500GB model goes for $299 and 1TB goes for $499. “Very aggressive prices. We want people backing up their content.” It’s going to ship in February, the “perfect companion product to Time Machine.””

This is awesome. I hated that I couldn’t utilize my Time Machine because 1) haven’t got the wherewithal to splash out on a portable hard drive and 2) don’t really want to have to plug one in all the bloody time anyway. Puppy says the hourly updates are a tad annoying and slow down things a bit; and my USB ports are way too in demand already anyway. And now yay! Wireless backup! On an Apple router! *wriggles in a paroxysm of delight*

MacBook Air
“It is crazy thin, and silver. It’s got a camera in there too, I notice. Fullsize keyboard in black, fullsize display. Time to explore in more detail. Edges are more rounded, reminiscent the old iBook display. Fullsize, 13.3” widescreen display. “Gorgeous.” LED-backlit display saves power, gives bright display, instant-on the minute you open it. There’s a built-in iSight camera, and a fullsize MacBook-style black keyboard. “Perhaps the best notebook keyboard we’ve ever shipped.” And it’s got a backlit keyboard with an ambient light sensor (previously a MacBook Pro-only feature). Multi-touch gesture support on the trackpad.”

I love the design, not too excited about the name, and less excited about the guts of the MacBook Air. What gives? It’s slower than my brand new MacBook. I’d be paying for something prettier, but not much better. Then again half the battle’s won with the eye on aesthetics; I know I’m usually the one who goes “Who cares? It’s PRETTY!” when explaining my electronics choices to others. But I suppose the novelty factor of pulling your laptop out of a manila envelope won’t soon wear off.

I can imagine Daddy throwing himself across the MacBook Air sobbing loudly and drooling, while giggling maniacally and stroking it and saying “MINE, MINE!”

Teehee.

Anyhow, what gives with The Straits Times’ Digital Life mini-newspaper? It comes out on Tuesday mornings, poised at the perfect timing for some Macworld speculation. With excitement I flip through Digital Life expecting, at the very least, a column of enthusiastic bubbling about The Mac Event Of The Year.

Nothing.

Nothing? I can’t quite believe it. I flip through once more. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

Friggin’ Digital Life. I honestly cannot understand how they decided that Macworld was of no interest to their consumers. What is this? Bloody PC Magazine?

-quotes taken from Macworld live update