The Macworld Keynote is in the books. Steve Jobs announced some pretty good stuff, some of which will cause my credit card to get some action in the coming weeks. Want to know what went down at the Keynote but don’t care to read a liveblog post or 10 different posts? I’ve created a cheat sheet of sorts for the 2008 Macworld Keynote. Here’s the lowdown:
OS X
-5 million copies of Leopard have been delivered. This is likely a combination of new Mac sales and Leopard boxed copies (no definitive word given).
Time Capsule
-Time Capsule is a companion product for Leopard’s Time Machine. Time Capsule is a combination Airport Extreme Base Station with a server grade hard drive. It’s a “backup appliance”.
-500GB and 1TB storage for $299 and $499 respectively.
-Backup multiple Macs to the same Time Capsule.
-No word on if this feature will be available for USB drives connected to the current Airport Extreme Base Stations.
iPhone
-4 million iPhone sold to date.
-It’s first quarter shipping it garnered 19% of the smart phone market share.
-1.1.3 iPhone software upgrade released: SMS to multiple people, current position locator in maps, customizable home screen, and more.
iPod Touch
-Mail, maps, stocks, notes, and weather coming to the Touch.
-The cost of those applications is $20 for current Touch owners and will be built in to new ones.
With the 2008 Macworld JobsNote just a few days away, speculation is nearly at an all time high. Every Apple and gadget related blog has already posted their Macworld predictions and I’m about to toss mine out too. Could this years Keynote bring something bigger than the 2007 Keynote when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to the world? I think it’s going to be pretty hard to top the iPhone, but I’m expecting great things from Apple none the less. Here are my predictions (and the percentage chance that it will happen) for the 2008 Macworld Keynote, which will be held Tuesday, January 15th live in San Francisco. Head on over to this post on Engadget for live coverage of the Keynote starting at 9:00AM Pacific.
Software
In light of the recent news that iTunes will soon bring movie rentals, I think it’s safe to say we’re going to see a new version of iTunes out (and likely Quicktime as these are often updated together). With the exception of Aperture, all other Apple software has received some kind of update recently. Will there be a new version of Aperture released at Macworld? I don’t think we’ll see a new version of Aperture at Macworld. Macworld is predominately a consumer focused event and Aperture is a professional level application. Maybe we’ll see a new Aperture at WWDC in June. Chances we see a new iTunes/Quicktime: 100%. Chances we’ll see a new Aperture: 15%.
iPods
Not much to speculate on here. The entire line was recently updated (except for the color for the Shuffle) so it’s pretty unlikely you’ll see anything new here. Chances we’ll see a new iPod: 0%.
Since Macworld is next week, I thought it would be a good time to share this blooper reel of keynote speeches gone wrong. Watch the nearly five minute long video featuring Steve Jobs, Phil Schiller, and others as hilarity ensues when they run into problems with their speech or technical demonstration. This video is the perfect tune-up for Macworld next week. Enjoy!
Update: I seem to always have problems embedding Youtube videos here. I’m really hoping this last edit will fix the layout.
I’m not sure when this happened (edit: some research leads to December 14th), but I noticed today that the Macworld website has received a refresh. Macworld was last redesigned in 2003, before Intel, iPhone, Tiger, Leopard, and more. As is fashionable recently, you’ll notice the word “Beta” in the new Macworld header image.
Old Design
Some of the new features include voting buttons on every story. The voting feature will float the most popular stories to the top of the “Top User Rated” tab on the home page. Also changed is that comments are now seen on the same page as the story. Previously the comments were kept in the forum which was tucked away from the story itself. The Playlist website has been folded back into Macworld as well.
New Design
I can’t be certain, but it looks like less content is displayed on the new home page. The new design is certainly in line with current design trends too. My first impression is to give it a thumbs up.
A visit to the Apple website this morning revealed a Santa themed Get A Mac ad on the homepage. This new ad has an animated PC, Mac, and Santa singing a new version of “Santa Clause is coming to town”. Just when the song gets goig, PC sings to “buy a PC and not a Mac this holiday season”. Watching the ad is a great way to get into the Mac holiday season!
Update: The animated ad is now being aired on TV too.
Citing sources in Asia, CNBC says (video link) Apple will release a sub-portable notebook at MacWorld in January. Though a little lite on details, CNBC reports the notebook will cost $1500, be 50% thinner than current notebooks, and be flash memory based. This would likely include the introduction of solid state drives (SSD) to the Apple lineup.
With the sub-portable 50% thinner than the current Macbook Pro, the device is likely to have no optical media drive and reduced USB/Firewire ports. So Apple is going to sell me a smaller screen, less features, and less storage for $1500? No thanks. I know some people have been salivating over this for some time, but I just don’t want a notebook with less features than the one I currently own. I love my Macbook Pro and couldn’t image using a computer smaller than the Macbook, which I previously owned. When did CNBC get on the Apple rumor mill too?
Apple released a new Get A Mac ad on TV tonight (at least I saw it tonight for the first time). As usual, PC and Mac are the main focus of the ad. The topic of the new ad is this PCWorld article that proclaimed the Macbook Pro the fastest Windows Vista notebook ever tested. PC calls PCWorld to report a misprint about the Mac being the fastest Windows PC available. PC then impersonates Mac on the phone to try to deny that Mac is the faster Windows PC. It’s a funny ad as always. The ad is currently online at the Apple site here. Enjoy!
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