You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January, 2008.
Yeah, what else can I say.
NOTE: This is mostly intended for females on Valentine’s Day. Please do not get this for a guy. EVER. That is all.
To me, MacWorld was both exciting, and slightly disappointing. Here are the things that happened a few hours ago:
MacBook Air announced; Rumor confirmed! MacBook Air is a great product. Now, if only it didn’t cost so much. It doesn’t have a CD/DVD drive. So, Apple will let you connect your Air wirelessly to your Mac or PC’s optical drive and “borrow” it, then, you can download software off it. Oh, and battery replacements are going to cost you $130. 
Time Capsule; Automatic wireless Back-up of your Mac(s) through Time Machine, has 802.11n. Basically, an AirPort Extreme with 500 GB, One TB of memory. Enough said.
iPod touch/iPhone Update 1.1.3; Bookmarks on the menu, customizable menu, lyric support, etc. On iPod touch, all the iPhone apps (Maps, Stocks, Weather, Notes, Mail) except phone app. However, early iPod touch owners (like me) will have to pay an extra $20. I know, it sucks. Also, Google Maps can find out where you are through cell phone towers, or Wi-Fi.
iTunes movie rentals; iTunes Store now has movie rentals from all major studios. New movies are $4, and oldies are $3. High-def movies for Apple TV can be rented, but not bought. Rentals last for 24 hours.
Apple TV, Take Two; I’m not that familiar with Apple TV, but Engadget is:
- The update adds AirTunes support for the Apple TV for streaming directly to the device.
- Your average HD movie download for the ATV is going to be about 4GB –
but if you’ve got a reasonably fast connection it should start
streaming and playing within a minute. - Standard SD movies should be a bout 1.2GB.
- Just to be clear about how rentals work, they can’t move OUT of the
Apple TV if acquired ON the ATV. If you need to finish your movie on
the go but bought from ATV, you have to rent it again on iTunes with
your computer. - You’ve also now got “favorites,” which act as pseudo-subscriptions. These aren’t synced or the same as the subs in iTunes.
- Front Row is NOT undergoing any UI changes (at this time). Don’t expect it to look the same as the new Apple TV.
- Search isn’t alphabetical, it’s predictive and recommendation based. So
if you’re looking up a letter, the results will seem out of order, but
will actually be calculated to be the most likely hit based on
popularity. - There’s Dolby Digital 5.1, as we saw, but otherwise there are no codec changes in the ATV.
Apple TV Updates courtesy of Engadget
And…that’s about it. Sorry I was a little late, I was really busy earlier this week. Happy MacWorld!
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Actually, there is supposed to be some snow, so you may be lucky. If so, I’ll post a notice, so check back before the keynote.
Keynote times are as following:
07:00AM – Hawaii
09:00AM – Pacific
10:00AM – Mountain
11:00AM – Central
12:00PM – Eastern
05:00PM – GMT / London
06:00PM – Paris
08:00PM – Moscow
02:00AM – Tokyo (January 16th)
Also, I see no need to publish rumors at this point, due to the keynote being so close. Just be patient.
Now, if I’m not here tomorrow, I recommend Engadget, MacWorld magazine, or Gizmodo’s live coverage. I personally prefer Gizmodo. Links below:
http://www.macworld.com/article/131486/2008/01/liveupdate.html
http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/15/live-from-macworld-2008-steve-jobs-keynote/
First of all, Steve’s “One More Thing…” would not be just YouTube downloads in iTunes. That’s not that big. Plus, if Apple had a partnership with Twitter, it would also be with Jaiku, because Google owns Jaiku, and Google loves Apple. Google would definitely be in on this if it were true. Read the Wikipedia transcript after the jump.
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This is a test for a new Firefox extension I just downloaded, called
ScribeFire. I hope it works out. If so, I will be posting more often! PS: I just found out that ScribeFire adds this “Powered by ScribeFire” text on the bottom of the post, but this shouldn’t be a problem to any of you, right? If so, please comment on White Innovation, or my other blog at http://gamingcentral.wordpress.com Thanks!
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Some spy shots from MacWorld were posted today from AppleInsider, and I have absolutely no clue what they mean. It seems that all the banners at MacWorld say, “2008. There’s something in the air”. Something in the air? As in light-weight?
More shots after the jump.
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The Mac Pro and the XServe both got updated today with 8Core processors. Some specs for all you Apple-loving fanboys after the jump.
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I have made some drastic changes to my list of MacWorld-expected things to come. First off, let’s see some things that could be updated.
- Apple Cinema Displays; These haven’t been updated for years
- Mac Pro; About Due for an update, visually and internally
- iPod Hi-Fi; Although they seem to be discontinued, Apple recently filed a patent for a new iPod Hi-Fi system.
- Apple Mighty Mouse; Please, Apple, make a mouse that I am actually willing to use. The Mighty Mouse is OK right now, but I expect a better mouse to use with an expensive Mac.
- MacBook; The MacBook has had some drastic change inside the box, but it hasn’t really changed visually on the outside since it was first announced.
- Mac Mini; This one, not so much. However, it would be nice to see a redesign
- A New Keyboard; Apple recently filed a patent for a Maximus-like Keyboard. I should be posting this in a separate post in a minute.
- iTunes Movie Rentals; Steve always announces some update to iTunes, or the iTunes Store. The Latest news says that Apple is in talks with 20th Century Fox and Walt Disney to offer Movie Rentals, probably for $5 or less.
Now, here is my most wanted list for MacWorld.
- A Tablet; With all the multi-touch research at Apple, they must be putting it to some other use besides the iPhone. Plus, there’s a reason why the SDK for the iPhone was delayed. Now, when the iMacs were updated a few months ago, he stated that he had not been working on a touch Mac. However, he also said that there would never be video on an iPod. Look where the iPod is now. :p
- A Sub-Notebook; AKA, an Ultra-mobile PC. Maybe something to replace the 12-in. PowerBook that is now gone.
- Blu-Ray or HD-DVD in a Mac; Sooner or later, the Mac is going to be able to play HD movies from a disk. However, Apple might wait this one out, just to be safe. Right now, rumors say Apple is going for a Blu-Ray Mac, due to it being exclusively supported by Disney (Steve-o is on the board at Disney, because of his work at Pixar), and that Apple has had a friendly history with Sony.
- 3G iPhone; This has already been confirmed by Apple CEO Steve Jobs, and AT&T CEO, the only question is when. However, a 3G iPhone may mean they will delay the announcements of their Macs to a later date, so the iPhone doesn’t overshadow them. Expect the 3G iPhone to be announced, but not released at MacWorld.
*Image courtesy of Paul Sakuma, Associated Press
I will be the first to admit, Apple doesn’t always use it’s patents. In fact, most of them they never will. However, it is interesting to look at some.
Apple patented a MacBook dock that let you slide your MacBook into an iMac shell with a screen, so you can use your MacBook like a desktop at home/office. It’s actually a pretty clever idea, bringing the MacBook and iMac in one. You can enjoy the iMac’s big screen, RAM, ports, a terabyte of space, and processing power without buying another whole computer. The dock will probably charge your MacBook, although this hasn’t been specified as far as I know.
Next, let’s look at the keyboard. Apple’s current keyboard is great, but this keyboard has little OLED screens on every key, allowing it to display different language keys, shortcut icons to apps, or even a customized layout of symbols that you choose. This is very similar to the Optimus keyboard, shown to the left of the image above. I think I hear a lawsuit.
