Yes most people will say it was short and not that full of crazy surprises that we expected, but it did have some great additions. For me personally the product that stuck out the most was the Time Capsule. I love this product because I am tired of wires hooked up to my mac mini and want some space on my desk. With the Time capsule it backs up my Mac with Time Machine, which is included in Leopard. It is a wireless external hard drive and and airport hub. Another great asset to me is the 1 Terabyte of space it includes, which amazes me and makes my job so much easier with all the files I am saving everyday.
Time Capsule
Automatic backup with Time Machine
Easy wireless networking
Up to 5x the performance, 2x the range
Wireless drive sharing
Print without wires
Strong security and access control
Works with iPhone, Apple TV and more
Another update was the iphone firmware 1.1.3. Yes this has added functions well needed such as multi person text messages, which should have been added a long time ago. An update to Safari on the iphone makes it able for the iphone user to save web clips to the home screen as an icon, which is also done on the Mac with Mac OS X 10.5 as a dashboard widget. Playing with the home screen, which isn&rsqo;t new for people who have hacked their Iphones already is fun and shows promise of what&rsqo;s to come in February when Apple opens up to outside apps.
Google Maps is also enhanced with a new UI and a cool tracking option. With this option with a click of a button it auto tracks where you are at that moment and you can use that as a starting point for directions. I am happy Apple has stepped it up in these directions, but there is a lot more to do and will happen soon.
Click here for the online video tutorial to learn more.
A huge buzz before the conference was the fact that Apple was going to reveal a tablet macbook laptop of sorts. When i first heard about this i was just wondering how would it look and function. I figured it would be some sort of tablet based on the Iphone, but with the regular functions of a small laptop. And behold the Macbook Air is here. It is extremely thin and by Steve Jobs pulling it out of an brown office envelope proves it right then and there. I personally wouldn&rsqo;t find use for it since it doesn&rsqo;t have a superdrive installed, it will have to be purchased through an accessory made for the Macbook Air called the MacBook Air SuperDrive and it isn&rsqo;t that fast where I can just buy a regular MacBook with everything. But, it still has a great design and is extremely light and I know that would help to have something light to carry around when I am traveling and etc. Yes this isn&rsqo;t the slimmest laptop ever, but it comes really close. I am not really ecstatic about this new macbook, but only time will tell how well it will be received since it&rsqo;s design and size will be a huge draw in for the product.
The standard version includes an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB memory, 80GB 4200-rpm PATA hard drive1, Built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi2 and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR for the price of $1,799.00. For more info Click Here.
The Apple Tv has been enhanced with some great new features, one that includes online movie rental from itunes. Most people are saying this isn&rsqo;t that great of an idea, but I think this will be huge and bring the apple TV to the forefront. To be able to sit there and rent and buy HD quality movies on the fly is wonderful and should have been the idea of the apple TV in the first place. Another wonderful thing about this is that the update is free for all of the customers who bought the apple TV previously thank god. Here are the other updates I picked up from Crave that I didn&rsqo;t mention.
- Direct onscreen ordering: Previously, video content for Apple TV needed to be ordered on a computer (Windows/Mac) and then streamed from that PC&rsqo;s hard drive to the Apple TV. The updated Apple TV will allow direct access to the iTunes Store, so you can buy or rent movies and TV shows directly–no PC intermediary required. (Music can also be purchased, as well.)
- Instant streaming: Unlike the “queue-and-view” method listed above, the updated video functionality is said to allow videos to begin streaming within about 30 seconds.
- Upgraded video and audio quality: We complained loudly about the substandard video quality of existing iTunes video downloads, which were optimized for the small screen of an iPod or iPhone. The new crop of videos are says to be two tiers: DVD and HD quality, with Dolby 5.1 surround sound (instead of the stereo-only soundtracks on earlier content) on the latter.
- Wider selection of videos from all major studios: Past selections were a scattershot grab bag, but Apple has lined up content from every major studio (Disney, Fox, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal, Sony, Miramax, and Lionsgate, and their respective subsidiaries). Apple is promising more than 1,000 movies, available 30 days after the DVD release.
- Movie rentals: In the past, movies could only be bought on iTunes, at prices around that of DVDs. As of today, iTunes is kicking off movie rentals: $2.99 for catalog (older) movies and $3.99 for new movies, plus a dollar more for the HD versions of each. You have 30 days to start watching a movie, and 24 hours to finish it once you start. In addition to being available on Apple TV, rentals will work on Macs, PCs, and all current iPods and iPhones (though it&rsqo;s unclear if movies rented directly on the Apple TV will be transferrable to any of those other devices).
- More photo options: The updated Apple TV will allow access to online Flickr and .Mac photo galleries. That&rsqo;s in addition to pulling photos from networked computers, as it does now.
- music and TV show purchases: Music and TV shows can be purchased directly on Apple TV, and both will be synced back to the iTunes software running on your computer.
