Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Apple's New MacBook (Hot) Air + MacWorld 2008 Crap

TUAW down during Stevenote 2008


So, today was the "Stevenote," aka the keynote address given by Apple HHIC Steve Jobs, at MacWorld 2008. Every year Macheads and gadget geeks (like me) like to follow the Stevenote live because we want to be among the first to know what exciting new innovations Apple will be loosing into the wilds this year. Over the past couple MacWorlds, I've been less and less enthused by what he's announced. I remember thinking AppleTV was a big fat "who cares?" and the iPhone and Touch were both pretty underwhelming (iPhone can't do video and the Touch has no camera and neither can wireless sync) so I was kind of hoping this year would be different.

Truth be told, I've been so distracted by my XO, I barely remember MacWorld was even happening until Sunday night. It wasn't until this morning when I heard about the rumors of the "MacBook Air." So, I can't say that I was frothing at the mouth. What was funny was that it seemed like everyone else was.

TUAW.com was slow to load, Engadget just stopped loading as did even Twitter.com, which was very frustrating since I had trouble pulling up my own Twitter account--that means that the keynote was hitting sites not even directly related to Apple stuff.

So, what did we get from all of this hubub? Not a whole lot. Apple TV is finally what it should have been all along--a standalone media PC--it no longer needs another PC (did it need one before?) and can stream in DVD quality or HD, which (I guess) is nice. Of course, all I'd want it for is recording, but the Apple TV still can't record. The new $229 price is nicer, though.

Oh and iTunes is renting movies now. This I think is cool, but nothing to write home about, really.

Then we've got Time Capsule, which is nice, but over-priced. It's a wifi networked hard drive that automatically backs up your Mac. It runs $300 for 500 gig and $500 for a terabyte. I think that's a bit pricey since 500 gigger HDs tend to price in at around $100-$150 and enclosures are $20-30. Granted, the TC is wifi, but who cares for something like backups? Personally, I have trouble keeping both of my Macs connected to my NetGear n router these days--I don't need something else that will fall off the network randomly.

Then, the iPhone.

Yeah, gotta say that I'm not inspired to rush out to buy an iPhone or a Touch after today. For a minute I was thanks to those movie rentals, but since Steve still didn't say anything about cutting and pasting on the iPhone, I'm sticking with my Sidekick 3. I can cut and paste on that, thanks.

All those new apps don't do anything for me, either. Triangulating your location between cell towers? OK, great, but that's only good if you're lost. What if you don't get lost very often? When I do, I just ask for directions (even as a guy, I do this).

And I've got to say, what's the big deal with the MacBook Air? I like the thin and the battery life, but a 13.3 inch screen? Seems to be missing the point of "small". Apple should have something to compete with the UMPCs out there, they don't need something else that competes with other laptops. I'd rather have innovation over elegance. Oh and now they're saying that the battery that last 5 hours on a charge isn't replaceable. Whoops! Plus only one (ONE???) USB port, no FireWire, no ExpressCard slot, no SD slot, no IR port (so no Apple Remote usage), and as RodFather points out, it's so flat, will it wobble at all? Aluminum can bend ever-so-slightly due to subtle pressures on it when it's in a bag--the Air will be even more susceptible to this thanks to it simply not having the kind of structural support a thicker laptop would have.

Remember all those complaints when the Nano came out? Everyone said it was too thin and people were sitting on theirs. Granted, the Air is HUGE, but still--thanks to straight rules of physics, it can't be that sturdy.

And again, I fall back on the whole lack-of-innovation thing. It's just a really thin laptop. The only thing actually innovative is that it can come with a 64 gig SSD (Solid State Drive)--there's a catch, of course. The price tag rockets up to $3000.

3 grand for nothing more than a reeeally skinny laptop? No, thanks.

Now, if they did something like a MacBooklet, a sort of tabletable eee with OSX on it, then we'd be talking!

But only a vaguely cool update to the iPhone and Apple TV? I think this is the last Stevenote I'm going to (try to) follow as it happens...

Orignal From: Apple's New MacBook (Hot) Air + MacWorld 2008 Crap

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