MacWorld 08: Few Surprises But Still a Lot to Get Excited About
Excuse me while I just tuck into some humble pie. Yet again, the only thing I seemed to have gotten right about a MacWorld is that Steve Jobs would deliver the keynote. I tried to be conservative but still seemed to over-dream it. Kudos though to my fellow correspondent, Aayush Arya, who had much greater success with his predictions.
Touch isn’t the theme of 2008, although it has raised its profile, first with the new MacBook Air, and secondly with promised upgrades to the rest of the MacBook inventory.
This MacWorld followed the trend started last year where software barely gets a look in. But for how long Apple can maintain the pace? Can it follow up again next year with more revolutions? You’ve got to start to wonder if Apple is outgrowing itself. Can Steve really keep a handle on all the projects Apple has diversified into? What area of the business will suffer through his lack of time to have input?
On the flip side, it does give him a chance to groom some heirs. Although—he’s probably already got his engineers working on Steve mini.
One big shock of MacWorld was iPod touch users having to carry the can and pay to get new features. What made it a bigger slap is that iPhone users don’t have to pay for their new features, and nor do Apple TV owners have to pay for theirs. I’m at a loss to explain how the iPod touch upgrade is soooo much more costly than those of the iPhone or Apple TV. As Steve said, the iPod touch runs the same system as the iPhone. So it’s not like porting those apps to the touch would have been any work.
Another disappointment was that the rumor mills had got it mostly right (movie rentals, iPhone upgrade, and MacBook Air). Because the iPhone upgrade had been leaked, that demo lost its excitement. But at least the crowd still managed to chuckle at the “restless” icons. (And I enjoyed the amusing swipe Randy Newman had at the Mac rumors fraternity for spoiling things.)
But there were a couple of surprises still, fortunately. As well as Time Capsule, possibly the biggest—and most appreciated—surprise was that every major movie studio is on board with the movie rentals, despite many rumors that some, and Universal in particular, wouldn’t be there.
My thoughts on each of the announcements are:
# 1 Time Capsule
A great device that everyone running a few or more Macs should consider. However, do not rely on it as your sole backup. It is an onsite device so is at an equal risk of fire or theft as the computers it is backing up. Therefore ,it’s still imperative to have a backup regime that includes backup to some form of media that can be stored offsite.
Another good thing about Time Capsule is it could mean backing up to any networked drive using Time Machine is imminent.
#2 iPhone upgrade
A nice upgrade to the iPhone with some features the crowd clearly appreciated.
With me not expecting to be able to afford or justify the iPhone’s costs when it finally arrives here in Oz sometime this decade, the additional apps for the iPod touch has made it very tempting—mail and notes in particular. Ironically, the touch has come down $20 in Australia. So tell me again why current owners have to pay for the upgrade?
#3 iTMS movie rentals
Excellent deal with watch and move anywhere and 24 hrs to watch—which is the same as Video Ezy for new films—and you can watch as often as you like in that 24 hours. This will make a lot of people happy and will prove to be the most significant announcement of this MacWorld.
Of course the big bummer is it’s not available in Oz. We still don’t have TV shows either. So it kind of neuters the next item announced, Apple TV 2.0
The greatest thing of the Apple TV 2.0 is that it works on existing hardware so Apple TV 1 owners don’t get stooged and left behind. Of course, the other huge aspect is “No computer required!”
On a downside, there’s been no price cut in Oz (yet). So we pay more for less features (than the US)! Thanks, Steve. Not.
The final announcement in this section was DVDs being created with an iPod version of the movie. Again, something that had been strongly rumored. For (current generation) iPod owners, this is something to get very excited about.
#4 MacBook Air
And finally we got to the MacBook Air. Despite the surprising cynicism of MacRumors readers who are rating its announcement overwhelmingly negatively (2:1 against), I reckon this is a great device. As I mentioned in my previous article, the rumored tiny MacBook didn’t cut it with me. And if the market was there, Apple wouldn’t have cut the 12-inch PowerBooks.
Scoble’s excited and can’t wait to get one. And I’m excited too. Why? Because it’s still a full sized but very portable laptop, not some 10-inch ultra light confused about its identity. I think Apple got this right.
And I think its design is totally gorgeous and breathtaking.
One particularly cool feature is the Remote Disc, which lets you use the optical drive on a remote Mac or PC. And what’s really funky about that is you can install Mac software from a Windows PC. That’ll mess with a few Win-nuts’ heads. 
As the MacBook Air has multi-touch, then it’s built into Leopard already (or in 10.5.2), so how long before third party multi-touch pads come out for desktop Macs? That’s something exciting to think about!
Overall, an impressive MacWorld with the two major announcements (MacBook Air and movies on iTMS) sure to shake up their industries in 2008.
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Comments
Not surprising that all the major studios are on board. These are led by (presumeably) pragmatic businessmen and personal enmities will never get in the way of making money.
Jobs knew he had to bend some to satisfy the studios and the studios knew that they can’t be left out of all the major download rental players. Especially since the threat of downloads leapfrogging Blu-ray seems ever likelier as bandwidth increases.
On a different note, loved Randy Newman’s insurgent take on Bush and US geopolitics.
I think the times decided on the movie rentals are a bit odd - considering the way I watch borrowed and rented movies.
24 hours to finish watching a movie or watch again is too short! Frequently when I watch a movie, we don’t have time to watch the whole thing the same day. Many movies get split it up into two watching sessions, a day or two apart. If the movie is really long, sometimes there are three viewing sessions. And if it’s a watch-twice kind of movie, again that’s probably not convenient in the same day.. it would suck trying to finish watching and the time runs out - stopping and deleting itself in the middle of a scene.
30 days for it hanging around however, seems like over-kill. The most I’ve kept borrowed movies before watching them is about 2 weeks.. and with them being downloads, why would you keep them so long anyway? Maybe it’s to give time for downloading over slow links.. otherwise, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Although all studios are on board - they’re only on board with a small range of titles. I wonder if they’re truly committed, or just dabbling their toes?
Oh, and I’d like to see 30hrs instead of 24.
If you start watching at 8pm one night, get distracted, you can still finish the next night.
Both very good points, Greg, particularly the 30 hrs. Would make a good slogan too: 30/30.
Hoby, in Oz new release videos have to be back the next day or you pay again. Isn’t that the same in the US?
Older ones though do have 3 day and weekly hire. So it’ll be interesting to see what Apple does with older titles.
Hoby, in Oz new release videos have to be back the next day or you pay again. Isn’t that the same in the US?
At Blockbuster, new releases are 2 days, but with a free 7 day grace period. So you basically get 9 days on new releases for the same price as Apple’s rental service. The downside of Blockbuster is having to drive to the store. The downside of iTMS rentals is lower quality, less portability, and more viewing restrictions.
#1. Surprisingly less expensive than I would have thought coming from Apple, although a bit pricey still for 500GB of storage. It seems like there could be a software solution for what they’re trying to achieve that would allow you to use TM with any NAS device.
#2. N/A
#3. A good compliment to Netflix for me but too many flaws and restrictions to replace it altogether. Too expensive, not enough time, too many restrictions. And the portability does not work with the 5G iPod, only the new current models of iPod.
Also, the lack of HD for the desktop is inexcusable. The only explanation I can think of is that they are trying to push Apple TV sales. What a crock.
#4. Typical Apple. Very pretty, over-priced, under-specked, and not particularly new but will have the fanboys claiming that Apple invented ultra-portability or were the ones “who got it right”.
geez, that;s a ridiculously good deal, Beeb! No wonder there’s some negative feedback about Apple’s 24 hour limit.
I’m also curious about how the digital version will be handled on rental copies. If they have to press two versions - one commercial and one for renters, then that’ll increase costs.
But if they just keep pressing one for all, then folks will rip the digital movies off rentals for their iPods.
geez, that;s a ridiculously good deal, Beeb! No wonder there’s some negative feedback about Apple’s 24 hour limit.
It gets better. If you go past the 9 days, they charge you for the full price of the movie. But if you bring it back, they refund the money and charge you $1.50 restocking fee. So in essence, the “late fee” for keeping a movie for a whole month is $1.50.
Plus, they have HD movies available to anyone with a membership, as does Netflix. Although neither offer streaming HD, which is too bad.
I still give the edge to Netflix. Unlimited streaming movies, plus 3 titles at home at any one time in HD or SD, all for $17/month.
I have a few comments to add:
1. Hang in there Oz, we just got TV shows in Canada a few weeks ago. Navigating all of the unions and bureaucracy takes time. Hold tight! Took forever to get the music store the first time around as well.
2. The movie studios are all on board because this is about rentals not internet distribution rights… the studios love this because this is what the WGA strike (the backdrop to all of these events) is all about… artists don’t get paid for movie rentals in North America. The studios have no obligation to artists on rentals in the US. It wasn’t about rentals + sales, it was just rentals.
3. I’m pleased that we don’t have to pay an upgrade tax for the software for Apple TVs already purchased… not sure of what accounting tricks let us get the upgrade for free when the ipod touch owners must pay, but i understand that Apple has paid dearly in the past for going afoul of US accounting practices, so I assume they’ve done their homework on this.
4. International movie rentals will be available before the end of the year. Less than half an hour to do a direct download for a few bucks versus sometimes days to get something on bit torrent (unless it’s top of the list). And Steve did point out that they wanted to push some of the movies that are great but not necessarily top ten. Getting these movies online is not obvious nor immediate. Oh, and I can’t tell the difference between 1080p or 720p on a good flat screen, even if others claim they can.
Just my two cents on this.
“Kudos though to my fellow correspondent, Aayush Arya, who had much greater success with his predictions.”
LOL! Thanks! Kudos to you too for maintaining the tradition. :p
I have to admit though, it’s more fun to be wrong than right.