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Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08) - Page 2

post #31 of 66
1/15/08 at 10:52am

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

MBA is intriguing but the SSD a $1300 option? Bleh...no thanks. I'll wait for the $399 SSD from OWC.
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post #32 of 66
1/15/08 at 10:53am

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig S

And am I mistaken, or is this the first Mac in a long time with no firewire port??

I do not believe you are mistaken and it is weird to think of an Apple without one, but the it seems that it would not be needed by the typical users of this product.

Quote:
Time Capsule - Glad I held off on buying that Airport Extreme. This will meet my needs nicely.

I'm looking forward to finding out more about this.
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post #33 of 66
1/15/08 at 10:58am

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Well, I'm not a book kinda guy, but 5/32s is darn tiny.
Sexy little thing for 6 bills less than an entry Mac Pro - It'll sell.

No BD, no new displays. Sht!
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post #34 of 66
1/15/08 at 10:59am

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Just checking the MBA specs. The keyboard is indeed backlit. The 80GB drive is only 4200 RPM, which is what I expected. Again, for the target user this will be fine. This is not a gaming or a movie-editing machine. As a writing machine, however, this looks fantastic.
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post #35 of 66
1/15/08 at 11:08am

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Quote:
I'm looking forward to finding out more about this.
The Time Capsule looks just like the current Airport Extreme. Same ports (Gigabit Ethernet plus USB). Looks like they've just stuffed a 7200 RPM drive in there. Considering the base AE goes for $180, and you'll pay about $280 (or more) for a bare 1TB drive, $500 for the integrated solution seems lke a pretty fair price.
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post #36 of 66
1/15/08 at 11:27am

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

iTunes 7.6 is available now. I'm downloading as we speak.

Just ordered a 1TB Time Capsule. Ships in February.
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post #37 of 66
1/15/08 at 12:43pm

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Let's see - a 230 box that allows me 24 hours to view a 720p flick for 5 bucks. Hmm or I can buy a 1080p BD for 10-12-15 bucks and watch it forever. Hmm or I can own 16-18 BDs for the cost of the box and 10 rentals Hmm ?

OK, I said this thing was a dead piece of gear many times, and yet Apple has a Zombie fetish - it's back from the dead (IMO at least)

I know I know - some of you guys like it

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post #38 of 66
1/15/08 at 1:14pm

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Quote:
Originally Posted by ErichH
Let's see - a 230 box that allows me 24 hours to view a 720p flick for 5 bucks. Hmm or I can buy a 1080p BD for 10-12-15 bucks and watch it forever. Hmm or I can own 16-18 BDs for the cost of the box and 10 rentals Hmm ?

OK, I said this thing was a dead piece of gear many times, and yet Apple has a Zombie fetish - it's back from the dead (IMO at least)

I know I know - some of you guys like it
Unfair comparison. You're not including the price of the BD player. Let's just say the cost of the BD player & the ATV cancel each other out.

Now. Where are you getting your BDs at 10-15 bucks?? 20-30 is more like it - unless you're talking BOGO sales, which aren't going to be around forever.

You're basically at the same rent vs. buy decision that's always been out there. Some flicks you want to own. Some you only want to watch once. For the latter, I'd rather pay $5 once than $20 and then have to hassle with eBay to sell it.

That said, Netflix is still the better deal for those who rent a lot of movies.

Different strokes for different folks.
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post #39 of 66
1/15/08 at 1:17pm

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Not mentioned before - Quick Time 7.4 is also available now. Needed to play rentals. I found out when I launched iTunes 7.6 the first time.

iTunes does a library update with this new version. Took about 4 minutes for my 105 GB library.
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post #40 of 66
1/15/08 at 1:44pm

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

I didn't catch the keynote, so I scanned this thread and glanced at Apple.com. I'm disappointed, but waiting for more information to improve my mood.

AppleTV -- A rental club with a $229 membership fee doesn't excite me right now. AppleTV is improving and this is a significant step. But I still believe it needs integrated, automated DVD / Blu-Ray ripping. My Tivo does movie rentals moonlighting from its main job of being a fantastic DVR. Yes, Steve Jobs believes the world is going to stop buying discs here shortly. Then give me us a free ATV and make your profit on the rentals. Or sell me a box that will do useful things with the movies I own. But don't make me pay for the privilege of paying you.I'm reconsidering my opinion on this...

Time Capsule -- if they add this feature to existing Airport Extremes, I'll be excited. If this is the only to get wireless Time Machine backups, I'll be piqued. I bought the first gen draft-n AEBS and bought my MBP before Leopard based on the (reasonable) expectation that TM would support AEBS-drives. If this is now solely available with new hardware -- well, that's very annoying.

iPhone SDK -- great news! brings the phone closer to what I need. Get me replacements for some key Palm apps (and get rid of ATT) and I can get one.

MacBook Air -- think it's a cool idea but I have no use for it, so I'll benignly ignore it.

Anything else announced of note? Anyone want to buy a slightly used Airport Extreme Base Station?
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post #41 of 66
1/15/08 at 2:09pm

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig S
First new product announce: Time Capsule - an Airport Extreme/hard drive combo. Basically an Apple NAS for Time Machine. I don't think any of the rumor mills got this.

$300 for 500 GB, $500 for a terabyte. I'm buying one of these!
FWIW, Daring Fireball predicted this.
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post #42 of 66
1/15/08 at 2:18pm

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Quote:
A rental club with a $229 membership fee
You don't need the AppleTV to rent movies. Maybe for HD, though.
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post #43 of 66
1/15/08 at 2:36pm

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Chan
You don't need the AppleTV to rent movies. Maybe for HD, though.
That's good news. But my point remains: the point of AppleTV as built is to let you rent movies and TV shows from iTunes. It's basically a $229 price to then rent movies. I'm sure people will buy it and love it; it's a neat idea per se. But for me, it's the wrong features at the wrong price right now.
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post #44 of 66
1/15/08 at 3:14pm

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig S
Unfair comparison. You're not including the price of the BD player. Let's just say the cost of the BD player & the ATV cancel each other out.

Now. Where are you getting your BDs at 10-15 bucks?? 20-30 is more like it - unless you're talking BOGO sales, which aren't going to be around forever.

You're basically at the same rent vs. buy decision that's always been out there. Some flicks you want to own. Some you only want to watch once. For the latter, I'd rather pay $5 once than $20 and then have to hassle with eBay to sell it.

That said, Netflix is still the better deal for those who rent a lot of movies.

Different strokes for different folks.

I own a player, but fair enough on your point.

I have a brand new BD on the table that was 10 bucks . 3rd party sellers at Amazon is where. I average 12-16 when I shop after release date, but 20 plus on date for a few.

These little boxes seem like a very disposable design. A design that doesn't include a hard media player, but does include a Visa Card nipple. I'm so harsh huh? I'm probably just pissed at Apple for calling 720 HD.
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post #45 of 66
1/15/08 at 3:16pm

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig S
Not mentioned before - Quick Time 7.4 is also available now. Needed to play rentals. I found out when I launched iTunes 7.6 the first time.

iTunes does a library update with this new version. Took about 4 minutes for my 105 GB library.


Did it muck up your library, my TV Shows properly tagged now seem to be scattered about.
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post #46 of 66
1/15/08 at 4:17pm

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Quote:
If this is the only to get wireless Time Machine backups, I'll be piqued.
The Time Capsule is shipping in February. I'll bet Apple is still getting their software act together. We know 10.5.2 is coming soon. I suspect there'll be a firmware update for existing AEs to get them up to snuff so they can server Time Machine as well. In other words, I wouldn't start throwing brickbats just yet.
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post #47 of 66
1/15/08 at 4:19pm

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Quote:
Did it muck up your library, my TV Shows properly tagged now seem to be scattered about.
My music seemed fine. I have very few TV Shows, and I didn't check them.
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post #48 of 66
1/15/08 at 5:21pm

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig S
And here's number 4 - Yup, it's the MacBook Air!!! The World's Thinnest Notebook.
...
1 USB port, micro DVI, audio out. Magsafe power. 802.11n & Bluetooth.

No FireWire. Hmmm...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig S
5 hours battery life.

Using an "Integrated 37-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery". (I believe that means that the battery is sealed inside, like on an iPod.)
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post #49 of 66
1/15/08 at 5:30pm

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael_K_Sr
MBA is intriguing but the SSD a $1300 option? Bleh...no thanks. I'll wait for the $399 SSD from OWC.

The "off-the-shelf" models differ by $1299. But there are two upgrades that contribute to the difference:

1. Upgrade from 1.60 GHz CPU to 1.80 GHz CPU ($300)

2. Upgrade from HD to SSD ($999)

If you go to the Apple Store Web site, you can custom-order either upgrade as an add-on to the base model.
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post #50 of 66
1/15/08 at 5:53pm

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Quote:
It's basically a $229 price to then rent movies
The AppleTV does more than rent movies and TV shows. Whether those functions are worth the price difference from some theoretical 720p HD DVD player is another question. (Obviously SD DVD players are dirt-cheap nowadays.)

Quote:
I'm probably just pissed at Apple for calling 720 HD
Blame the geniuses that invented ATSC.

Quote:
I believe that means that the battery is sealed inside, like on an iPod
Yes, it is.

Quote:
Upgrade from HD to SSD ($999)
That's actually a pretty good deal, cheaper than some right now. Although you can imagine these prices will start to fall rapidly, unless there's some kind of supply problem.
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post #51 of 66
1/15/08 at 5:55pm

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

ATV and rentals may turn out great or may be a dud, I guess time will tell. But everyone who even has the option to rent from Apple already has the option to rent from their cable company (as you'll need cable's high-speed internet connection to begin with).

Will Apple's $3 movie be better than cable's $3 movie? Will spouses and non-HT gearheads prefer to rent from Apple so they can use ATV's better looking menu? Will people just ignore the product and continue to use Netflix/Blockbuster? It'll be an interesting year for Apple/iTunes at any rate.

I guess it will really hinge upon back catalog. My cable really only offers 50-60 new movies VOD at any given time, but they also have FREE movies on demand.
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post #52 of 66
1/15/08 at 6:39pm

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Chan
You don't need the AppleTV to rent movies. Maybe for HD, though.
Apple TV required for HD movies. From the TOS:
Quote:
Movies in high definition resolution (HD) are viewable only on TVs using your Apple TV and must be downloaded directly to your Apple TV.
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post #53 of 66
1/15/08 at 8:06pm

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

From what I have read, only rentals done through iTunes are portable (iPod/iPhone). If you rent something on the ATV it stays there. Also, according to the ATV spec page "Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound is not available with all HD rentals."

I guess I was hoping that Apple was going upgrade the ATV hardware with a BD drive (or at least a DVD drive) and have 1080i output capability. Expanded CODEC support would also have been nice. To me, it almost seems that Apple is intentionally limiting the ATV to minimize its appeal.

The enhancements to the iPhone look nice. I will probably wait a week or so to update mine just to make sure no problems pop up.

The $20 upgrade for iPod Touch users...I can't make up my mind about this. I suppose it is not completely out of line but it also seems a little pricey especially since most people probably only want mail. I think $10 would have been a much better price. Or maybe $20 with some free movie rentals thrown in.

I don't get the MacBook Air. Yes, it is thin and light but with that 13.3 inch screen it is not small. Engadget posted some pics next to the MacBook Pro Comparison ...aren't people that are in the market for this type of notebook looking for something smaller? I also just read that it doesn't have a user replaceable battery. You have to send it away to Apple for several days and have them replace it. Yikes.

I wish they would either bring the Mini up to speed or just kill it.

Time Capsule looks nice. I may get one myself, but for a multi-Mac family 1TB for backing up seems like it could be a bit small. Also, I would have liked to have seen some way for Time Capsule to back up files off site, like to a .Mac account. Obviously backing up all your data to a .Mac account might not be practical but they could have provided a way for you to make "critical files" with Time Machine that would be sent over to Time Capsule and then Time Capsule would upload those to .Mac.

Overall I didn't think there was much of a WOW factor in the keynote. I am surprised that there was no surprise.

At least now I can finally make a decision on what Mac I am going to buy!

-Keith
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post #54 of 66
1/16/08 at 1:42am

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Quote:
I don't get the MacBook Air. Yes, it is thin and light but with that 13.3 inch screen it is not small. Engadget posted some pics next to the MacBook Pro Comparison ...aren't people that are in the market for this type of notebook looking for something smaller? I also just read that it doesn't have a user replaceable battery. You have to send it away to Apple for several days and have them replace it. Yikes.
Speaking only for myself, I fall in the demographic that the MBA is targeting. I want something lighter than my MBP (which the MBA is) but I don't want something that feels like a mini-laptop, which my friend's Sony VAIO feels like. Sure hers is also 3lbs, but the keyboard feels cramped and the screen is too small. I think a 13.3" is the smallest my eyes are comfortable with, and the 1280x800 resolution is fine for that size. And by the looks of it, the MBA keyboard is full size, or near to it.
Quote:
MBA is intriguing but the SSD a $1300 option? Bleh...no thanks. I'll wait for the $399 SSD from OWC.
Something tells me the MBA will be very difficult to upgrade. I read at macrumors that the RAM is soldered onto the board, so much for RAM upgrades. And while the Macbook had an easily replaceable HD, the MBP's HD requires some pretty serious surgery (though it can be done). I'm thinking to fit the whole MBA package into such a tiny frame, you're not going to be able to replace the HD without some major elbow grease. I may be wrong, we'll see when the manual comes out...
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post #55 of 66
1/16/08 at 1:44am

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig S
OK, here's why no Apple TV before - Apple TV Take 2. Rent movies directly (no PC required, can still sync with iTunes though). DVD quality (plus HD, 5.1 audio). Looks just like original Apple TV.

HD rentals!!! 100 titles starting today. $4.99.

Pretty much do everything directly from Apple TV, without messing with a computer. Rent movies, buy music, get video podcasts, get screensavers from .Mac photo galleries, get Flickr photos.

Oh yes, stuff you d/l on Apple TV will sync back to a computer if you wish.

I think Apple TV just stopped being a "hobby".

Yeah!! Free software update for existing Apple TV owners! Thanks, Steve! Software available in 2 weeks.

New prices. $229 for 40 GB model. No mention yet of price for 100 GB model (guess - $299??), New model ships in 2 weeks.
Craig - I haven't had a chance to watch the Keynote, and I can't find it on review sites, can you be more specific about the new model shipping? Is this confirmed? Currently the AppleTV comes in 40GB and 160GB flavors and both experienced price drops. Did you hear that there will be a third version? Thanks!
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post #56 of 66
1/16/08 at 9:28am

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith Plucker

I don't get the MacBook Air. Yes, it is thin and light but with that 13.3 inch screen it is not small. Engadget posted some pics next to the MacBook Pro Comparison ...aren't people that are in the market for this type of notebook looking for something smaller? I also just read that it doesn't have a user replaceable battery. You have to send it away to Apple for several days and have them replace it. Yikes.

-Keith

The `Air' is a dead give away. This thing really needs company from another Mac and certainly another drive.
Slow speed (by today's standards) and small power is not the issue here - it's Bling.
Would it be fun to play with one? Sure!
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post #57 of 66
1/16/08 at 2:31pm

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Quote:
Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound is not available with all HD rentals
This just might be the standard disclaimer, in that not all movies even have a 5.1 mix. If it's available for DVD, there's no real reason to make more work and do another mix. But you know that if someone reads "HD with 5.1 sound", and then downloads a movie without it, they will complain.
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post #58 of 66
1/16/08 at 9:24pm

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carlo Medina
Craig - I haven't had a chance to watch the Keynote, and I can't find it on review sites, can you be more specific about the new model shipping? Is this confirmed? Currently the AppleTV comes in 40GB and 160GB flavors and both experienced price drops. Did you hear that there will be a third version? Thanks!
I think that was just a misinterpretation off the liveblog I was following. The ATV hardware is not changing at all. The price drop is immediate. You can order it from the Apple Store at the new price today and it will ship within 24 hours. You'll receive the same ATV that's been out since last year. The two weeks bit refers to the availability of the new "Take 2" software. Owners will be able to update their ATVs directly from the box itself (assuming it's hooked up to your home network which has access to the internet). I imagine at some point after that the ATVs will ship with the new software preloaded.
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post #59 of 66
1/16/08 at 9:32pm

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Quote:
ATV and rentals may turn out great or may be a dud, I guess time will tell. But everyone who even has the option to rent from Apple already has the option to rent from their cable company (as you'll need cable's high-speed internet connection to begin with).
Believe or not, there are those of us who DON'T subscribe to cable, and you DON'T need cable to get high-speed internet (surely you've head of DSL). I'm looking forward to renting movies through my ATV.
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post #60 of 66
1/16/08 at 9:48pm

Re: Official MacWorld Keynote Coverage Thread (1-15-08)

Dissappointing.

I would buy the iPod Touch software, but from what I have heard, there is no database for 'my location' in Canada, so it wont work.

Don't need the MacBookAir

I would kill for the announcement of an iPhone on Rogers.

why rent from apple on 720P when I can rent from zip for $25 a month with as many movies (as I) can handle?

very cool news, just, disappointing.

and I just installed Leopard last night and even that is dissappointing as well.

Looks like my wallet will be more 'fully stuffed' this year at least.
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