Here we go! LIVE from MACWORLD...here are the announcements (1 Viewer)

[Sam Posten]

Forget the battery, $2800 for a non-blu-ray equipped laptop is kkkkkkraaaaaaazzzy!

 

[Carlo_M]

I agree Sam. With the news about them not incorporating the i7 chips due to short supply, I still think of this as pretty much the same machine as before with a unibody construction. The increase in performance with the 1066MHz RAM and GT9600 is offset in my mind by the non-removable battery drawback.

When they get a BD drive and the i7 mobile chipset in these, I'll be upgrading my 15" 2.33GHz MBP for sure.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Yeah, but think about the "world of hurt" you are avoiding

If BD does show up on Apple Machines look for it on the Mac Pros and other desktops first.
My bet -- no Blu-ray before Snow Leopard. If then. If ever, if BD continues to sputter and download sales/rentals take off

 

[DaveF]

Macalope's take on the Keynote is interesting. I'll quote the second best part of the editorial

 

[Carlo_M]

I'm now beginning to understand why this is Apple's last Macworld Expo.

Pretty much they were trapped in a routine where they had to do big announcements for MWE and WWDC. But sometimes supply delays don't coincide with the big conferences (as I think we've seen here). There is no doubt that Mac mini and iMac updates are coming (those who know how have found the new keystrings in upcoming builds of Mac OSX referencing updated minis and iMacs) but they couldn't get things finalized and the product released in time for MWE. So now that people are in this "something big has to be announced at MWE Keynote" mode, there is inherent disappointment where perhaps there shouldn't be, or wouldn't be, if this pattern hadn't existed.

So now it makes sense. The new hardware will come out when it's good and ready, and I prefer it that way. I'd rather not have some half-a$$ed effort come out just to make it in time for some keynote announcement. Give me a full-fledged hardware upgrade when it makes sense to do so for the company, not for these announcements.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Carlo,

Makes sense.

 

[DaveF]

As other pundits have put it: Steve Jobs / Apple need to control everything about their business. And they had no control over MacWorld. Every January they were required to keynote and announce amazing things, regardless of their product schedule. Leaving MacWorld, they now fully control their product schedule.

 

[Sam Posten]

The stream looks like crap but the podcast is AWESOME.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/M...4&id=275834665

 

[Blu]

I was hoping for a 32 gig iPhone.
Guess that is something that will likely happen...someday.

Overall it just wasn't very exciting and as many have posted anticlimactic.

 

[Carlo_M]

Someday for sure

I'm actually glad they didn't rush something out, because the new rumor is of a quad-core ARM CPU making its way into the next iPhone refresh. So that's what I'm holding out for!

 

[DavidJ]

Now that would be very cool. I hope my first-gen phone makes it that long. After never dropping at first, it has been hitting the deck a little too often and strangely it's not when the 3-year old grabs it. Just tonight it had its first drop on concrete when I was coming in from the garage.

 

[ErichH]

I've been waiting for Apple to hold the larger events at 1 Infinite Loop for years. It's not like they don't have the resources for a big event at home.

 

[Sam Posten]

Orrrr, they could go to CES. Which makes no sense to me given their reasons for leaving MWSF...

 

[Carlo_M]

Boom! NostraCarlo strikes again!

From David Pogue's (NY Times) blog, interviewing Apple's Phil Schiller:

 

[Blu]

OOOOHHHHHH!!!!!
Quad Core iPhone!!!!
Now that is worth waiting for!!!!

 

[DaveF]

Snow Leopard Bundle? Macworld editorializes that the new Leopard / iLife / iWork bundle sets the stage for a Snow Leopard bundle. This would take the sting out of a relatively feature-poor OS upgrade.
This sounds sensible and I hope it's so. I plan to upgrade all three of those apps (this year?) and this would be the most cost effective option for me. (fingers crossed)

 

[Sam Posten]

yeah but it screws those of us who buy em 1 by 1 as they drip out over the next few months... Wahh =p I just got iWork for the first time and am liking it, not a bad deal for $79, I didn't even bother to see if i could get a student discount on that one. Can't wait for the iLife update, even if all I intend to use out of it is the new iMovie.

 

[Carlo_M]

Just scored iWork 09 for my usual academic institution's discount price of $39. I've been a user of 06 and 08, so I'll let you know what I think of it when I get a chance to install it tonight and use it throughout the week.

They said to expect iLife 09 by end of the month, I'll be purchasing that for sure as well (I'm hoping GarageBand 09 can get me near-ProTools basic--and I mean really basic--functionality at a fraction of the price).