Macworld 2008
Macworld 2008 is drawing to a close in the US, and as usual, Apple CEO Steve Jobs pulled a few surprises out of the hat during his keynote speech.
Besides a revamping of the iPhone which doesn't as yet concern us as yet, there were a couple of other hardware items in the spotlight. The first was the new Mac portable MacBook Air, touted as the world's thinnest notebook. What makes this notebook exceptional (besides its thinness) is that it's purely 802.11n WiFi-centric out of the box. It has no ethernet network port, or firewire port, either - just a USB port. Nor does it have an optical drive. Instead, if you don't have wireless networking available to you, you can buy an optional Apple USB - Ethernet adapter; if you want an optical drive you can buy an optional USB one. If you need to install anything that comes on a CD or DVD, like Mac OS X or Adobe CS3 for example, you can use the revolutionary Remote Disc technology on a nearby Mac or PC to mount the discs and allow the installation to proceed. The system also allows for wireless backup, too, to Apple's Time Capsule, a hard drive and WiFi base-station combo unit.
Pricing for the MacBook Air starts at $2,499.00 inc GST and it is scheduled to ship by mid-February.
Secondly, AppleTV is getting a make-over, as Jobs indicated the original incarnation fell short of what Apple had hoped to achieve. If you live in the US or some other places besides Australia, you can now rent and download major movies as well as TV shows and stream them to your AppleTV. If you live in Australia this doesn't make a real difference as we don't have TV or Movies (besides music videos) available to us at this time. However, what is important is that there will be a free software update coming soon for first generation owners to give them the same capabilities as the second generation units (your AppleTV automatically checks for updates weekly or can be manually triggered).
I mentioned the iPhone before. It got a software upgrade to install more Apple applications on it - Mail, Maps, Stocks, Weather and Notes. The good news is that the iTouch which shares pretty much the same feature set besides telephony, also has the option to upgrade and add the same applications ($24.95 via iTunes Store) to make it a clayton's PDA. You can now get your email delivered wirelessly to your iTouch, use Google Maps to get directions, check your plunging stock prices as you make notes waiting for the weather to change! This is worth the upgrade price I reckon.
Making the new Mac to AppleTV and iTouch features possible is iTunes 7.6. If you were an early adopter of iTunes 7.6 and keep getting a firewall access message ever time you launch the application even though you've allowed it to receive incoming traffic, go back to the Apple website and re-download and re-install. The first version posted was a bit dodgy, but the current posted version if OK. I know this myself!
Also on the list of software upgrades is QuickTime 7.4 (available in separate Leopard, Tiger and Panther flavours), iMovie 7.1.1 and Front Row 2.1.2.
Other Apple hardware released before Macworld 2008 was the new Mac Pro 8 Core, featuring dual Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Harpertown” processors, making this up to 2x faster than the previous Mac Pro.
In the third-party software department, the long-awaited (Universal Binary) Microsoft Office Mac 2008 made its debut. It's scheduled to ship in Australia 'sometime in the next 2 - 3 weeks', but you won't find any mention of it on Microsoft Australia's website (they're still heralding the arrival of Office 2004!). The link above is to Microsoft US.
Office 2008 Mac RRP pricing is set at $649.00 inc GST for the Retail Standard Version, $399.00 inc GST for the Standard Upgrade version, $229.00 inc GST for the Home Student version, $849.00 inc GST for the Media version and $549.00 inc GST for the Media Upgrade version. I am able to offer better than RRP pricing if you would like contact me with your requirements!
Some early adopters in the US are reporting a number of issues with the new installation, so hopefully by the time we get our copies in Australia the kinks will have been ironed out or worked-around at least!
Besides a revamping of the iPhone which doesn't as yet concern us as yet, there were a couple of other hardware items in the spotlight. The first was the new Mac portable MacBook Air, touted as the world's thinnest notebook. What makes this notebook exceptional (besides its thinness) is that it's purely 802.11n WiFi-centric out of the box. It has no ethernet network port, or firewire port, either - just a USB port. Nor does it have an optical drive. Instead, if you don't have wireless networking available to you, you can buy an optional Apple USB - Ethernet adapter; if you want an optical drive you can buy an optional USB one. If you need to install anything that comes on a CD or DVD, like Mac OS X or Adobe CS3 for example, you can use the revolutionary Remote Disc technology on a nearby Mac or PC to mount the discs and allow the installation to proceed. The system also allows for wireless backup, too, to Apple's Time Capsule, a hard drive and WiFi base-station combo unit.
Pricing for the MacBook Air starts at $2,499.00 inc GST and it is scheduled to ship by mid-February.
Secondly, AppleTV is getting a make-over, as Jobs indicated the original incarnation fell short of what Apple had hoped to achieve. If you live in the US or some other places besides Australia, you can now rent and download major movies as well as TV shows and stream them to your AppleTV. If you live in Australia this doesn't make a real difference as we don't have TV or Movies (besides music videos) available to us at this time. However, what is important is that there will be a free software update coming soon for first generation owners to give them the same capabilities as the second generation units (your AppleTV automatically checks for updates weekly or can be manually triggered).
I mentioned the iPhone before. It got a software upgrade to install more Apple applications on it - Mail, Maps, Stocks, Weather and Notes. The good news is that the iTouch which shares pretty much the same feature set besides telephony, also has the option to upgrade and add the same applications ($24.95 via iTunes Store) to make it a clayton's PDA. You can now get your email delivered wirelessly to your iTouch, use Google Maps to get directions, check your plunging stock prices as you make notes waiting for the weather to change! This is worth the upgrade price I reckon.
Making the new Mac to AppleTV and iTouch features possible is iTunes 7.6. If you were an early adopter of iTunes 7.6 and keep getting a firewall access message ever time you launch the application even though you've allowed it to receive incoming traffic, go back to the Apple website and re-download and re-install. The first version posted was a bit dodgy, but the current posted version if OK. I know this myself!
Also on the list of software upgrades is QuickTime 7.4 (available in separate Leopard, Tiger and Panther flavours), iMovie 7.1.1 and Front Row 2.1.2.
Other Apple hardware released before Macworld 2008 was the new Mac Pro 8 Core, featuring dual Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Harpertown” processors, making this up to 2x faster than the previous Mac Pro.
In the third-party software department, the long-awaited (Universal Binary) Microsoft Office Mac 2008 made its debut. It's scheduled to ship in Australia 'sometime in the next 2 - 3 weeks', but you won't find any mention of it on Microsoft Australia's website (they're still heralding the arrival of Office 2004!). The link above is to Microsoft US.
Office 2008 Mac RRP pricing is set at $649.00 inc GST for the Retail Standard Version, $399.00 inc GST for the Standard Upgrade version, $229.00 inc GST for the Home Student version, $849.00 inc GST for the Media version and $549.00 inc GST for the Media Upgrade version. I am able to offer better than RRP pricing if you would like contact me with your requirements!
Some early adopters in the US are reporting a number of issues with the new installation, so hopefully by the time we get our copies in Australia the kinks will have been ironed out or worked-around at least!