Ahhh Macworld 2008. It’s here. I’d like to be there. Oh well.
MacBook Air
As was rumored, this years keynote brought us the MacBook Air, the thinnest notebook computer in the world. To achieve this feat, the MacBook Air has no optical drive, only one USB port, a micro DVI port, and no user-replaceable battery. That last feature or lack thereof is a source of some consternation. Really though, just how many of us out there typically get a second battery for our notebooks. There are some other fixed aspects of this machine like the RAM and hard drive. Presumably the HDD would only be replaceable by Apple. The MacBook Air starts at $1799.
iTunes Movie Rentals and AppleTV
Also announced was iTunes movie rentals and the ability to rent those movies directly from AppleTV. This could go a long way to improving the sales of AppleTV boxes. For those who don’t know, AppleTV is a set-top box that connects to your widescreen television and allows you to navigate through the content that is on your computer and is synced with the device. There were problems with the implementation not least of which was the inability to actually purchase content that can be bought from the iTunes store on a computer. A new software update aims to fix all of that.
The rules for movie rentals are that you have 30 days to begin watching your videos and once you begin watching, you have to complete your viewing in 24 hours. At that point the movie disappears. Only movies rented on your computer can be moved to other devices like an iPod or iPhone or AppleTV. Movies rented on AppleTV stay there. The movies are $2.99 for library titles and $3.99 for new releases. A small number of HD quality movies can be rented for $5.99. Other than the 24-hour viewing window, this is a good bit of news for Apple’s video plans.
In Conclusion
These were the high points of the keynote and for the most part, good stuff. My opinion is that the MacBook Air is a bit too pricey but I’m sure that Apple will sell a load of them at this price as there are a fair number of people looking for this kind of notebook. The movie rentals are a welcome addition to the iTunes store and I’d say a necessary one. With all of the video services out there, Apple needed to do something that would make it easy for people to find movies they want when the want them. This will also help the AppleTV become the thing it should have been all along. Extend the viewing time by a day or two and it’ll be gold.
