Live Coverage of Macworld 2008 Keynote || The Mac Observer

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Live Coverage of Macworld 2008 Keynote

12:00PM EST, January 15th, 2008 - Digg This!
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[1:42 PM]

[1:40 PM] Randy is done. My EVDO card has been crapping out, so hopefully you got all the posts we made!

Steve is back on stage, and he's thanking everyone. That appears to be it.

Thanks for joining us! Stay tuned to TMO and iPO for more detailed coverage of all the announcements, and the FLOOD of new products coming out of Macworld from everyone and their brother.

[1:39 PM] Randy talked a bit about how cool Steve and Apple are. He said that Steve is human, likely brought up well, as compared to some other busines execs.

Moved into a new song, or a diferent song.

[1:34 PM]

[1:29 PM] Randy is talking/singing through a highly political song where he looks back at some of the horrid leaders in history (the Caesars, Stalin, Hitler, etc.), and saying that our leaders aren't as bad as those guys. The audience is largely receptive, but I am a tad surprised at the political nature of this corporate event.

Seems Steve isn't going to pull any punches, though, or at least Randy Newman won't. :)

[1:28 PM] Pointed out all the recent things introduced, "and that was all in the first two weeks. We have 50 more weeks still to come."

The audience got a laugh from that.

OK, we're moving on to Randy Newan, who will be performing. Seems there is no #5.

[1:27 PM] Steve is recapping, first.[1:27 PM] That was the 4th thing Steve has for us today. Seems we're moving to #5...[1:27 PM] All aluminum case, no mercury, less packaging...Steve is touting the MacBook Air's green cred.[1:25 PM] Getting some conenction issues here, so bear with me!

MacBook Air starts at $1,799. We saw a new commercial.[1:17 PM]

[1:15 PM] Paul spent his time talking about how cool it was to work with Apple on this processor.

There's a flip down door protecting the minimal ports it comes with. Has 802.11n built into it.[1:12 PM]

[1:12 PM] Using 1.8" drives, the same drive that ships in some iPods. Has a 64 GB solid state drive, too!! Wow! Otherwise, an 80GB drive.

The motherboard is TINY!

Comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo, one of them, at 1.6GHz. There's a 1.8 GHz option, too. Said they went to Intel to get that processor 60% smaller than before, which is what made the MacBook Air possible. Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel, is on stage.[1:12 PM] You can rotate photos, move windows, scroll through large images, etc. You can pan left and right through photos with three fingers. You can also use the iPhone's pinching gesture to enlarge and shrink an image.[1:08 PM] Full sized keyboard, full sized screen. THIN! Steve said it's, "The world's thinnest notebook."

Has 13.x inch display with LED backlighting. Damn thing has an iSight camera built into it. Steve said it's the best keyboard they've ever shipped.

Has ambient light sensor with lit keys.

Has multitouch/gesture trackpad.[1:08 PM] I think I told a couple of people I thought the rumor sites were wrong on this one, the MacBook Air, and clearly I was wrong.

It's a super thin MacBook. Steve said it doesn't compromise on performance. It's also 0.16 inches thick at it's thinnest. At it's thickest, it's 0.76 inches. It will fit inside one of those large yellow envelopes that many offices use. In fact, turns out there was one on Steve's desk this whole time in such an envelope. It's THIN![1:08 PM] He's introducing Jim Gianopulos, Chairmain and CEO of 20th Century Fox. He quipped that he was getting excited hearing Steve talk about movie rentals when he realized that he already knew about it. That may not sound funny in print, but it was funny here.

In any event, Mr. G. is talking about business models, and what people want. He said it has to be simple enough for even a studio exec to understand. He got another laugh.

He also showed an image of Homer Simpson with a donut in an iPod silhouette . Doh!

He said that he is excited about the fact that Apple is bringing it's ability to make things work.

I had an unfortunate kernel panic (probably related to that spiffy EVDO card I mentioned), so moving on to MacBook Air, a new MacBook.[1:03 PM]

[12:59 PM] This is a software upgrade that will be free to existing Apple TV owners!

Lowering the price to $229 for new units. Both the software upgrade and new Apple TV units will ship in two weeks.[12:57 PM] Recapping. Good stuff. Etc.[12:54 PM] Showing us Flickr...We're seing Lovetohike78's photos, friends, and then their photos. Or not. We're hearing music, but can't see the Flickr photos. Steve passed it off very good naturedly.[12:54 PM] We're now streaming an HD video podcast called Teton, a skiing one in which dudes jump off cliffs. Cool stuff. Moving on to photos and movies. All works well.[12:49 PM] We're c oming to you via a Sprint EVDO card, not our iPhone as we did for the WWDC keynote.

He's showing us a Linkin' Park video that was previewed. In that video, the kids in Linkin' Park were looking very tough and punkish while they sang their wimpy pop song. It was glorious.[12:49 PM] Search feature for movies works well. Easy to use, fast.[12:49 PM] We saw a DVD quality movie start, and it was fast (through Steve's T612 or whatever he has for these keynotes). It was Blades of Glory, for those keeping score at home. He also showed us Die Harderest, the most recent title from the franchise, in HD. It looked great.[12:46 PM] Demonstrating the new interface for Apple TV. There's a new menu that allows you to pick whatever category of content you wish.

Look at a movie, and you can see the other movies that people who have rented *that* movie have selected. Hopefully that sentence is understandable.[12:45 PM]

[12:42 PM] Ah, it will cost $1 more for HD quality movies to rent.[12:42 PM] Saying Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, TiVo, Blockbuster, vudu have all tried. Saying folks want to use their Apple TV with their movies. Introducing Apple TV 2, works without a Mac or PC. Rent directly from your TV through Apple TV. Supports High Definition and Dolby 5.1.

Grab your podcasts, photos from Flickr, .Mac.

YouTube support.

You can buy music and TV shows directly in Apple TV 2, too.

Play other iTunes content, of course.[12:41 PM] You can move your rentals to any (Apple) device you want in that 24 hours. Launches in US today. International launch to come.[12:37 PM]

[12:37 PM] Steve says that most people don't want to rent music, but that they do want to rent movies. Touchstone, Miramax, MGM, Lions Gate, and a 5th I missed.

And then he said, "Oh, and these six studios, too." Paramount, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Disney, Sony, and a 6th I couldn't get in time. Showing some of the many movies available.[12:32 PM] All of these features are being added to the iPhone for free today, via a software update. We'd recommend that anyone who has hacked their iPhones NOT upgrade blithely.

Adding Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes, and Weather to iPod touch! Lots of folks are going to be happy about that! Maps is also going to have the GPS feature, too.

Oh, and it's going to cost you $20, "Just $20," according to Steve, if you already own your iPod touch.

Ouch. Free in new iPod touches.[12:30 PM] Offering 1000 movies, with more 30 days after DVD release. Watch anywhere. Watch instantly (less than 30 seconds for it to start).

You get 30 days to watch it, and it expires 24 hours after the *first* time you start it. So, if you don't watch it, you can keep it for 29 days, and then watch it 8 times the last day.

Only $2.99 or $3.99.[12:30 PM] Sold 4 billionth song last week at iTunes. Sold 20 million songs on Christmas Day, a new record. Sold 125 million TV shows, or "way more than everyone else put together."

7 million movies, also more than everyone else, "but that didn't meet our expectations." Steve says there is a better way...You guessed it, iTunes Movie Rentals.[12:30 PM] He's demonstrating home screen arrangement. It's pretty cool. Drag icons where you want them in an editing mode, and it works really well.

Talking about Skyhook Wireless, the company that made the pseudo GPS feature work. Apple worked with Skyhook and Google to make that happen.[12:28 PM]

[12:28 PM] Demonstrated sending SMS messages to multiple people. It works well, not surprsingly. Moving quickly on to Webclips. Steve clearly has a LOT he wants to get through. He made a Webclip from GSoogle's home page, and that turned into an icon on his iPhone's desktop.[12:25 PM] You can drop pins on your map and then drag them around with your finger. The pins represent locations, and wherever you drag it, the location it represents shows. He is touting Apple's cooperation with Google in making this happen.[12:23 PM] Looking at Maps, first. There's a button on the bottom corner of Maps that will find your location, and zoom in on that location. You can calculate driving directions based on that information on the fly.[12:23 PM] Rolling out new iPhone features today. First is Maps with Location. Can find your current location on Goole Maps.

Also, Webclips, and you can customize multiple home screens. SMS multiple people. Lyrics in iTunes.

Seeing a demo.[12:21 PM] Looking at US market share for Smart Phones. Said iPhone had 19.5% during the September quarter. That's number 3, behind Blackberry (#1) and Nokia for some phone or another.[12:19 PM]

[12:17 PM] That's 20,000 per day on average, Steve noted.[12:17 PM] Moving on to the iPhone. Today is the 200th day since it went on sale. Apple has shipped 4 million of them to date.[12:15 PM] Steve is looking back at 2007. "It was an extraordinary year for Apple," and he thanked Apple's customers for their support.[12:12 PM] Lights are dimming. His Steveliness is likely soon to join us...Oh, the last song was Feist's 1234.

We're seeing a new Mac/PC commercial, a Happy New Year themed one. And here is Steve.[12:10 PM] We may be having some server issues, but our folks are working on it. As high as our traffic traditionally spikes for this event, this is likely going to be a record-busting/smashing/crushing year.

Thanks to all those participating![12:00 PM] Praised Office 2008's release, calling it the last major Mac app to go Intel-native. Looking at Time Machine now. Introducing Time Capsule, a "back up appliance." It includes a full AirPort Extreme base station and a hard drive, and Steve is touting it as a backup device for Time Machine. Can use it to back up all the Macs in your house.

One with 500 GB and one with 1 TB. The 500 GB unit is US$299. The 1 TB unit is $499. Ships in February.

Showing us the Time Machine Mac/PC add.[11:59 AM] Starting with Leopard. Delivered 5 million copies of Leopard. "It was he most successful release of Mac OS X ever." Saying 10% of user base has upgraded. Touting some of the many press reviews that raved about Leopard.[11:59 AM] So far, BTW, we have NOT turned off anyone's presentation TV. Just FYI for those keeping score at home.[11:57 AM] The camera is showing random folks in the hall, including The Woz, some dude who took the opportunity to show off a pic o his dog on his iPhone, etc...[11:55 AM] We were (finally) let into the auditorium, and are awaiting His Steveness now.[9:55 AM] If you have Twitter you can get in on the keynote discussion. Send your comments to @TMOTalk and they'll be sent to anyone following TMOTalk.[8:00 AM] You're a little early, but don't fret! We will be providing live coverage of the 2008 Macworld Keynote on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 9am PST. When the time comes, TMO will be there... and you'll be here, reading everything we know. Until then, enjoy reading about the previous seven years of Steve Jobs keynote coverage and how we pulled it off!