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After intently refreshing the liveblogs, skimming the news and product pages and taking in the keynote, allow me to join every other blog that made a post this evening by communicating my opinions on the product launches that took place today …
Time Capsule
http://www.apple.com/timecapsule/
Packing the reliability of the Airport Extreme Base-station with a high-capacity drive is a magnificent idea, and frankly long overdue. I’m curious as to whether or not the internal drive can be used for regular storage beyond backups, or if the USB still accepts additional external drives - if so, I could be very tempted to trade in my dodgy router and/or external hard drive for the convenience of house-wide iTunes library access - especially at such an agreeable price.
iPhone & iPod Touch Updates
http://www.apple.com/iphone/
Gradually working their way down the list of features that should have existed in the first place, finally multiple senders for SMS messages sees the light of day. Google Maps has also massively benefited from a UI overhaul, now including the ability to pin-point your current location via cell-tower triangulation - genius! You now also have the ability to reshuffle menu items - not only on the home screen, but within the iPod app itself - finally making it slightly easier for me to get at my podcasts. Nothing we didn’t expect, though, except for the $20 upgrade for current Touch owners, though? What happened to the respecting, apologetic Apple that warmed our hearts when they forked out rebates to ripped-off iPhone early adopters?
iTunes Movie Rentals & Apple TV
http://www.apple.com/appletv/
Another brilliantly executed distribution model heavily rumored for good reason. Once this rolls out internationally, it’s definitely going to pave the way for future distribution of digital content (which will hopefully be a little less strict on the limitations). High-definition rentals has finally given the Apple TV a reason to exist, and packaging the entire UI overhaul and expanded feature list into a free software update was an unexpected but obviously fruitful gesture. I’m still holding out for a third-party developer to break it open and add a Freeview-compliant EPG before I rush out to buy one, but looks like I’ll be sat here for some time yet.
Macbook Air
http://www.apple.com/macbookair/
For £100 of a difference between the low-end Macbook Pro and the low-end Macbook Air, you lose almost 2 inches of screen space, a good chunk of processing power, half the standard hard drive space, the Superdrive and almost every port except one USB input. For that loss, you get … portability. Honestly, Apple, I don’t think it’s worth it. My 17″ Macbook Pro is thin and light when you take into consideration the power, usability and storage - which is what I predict most people will do before reconsidering their purchase. At a lower price and with a higher screen size, it would have been an excellent cousin to the Macbook and fill the niche of those who dislike the Macbooks’ bulk & small screen but enjoy the affordably average specs. Still, on the up, it’s absolutely gorgeous and impressively tiny - and it’s nice to see a soft introduction of multi-touch and solid-state drives - just not enough to justify the price or hassle.
And that’s it. Expect a few interesting announcements from other developers and Apple affiliates as Macworld continues.
5 Comments
Just one point: it has always been possible to edit the iPod menus inside the iPhone.
Oh, and the new ‘locate’ feature works a treat in the city, I’m going to try it out in the wilds this weekend.
Ahh - can’t believe I never noticed before!
Yeah I was gonna say; we’ve always been able to edit our iPod home screens!
If I’m honest I’m a wee tad underwhelmed by the update to be honest. For all the fuss that’s been made about it, for me, it’s only the Google Maps additions that’re of any real hype-worth. And also the ability to direct links to certain web-apps on my Home screen.
Multiple SMS recipients, as Andy said; umm, that’s no huge massive exciting thing because every other SMS compliant phone in history has been able to this. I love the “Guided Tour” ad on apple.com for 1.1.3, the guy introduces multiple recipients as if we should be jumping out of our seats!
Reorganising home screen, meh. It’s handy but it’s hardly what I’d consider a massive update.
To me they should’ve added so much more with this update. I know fair enough it’s only been 2 months since 1.1.2 was introduced, but even in that 2 months Apple could’ve compiled a list the length of your leg of features that people EXPECT a phone to have, let alone want. I’m thinking video capture (although on a 2MP camera it’s probably look crap), deleting multiple emails at once (please?!), voice activated calls (makes so much sense) amongst loads more.
Timecapsule is nifty, although wireless router/HDD combos are something I’m not familiar with at all so I’m inclined to believe that there’s probably cheaper alternatives out there…
Apple TV, all it’s got is a GUI update and people’re freaking out about it like it’s the shit of shits. I do like the product though and it’s reasonably enough priced (although it could do with a bite more than 40GBs).
Macbook Air. Possibly the most niche product I’ve ever come across. With that niche being those who just want to say “Look how thin my laptop is”. Specs are bollocks for the price of it (the MBP comparison galvonises that). The phillosophy of the whole thing; being completely wireless, I think is still a bit ahead of it’s time. Yes it’s probably possibly in the likes of NY and other big cities to have a 95% wireless laptop but anywhere else it’s a no-go. I need more than one USB, I’d be hardpressed to find anyone who wouldn’t agree. Micro DVI? What? Apparently the hard drive itself is only 1.8 inches long/wide/some dimension, which is impressive on paper but in practice? It means SLOW SLOW SLOW.
But in that case we go for the 64GB SSD don’t we? Oww what’s that? That bumps the price of the machine up from $1799 to $3100? Oww. Right.
Buuuuuuuuuuut, it’s clever. Very clever. We have to remember that Apple are THE marketing company. Of course the above HDD problem can be solved with one simple extra. A Time Capsule.
Another gripe with MBA; non-user replaceable batteries. Laptop’s need user-replaceable batteries. Yes you’ll get 5 hours out of the battery, but what about that 7 hour train/bus/flight that the business person at which MBA is marketed at has to go on?
The (obv) most successful thing that Jobsy announced in the keynote was iTunes rentals. Not something I thought I’d be too interested in, but I am intrigued. For anyone with a decent iPod video it’s immense. iPhoners? Hmm.I’m guessing most of these movies (haven’t got the chance to check myself yet) are between 2-3GB each. That’s a lot of resyncing to free up space etc everytime I wanna watch a movie.
Everyone’s saying this year’s keynote was a disappointment but really now, it couldn’tve ever lived up to last years. My biggest disappointment was no formal updating of Mac Mini, even in terms of price.
Every other phone, using Google’s normal version of Google Maps, has been able to do the locate feature for ages now.
Just so you know :)
