His Steveness just got done delivering the long awaited Macworld San Fransisco Keynote speech…Check out the liveblog of the speech over at Engadget, Gizmodo, and Macrumors. (yes, all at the same time)
Some impressions:
- Time Capsule – I really didn’t expect this, but am glad they did.. sounds like a great integration of storage and wireless access. I’ve had my own mega super ultra backup/hard drive issues before, including frantic service calls to Drivesavers for physical recovery etc. Now that I’m on leopard with my Macbook Pro, I’m more or less backed up all the time.. but its still a pain having to plug in my hard drives ever time. I have a 1tb backup drive, and then two other 300gb and 500gb storage drives. So i have time machine configured to backup my mac’s hard drive, and both my 300gb and 500gb drives, all to the 1tb backup drive. So having this 1tb wirelessly accessible sounds perfect. My one hope is that, like the “old” airport extreme, this new “Time Capsule” still comes with an available USB port, so I can plug in an additional hard drive (most likely my 500gb music drive).. That way I’ll be able to work away from my desk, and still have access to both my music storage hdd, and my time machine hdd. Finally, psyched to upgrade to the N wireless… I’m currently using a Linksys WRT54G, which is good with dd-wrt on it, but having the faster N access, especially for wireless backup, is key.
- iPhone upgrades – The webclips will be handy for getting to custom apps such as Google Reader etc, and it’s great to hear multiple recipient SMS is now available… but it doesnt matter! I don’t have an iPhone! I’m still going to hold out on getting one until they release the 3G iPhone… the improved network speed, and most likely larger storage and other upgrades will add significantly. In any case, the initial version, and all subsequent versions and software upgrades of the iPhone are worlds better than my crappy Blackberry Curve 8300.. the hardware on it is good, but the software is absolutely worthless. But that’s for another rant…
- Movie Rentals – Especially since they are offering them in HD, and for direct download to the Apple TV.. this is great to hear. My only big hope is that you’ll be able to sync movies you downloaded direct to your Apple TV back to your mac. Also, what about time machine running on your Apple TV, syncing back to your Time Capsule? Sounds fun to me…
- Macbook Air – This is long awaited for a ton of people. This product will help capture yet another segment of the market for Apple, and help pull in the “mobile professional” crowd. I think that the combination of the Macbook Air, along with Microsoft Office 2008 will really make Apple a more viable contender in the corporate world. Holy shit! Its thin! Only .76 inches thick.. and it looks like it has the same kind of edge styling as the iPod Touch.. amazing. Sounds perfect, wish I had the budget/need for one. Also, they are finally offering SSD drives, as an option… this technology is super cool, and allows for faster drives, better reliability, and power savings.. my next laptop will def have an SSD. Finally, it’s a smart move to offer the external optical drive for $99, but the best part is the software for sharing an optical drive across a network. Good thinking, as that will be a great counterpoint for retail employees when people say “but it doesn’t have an optical drive! wahh!!”
- Overall– Good products, and I’m especially psyched about the time capsule..I might actually get that one. However there were a few big holes here, which I’m still waiting to be filled. First, no 3G iPhone.. but that wasn’t really expected yet. Second, only 64gb ssd for the Macbook Air. Yes, I know they are expensive, even at 64gb, but it would be good to have the option of a bigger drive. We’re all sitting around in my office fixed on the live-blogging, and as soon as Steve announced the 64gb ssd, one of my office mates said “what? that’s way too small! If I get one of these, it needs much bigger… at least 128!” Anyway, hopefully as prices drop on ssd’s, they’ll start offering larger ones.
There you have it, Macworld’s Keynote 2008. Some amazing products, some mysteriously left out. But you know I’ll be the first one to rush out to the apple store as soon as these things are on display.. And let’s hope these new products drive Apple’s (AAPL) stock price back up…
Comments
3 responses to “Macworld Keynote Speech – Initial Impressions”
Thanks for the reminder to look at my backup situation!
So let me get this right. The IPhone isn’t really ready yet with no replacement in sight, and the new Macbook Air dosent have enough heft to it yet to be of value. So the only thing of real value apple rolled out is better storage for when your apple crashes. dosen’t sound very promising.
There is no bigger Apple evangelist that I am and I gotta tell you 0 I am a bit underwhelmed — oh yeah, and the share price of Apple’s stock since the keynote validates y position. HD & movie rentals — no surprise there. As for the Time Capsule — cool but do I want to have to buy another Base Station when I can accomplish the exact same thing w/ a shared drive on the home network?
Macbook Air – looks really cool — but this is basically a Supermodel Mac — thin and pretty but lacking substance, usability, power or expandability. And like a supermodel, you might get sick of it in 2 weeks, when you fill up the hard drive – is starts running slow and stoopid and you spend have your time figuring out how to take enough crap off of your hard drive to make it usable. The stuff I was hoping for would have been a 3G iphone, bluray writers in MBPs or something more than just incremental releases of existing products.