Engadget is “liveblogging” the MacWorld keynote address with Steve Jobs. Anything noteworthy?
iTV is now called “Apple TV“. It will have a hard drvie to basically buffer content that is streamed from other PCs on the network. It sounds cool, but live TV/DVR is a big part of my TV experience. I don’t want to buy content in pieces, I want to filter content out of a large selection. Give me a plate full of choices and let me pick what I want out of it. Funny, because I’m not a big fan of buffets or monthly subscription music services like Yahoo or Napster. It’ll stream music, too, which is okay if you’re having a party. Same with photos. Not sure what the deal with showing photos on an HDTV is, but I’m not much of a photo person, anyway. The $299 price is right on the mark, though. I’ll probably buy one sometime this year because they’re available today and shipping in February (sweet).
What’s next? A device called the iPhone: A widescreen iPod with touch controls, a mobile phone, and an internet mobile communicator…Not sure how they get to use the name “iPhone” because it’s trademarked by Linksys/Cisco, but that’s what was expected. It’ll be touch-screen using your fingers instead of a stylus. That means no physical keyboard or buttons. That means fingerprints. The iPhone runs Mac OS X. It has a proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, and accelerometer: the screen and touch controls shut off when you bring it to your ear, it saves power by adjusting the screen according to how bright it is in the room, and it can switch to landscape or portrait mode depending on how you turn it. It’ll be on Cingular’s network and have WiFi and Bluetooth. Yahoo and Google teamed up with Apple, too. Yahoo is providing free push-email and searches, Google is providing Maps and searches. Battery life seems about right for a phone. Pricing for a 4GB flash model is $499 and the 8GB model is $599. They’re shipping in June.
Nothing new on OS X Leopard or any other applications (iWork, iLife, etc). That’s a little disappointing because I’ve been putting off buying a MacBook Pro until Leopard is released, so I’ll have to stick with my XP beast for a while longer.
So what does all of this mean? It means that I will have to take out a second mortgage on the house to buy a new cell phone and HD media device. It also means that I should start organizing my media at home a little better. Apple also changed their name, going from Apple Computer, Inc. to simply Apple, Inc. These two devices reflect that change, seeing as how neither are simply a computer. They set a new standard for other companies to scramble for, especially Microsoft. If Microsoft would release software for vanilla XP PCs to stream/buffer content to the XBox 360 without requiring Media Center edition, the XBox 360 could give the Apple TV a run for its money. It would take a lot of work for Windows Mobile devices to come near the iPhone, though. Anyway, exciting stuff.
