Macworld 2008 Live Keynote Coverage! - Done!
Update: The keynote is over. Hit the jump for the transcript of what happened and commentary from yours truly. Stay tuned on Homotron later this evening for continuing coverage. For now, Den Den is taking a break!
Hello and welcome to the day all of us Apple fans have been waiting for: Steve Jobs's keynote is today!
My live coverage of the keynote, complete with running commentary, will begin at 9AM PST, 12PM EST.
To go directly to my live coverage, hit the "read more" link at the bottom.
If you've arrived here before the keynote has begun, you can catch up on everything Apple that happened in 2007 via our recent four part series entitled "The State of the Mac Nation 2008:"
The State of the Mac Nation 2008, Part 1: Desktops, Laptops, & Professional Hardware
The State of the Mac Nation 2008, Part 2: iPod + iPhone
The State of the Mac Nation 2008, Part 3: iTunes + Other Apple Software
And for our predictions and rumours regarding what may happen in the keynote today: The State of the Mac Nation 2008, Part 4: Macworld Keynote Rumours and Predictions.
After all that, you should be ready! Hit the jump for our live coverage!
Live Keynote Coverage:
NOTE: I will be updating this page as the keynote progresses to bring you my running commentary on each new announcement. This page will not automatically refresh for you; you will have to refresh manually. Please be kind to our servers and limit your refreshes to once every few minutes - thanks!
Also be advised that Apple will be posting a video recording of the keynote on their site later in the day. I'll provide the link when it becomes available.
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- Waiting for the keynote to begin... It's like Christmas all over again! (says the Buddhist, lol)
- The online Apple Store is down, the Apple Store is down!
- People are being seated in the room, the keynote is due to begin shortly...
9:14AM EST - New get a mac commercial is showing, apparently featuring New Year's puns. We'll get to see it later on the live feed.
- And now Steve Jobs is on stage - It Begins!
9:15AM EST - 4 things to talk about, first being Leopard: 20% of Mac users have upgraded (Not bad, but could be better, I'm sure after today a few more people will upgrade.)
9:18AM - There's the Microsoft Office mention - Office 2008, optimised for Intel Macs is now shipping.
9:19AM - NEW PRODUCT: Time Capsule, for notebooks b/c of Time Machine. Steve doesn't like the idea of notebook users having to unplug/replug back up external drives all the time - solution: Time Capsule.
9:20AM - Time Capsule is an Airport Extreme Base Station with an internal hard drive, for wireless backup. 2 Models will be available: 500GB for $299, 1TB for $499.
- It's a neat idea, though I wish we could do Time Machine back ups to any network connected drive, not just Time Capsule.
9:21AM - Now moving on to iPhone!
- iPhone has sold 4 million units. Nice. 19.5% of smarphone market (very nice.) Apparently right behind RIM (makers of the Crackberry)
9:23AM - He's mentioning the SDK releasing in February.
- Steve wants to give us new iPhone software today! (BAM! Didn't I predict this? Oh yeah score one for Den Den)
9:26AM - Firmware v.1.1.3 for the iPhone is being released, NEW UNKNOWN FEATURE: Lyrics!
- The rest of the features of 1.1.3 are pretty much as mentioned in our 1.1.3 article, linked above.
9:31AM - Added information on the Safari bookmarks on homescreen: you can create up to 9 of them, they're called "webclips" and they will remember what part of the site you were zoomed into (basically it mirrors the webclips functionality present in Leopard's Safari to make Dashboard widgets of websites)
9:34AM - iPod Touch users also getting new apps: Mail, Stocks, Notes, Weather, and Google Maps. Same as the iPhone. They will NOT be free, however. $20 for existing iPod Touch users. (iPod Touch users should be pleased, there goes the app advantage of the iPhone, but the upgrade price is kinda lame)
9:35AM - Now moving to third thing: iTunes. Sold 20 million songs on Christmas day, new one day record. (Wow.) 4 billion songs total.
9:37AM - NEW ITUNES STORE FEATURE: iTunes Movie Rentals: Touchstone, MGM, Lionsgate, Newline, Fox, WB, Disney, Paramount, Universal, Sony all in the party.
- Movies will be available 30 days after DVD release (stupid, movie studios... stupid.) You will be able to watch the movies on basically everything: Macs, PCs, iPods, iPhones. (Wonder if that means I can start watching it on my Mac, then continue on my iPhone?)
- Rules: You will 30 days to begin watching the movie, 24 hours to finish watching the movie. New releases $3.99, older movies: $2.99 (same as pay per view, basically.)
9:42AM - iTunes Movie Rentals begin today. New iPod and iTunes software will be released to add support (I'm guessing support for the iPhone is in the 1.1.3 update today. Apple's servers are going to get hit hard.)
9:44AM - People want to watch movies on flatscreen so... NEW APPLE TV FEATURE: direct movie renting on the Apple TV (BAM! Score 2 for Den Den!). Movies will be in DVD quality, as well as HD with Dolby Digital 5.1.
- Apple TV will also be able to do Podcasts (audio and video) and pull photos from Flickr and .Mac.
- HD Rentals are more expensive: $4.99, and more limited selection (probably all newer titles)
- You'll be able to see movie previews on the Apple TV, will also have a feature to see what other users are renting.
9:51AM - Supposedly, the movies are instant start. (YMMV based on your connection, of course. It seems no new Apple TV hardware so far, though. That's disappointing.)
9:57AM - Lame feature alert: photo screensavers can be pulled from .Mac galleries (Yawn, grandma might be enthused.)
- OK Steve, enough of the Apple TV, move on!
- Oh hey, music will also be able to be bought on the Apple TV (will it sync back to your Mac? Probably like the portable iTunes Store on the iPhones.)
- The demo is over! (And there was much rejoicing, yay! - bonus points if you get the reference here)
10AM - Yep, it's all software updates, no new hardware, BUT PRICE DROP: Apple TV will now be $229.
- Oh great, now the chairman of Fox is taking the stage to talk about movie rentals (Yawn, how about bringing back Firefly? That's something we want you to say, Mr. Chairman.)
10:08AM - Steve is back! The 4th thing: Something in the Air!
- NEW PRODUCT: Macbook Air!
10:12AM - Macbook Air is 0.16" to 0.76" thick. (Whoa.) It fits inside an envelope (So Steve says, double whoa with a 13" envelope lol.)
- 13.3" widescreen, magnetic latch (like the rest of the Macbook line)
- LED backlit, and same keyboard as Macbook Pro line: backlit, ambient light sensor, etc.
10:14AM - Multi touch trackpad! Pinch-zoom like the iPhone, rotate photos with multi touch gestures, etc!
- As predicted, it uses the 1.8" hard drives present in the iPod Classic.
- Standard specs: 80GB HDD, 64GB SSD (flash drive) as an option (how much will that cost? the bank?) 1.6 GHz standard, up to 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.
10:18AM: Apperently, Apple had to ask Intel to shrink the Intel Core 2 Duo to fit inside the Macbook Air. The processor is now "as thick as a nickel, wide as a dime." (I'm guessing they mean with the setting and all.)
- More standard features: MagSafe connectors (duh), 1 USB 2.0 Port, Micro-DVI connector (score another for Den Den), Audio Out port, 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
10:23AM: No optical drive, $99 external superdrive available. Will also be able to "borrow" an optical drive from a desktop with sofware (over network? neat - Mac and PC.)
- 5 hour battery life.
- 2GB RAM standard, PRICE: $1799. Ships in two weeks.
10:28AM: Environment-friendly facts: all aluminum case (fully recyclable), first completely mercury and lead free display, circuit boards are BFR free, packaging is 56% less material than Macbook packaging. (Take that, Greenpeace!)
- Wrap up facts about what they've updated this year. Randy Newman is going to perform.
- Now to wait for the "One more thing..."
- Photo of Macbook Air:
10:46AM: No "One more thing..." (*sad face*). That's it folks. Stay tuned to Homotron for in-depth analysis, and a link to the video of the keynote.
Thank you for staying with us! Have a happy rest of keynote day!
The Apple site is now updated with all the new goodies, so you can head on over there to feast you eyeballs on the Macbook Air in the meantime.
I'll also be bringing you my experiences on updating my iPhone to 1.1.3 as soon as I can install the update.
Later folks!
Den Den Boy
Posted to Hot Stuff, In Your House, In Your Pocket, In the News, In the World, On Your Body, On Your Desk on 15 January 2008
· Comments (7)
Other stuff like this: Apple, live, Macworld, Macworld 2008, Steve Jobs
3D iPhone glasses. Why?
Kudos to Homotron for the great coverage. Engadget died and the commentary here was much more exciting than MacRumors (the Apple Store is down, the Apple Store is down!)
I'm still waiting for my "One More Thing". Like where are the Penryn-based MacBook Pros??!!
MacBook Air! ^_^
Well done, Den Den.
I dug the coverage ... and will now put out an open ad that I am willing to kill any man, woman and child for a MacBook Air. I probably wouldn't have bought a laptop at this point anyway, but I'm a little annoyed I busted my monetary nut on a new iMac Core in November.
And the MacBook Air BETTER make gadget of the week on next week.
*blush* Thank you so much for the compliments, folks. It was fun to do! ^.^
*YAWN* If Apple is going to allow all these leaks to happen, then at least save something to wow me with. Oh well...off to update my iPhone which still won't handle copy/paste.
Thanks for the updates, Den Den. I had spaced off the keynote today but am updating iTunes and my phone now. I'm excited about the new Google Maps features and equally surprised and excited with the lyrics announcement!