Today is a glorious day in the world of consumer technology for me anyway. Oh, and I am sure others. The new, much anticipated Macbook was announced at Macworld 2008. Branded the Macbook Air it is said to be the worlds thinnest notebook. Lets take a look at what all the popular tech sites had to say:

TechCrunch gave a blow-by-blow run down of the announcement…

10:27am: Macbook Air: it’s “green”. Mercury and Arsenic free LCD and glass, Aluminum frame can be recycled. PVC free on circutry, and packing is less

10:26am: First Air video demoed. The brown envelope is the key to the campaign to emphasize the size

10:24am: price: $1799.

10:23am: 5 hours battery life for Macbook Air, compared with competitors at 1 1/2 hours

10:21am: new feature: “remote disk” that will allow you to install software from another computer

10:20am: no optical drive, but you can buy a special external for $99

10:19am: comes with 802.11n and latest Bluetooth

10:18am: SJ says this is “awesome technology”.

Silicon Alley has the following to say…

As widely anticipated, Steve Jobs announced a sexy, super-thin laptop during his Macworld keynote: MacBook Air. Apple is billing it as “the world’s thinnest notebook.” The catch, at least for Apple’s less affluent customers: The Air is not cheap. Initial retail price will be $1,799.

But back to the gadget porn: The computer has a LED-backlit, 13.3-inch widescreen display, and ranges in thickness from 0.16″ to 0.76″. It has a full-size keyboard and, as rumored, a multi-touch trackpad. To keep things light, Apple did away with the DVD drive. Some more stats: 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo chip, 80-gig standard hard drive or 64-gig Flash storage, 5-hour battery life.

Dvice.com lists four reasons you need a Macbook Air…

1. It’s time to one-up those iPhone pansies. When Dale in the next cubicle got his iPhone on the first day last June, he was promptly mobbed like Jon Bon Jovi everywhere he went for a month straight. That memory still burns, doesn’t it? Well, it’s time you had a stint at BMoC, and the MacBook Air has the goods to elevate your status. If your officemates were impressed by Dale’s Google Maps, just wait till they see you play a DVD in one machine and watch it on another. That’s Air Magic, baby — you rule the day this time!

2. You don’t send enough gifts via interoffice mail. As demonstrated by Steve-O at the keynote, the Air fits comfortably in a typical interoffice envelope. That’s fantastic, since I often send gifts to my colleagues, and those gifts are often laptop computers. Now I can stop wasting all those FedEx boxes… it’s win-win-win, really.

3. Do something about that disc addiction. CDs, DVDs, CD-ROMs, Blu-ray… enough with the optical-disc storage, already. You’ve got tons of those suckers lying around, don’t you? And what’s on them? That’s right: movies, music, and files — who uses any of that? Time to get an Air and turn your back on this primitive era of “data.”

4. Modern décor. Get two. Put them back-to-back on a shelf. Open them so the screens are at right angles to the keyboards. You’ve just created the most minimalist bookends ever. Worth every penny!

More… 

If you want to read more, I’d recommend clicking this link which will take you to Google News and some 2,085 (8:15PM, 16/01/2008) news articles about the Macbook Air.

It was bound to happen; some joker has gotten onto Wikipedia and published a load of fluff about Macworld 2008. Here is an example of some of the so-called ‘leaked notes’:

New MacBooks!

- What would MacWorld be without a new Mac? (sorry about last year)

- Completely redesigned MacBook

- Completely aluminum body like MacBook Pro

- 13″ screen at 1440×900

- Two colors: Black and Silver

- Looks gorgeous at 0.8″ thin

- A major feat of engineering - patents abound

- DVD drive pops open on side when eject button is pressed

- New on all notebooks and iMac: iSight HD (720p)

- New backlit keyboard based on recent Apple Keyboard revisions (keys slightly lighter than that of laptop casing, colorwise)

- New matching MagSafe cable (Aluminum ends, cord color matches that of keyboard)

- New matching Apple Remote (slightly smaller with larger overall buttons)

- Intel GMA X3100 graphics

- 3 models

- Completely phasing out the combo drive on all product lines today

- BTO models can upgrade all the way to 2.6GHz/4GB Memory/320GB hard drive

- 4.5 hours of battery life

- Starting at $1199

Product Refreshes

- Refreshing Mac Pro and Mac mini today

- Mac Pro now with Penryn!

- Base model 2×2.8GHz dual-core/1GB/NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB/250GB(1×250GB)/1×16x double-layer SuperDrive

- Upgradeable to 2×3.2GHz quad-core/16GB/NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB/4TB(4×1TB)/2×16x double-layer SuperDrives

- Starting at $2,499

- Mac mini gets slight speed bumps and double-layer SuperDrive in all models

- Base model 2.0GHz IC2D/1GB/100GB

- BTO Upgradeable to 2.4GHz IC2D/4GB/320GB

- Starting at $599

One More Thing

- Been brewing for a while

- YouTube’s been in Apple TV and iPhone/iPod touch: now it’s in iTunes

- Download YouTube videos straight to iTunes or from iPhone/iPod Touch for later offline viewing (sync back to computer)

- Coming in iTunes 7.6 and iPhone/iPod Touch 1.3 updates

Lets see how accurate these rumours are…

Tomorrow (14th January) marks the start of MacWorld 2008. I wonder what this will bring this time around. Previous MacWorld’s have seen the release of the iPod (many, many models), Apple TV, Macbook, Leopard and iPhone. In fact, all of the products.

This year I hope to see the unveiling of a 3G iPhone suitable for Asia/Pacific and the rumoured ultra-portable 13″ Macbook Pro.

I will provide coverage of any major unveiling’s via Pajago.com as they come to hand.

Please, please, please let the 13″ MBP be real.

When does everyone think the Apple iPhone will available in Australia, or more accurately, Asia Pacific? I have my bets on late 2008/early 2009.

As most technophiles will already know, Steve Jobs - Apple’s CEO - is reluctant of a 3G model at this point due to problems with the battery-life. He doesn’t want to sacrifice any of the iPhone functionality by supplying a limited battery-life. Well, I don’t think they will release the iPhone to Asia Pacific unless it is a 3G model. What’s the point?

It has been said that people place too much importance on the ‘term’ - 3G. Most really don’t get the most out of what it offers to what can it possibly matter? Well, truth is, Asia Pacific hosts some of the worlds largest 3G networks. I believe 2.5 (GSM or EDGE) would be taking a step backward.

Who will win?

Next question, who will win the contract for the iPhone here in Australia? I have my money - not literally - on Vodafone. I believe, from a branding/marketing perspective the two companies align better than the anticipated Telstra/Apple partnership. After all, Telstra has always been rather Apple-unfriendly.

We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess.

In reply to Valleywag’s 25 Predictions for 2008, I shall do my own version. Well, lets make it 6 Predictions for 2008.

Telstra:-

I don’t think Sol Trujillo will be at Telstra by the end of 2008. Who replaces him: I don’t have the foggiest. I think Telstra will chip away at extending the reach of its HSDPA network and the other carriers will try their best to match all but its remotest coverage. Telstra won’t win the iPhone contract. I feel Vodafone will: the two align much better than Mac-unfriendly Telstra.

Apple:-

Hopefully Apple will release the iPhone to Asia by the end of 2008. It will be a 3G model and the battery issues will be worked out. The 13″ Macbook Pro will be announced at Macworld Jan. 08 (please let this be true).

Google:-

Google’s share-price will hit $800 (I agree with Valleywag on this). They will go on an acquisition-rampage.

The Internet:-

The whole Web 2.0 movement will charge ahead and brilliant ideas will continue to rise, survive and/or die out of Silicon Valley. Social networking will continue to be dominated by Facebook, MySpace and Linkdin (in order). There will be loads of consolidation and acquisitions in this space.

Telecommunications:-

All I have to say is one thing: ULL.

Pajago.com:-

We shall continue to tap-away at the keys - hopefully - producing content that you, the readers, enjoy to read. Again, feedback and suggestions is important for us to continue to produce quality. Contact us here: suggestions@pajago.com

Done.

P

One of my favourite Get a Mac ads.

I always thought geeks were obsessed with Windows computers but this assumption changed over time. Before too long, Linux seemed to be the geek OS (operating system) of choice.

Well, after working 5 months at my current workplace, the assumption has changed again, Apple OSX seems to be the geek OS of choice. I reckon at least 75% of our (my workplace) 300+ strong workforce are Mac users - oh that stat impresses me, so so much.

There are many arguments in circulation as to why people choose Macs. Some say it’s because Mac users are little snobs with nothing better to do than obsess. Others say it’s because they are employed in the film/music/design sector. Well, I think the following, rather lengthy and book-like explanation is spot on:

I want to share with you all a profound moment of clarity I’ve had today.

I was buying a Mac keyboard for my sister for a Christmas present. My sister has a Mac and wanted a Mac keyboard. So there I was. I got to the checkout and I found myself slightly ashamed to be actually buying a Mac product. I mean $69 for a really basic USB keyboard??? It’s worth half that.

So I started complaining to my wife on the way home that I just don’t get Mac users and their over-priced hardware. And what I was really thinking as I was driving was, ‘What a bunch of noobs.’ Anyone who is a PC enthusiast has thought it at least once. Go on, admit it! You think they must just be thick or sucked in by the slick marketing and minimalist packaging.

But we are wrong. And this is my revelation…

Their entire view of tech is fundamentally different to us…I mean on a fundamental level. It’s different. And here it is in a nutshell:

‘They don’t care about technology. They just care about what they can do with it.”

Let that sink in for a bit. Now I’m going to take you on a guided visualisation. Close your eyes…well maybe not…

Now imagine that you’re a second-gen digital native. Home computers existed well before you were born. You’ve never used a camera that requires film. You text so much your thumb is your most mobile digit, you live on Facebook, and you would rather lose your wallet than your mobile phone. You don’t even have a landline.

You want to view your photos, edit HD digital videos, play your music and generally bum around on-line. You probably use a laptop cause you want to do it all from the couch. Tech is everywhere, pervasive, omnipresent. You don’t really think about it. You just use it.

That’s a Mac user, because that’s exactly what Macs deliver. Macs (in all their forms) are friendly, welcoming, stylish (they are…admit it) and they work. You can do all the things you want to do in a tech world and it’s all pretty simple. I mean half of what they want to do is already built into the operating system.

And here’s the beautiful thing. Say someone wants to do something new with their Mac. Like setup a wireless network in their house. They go a shop. Probably a Mac shop. And there is one thing to do it. Airport Extreme. Not twenty variations with various driver issues and all sorts of dohickys and thingemebobs. Just one. I couldn’t believe it today when I was looking at the Airport Extreme (something else my sister was coveting). $259. I saw that it supported wireless N and I’m thinking there is no way my sister had wireless N. So I ask if there is a wireless G version that costs less. Of course not. I’m not thinking Mac. One thing. It’s that simple.

So they buy the Airport Extreme. They take it home. They plug it in. It probably gives them a hug the first time they turn it on. And it works. They plug in an external hard-drive. And there they go. Home network with remote storage.

It’s really a wonderful thing actually. Macs allow all the people who don’t have the inclination to pour over a myriad of hardware or software reviews (which I love to do as I’m such a geek) access to all the same cool tech tools (in a hardware and software sense) as we have. Sure they may not be the best in their class, or the cheapest, or the most efficient. But overall they work, they are hassle free, they are easy to use, and they look nice to have around home.

See you’ve just got to look at it like they do.

I like my car. I have a CRV. It’s good. It drives well, I can fit stuff in it, its relatively safe and it looks alright. While I have a general interest in how it works, I’m not really interested in modifying the suspension, or adjusting the computer controlled fuel-injection system, or whatever else it is that car heads do. My car is a Mac. Most cars are really. But to a car head….what am I? A noob.

So don’t denounce our Mac using brothers and sisters, embrace them! For they are tech lovers just like us. They have just come to the same place via a different path. And next time I buy my sister a pressie that’s white and glossy, I won’t be ashamed. I’ll feel warm in the knowledge that she has found her own way to the place where I live.

What can I say to that. Not a lot. Pretty accurate I think.

Source: Whirlpool

One of my favourite websites, Valleywag, today commented on Apple’s intention to open an additional 40 stores in 2008. Currently, Apple operates over 200 stores internationally. It’s likely that next years expansion efforts will focus on the international markets. To support this assumption, Apple is in the process of building a flagship store in Sydney.

Ron Johnson, Apple’s Head of Retail recently told the media that there ‘will be a larger number of international stores among the 40 or so that will opening in fiscal 2008′.

Critics have bashed Apple for omitting Adobe Flash support from the iPhone’s “real life” Safari browser, and with good reason: a quick spin around the Web on an iPhone reveals sites that don’t work, or don’t work well without the plug-in.

Now, it’s rumored to be coming, via a quote from Mossberg himself. The question is, was the original exclusion of Flash a technical decision or a business decision?

Read the rest of this article at Gizmoda

Apple has made a great strategic move. They have made their slick web-browser, Safari available to Windows users. A move like this hasn’t been made since Apple made its iPod media player and iTunes Store compatible with Windows.

The desired outcome behind these moves is simple: to convert Windows users to Apple Mac by introducing them to the slickness and simplicity of this software.

“There are a lot of connections between our products and here’s one more,” Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller said of the Windows-version of Safari in an interview. “And the more people who like our applications, the more it might mean they’ll buy other products from us.”

Check out the source article at Australian IT.

Pajago