HD For Indies

Steve Jobs is giving his annual keynote right now, here's the highlights:

-iPhone getting substantial software updates, including better Maps with GPS-LIKE but not really truly GPS capabilities. Other improvements as well. Should go live today, but isn't live yet (I'll check later tonight). SDK coming in February for 3rd party apps.

-iPod Touch gets Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes, and Weather....for a $20 upgrade done via iTunes. Your iPod Touch is now an iPhone sans phone...for $20.

-New gadget called Time Capsule that works with Leopard's Time Machine to wirelessly do backups. Is a fully featured Airport Extreme Base Station with a hard drive for Time Machine backups (for multiple machines, presumably). Halle-F'in'-Lujah. I'm buying a 1TB model for my parents so I don't have to sweat backups for them. Available February.

-OK, now it gets juicy - iTunes will do movie rentals...in HD All the major studios are in. Over 1000 films by end of February....but 30 days after DVD release (doh! Major acquiescence to the studios!). Can start watching in less than 30 seconds IF you have a fast connection. 30 days to start watching it, but only 24 hours to finish it (lame! 48 or 72 - you rent movies for 2-3 days, right? This'll harsh on the parental watching, where movies are watched in snippets over several days).

-Apple TV "Take 2" - FREE software update out in a couple of weeks, price cut to $229. Syncs w/computer, but computer not necessary - can buy and interface directly from the AppleTV (finally!). Can rent movies directly from AppleTV while sitting on the couch. Movies in SD or HD (gonna be 720p24, I promise) with 5.1 (5.1 HD only it seems). Also does streaming pics from Flickr and .Mac, and streaming YouTube. Can buy TV shows and movies directly as well (and those'll sync to computer as well - can you have AppleTV sync with TimeCapsule? That'd be GREAT). Movie rentals are $2.99 for SD catalog releases and $3.99 for new releases, and HD are $4.99. Note it says HD for for rental, but I haven't noticed HD movies for SALE. Drat. Over 100 HD titles to start, more coming. Different/improved UI. TV shows $1.99/episode, syncs back to Mac/PC.

Some DVDs will come with pre-compressed versions for iPod - Family Guy: Blue Harvest stuff that slipped out last week is included in that.

-MacBook Air - tiny skinny laptop with no optical drive, 1.8" hard drive (80GB HD, or 64GB SSD, yes that's Solid State Drive). 0.8 tapering down to 0.15 inches thick. 13.3" screen, backlit keyboard. Aluminum exterior, dark (plastic?) interior. Large trackpad, multi-touch aware. So iPhone touch UI is migrating to Macs, first in this product. GOOD. The catch will be we'll need an OS and application upgrades to support it. But it is a good thing. 1.6 or 1.8 GHz processors, so slower than current Macbooks, but not massively. Software to access a Mac or PC's optical drive since none included. ONE USB 2.0 port, no FireWire mentioned, mini-DVI, NO ethernet port. Bluetooth of course (2.1+EDR), but minimal connectivity. Oh - $99 external SuperDrive module if you want it. Even with wireless on, 5 hour battery life (I'll betcha that's with the SSD not HD though). 3 pounds. iSight. 1.6 or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo. 2GB standard RAM, dunno how expandable. $1799 to start (not bad). No mention of the GPU, but obviously lightweight, light grade presumably.

No "One More Thing."

So...Apple's already down more than $9 for the day, since nothing particularly hugely exciting announced. I'm surprised the Mac Pro update was last week, since this is a thin MWSF for the overall market. Really just some nice/expected software/service updates, and a niche laptop.

The iTunes rentals and HD movies are the big deal for this readership. Apple TV Take 2 - OK, thanks, getting it closer to what it shoulda been in the first place. Maybe I'll update my AppleTVhacker.com website. Next step - getting indie content access to that system.

-mike

UPDATE:

MacBook Air Links & Details:

Apple - MacBook Air - with additional links for design, features, wireless, Mac OS X & iLife, and tech specs.

Apple - MacBook Air - Guided Tour

Macbook Air GPU stats from the website:
Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor with 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory

Extended desktop and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 1920 by 1200 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors

iPhone/iPod update info:

Apple - iPhone - Guided Tour Update 2 - Large - for the new features.

Maps - uses info from WiFi and cell towers to get approx location. New button to find location. Also have Drop Pin (to mark a location) and a Traffic button. Gives you your location with a circle to give an idea of where in the circle you are. There's Search and Directions buttons.

Drop Pin - lets YOU set a location, and save as a bookmark, move it around etc.

Hybrid view shows streets and sattelite views merged - like Google Earth does it.

Can save an icon on homescreen to be an icon on homescreen. No biggie.

-you can rearrange icons on your Home Screen

-send SMS to multiple people

-iTunes movie rentals - can't rent straight to iPhone, but can sync rentals to the iPhone.

-chapter markers now in iPhone - good for podcasts too

-song lyrics, Google Mail IMAP, and other benefits.

AppleTV Take 2 Info:

Apple - Apple TV - Guided Tour

Rentals will play on Mac, PC, iPods, iPhone, or AppleTV. Can rent on AppleTV, sync back to Mac, and sync iPod/iPhone to watch in multiple locations.

-new improved UI, easy searching

-individual movie info gives plot summary, can show preview, or let you rent in SD or HD (HD is a buck more).

-movie starts downloading, SD movies will be ready to watch in short order. HD obviously takes longer, but they don't say how long. I'll of course give a hands on review ASAP when the software comes out.

-24 hours to watch as many times as you want, but if you're halfway through after 20 hours..SOL

-TV shows can be bought a day after they air

-no mention of HD for TV shows, only one price, so presumably still HD only

-Flickr & .Mac, or your own photos seen on your TV at high res

-podcasts viewable via AppleTV as well - nice.

Apple - Time Capsule

Overall, a B- Stevecast. Nice updates, a few useful new products, but nothing that makes me want to OMFG go buy it right now.

So, products:

Mac Pro: updated last week but lets lump it into MWSF - I'm happy with my current OctoMac, when they get Blu-ray burners in'em I'll start getting That Itch again to buy

Laptops: I feel no urge to get the MacBook Air personally. And it isn't a viable lightweight FCP box either - hello, no FireWire means no capturing video, and OH YEAH - no reasonably fast external storage. USB 2.0 is barely fast enough for DV/HDV but not any of the heavier codecs like DVCPRO HD (full rate) nor ProRes....so count it out, besides the GPU limitations.

Time Capsule: yep, I'll get one...for my Mom & Dad. No rush for now for me - I'm looking at back devices with 10 times the capacity (or more) for my studio needs. But for backing up boot drives and apps and iTunes and photos....hmmm, maybe I will get one.

iPhone: no new models, but new software later today that I'm VERY excited to get, especially the locations feature, which was my #1 feature I missed the most.

iPod Touch: for $20, you're an iPhone, sans the phone stuff. Good deal.

Leopard - no big changes, but Time Capsule is a hardware product for a software feature/function

iTunes - rentals - GREAT. HD rentals, even better. HD purchased movies? Hello? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

AppleTV - a heap of updates and upgrades that should've come out, frankly, 6 months ago. Will it be a viable competitor to everything else? Yeah. Will it supplant DVDs etc? Nope. My most interesting thought from various conversations with friends - Can Apple make the Next Big Thing for media devices in the home? Mike Says No. Here's why:
-ultimate device would let you DVR TV content, burn to DVD (or HD DVD or Blu-ray), have TiVO type functionality, sync to iPod/iPhone, let you buy/rent videos, distribute to the other formats you want, etc. Apple won't do that. If they offered DVR functionality, or integration with cable TV, they'd be undercutting their rental/sales iTunes content - no way they'll do it. So they're out. Be interesting to see who can supplant the cable set top box and DVD player as the next content distro methodology of substance.

Apple's "Go it alone, brave new frontier, don't look back" ethos has served them well in the past - but it'll bite them here. TV is too big to ignore (and so are DVDs, for that matter).

-mike

more updates:
More details on Apple's iTunes movie / HD rentals - Engadget HD
-1280x720 @ 24p still max (hardware limitation w/H.264)
-HD rentals ONLY available via AppleTV, NOT iTunes
-5.1 only on SOME HD rentals
-hmm....when it goes live, time to get AppleTVhacker.com back up and rolling...

Hands-On: MacBook Air Hands-on - with LOTS of pics. Thanks to Matt of FreshDV for the link (and the one below).

..and MUCH more importantly for us road warriors, MacBook Air doesn't have a user-replaceable battery - Engadget

DAMN. That's a MISTAKE in my book. Deal killer. Not buyin' one, even for Mom.

Labels: Apple, AppleTV, MWSF