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Macworld 2007: Roundup

sHARD>>

By sHARD>>

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Here's what we've learned:

 

iTV

The iTV has now dropped its codename and is officially known as AppleTV. It sports a 40GB hard drive, 720p HD output, 802.11b/g/n wireless, connects to the iTunes store, can stream content from up to 5 computers, and sync content with another computer. It costs $299, can be preordered today, and will ship in February.

 

Price: $299

Shipping: February

Buy it now: Apple store

Product page: Apple TV

 

iPhone & iPod

Next up is the famed iPhone. This was coyly introduced as an iPod, iPhone, and "Internet Communicator"... all in one! Big widescreen, fully touch sensitive, multitouch, gestures, runs a version of OS X. It docks and syncs with iTunes, and can play movies, music, podcasts, TV shows, photos, contacts, and e-mail. It has a 3.5" high res screen, with 160 pixels per inch and is 11/16" thick, though it is a bit taller and wider than a standard cell phone. The screen is very impressive, though the interface looks vaguely Zune-like, in it's focus on a colorful wallpaper. It houses 4GB or 8GB of onboard flash memory. A nice 2 Megapixel camera is housed on the back of it, a standard iPod connector at the bottom, and an ambient light sensor to adjust brightness. The built-in speaker appears to function with music, not just the phone system. It also houses an acceleromoter to automatically turn on the display, and orientation detection to adjust the screen to portrait or landscape.

 

It appears that Cingular is the only carrier to have the iPhone, and as it is GSM, it also takes SIM cards. It also takes advantage of the faster EDGE network, giving mobile broadband. Connectivity also includes WiFi and Bluetooth, allowing it to connect to home networks and pair with other devices. The onstage demos showed the device flying, looking very much like a full-scale laptop with its Core animation support. Yes, that means it supports Coverflow. Overall the interface is designed with the typical Apple ethos - everything is simple and attractive.

 

"Visual" voicemail which let's you select which voicemails you wish to listen to, quick buttons to conference call, mute, speakerphone, etc. Along with standard SMS features (iChat style), the phone also supports e-mail, enhanced with a new form of predictive input. A minimalist version of Safari is used for web browsing, using the power of the WebKit engine for everything from Google Maps to Widgets (both demoed). Yes, it even has tabs. In order to offer cheaper and more reliable internet access, it automatically switches between the EDGE and WiFi connections. Free e-mail with Yahoo! uses a system similar to that on Blackberries (push IMAP). Back to Google Maps for a second - finally, a phone which uses the GPS features... it knows where you are.

 

The interface is, in general, very OS X like. With the added joys of multitouch, photos can be resized with two fingers, web pages can zoom in and out, and more. And don't forget multi-tasking. Browse the web while making a call, shoot off some e-mails. Music auto-pauses when a call comes in much like the older iTunes software for phones. With all these features, battery life sits at a respectable 5 hours talk time, 16 with audio only.

 

Price: 4GB: $499 (with 2 year contract)

8GB: $599 (with 2 year contract)

Shipping: US: June

Europe: Quarter 4

Asia: 2008

Product page: iPhone

 

Google & Yahoo

What the heck? I remarked to fellow InsanelyMac user other that it would be fairly amusing if Google bought Apple... moments before Eric Schmidt walks on stage and they start talking about doing a "merge without merging". What's that translate to? It seems it's a "strong partnership". But then again, they've also announced heavy Yahoo integration with the iPhone.

 

Apple Computer

Is no more. Now it's just Apple, Inc.

 

Airport Extreme

Here's a little gem that managed to escape the keynote: the AirPort Extreme Base Station has launched and can be found at the Apple Store. It sports 802.11a/b/g/n, 3 LAN ports, a USB port for a printer or hard drive, and a new design resembling the Mac mini or Apple TV.

 

Price: $179

Shipping: February

Buy it now: Apple store

 

Pictures and Video

Need a peek at the units? Check out MacRumors, Engadget, or Gizmodo.

The 2007 Keynote can be found at Apple's 2007 Keynote Address page.

 

Commentary

Wow, so the iPhone is really here. It's... amazing, though a bit pricey. But with those features, it's hard to complain.

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aberracus

i love the iPhone, i will preorder as soon as possible.

 

and how the helldo they plan to get the name? or is just a placeholder like itv?

 

it could be, we are back in showtime again.

 

hey MS-Zune lovers, what do you think?

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Adrian Fogge

I take solace in knowing that at least Apple will have a Leopard Seed on my ADC account by 5PM Pacific... I doubt that they would break their 2nd Tuesday of the Month trend that they have been doing since 10.2's Developer Previews (Maybe earlier, but that was when I got my ADC Subscription).

 

And {censored}, man... Even the new updated Airport Extremes are a February Ship Date.

However, the description does reference an 802.11n Enabler for Core 2 Duo and Xeon-based Macintosh Computers except 17-inch 1.83GHz iMac) on the CD.

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rohde

A MacWorld keynote with no Mac content whatsoever. Hmmm.

 

I wouldn't say I'm dissapointed, but since I'm more a computer guy than a phone guy I sure missed some Leo info.

 

Their name change is a very big thing tho' I think. It's clear that Apple is becoming a general electronics company than a computer company.

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Willwander

Apple TV - Cool. Too expensive. Unless it does lots of clever home server stuff like NAS etc then yep I'd buy one.

 

iPhone - The touch screen interface has to be amazing to use. Otherwise its just a phone. Or... its got to be so slick when connected to your home network, but that sort of rules out the mass market. And its not ready!, in the UK once you go through that whole nintendo wii "can't get one for love nor money" we wont get one till christmas. The phone market moves quick in Europe in some ways ahead of the US. Asia in 2008? do you know how many of those 957 million mobiles were sold in china alone! whats the hold up?

 

Other - no little updates on anything? or are they going to put them in a seperate press release?

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kernalzero

why not 1080i atleast for the appleTV? and no built in tuner? Tivo3 seems better but much more expensive (alteast you can record HD with the Tivo though) I basically already have this with my xbox360 including HD...although I can't download from itunes. I do look forward to later revisions of this product as it will need to have more features if they expect it to survive/thrive.

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kernalzero

willwander - I'll bet they are manufactured in china like my ipod was too!!! and i'll agree the market in europe seems to move alot faster than it does in the US.

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strip22
why not 1080i atleast for the appleTV? and no built in tuner? Tivo3 seems better but much more expensive (alteast you can record HD with the Tivo though) I basically already have this with my xbox360 including HD...although I can't download from itunes. I do look forward to later revisions of this product as it will need to have more features if they expect it to survive/thrive.

 

It'll get hacked to hell. If itunes only, its gonna suck a bit...

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Adrian Fogge

A multi-year exclusive contract with Cingular... That severely blows, hard.

Hopefully that does not mean that they are actually software-locked to Cingular, preventing you from buying and then using with your own existing service via SIM Card.

 

Sure, they are huge... but they are full of disgruntled subscribers who hate them. This last quarter alone, they announced some pretty major losses of subscribers and said that they will be having lay-offs.

 

Sprint/Nextel announced that they would be laying off 5000 people in the near future, so they are out of the picture.

 

T-Mobile isn't that much better, but they are on an upward growth trend at the moment and use the same network technologies.

 

Then, you have Verizon, who uses a proprietary network (at least as far as the North American Markets are concerned) locking them out solely because of the frequency spectrum implemented in this model.

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Paranoid Marvin

Anone else get the opinion that Apple is going to do another release in the coming weeks?

I just seems as though they have missed so much....

And not a single product came out of this that i can buy/have any use for

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schmons

hmm wonder if this june release of the iPhone corresponds with the release of Leopard. Hmmm wishful thinking.

 

ps this phone is gonna get scratcheddddddddddddd

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Adrian Fogge

Except June is a little after Spring 2007.

If anything, I would think that Leopard would fall right around the same day as the updated Airport Base Station and AppleTV is released...

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Willwander

dls-01. your so right. That screen is going to have to be made out of some space alien type material to get the UI/resolution etc right. People are used to treating there phones like {censored} these days. people look after a nano.

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capran

Color me extremely disapointed too. The iTV....neat but YAWN. The iPhone...very sweet tech, but ridiculously expensive, only Cingular?!?, and only 4 or 8 GB?!? Maybe it'll replace the Razr as the new hotness in phones, but I still won't be getting one.

 

If they had just released a "Mac Mini Pro" that uses a Conroe and has a 16x PCI-E slot that can take a high end gaming card, I would have whipped out the credit card in a flash. I want me a new Mac that can also double as a PC gaming box SO BAD. I recently got JaS 10.4.8 running on my PC, but it's got several issues that will prevent me from using it regularly.

 

I just want a lightning fast powerhouse Mac that doesn't cost $ARM + $LEG + $LEFT-NUT.

 

STEVE!!! ARE YOU LISTENING?!? :rolleyes:

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