Macworld 2008 The Good, The Semi Bad and The Semi Ugly
Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
With all the great things in Macworld, there are a few things that might be overlooked.
The Good
Time Capsule - A great way to have a wireless backup for laptops without hooking a external drive to another machine, but also a great wireless N router for those who didn’t get one yet.
The Semi Bad
Macbook Air - I just preordered one for my wife for $3,098. As much as I love the design, there are a few really bad things such as only one USB port. My wife and I both hate trackpads and use mice so that leaves zero USB ports open.
The Macbook also doesn’t have a superdrive built in, which isn’t a huge problem because we can rent movie now in iTunes and watch them on the plane. We can also install software by sharing superdrives on other macs in the house over wifi.
According to Apple, the Macbook Air will have 5 hours of battery life, which usually means 4. 4 Hours is still amazing, but I have a feeling thats the SSD version only (less moving parts in the machine). I ordered a SSD anyways for speed, but it’s something to think about.
The Semi Ugly
iTV - I’m semi glad I didn’t have to buy another iTV, but I wish the specs had 1080i or 1080p output. Right now the iTV can output a maximum of 720p which is a low grade HD format.
iTunes Rentals - About freakin time, now I can dust off my iTV. This is much better than having to buy a movie, but in all honesty this will be no blockbuster killer. We have to wait 30 days after blockbuster gets them to rent..
When Netflix and LG start there streaming devices for TVs, this will hurt iTunes rentals badly. As of right now, iTunes will be one of the better online video rental solutions, but not for long.
There also isn’t any incentive to watch an iTunes movies Vs a cable box On-Demand movie, except if you own a Tivo series 3. Yes Tivo has Amazon Unbox, but the quality is horrible especially on my 70 inch screen!
