Macworld Keynote: Jobs Hits a Double, Not a Home Run

The MacBook Air makes for one sexy notebook, and I'm pleased by the news of iTunes movie rentals and a much-need Apple TV update, but Steve Jobs didn't reveal any game-changers Tuesday, à la last year's iPhone.

To be fair, Jobs set the standard for Macworld keynotes pretty high last year. The iPhone literally set off a tech earthquake; audience members ooohed, aahhed, and roared with excitement, and hundreds of miles away at the CES press room in Las Vegas—where myself and dozens of other journalists were covering what was supposed to be the biggest showcase of the latest tech—you could hear a pin drop.

So this year, the big mystery surrounded Apple's "Something is in the Air" banners that had been hung all around San Francisco's Moscone Center, and the Apple faithful hoped and prayed for another game-changer. Everyone pretty much figured that a Mac ultraportable was coming, but what about the "something in the air" thing? Would the new notebooks come with WiMax for ubiquitous broadband wireless connections (forgetting, of course, that Sprint has barely begun rolling out its WiMax network)? Or maybe the Air would have a built-in HSDPA modem for AT&T's network?

MacBook Air: Whisper thin, but no built-in Ethernet

Well, turns out that neither prediction was quite right, leaving us with...an undeniably sexy, three-pound, whisper-thin (0.76 inches at its thickest point) MacBook, complete with a 1.8-inch, 80GB hard drive (or a pricier 64GB solid-state drive), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a 13.3-inch screen, and an optional exteranl SuperDrive ($99). I like the $1,799 base price, and the "Remote Disc" feature—which lets you wireleesly "borrow" the optical on another Mac or PC—is pretty sweet. Also nice: the multi-touch trackpad, which gives you some iPhone-like gesture controls (such as "pinching" to zoom photos). But note the lack of a built-in Ethernet port, a bummer for those of us who go back and forth between wireless and ultra-speedy wired connections. [Update: TUAW reports that an Ethernet accessory that plugs into the Air's USB 2.0 port will be available for $29; you won't get gigabit Ethernet, but it's better than nothing.] Good stuff—hey, I can't wait to check it out—but nothing on the scale of last year's iPhone revolution.

Speaking of which, Jobs' iPhone announcements were encouraging, if mostly expected, including pseudo-GPS abilities for the Maps application, customizable home screens (up to nine; just touch and hold the icons to shuffle them around), and SMS addressing to multiple people. Jobs also confirmed that the iPhone SDK (which will allow third-party developers to build apps for the iPhone) will arrive late next month. I'd be hoping that perhaps the SDK had been moved up a bit, or that perhaps some third-party iPhone apps would be ready early—like today, maybe?—but no dice. Also, the iPod Touch will get some features it should have had all along—such as e-mail access, maps, stocks, notes, and weather widgets—but you'll have to shell out $20 for the update. Huh. Also, still no word on Flash support for mobile Safari, or a mobile version of iChat, both of which would have made for welcome surprises at the keynote. And of course, no 3G iPhone.

iTunes movie rentals, and Apple TV lives!

Moving on to what I actually thought was the most exciting announcement of the keynote: iTunes movie rentals, as expected, except with a few surprises. First, all the big studios will have movies available for rent: $3.99 for new releases, $2.99 for older movies, as expected, with a total of about 1,000 movies. Another twist: about 100 HD movies will be available for a buck more than their SD counterparts. Even better news, however, is that you'll be able to browse for and rent movies directly over Apple TV—and that all existing Apple TVs will get the feature too, courtesy of a free software update that should be available in a couple of weeks. Also: you'll be able to update podcasts on Apple TV, buy and purchase music, browse your media using Cover Flow, and view snapshots from Flickr and dot Mac. Overall, major kudos to Apple for giving the Apple TV a huge shot in the arm—and I may just have to remove the box from my "Worst Tech of 2007" post. Well done.

Time Capsule: Meh

Last but not least, we have the little matter of "Time Capsule": a Wi-Fi-enabled hard drive that allows for wireless backups of your Macs via Leopard's new Time Machine feature. It's an interesting idea, but why not combine Time Capsule with Apple TV, and turn it into a combo media center/backup box? As it stands, those of us with Apple TVs probably don't want yet another Wi-Fi storage device. Also, I'm not sure if the problem that Time Capsule solves is all that big of an issue—for instance, I have a pint-sized, 160GB FireWire hard drive that I use as a Time Machine backup for my PowerBook at home, and it works just fine. Something tells my that Time Capsule will end up falling flat.

So yes—some impressive new products this time around, but nothing I'd brand a home run. Guess that'll have to wait until, say, a summer Apple press conference, where we'll meet the 3G-ready, Flash-enabled, 32GB iPhone 2.0.

Related:
Apple Launches 13-Inch Ultralight MacBook Air [Yahoo! Tech]