Impressions of Macworld Keynote '08

Well, it's that time of year again. Time Capsule is cool if you don't already have a base station. But they need to just allow the same functionality if you have the "standard" Airport Extreme with an external drive. I want wireless backups, but I don't want to plunk down $500 for it. I've already got the Airport Extreme and a hard drive hooked up, they need to just let me use it that way.

The MacBook Air is awesome. Some interesting things left out of the Keynote is that the battery is iPod/iPhone-esque - not user removable. Personally not a big issue, but some will be frustrated with the inability to swap batteries. The Sony that he kept comparing things to may be thicker, but it also has a built-in optical drive, larger hard drive and the ability to have the solid state drive and hard drive at the same time. But the Air certainly has the sex appeal. It's not for everyone but it fits in nicely to the product line - MacBook for home, MacBook Air for highly mobile executives who really just need the basics - email, web browsing, office apps (esp. presentations) and MacBook Pro for those needing video and image editing, content creation, etc.

iTunes rentals is awesome. I want an Apple TV now. We use the cable on demand movie rentals all the time which is great, but the selection is very limited. NetFlix is great, but we're too spare-of-the-moment movie renters - Netflix/Blockbuster require too much planning and thought. Having 1000's of movies available at a touch is awesome. I will likely buy an Apple TV.

iPhone update is pretty slick. Makes me really excited about 3rd party apps for the phone. The "current location" functionality is pretty slick although here at home it locates me in the ballpark but not very close. But if you were trying to find something or you were lost, it will be close enough to work.