More Magic In Apple's Bag Of Tricks

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday January 21, 2008

Asher Moses

AS THE Macworld conference wound up in San Francisco last week, some attendees were left wondering whether Apple CEO Steve Jobs's bag of tricks would ever run dry.

Last year's Macworld heralded the debut of the iPhone - which Jobs says has been selling at a rate of 20,000 units a day since it went on sale in the US in June - but this time the focus shifted to laptops and Apple's renewed push into the living room.

MacBook Air, "the world's thinnest laptop", is now available for pre-order at a starting price of $2499. Apple says the first models will ship to customers next month but has yet to explain the massive price premium over the US version, which is identical and sells for $US1799 ($2044).

Weighing just 1.36 kilograms, the wedge-shaped laptop is 0.4 centimetres at its thinnest point and 1.9 centimetres at its thickest. It's slim enough to fit into a standard manila envelope, as Jobs demonstrated during his Macworld keynote, to coos and laughter from the audience.

"It's the world's thinnest notebook [computer]," Jobs said, grinning like a proud new mother. "We went out and looked at all the thin notebooks out there and tried to distil a best-of-breed."

The notebook is powered by a 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and, despite its diminutive dimensions, features a 13.3-inch screen as well as a full-sized backlit keyboard. Users have the option of either an 80GB standard hard drive or a faster, more durable 64GB "solid state" drive with no moving parts. Perhaps the most innovative feature of the new MacBook is its "multi-touch" touchpad, which lets users manipulate photos and adjust windows using iPhone-like hand gestures.

Those looking to add all the bells and whistles, including the faster processor and solid state storage drive, should expect to pay at least $4000. The exorbitant price, lack of an optical drive and single USB port have already attracted scorn from critics.

Macworld this year also marked Apple's entry into the movie rental market via the iTunes store, backed by alliances with all six big movie studios. The service is already live in the US, where Apple also sells TV shows and movies outright.

Jobs said the movie rental service would roll out internationally later this year but Apple did not give a date for Australia. Local iTunes users are largely limited to music downloads.

Complementing the video rentals play is a revamped Apple TV, which allows users to stream music and high-definition movies from the net directly to their TV without touching a computer. Apple said existing Apple TV owners, including Australians, would be able to take advantage of the updates via a free software patch.

The last cab off the rank was a new back-up appliance for Macs called Time Capsule, which comes in 500GB ($429) and 1TB ($699) sizes. It can wirelessly back up the contents of every Mac in your house with a few clicks.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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