Mike’s Blog

As usual, thanks to the guys at Mahalo Daily, save yourself a lot of time: Watch the keynote in 60 seconds instead of nearly 2 hours.
Enjoy.

Do you want to save yourself some time? Instead of watching the whole 90 minutes of Steve Jobs Keynote at this weeks MacWorld, have a look at what Mahalo Daily did with it. All the facts in 60 seconds

As a lot of the rumours over the past weeks indicated, Apple did realease a new Macbook at MacWorld this week.
I was really looking forward to it, and was actually ready in buying one, since I am actually looking for a small size factor portable.

On a first view, the MacBook Air (MBA) is really fascinating and exciting! The design is just wonderful, it is incredibly thin, great keyboard, innovative touchpad (using multitouch gestures) and so on…

But unfortunately, it all ends there. Let me explain why I am currently clearly not convinced in buying one:

• No Ethernet port
  Yes, I could probably live with out it. I have wireless at my place, even the printer is using Wifi, so no real issue there, and I could probably get used to it. Although I am not convinced that the speed of wireless will be good enough to really enjoy everything. Transferring large files will be a nightmare.
  Providing an optional USB dongle to add an Ethernet port is also not convincing, for two reasons: It is only a 10/100 port, and will use up one USB port, which leads directly to the next issue.
• It only has ONE single USB port!
  What a disappointment! Even more for a portable device I want to have the flexibility of being able to connect more then a single external device to it, without having to use a USB hub each time.
• Poor graphics card performance.
  The MBA “only” has an integrated graphics chip. CLearly not good enough for a high end (look at the price) ultra portable.
• Build-in Battery
  The battery is build-in and can not be relaced by teh end-user. Not really a suprise, but not a good choice in my eyes. Especially with my past experiences with MacBook batteries. Just thinking about the fact that I would have to send my MBA to Apple to get the Battery replace is driving me crazy.
• No Firewire port
  I use my current MacBook Pro on a regular basis to capture videos from my Digital camera, which need the Firewire port.

So where does that leave me? I still like the look and feel of the MBA. A really desirable little beast! But I think for now at least, I am too disappointed by teh above mentionned issues to convince myself and buy it.
The guys at Gizmodo have created a nice comparison showing the alternatives. And one device really shines in that list. It is the Dell XPS M1330. Slightly cheaper, same screen estate, slightly thicker and heavier. Shorter battery life, but replaceable battery. And it goes on: Faster Processor, better graphics, faster and larger (and future proof) SATA HDD, more memory, firewire port, ethernet ports….

And to be honest, it is looking also surprisingly good! Yes, it doesn’t have the “Wow-effect” off the MBA, but still. And if you want to, you can also get it with a Solid State Harddrive up to 64GB, same as the MBA.
CNET did a short video review of it , which shows mainly focuses on the design, giving you a good idea of it.
Where does that leave me? I guess, I really haven’t made up my mind yet. I will do a Hand-on comparison of both devices the coming weekend in the shops here in London, which will hopefully help me to take the right decision.

I went to the Apple Store in London (Regent Street Store) tonight after work to pick up my copy of the new OS as soon as it became available..and also maybe to get a free T-shirt.

The store closed at 16h00, I guess mainly to allow them to upgrade all of the machines at display in the store to Leopard. I arrived in front of the store at 17h15, and I was expecting to see some people standing in the queue already. Well, yes, that was definitely the case..the queue went already around the whole block!

After having some fun in the queue, especially answering to all those people who passed by asking what we are queuing for, I finally made it into the store at around 18h15. The store was obviously already filled with people, but it was still easy to get my copy of MAC OSX from one of the many apple employees with they hand-held devices, allowing quick and easy credit card sales.

Every single Computer in the store was of course running Leopard already! In the theatre area, one could assist a basic introduction to the new features. But all in all, the most amazing experience was the number of people in the store taking pictures, filming etc…I guess YouTube, Flickr and many blogs will be filled with pictures and Videos covering this.

Well, here is my part…

And yes, I got a free T-shirt..actually even two.

One of the features missing on the iPhone is GPS. I was used to have it on the Nokia N95, and although I didn’t use it very often, it came in handy a few times. Well, the iPhone has Assisted GPS since today. Well, sort of.

When checking for new application within the installer, I noticed a new app called Navizon GPS. I have to say it is rather cool. Navizon calls its Virtual GPS service “Peer-to-Peer Wireless Positioning”. It is based on a database which is populated by users of the Navizon software on mobile phones with a real GPS receiver included. The geo-coded information is then combined with the information received from the cellular network and WIFI networks. This combined information is then available for users of the system without a GPS receiver included in their phone.

It will in most case never be as precise as real  GPS, or even the A-GPS on the N95, but it still allows you to locate yor position in a certain area, as long as the area is covered by users with GPS equipped phones in the past.

In my case, the location found by my iPhone was a few hundred meters away from my home here in London. Still very sweet!!!

The announcement of the $200 price drop on the 8Gig iPhone did not only cause positive reactions. A lot of the early adopters weren’t too happy to see such a huge drop in Price after only two months.

What made it worse, was a comment from Steve Jobs in an interview:

“Q: What do you say to customers who just bought a new iPhone for $599? Sorry?
A: That’s technology. If they bought it this morning, they should go back to where they bought it and talk to them. If they bought it a month ago, well, that’s what happens in technology.“

Well, looks like since he mad that statement, he changed his mind a little bit. in an open letter he announced that those early buyers will be able to get a $100 store credit (valid in the retail and online stores). Amazing reaction, which might cost Apple a small fortune, but then again, it shows why Apple has such a loyal customer base! Which other company would have reacted like this? I can’t name a single one.

Looks like all of the different rumours were true. And my prediction weren’t really wrong either, but then again, I guess a lot of the stuff was kind of predictable, although it was a surprise that really nearly all of the different rumours were correct this time.

- iPod shuffle “Product red, and other new colours.

- new iPod Nano. Yes, it is the “fatty”, that was seen on Engadget and other sites already. Cover flow, but not touch sensitive. Available with 4G ($149) and 8G ($199)

- new iPod Classic. Basically the same new UI as the new Nano, 80G ($249) and 160G($349).

- new iPod Touch. Basically an iPhone without the phone! Same UI, multi-touch, and WIFI! Pretty nice. Available with 8G ($299) and 16G ($399)

- iTunes wireless store! Kind of expected when it became clear that the new iPod will have Wifi. Available on the iPod Touch and soon also on the iPhone as part of a software update.

- Pricedrop for the iPhone! The 8G version will be $399 instead of $599. Nice! The 4G version is gone.

In the end, a very nice line-up of new devices!

Update: As usual, I am rather disapointed to see the price here in the UK for these devices. Let me take the 16G iPod Touch as example: 399US$ in the US Apple store. 269£ in the UK store, which corresponds to 543US$. You would have to add the Sales Tax to the 399US$, but even after that, around 100US$ more to pay if you buy it here in the UK.

As a lot of you know by now, Apple has scheduled a “special event” this Wednesday. I am not going to repeat all of the rumours of what will be announced, but, jut for the fun of it, here is my prediction:
It will be the long awaited new iPod. Using the OSX and having the same nice UI as the iPhone! Now, it might even have wireless build in, but if it does, it will only make sense if it will also finally allow wireless iTunes synchronisation, or direct access to the iTunes store.

As usual, there will be the “one more thing” at the end. And that one will be the announcement of the availability of the complete Beatles collection in the iTunes Store. Why? The phrase on the invite gives it away. “The beat goes on” were the last words of the final Beatles press release!