MacWorld '08: There's indeed something in the air... and I want it.

MacWorld has always been an unpredictable event that all techies regardless of operating system, anticipate. Well, it was surely worth the wait, even though the hype the iPhone got will be left unmatched maybe forever. But hey, at least the rumors are mostly true this time around, the company finally gets things right with their flops and well, you're probably gonna be shocked about what Steve Jobs' fourth thing. I was.

The First Thing

Apple's new operating system Leopard has this extraordinarily convenient and user-friendly

automatic backup program called Time Machine. Just connect your hard drive by Firewire and if you've got all the options right, then you'll be ready to ignore your Mac when you're not gonna use it. However, in a wireless world, back-up is also going there right now in the form of Time Capsule. It's an accessory for Leopard and Time Machine, and it uses Wi-Fi 802.11N, the most advanced, so you can hook up and back-up wirelessly to as many Macs possible. Kinda like a server, only significantly less expensive. It will be available in 500 gigabyte and 1 terabyte capacities at just $299 and $499 respectively. If the execution is right because there wasn't a live demo in the keynote, the product will be a hit among Mac users because it will definitely be a life-saver. And a wireless one at that.

The Second Thing

Apple has penetrated 20% of the smartphone market in its first few months after release. Well, it seems that in the 4 million iPhones they have sold in just 200 days, they're making it better for free. They're adding no, not GPS, but something really close, and it's inside a revamped Google Maps. It's called Locations. Well, because of what was an explanation about triangulation mumbo-jumbo and Wi-fi hotspots, Apple together with Google and some Wireless Networking Company, have made a faux GPS possible so you can locate yourself and locate some places near to you and teach you which direction you should go. I don't see myself using this because Google Maps doesn't have a street map of the Philippines unfortunately.

If Leopard gave you the ability to create widgets from web pages, it's here too, and you can resize, zoom in, and save any web page you like so a web page icon can be generated on the home screen. It's a bit like Bookmarks anyway, and I also don't see myself using that one as well.

You still can't put your own backgrounds, but you can drag and drop home screen icons up to 9 pages. Maybe I should add a sarcastic "Weee!" to that, but hey, if you want to have a more convenient way of sorting out apps in the home screen, it's a great feature then. Hell, you can even remove icons from the dock. What used to be 4 icons could also be three icons, or maybe you can put something else there, or something like that.

One very significant upgrade Apple finally made without waiting a new generation (of iPhones) is Multiple SMS sending. Yes, finally, it's there now. You'll know how it works. Only thing missing is 3G... and maybe MMS, too.

The new iPods have this feature and so will the iPhone. It will support video chapters, subtitles and alternate languages. For the music part, Lyrics display for both iPhone and iPod touch. I don't really have much to say about this, but I do prefer watching videos with subtitles. I don't know why...

Plus, people have been nagging about the iPod touch not having e-mail or something. Well, Apple finally delivers along with a few uninteresting widgets like Weather or Stocks. And it even costs $20 for the upgrade... though you can just a buy a Touch from a new shipment to get all these so you can save a few bucks.

The Third Thing

iTunes, Apple's trademark music program, has reached record sales of the 4 Billionth song, 20 million songs sold on Christmas Day and 125 million TV shows and 7 Million movies sold. Now, they have decided to put a largely requested feature called Movie Rentals. You know what it means, you rent a movie, you return it after a few days, you pay less than the DVD, etc. This feature... I STILL don't see myself using. One, we don't have a domestic iTunes store for crying out loud, and two... well, just that reason...

New movies will be released a month after the DVD, and they will cost a dollar more than titles already in the iTunes catalogue a long time ago and you gotta play the rented movie before 30 days and you gotta watch it before the day passes. So if you watch just 30 minutes of a movie a day, then say bye-bye to the rest of the movie because, in my understanding, once you play it, you gotta finish it before the 24 hour mark. And after the first playing, you can still play it again, and again, and again until you get sick of it before the day passes. You can sync it to your iPod to continue watching, though.

This concept then led Jobs to introduce a new Apple TV. They failed the first time, he concedes, but this time, he really wants to sell. Well, the product's actually looking solid and seems like a great companion to iTunes. You can plug it in your widescreen HDTV, you can watch YouTube, you can listen to Music, but you gotta sync your computer via iTunes to the device to actually get going, or buy a song or video in iTunes Store in your computer, then sync it.

Well, this time, those kinks are gone. You can access the whole catalogue of iTunes right in the device so you won't have to turn on the computer, you can view photostreams from Flickr and to a much, much lesser extent, Apple's .Mac service, and you also get HD movie rentals that have surround sound built-in. They cost a dollar higher than the standard rental, but if you have an HDTV, I think it's currently a great way to experience it. And if you have an Apple TV already (which I doubt), you get it all free in an upgrade. Boy does Jobs know how to extend a product's life! And good thing that he doesn't boldly proclaim about Blu-ray this and Blu-ray that just because his company's siding with the camp. It's also a much better thing that he knows that downloadable HD content will rule out in the end...

After that announcement, he invited the 20th Century Fox CEO to the stage. He talked about partnerships, philosophies, the DVD war and lastly, something more interesting- the ability to get a digital version of a movie into your computer, fast and free into iTunes. All you need of course is an original DVD copy of future Fox releases because the first one to employ that is a certain "Family Guy" DVD which spoofs Star Wars, creator Seth McFarlene's favorite saga. Hopefully, it will work on copied original DVD discs (as in yung mga exact copy ng mga orig sa pirated) so that magiging mas sulit ang mga ito :p.

The Fourth Thing: There's something in the air.

Steve's held the cliffhanger long enough, and now it's time to break it. They say that the MacBook, the innovative notebook as cited by reviewers, became the industry standard along with its older more professional brother the MacBook Pro. While they may be speed demons and have great software and hardware out of the box, a few people have actually requested that Apple restore its ultraportable Powerbook line. Well, maybe this new product is closest to that. So yes, the thing that's in the air is a laptop, and that laptop, err, notebook, is aptly named, the MacBook Air: The thinnest laptop in the world.

Apple has pushed portable to the extreme at just a featherweight 3 pounds, an ultra thin LED powered monitor and an almost equally thin system unit. It may sound as if Apple sacrificed the mousepad, the keyboard and the screen. But nope, they're all full-sized and the black keyboard, is also even backlit. The effect after that is pretty cool and hell, is it not something to love? It's also pretty jam-packed with 80GB hard drive standard (the same one used in the iPods), 2GB RAM standard (you can definitely run Vista at lightning speed), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 802.11 N, the trademark MagSafe power adapter, a flip down hatch for 1 USB port, 1 Mini-DVI port and a headphone jack. It's quite surprising to see that there's not even a FireWire in an Apple! And if you don't have wireless Internet at home, then it's gonna cost you a peripheral (so you're better off going MacBook instead if that's the case), plus, there's not even a slot-loading drive! Where can I put my CD's? How do I watch DVD's?! HOW DO I INSTALL DAMN SOFTWARE?! Well, Apple made the case a bit less morbid with "Remote Drive". You install special software compatible for both Macs and Windows and the data is sent via Wi-Fi so that the MacBook Air can read it. If, like the Time Capsule, the process is excruciatingly simple, then it will also be a great idea and addition albeit kinda cumbersome as well. If you're more of a road warrior, then you're better off buying the $99 external SuperDrive. It's USB-powered mind you so if you're gonna install hardware and you need a software disc, patay.

Apple also introduces the technology that powers their beautiful touch screens into the trackpad so that you can control your windows, images, etc. by using one, two, or three fingers! No need for keyboard, nor external mouse. And if you're wondering about battery life, it's 5 hours with Wi-fi connected. Speed is also not compromised, because it also comes with 1.6GhZ Intel Core 2 Duo standard with the option to choose to bump up the speed up a notch to 1.8GhZ. All that in $1800. Talk about value for money.

A Greener Apple

The MacBook Air is also an eco-laptop because it doesn't have mercury, it's the first non-arsenic glass they've used for a screen, it's also made of recycled aluminum and the packaging is 50% smaller and the LED powered backlight is extremely energy-efficient as well. So if you think this isn't a milestone for Apple hardware to come, then what will?