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A lot of you have complained about Steve's "Booms" in the past. Old. Tired, you say, especially in our cartoons. Well, judging by yesterday's keynote, the Apple head man thinks the same. Compare and contrast yesterday's miserly tally of one "Boom!" to last year's bumper crop of 15 B-words. So, what word should El Jobso start repeating like a Tourettes-addled teenager now?
The popular cheap-as-chips Zen Stone/Zen Stone Plus are set for an upgrade this year. The V2.0 devices will have an integrated mono speaker—pretty exciting, eh? Check out the gallery for some shots of the new MP3 players.
JVC has chosen 1.3-inch hard drives for three new digital video cameras, since the aim is to be among the smallest in the palmcorder class while still having good optics. Designed to be about 20% lighter than the previous models, the GZ-MG740, 730 and 530 will nestle in your palm and give you 10x optical zoom and about an hour and a half of MPEG2 recording as well as 5-7 megapixel stills of whatever you fancy.
Rather like a cross between a classic desk lamp and a mini zeppelin, the MXSP-4000TD from Maxell hits the shops in Japan at the end of this month. I'm not quite sure what the company means by its rather apocalyptic boast, but it sure makes for a good headline. Specs and yet more strange claims by Hitachi-Maxell below the gallery.
If you're a keen geotagger of your imagery, then a recently announced $US150 device from ATP Electronics may be just the ticket. Dubbed the GPS Photo Finder, it works in a rather carefree way: you just have to carry it around with you while you're shooting, and then insert your memory card into it, before you download your photos. All it does is work out where you were for each photo from its position log, and then embed that data into the JPEG files directly.
DLO claims their new HomeDock HD will allow iPods to hook up to HDTVs, upconverting video output to 1080i or 720p via an HDMI connection. The unit will retain support for analog TVs by incorporating an S-Video connection. The HomeDock HD also promises optical digital outputs that will provide "a completely digital iPod experience."
Posted by Anna King at 3:17 PM on January 16, 2008
The 'world's thinnest notebook' is available for pre-order now at the Apple Store Australia. The 13-inch machines come in at $2,499 for 1.6 Ghz and $4,338 for the 1.8Ghz model. Yep, that's almost two grand extra for the added 0.2Ghz Core 2 Duo and 64GB solid-state-drive goodness.
Aside from being super-slim (1.9cm and 1.36 Kg), the Air also features a multitouch trackpad. The estimated shipping time of two to three weeks should help somewhat in your quest to acquire $4,000. The only question now is, what the hell do I do with my positively-chubby-by-comparison MacBook Pro?
Check out Gizmodo's Macbook Air hands-on and complete Macbook Air coverage.
If the MacBook Air is the mother of all slimline notebooks, then these two must be her offspring: you may have to ferry them around a lot if you watch DVDs or use wired surfing while you're on the road. While the Superdrive is a slot-loading 8x number in an aluminium jacket, and weighing just over a pound, the ethernet adapter looks to be a standard Apple white, and gives you that RJ-45 connector for 10/100BASE-T support that everyone's talking about. Combined together they take up around 25 cubic inches we think, showing just how skinny the Air itself actually is at 52 cubic inches:
Posted by Anna King at 11:12 AM on January 16, 2008
Dendy Films is offering Giz readers the chance to attend a free preview of The King of Kong, the documentary about diehard video game fans and their bid to break World Records on classic arcade games.
The screening will be held at the George Street Cinemas in Sydney's CBD at 6:30pm, Wednesday 20th February.
Don't get chumpatized! RSVP with your full name to rsvpATdendyfilms.com.au and include "KONG" in the subject line to get yourself and a mate on the door-list.
The King of Kong opens nationally in February.
We compared the MacBook Air to two of the smallest laptops in the planet: the Sony Vaio TZ series and the Asus Eee PC, even while this last one can't be compared at all in terms of features. Clearly, the MacBook Air is a truly svelte little number. Hit the jump for a bigger view of the photographic comparison and the volumetric comparison.
Alright, so I was fairly impressed with the Macworld keynote. Lots of neat little bits, and the MacBook Air is a pretty amazing sliver of a machine. But it's not what many of us had hoped for. All I really wanted for Macworld was a 13-inch MacBook Pro. A serious but compact workhorse, not a sexy will-o-the-wisp. And now I'm too scared to even buy the current 15-inch MacBook Pro. Why?
Naughty gadget maker Tenga has unveiled their "New Adult Concept" lineup of "onanism cups" that offer male users five "never before experienced sexual sensations." Choose from the Deep Throat Cup, Soft Tube Cup, Rolling Head Cup, Air Cushion Cup, and the invigorating Double Hole Cup. The devices are disposable, and Tenga stresses that you shouldn't be using them repeatedly by "rinsing them out." Ha Ha...gross! The devices are available now starting at 1500 yen ($16) —Japan only (sorry horny westerners!). [Product Page via Digital World Tokyo via Wired]
The Gadget: iV iPhone case and battery, which adds 4x as much battery time to the iPhone while not adding too much more bulk.
The Verdict: The rubberised plastic feels nice, the LED flash/flashlight on the back is good for finding your keys or taking low-light pictures, and it clips neatly onto your belt if you're one of those belt dudes. There's also a USB port on the back for charging another device while your iPhone is being charged/docked. $US79. [Fastmac]
Just in case you missed anything, here is all of the news from Macworld 2008:
•Apple Announces Time Capsule Backup Server
•Hands On With the TIme Capsule Backup Server
•Apple Adds Mail, Maps and More to iPod Touch For $20
•Details on the New MacBook Air
•Hands on With the New MacBook Air
•Hands on With the Apple Multitouch Gesture Pad
•Adding a 64GB SSD To the MacBook Air?$1300 Extra Please
•MacBook Air's Fatal Flaw: Battery, RAM, HD Sealed Like an iPod
•Apple's Official 60 Second MacBook Air Tour
Want a sense of how thin the new Macbook Air really is? Here is full rotation of the Macbook suspended in Air, showing you all sides, and providing a perfect visual reference to how surprisingly thin the computer is. [Full Macbook Air Coverage on Gizmodo]
Hey Microsoft, did you really think you were going to eat into MacWorld coverage by announcing a new paintjob for the Zune 80 for Valentine's Day? You can't just cut into someone else's party like that; it'd be like Apple announcing some major product during CES or something. If you are so inclined to get a red Zune for your sweetie for V-Day, though, be sure to order by Feb. 4.
Why sit through all 7+ minutes of the MacBook Air guided tour when we have what you need right here? Take a look at the Air's thin frame, check out a hand gesture or two, and learn how to install software via Remote Disc, from a Windows PC or a Mac. Stay until the end for two bonus shots of the MacBook Air up close. If you can handle more, hit Apple's site for the full-length video. [Apple]
The MacBook Air is an amazing piece of hardware. It's iPod sexy, but there's an iPod catch. Because just like an iPod, you can't just crack it open to replace the hard drive, memory or even battery, according to the Apple employees on the Macworld floor. Obviously a slew of services and devices will fill this battery replacement gap, but just know that when Apple pitches you 5 hours of runtime with the Air, that's all you get.
Apple TV's new interface is looking really fantastic, sucking only the best parts of Cover Flow for eye candy, while keeping the interface efficient and large-scaled for plenty of data accessibility. The biggest surprise? Streaming is lightning quick.
Launch your iTunes, because the new Apple iPhone January Firmware update (aka 1.1.3) is now available. Just remember that if you have a software unlock or third-party applications installed, this update will 99.99%-probably break them, so don't update. And yes, the video that we posted on December was spot on:
Using the multitouch gesture pad felt like the next step in Apple's trademark Macbook mouse replacement (the Trackpad/Touchpad), rather than an iPhone screen being shoved into a laptop (as it was pitched at the keynote). For the most part, it's responsive. We found hiccups when scrolling through an image in iPhoto (zoomed), but our guess is that such issues were do to processor power and not the pad itself. Pinching (zooming) in to photos is fantastic, especially when you are in a multi-picture view in iPhoto (allowing you to scale the photocentric UI with ease). Rotating seems fairly flawless. Two second verdict: great, but not an iPhone. It's more like Touchpad 2.0.
PS. The Macbook Air feels like a giant iPod Classic. So good. Video by Chris Mascari.
Apple's Time Capsule backup server is a great idea, and looks great as well. It's the same size as the Airport Extreme, but seems heavier. It has the exact same ports as the Airport Extreme (four Gigabit Ethernet ports, normal power ports) and has 802.11n. The top is different and has a chrome reflective Apple logo. There's not much else to say until we get our hands on it at home and test it ourselves, so check out the gallery to see how it looks. Bad news: The hard drive isn't user replaceable and it doesn't like you can use it for NAS.
Here's our take on the MacBook Air. It's super light, super fragile, and super small. If you just tap the screen lightly, the whole thing closes because it's so light. The keyboard looks a little weird because it's black on the aluminium, but the keyboard feels great. It feels just like a MacBook (normal) keyboard. The screen looks gorgeous—very bright and clear (and better than the Sony). It's even better looking than the MacBook's, most likely because of the LED backlit display.
I hope you didn't have your heart set on that sexy 64GB SSD that Steve teased as an "option" during his keynote: the 1.8GHz version with the SSD drive standard costs a whopping $US3,100. For comparison's sake, adding a 64GB SSD to a Dell laptop with a 128GB SATA drive standard is a $US1,000 option. At Alienware, you'll pay $US900 to upgrade to a 64GB SSD from a 320GB 5400RPM drive. Those are probably 2.5-inch SSDs, however. The 1.8-inch SSDs used in the Macbook Air are pricier, with prices looking to be around $US1,300 on their own around the web. [Apple Store]
It's real. The fabled MacBook Air actually exists. It's ultra-thin, can have normal hard drive or a solid state one and, except for a couple ports, it's all about wireless connectivity. It's an stunning .16 inches thick at the bottom and .76 inches on the top. The black keyboard (reminds me of some of those black-over-aluminium Braun designs) is LED backlit, sightly recessed MacBook-style, with rounded edges all around. The latch is magnetic and has a gorgeous 13.3-inch screen with ambient-light sensor and, get this, multitouch trackpad. Check the full specs, 20-image gallery and continuous updates after the jump:
