MACWORLD GEEK SPLAT

Ok it's a few hours since the Apple conference and keynote in San Fransisco, and the world is starting to go back to normal.  The reality distortion field is fading, the geeks are tiring themselves out, and the people over at Microsoft are warming up the hemlock.  So what happened?

Well first there were a few mini, kind of important-ish announcements.

Nice name!  Time Capsule.  Space Age!  Hover cars!  Wow!  What's it all about then?  It's actually a fantastic little product, but feels like it's aimed at people who are new to all this.  It's a wireless router with a built in hard-drive which automatically backs up everything on your home network.  Clever!  I would love something like this, but as I already have the Apple Airport Router and 2 external hard-drives it does seem a bit lily gilding for me.  Nice though.

Ahh finally.  Be still my beating heart, it's 

the iPhone 1.1.3 update.  The reason for selling my soul to o2 was the fact that my previous hacked iPhone could never be updated.  It would never change, like a mewling vampire

 child.  So now I take great pleasure in updating to the new firware like a good little fanboy!  This upgrade adds GPS (ish) to the maps application, customisable icons, multiple SMS.... all free.  I love the iPhone

 and in almost 8 months of owning one I am still not bored.  

Ahhh Apple TV.  What was only weeks ago heading towards the bin marked 'Newton', it looks like Apple TV has just been given a shot of adrenaline and a quick free makeover from Benefit.  It's the same on the outside, but totally revamped on the inside.  Bigger hard-drive, direct purchasing from iTunes, film rentals, Flickr streaming... it's all here!  I'm so glad I have one.  Shame this newly upgraded better model is even cheaper than the version 1.0 I bought!  That's Mac life.

And then the money shot.  

Thinnovation.

World's thinnest notebook.

Ladies and Gentlemen..

MacBook Air.

Now this isn't really a surprise, as the rumour sites have been going on about a sub-notebook for months, and some uber-geek even found that MacBook Air had been registered as a website domain name lately.  Anyway, that's part of the fun of MacWorld.  So what's this about then?

 

Look!!  It's a laptop in an envelope.  Tee hee!  It's so thin I can see a ring of shame feature in Heat.

I have to say, I was a bit disappointed.  This isn't the laptop I'm looking for.  Take the popularity of the Asus EeePC which has a 7" screen and sells for £200.  You can throw it in your manbag and off you go.  That's what I would like from Apple.  Instead, we got a £1100 laptop which still has a 13" screen so isn't actually that portable because you still need a messenger bag to carry it around.  I certainly wouldn't trust a brown envelope.  Now to be fair this is a beautiful piece of equipment which totally pwns anything that other laptop manufacturers are throwing out.  It's gorgeous.  But on this occasion, it's not for me.  I'm off to order an Asus EeePC and send a letter of apology to Steve Jobs.  

So that's it for another year!  Breathe.  Everything is alright again.