So MacWorld Expo 2008 started today, and ol’ Steve Jobs gave his keynote presentation on all of the new fancy stuff Apple is coming out with. It had a four point presentation. First was the new Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station which will have either a 500gb or 1Tb internal hard drive. Second was the iPhone SDK (Software Development Kit) and Firmware update (1.1.3) which is available to download now via iTunes. The next was an update for the iPod Touch which will now (for a $20 upgrade fee) allow Mail, Stocks, Notes, Weather and Maps all of which was only available for the iPhone previous to today. The third was iTunes movie rentals and a software update to the Apple TV. Now users can “rent” movies from iTunes for $2.99 for older movies, $3.99 for new releases, and $4.99 for HD format movies. Users can keep the rental for 30 days, but only have 24 hours from the time they press play to watch it before it is no longer available. Apple TVs will now allow you to purchase music and movies from it’s own version of iTunes as well as the new iTunes rental service. Finally they came out with the MacBook Air.
The MacBook Air comes in two 13.3″ models. One with a 80Gb 1.8″ HDD and one with a 64Gb SSD (Solid State Drive). Each will come stock with 2Gb of RAM onboard (with no hints as to if it is upgradable.) They will come with a 1.6Ghz processor with a BTO option of a 1.8Ghz processor. They will have 802.11N wireless capability and will not come with an optical drive installed, although you can purchase a USB SuperDrive for $99 more. It only has three ports; audio out, USB 2.0 and Micro-DVI. They claim to have 5 hours of battery life as well. With a backlit keyboard and multi-touch trackpad this new machine has many new features and all of this weighs in at exactly 3lbs. We can’t wait to get one in, and you better be sure that we will be repairing them as soon as they ship. Good day.