Macworld2008
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Apple introduces iTunes movie rentals, HD rentals
Apple has officially announced movie rentals for iTunes. Studios involved include Touchstone, MGM, Miramax, Lions Gate, Fox, Warner Brothers, Walt Disney, Paramount, Universal, and Sony, just to name a few. The new feature will launch today with 1,000 available films by the end of February -- prices will come in at $2.99 for a regular rental, and $3.99 for new releases. You'll be able to begin watching your movie in 30 seconds, and will have the rental for up to 24 hours, during which time you can transfer the file to an iPod or iPhone and take it on the go. Additionally, you'll be able to nab HD rentals for just $1 more, respectively.
Apple adds five apps to the iPod touch -- for a price
It's not all love for the iPhone today -- Apple just announced that Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes and Weather are all coming to the iPod touch. New touch owners get 'em all for free, but all of you early adopters will have to cough up: the bundle is going to set you back a whopping $20. The new Maps app can't use cell-based location-finding like on the iPhone, but it can still figure out where it is using SkyHook's WiFi hotspot database. The touch also supports webclips and the reconfigurable home screen now, but we're a little unsure why all this has to cost $20 -- why no love, Apple?
Apple's sold 4 million iPhones since launch
Today Apple announced that it's sold 4 million iPhones in the 200 days since launch, at a rate of roughly 20,000 a day. The phone apparently attained a 19% share in the smartphone market in the first quarter of its existence, and Steve Jobs says the phone bested Palm, Motorola and Nokia put together in the space in the first 90 days. It sounds like a pretty impressive pace, especially given the fact that only 1 million had sold by September of last year, but Apple still has a ways to go to compete with the likes of RIM.
Apple introduces Time Capsule, a NAS companion to Time Machine
Apple announced a companion to Time Machine today, Time Capsule. Essentially a hard drive and Airport combined -- an NAS from your favorite Cupertino team. The wireless drive will come in 500GB and 1TB configurations, and will feature 802.11n, as well as server grade hard drives. They will clock in at $299 and $499, respectively (Steve says they're aggressively pricing them because they want everyone to backup). You'll be able to backup your notebook or desktop wirelessly from anywhere in your home. Available in February, pre-order now.%Gallery-13877%
Apple ships five million copies of Leopard in three months
It was but a few months ago that Apple trumpeted the fact that two million copies of Leopard had been sold in its first weekend. As of Macworld 2008, you can add three million more to that figure. According to Jobs, it's the "most successful release of OS X ever," and nearly 20-percent of the install base has made the leap to 10.5. Oh, and just in case you were wondering about Office Mac 2008, it is indeed shipping today, which means that all the "big apps" for OS X are finally Intel native.
Macworld 2008: here we go!
Got your final Macworld predictions in? Excellent. Steve takes the stage and the show gets started in just a couple of hours now, so run off that DO NOT DISTURB sign on the office printer while you still have a chance.07:00AM - Hawaii09:00AM - Pacific10:00AM - Mountain11:00AM - Central12:00PM - Eastern05:00PM - GMT / London06:00PM - Paris08:00PM - Moscow02:00AM - Tokyo (January 16th)Where you need to be:Live Steve Jobs Macworld keynoteAll Macworld 2008 coverage [RSS]
Final Macworld predictions?
Tomorrow morning the tech world will tune in as Steve gets on stage to kick off another Macworld expo -- an event Apple usually uses for only its biggest product announcements. There are all kind of crazy rumors going around, but this year there are a few picks that have seem to stuck: an ultraportable MacBook (Pro) of some kind, iTunes movie rentals, and, of course, the iPhone SDK. But what rabbit will El Jobso pull out of his hat marked one-more-thing? Find out tomorrow when we bring you our live coverage at 9AM PT (and check out other local times here).
Macworld 2008 keynote leaked? Nope, not a chance.
For those not paying attention, there's a "leaked" Macworld 2008 keynote making the rounds today, and we'd just like to make sure you know it's completely and utterly false. Not only is it one of many fabricated keynotes making the rounds this year, and part of an annual ritual of keynote fabrications, but it even manages to be self-damning with its listing of a Mac Pro refresh -- which obviously happened last week. Let's try a little harder, people![Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
More "MacBook Air" evidence wafts by
Sure, all will be revealed tomorrow, but rather than twiddle their thumbs, the Apple curious are scouring the internet for further evidence of the MacBook Air. A certain tipster named "byrd" searched for "macbookair" on Dogpile and found a Google ad listing up top, which redirects to the MacBook page of the Apple Store. Meanwhile MacDailyNews reader "mango" tracked down the macbookair.org domain name and found that it is indeed listed under Apple -- the Whois domain name lookup won't show any info on the .com or .net versions. Obviously these are pretty minor details that don't say a lot in themselves, but the more of these that pile in, the more we're inclined to believe in a magical ultraportable from Apple tomorrow that will fulfill all our wishes -- we're suckers like that. [Thanks, byrd]Read - MacDailyNews domain name lookupRead - Dogpile search results
Iomega beefs up eGo portable drive line with new capacity, Dual Interface
Iomega's svelte portable eGo hard drive lineup got quite a bit of love the first time around, and Iomega is working in new sizes and plugs at this year's Macworld. The 2.5-inch drive now comes in 160GB and 250GB sizes, priced $140 and $210, respectively, for the USB 2.0 versions, while the Dual Interface editions (which toss in FireWire 400) will run you $160 and $230, respectively. Both versions can be powered straight from the data plug. The drives are available now in Cherry Red, Jet Black, Midnight Blue and Alpine White.
Poll: How do you want us to write the Jobsnote? Top to bottom, or vice versa?
Yep, we know there are a ton of you who want us to liveblog our keynotes in reverse chronological order (i.e. latest updates at the top, earliest updates at the bottom), and not how we normally do it, where you read from top to bottom like everything else. So we're putting it to the vote -- do you want our updates in order, top to bottom, as usual? Or would you prefer them close to the top of the keynote page? (We'll probably go back later and reorder everything for the latecomers, if so.) Let us know, we aim to please.Oh, and don't forget, Steve's Macworld 2008 keynote goes down here. %Poll-8236%
Call for Pictures: iPhone demos at Macworld
It occurs to me (at least it does via the prompting of TUAW reader therekerni) that demoing iPhone applications at Macworld may produce a kind of cognitive dissonance with Apple--given their official anti-hacking stance. Sure, we're ready for the SDK in February but I'm interested in what kind of in-your-face iPhone buccaneer products will be seen this week. So I'm putting out a call to all you TUAW readers who plan to attend the exhibits: if you can find any iPhone demos, by which I mean 3rd party exhibitors who are showing off unofficial iPhone apps, would you please snap a picture and send in a short description about the circumstances of the iPhone product? I'll gather them all together and put up a gallery here at TUAW. Thanks!
Here we go again: CES and Macworld to overlap in 2009
Oh dear lord, we aren't even through this year's CES / Macworld one-two punch and we just happened upon some distressing news for the 200,000+ tech trade show-goers and media that attend both: they're overlapping in 2009. AGAIN. Granted, things appear to be a little different this time around -- Steve and the Cupertino crew will be firing the first shots on Tuesday, January 6th, with Macworld continuing through Friday the 9th, while CES opens up on Thursday, the 8th, and wraps up Sunday, the 11th. But didn't Jobs and Shapiro say this thing would never happen again? Actually, come to think of it, no -- they merely "agreed it would be nice if they didn't overlap." Yeah, it would really would be nice, guys, you should try making it happen more than once every couple of years.
Spy shots of Apple's Macworld booth are of giant black shroud, shockingly enough
Apple, a company normally and notoriously known for being fast and loose with its product announcements just blew our minds: spy shots from within the Macworld expo revealed a large, black, shrouded booth; there's simply nothing to see. More on this story as it develops -- Tuesday morning.
We're on the ground at Macworld 2008
Apple's a bit short on banners this year -- just that "There's something in the air" teaser we saw yesterday in a couple of forms -- but we've arrived in San Francisco to prep for the show, and thought we'd snap a few shots of the convention center before the Macworld 2008 attendees descend upon this place en masse.Oh, and don't forget:Live Steve Jobs Macworld keynote (begins the morning of the 15th)All Macworld 2008 coverage [RSS]%Gallery-13543%
SteveNote Expo game: only you can get Jobs prepped for Macworld keynote
With CES in the books, banners flying up and rumors running rampant, only one thing could be on the horizon: Steve's Macworld 2008 keynote. Unfortunately, it seems he's a bit short on time, and needs you to access a totally awesome web-based game to help round up garb, VIPs and top-secret gear before taking the stage. Okay, so all of that is complete rubbish, but if you've got a moment to kill and can't stop obsessing over next Tuesday, hit the read link and have a laugh.[Thanks, Mikkel]
Goodbye CES, hello Macworld
Our CES coverage is winding down and we're dribble out the last of our stories from the biggest consumer tech trade show of the year, which must mean it's time to get ready for Macworld Expo. It all goes down next week, so mark your calendars and warm up that F5 / Cmd+R key.Where you need to be:Live Steve Jobs Macworld keynoteAll Macworld 2008 coverage [RSS]What time to post the GO AWAY note on your door on Tuesday, the 15th:07:00AM - Hawaii09:00AM - Pacific10:00AM - Mountain11:00AM - Central12:00PM - Eastern05:00PM - GMT / London06:00PM - Paris02:00AM - Tokyo (January 16th)Leave more time zones in comments!
Macworld 2008 banners popping up: "There's something in the air"
Gotta love those vague, suggestive statements Apple puts on its event banners before the big show. This year's Macworld Expo banners read "There's something in the air" -- but even if that something isn't a whole lot of new wireless / cellular gear, there's certainly no shortage of breathable hype.[Photo courtesy of Andrew S.]
Answer all your Macworld questions with Macworld Bound
For an Apple blogger, I've a little admission to make: this year is going to be the first time I'll have made the 10,716 mile round-trip to Macworld Expo San Francisco. Whilst I've been to San Francisco before, I'm in the dark when it comes to the insider-knowledge required to survive the week-long Mac-athon (and of course, who's having the parties). If you too are heading to MWSF for the first time and wanting to read-up on what to expect, then you might want to check out Macworld Bound -- a site dedicated to everything you might possibly want to know about the Expo.As we mentioned briefly in our year-end talkcast on Sunday, TUAW will of course be bringing you full Macworld coverage from San Francisco. Stay tuned for more details!
Steve Jobs to deliver opening keynote at MacWorld 2008
In a shocking turn of events, IDG World Expo officially announced today that Steve Jobs will in fact headline next year's MacWorld San Francisco conference, with his opening keynote address set to go down at 9:00AM sharp on January 15th. Exactly what that keynote will entail remains a mystery, of course, although we've certainly heard plenty of rumblings on the matter. Whatever it is El-Jobso has in store, you can be sure we'll have by-the-minute coverage of it, so mark your calenders and watch this space, or not.[Thanks, Mark]
