Macbook Air and Other Products, Services at Macworld Expo 2008

Several new products and updates were unveiled at the Macworld Expo, the January trade show for Apple products. Most of these were evolutionary, not revolutionary. Still, there was much to impress hardcore Apple fans (as well as everyone else). Products and updates announced include the Macbook Air, a combination hard drive and wireless base station, movie rentals through iTunes, and various updates for the iPhone and the Apple TV (which is now a full-fledged standalone device and doesn't require a computer to fully use it). Steve Jobs' keynote address for the expo can be watched online at Apple's web site.

One of the biggest announcements concerns movie offerings on iTunes. iTunes has long offered movies for purchase, but users can now rent movies as well, thus ending the era of the iTunes store being a "purchase-only" service. New releases are $3.99 while older "library" movies are $2.99. How long is the rental for? 24 hours from the time you start watching it. More specifically once you rent a movie you have 30 days in which to start watching it. Once you actually do so you then have a 24-hour window to finish it. It can be watched as many times as you wish during this period. After the 24 hours is up the movie is automatically expired. Apple's web site explains that it can be viewed on a computer, iPod, or iPhone.

This isn't the only development involving Apple and the movie industry. Certain ordinary DVDs will now contain, in addition to the normal DVD movie, an iTunes version of the movie that can be easily loaded from the disk into iTunes when used with a computer. Not many details were given yet, but according to Apple's web site movies with this feature will have "iTunes Digital Copy" displayed on the DVD. This will likely ensure the future of "iMovies" that can easily be played on iTunes, Ipods, and Apple TVs, since consumers who like actual DVDs will no longer be forced to pay twice for the ability to easily watch their movie collection on Apple products.

Apple added a new notebook to its current lineup. In this case it's a very thin 13-inch laptop , the Macbook Air. It weights three pounds and has a core 2 processor, 802.11n wireless access, and a full-size keyboard. It can optionally be configured with a 64 GB solid state disk instead of a normal hard drive. This is a hard disk built using the same technology as USB flash drives. As it has no moving parts, it is touted as being faster and more durable.

Apple will also soon offer a device it calls the Time Capsule, that contains both a network hard drive with an automatic backup feature and a wireless 802.11n base station. It can be accessed by both Macs and PCs as well as other wireless devices that use the 802.11a/b/g/n protocols, although the automatic backup feature only works with OS X's "Time Machine" feature. It's not available now but can be pre-ordered.

Various updates are also available that add new functionality to Apple products like the iPhone and Apple TV. The latter is now a full-fledged standalone device and will no longer require a computer or network with iTunes to fully use it.

Steve Jobs has managed to make Apple into probably the hottest digital media and computer company in existence. Nearly all apple products seamlessly work with both Windows and Mac operating systems, as even Apple cynics can admit. Now if only he'd unlock the iPhone so us non-AT&T users could have one, he'd do the same with the mobile phone industry.