TAG | Shock: Apple’s new crop a bit of a yawner... |
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| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Wednesday, 16 January 2008 | |
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Page 3 of 3 So, what else did Macworld 2008 and Steve Jobs unveil? Well, we now have an iTunes movie rental store. With only 1000 movies available, it’s a pretty weak line up to start with. But it’s a rental thing, you don’t get to keep the file. And if you don’t live in the US, then the sheer greed of the movie studios wanting ‘region zones’ and the like on DVDs and Blu-ray discs guarantees one thing: this feature is something you will not get access to, not until the studios decide to let us rent their damned movies online in other countries. This ridiculous scenario must really annoy Apple and result in lots of lost global profits – only the US gets all the good stuff on iTunes. Every other country can just wait. Some countries don’t even have iTunes yet! Thanks for nothing, Apple. An iPod Touch update gets the iPhone apps that were missing – but if you’re an existing iPod Touch owner, the update isn’t free – no, you’ll have to pay US $19.99 – or AUD $24.99 for Aussies. At least iPhone owners can upgrade to the 1.1.3 firmware free-of-charge, with all those 1.1.3 firmware rumours panning out, meaning GPS-like location through cell phone towers and Wi-Fi for the updated Google Maps app, the ability to place web shortcuts on the iPhone’s main screen, etc etc. Apple has launched a wireless storage solution for Leopard’s Time Machine, but this isn’t leading either – wireless storage devices have been around for years. Now you can buy one from Apple – but let’s hope it doesn’t go the way of the iPod Hi-Fi, which has been discontinued thanks to so much competition offering better value for money. Look, what Apple has launched is still amazing. But it’s not leading edge, cutting edge, never-seen-it-before stuff – like the iPhone was last year. This year we didn’t get a revolution, we have an evolution instead. Evolution is good – just ask Charles Darwin. But this year’s crop, so far, doesn’t scream MUST HAVE. Don’t get me wrong – I love Apple’s stuff, I love my iPhone and iPod Touch. But I – and plenty of others – wanted a Mac tablet of some kind, not a thinner version of the same size MacBook already available. Honestly, what's the point of that? So I can send my MacBook in an envelope to someone? I know Jobs says it fits into a large envelope, as per the keynote... I'm sure I'll love it when I see it, but I don't want to buy it - the ASUS Eee PC is still on the top of my 'must have' list - and it's thousands of dollars cheaper to boot. Oh well. In theory, a Mac Tablet, 3G iPhone and everything else is still coming - maybe we'll see it at Macworld... in 2009!
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