SuperSite Blog : Apple TV

iTunes Store goes HD for movie purchases, rentals

pthurrott — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:39:38 GMT

I was wondering when this would happen. Previously, you could only rent TV shows and movies in HD via the Apple TV. Now you can buy, and do it all from the PC:

Apple today announced that iTunes customers can purchase and rent box office favorites including "Quantum of Solace" and "Twilight" in stunning HD on the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com). Starting today, movie fans can purchase box office blockbusters for download in HD for $19.99 from iTunes, and films will be available as iTunes Movie Rentals in HD for $4.99 within 30 days after release. Customers can enjoy these films in HD on their Mac or PC and on their widescreen TV with Apple TV, as well as in standard definition on their iPhone or iPod with video. The iTunes Store is the world’s most popular online TV and movie store, with over 250 million TV episodes purchased and over 33 million movies purchased and rented.

Still no closed captioning however. Someday they will complete that puzzle. And the supply of HD films is extremely small. They'll get it there.

I grabbed a copy of "W." to test the quality. It's fantastic. The movie came in both HD (1280 x 544) and standard definition (853 x 362) formats, the latter for portable device use. Nice.

Macworld 2009: My iPhone dilemma revisited

pthurrott — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:25:01 GMT

So, yesterday I posted about my hopes and dream for Apple's last Macworld keynote. Consider those dreams crushed. :)

That's OK. But I guess it's at least partially worth examining what did and did not happen, based on what I commented on before the show.

MobileMe/data sync/iPhone improvements

None of this was mentioned. My MobileMe subscription runs out on January 11, in just four days. But since I have Gmail Contacts and Google Calendar syncing over the air to the iPhone now, I guess that doesn't much matter. I think I'm going to bail. (And I've been using this service since Apple first announced .Mac, the MobileMe predecessor.)

iLife on the Web

Contrary to the rumors, Apple did not announce an iLife cloud computing service.

iWork on the Web

Here, the rumors were only partially right. Instead of a full-fledged Google Docs competitor, Apple announced a paid service that will only work for people who actually use iWork on the Mac. Interesting? No.

Apple home media center

Contrary to the rumors, Apple did not announce a home media server, nor did it announce any upgrades to the Apple TV.

Mac mini

Contrary to the rumors, Apple did not announce a long-overdue and long-awaited Mac mini update at the show.

17-inch Macbook with integrated battery

Here, finally, the rumormongers got it right: Apple did announce this product in the keynote.

Market share claims

Apple mentioned that it sold 9.7 million Macs during its last fiscal year. However, FY 2008, for Apple, does not mean calendar year 2008 (the company's fiscal year runs from October to September, so we'll still have to do some math when the final PC sales numbers come out for 2008). What this means is that Apple has not yet revealed how well the holiday sales period went. The company did mention, of course, that it grew at over twice the rate of the industry during that time period (37.7 percent vs. 15.2 percent). As I've explained time and time again, that doesn't help much when your market share is small. I expect Apple's market share in 2008 to be around 4 percent. Regardless, without Jobs on stage, the claims weren't as boastful as usual. Interesting.

Regarding the keynote in general, it was a snooze-a-thon. Apple just didn't have anything interesting to announce. I wrote more about this recently in a WinInfo news article, so I won't beat that to death here.

3-Alarm Fire Burns At Apple Cupertino Campus

pthurrott — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:37:19 GMT

CBS News:

Fire investigators are trying to determine what caused a three-alarm fire Tuesday night at the Apple Inc. headquarters in Cupertino, but preliminary information suggests it was accidental, a fire captain said.

I'd look for an Apple TV sitting on a pile of paper. :)

But seriously, I'm glad no one was hurt. And especially glad I'm not a suspect.

Apple sells over 5 billion songs via iTunes Store

pthurrott — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:46:53 GMT

From Apple PR:

Apple today announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded over five billion songs from the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com). iTunes is the number one music retailer in the US and features the largest music catalog with over eight million songs. Also, iTunes customers are now renting and purchasing over 50,000 movies every day, making iTunes the world’s most popular online movie store.

iTunes features movies from all of the major movie studios including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Lionsgate and New Line Cinema. Users can rent movies and watch them on their Macs or PCs, all current generation iPods, iPhone and on a widescreen TV with Apple TV. iTunes Store customers can also purchase new movie releases from major film studios and premier independent studios on the same day as their DVD release.

Good stuff. But record companies, how about giving Apple some more DRM-free movie to dole out? Protected AAC is so ... 2003.

Simplest WWDC predictions ever

pthurrott — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 14:36:10 GMT

Apple will open its annual developer show, WWDC, next week, and while the notion of a developer show being interesting is, of course, hard to believe, I would remind everyone that Apple now participates in exactly two major shows a year. So the WWDC is a big deal. A very big deal.

I don’t have much to say from a prediction standpoint, though there is a cottage industry around this type of thing in the Apple world. I do have a few general predictions, however:

1. WWDC will be more about the iPhone than the Mac.

2. Jobs will announce that the iPhone 2.0 software and the iPhone gen 2 hardware will ship within 30 days, but not be widely available this week. They will barely meet or not meet those estimates, based on their track record.

3. Apple will likely provide a very general preview of the next version of Mac OS X (10.6), which may or may not be code-named Snow Leopard, a name that suggests that that OS X 10.6 is to OS X 10.5 what Windows 7 is to Windows Vista. My guess is that Apple will ship OS X 10.6 in time for the 2009 back-to-school season or, in Steve Jobs’ expected words, “before Windows 7.”

There are other great rumors around, of course. CrunchGear reportedly has believable leaked pictures of the iPhone 2 and news that Apple is bringing iChat to Windows XP/Vista. There could be new MacBooks and MacBook Pros and, possibly, a new Mac mini. Many hope that Apple will further bolster the Apple TV; that will never happen at WWDC, in my opinion. Apple’s ludicrous .Mac service is being renamed to Mobile Me or *something* Me and will likely be opened up to Windows users (thus the name change) and provide something of value to iPhone users as well (think Push IMAP, shared calendars, etc.). There is talk of an iPhone-like Internet Tablet or the long-rumored Mac Tablet, but I think Microsoft’s failure in this category should be a warning sign: What, exactly, is the market for such a toy? There is none.

Anyway. Life is always interesting when Apple has something to say. I can’t wait.

The Netflix Player

pthurrott — Tue, 20 May 2008 13:06:20 GMT

While I'm not sure the world was asking for Yet Another Set Top Box (YAST, trademark is patent-pending), this should be of interest to Netflix customers at least:

The Netflix Player makes it easy to instantly watch movies and TV episodes over the Internet on your living room TV, or anywhere you have a TV and an Internet connection. Compact and lightweight, inexpensive but powerful, simple to set up and use (it’s the perfect answer for people who just can’t get enough Netflix).

Choose Movies on Your TV

Movies and TV episodes in your Netflix Instant Queue appear right on your TV screen. Use the included remote control to browse through the items you’ve added to your Instant Queue and pick something to watch — whenever you want. You can even read descriptions and rate movies, right from the comfort of your couch.

Universal Compatibility

Whatever kind of TV you have, the Netflix Player is guaranteed to work with it. Connect to the latest HDTV or one that you’ve had for years. With standard RCA jacks, S-video, component video, HDMI, and optical audio, the Player will work with virtually any TV, AV receiver, or home theater system.

Unlimited Entertainment

The Netflix Player lets you explore even more possibilities from the world’s largest online movie rental service. Access a growing library of over 10,000 instant movies and TV episodes. Watch as many as you like, as often as you want—with no additional fees. You’re in control with the power to play anytime and finish watching whenever you like.

Looks like its $99 plus an active Netflix membership. More important, perhaps, it has HDMI support as well as older connectors, but doesn't yet support the streaming or downloading of HD content: In fact, the quality is based on your Internet connection speed, which is interesting. Netflix says there are currently over 10,000 movies and TV episodes available to watch with more being added every week.

What they're not telling you about Apple's 'same day as DVD' deal

pthurrott — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:05:50 GMT

I first wrote about this last week in WinInfo Short Takes, but an article by David Carr in today's New York Times once again blurs the lines of reality when it comes to Apple's recent deal with movie companies. In this deal, Apple gets the right to sell movies digitally via iTunes on the same day that the DVD versions appear in the market. Depending on who you talk to, this is "the death of Netflix" at the very least or "the death of the DVD" if you're really out there.

Not so fast.

Curiously, most people who write about this event seem to be missing the fine points of the Apple deal, which in reality doesn't change much at all. As excerpted from Short Takes, these are:

Apple's movies are too expensive. At $14.99 for a new digital download, Apple's movies are still far too expensive, especially when you consider that they don't include any DVD-style special features or, usually, even basic features like closed captioning support. A typical example: "Juno" is $14.99 at iTunes and cannot be rented. You get just the movie, in English, tied to your iTunes account and whatever Apple devices you've authorized. At Amazon.com, the Juno DVD is $15.99 but it includes features not found on the iTunes file, including compatibility with all DVD players, PCs, and Macs sold in the US and Canada, three spoken languages (English, French, Spanish), two subtitles (English, Spanish), and a number of special features, including deleted scenes, a gag reel, a gag take, cast & crew jam, screen tests, and a director's commentary track. A 2-disc version of the movie ($22.99) includes more special features on a second disc. Unlike digital tracks, DVD movies can also be resold.

It's for purchases only, not rentals. The deal doesn't affect rentals, only purchases, so presumably we'll still have to wait 30 days or more to rent new movies at iTunes. This is one of the things the NYT article cited above neatly skipped over, and I feel it's important, as I'll elaborate below.

It's not exclusive, and Apple wasn't even first to market. Apple's deal isn't unique, and it certainly isn't first in any way: PC-oriented movie services like CinemaNow and Movielink have offered same-day movie sales as new DVDs for years. In fact, these services even offer same-day-as-DVD-release rentals, a feature not offered on iTunes. The aforementioned Juno, coincidentally, can now be rented on Movielink for $3.95. It cannot be rented on iTunes.

Apple's losing money on the deal. Because the wholesale price of the movies being sold to Apple is about $16, according to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is losing money on every single movie it sells, continuing the iTunes Store's role as a loss-leader designed almost solely to pimp iPod sales. What this all adds up to, really, is Apple catching up with the rest of the market, while the movie industry continues to sell digital content to consumers at exorbitant prices. Granted, this is iTunes we're talking about, so Apple will likely see bigger success than other services. But even that "success" has been limited so far: Apple sold just 7 million digital movies last year, well below the company's expectations.

There are some other side issues here that bear exploring, but I'll save that for another time. As a teaser, I'd point out two things: That the ongoing migration from physical media (VHS, DVD) in the entertainment world mirrors a similar migration in software delivery, from physical media (floppy, CD, DVD) to subscription services and cloud computing. More pertinent to this story however, is the notion that anyone who is buying digital movies from iTunes (or any other service) is simply wasting their money. The future is anywhere, anytime on-demand delivery of content, delivered as subscription service. The very notion that someone needs to "own" a movie is outdated, especially when that movie is an intangible and demonstrably inflexible DRM-encoded digital file.

Food for thought.

Purchase New Movies on iTunes Same Day as DVD Release

pthurrott — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:25:21 GMT

Apple PR:

Apple today announced that new movie releases from major film studios and premier independent studios are available for purchase on the iTunes Store on the same day as their DVD release. New releases and catalog titles will be available from 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios. Movies purchased from iTunes can be viewed on an iPod with video, iPhone, Mac or PC or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV, with new releases priced at $14.99 and most catalog titles at $9.99.

This is good news, obviously, given the previous 30 day lead time. But I think for digital movies to gain any real traction they need to be less expensive: $9.99 for a new movie and $5.99 (or whatever) for catalog titles. (I'd consider $14.99 for HD movies, which you cannot purchase from iTunes.) Remember that compared to DVD movies, digital movies contain none of the extra features, plus their digital delivery means less costs to the studio. I'm sure we'll get there.

I'd also add pervasive closed captioning to my digital movie wish list, of course.

Apple TV: Differences between pairing and sharing (software version 2.x)

pthurrott — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:34:01 GMT

This Apple support document, I believe, holds the key to an issue I've been having with the Apple TV lately:

Summary
There are two ways to get iTunes content from your computer to Apple TV—pairing and sharing. This document explains the differences between pairing and sharing on Apple TV.

Pairing
iTunes automatically syncs content, giving priority to newer items. Items that are not synced are automatically available for streaming when iTunes is opened.

Sharing
iTunes streams content to Apple TV. Content is not stored locally on Apple TV.

Note: Paired computer content appears in all Apple TV menus that start with "My" while shared computer content appears in all Apple TV menus that start with "Shared."

Fair enough. But here's the thing. When I first updated the Apple TV to the 2.0 software, I am positive that I could both pair and share, which I took as a major advance. That is, I paired the Apple TV with my PC-based iTunes collection, and synced whatever content to it. If iTunes was off, the Apple TV would of course present whatever content was on the device. But if iTunes was on, I would also see the entire contents of my PC-based iTunes collection. It was the best of both worlds.

I can't get it to do that any more. Am I missing something?

UPDATE: Thanks to François S. for what looks like the solution. I'll try this today:

I had the same problem as you with my AppleTV. There are two ways you can fix this. Either set syncing to "Automatic Sync", or make sure that the "Show only the..." checkbox is unticked if you choose "Custom Sync".

I prefer the latter as "Automatic Sync" causes iTunes to dump all my music on my AppleTV, while I prefer it to give priority to videos and movies.

François

Nice, thanks!

Associated Press jumps into Apple TV movie lies fracas

pthurrott — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:26:00 GMT

Although, being the AP, they're just noting that Apple has fallen "short of movie rental goal." I didn't read their claim as a "goal," but rather as a pronouncement.

Apple has fallen substantially short of its target of having 1,000 movies available for rent on its Apple TV set-top box by the end of February, and is blaming studios for the discrepancy.
A complete count of the number of movies available on the box on Wednesday was elusive, but appeared to be between 400 and 500. A menu option that showed all movies at once has been removed, and some movies can be found only by searching for words in the title.

Just so I'm reading this correctly: They're blaming someone else and they've removed the view that lets you see the total number of available movies. Nice!

Apple is STILL lying about closed captioning in Ratatouille

pthurrott — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:06:00 GMT

Last month, I pointed out Apple's surreal use of the movie "Ratatouille" as an example of Closed Captioning support in iTunes during the teve Jobs keynote. It's surreal because Ratatouille, wasn't--and still isn't--available in a version with closed captioning from the iTunes Store. You can't rent a version with closed captioning, and you can't buy a version with closed captioning. And yet, there it was. As the poster child for closed captioning.

This week, I'm going to write an updated review of the Apple TV to reflect the changes in the new 2.0 version. (It's mostly very positive.)Instead of taking my Apple TV out of the living room, attaching it to a video capture device in my office, and taking a few shots, I decided to see if Apple PR had any representative shots I could use. They do: You can find them right here.

And wouldn't you know it: Two of the three shots that are available shows... ta da... Ratatouille. Which, according to the screenshots--yep, you guessed it--is available with closed captioning. So I fired up iTunes just now to check. Nope, no CC. Then I fired up the Apple TV, again, even though I looked at this very movie last night. It does NOT have closed captioning support.

Seriously. What the $%#@ is wrong with this company? I appreciate that CC is available at all, really. But don't advertise it using a movie that doesn't support the feature. There are people out there who actually do want to rent or own it but rely on CC to enjoy the film. It's like Apple is mocking the handicapped. It's shameful.

Apple finally ships Apple TV 2.0 update

pthurrott — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:24:00 GMT

I'm installing it as I write this, but here's the word from Apple:

All the new features of Apple TV — including movie rentals, a built-in music store, and big-screen access to Flickr photostreams and .Mac Web Galleries — are available now as a free software upgrade. Apple TV automatically checks for new software every week. But if you’d like to upgrade your Apple TV manually, go to the Settings menu and select Update Software. Then just sit back, relax, and enjoy movie rentals and more from the comfort of your couch.

Update. Yikes. That is a looonnnggggg install, with multiple reboots and absolutely zero explanation about what's happening. Nice job, that. (No, not really) A few quick observations about the upgraded experience:

1. There's a new intro video, presumably one that wasn't stolen like the original.

2. The simple new menu system seems logical, pleasant, and attractive. (I had to admit, though, I liked the old one, which was clearly "inspired" by Media Center.) One weirdness of the interface is that, to get to your own movies, you have a lot of work to do: "My Movies" is the last item on the Movies sub-menu. So while there is indeed a focus on movies, it's really on movies you can rent or buy, not movies you already own. This is true of all the menu items, except, go figure, one of them (My Photos). It's not consistent.

3. The update blew away all the movies I had already copied to the device. This is unfortunate, as re-copying them over an 802.11g wireless connection is painful (Curiously, the photos I had synced to the device were still on there. No music. No TV shows. No movies. No podcasts.) Sub-update: It later moved into a streaming mode which shows all my content. Interesting.

4. There appear to be about 75 HD movies available via the iTunes store. (Rent only.) I'll be testing this, of course. There's even a very occasional Closed Captioning (CC). (Ratatoulle is still not closed captioned.) The HD choices are odd: For example, you can rent Star Trek II in HD, but Star Trek I and III-VI are only in standard definition. 2010 is available, but only in HD.

5. I'd like to be able to buy HD movies and sync back to the PC. This works with TV shows (which aren't HD and are, of course, not rented). Weird.

OK, that's it for now... I've rented a few things and need to check them out.

Macworld 2008 keynote: Initial thoughts

pthurrott — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:41:00 GMT

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Note that these are initial thoughts only. I'm guessing there will be a lot more to say about this later.

Leopard update
Apple sold 5 million copies of Leopard in 2007, "the most successful year for Mac OS X ever." That is actually quite a feat. Microsoft sold just 100 million Vista licenses in 2007, so Leopard is already at 5 percent of the user base (or more, given Microsoft math) of Vista. Obviously, this will change going forward, but slowly. Clearly, Mac users are eager for an OS upgrade in ways that Windows users are not.

Grade: A
Leopard has issues but it's selling great and Apple has a history of getting things right over time.

Time Capsule
An Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS) combined with a "server class" hard drive; in other words, a NAS backup device, but designed to be wireless via 802.11n. Jobs described it as "a companion product" for the Time Machine feature in Leopard. If that's all it does, it's a niche product. Pricing is decent: 500 GB for $299, 1 TB for $499. It's going to ship in February. (Which is Applespeak for February 28 at the earliest.)

Grade: B
NAS storage is a good idea, as is getting people to backup, but this isn't a volume product.

iPhone update
Apple sold 4 million iPhones in 2007, which is still phenomenal, though analysts expected the figure to be 5 million: Clearly, the price drop (and European expansion) was the right thing to do, as sales were dwindling in the US in August. Jobs claims that the iPhone garnered 19.5 percent of US smart phone market in its first 90 days on the market, second behind RIM with 39 percent. Which his interesting, since Windows Mobile actually outsells RIM: According to Apple's chart, Microsoft isn't even on the list (though "Other" is at 21.2 percent). Cute.

Grade: A
Despite serious flaws, the iPhone is off to a great start.

New iPhone features
Jobs demos new iPhone functionality: Maps with location (sort of a low-tech non-GPS version of GPS), Web clips (Add Web bookmarks to iPhone home screen; these remember where you were on the page as well), customizable home screen(s) (it now supports up to 9 of them), multi-person SMS, video chapters support, song lyric support. In short, everything that we already knew was coming in iPhone 1.1.3, but good news nonetheless.

Grade: B
These are very nice additions, but the iPhone could still be improved in innumerable ways.

New iPod touch features
Apple is adding Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes, and Weather to the iPod touch! Nicely done, as this was unexpected and arguably unnecessary (and will certainly cause some potential iPhone buyers to just move to the touch). The bad news: While new iPod touch users get this for free, existing users have to pay $20 (!!!)

Grade: B
Would have been an "A" if it was just free.

iPhone SDK
The long-awaited iPhone SDK is due "in late February." And that was literally all that was said about this.

Grade: D
Come on, guys. We need more information.

iTunes update
As you might expect, Apple's iTunes Store has been doing phenomenally well. They've sold over 4 billion songs (20 million on Christmas Day 2007 alone), 125 million TV shows, and 7 million movies. Both are way above the competition (for now), but "did not meet expectations."

Grade: B
Apple has a great selection of content, but the movies are just too expensive.

iTunes Movie Rentals
As expected, Apple is getting into the movie rental business, a business Windows-based companies have been plying for almost a decade. Every major studio is on board, and Apple will offer 1000 movies at launch, with new movies arriving in the store 30 days after the initial DVD release. New releases are $3.99. "Library titles" are $2.99. As with Windows-based stores, you have to begin watching a rented movie within 30 days of downloading; once you start watching it, you have 24 hours to finish it. US only now, international later this year. Updates for the iPod and iTunes will be required to make this work. (Curiously, no mention of Apple TV, though I expect that will work too. After all, you want to watch movies on TV, right?)

Grade: A
And its about time. The pricing is right, and the viewing rules are identical to the Windows stores that have been around forever. However, Apple's movies will likely be of very high quality and of course they work with iPods, which makes them more interesting.

Apple TV update
As expected, Apple has significantly enhanced the Apple TV. The new version ("Apple TV Take 2") is fully independent of the PC and can rent HD and standard definition movies directly from the iTunes Store. It syncs with iTunes (optionally, I guess, and yes, with reverse sync), gets online photos from Flickr and .Mac (all six of you), and can subscribe to audio and video podcasts. New HD movies rent for $4.99, library titles for $3.99 (plus the regular "DVD-quality" movies). 100 titles "today." It features an entirely new and unnecessary UI but the box itself looks the same. More good news again: It's a free software update for existing Apple TV users, so the hardware isn't changing. It happens in two weeks, which is when the entry level Apple TV falls from $299 to $229.

Grade: A
What's interesting about this is that I use my own Apple TV almost exclusively for movies. And this new Apple TV is all about "movies, movies, movies," Jobs says. It's the right direction, and allowing people to do things (rent, etc.) from the couch with the remote is obviously the right thing to do (as myself and many others have noted over the years). Overdue, again, but welcome. The new price is right.

iTunes-compatible movies on DVD discs
As rumored, Fox (and presumably others) are going to be shipping iTunes/iPod/iPhone/Apple TV-compatible movies on the disc with certain DVDs. The first, as reported last week, is "Family Guy Blue Harvest," which comes out today. I've preordered it and will write this up later today. Fox calls this "Digital Copy," and says there's no added cost for these DVDs.

Grade: n/a
We need more information--and industry support--before any credible opinion can be formed.

Macbook Air
As expected, the biggest announcement at Macworld was the long-rumored Macbook Air, a silly name but a cool looking ultra-portable machine. It weighs about 3 pounds, is incredibly thin ("the world's thinnest notebook," of course), and doesn't compromise on keyboard, display, performance, or (?) thinness. It features a 13.3 inch widescreen display, a Macbook-like keyboard but with ambient light sensors, built-in iSight, and a magnetic latch. The big new feature is its large multi-touch trackpad: It lets you use iPhone-like manipulations and navigation in OS X. As expected, the Macbook Air uses an 80 GB 1.8-inch hard drive (like the iPod) or an optional but "pricey" 64 GB solid-state disk (SSD). The CPU is a new 1.6 or 1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (not ultra-low voltage), presumably the "Prenryn" versions which are smaller and cooler than last year's models. There's no internal optical drive, of course, but you can get an external USB model for $99 and Apple has a software feature called Remote Disk for "borrowing" the optical drive from another Mac. There's only one USB port (no Firewire), a micro-DVI port, and a headphone jack (all via an un-Apple-like flip down cover). There's 802.11n wireless, but no wired Ethernet. It gets 5 hours of battery life, which is great, but not quite as high as I had expected. (Plus Apple tends to exaggerate battery life estimates.) Pricing is expensive: It starts at $1799 and will ship in two weeks. Pre-orders can be taken today.

Grade: B
Apple's decision to go with Intel has paid off dramatically for both companies. Apple gets to make innovative products like this and Intel gets to use Apple as a show-off designer that uses its platforms. On the bad news front, Steve didn't tell anyone that the SSD version would cost over $3000. Yikes.

Final thoughts
Overall, it was a solid keynote. While this year's Macworld lacked the bonanza product introduction that was last year's iPhone, it more than made up for it by focusing a lot of it on the Mac. More important to Windows users, perhaps, there was a lot of non-Mac stuff as well. A big event, and one that, yes, easily eclipsed Bill Gates' final CES keynote from last week. Were there any disappointments? I'd have to point out the lack of any real surprises, no "one more thing" that no one saw coming. Maybe it's just a reflection of the age we live in: Even a company as secretive as Apple can't really keep secrets from its rabid fans anymore.