BOOM!

Yesterday was Macworld 2008 and ol' Steve Jobs showed off some new products - some flashy additions to products... and some groundbreaking steps towards ending the HD wars all together.

More on that in a bit.


First, we have the Macbook Air - Apple's nosedive into the "who can make the smallest laptop!" The ads that Jobs premiered show a vanilla envelope being opened and the Macbook Air being pulled out of it. Kind of cool.

Very small - back lit keys - bluetooth 802.11n - interesting touch pad that acts like the iPhone with pinching... and lacking an optical disc drive. That's right - no cd/dvd drive on this puppy. It has this odd "remote disc" function that allows you to use any neighboring drive as your own... even a PC's.


Next, we have a nice update for our iPhones. I have always had maps on it - but now, thankfully, the phone acts as a GPS device and allows me know exactly where I am and calculate a map to my destination. Not unbelievable but a cool function that did not exist.

Also, the main screen is now freed up to contain whatever buttons the user wishes. I have placed buttons to main web pages that I visit daily. I also can now move lesser buttons off the main screen (by by stocks!).

Finally - I can SMS several people at once now... expect a lot more general texts from yours truly!


To round out the day (well, I can't remember the order of arrival) we have the announcement that Apple is getting into the movie rental business. Not a revelation by any means... but the delivery quality does take a leap forward in changing my mind in the timeline of the arrival of a hard media-less society.

Let me explain.

HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray has been an ongoing battle that only as of late has given any notion that a decision is near. Toshiba and Sony have been declaring their own media as the one solution for HD content... but in the back of everyone's mind is that there will come a time when buying a disc will simply waste time and space. That time might have arrived.

Steve Jobs proclaims he can now deliver HD quality (albeit 720p) video via download on a broadband speed line... in 30 seconds. You click download - 30 seconds later the video plays - full HD resolution on your TV set. Of course, you have to buy his Apple TV to get it to the TV - and his rental program is set up on a movie by movie basis (come on!!! Netflix is huuuuge!!!)... yet, there is no denying the strength in having full quality programing for your viewing in 30 seconds!

I am fully intrigued - I don't feel my discs are going anywhere in the next few years... but there will be a time where they will be forgotten (Apple has a computer WITHOUT A DRIVE?!?!??!) - and Mr. Jobs is definitely announcing where the world can get started.


Finally, I finished disc 2 of "Lost" Season 3 last night. A throwaway episode where Jack's tatoos are finally discussed (hot Asian girl who is naughty tatooed "Stranger in a strange land" on him - ugh) and Hurley discovers a VW bus (with Ben's dead father in it!!! Whoa!). The Hurley ep was truly moving and a treasure of the season. Hope disc 3 is on the way.

"Lost" Season 3 Blu-Ray Disc 2: B+

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