What's the Buzz Coming from MacWorld?

Learn about the latest technologies that Apple Inc. will be releasing for 2007!

Macworld Conference and Expo was quite a show this January! We saw Apple Inc. (no longer Apple Computer, Inc.), now in its 31st year, release some incredible products for consumer and business users.

Steve Jobs' keynote first focused on the Apple TV né iTV (the codename was iTV when it was pre-announced last August), Apple's foray into the Home Theatre System market. Apple TV is a set-top box that enables a user to play media from a PC or Mac to their “big flat screen TV”, as Steve puts it.

The Apple TV comes equipped with component and HDMI outputs, as well as analog and optical audio ports, 100Mb ethernet, USB 2.0 ports, and 802.11 wireless networking (compatible with draft-N, G, and B standards). It seems like the ideal home theatre link between a typical Mac or PC user's digital life media and their living room.

During the second and final part of the keynote, Steve announced that he'd “been waiting for this day for two and a half years.” He announced that Apple is going to release another ground-breaking device, following the trend of the Macintosh in 1984 and the iPod in 2001. In fact Apple would announce three such devices: a wide-screen iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator. Steve reiterated these things a bit and then followed with the fact that they would actually be contained in one device: the iPhone.

Astute business observers will note that Cisco/Linksys released their own iPhone not a month earlier, and are among several companies to actually hold the iPhone trademark. Like similar times before, Apple will most likely reach a settlement to Cisco's lawsuit, filed soon after the announcement, and continue to use the moniker.

Steve showed off the iPhone and it's sleek form factor to an audience of thousands (indeed this year's MacWorld was the largest in some years, expanding the show exhibits to the North Hall of the Moscone Center in San Francisco), touting the fact that it only had one button and otherwise all functionality could be manipulated by the touch-screen display. In fact, there is a button on the side for instance muting of the phone, like current Palm Treo models and many other phones.

Mr. Jobs eschewed the typical smartphone stylus in favor of “the pointer we all are born with; our finger”, for performing actions on the phone. This, coupled with the phone's ambient light sensor (for dimming the display when it's beside your ear), accelerometer (for playing wide-screen video or changing the orientation of whatever application you're running when you turn the phone sideways), two megapixel camera, and OS X operating system make the phone a tempting option for jet-setting CEO's and high-end gadget geeks alike.

The downside? Cingular wireless only. $499 and $599 for the 4GB and 8GB (flash memory) models respectively. And the price requires a two year service contract. The phone will be on the Edge network, not EVDO. No third party apps (at the time of this writing).

The upside? Perfect synching with the Mac OS via iTunes. The phone is Wi-fi capable and will seamlessly switch to using any open Wi-fi network for texting and browsing if available. The most innovative functionality we've yet seen in a multi-function device.

Last, but not least, Apple unveiled the latest iteration of their Wi-Fi Access Point, the Airport Extreme base-station. Like it's Mac Mini doppleganger and cousin the iTV, the new AEBS is square in shape and flatter. Its main improvement over the previous generation is the addition of 802.11 draft N to it's B and G lineup. This brings it in line with the currently shipping Macs, which also have 802.11N (and G) networking.

In addition, the AEBS provides a USB port capable of hosting and sharing a USB drive, making it instantly available to users on the network as a shared volume. One would hope this would be configurable in the Airport Admin Utility.

Since this is a business article, we couldn't leave out the fact that the Microsoft Mac Business Unit announced they would be shipping Office 2008 for the Mac in the second half of 2007. It will have the same features (more actually) as Office 2007 for the PC.

Noticeably absent from Macworld were any mention of Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” (Steve has not updated his “Spring 2007” claim for the ship date), iLife and iWork revisions (one thinks that both 2007 suites should be forthcoming soon.), or possible Mac Pro “Octo” machines using the new quad-core chips Intel announced at CES.

Stay tuned to All Covered for more Mac news and commentary next month.

How All Covered Can Help

If any of these are issues for your business, All Covered provides Macintosh and Apple consulting and services for small businesses nationwide.

• Call us: For a personal consultation, call our friendly sales team at 866-446-1133
• Email us: Use our contact form and we'll contact you within one business day.
• Free Newsletters: Use our Free IT Newsletters about IT issues facing small business
• Mac services: Expert Macintosh Consulting, Computer and Network and Support
• Learn more: Emerging Technologies
  Let All Covered help you evaluate a new technology and determine the business benefit.