Steve Jobs hasn’t lost his touch. While this keynote wasn’t as exciting as the iPhone announcment keynote (what is?), it was very good and a lot of fun to attend. Apple already has the keynote available for you to watch for yourself. But if you don’t have the time, I’ll sum it up for you…
Time Capsule
This little wireless wonder is WiFi base station and a 500GB ($299) or 1TB ($499) hard drive that automatically backs up your digital stuff using Time Machine.
iPhone Software Update
This update includes a lot of what users have been asking and wating for, including “find me” mapping, web clips, and home screen customization. I can’t wait to try it all out.
iTouch Update
You iThouch users can now get Mail, Maps, Weather, Notes, and Stocks added with this latest $20 iTouch update Seems like a deal to me.
iTunes Movie Rentals and a redesigned Apple TV
You can now rent movies on iTunes for around 4 bucks. You can keep the file and watch it anytime within 30 days, but once you start watching it, it will expire in 24 hours. I personally don’t think 24 hours is enough time. I think they should extend this to 36 hours, to give people more fexiblility. Either way it’s exciting that every major studio has signed on. So that will offer users a ton of great content.
Speaking of great content. With access to HD podcasts, I’d love to see our Vacation Planning DVD show available for users to download for free. It’s also a great opportunity to offer “direct from the parks” type content to entertain and educate veiwers about our properties.
The new Apple TV will let you rent those movies in HD for around 5 bucks (same rules apply), but no computer is required. You can do it all through Apple TV. My favoirte feature though are all the photo accessibility enhancements. You can now access your .mac and Flickr photos to display in full HD glory.
MacBook Air
Though we kind of knew it was coming, it was still exciting to see the much discussed MacBook Air a reality. This thing is super thin and very light. It starts at $1799 and comes with a 13.3 inch display (LED), a full keyboard, built-in 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth, built-in iSight and a full 2GB of RAM. Plus, it gives you a lot of the same gesture control you love from your iPhone right on the trackpad. Nice.
