Thanks Steve..

[theducks]

.. for a US$19.95 upgrade for my iPod Touch so I can have the same features I've already hacked into it from an iPhone
.. for a US$1999 thin Macbook with a non-replaceable battery and an 80Gb hard drive (seriously, you couldn't fit a 160Gb from an iPod? that would have actually made it a useful product, but no, the only other option is a AU*$1700* "upgrade" to a 64GB SSD drive)
.. for dropping the price of the Apple TV in the US but not in Australia
.. for the Time Capsule WLAN AP with a 1TB hard drive that costs AU$199 than buying an Airport Extreme base station and a USB 1TB hard drive to plug into it

So sure, last night was no iPod-hiFi and leather iPod cases, but it sure was crap.

Comments

[caitlen.livejournal.com]

The Air is a really pretty piece of work, but possibly that's all it's good for. I can see Business people going nuts for it, because it's so thin, it's like having a manilla folder to stick in your briefcase/satchel. But The 80GB HDD isn't really up to speck. I'm totally with you on the "Why couldn't you put the 160GB iPod HD in there?" I'd like to see them improve it straight away.

Also, far out, the price tag for Aussies is ridiculous.

It was exciting, until I read more about it.

[dannipenguin.livejournal.com]

Also the lack of ethernet will probably go down badly for corporate customers.

They'll go and buy Toshiba or Fujitsu if they want tiny notebooks.

[dannipenguin.livejournal.com]

Well, corporate types aren't even going to run MacOSX anyway.

[caitlen.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about that. I thought at first "Wow, I don't think I could do without ethernet", but then I thought about it. When I lived in Canada, I lived off wireless. At work, it was easy to hook up to the intra office web, and that's how everyone did everything. I was stuck at home, because in the shared house (between 7 of us at once) there was only one internet connection, and I had to steal it off the modem in the room off the kitchen, and that was ethernet. But that was the only ethernet connection I used. I think it will actually go down really well amongst corporate customers, specifically in parts of the US and in Europe, where businesses have gone wireless, and for those who usually run wifi but have commitments in places where wifi isn't guaranteed, well there's the ethernet adapter.

I think it will work really well for those people who travel, and might have a Mac Mini at home, with the larger hard drive, or work off a Mac Pro (which they might need for bigger projects), when they can just drag and drop items that they need, and take the Air with them on the road.

It'll be interesting to see how it develops. I think it's a bit ahead of itself, but in a year, I'd be surprised if it's still behind.

[dannipenguin.livejournal.com]

I love how if Apple do something it's "ahead of the curve". If it appeared in anything else, people would say "how stupid!".

I don't think that many businesses are wireless enabled. Wireless is an anathema to business. They are constantly concerned about security, so much so that many company IT policies explicitly forbid the use of wireless.

While many places have wireless hotspots now, many hotels I've stayed in still only have a hardline into the room. I've actually been known to carry a wireless AP with me so that I could lie on the bed instead.

The other nice thing about a hardline, besides the fact that it's that much harder to eavesdrop on is that it's orders of magnitude faster. If you're copying large numbers of files between two machines, connecting via a cable is still the fastest way.

Dongles are lame (remember how they were lame when they plugged into the PC card you had in your machine, and how awesome it was if you had a real port). USB dongles are also slow.

The back is 1.94cm high, which is slightly wider than the back of my Portege R200, which has an ethernet port.

[caitlen.livejournal.com]

Going to have to agree to disagree. It'll work and work well, but there's a bit of a way to go with it.