Asus has been busy showing off some new products today. They are releasing two new versions of the EEPC configured as convertible tablets! Oh this is cool. They are also showing a PC integrated into a keyboard with a built in 5" touch display. It drives external monitors and might be a good alternative to a Mac Mini for some.
Hmm, a computer built INTO the keyboard. That takes me back.
I wasn't going to comment on this Macworld. I mean what is there to say? It is definitely in the running for worst keynote ever. But then I remembered this was the last one that Apple was going present at, so it is my last chance to make a comment on a Macworld keynote.
There was only really one announcement made that didn't invoke loud snoring, and even it wasn't a surprise. So I'm only going to comment on one of the announcements, one product, and even then only one feature of that product. I want to talk about...
The 17" Macbook Non-Removable Battery
Not the part about the fact that you can't replace it yourself, or that you can't carry a second one for long trips. Not even about the fact that without the battery door how are you going to upgrade the RAM or the HD like you can with the other Macbooks. Not about the 179.00 replacement cost. Or the fact that in typical Apple form they are telling you that a product's negative feature is actually a huge positive. No I mean the battery.
They are talking up the battery big. Since the rest of the 17" Macbook is old news by now I guess it's really all they have to talk about. An 8 hour battery in a 17" notebooks is impressive there is no doubt. I am pretty sensitive to marketing hype however, especially from Apple. Also I spent considerable time last summer researching and experimenting with the various high current, high capacity battery technologies, so I want to fill in a few gaps in what they are saying.
Here are a few quotes lifted from they keynote and the Apple site.
"A giant leap for batteries"
"revolutionary"
"breakthrough"
"advanced chemistry"
"innovative new charging method"
"radical step"
Where do I live again? Maybe someone moved my house to northern Alaska while I slept. Current tally; 7" of new snow (previous snow had not yet melted). And it's still coming down hard.
Fail
This is the benign looking entrance to Novelty Hill, on the road between my house and work. It's long, full of sharp turns and very very steep. There is a good reason they close it in weather like this. Yet some people don't get the hint.
Addonics is selling a tiny qizmo that will turn any USB hard drive or storage device into a NAS (network attached storage). It supports SMB and Samba. It has some additional cool features:
1. Supports FTP up to 8 users.
2. Can be used as a print server for an attached printer.
3. Has a built-in Bit Torrent client for direct download.
4. Can be used as a UPnP AV server for an Xbox 360.
It looks pretty slick and is available for only 55 AmeriBucks.
Is iPhone tethering coming for real? That would be cool provided they don't charge an arm and a leg for it. Now if someone would just tell Steve about this 'bluetooth' thingy that is already in his precious phone.
Despite Apple's restrictive API and general grumbling about the platform, cool iPhone apps keep showing up every week. Two notable resent releases include Google Earth and CoolIris. These are both apps that are very slick and useful on the desktop, and promise to be even more handy in your pocket. Google earth on a device with GPS and other location services will be a near killer app for some even in its first release. CoolIris, while already pretty functional, will get better with time as they add location based services as well.
It looks like Microsoft will release a Blu-Ray drive for the 360 after all.
Netflix has just moved to add Starz Play to its growing line up of 'Watch Instantly' titles. This brings about 2,500 feature movies and concerts to the service. This is a big deal. The biggest complaint with the service previously has been the lack of recent titles. No longer. The new content is included with your Netflix subscription price.
I am really excited by this. We are already using this service regularly and now I expect to use it even more. This totally justifies my Roku purchase, and adds tremendous value to the upcoming 360 dashboard update. Go Netflix go.
Earlier this year I dropped a 30GB iPod Video at the gym and broke the screen. The screen didn't actually have that split crystal look to it, but was just a scramble of lines and blank spaces. After looking around for a while, I decided to get a do-it-yourself iPod Video screen replacement kit from Kokopelli Music for $37 shipped, including tools and instructions. I figured that doing it myself woud be cheaper and also save me from having to ship my iPod in.
I'm happy to report that I did the transplant myself using the excellent instructions and am really happy with the new screen. I think it's brighter than the old one. There are a lot of vendors out there doing iPod repair, and I just wanted to thank and recommend Kokopelli Music for being fast and honest to deal with by doing this unsolicited post and link back. Thanks, guys.
So what do people expect of the new MacBooks? I know Paul is in the market. John wants one but can't quite pull the trigger. I'm tempted by an upgrade. This could be the first "Nullstream Laptop" - something each of us is willing to buy (very rare).
I'd be happy for aluminum case and hardware bump. I'd really like to see what I expected the MacBook Air would be - an aluminum MacBook with no optical drive. That alone would be very interesting to me. On another note, my next laptop will have 8GB of ram. Just saying...
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Apparently you live in not California.