I must say I’m a bit shocked. Not shocked by Apple TV or even the iPhone really. Shocked that Steve only unveiled Apple TV and the iPhone, the latter not even being available for another 6 months. Don’t get me wrong, I think they are both cool and will talk about them a bit but I am surprised we didn’t see new versions of iLife and iWork. Granted nothing about a year-based naming scheme requires that new versions be released every year, just look at Microsoft, but I really thought Apple would continue with Macworld timeframe updates. Anyway, lets look at what they did announce.
Apple TV or (Apple logo)tv as it seems to say on the device itself is a way to easily view digital media on your high-def television. We’d already seen a demo of the product, then referred to as iTV, but we didn’t get all the details of the device. The primary new piece of information is that Apple TV contains a 40 gig hard drive that can be synchronized with the media from one Mac (or PC). In addition it can stream content from up to 5 other machines. The user interface is similar to Front Row which has been shipping with Macs for over a year now. While I didn’t expect the ability to record television with the device I was secretly hoping they would surprise us because my TiVo hard drive bit the dust just last night.
Not announced in the keynote, but related to Apple TV is the new Airport Extreme. The device features a new design that like Apple TV appears to be inspired by the Mac mini. It sports 802.11n wireless networking and increases the LAN ports for wired connections from 1 to 3. Apparently shipping Macs are compatible with 802.11n but the new Airport Extreme is also backward compatible with 802.11g, 802.11a, and 802.11b. UPDATE: I missed this earlier, but a very cool thing this device lets you do is connect a USB external hard drive and configure it for sharing on your local network. You don’t have to give up the print hub functionality either, just connect a USB hub to the Airport Extreme and connect your devices to that. Very slick!
The iPhone aims to be a revolution in the mobile phone market. Combining audio, video, and photo playback with cellular calls and internet access it might be more proper to call the iPhone the Mac nano. I’ve never been a big fan of cell phones for a number of reasons but Apple have changed the landscape considerably with this new platform. Gone are the clunky buttons and tiny menus, instead you interact with this device using just your fingers and a few simple gestures. That interface change alone is revolutionary but Apple didn’t stop there. The device features a large screen that operates in portrait and landscape orientations and a sensor determines which way you are holding it. Most of the demo movies show working in portrait orientation which makes sense given that it is the most natural way to hold it. The iPhone is a quad-band GSM phone that supports wireless connectivity via 802.11b/g, EDGE, and Bluetooth 2.0. Widgets like those in OS X’s Dashboard, a trim version of Safari, and an email client all take advantage of the Internet connectivity of the device.
One of the big question that went unanswered, and hopefully will be answered in the coming months, is whether 3rd party developers will be able to tap the potential of the iPhone. Steve made a point of using the phrase desktop-class applications during the keynote but what did that refer to? Just the applications that Apple provides? Could we one day see a way for 3rd party developers to sell widgets and lightweight applications via iTMS for automatic syncing to your iPhone? I’m sure I’m not alone in hoping that is the case. The other question in my mind is does the interface we see in the iPhone give us a preview of the much hoped-for changes to Aqua in Leopard? Hard to say but it seems to be a good choice for the phone form-factor. Regardless of your reaction to the iPhone consider that it is a new platform that will continue to improve. I think it’s a good start.
So how did I do with my own predictions? Depends how you look at it. I think in some ways my iPhone speculation was pretty good. The iPhone does have an SMS system that mimics iChat and it certainly gives us a novel input mechanism that uses gestures. And if I really want to stretch it, the iPhone is rotatable so maybe my idea for rotatable LCDs counts. We did get details on Apple TV and Leopard wasn’t released. I’m still surprised about iWork and iLife but perhaps they will be announced separately from Macworld. On the bright side I won’t be paying out much money this year, except on a new hard drive for my TiVo 
