Apple Unfurls the "MacBook Air"

"Macworld 2008" kicked off amidst great fanfare at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. As usual, it was all ears for Apple Chief, Steve Jobs, as he took stage to deliver the keynote. Pausing to call 2007 "an extraordinary year for Apple", Jobs pronounced they've got some great stuff for 2008.

What? Clearly, Jobs' last announcement was the show stealer. "There's something in the air today," he said, and the next thing, he launched the world's thinnest notebook, the "MacBook Air". The Silver colored "MacBook Air" is as thin as 0.16-inches at its thinnest and 0.76-inches at the thickest.

Yet, it packs a built-in iSight camera, a full size backlit keyboard with Black keys, a full size 13.3-inches LED-backlit display, a 1.8-inches hard drive with 80GB standard (option for 64GB solid-state disk), Core 2 Duo chip on board at 1.6GHz standard (option to go to 1.8GHz), among others. Other features of the "MacBook Air" include: a MagSafe connector on the other side; a smaller 45W power adapter; USB 2, Micro-DVI, and headphone jack; built-in 802.11n along with Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, and a good five hours battery life. Full specifications are: 3 lbs, 0.16-inches to 0.76-inches thickness, 13.3-inches full size display, full size keyboard (backlit), multi-touch gestures, iSight camera, 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB of memory, 80GB hard drive (64GB SSD optional), 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, and Magsafe connector.

The "MacBook Air" will ship in two weeks time with pre-orders already on. It will cost $1799 apiece.

During his keynote, Jobs also made a couple other important announcements. One, "Time Capsule", designed as the perfect companion product to Time Machine. It's a back-up appliance that marries full AirPort Extreme base station and a server grade hard drive. "Time Capsule" will ship in February in two versions: one with a 500GB drive, and the other with a 1TB drive. The 500GB variant will cost $299 while the 1TB model will cost $499. Two, a free iPhone software update, with cool new features including Maps with location (developed in conjunction with Google), Webclips, customized home screens, the ability to SMS multiple people at once, videos supporting chapters, subtitles, plus languages, and music supporting lyrics. Interestingly, there's no GPS for maps. Jobs said that along with Google and Skyhook Wireless, they traveled the length and breadth of USA and Canada to map nearly 23 million Wi-Fi hot spots. So even when not connected, beacons can be picked-up from these hotspots. Three, five new applications added to the iPod Touch, including Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes, and Weather. This is being made available to existing users as a $20 upgrade, upgradeable through iTunes. Four, iTunes movie rentals with support from studios the likes of Touchstone, Miramax, MGM, New Line, Lions Gate, as also Fox, WB, Disney, Paramount, Universal, and Sony. Jobs said they would launch more than 1,000 films by the end of Feb. The movies can be viewed 30 days after their DVD release, on Macs, PCs, iPods, and iPhones. Rentals will cost $2.99 per library title, and $3.99 per new release. Five, version two of Apple TV that syncs with computers but no computer is ever required. The new version also has an entirely new user interface (UI). "Apple TV Part II" will be available in two weeks time for $229.

Office 2008 for Mac in 3 Versions

Microsoft has launched the Office 2008 version for Mac, its upgraded Mac-specific Office suite.

The upgrade is claimed to combine comfortable applications with user-friendly functions that help deliver the ultimate in style and performance.

Microsoft has launched Office 2008 for Mac in three versions. Of which, the Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home and student version comprises three licenses for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. It is priced at Rs 6,900. It's superior accuracy and performance make it ideal for home users.

The second version of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac is targeted at small business- and information- workers. It's upgraded design provides superior level of comfort, enabling Mac users achieve more and share ideas seamlessly. This version too is available at all retail outlets for Rs 18,600

The third version is the Microsoft Office 2008 special edition for Mac users, which features the complete Office 2008 for Mac productivity suite specially packaged with a full version of Microsoft Expression Media for Mac. This version aims to empower media-savvy Mac users with smart digital asset management.The special edition of Office 2008 for Mac is available for Rs 23,250.

IBM Lotus Notes on Apple iPhones

Following in Google's footsteps, IBM is now planning to make Lotus Notes available on Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch devices। A formal announcement is expected at the Lotusphere conference in Orlando, Florida, next week।

Lotus Notes email software works on IBM's Domino email server program। The service will be made available as a free upgrade to those who already have a Lotus Web access, while new comers will be able to avail the service for $39 per year। While IBM and Apple used to be competitors during the early years of the PC industry, the announcement will make them partners in software।

Besides, this is the first time for a big third-party application on Apple devices ever since the company announced it would open-up its iPhone and iPod Touch devices to third-party developers।

And Apple's iPhone has come under a fair amount of criticism for the lack of support for business email applications।

As of now, corporate emails on the iPhone can be accessed only if the user's company configures and uses the Microsoft Exchange Program।

But with Lotus Notes being made available on the iPhone, and with IBM's claim to having 135 million users of the application worldwide, the iPhone could become a strong competitor to players in the pure business phone segment, for example, Research in Motion (RIM)।

In addition to Lotus Notes, IBM is planning on releasing a Lotus Notes package offering a collection of tools like Microsoft Outlook and free Lotus Symphony Productivity Suite similar to Microsoft Office for the iPhone as well as for Mac PCs.