MACWORLD2008 - STEVE'S KEYNOTE BREAKDOWN (Pt. 2)

Welcome back!

Ok quick writing break over. I'm trying to avoid reading other sites and their reviews of these things so to better give you my untainted thoughts. Now, on to some new information on the iPhone and what is being updated TODAY!

So, Steve Jobs provided some information on the sales of the iPhone last year. Since it's first date on sale, the iPhone has sold over 4 million units...which is about 20,000 or so a DAY. Market breakdowns for September showed that the iPhone had captured about 19% or so of the cellphone marketplace, which is nothing to sneeze at either. Now, that's just a percentage for September. I'm sure we'd all like to see what they are as of January. I'm not saying they'll be awful, but I think now that everything has mellowed out, that we'll see that number come down to a more realistic level.

On to new stuff! First up, a Software Development kit coming at the end of February. **Watches at people explode with anticipation** I can't wait to see all the goodness this can bring. Everyone's been asking about this since the iPhone's release, and now it'll finally be out there.

The first neat thing for iPhone applications is Maps with location. Now the iPhone doesn't have GPS, so in order to work this out, the folks at Google and Skyhook Wireless got together with Apple and created a network out of the 23 million Wi-Fi hotspots in the US & Canada. Maps will utilize that network of hotspots to triangulate your location with the iPhone. You don't have to be signed onto one of those hotspots either...the programming will detect them and you'll know where you are. Sweet and nice.

Now with updates coming today, you'll also be able to send SMS messages to multiple people at once. Not a high-selling point for me (I can do that on my little LG hunk-o-verizon-junk), but still I'm betting that it's useful for most folks. Webclips looks extremely useful to me (man I need an iPhone, who wants to buy me one?) as someone who reads particular things on webpages and the like. Webclips basically allows you to add a page as an icon to your desktop so you can quickly get to it. It even remembers where you zoom and pan to. That'll be great for people like me who have to check X, Y and Z each morning before doing most anything. This update also allows you to change and customize your iPhone desktop too. Move the icons around and off the screen to your heart's content...kinda like a real desktop. ("Get thee behind me stapler!")

All of the missing content from the iPod Touch (mmm...iPod Touch) that was on the iPhone when it released is now going to be standard on all iPod Touches that are sold as of today. For previous versions you can get the same software for a $20 price. Fair enough, probably should have been free, but I can understand the need for the additional $20. So that means that iPod Touch users will get Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes and Weather. Very nice. They didn't say that the Touches would get the newer cooler version of maps that has the wi-fi GPS bit...but I'm going to assume that's added in. (Now, to convince Apple that I'd be a hella good product reviewer for them...)

Ok...next up will be some discussion about iTunes!

-Mike Leader

----------------
Listening to: Fleetwood Mac - Miranda
via FoxyTunes

MACWORLD 2008 - GETTING READY!

Welcome back true believers! We here at YourMacStore have survived the fall months and Christmas sale season to be back here in January with lots of great information for you!

This next week, our owner and CFO will be traveling to Macworld 2008 to stay on top of all that's new and cool in the coming months for Mac users like you and I. According to some of the news bits I've been able to find online, it seems that this year will be about the desktop and laptop mostly. Even with all of the iPhone hype of 2007 and the cool new iPods that came out at the end of 2007, the focus SHOULD be on the Mac desktops and laptops, don't you think?

Ok so some things we KNOW are going to show up there. Microsoft will unveil Office 2008. Wooo, another Microsoft product...I can't...be...more...exci...zzzzzzz. Seriously, there are better products out there for the Mac than MS's Office program. It's a never-have, never-will-be exciting thing for me. Kinda sad when FREE products are better than a $100+ product, eh? Also, with a convention (oooh gamer term) that has over 50,000 attendees this year, they're planning on doing training there for at least 1/10th of those folks...that's a lot of notepads. ;)

Alright...rumors...good lord, y'all love rumors. Ok let's go over some of the common ones:

"Mini-Macbook" - It's known that Apple acquired a bunch of Toshiba 13.5" screens...but what they plan on doing with them is anyone's guess. Most folks tend to think that they'll be producing

"Penryn updates" - This I feel is likely...the Macbooks could use this post haste. :)

"Movie Rentals on iTunes" - I'm still sure that this won't happen til later in the year, but they might just announce it here. Who knows? It'll be interesting for sure if it does happen. Damn...I'm gonna have to give them more $$! ;)

So the plan is for our trusty folks going to Macworld 2008 to give us updates as they get them throughout the day. We'll be posting as much as possible during that time. I'll even post some more thoughts on possibilities on Monday too.

Who else wants to see Apple go all Blu-Ray, just to really upset Microsoft? :D