The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Earlier this month, Bill Gates had his chance at the Consumer Electronic Show to take the stage and talk to the world about technology. Last week, it was Steve JobsÕ turn. Jobs, the CEO of Apple, gave his opening address to a packed convention hall in San Francisco on January 15. Always a hit with the geek world, Jobs is famous for dressing simply in jeans and a turtleneck and speaking for an hour or so in front of a massive video screen with no notes of any kind. He strolls around the stage and gives a complete update on what Apple has done in the past year and he always takes the occasion to release new products. This year was no exception. Jobs told the 4,000-plus people gathered to hear him speak that iTunes has now sold over 12 billion songs, making it by far the largest legal place to download music. Their largest single day ever was Christmas day of 2007, with over 20 million new songs having being bought. Jobs admitted failure, with the Apple TV not being a big seller as there was little content that people wanted to watch. Trying to address this problem, Apple has introduced iTunes movie rentals. Beginning later this year in Canada, you will be able to log in to iTunes and rent a movie for between $3 and $5. You can begin watching the movie at any time during the next 30 days, but once you have started watching, you will only have 24 hours to complete the movie. To increase the speed of the service, the movies will not be fully downloaded to your computer, but will be streamed across the Internet, allowing, in JobsÕ words, the average broadband user to begin watching the actual movie within 30 seconds of purchasing it. Apple also updated software for the iPhone (which we are still waiting on in Canada) as well as their wireless switches and other smaller pieces of software and hardware. But these were all a warm-up for the main event. Over the several days leading up to the presentation, pictures were posted on the Internet that people had taken around the convention centre in San Francisco while it was being set up for this event. All of these photos had the large Apple logo on them as well as the slogan ÒThereÕs something in the air.Ó Predictions raged wildly about new download services, an upgrade to wireless technologies and standards that would allow new services to emerge, among other things. In the end, the people who were right were those who predicted that Apple would begin production of a sub-compact notebook. Jobs introduced the MacBook Air. This machine, the worldÕs slimmest laptop, is only 0.4 centimetres thick at the front and 1.9 centimetres at the back. But unlike many other subcompacts, it has a full 13-inch screen and a full speed processor and hard drive. It has a full 80 gb. hard drive and relies on a wireless Internet connection, not even having an Ethernet port. This machine is so slim because it has no optical drive (DVD or CD) built in. For $99 you can purchase a USB drive that will connect to the machine or else you can use a new feature that allows this computer to ÒborrowÓ the CD/DVD drive in another machine, streaming the content from one machine to another in order for you to upgrade your software, watch movies, etc. This machine also features a multi-touch trackpad which allows users to not only scroll through webpages with a single finger, but also resize pictures by simply spreading their two fingers apart, or rotating them on the screen by rotating their index finger around their thumb. A new idea that had been debuted on the iPhone, it should be easy to see its uses on a lightweight laptop. In the end, Jobs pushed Apple forward into new places once again, fighting to keep its title of one of the worldÕs most innovative companies. ([email protected]) Tech Notes runs Mondays.
