Continue reading a full play-by-play transcript of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote address from the 2008 Macworld Conference and Expo. Most of the announcements found in this transcript are explained in further detail in separate news articles; photos from the event can be found here.
10:41 Song ends, Newman leaving stage after shake from Steve Jobs. Jobs: go see the new products. Thanks for reading our transcript, guys!
10:36 Continued political/economic diatribe, how media is focusing on the companies but not the poeple who are being hurt. He won’t be railing against Apple. It’s not the same sort of company. Also praises Fox because it’ll help him make some money. He’ll be playing a song from Toy Story, jokes that it was a love theme for Buzz and Woody. Says he was impressed by audience knowing about the notebook before it was announced – says he was impressed. Song is You’ve Got a Friend in Me.
10:31-10:35 am Randy Newman playing piano and talking. Says that in Europe, people don’t like us very much so he wanted a quick song to make people like us. An apology for our awful leaders, who aren’t the world’s worst—look at some of the bad leaders from history. “I’d like to say a few words in defense of our country” is the song. Caesars making horse vice-president, Spanish Inquisition, Hitler, Stalin, King Leopold of Belgium destroying Congo. We have bad Supreme Court justices, he notes. Says our empire is ending, like all the rest. We’re adrift at sea. Quite a political statement for a keynote.
10:27 am That’s the fourth thing. It’s 2008. In the first 2 weeks, Apple intro’d Mac Pro with 8 cores across board, Time Capsule, iPod touch and iPhone software upgrades. iTunes Movie Rentals, reinvented Apple TV, and MacBook Air. Fifty more weeks to go in 2008. That’s it, he says. Special treat today: someone who can bridge gap between Hollywood and music, Randy Newman. Academy Award winner nominated 17 times, won 5 Grammies and 13 nominations. Does scores for Pixar and a lot of other movies in the future.
10:25 am Ad shows the manila envelope. Glossy screen is shown off. One other side of MBA is the environment: case is fully recyclable aluminum. Also has fully Mercury-free display. Arsenic free glass. All of the Apple-designed boards are PVC and bromide flame retardant. Box is 56% smaller in volume than before. The world’s thinnest notebook.
10:23 am Battery life: 5 hours of battery for web, email, with wireless on. What are the features: 3 pounds, 0.16-0.76 thickness. 13.3” display, full size keyboard. Backlit keyboard. Multi-touch gestures. iSight built in. 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB memory standard. 80GB hard drive. Option of 64GB SSD. 802.11n wi-fi. Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. MagSafe. Price: $1799. Will be shipping in 2 weeks. Will take orders/preorders today.
10:21 am A new feature on MacBook Air is called Remote Disc. When you go to the Finder, you’ll see in the left column all of the Macs and PCs in your vicinity, and can use the CD drive of any machine with Apple’s included software installed. You can use a PC to install Mac software wirelessly. Just as if you have a local optical drive.
10:19 am One side has MagSafe. 45w comes with it. Flip down door for USB 2 Micro-DVI and headphone jack. Includes 802.11n, plus Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR. One thing it doesn’t include is an optical drive. Apple is selling it separately – USB SuperDrive. $99.
Apple doesn’t think people will want it. It’s built to be a wireless machine. Apple offers all this stuff over the Internet, uses wireless devices.
10:17 am Apple wanted a special version of the Core 2 Duo in a 60% smaller processor package. Intel delivered it. Paul Otellini of Intel coming up to talk.
10:15 am How is a Mac fit in there? Battery, hard disk, and electronics. 1.8 drive inside. Same as in iPods. 80GB or 64GB Solid State Disk. Real magic is in electronics. Complete Mac fit into a slightly more than pencil-length board. No compromise on performance. Core 2 Duo. 1.6GHz standard, and option to 1.8GHz. See pictures on Flickr from iLounge.
10:14 am Lets you use all sorts of other gestures, like double-tap to select a window, pan around in image with two fingers, rotate photo with two-point finger rotation. Next photo is just three fingers, pan right or left. Use pinch commands for zoom.
10:11 am It looks like a super thin MacBook Pro. Full size black keyboard and display. Just imagine a MacBook Pro that has been flattened to the point you’d never believe possible. 13.3” widescreen, LED backlit, gorgeous, latched with a magnet. Built in iSight. Flip it down, keyboard is the best they’ve ever shipped, says Steve. It’s backlit, too. A very generous trackpad, with multi-touch gesture support.
10:08 am Apple thinks weight is right, but no other compromises are acceptable. Thinness of MacBook Pro is 0.76” tapered to 0.16”. It is thinner at is thickest than the thinnest part of the TZ series. Fits inside a manila envelope. He takes out a manila envelope.
10:08 am Number four. There’s something in the Air. What is it? As you know, Apple makes the best notebooks on the planet. Today, we’re introducing third kind of notebook. MacBook Air. What is it? The world’s thinnest notebook. They looked at all the thin notebooks – shows the Sony TZ. They’re not _that_ thin. They generally weigh 3 pounds, are .8 to 1.2 inches thin. They compromise on display to get to 11-12 inch display. And have miniature keyboards. And they’re typically 1.2 GHz Core 2 Duos.
10:07 am They developed the Digital Copy – a way to put their movies into a format you could download onto your iPod directly from a DVD. Family Guy Blue Harvest has the digital copy you can move into iTunes. No added price for the feature.
10:03 am Focused on business models of movies, he says it’s simple – make great movies and make it as widely available as you can. People want a lot of choice, easy access, convenience, portability – how where when they watch it. He thinks this will be a transformative version of the rental model. Fox also wants to work on DVDs because the next-gen format war is not resolved (but looks like Blu-Ray, he jokes).
10:00 am Price for Apple TV was $299. Make it more accessible. Starting in 2 weeks, it is $229. Free software upgrade and new $229 price in two weeks. The new iTunes rentals work on all current iPods, Apple TV, iPhone, and computer/iTunes. Apple really appreciates support of 20th Century Fox. Introducing Jim Gianopulos, CEO/Chairman of Fox.
9:59 am The interface for the iTunes Store via Apple TV is entirely redone, using similar elements without the wrapping of a web page or iTunes window. Free software upgrade to the new features.
9:58 am Flickr is live right from their server, can access people’s accounts, and even their friends. Unfortunately the flickr download glitches.
And it went totally black.
9:56 am Access photos and movies from .Mac accounts, as well as Flickr – all through widescreen TV.
9:54 am Movies, TV Shows, Music, Podcasts, Photos, YouTube, Settings on left pane, context-specific choices on the right pane. The pans are in a box that floats in front of whatever the prior screen’s graphics were, including multiple piece of album art, etc.
9:50 am Full DVD quality for standard videos, and HD quality for the $4.99 rentals. There is now a search feature so you can search the Store from the device. Very fast and has nice covers for the titles. New interface uses zoom-out effects and very image-heavy look. It’s a two-panes-of-text design from the main page, but when accessing the store it is very graphic-heavy, with lots of album and other cover art.
9:47 am The new interface is on our Flickr account. Sort of clean but simple look. Jobs uses Blades of Glory to preview it. One button to rent it. Confirm the rental, and it has a simple downloading process going. You can play as soon as the download starts, even as HD. Takes a second to start.
9:43 am All companies have all tried to figure out how to get movies over Internet and widescreen TV. All have missed. Apple tried with Apple TV. Designed to be an accessory for iTunes and your computer. Not what people wanted. People really wanted movies, movies, movies. So we’re back with Apple TV Take 2. No computer is required. Rent movies on Apple TV on widescreen TV in DVD quality or HD quality with Dolby 5.1. Can see podcasts, photos from Flickr and .Mac as well. Can buy TV shows and music directly from Apple TV. Will sync back to computer. HD quality rentals are $4.99 to rent. Entirely new user interface.
9:41 am See pictures on our Flickr account. So just to re-mention this to readers, iTunes gets videos 30 days after stores get them, and you have 24 hours of viewing. It launches today as a free software update for iTunes, iPods, and iPhones. U.S. starting today, international later this year. What about Apple TV?
9:40 am What’s the deal: Over 1000 movies on launch at end of February. 30 days after DVD release is when videos will show up. They can be watched on Macs, PCs, all current gen iPods and iPHone. Watch instantly after hitting rent – less than 30 seconds. Rules: you have 30 days to start watching, and can watch as many times as you want in 24 hours. You can transfer from one device to another in the middle of watching. To rent library titles, $2.99. New releases, $3.99.
9:37 am Today: iTunes Movie Rentals. People want to own music, but movies people watch once or a few times. Less expensive. New section of store – Harry Potter, Simpsons, Ocean 13. Touchstone, Miramax, MGM, New Line, Lions Gate. Fox, WB, Disney, Paramount, Universal, Sony. Every major studio is on board for iTunes Movie Rentals. All the great first-run films now out on DVD will be available. Also great backtitles.
9:35 am Number 3: iTunes. Four billion songs now sold as of last week. Christmas Day sold 20 million songs. 125 million TV shows. Way more than everyone else put together. 7 million movies. More than everyone else put together. That’s still below expectations.
9:34 am iPod touch can use maps via Skyhook Wireless’s wi-fi transmitters, doesn’t need GPS. iPod touch users need to pay $20 for the upgrade! New buyers get it for free.