I’ve posted about this previous to Apple dropping the NDA for iPhone/iPod Touch app development and, as I stated, there is still more that Apple needs to do to keep developers from eventually shying away from developing for the platform. There are many, I am sure, that agree. One of those is John Gruber:

Here is a complete list of what Apple must do to increase developers’ trust in the App Store system:

1. State the rules.
2. Follow the rules.

That’s it.

That seems straightforward enough but I wonder if Apple will get it. There is a bunch of smart people (obviously!) working at 1, Infinite Loop. Time will tell, I suppose. It will be interesting, if Apple is, indeed, planning on further developing and streamlining it’s AppStore operation’s developer relations, to see what the timing will be like.

They could wait until Macworld to announce any changes. That would insure that everyone is in one place (at least in spirit) to hear the message. I wonder, though, if they should do it sooner.

The Health Act 2006 is an Act of Parliament that provides for a number of administrative changes in the National Health Service.

More significantly, the Act also introduced provisions for the creation of a ban on smoking in enclosed public places. This ban focuses on smoking:

- In places of work.
- In places that the public access to obtain goods and services, controversially including private clubs.
- In other places designated by Statutory Instrument.

The sections of the Act allowing a ban extend to England and Wales although the provisions implementing the ban will come into effect separately in England and Wales. In England the ban took effect on 1 July 2007. The ban in Wales came into effect on 2 April 2007. In Northern Ireland the ban took effect on 30 April 2007.

The Health Act also granted the Secretary of State to increase the age for purchasing tobacco from 16 to 18, coming into force on 1 October 2007.

Quem tiver um computador bom e uma ótima conexão pode ver a versão em HD (720) que a Apple colocou do Keynote da Macwold. Vale a pena ver como entregar um vídeo em HD pela internet. Sorry locadoras e talvez TV…

原本約 90 分鐘的 keynote 被壓縮至 60 秒，當然只有一些重點而已，非常適合一些 不想浪費 90 分鐘時間 忙得不可開交的人。

Well now that my holiday vacation is officially over, it is time to get back to work my friends. I really like what Apple is doing with the Macbook Air product. I am sure that the movie and music industries will love it because it prevents the ripping of DVDs and CDs. The Macbook Air has been…

read more | digg story

If you are a geek, you have heard about Apple’s new Macbook air. Essentially, Apple got Intel to make them a much smaller package for their Core processors, made a really small motherboard, used an ipod hard drive, included just about nothing else, and came up with the Macbook air. It is the thinnest laptop, just about ever… but its not small.

The Macbook air is about three pounds, has a 13 inch screen, in the size of a 14 inch laptop. Not to mention, I had a 1 inch thick Sony VAIO 505 laptop almost a decade ago which was… wait for it… 3 lbs. 233 mhz Pentium II baby!

What is different about the new Macbook air, is that it thinner, and by every other dimension, bigger.

I don’t get it. Sure its thin, but it does not really provide anything else new or interesting. Its not really all that light, its not really all that good looking, and its not even small. Whats up with that bezel? You could fit another inch or so of screen real estate easily in that form factor!

So what does being thinner give you? Nothing really. I havent looked at a single Apple laptop in the last generation and thought to myself, wow thats great, but can you make it thinner? Nope. I have thought…

1. Can you make it faster?
2. Can you give me better battery life?
3. Can you make it more durable?
4. Can you make it smaller?

I have not thought, can you make it thinner, at the expense of everything else?

Apple, enough with the bling, give me a 12-13 inch macbook pro. The single coolest laptop you ever made was the 12inch powerbook g4. It was perfectly sized, durable, sexy, light, and thin enough.

If you are looking for an ultra portable notebook, go take a look at the Sony TZ.

Its smaller, lighter, gets stellar battery life, and is fast enough. If you are looking at the Macbook air over the Macbook Pro, then the TZ is fast enough for you. Hey, it has built in 3g wireless too!

Or, even better, if you are looking for a 13 inch apple… get a Macbook. More power, half the money, just as portable in my opinion… just less bling… which to me means less pretentious. A Macbook is only 1.08 inches thick anyway. I would also be willing to bet the polycarbonate case is going to be more durable over time.

-The Digital Kitty

On Tuesday January 15th Steve Jobs took the stage and in true form drew a road map for the next several months for Apple consumers. The whole Apple blogosphere has recapped this in great detail, but in short order here are the keynote highlights.

• Time Capsule: Full Airport Extreme base station with either a 500gb or 1 terabyte drive.
• iPhone: Updated software, maps with location, multiple SMS recipients, customization and web clips. iPod Touch: also gets 5 new pieces of software —maps, notes, stocks, mail and ical.

• iTunes: Movie Rentals and the introduction of the Apple TV – Take Two
• Macbook Air: Amazingly thin and light laptop relying heavily on WiFi [fits in a manila envelope]

If you want to see the essence of the keynote is 60 seconds just click here.

While most of these things were hoped for and anticipated, to some degree there was a since of let down in the post keynote interviews. Not that the announcements were bad, simply that they didn’t jibe with the interviewee’s particular dream of what was to come. There are two reasons for this.

• It’s getting harder for Apple to ascend the mountain they’ve set out to climb. To be the dominant player in media delivery is no small task and it is clear from watching the iTunes store that Aplle wants to be the place you consume entertainment. Mountain climbing is always hard work.

• The second reason is that Apple cannot simply give us a few more or few less pounds of technology. The needs of the consumer must come at the expense of Apple’s vision for the future. So you want a lighter laptop; let us build you one that is within our corporate vision. Every smart business does this. Design isn’t chopped liver because chopped liver is always a side dish.

What is most interesting are the things Apple didn’t announce on January 15th 2008. At the end of the keynote Steve recapped what they had announced in the first two weeks of 2008 and then said “that gives 50 more weeks” which is code for; there is a lot more to come. Let’s speculate for a moment.

The Macbook Air is 1799.00 weighs 3 lbs has two gigs of ram an 80 gig hard disk and is the greenest laptop Apple has ever produced. The Air is really nice, wrapped in a aluminum skin and as stylish as any laptop ever produced. But what else can you get for 1799.00? A very capable black Macbook, with better specs in some areas and only two pounds heavier. True the Macbook doesn’t have the same “green” build or the design cachet as the Air but feature wise it’s just about on par. The question becomes is there enough difference to the buyer. Is there an Air consumer out there that is not being served? Time will tell.

What I find more intriguing is what Apple may have around the corner hence the reason for this post. If you are a laptop buyer it might be worth considering what Apple could announce in those “50 more weeks”.

2 βίντεο από την παρουσίαση του macbook air από τον Steve Jobs στο macworld 2008!

Το laptop είναι απίστευτο! Μόλις 1.3 κιλά βάρος, υπερβολικά λεπτή σχεδίαση και με τιμή αρκετά ελκυστική σε σχέση με άλλα ultra portable laptops (Στην αμερική τουλάχιστον, γιατί στην ελλάδα η rainbow θεωρεί ότι πρέπει να πληρώνουμε 1.5 φορά την αξία του προιόντος, αλλά αυτό είναι θέμα για άλλο post..)

Θα το παίρνα ευχαρίστως αλλά ο macbook μου έχει ακόμα καιρό για να παλιώσει

La novità pazzesca del MacWorld è, senza ombra di dubbio, il nuovissimo e bellissimo MacBook Air. Ma se sul fatto che sia la novità pazzesca non ci sono dubbi, sulle sue funzionalità ve ne sono parecchie.

Infatti oltre ad essere il portatile più leggero e più piccolo, a dette di Apple ben inteso, presenta delle lacune non trascurabili per la nostra epoca. Il MacBook Air è stato pensato per ambienti dove le reti wireless sono presenti dappertutto e dove la gente non necessita di CD/DVD per istallare programmi e, cosa ancora più assurda, si accontenta di una porta USB…

Inutile dirvi quanto mi ha deluso questo gigantesco passo avanti di Apple poiché non ha senso creare un portatile superportatile se poi bisogna, tramite una sola presa USB, collegarci un mucchio di cose.

Ma ora diamo un’occhiata alle specifiche tecniche:

• Altezza: 0,4-1,94 cm
• Larghezza: 32,5 cm
• Profondità: 22,7 cm
• Peso: 1,36 kg
• Processore Intel Core 2 Duo con 4MB di cache L2 su chip condivisa che opera alla velocità del processore. Da 1,6 a 1,8 GHz
• Bus frontside a 800MHz
• 2GB di SDRAM DDR2 a 667MHz su scheda
• Disco rigido Parallel ATA da 80GB a 4200 giri/min
• Disco rigido a stato solido da 64GB opzionale
• MacBook Air SuperDrive USB esterna opzionale
• Uscita audio analogico/cuffie (minijack)
• Altoparlante mono integrato
• Microfono omnidirezionale integrato
• Batteria ai polimeri di litio da 37 watt/ora integrata
• 5 ore di autonomia Wireless
• Alimentatore MagSafe da 45W dotato di sistema per la gestione del cavo
• Porta per alimentatore MagSafe

Che dire, questa volta Apple ha deluso quelli che preferiscono la produttività al design; certo un design accattivante fa sempre effetto ma non poter fare subito quello che si vuole non è di certo una cosa bella. Speriamo che Apple ritorni sulla buona strada che aveva costruito fino a poco tempo fa.

Altre info sul prodotto qui.

Ao que parece, o Macbook Air é, ao peso, mais barato do que caviar…

Tive oportunidade de experimentar o novo Macbook Air (que já está disponível para encomenda na loja portuguesa da Apple).

É, de facto, ultra-fino e leve o bastante (embora haja opções mais leves no mercado) para ser uma boa solução para quem procura portabilidade – embora muitos, provavelmente, gostariam de ver um monitor de apenas 12 polegadas.

O touchpad que permite vários gestos à la iPhone (ampliar e rodar imagens, por exemplo) dificilmente será uma característica determinante na altura de decidir a compra. Parece-me que o uso é limitado e as vantagens (permite poupar tempo, argumentou Steve Jobs na apresentação de ontem) discutíveis.

O produto é inovador o suficiente para apelar a alguns utilizadores. E o design extremamente elegante seguramente apela aos fãs incondicionais da Apple, para quem a estética é, habitualmente, um factor importante.

Mas, com a ausência de uma bateria amovível, de uma entrada para cabo de rede e com apenas uma entrada USB, as limitações são significativas. Posto de forma simples, os utilizadores do antigo Powerbook de 12 polegadas, que esperavam poder substituir o portátil na sequência desta Macworld, não têm muitas razões para alinhar no Air, que é significativamente mais caro que os Macbook.

Com o negócio da Apple cada vez mais focado na combinação iPod/iTunes (algo que o anúncio do sistema de aluguer de filmes só vem reforçar), este Macbook Air parece ter sido a estratégia encontrada para evitar uma segunda Macworld consecutiva sem apresentar um novo Mac.

Em S. Francisco, a tecnologia parece ser levada muito a sério (há, pelo menos, três dias que a Macworld vem na capa dos jornais locais). Ontem era frequente ouvir de passagem conversas nas ruas sobre os anúncios da Macworld. A maioria das pessoas parecia bem informada, debitando, por exemplo, as características técnicas do novo Macbook Air.

Uma das frases mais curiosas, contudo, ouvi-a numa conversa que tive com um produtor musical, chamado Joseph Ross: “Aqui em S. Francisco não usamos muito PC. Deixamos os PC para Seattle [uma alusão à Microsoft]“.

Steve Jobs ha presentado en conferencia Macbook Air la portatil mas delgada del mundo

Estara disponible en Febrero 2008

Especificaciones

Per tutti gli interessati, il keynote del MacWorld 2008 è disponibile sul sito della Apple

Steve Jobs illustra tutte le novità della Apple, tra cui l’ormai famoso MacBook Air.

Buona visione!

O que parecia impossível de acontecer aconteceu. Um dia após Steve Jobs anunciar os novos lançamentos da Apple, na Macworld 2008, as ações da empresa despencaram mais de 5% no pregão eletrônico Nasdaq. Parte disso se deve às quedas nas bolsas de Nova Iorque (Dow Jones) e da própria Nasdaq, o que cria um ambiente de desconfiança econômica, fazendo com que os investidores prefiram resgatar seus investimentos a investir.

Além disso, parece que os investidores esperavam lançamentos mais grandiosos e, pelo que tudo indica, o keynote do CEO da Apple não agradou muito. Também, depois de um ano como 2007, cheio de grandes lançamentos, como a nova linha Mac, o iPhone e o Leopard, é difícil pensar que 2008 será tão “recheado” de novidades.

Mas, como estamos falando da Apple e Steve Jobs, tentar prever o que acontecerá é muita presunção.

Fonte: IDG Now!