Blogging from MacWorld – Steve Jobs Keynote

Notes from the press room – 4th row!

Time capsule – wireless router and server with hard drive for Time Machine
Airport express – 500 GB/$1000GB drive in Feb ($299/$399)
iPhone SDK in late Feb. for developers
iPhone sold 4 million units – 20% share in 1 qtr.
New iPhone apps – maps with location
Web clips let you pan and zoom a web page and make a button on iPhone menu page. Up to 9 menu pages fully configurable

iTunes
iTunes sold 4 billion songs, 20 million on Xmas day alone
Chapters, subtitles and languages in video + lyrics for music
125 million TV shows sold

New movie rentals
All major studios, 1,000 titles by Feb. Begin playing in less than 30 sec
Start watching within 30 days and then for 24 hours on any of your devices
Watch on computer, put on iPod and hit the airport
$2.99 for old movies, $3.99 for new releases 30 days after DVD release

Apple TV Take Two
Watch any iTunes content on TV without a computer, including podcasts, Flickr and .mac photos
One button rental from Apple TV Take 2
Lots of podcasts in HD
Go to your own or other people’s .mac photo albums with soundtrack or use as screensaver
Movies from .mac galleries may also be accessed from .mac
Recipient of this content doesn’t need a computer
Look at Flickr photos – even those of their contacts/friends
Free software upgrade in 2 weeks for existing Apple TV owners
Price drops from $299 to $229 in 2 weeks
20th Century Fox is putting a digital copy of their movies in their DVD packages.

MacBook Air
Fits in a manilla envelope – world’s thinnest notebook
13.3 inch backlit instant-on display with full size backlit keyboard and multi-touch gestures
Pinch, zoom, change images with the trackpad like the iPhone
Motherboard is smaller than a pencil
80GB 1.8″ HD standard. 60GB solid state HD as option
1.6 GHz Intel core duo standard – 1.8 option
$99 USB2 bus-powered optical drive
Install software wirelessly from another computer via remote desktop
iSight camera built-in, 2 GB RAM, plus MagSafe connector
Recyclable, toxin free aluminum
$1,799 – pre order today, available in 2 weeks

Apple reduces need for hard media with today’s Apple TV, iTunes and MacBook Air

Special musical guest – Randy Newman

Gary Stager

Veteran educator Gary Stager, Ph.D. is the author of Twenty Things to Do with a Computer – Forward 50, co-author of Invent To Learn — Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, publisher at Constructing Modern Knowledge Press, and the founder of the Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute. He led professional development in the world’s first 1:1 laptop schools thirty years ago and designed one of the oldest online graduate school programs. Gary is also the curator of The Seymour Papert archives at DailyPapert.com. Learn more about Gary here.