Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

Bandwidth is digital oxygen (Takes on today’s Stevenote from MacWorld08)

I followed the MacWorld “live blog “from Steve Job’s keynote (Stevenote) at MacWorld 2008 this morning, and I am quite enthused at the new offerings and opportunities Steve discussed.First response is clear and overwhelming: BANDWIDTH is like oxygen in the 21st century infoverse. Apple is now renting HD movies via iTunes. You can watch rented movies on your iPhone, iPod, computer, or newly updated (and cheaper at $229) AppleTV. The MacBook Air laptop does NOT have an optical drive– but free software is available that let’s you “borrow” the CD or DVD drive of other computers located on your network, whether they are running Mac OS X or Windows. Amazing. The common theme in all these announcements: Bandwidth is digital oxygen. That’s my phrase, not one I heard from Steve via the MacWorld blog or anywhere else. If you don’t have adequate bandwidth, you’re not capable of breathing in our digital infoverse. I like the breathing analogy, because it implies both inhalation and exhalation. Downstream and upstream. Our need for bandwidth isn’t just about consumption, although consumption is a huge need. It’s also about publishing, videoconferencing, collaborating– activities which all involve upstream data feeds.Got digital oxygen?There’s an interesting idea for a new bandwidth ad campaign.Here’s the summary paraphrase quotation from the end of Steve’s keynote, by the MacWorld staff:

It’s just the first two weeks of 2008: we’re going to review the products and innovations we’ve announced so far. Mac Pro, Time Capsule, iPhone software update and iPod touch update, iTunes Movie Rentals, and a completely reinvented Apple TV to order movies right on TV (standard or high def), plus the MacBook Air. All of this in the first two weeks, and we’ve got fifty more weeks to go.

As I mentioned in last night’s blog post, the #1 thing I’ve been hoping to hear about during MacWorld 2008 is a superthin, updated Macintosh laptop. And… I got my wish. The MacBook Air.Here’s a picture of Steve removing it from a manila envelope during the keynote today in SF. That’s right, a manila envelope:MacBook AirHere’s a picture of Steve holding it on stage. Amazing. I can’t wait to hold and use one in person!MacBook AirVital stats? About 3 pounds in total weight, 0.8-1.2 inches thin. Cost? $1799. Like the MacWorld staff, that’s closer to the MacBook Pro price than I wanted to see, but not out of the park. When you consider the new MacBook Air laptop and the XO Laptop coming out in the past 2 months, I’d say it’s been an AMAZING time for technological innovation.Of course the amazing part of the MacBook Air is miniaturization. Another quotation from the MacWorld live blog regarding the processor included in it:

The real magic is in the electronics. Complete Mac on a board: teeny-tiny. It’s about the length of a pencil. “Amazing feat of engineering. And we didn’t compromise on performance.” Core 2 Duo chip on the board at 1.6GHz standard with an option to go to 1.8GHz (wonder what the heat situation is like). They asked Intel to consider something: Apple wanted the chip, but needed the same die on a smaller package. So Intel engineered the same chip but made it 60% smaller.

I wonder who was doing the typing for this MacWorld live blog page? WOW they are fast, AND accurate. It would be interesting to know about their workflow, obviously multiple eyes and hands contributed to this live text feed.The iPhone updates sound exciting also, especially the Google Maps enhancements. I’m much more enthused about AppleTV2 this year than I was about the original version of AppleTV announced at MacWorld 2007 last year. As a device which can function as a standalone media player, it’s got great appeal.The final thing I’m stoked about is Time Capsule. I’ve been using an Airport Express as a home router and WiFi base station for several months, after our old Linksys 802.11b router kept giving us trouble and dropping the Internet connection. Now I have serious reasons to consider a Time Capsule: at $499 a 1 TB (yes that IS “terabyte”) remote backup hard drive integrated with a router and base station: “a full AirPort Extreme base station and a hard drive.” WOW.Wish I could have been there in person at Moscone to witness the excitement and announcements! Maybe next year. We’re living in dynamic and exciting times. Times where increasingly, for those connected to the digital infoverse, bandwidth is oxygen.Technorati Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , ,

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3 responses to “Bandwidth is digital oxygen (Takes on today’s Stevenote from MacWorld08)”

  1. Raj Avatar

    If bandwidth is oxygen, then storage must be food. “Digital Delight” if you will (it’s already bits and bytes), burned up by bandwidth that builds the digital body. Now what would be water – electricity?

  2. ahf Avatar
    ahf

    Hi Wes — I also followed the MacWorld live blog this morning. I’m even more interested in the new version of the iTouch now! Just wondering if it will do what I’m used to — plus photos, email & web. The music & movies aren’t important to me. Would I have to leave Eudora? You can give me a demo this weekend!
    🙂

  3. AllanahK Avatar

    I would be scared of getting a paper cut on the Mac Air!

    And I’ve got to get one of those wireless gizmos for Time Machine back up.

    We need the bandwidth to be wireless, fast and ubiquitous.