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OMG! It’s Steve Jobs!

John contended yesterday that Macworld was wasted on me, and I think he may be right.

Today I attended what is probably the biggest annual orgy of geekery, the Macworld keynote. For those who don’t know, this is the thing where Apple CEO/figurehead Steve Jobs comes out on stage and says what’s up and what’s new with Apple Inc. “Stevenotes“ have a built in element of overhype thanks to a few industry-shaking examples including the introductions of the original iMac and the iPod, Jobs’ “reality distortion field“ and the presence of about 10,000 of the company’s most devoted fans. It’s quite a production that gets people really excited about the company and its products.

Problem for me is, I’m not so into consumer electronics anymore and I generally try to avoid spending money. This morning’s primary news concerned a new ultra-thin laptop, the ability to rent movies via iTunes and the Apple TV set-top box, and some new features for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

All were pretty compelling. The iPhone is an awesome gadget that continues to improve with every revision, but I won’t give a moment’s thought to it as long as my employer pays for me to have a Blackberry. (If ATT wants to announce business contracts for the iPhone, that might change.) iTunes HD movie rentals from every major studio is more proof, as I heard someone say today, that the Red vs. Blu war is just “rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.” Congratulations Blu-Ray, you’ve cornered the player-piano-roll market. However, the price of Apple TV (before even renting one movie) would pay up my Netflix account through April of 2009, at which point we’ll all be watching movies on our retinas in 13958p or some shit.

The new laptop announced today, the Macbook Air looks to be a marvel of engineering. However I’m not sure where it fits. I wouldn’t want one for my only computer — it obviously has to compromise on processor and disk speed and storage capacity and we’re expected to have another computer from which to install software. Apple should have no problem selling plenty to gadget enthusiasts, but I don’t see it being one of their industry-changing products. I’m thinking more of the Cube or 12” PowerBook. Perhaps I’ll feel differently when I get my hands on one tomorrow.

So all that to say — Cool stuff, but I’m not spending any money on it, John is right. I did get to see Randy Neuman ramble like a crazy man for 10 minutes and sing “You Got a Friend in Me” though. Good times!