Monday, January 14, 2008

Apple to unveil new products at giant Macworld event

From the Free Press:

Last week, it was the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. This week, the big personal tech news event is the annual Macworld Show in San Francisco, where Apple is expected to unveil a new ultra-slim notebook and announce a new movie rental download service.

More than 50,000 people are expected to attend this year's event and Apple CEO Steve Jobs has a real challenge on his hands to match the news from last year's event, where he announced the revolutionary iPhone.

This year, the Apple rumor sites have been in full press mode talking about a new subcompact machine that is 50% thinner than current models. Internet rumor has it called the "MacBook Air," though Apple hasn't officially confirmed anything.

The other big Apple news expected is a deal with most of the major Hollywood studios to allow movie rentals from the iTunes Store. Apple has sold movies via the store for a long time and other firms already allow movies to be rented and downloaded to a PC so, in itself, this is no big deal. What gives it significance is the sheer size of the iTunes store and its more than 70 million users, almost all potential movie renters.

Similarly, no major announcements are anticipated for the iPhone at the show this year, although Jobs is expected to show off a software upgrade that will add some new features like multiparty texting and announce hardware improvements for later this year.

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