Yesterday, apart from the MacBook Air and the Time Capsule, Apple announced a bunch of other interesting things, and one of them is the fact that iTunes will allow you to rent movies, from now on. If this is going to be a market hit or not, that's what remains to be seen, but let's check the facts for a while, shall we?

Together with the ability to rent movies, iTunes also has the iTunes Digital Copy feature now. Let's take them one by one...

First, last year we kept hearing rumors or more than just rumors about Apple's talks to various movie studios, we also found out about agreements signed, but we all expected to see the movies for rental, and nothing more. Well, first of all, standard-definition movies can be found on the iTunes Store, at $3.99 for new releases, and $2.99 - library titles. For these prices, you can rent the movie and you have 30 days available to start watching it. Unfortunately, once you hit Play, you'll have to view the entire movie in the next 24 hours, but you can also watch it as many times it is possible, in those 24 hours available...

Leaving rental aside, you can also buy DVDs, but you get a little extra - an iTunes Digital Copy, so once you feed your computer with the new DVD, the movie goes right into your iTunes library. Pretty cool, don't you think?

More details about all the new stuff in iTunes can be found, as expected, on the official page, here.

Oh, my! It happened! Just like last year, Steve Jobs had a very interesting presentation in the opening day of the MacWorld Expo, and... no, "interesting" is not right. For me, last year's keynote was interesting, because this year's is much more. While the iPhone wasn't quite the best mobile in the world at that time, it managed to set a trend, and now, we got something that really takes your breath away: the MacBook Air, the thinnest laptop in the world!


Before getting to the Air, I have to tell you some of the more important things Steve revealed to the public, such as iPhone sales. According to Apple's CEO, they have sold 4 million iPhones so far, which means about 20,000 daily. Not bad at all, I must say, not bad at all! In the US, the iPhone "garnered almost 20 percent marketshare of smartphone market", according to Jobs(nice one, saying "20 percent of the smartphone market", and not "x percent of the mobile phone market"-that would have been more interesting to know, but I am sure it's no secret, but we'll leave it aside for now).


I'll leave "Apple TV take 2"(another big thing announced by Steve Jobs in his keynote) aside now, and get straight to what gave me a big headache today - the MacBook Air. Why? Because I love it already and I couldn't stop staring at it, without any brilliant thought on what to write about it, that's why! I don't have plans on buying one anytime soon, but the MacBook Air looks great, and I will only say a few things about it...

Pricing starts at $1799, it doesn't have an optical drive, comes with the advanced WiFi 802.11n and BlueTooth 2.1, a custom-made tiny Intel Core 2 Duo CPU at 1.6 or 1.8GHz, and its battery life is estimated to 5 hours. As you can see above, the keyboard is a full-size one, as well as the trackpad. The 13.3" widescreen display and the iSight should also sound great, but best of all - it's only 0.4-1.94 cm thin, with a weight of less than 1.5kg!


Since I could write about this new laptop until next morning, I will stop here. After all, the official page is already up, as you probably expected already, so feel free to visit it and share your opinion with us. What do you think - there's already a winner in the "best laptop of 2008" category, or we have to wait and see?

Finally, the day we've been waiting for since last year's MacWorld closed its doors has come: MacWorld 2008 is on! Online media registration is closed, but qualified press can still apply for a media badge onsite, in Moscone Center's South hall, from 8AM to 6PM on Monday, and 7AM to 6PM on Tuesday, as well as during show hours, until the 18th of January. Anyway, leaving this aside, I have some interesting news for everyone...

Obviously, the thing we're all waiting for is the keynote speech held by Steve Jobs. While the keynote is only open to a handful of people, we'll all get to see it, sooner or later. If you are curious about the timing, the keynote is scheduled to take place between 9AM and 10:30AM, on the 15th of January, as originally announced, of course.

Leaving Apple aside, MacWorld is going to have more than 450 companies presenting, and over 100 of them are showing their products at this event for the first time, so let's check a few of the future highlights, shall we?

A few of the "big ones" are Samsung, introducing XL30, the world’s first 30-inch LED backlit monitor(find them at Booth# S-1237), NEC, with its high-end 30-inch MultiSync LCD3090WQXi wide-screen display, and many more. Stay with us in the next few days, and we'll try to tell you about as many of the new products at MacWorld Expo as possible!

I don't know if Steve Jobs likes Abba so much, but the headline of this year's MacWorld seems to have been taken from their song, "Fernando" - "There's something in the air". For now, we have to accept the fact that Apple's ground breaking news regarding new and updated products are floating around like an UFO, and the secrets will all be revealed in just two days...

Why "two days", when the MacWorld starts tomorrow? Well, since Steve Jobs gives his keynote speech on the 15th of January, it's obvious nobody will spoil the surprises kept in its hat by Apple's CEO... but we can talk about rumors without any problem, after all. What kind of rumors? I told you about some expected products yesterday, so I won't repeat that again.

Other than that, there's not much to say. Just watch that clock ticking, and prepare for "something". My heart already starts pumping faster, and my head is full of possible events... Maybe a new iPhone? A completely new PMP(that would be nice, I am not really crazy about the iPod Touch)? A new line of Mac Books? It all remains to be seen, in just a matter of hours now...

All those Apple-addicts out there, enjoy tomorrow's peace as much as you can, because the day after tomorrow, 2008's MacWorld Conference takes off, while the Expo will open one day later, on the 15th. Since this event always gets huge press coverage, and Apple takes full advantage of this fact, sometimes setting the trend for the entire industry in the year that starts, I'll take my time and share a few of my thoughts with you...

First thing to expect, at this year's MacWorld, is a new line of laptops coming from Apple. Why? The reason is extremely simple - since Apple just introduced a new (and impressive, I must add) Mac Pro, it's obvious they will also use Intel's new 45nm processors for their notebooks, and they couldn't time this launch better...if it is going to happen as I think, that is.

Updates to other software and hardware products from Apple should also be on the list, and I don't have to give you details on "why". "What"...well, that's the part that remains to be seen, but I wouldn't be surprised to see iPhone 2.0 and a new version of iTunes released next week...

At last, leaving all the surprises that may come from other producers than Apple, expect the unexpected from Steve Jobs' company, and that's it... We'll see in just a couple of days what happens, so stay tuned!