The Tech Attorney Blog by Adam S. Feinsilver, Esquire

Where Techies, Business & the Law Converge…Or Clash

With the stock price up and expectations high, Steve Jobs walked onto the stage to announce “something is in the air” today. With one window open on Macrumors.com, another on Engadget and a third on Geekbrief.tv, I had my hopes up high for several eagerly-anticipated announcements. Unfortunately, coveritlive.com wasn’t quite able to to let Cali Lewis…cover it…live, but I stuck in there and kept trying to see if the blogging would happen. Nonetheless, the show went on.

Apple’s magic lies in its ability to turn geeky new technology into exciting and attractive hardware that works very well. A magical company has a big problem when it forgets to bring enough fairy dust to its keynotes. Today, even with a room full of happy thoughts, nothing really was able to fly. Let’s run through the “big four” announcements.

First we had Time Capsule, a fusion of an external backup drive and an 802.11n base station (router). At first glance, this may not have much glowy-aura, but it has plenty of practicality. I can see the infomercial now…”At a dollar-short of $300, you can have your very own 500GB Time Capsule. But wait! For just $499, you can have 1TB Time Capsule…and if you call NOW, you’ll also get…” told that the product won’t ship until February? Huh? Nonetheless, without getting into the the security of your backed-up data, this is an intelligent, easy way to back up all of your Macs simultaneously and wirelessly 24/7. What happens if that drive fails? You have a meltdown and wonder why you didn’t go with Drobo.

Second, we learned about the new features in the iPhone and iPod touch software update. News about new features has been leaking for a while. The free iPhone upgrade includes an ability to find your location automatically with a Maps upgrade; the option to text multiple people with a single message; “Web Clips” bookmarks for websites; home screen customization (a la “background”); and the ability to watch movies from a new iTunes Movie Rentals. The iPod Touch update adds Mail, Maps, Stocks, Weather, and Notes, the new Web Clips feature, home screen customization, and iTunes Movie Rentals playback. Of course, you’ll want these cool updates, so you’re a soft target if you’re an iPhone Touch owner. Unlike the iPhone update, Apple hits you up for $19.99 (can’t we say $20?) for the update. So, now Apple has a third revenue stream from iPod owners (movies, music AND updates!).

Third on the Jobs list was the iTunes Movie Rentals and the AppleTV software update. Here’s where Apple goes all-Microsoft on us. iTunes now offers movie rentals. The catch, or should we say catches, are: old movies are $2.99; new movies are $3.99, but aren’t new since they follow the DVD releases by 30 days; Hi-Def movies are $4.99; and movies expire the earlier of 24 hours after you start watching them or 30 days (sounding like a contract yet?). As a techie, the 24 hour time-bomb seemed ridiculous, but I ran it by my non-techie wife who would love an easy way to rent movies. The 24-hour stress was enough to even get her riled up. She had a story about never making it through a movie in 24 hours with her friends, but just that part was enough to make me realize that it’s not just “me.” We rarely get through a movie in 24 hours these days! Apple’s servers shouldn’t be overloaded with “new” movies since people who are anxious to see a new release will get it from Netflix, Blockbuster, or some other, more nefarious means. However, it will be interesting to see what kind of luck people have with streaming HD content over “DSL light” or its equivalent.

That brings me to the AppleTV update. Bigger Hard Drive? No. Internal DVD player? No. This is a software update only. So, maybe Apple has given us something else that we’ve been asking for? Maybe it’s given us what we’ve held off buying the AppleTV for (you know…more codec compatibility so we don’t have to convert all of our files or do an SSH login and hack the box in hopes of getting DivX, XviD, AVI, or even DVD images to work). Nope! Instead, now you can use AppleTV without a computer! “So what?” you ask? Exactly the point. That’s not what we needed. It’s not what we care about. You’ve made a great pitch for going with an XBox 360, Apple! It plays DivX, XviD, DVDs and games. With the 360 and Zune updates we’ve seen lately, Microsoft appears to be delivering just what consumers want. Remember when Apple had that focus?

Finally, we’re at number four. It’s almost like there was some kind of Freaky Friday thing happening at D5 conference. Microsoft is thinking about the “feel” of its products while Apple is working on engineering feats. Macbook Air is that device that everyone knew was coming. It’s the thinnest laptop alive! Now, that’s really cool! We’ll all love to see it. Then we can walk away thinking “hmphhh….for $1800, I only get a 13.3 inch screen? I can’t burn DVDs on it? It’s only 1.6GHz?” Well, you can access a DVD or CD player on a “[n]earby Mac or Windows PC. It’s perfect for installing software and retrieving files” (quoted from Apple’s website). Wow! So now, instead of having an internal DVD drive or using an external drive, Apple suggests using a whole second computer! Now, that’s brilliant…isn’t it? I’ll be able to stick my new, ultra portable laptop in my inter-office envelope so that my hands are free to lug along another computer! Why am I thinking “Sega 32X…PC Jr….Sinclair 1000? The one big feature on this machine is the multi-touch trackpad. Isn’t it a little strange that Apple didn’t put multi-touch on the other MacBooks today? This Apple is all about the green.

It’s almost insulting. We’re being asked to drink the Apple juice once again. Obviously, multi-touch is coming to at least the MacBook Pro line. It’s been a given since the iPhone appeared. Since the the MacBook Air is way too overpriced for the screen size and lack of power (not to mention convenience), we’ll have to wait even longer to buy that new laptop. The techies will know not to go near a MacBook Pro until multi-touch shows up. The people who do buy them will feel like they were fooled by the Old Hag. Maybe Prince Charming will pull another $100 gift card out of the Apple shopping bag so that buyers can put it toward an external trackpad with multi-touch capability. Caveat emptor.

Yes, something was indeed in the air today. However, by the end of the much-anticipated keynote, we learned that it was just a little Apple-flatulence and the air of 4,000 bursted bubbles. As someone who usually likes Apple products, I’m very disappointed with what we’re seeing. Remember how fast Sony fell from grace? A company’s complacency can be its competitor’s greatest asset.

Filed under: Tech Tips