Speculators believe the biggest point to be made at this event is that Apple will significantly lower its prices on all MacBook models. Apple is expected to revamp its entire notebook line at this notebook-only event, as all MacBooks models are due for an upgrade. The MacBook and MacBook Pro lines were last updated last February with Penryn processors and a multi-touch trackpad to the MacBook Pro. The MacBook Air was first introduced last January at Macworld Expo 2008 at a very high price-point. Apple is known for introducing first-generation products at a very high price point, then making significant price cuts on the next generation.

Apple has lately been straying from using plastic in its products and moving to more environmentally-friendly and high-grade materials, such as aluminum and glass. The MacBook is the last major Apple product line that has yet to transition away from plastic and this event will likely be the event where this transition will be made. If the MacBook models are to transition to an aluminum enclosure, the MacBooks will look simply appear as a smaller MacBook Pro. For this reason, Apple could consolidate the MacBook Pro and MacBook lines into one singular “MacBook” line with different models with varying screen sizes and internal configurations.

BYOKMD doesn’t work for low-budget consumers

The Mac Mini hasn’t been a great success in large part because of Apple’s flawed Mac Mini strategy. Yesterday, Steve discussed Apple’s philosophy on consumer products, he said,”It’s an All-in-One World”. But the Mac Mini is the farthest thing from an all-in-one machine. Most low-budgeted consumers don’t already have a display and/or peripherals. So, when checking out the Mac Mini, they don’t understand the Mac Mini’s lack of a display, mouse, or keyboard; and they ultimately look to alternatives because of this. The Mac Mini doesn’t offer everything out of the box, and that turns off many low-budget consumers.

Additionally, customers realize that the price of a Mac Mini with a display, mouse, and keyboard would be around the same price as a MacBook or an iMac.

AppleTV is replacing the Mac Mini as the affordable media center solution

Initially, many Mac Mini users were using their Mac Mini as a home media center. And now, Apple’s cutting into it’s own marketshare, since the AppleTV has replaced the Mac Mini as the preferred Apple media center for half the price. This effect will only snowball as the AppleTV gains more functionality and popularity.

$599 > $499

When the Mac Mini was unveiled, Apple was getting a lot of positive feedback for finally offering a budget-driven Macintosh for only $499. But Apple quietly increased that price $100 for each model on the February 28th special event in 2006 and has yet to lower the models back to their original prices, while other PC manufacturers have continued to lower their prices. That extra $100 makes a big difference for a lot of people, especially when the consumer has to buy a separate mouse, keyboard, and display in order to use the computer.

A proven failure

Right now, the Mac Mini seems to be going through the “Cube effect”. Two Apple-related products, the NeXT Cube and the PowerMac G4 Cube, were both discontinued due to their high price-points and lack of necessary peripherals. Those two products also didn’t survive because consumers prefer functionality over design. And unfortunately, it looks as if the Mac Mini is already on the way to suffering the same fate if Apple doesn’t do anything about it.

How Apple can save the Mac Mini

The Mac Mini’s price-point aren’t targeted toward a big consumer audience. It’s awkwardly priced too high for low-end consumers, and it doesn’t offer some of the features high-end consumers want that can’t afford a Mac Pro and already have a display. Apple could either go two directions with the Mac Mini, lower its value and cater to the really low-end consumer; or bump up its graphics and processing capabilities and cater to a higher-level consumer audience that already have a display. Either way, the Mac Mini would finally be saved from its unfortunate fate and finally have a respectable place in Apple’s product line.

The 1.83 GHz combo drive model is available for $599 and the 2.0GHz superdrive model is available for $799. Each models have standard 1GB RAM, and the 1.8 GHz model has a 80GB HD while the 2.0 GHz model has a 120GB HD.

The new aluminum keyboards are also available for $79 for the wireless model and $49 for the wired model. Apple has discontinued the full wireless keyboard, replacing it with a wireless MacBook-sized keyboard. The decision has already brought on a lot of harsh criticism from bloggers and reviewers who miss the full-sized wireless keyboard.

Today Apple released a new generation of iMacs that sport an exciting new design, with glass and aluminum as the primary case materials.

The new iMac models are much slimmer, have a glossy glass screen and an aluminum casing similar to previous rumors.

The iMac also comes with the new slim keyboard that was leaked on gadget websites a few weeks ago, with new button functions and low-profile keys.

The new iMacs are available at $1,199 for the 20-inch, $1,499 for the 20-inch with a processor and graphics upgrade, and $1,799 for the 24-inch iMac.

The floodgates of Apple’s R&D departments flew upon us today and shocked us all. The buzz and publicity the keynote has attracted has made both geeks and consumers froth with excitement and made the Intel transition sound unimportant.

Evolving into a consumer electronics company

Today Steve Jobs introduced the new corporate name for Apple Computer; “Apple”. Onstage Steve concluded that Apple is no longer just a computer company with the assortment of non-computer products that they sell.

Steve also made it clear once onstage that the keynote was not going to be centered around Macs and Mac OS X. That meant the rumors concerning iLife/iWork ‘07, additional Leopard previews, octo-core Mac Pros, Intel Core 2 Mac Minis, etc. did not come true. Alex Lindsay of MacBreak made an interesting point that

1. Apple did not have enough time to release all products expected to be released in an (already extended) two-hour keynote.
2. Apple wanted to make clear that the iPhone was the big announcement and not for it to be clouded by additional product announcements concerning Mac and Mac OS X. (Such as the ROKR and iPod Nano Keynote).

And as Apple is spreading its focus across the consumer electronics industry, it now has new competetives it never had before, such as Palm and RIM. Apple’s strong foundation with a large user-base and a strong will for innovation, they should have no problem.

More Mac-related product announcements soon?

Even though Steve said he wasn’t going to talk much about the Mac platform today, chances are the traditional announcements won’t go forgotten and they will introduced a few weeks from now after the buzz over the iPhone and AppleTV settle. However, it appeared as if the demo Mac was running a newer version of Keynote with new text effects, including spark and the ‘pass-through’ effects, and new graph gradient textures.

The iPhone is the iPod Killer

Whoever thought the iPod killer would be a product made by the company who made the iPod? Steve made it clear the Zune sure wasn’t going to be the iPod killer, as some thought when they heard of the Zune. But today’s iPhone announcement ended up embarrassing Microsoft and its Zune player and just shows how Microsoft is always a copier and never an innovator.

The Consumer Electronics Show and Macworld Conference & Expo coincided today. However, even with CES’ large popularity and publicity, most of the news from today’s CES news coverage was overshadowed with the revolutionary announcements in San Francisco today at Macworld.

I talked to people here who have seen the Apple phone and they were practically frothing with excitement. But even if it were more reasonably priced, it will be primarily attractive to early adopters and those who either have to replace their existing phone or whose cellular contract is up.

An iPhone without a phone?

The downside to the mobile phone market is becoming compliant with each independent wireless provider and saturating each wireless provider’s market share. While I wasn’t surprised at all, I was disappointed that Apple chose not to partner with Verizon and Sprint to captivate more potential buyers who are already in contracts with other wireless carriers. Even if Apple gains serious market share in Cingular’s product line, it will still not make a major impact in the overall market because of the large percentage of consumers in the United States who are customers of other wireless providers, such as Verizon and Sprint.

Besides, an iPhone without the phone would be successful by itself, with built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Multi-Touch widescreen, and OS X-based. It would be very disappointing if Apple were not to eventually develop a similar product just as an iPod. People who are loyal customers to other wireless carriers and who don’t really need a phone won’t buy an iPhone, so a large market would be left untapped.

A stronger foothold in the movie industry

With addition to each of the exciting product releases, Apple has made partnership with Paramount pictures to provide over a hundred movies available on iTunes, growing the content available on the iTunes Movie store dramatically and becoming a leader in the downloadable movie industry. Paramount pictures is the second major studio to partner with Apple to sell downloadable versions of their movies. Paramount is a big studio to partner with, and it will sure trigger many more partnerships with other major movie studios.

The AppleTV will revolutionize the way many get their movie content, instead of paying subscription-based services or renting movies at their local Blockbuster, they instead just decide what they want on the couch and buy it through the iTunes store.

Partnership with Apple Corps.?

Steve seemed to really push the Beatles today, playing ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ and a few other Beatles hits during the keynote. I doubt he would be promoting music that they do not currently sell on the iTunes store during the Macworld keynote, so chances of a new Apple Corps. partnership would be very likely considering the facts.

Also, the shedding of the term ‘Computer’ from Apple’s corporate name is symbolic not only of their new strides in consumer electronic innovations, but also the end to their disputes with Apple Corps. While we may not ever understand the complete details of what went on after their last settlement, but it looks as if their bruised relationship is beginning to heal.

Lately, Apple has been working on getting rid of the reasons and excuses possible switchers have when they are undecided on getting a Mac or a PC. From that transition to Intel processors and the ability for Macs to run the Windows OS, to their focus by lowering prices significantly on Mac and iPod product lines, Apple has done a great job lately on getting rid of the excuses for not getting a Mac vs. a PC.

The WWDC 2006 Keynote featured the first product-to-product comparison of an Apple product to a Dell product with similar specifications. While many features don’t make it to the spec-list, the new Mac Pro beat out the Dell by a $1,000 price difference and significant hardware advantages, not to mention millions of software advantages that come bundled with every Mac.

The other day Apple introduced new revisions to every iPod model, and at the same time, shocked everyone (including Microsoft) with their new price-points. It is now possible to fit 7,500 songs in your pocket for only $249. Compare that price (as well as the size difference) to the original iPod 5GB price of $399. Also note that Steve mentioned in his keynote on Tuesday that Apple will soon introduce a new 1GB Nano for only $79.

It seems as if Apple is going to be working hard on lowering the prices on all of their product lines, from Macs to iPods to other Apple-branded peripherals. In my opinion, a $749-$899 MacBook would really influence the amount of switchers and ultimately Apple’s overall market share. I can’t wait for the day when you can get fully-functional MacBook for only $549 (hence the picture), but I doubt that day will come anytime soon. But now that Apple has admitted that they are working on making their models more competitive, I’m sure that they are doing all that they can to lower the prices of their products and at the same time keep the same awesome Mac-user experience.

The new mouse uses laser tracking and comes with 2 AA batteries and there is word of the new mouse being able to run on 1 AA if needed, so what does this do for battery life?

Visit http://www.apple.com/mightymouse/ to learn more.

I ordered the case through Marware’s online shop (which happens to be built with WebObjects) and got it a couple days later. I have been using the protection pack from Marware for over a week, and I must say I’m very happy with the protection and comfort Marware’s product.

The PVC leather handrest cover was a pain to get on perfectly, but because the cover is restickable, I didn’t have to worry about messing up. After I placed the cover on, there were no bubbles due to the cover’s thick layer. I immediately noticed the difference when I started typing with the new cover. The cover makes typing much more comfortable compared to the aluminum, when your hands get sweaty and sticky to the metal. Marware has also made sure that the cover is designed to not interfere when closing the laptop. My only concern with the handrest cover is the Marware logo placed right under the trackpad. It really doesn’t bother me, but it may annoy other MacBook Pro users.

Marware’s protection pack also includes a keyboard cover to protect your keyboard and to be used as a lint-free cloth to clean the MacBook Pro’s LCD screen. Although, I am somewhat disappointed in the cover. It barely covers the keyboard, it has no way to stay on the keyboard, and it obviously doesn’t protect your keyboard from liquid spills because it is made of cloth. But on the other hand, the keyboard cover is a good cloth to use to clean the LCD screen. But if you are looking for a keyboard cover, the Marware protection pack is not for you.

And the best thing about Marware’s protection pack is its price. The MacBook Pro protection pack is available at $19.95 for both the 15-inch and the 17-inch models. Marware also makes protection packs for both black and white MacBooks, which could protect the MacBook’s plastic from discoloration and other wear marks. In addition, Powerbook and iBook users can also order protection packs for the same price.

BitPim saved my LG VX8300 and me from Verizon’s crippled OBEX. BitPim doesn’t exactly have an iApp interface, but it does have potential. Setting up my phone on BitPim wasn’t necessarily “simple”, but it was possible. Here are the steps I took to pair the phone and my Mac with BitPim via Bluetooth:

1. Check to see if your phone is compatible with BitPim.
2. Open the Bluetooth preference pane in System Preferences.
3. Turn on Bluetooh.
4. Click “Set up new device…” in the Devices tab.
5. Walk through the Bluetooth Setup Assistant and pair the phone with your Bluetooth-capable Mac.
6. Download the latest version of BitPim.
7. Open BitPim and access the BitPim settings.
8. Select “Phone Wizard” and select your cell phone carrier, manufacturer, and cell phone model.
9. Click next and choose either “auto” or one similar to “/dev/cu._________-BTDIAG-1″.
10. Click “Detect Phone” to test the connection. Passed means BitPim found and communicated to your phone. If BitPim does not detect the phone, click back and choose another Bluetooth port. *Make sure your phone has Bluetooth powered on.
11. OK it.
12. Be amazed.

Uploading ringtones was really easy with BitPim, because all of the editing capabilities needed to make the MP3 file compatible with your phone is all in BitPim. When uploading MP3 files as ringtones, I suggest using only a 30 second clip of the song with a 7-9 db volume. Uploading wallpapers and pictures are also easy, with editing capabilities within BitPim to upload your wallpaper at the correct resolution for your phone.

BitPim also lets you download your pictures from your camera phone with ease. After downloading to BitPim, you can export your pictures to the Finder or iPhoto. But make sure when you upload your files to be careful not to select “Replace All” or all of the files could be erased either on your phone or BitPim.

BitPim also includes functionality with other important features, such as calendars, digital phonebooks (vCard), memos, SMS, to-dos, call history, etc. Some phones do not work with some of these features, visit the BitPim website to check if your phone is compatible.