Yes, it’s that time of the year again.. we’re passed CES now (though I’m still catching up to all the images I managed to snap up in my short time there) and we’re onto Macworld over at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Steve Jobs has already taken the stage at the center and you can find lots of “live” coverage at various websites all around the Internet. Here are some of the notable announcements thus far:

• 5 million copies of Leopard have been delivered in the first three months of the release and 20 percent of the installed base has upgrade in the first 90 days of the OS release
• Microsoft Office for 2008 has been formally announced
• Time Capsule is announced – basically a “backup appliance” that takes the Airport Extreme and merges it with a hard drive. It looks very similar to a Mac mini or an Apple TV device. The concept is quite simple – back up your notebook wirelessly instead of having a wired connection. There will be two storage versions – a 500GB version for $299 and a 1TB version for $499. You can expect to find Time Capsule in February
• Onto iPhone stuff – Apple has sold 4 million iPhones to date – woo hoo (and yes I’m one of the somewhat happy customers out there)
• According to Apple, the iPhone has a 19.5 percent market share of the smartphone market (we’re not sure where he’s getting this data from exactly though and for what time period)
• All the rumors about the 1.1.3 release of the iPhone firmware are indeed correct. New features coming for iPhone include the following: Google Maps with location, Customizable home screen, text messages to multiple people, and iPhone support for lyrics from songs you’re listening to. The update will be available TODAY via iTunes.
• iPod touch news – Five new applications have been added to the touch including Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes, and Weather. Google Maps Location will use Wi-Fi for triangulation. The touch will also be customizable like the iPhone. Here’s the BAD news – these new features will be built into all new iPod touch’s but owners of older touch’s will have to pay $20 for the new features – what the heck???
• iTunes news – 4 billion songs and 7 million movies have been sold – this has NOT met expectations according to Jobs
• Movie rentals is indeed coming to iTunes with the following studios in support of it – Touchstone, Miramax, MGM, Lionsgate, New Line Cinema, Fox, Warner, Disney, Paramount, Universal, and Sony. 1000 movies will launch in February but iTunes won’t get the movie until 30 days after the DVD release (we can’t hurt the DVD sales can we?). Movies can be watched anywhere on any device and you have 30 days to watch the movie but 24 hours to watch it once you start watching it. (that’s better than the 14 days for Xbox 360) And yes – there will be HD movies for rent. It’s about time.
• Library titles will cost $2.99. Newly released titles will cost $3.99. The new iTunes Movie Rentals will launch today here in the US. International support will come out later this year.
• As expected, Apple is introducing a new version of Apple TV. There’s a new Cover Flow user interface up and running now on the device and now you can browse and purchase TV shows and music via Apple TV. Again – it’s about time! No computer is necessary. A software upgrade will be provided for FREE (OMG!) to current Apple TV devices and a new model will ship in 2 weeks time.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Macworld 2008, Apple,