Yesterday was Steve Jobs' annual keynote address at the Macworld Conference & Expo -- and as always, it didn't disappoint.  The conference was held at the usual, but very cool, Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Like every year, or any Steve Jobs keynote, I get on the tech blogs, such as Engadget (my favorite) in real time to see what exactly is being revealed as it happens.  When it comes to these announcements, I just don't have the patience to wait until Apple releases the video -- which can be hours after keynote is actually over (hmmm .... I hope no one from work is reading this).  I love getting on the blogs because you really get an idea of what the experience is like, as if you were there.  These bloggers will update their site every couple of minutes detailing things from when exactly they're being let into the auditorium to what music is playing beforehand -- and then of course, almost a transcript-like description of what happens during the keynote.

As for this year's releases, it pretty much lined up to what I thought was going to be debuted.  Last year, we knew the iPhone was coming.  I first heard rumors of the iPhone in September 2006.  The question was just when.  This year, the rumors leading up to Macworld have been primarily  an iTunes online movie rental store and a new "ultra-portable" laptop -- both which were introduced during Steve's big speech.

As for the iPhone, a lot of rumors have swirled around, what I like to call, the invention of the decade -- specifically, the upgrading to the faster 3G mobile standard, which would resolve the speed issues with the current EDGE network, and secondly, GPS capability.  Well, believe it or not, one of these issues has been taken care of through the latest iPhone update that was released yesterday after the keynote.  Apple found a way to triangulate your location on their Google Maps app. through a combination of cell-phone towers and Wi-Fi hot spots mapped from a company called Skyhook Wireless.  Voila!  GPS without the use of satellites!  You can get directions from one location to another just as you would through GPS.  Simply amazing.

Back to the online movie rentals.  When Steve Jobs released AppleTV a year ago at Macworld, I was bothered by the fact that it didn't have high-definition capabilities.  I really wanted to buy into the notion that I could purchase my movies online through iTunes, access my computer's hard drive wirelessly with AppleTV and watch that purchased movie in the living room.  But the question that I couldn't get past was, why would I want to buy a movie that was not in HD?  Being so used to TiVo'ing movies in HD from both movie channels and Pay-Per-View and storing them indefinitely on my TiVo hard drive -- why spend the money for something in just standard DVD quality at a 480p resolution?  I mean, I haven't even bought a DVD in 3 years because of that very question.

Fast forward to 2008.  AppleTV is back ... and back with HD and movie rentals!  Not only will I be able to stream my purchased HD movies from my computer to my TV, but I can now rent a movie online through AppleTV without the use of my computer!  That's right, no driving to Blockbuster, no waiting a couple of days for the next Netflix DVD to arrive.  I don't even have to go to the computer if I don't want to -- instant movie rentals from the couch!  Oh, and did I mention you can rent HD movies too?

We really are at a very interesting time right now in determining where the direction of movie storage is going.  We have two emerging technologies --HD DVDs, in Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, and now the capability of streaming HD movies wirelessly to your television from your computer's hard drive.  So on one hand, we could continue with "hard" media in these newer DVD formats, or we could move in the same direction we have gone with our music over the last decade and store it on our computers.  I do know this, it would be a lot easier to manage my movies if it they were stored centrally on my computer, where I could do anything I want with them ... watch it on the computer, stream it to my television or sync it with an array of portable devices to watch on-the-go.  With DVDs you can ... well ... not many options there.

Last but not least, Apple released a new notebook -- the one that was rumored to be "ultra-portable", and Steve did not disappoint.  The MacBook Air was introduced --- and WOW!  This thing is cool to look at.  It can fit inside an interoffice manilla envelope!  And did I mention it's really cool to look at? 

The "Air" has a 13.3-inch glossy widescreen TFT LED display and is only 0.16-0.76 of an inch in height & 12.8 inches in width -- all weighing an incredible 3 pounds.  Under the hood, it has the standard Intel Core 2 Duo processor that gets you up to 1.8GHz with 2GB of memory and a 80GB hard drive.  Pretty freakin' awesome, considering how thin and light this thing is.  And of course all the bells and whistles you can expect from an Apple are included, such as iSight and a full-sized illuminated keyboard.  (Oooo!)  One of my favorite features is the use of the iPhone's multi-touch gestures in the trackpad, so you can pinch, swipe or rotate by simply moving your fingers. (Ahhh!)

One thing that is missing from the MacBook Air is an optical drive.  However, it includes a pretty cool feature that remedies the issue, called Remote Disk.  Remote Disk allows you to access the CD or DVD drive of a nearby Mac or PC where you can install or retrieve files wirelessly.  Crazy, huh?

There were a couple of other things addressed at the keynote as well ... new apps for the iTouch making it literally an iPhone without the phone and an external 500GB, or optional 1TB, drive named Time Capsule, intended as a companion to Leopard's Time Machine feature.  Perfect for backing up that recent HD purchase of Live Free or Die Hard.

Man, I love Apple.

FILE:  TECHNOLOGY