Macworld Keynote - Ok, cool. But where’s the rest?

Perhaps its the ridiculous pre-keynote hype or simply the amazing over-coverage, but I have to admit I am slightly disappointed with the ‘four’ key announcements by Steve’s Macworld Keynote…

Ok, sure, I admit the new Macbook Air looks very cool and clearly is a significant engineering achievement. The lightest, and probably the most functional ultra-light laptop on the market today. And yes, like most Apple products nowadays, I’m sure it is absolutely gorgeous to hold and use.

But… what were the other announcements?

(1) A software update for the AppleTV (along with iTunes 7.6) now supports direct HD Movie Rentals - without having to Sync via iTunes first. US$4.99 will get you access to a new release HD Movie for 30 days (resolution is yet to be clarified). Also, the price has been lowered from US$299 to US$229 (for the 40Gb model). Note - no hardware improvements.

(2) The iPhone 1.1.3 update which brings some nice new functionality (also for the iPod Touch where applicable) - a much improved Google Maps App, the ability to add Safari bookmarks to the Home screen, fully customisable Home Screen icons, the ability to send SMS messages to multiple people at once, and access to iTunes Rental Videos (including Chapter navigation). Note - no hardware improvements and no mention of SDK availability yet.

(3) A new product called the ‘Time Capsule‘, which looks to me exactly like the current Airport Extreme with a internal hard drive (500Gb or 1Tb), and fully supported integration with Leopard’s Time Machine. Note - the current Airport Extreme does not seem to be upgradable. And, if they can do it with an internal drive, surely they can also do it with a USB or Gbit Ethernet attached external drive?

Interestingly, the Time Capsule announcement is actually a necessary foundational support for the fact that Macbook Air is completely wireless (no ethernet port).

My previous post talked about what I was hoping (or suspecting) we might see. Here’s what was missing:

(1) No Blu-ray Support (not even a mention)
(2) No iPhone hardware improvements (not even a RAM increase and certainly not 3G)
(3) No DivX support for the AppleTV (although content was certainly redressed).

Maybe the missing stuff is still in the works… WWDC perhaps? What are your thoughts on the Keynote announcements?