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Comment by pedalpete | Hacker News Reader

I didn't watch it, I read the TC coverage after it was finished. This is the reason I asked the question. I'm not convinced that any of these items are ground breaking, though very cool features.

The coverage didn't seem exciting which is why I was asking the question did Steve Jobs not do the keynote because there was nothing worth reporting? or was it just not carried off with his panache and excitement? The coverage made it seem quite ho-hum.

And I still believe that none of these things are really news worthy. An 8 hr battery on 17" device is pretty cool

iWork gets document sharing - about time, and they aren't going to become a leader with that product as a result

*Getting rid of DRM on iTMS means now they can are equal to amazon and everybody else

again, I don't see this stuff as really exciting and ground breaking. Cool, yes. Good business decisions, sure. Amazing! no.

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Most of the Stevenotes aren't amazing.

'08: * The Air * Time Capsule * Movie Rentals

'07 * The iPhone (ok, ok)

'06 * Intel Macs * iWeb

'05 * Tiger, potlight * iWork * Shuffle

'04 * iLife * The iPod Mini

'03 * New iMovie, new iDVD * Safari * Keynote * 17" and 12" TiBooks

Was '09 as big as '07 or '06? No. But it's bigger than '03 and on par with '08 and '04. iPhone and iMovie are a big deal, the 17" MBP is their flagship computer (and some of the thunder from the MBP was stolen by the Q4 MacBook refresh --- which was a big deal), and the iTMS DRM thing is the biggest news on iTunes since Video.

07 iphone - yes that was huge (sorry if I sound like a fan !). Mobile computing went mainstream (lots of attention).

06 - intel Macs - that was a big one (macs platforms went "mainstream" in their source of components).

I remember in 06 the world flipped - Apple went to intel. Microsoft went PowerPC for XBOX 360 !

So I think those 2 years kind of lifted the bar - so 08 and 09 seem like a relative let down.

In other words, '09 fits kind of right in the middle of all the MWSF's, and Apple is transitioning out of MWSF and into WWDC and its own special events. I don't think they phoned this in.

The 17" TiBook was huge. I switched for essentially that reason alone in mid-2003... the fact that OS X was unix made it seem reasonable to switch, but the 17" laptop made me want to. :)

So just like in '02 there was a 15" TiBook and in '03 there was a 17", in '08 there was a 15" MBP, and in '09 there's a 17" with a new battery, new graphics, and more memory.

I feel like around '03 or '04 there was the introduction of GarageBand which I recall as being a pretty well put-together event. That may have been at the summer MacWorld expo.

Agreed. They all seem like pretty logical upgrades for most of the things.

An 8 hr battery on 17" device is pretty cool

They always inflate this number and I wouldn't be surprise if it loses its charge quickly like most other macs. plus, integrated battery? no thanks.

No-DRM was more of a 'Finally!' than a 'Wow!'

Don't get me wrong, they're newsworthy, but I feel like there was no climax. nothing too surprising

Inflated or not, 8 hours for the 17-inch is better than 5-hours for the 15-inch.

In addition to getting a claimed 7-8hrs per charge, they also claim to be getting 3x as many charge cycles.

To someone like me, who uses their laptop+battery for a few years before replacing either, this is more important than usage/charge.

I've always wondered why there isn't a secondary battery or large capacitor to hold a few seconds of charge once the main battery is topped off, to avoid overcharging the main battery.

Wow. So you found the twitteresque transcript pounded out by some guy desperately trying to keep up with live events from his seat on his laptop little dry, and you blame Phil Schiller? I thought Phil was positively engaging. The audience was on the edge of their seats for almost the entire keynote, and the "Ooos", "Aaas", and gasps were abundant. The products Phil highlighted all showed how Apple, once again, is innovating where everyone else is still working on getting a usable v.1. There's no one in iPhoto or iMovie's class, Keynote's iPhone integration just put another nail in RIM's coffin, and every laptop designer in the world just slapped themselves on the forehead, realizing that if they had only put some investment into stores and service, they too could have an 8-hour(!) laptop with no increase in size or weight.

It was a great keynote. You should try watching it and then come back if you have nits to pick.

"An 8 hr battery on 17" device is pretty cool" Until you try to replace it. Modular design is crying.

My subjective view is that the iTunes DRM thing is the biggest news by far. What happens to the old music though?

The new battery design is the best innovation announced today. It really doesn't make sense to carry around the extra casing material for a battery that I never remove from my laptop anyway. I don't think any of my non-techie friends or family have ever used their laptops without the battery, or replaced the battery, ever.

I think this battery design would be copied by more manufacturers if they had trustworthy retail centers like Apple does. I would take my Mac to the Apple store to replace the battery without any hesitation but I'd never take my ThinkPad to Geek Squad to do the same, and I'm not going to go laptop-less for days while UPS drop-kicks it to Lenovo's service center.

User-serviceability of computers is going to decrease as part of cost-cutting, size-reduction, and bullet-proofing by manufacturers. If Lenovo could make my laptop significantly smaller, lighter, more reliable, and cheaper than it is now, I would gladly give up the ability to easily take it apart or to easily swap out the battery.

Isn't it better when you can upgrade yourself as better components come out? It would be far better for Apple to come out with a 8 hour battery upgrade for current owners. You don't need a whole new platform to upgrade a battery, or a disk, or a video processor.

I agree on the service centers though, they are a huge apple advantage. I don't think I would ever want to go to one and waste my time. One hour at the store plus commute costs me almost the price of a battery.I prefer to click it on line and spend 30 seconds popping a new battery in.

I think that designing the battery such that it does not need to be replaced within the usable lifetime of the machine is a smarter approach than worrying overmuch about the average user's ability to replace it. It likely reduces manufacturing costs and benefits a larger number of users directly.

Yeah, and if 80% of Mac users were going to make a "Genius Bar" appointment for this anyways, "mandating" the Genius Bar window is also another sales touchpoint for them.

You can upgrade it for 30¢ a song.

It's an interesting theory and some validity to it. Personally that's to minical for my tastes, but I did think the 8GB was a great engineering feat. I was just saying to a coworker a few minutes ago, probably 10 years ago I was on a 386p... with I dunno how much ram, now we're pushing 8GB's! Awesome.

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