Apple's Hobby Now a Smaller, Quieter Hobby

Let's take a look at the last piece of today's Apple event first: Apple TV. Before today, the Apple TV box was a smallish device to play videos and music from your local network (after syncing), or  to purchase shows and movies online.

Now, the box is one-fourth of the size, and allows you to rent, rather than buy movies and television shows. There are two ways to look at this product: It is an incremental upgrade for those who are seeking the same functionality the last version of Apple TV provided. If you live in a home without a Wii, Xbox, or PS3, then the Netflix streaming makes the box attractive. If you already have one of those devices though, or you're fine with hooking you laptop up to the TV to watch hulu/Netflix, the value of the box becomes cloudy.

Apple would do best to focus on creating a box that can be THE box that gets attached to your TV. Apple TV doesn't even have an HDMI pass through (unlike the future Google TV offerings) so you will need to flip sources between this box and your cable box. Not a huge deal, in a perfect Apple world, one would expect just one box to be connected to the TV. 

Again, as an upgrade to the existing hardware, the new Apple TV looks like a winner. Is it the death knell for the cable companies some had hoped/predicted? No, not by a long shot. Not yet, at least.

Video Subscription Service Gains (some) Steam

The Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital blog is reporting Apple has been shopping the concept of $30 per month video subscriptions to tv networks. The blog merely mentions "sources," so let's hope they're not talking about our similar Apple TV proposal from TDL Live a few weeks back.

If there was a way to still get live events, then turning Apple TV into "the people's cable box," makes a lot of sense. And all-you-can-watch proposal would be a huge win to customers, if it was implemented in a way that meant you could ditch cable/satellite. Of course, for many of us, our TV provider is also our internet provider, so it could prove a tough sell, or might require some legislation loosening the power wielded by cable companies in the internet space.

We'll talk more about it tonight on TDL Live, 9PM ET / 6PM PT.

A Change in the Apple TV Lineup

The good folks over at MacRumors, clearly get up earlier than us, so we have to give them credit for this one: Apple has eliminated the 40gb AppleTV, and dropped the price of the 160 GB model to $229 (the old 40GB price) from $329.

It's a little surprising that after Phil Schiller told us at the music event that $199 is the magic price point, (at least for iPods) that Apple TV still costs $229 to get in.

Did Apple decide to slash prices to get sales of Apple TV moving? Well no. Our guess is that in 2009, it is increasingly difficult to find 40gb hard drives. While t's great to see the top model lose $100, it might have done more for market share to offer a smaller (maybe 80 GB?) model for $149 or so.

Is this price drop enough to get you in line to buy an Apple TV?

HomeDock HD Product Review

DLO's HomeDock HD promises to bring your iPod content to your HDTV in HD quality. Two small problems though: First, it only ships with an RCA component cable, and second the content on your iPod is well below HD quality to begin with.

The dock does offer a simple, intuitive interface, and great audio quality through both its optical and HDMI outputs. Also I'm always a sucker for a an iPod accessory with robust backwards capability. We tested the unit with an iPod Mini, iPhone, and 5th gen iPod. All three were able to be controlled remotely via the dock.

Still, the $199 price point is hard to swallow. After all, for just a bit more, you could buy an Apple TV and at least have an opportunity to rent "true" HD content. (In fairness, the Apple TV doesn't include an HDMI cable either)

For $40 or $50, it would be a steal, especially for those of us with multiple iPods sitting around the house.  At $199, though, and since Apple currently doesn't have HD content on any iPod, you might want to pass. Full video review below: (Click here to buy from Amazon.)

Final Predictions from The Digital Lifestyle Staff

Well, there's not much time left before we know what shiny new things Apple will unveil at this year's MWSF Keynote. This is probably also a good time to remind you we will live video coverage during the keynote, starting at 11:30 AM ET.

Now then, here's a look at what Adam, Jamie, and myself think will happen tomorrow:

Ryan:
New iMac:
I say it's a done deal, but not anything exciting. Speedbumps and larger drives. The one surprise would be touchscreen functionality.

Netbook:
If Apple Doesn't have something tomorrow to compete with the low-price netbook craze (yes, I'm calling it a craze), it could bode very poorly for the stock over the next year or so. People will buy $499 machines that do 90% of the stuff they want. The MacBook Air is the perfect product, but it's about $1,200 too expensive.

Home media server:
Let's hope not. How about getting AppleTV right first.

iPhone Nano:
I said we would see this a year ago, and I stick by it. I don't know what it does, or what you take away from it to keep the "regular" iPhone relevant, but I think we get one tomorrow.

Mac mini:
Let's hope so. This computer could be put into use in many, many clever ways with just a few tweaks.

Wildcard/one more thing:
Steve will make an appearance, but perhaps only via iChat, or some other way that shows off a cool new feature. Perhaps a new twist on Remote desktop. See, Steve can do all his work from home!

Jamie:
New imac:
Looks like new iMacs are a done deal, but I don't think we'll see anything other than a speed bump. No case design or new features. I don't expect Phil to even mention them.

Netbook:
This seems like too big of an announcement not to have Steve there, but I am gonna say we get a Netbook or what I'm calling the "New Mac Mini." Oh and expect it to be over priced at $799.

Home media server:
Not a chance. This is a niche market.

iPhone Nano:
The beans have been all put spilled by the case manufacturers. This thing is real, but don't expect to see it Tuesday. This is too big a deal for the now dying Mac World. I'd guess we'll see an iPhone event in the coming months.

Wildcards/one more thing:
Looks like a revamp to the 17 inch MBP is on the way. This would fit in nicely with a netbook appearance. Remember when the 17 inch and 12 inch Powerbooks made their debut? Could we see a return of the Mini Me / Yao Ming commercial?

Adam
New iMac:
It's not time for a new imac. The latest imac was released early 2008 making it just about a year old. I think we get a new iMac first half of 2009 but not during Macworld.

Netbook:
Did someone say Macbook Air? They're playing in the high end of this market. Granted it's no 10" display and doesn't have the attractive price point, but since when has apple concerned itself with the low end?? The last I recall is the eMac and that went the way of all things. I say no netbook at Macworld.

Home media server:
They already have that little hobby called the Apple TV. If anything we might get a refresh of this product but we absolutely won't be getting a media server. It was this time last year the AppleTV got a shot of seroids . . . look for Macworld to do the same both boosting storage capacity as well as the AppleTV software.

iPhone Nano:
I don't think so.

Wildcards/one more thing:
Did someone say MacMini? It hasn't seen an update since Mid 2007 and is LONG overdue. I think we get a new MacMini to support the mini display connection on the new displays. I think new MacMini is a feature of the keynote not a "one more thing". It's going to get a speed bump and lets lose the integrated graphics . . . no one wants integrated, we all want MORE. With the speed bump lets support 2x the memory. 2GB simply isn't a LOT and the new MacBooks support 4GB so lets get with the program folks. Don't forget cosmetic changes. After all they need something else to manufacture with the super cool, show stopping water jet a block of al-u-min-e-um process they've come up with.

So there you have it, our final predictions. Be sure to join us for video, and live chat. Oh and don't forget twitter: tdllive