There are six adverts at the moment: Office at Home, Restarting, Virus, Trust Mac, Tentacle and Pie Chart. Tentacle is probably the best out of the six. No doubt, like all the Get a Mac ads the PC guy is the one that you'll no doubt like the best. You might enjoy the Japanese versions too.

You have to give it to Apple, not only did they not just run the US versions here, but managed to make a great choice with Mitchell & Webb to play the Mac and PC. It's like they bowled a wide in the UEFA cricket championship and won!

Not so much a Mac thing. Microsoft's new Windows OS, Vista is upon us and is being compared to the Mac (what, Microsoft ripping off the Mac? that surely hasn't happened before?), there's an interesting article by the renowned Walt S. Mossberg on the new OS.

I think this says it all: "Nearly all of the major, visible new features in Vista are already available in Apple's operating system, called Mac OS X, which came out in 2001 and received its last major upgrade in 2005. And Apple is about to leap ahead again with a new version of OS X, called Leopard, due this spring."

Well, if you like your OS with plenty of built in DRM, go for it. If you like a little tongue in cheek humour, have a look at New York Times, David Pogue's comparison between the two and The Joy of Tech Comic.

Something that didn't get a mention at the Keynote and was quietly introduced was Apple's new AirPort Extreme base-station (Wifi router). It replaces the old domed spaceship looking one with a new Mac Mini style enclosure.

It now supports 802.11n, which Apple claim is 2.5x faster than the previous AirPort*. As well as being able to connect a printer to it via USB, you can now add a hard drive that will be available to share on the network, with zero configuration needed. You could also add a USB hub and connect multiple devices. So you'll be able to print wirelessly as well as access a hard drive for backups etc. I suspect that the the connected hard drive will work with Mac OS X 10.5's Time Machine back-up solution. AirPort Extreme will cost £119, the AirPort Express is down to £65 (I had one of these, it blew up).


There was no other Mac news, there was no super slim, smaller MacBook. They're probably having a rest having only just got all the Macs to intel. They did announce that many of the new Macs shipped support 802.11n.


The other news, Apple Computer is no more, they will now be known as Apple Inc to reflect their product line.


* A note on the speed of 802.11n. It's meant to be 5X faster and if you compare the US & UK sites you'll notice the difference. Apparently the UK doesn't allow wide-channel operation, hopefully this will change. It's also unsure if different models will be made for Europe & the US, if there is one model, it may still be possible to circumvent the low speed in the UK by using a US firmware.

iTV has now become Apple TV, that's going to save a lot of confusion in the UK.

First off, no, Apple haven't made a TV. Apple TV is a box that'll sit under your TV. Again, to get the idea watch the keynote.

Apple TV makes it easy to stream via Wi-Fi (using 802.11n) your computer's media content to your TV. It'll play your movies, podcasts, music and show your photos. It has a 40GB hard drive inside and will sync with one Mac and allow streaming from another five. Making them all easily accessed via simple interface and remote control.

Sadly, in the UK we still can't buy TV shows or films from the iTunes store, of course you can import ones you've got from other sources into iTunes and then play them via Apple TV.

It's not a PVR, you can't use it to record TV like Elgato's eyeTV. Of course, this sort of recording device will become standard with Virgin/NTL and SKY already have Sky Plus. The Apple TV is really doing something different, it's making that big widescreen HD you have slightly more useful.

Apple are really (at least in the US) trying to change the way we watch TV content. Eventually I'd imagine the idea is that you no longer pay a cable/sky/freeview type provider and instead (via iTunes) you just purchase the programmes/season of programmes/ films that you want to see. Will that be cheaper in the long run? Who knows, it might make us watch a lot less crap. It's moving from a push to a pull from the internet what content you really want to see rather than just being a couch potato. I'm sure there's room for the two to coexist.

Apple TV costs £199 and is available to buy now.

It's worth watching the Keynote of the iPhone introduction, it helps explain exactly how it works and funny to see Steve prank calling Starbucks and telling an old story of him and Woz. With the internet, iPod, Phone, Widgets, Google maps your photos, widescreen video etc all on one phone, even my girlfriend is thinking of getting one.


Of course the negative nellies of this world looked at it and instead of being impressed went for "yeah, but it doesn't do.....". Ok, so what's missing?

No iChat/Skype or instant messenger integration. Why? Probably to keep the mobile carriers happy, so you pay for SMS. One can only hope it will come, as the iPhone runs OS X, there's no technical reason why it couldn't run it, and as it's running the Safari browser, perhaps you could use an online messenger?

Other complaints, the camera isn't on the front? and it's not 3 mega-pixel. People always want more. There's no nipple on the five key? Handy if you're blind, then and no offence to the blind community, I don't suspect the iPhone is really one for you. People also want more memory, to fit more on. more more more. The battery is sealed, I'm sure like the iPods there will be a workaround for this.


Who will partner with Apple in the UK? They're only on Cingula in the states, Orange? Virgin/NTL? Vodafone? Will we be duped out of the cool visual voicemail feature? Let's hope not.


The iPhone will come in two models, a 4GB $499 and an 8GB $599. It will be available in the US in June and Europe by the last quarter of 2007. The phone is a quad-band GSM phone with EDGE, but not 3G yet, Steve said they would come. It's a multi device so the price point may seem expensive for a phone, but, it's clearly not just a phone. how much would you pay for an iPod and a cool phone? which many people do.

No matter what you feel about the iPhone, it really is a revolutionary product and one the other mobile phone makers are hardly going to ignore, pst, it also makes the Zune look even more like the first generation iPod.

* Yes, I know many won't

Apple was founded in 1976, and the Apple II was introduced in 1977. Of course, people have already decided that there's some hidden meaning behind the new years greetings.

I'm sure some will become clear at the MacWorld Expo on the 8th January.