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The best things in life are free
Of the four five announcements Steve Jobs made in his Macworld keynote Tuesday morning, my two favorites are free software updates. This is out of character for Apple, a company that makes money primarily by selling hardware.
Past keynotes have been notable for the credit-card-grabbing, frantic-pre-ordering lust they inspire; the iPhone, Apple TV, Powerbook G4, Airport and several iMacs were all announced at Macworld keynotes. So the emphasis on software, and free software that enhances old hardware, is either a subtle shift in strategy, or nothing at all. Either way, I like it.
Apple’s Macworld announcements, in order of favorite-ness, are:
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I bought an Apple TV early last year, and I really like it. No, it won’t record live TV, and it doesn’t do HD, and I can’t shop iTunes on it. Nor does it do any of the other things you wish it would do. But it does allow me to watch movies on my TV, and listen to music on my stereo. And I think that’s worth $299.
The new software enables a lot of great functionality, including iTunes Store access, movie rental support, HD movie playback, and Flickr integration. For Apple to give this away as a free software update; well, that’s just really nice.
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A year after its first demo, the iPhone is still the most remarkable device in the world. Consistent with previous updates, there’s a bunch of good stuff in the software announced Tuesday: auto-locator, better maps, Web Clips, customizable home screen, and more.