Apple today released the long awaited ultra-thin MacBook Air laptop. Steve Jobs used this years Macworld event to introduce the svelte 13.3″ laptop to the world. The computer is the world’s thinnest laptop. It’s tapering design is only .16″ thick in some places and .76″ at its thickest point. It is so thin that it can fit in an envelope! The machine features a standard 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 2 GB RAM, a 13.3″ LED widescreen display, magnetic latch, built-in iSight, MacBook-like keyboard with an ambient light sensor, multi-touch trackpad and 80 GB hard drive plus all the wireless connectivity you need for $1799.

The big selling point here is the ultra-thin design, but the multi-touch interface that allows you to manipulate object in much the same way as the iPhone but using the trackpad might be the most revolutionary for a laptop.This will undoubtedly spawn many imitations like the iPhone as touch computing is brought to the masses.

At Macworld today, Apple, Inc. unveiled the much rumored iTunes movie rental service. All of the major studios are on board, including Touchstone, Miramax, MGM, Lionsgate, Newline, FOX, Warner Bros., Disney, Paramount, Universal, and Sony. The initial library will include over 1,000 movies and will be available 30 days after the DVD release. You can watch the movies anywhere (on Macs, PCs, all current iPods and iPhones) and have 30 days to begin watching the movie and 24 hours to finish. At $2.99 for older titles and $3.99 for new releases and $4.99 for a limited set of HD movies, the prices are in line with other on demand services.

With the release of the rental service Apple has updated their Apple TV, calling it Take 2. The quality of the movies is said to be comparable to DVD for the standard rentals with HD movies now featuring Dolby 5.1 surround sound. The Apple TV also received a software update and is now a stand-alone product and can be used independent of iTunes. This with the new HD capabilities should make the Apple TV more appealing to home theater buffs. On aspect that was only briefly touched on is iTunes Digital Copy. On select DVD’s a free iTunes Digital Copy will be provided for personal use. When you insert a compatible DVD into your computer, the iTunes version transfers to your iTunes library, ready to watch or sync to your iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV.

Suspense builds as we all wonder exactly ‘what is in there air‘ at Macworld 2008. Here’s what you’ve been waiting for. The unboxing of the new Macbook Air. That’s right it’s hear and wait until you see how thin it is. It’s like, paper, wait, no thinner, yeah, just like - air! Enjoy the spoof posted by the well known Sarah Meyers, and the anticipation.

Macworld begins tomorrow in San Francisco and the rumors are flying. Recent snapshots of the this year’s MacWorld banners have revealed a new tagline, perhaps. There’s something in the air.

Most of the rumors revolve around a new ultra-thin Macbook which we reported on last week. What appear to be a fake photo of an smaller MacBook has already hit the net. While specific details of the machine have not been leaked, that hasn’t stopped anyone from throwing out some wild guesses.

The 12″ model disappeared from Apple’s MacBook Pro product line when they made the last big release. It’s makes sense that they’ll bring back a smaller model than the current 15.4″. And certainly shrinking the form factor a bit seems to be a logical next step regardless. The use of a flash memory drive would seem to be a step in that direction. But what’s up with “There something in the air” slogan? Here’s a few guesses.

In order to further reduce the already thin form factor of the Mac notebook line means you’ve got to deal with various cables and plugs, - ethernet being one of the largest. Those things aren’t going to change size. So removing them from the Book itself might be the only path to shrinking it’s thickness. You would also have to remove the optical drive. Which leads us to the idea of a dock station for the new MacBook ‘Mini’. But nothing like a traditional docking station. The Macintosh News Network has already reported on patent’s filed by Apple that outline some form of multiple purpose docking stating. And we’re taking a leap and thinking that it might end up using inductive coupling to communicate with the book itself. No wires. No connections. Just Air between them. Something in the air indeed.

Check out this iPhone parody commercial with director David Lynch. He seems, well, a little pissed off. I guess he can’t appreciate the cinematic experience that watching a movie on a 3-inch screen brings. Curious as to where the clip came from. Seems like some sort of real interview. He references watching movies on your ‘telephone’, though not specifically an iPhone of Touch. Pretty funny though. I guess I won’t tell him I’m watching Blue Velvet right now, and yes, it’s on my iPhone, curmudgeon. Brief NSFW language fyi.

January 7, 2008 – Las Vegas, NV – The world premiere of Jook™, a revolutionary music technology standard with social networking capabilities, launches at CES, January 7 – 10, 2008, at the Las Vegas Convention Center in North Hall, Booth 5733MP.

“Music has always been one of the most fundamental conduits for people to socialize and Jook is the natural progression to elevate music into the 21st century,” said Min-Liang Tan, president and chief executive officer, Jook Inc. “Jook Inc. and its partners all aim to make music a social experience again rather than have it confined to a personal music player. The interconnectivity and social aspects of Jook are limitless and will have a tremendous impact on music and personal audio devices in the future.”

Jook, developed by Jook Inc. - a subsidiary of Razer - is a technology standard that allows any portable music player to act like a personal radio station enabling everyone, regardless of their music player, to wirelessly transmit songs to people around them. For example, someone with an iPod™ can become a DJ and play music for someone sitting across from them on the subway listening to a Zune™. Friends jogging together can all tune into one person’s music player and listen to the same songs at the same time - regardless of the type of portable music players being used.

Jook is further designed to be a social networking tool that lets listeners later connect and talk about music they had previously heard. Users can create a profile, store it on their Jook enabled device, and share it with their listeners or broadcasters. These profiles provide more information about members, which can include anything from a personal web page to their contact information, as well as their music preferences. Further, music fans can rate fellow Jook users’ songs as well as the overall playlist the broadcaster chose to create and share.

How it works:
Jook consists of three modes that users can flip between with the push of a button:
Me Mode: Like today’s standard personal music players, users will listen to their own music in this mode.
Us Mode: Lets Jook broadcast its owner’s music to other nearby Jook enabled devices. Users will listen to their own selections and others with a Jook-enabled device can now tune in as well. A red ambient light alerts others nearby that there’s music available to tune in to.
U Mode: Jook allows a listener to connect to another Jook-enabled play list. A green ambient light indicates to broadcasters have listeners.
The Jook standard will be available to all manufacturers and developers of portable music players and audio accessories such as earbuds, headphones and other similar products. Each Jook device will be designed to plug directly into a music player, drawing a minimal amount of power from the music player.

Jook is poised to be a universal technology standard that connects users with different devices that would normally have a “closed” listening environment. A user with an iPod can broadcast their music to a user with a Zune, who also can broadcast their music to a user with a Zen™.

Pretty funny video from Microsoft’s CES presentation. A parody video of what Bill Gates will do when he retires. I’ll hand it to the guy for having enough sense of humor to poke fun at himself. Not many billionaires are up for that.

And of course having a few billion dollars also means you can get lots of famous friends to appear in your video. Like Steven Spielberg, Jay-Z, Matthew McConaughey, Bono, George Clooney, Brian Williams and John Daley. And of course a few political friends like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Al Gore. Friends in high places. And listen closely and you’ll catch a joke about Bill Gates one day running for president.