So the keynote has come and gone. My prediction like many others didn’t pan out as expected. The MacBook Air is yet one of Apple’s many love-it-or-hate-it products. It appeals to some but certainly not all. I think the biggest problem Apple made is in the pricing. The price just isn’t in line with the raw specs. The general consumer isn’t going to care or even necessarily understand that a hard drive with a smaller form factor is more expensive than a larger one with the same capacity. (e.g. The MacBook Air packs a 1.8″ hard drive and not a typical 2.5″ one.) Especially considering their own base MacBook is 67% faster with 20% more battery life (user-replaceable) for 39% less money and only for 67% more weight (not that 5 lbs is really all that heavy to begin with). Would it really have been that hard for Apple to iMac-ify their entire notebook product line, upgrade the touchpads to use the new multitouch features, put LED backlights across the product line, apply some of the MacBook Air design ideas like dropping the super-drive? That would probably shed a pound off the base MacBook in which case it’s 4 lbs versus MBA’s 3 lbs in the same footprint if not the same volume. Perhaps like the Newton, the MacBook Air is ahead of its time. Then again it may be so off the mark it’ll die a slow death unlike the Palm Folio. Judging from the comments at various sites and forums, I wasn’t the only one hoping for a MacBook redesign which is arguably long overdue. Consumers weren’t the only ones who were disappointed. Wall Street saw a drop in the stock price which I’m sure will be made up sooner or later. On a good note, the Apple TV is more appealing, but I would still rather get a Mac Mini and turn it into a MythTV frontend. So much more versatile. But before that happens I need to finish outfitting my MythTV server.

Tomorrow is the infamous Macworld keynote. More than likely a new Mac will be introduced. As the date slowly approaches, the rumor mill has been buzzing about a potential product name called Air—Macbook Air, AirBook, what have you. Of note, is that there was confirmation that Apple had ordered a bunch of 13″ screens. Now, 13″ screens are certainly on the large side when it comes to screen real estate even if a notebook comes in under 4 lbs. Personally I think it needs to have small dimensions, not just be lightweight to be considered an ultraportable. You can’t exactly slip a 13″ notebook as easily as a eeePC into your (man) purse. There’s also the fact that the standard MacBook looks so out of place with its brethren right now, even if it got a token hardware refresh a few months ago. Personally, I’m hedging my bets that the new Macbook will most likely be just a redesigned Macbook and will be a stepping stone for design queues to move up into the Pro line. I’m not the only one who thinks this. (Others speculate that it may turn out to be an iTouch-esque tablet.) It’ll certainly be lighter, faster, and every inch as beautiful as the other aluminum SKUs, but certainly no eeePC matchup. Imagine Apple putting out a $500-600 subnotebook. Would that cannibalize Mini sales? Probably not. As the eeePC has shown, niche markets can work. But still, would Apple even shoot for that price point? And if you can’t wait for Apple to come out with a subnotebook (assuming one isn’t announced tomorrow), you could always hack your eeePC to run Mac OS X.

My comparison of AT&T’s post-paid versus prepaid calling plans gave me some insight into how wireless service providers make their money. Based on this empirical evidence, the bottom line is that, just as people thought, we’re being overcharged.

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My TDMA service through AT&T Wireless is numbered. More so now since they’re upping the maintenance charge from $5 to $10 next month, giving me an even greater incentive to switch plans. The reason I’ve been holding back on upgrading, despite having an ancient brick of a phone (Nokia 5165), is because even with the maintenance charge, my bill is $10 less than the cheapest contract available from AT&T. Now that the price gap is smaller, this gave me the motivation to analyze my usage and compare rate plans.

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