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Around the Macworld show Floor, I heard a lot of the same comments. The Mac faithful groaned consistently this morning’s keynote address was a snoozer.  They weren’t impressed enough.  There was too little surprise, they said, and, worse, only little changes.  It’s not that something is wrong with the existing Apple product line, Apple’s Steve-worshiping fans just wanted more. Their expectations were over stoked.  They wanted to be surprised, wowed and awed.   The reality was short.

In a way, it’s not unlike the stock price.  It tends to rise before the trade show and drop a bit after; a consequence of Apple’s finely tuned marketing machine. Sometimes, it’s almost too good for their own good.

It’s true, Apple’s product announcement this morning largely validated the rumors, or the rumors largely pegged the announcements. There were few surprises.   Odds on, most expected announcements were made.    Like a predictable book, Apple delivered the comfortable conclusions.  That’s not to say it wasn’t satisfying, however.   The new Macbook, in fact, is rather impressive.  The improvements to the Apple TV’s software aren’t bad either.

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The allure of a suspense is irresistible. 50 pages into a good book the outcome may already be foretold but if well done, you anxiously read the next two hundred to find out for sure. Macworld as a trade show has built for itself the same kind of dramatic tension. Over the years, as ringmaster, Steve jobs has crafted himself into an impressive storyteller. Legions hang in wait for his word. At Macworld, the lines were long and formed hours early for those anxious to see the live spectacle.

At 9:15 PST, following a new Mac vs. PC ad, Steve took the stage. He gave the obligatory recap of 2007, and then launched the crowd into the future.

Major news outlets were vastly in attendance. They’ll be covering the announcement all day.

Here’s the quick list: iTunes rentals (Check), New Macbook (Check), improved Apple TV (Check), software update for the iPhone (check).

And in more detail:

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During a January 8th Panel Discussion at the Consumer electronics show FCC Chairman Kevin Martin unequivocally said his agency would be investigating allegations Comcast inappropriately interfered with peer to peer data traffic moving across their network.  That investigation, looking into issues relating to Net Neutrality Policy, is now official.

Comcast confirmed Monday they had received official letters of inquiry regarding the complaints.

The complaints stem from the Associated Press’ discovery in October that Comcast was either blocking, or intentionally slowing down (a practice called “throttling”), Internet traffic generated by the Bit Torrent peer to peer software used by some Comcast subscribers. Click to Read More

Preempting a largely expected iTunes movie rental announcement at tomorrow’s Macworld event, Netflix announced they’ll remove all usage quota restrictions on their “Watch Instantly” streaming video service.  The change is to become effective today.

The streaming video service, on which Netflix has reportedly invested more than $40m, has been available for much of the past year.  It allows existing Netflix subscribers to watch on-demand feeds of up to 6,000 titles.  There are no additional costs to use the service.  It is offered in addition to subscriber’s existing mail order rental allotments.

Until today, the one major restriction on the service had been the quota system Click to Read More

2007 was a banner year.  There was the iPhone, a new (and very successful) iPod family, a new and improved  iMac, the Leopard update to the OS X operating system and a stock price that’s accelerated like a Ferrari on a track.  Now it’s 2008 and Macworld, the trade show that is “Apple’s State of the Union” is just a blink away.  Last year’s show revealed the iPhone.  “What can we expect this year?” is the question on the minds of many.  We all want to know: what promise and surprise does the 2008 product pipeline have in store for us? 

Nobody’s talking, which is usual, and as usual, that has everyone talking.  Steve Jobs and his team guard their secrets as tightly as a Vegas magic act, and like the elite illusionists, they enjoy misdirection just as much.     That’s fueled a constant stream of predictions and forecasts.  Analysts with inside sources, press and fans alike all have a perspective.  Handicapping Apple product announcements is rarely a wise endeavor, nevertheless, below are some rumors, and odds of their likelihood:

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Terry Semel remains Yahoo’s chairman but since ceding (or relinquishing) executive control to Jerry Yang in June, he’s been largely out of the public eye and off the radar.  In 2008, that may change, albeit in a lower profile way that is unrelated to Yahoo.

Paid Content is reporting Terry’s set to relaunch a “revamped version” of Windsor Media, an investment firm he started in 1999 but abandoned to take on the leadership position at Yahoo in 2001.  So far nobody involved directly has issued any statements but the reports say Drew Buckley, former GM of Yahoo Originals, Jeff Karish, former head of media strategy at Yahoo, and Jimmy Yaffe, managing partner of Endeavor Marketing Solutions are all involved.

Speculation is that Windsor, in its new form, may be similar to Click to Read More

It’s an election year, so it comes as no surprise that political issues large and small are getting extra attention.   Tuesday, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin used a CES panel discussion as an opportunity to address the regulatory commission’s stance on the bandwidth throttling complaints that put the nation’s second largest broadband provider, Comcast, into a boiling cauldron of bad PR in October and November.

In no uncertain terms, Martin told the audience, “Sure, we’re going to investigate and make sure that no consumer is going to be blocked.”

At issue is a debate over the policy concept: Network Neutrality. The issues date back to the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Click to Read More