Apple Announces World's Thinnest Notebook, iTunes Movie Rentals, Song Lyrics for iPhones

Tweet

Last year at Macworld — the convention that helps consumers figure out how to surround themselves with gadgets stamped with an Apple logo — Steve Jobs announced the iPhone, which created bulges in the pants of technophiles everywhere. At today's 2008 keynote, entitled "Something in the Air," Jobs introduced the MacBook Air, an aneroxic laptop that can fit snugly in a manila envelope and is almost half as thin as the already-skinny rivals out there today. There's no CD drive, but it comes with all the bells and whistles found in a MacBook Pro, weighs three pounds, boasts five hours of battery life, and will be released in two weeks for $1,799.

Apple is mounting a new assault on Hollywood by allowing movie rentals for iTunes today. Promising more than 1,000 films at the end of February, Apple's film database still pales in comparison to their six-million-strong song library. But here's the rundown: Once you rent a movie, you have thirty days to start watching and then twenty-four hours to finish. You can begin a movie on your laptop and transfer the rest to your iPod/iPhone. A library title will cost $2.99, new releases are $3.99 (HD-quality will be dollar more).

The show ended with Randy Newman at his piano. "I couldn't understand most of what he said," Newman admitted, "I've mastered the answering machine, which is better than my parents. I'll always root against corporations, because that's the way I am, but not this one" and finished out the act with none other than "You've Got a Friend in Me."

Related Stories
• What You Need to Know About Those New iPods
• Apple Announces Wireless Touchscreen iPod, WiFi Music Store, Deal With Starbucks
• Is iPhone "the Best iPod Ever"?

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES 'This Is the End' Brings the Goods
• 
  TV The Women of 'Mad Men'
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“Everyday People”

Sly and the Family Stone | 1968

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter