When you depart from a Steve Jobs keynote, it’s usually hard to keep from smiling, and the same holds true, in large part, when you watch the QuickTime playback stream, although you aren’t sharing the “reality distortion field” experience with thousands of fellow Mac users and tech pundits.

Either way, you will probably come down to Earth soon enough, though, and then you begin to pick apart the nagging elements of the keynote and the new products that don’t seem to make a whole lot of sense. Sure, you might understand the reasoning behind the decisions, but that doesn’t necessarily make it right.

Take the MacBook Air — please! I can see where it may be fun to have a mostly-functional note-book computer that’ll fit comfortably into a manila envelope and all. It’s also nice to know that Apple has discovered “green,” and this ultra-thin gadget is appropriately recyclable and all.

However, I am not completely enamored with the way it all turned out. All right, I can understand why Apple ditched the built-in optical drive, Ethernet and FireWire. You can replace the first two, separately, with external USB add-ons. But the battery? Maybe — just maybe — it makes sense to have it sealed up in an iPod or an iPhone. I’m not thoroughly convinced of that either, but I’ll accept the argument that the sleek looks might suffer. But a note-book computer? If you’re designing a product for the committed road warrior, what about the concept of having a second battery in your carrying bag?

Sure, five hours battery life, assuming the Air actually fulfills that promise, is pretty decent and all. But what are you to do when it runs out of power? Do you look for an available power outlet, or get a power converter for your car, so you can charge it via the lighter socket?

I’m particularly concerned about such matters because, early on, I had to get a replacement battery for my first-generation 17-inch MacBook Pro. The original unit would die after an hour of use, even though it was supposedly fully charged. Popping in a replacement took 30 seconds. With a MacBook Air, if I had a defective battery, the whole computer would have to be returned to Apple and, according to the current claims about such matters, I’d have to wait five business days for it to be fixed and returned.

What do I do in the meantime? Postpone the business trip, rent or borrow another computer? Does Apple have any accommodation for the possibility of a defective battery? What say you, Steve?

Maybe I’m just nit-picking, but bear with me. You see, I’m only getting started.

Let’s take a look at the iTunes movie rental feature. Right now, I use Netflix. I pay a fixed amount every month and I can keep up to three DVDs at a time for as long as I want, and as they are returned, I get new ones. Other plans range from one to four DVDs. I can start watching a flick on a Monday, and finish on a Friday. There’s no danger of the disc automatically self-destructing, and no late fees.

While Apple isn’t unique in this regard, when you download a rental movie, you have 30 days to start watching, but only 24 hours once you click the play button. You may want to check a few seconds of the movie out of paranoia just to see if the file came through uncorrupted. But the clock has already started ticking, and there are 24 hours remaining before the file is vanquished.

Sure, you can just rent it all over again, but that would get unreasonably expensive and it’s certainly inconvenient.

In fairness to Apple, they had to make concessions to get all the major movie studios on board, and this egregious DRM scheme is standard operating procedure. Sure, Steve put a friendly spin on his ability to corral the studios to make deals with Apple, but at what cost?

Now nobody forces you to rent a movie from iTunes now or ever, and I can see where most of you will have little difficulty completing the movie within the 24-hour timeframe.

I do wonder, though, why the film industry is so paranoid about online sales and rentals. DVD sales are flattening and, in some instances, declining. They should take advantage of new revenue streams, but why cripple the product so severely? If the thing doesn’t take off, even in Apple’s hands, where does the blame lie?

Do I have to tell you?

The other concern is minor. Time Capsule is a sensible way to package a Wi-Fi router and a backup drive in a single box. The price is sensible too, assuming these are truly high-grade mechanisms. However, I wonder if this signals the restoration of the promised Leopard feature to be able to backup via Time Machine to a drive by way of a wireless connection. That capability was pulled at the last minute before 10.5 was released, but you clearly need it for Time Capsule to function. No, I don’t want to subscribe to the conspiracy theory that wireless backups of this sort will be limited to this single device. I’d prefer to think there’s a Leopard update in the wings that’ll address this shortcoming.

Now it’s your turn, gentle reader, to tell me what irritated you about Apple’s new product announcements and, of course, what you really liked? Do you plan to buy a MacBook Air?

When the analysts get the essence of a new Apple product announcement essentially correct, you sort of expect that a few of the mainstream members of the press probably got an advanced peek. No doubt you’ll also see some early reviews that clearly not rush jobs, but clearly indicate the author had a lot of face time with Apple’s light-as-a-feather note-book before it was officially unveiled.

What’s clear from the outset is that the MacBook Air is no desktop replacement in the fashion of the other portables in Apple’s lineup. It is designed from the ground up as a computing appliance for travel, and that explains some of the key decisions.

For example, there is no wired Ethernet connection. You are expected to network your MacBook Air via its built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi connection, except for mobile phones that might link up with its Bluetooth radio. What’s more, there’s no internal optical drive either. Using the MacBook Air’s Remote Disc feature, you’ll be able to network wirelessly with a Mac or PC’s optical drive on your network.

If none of that is convenient, you can still buy an Ethernet adapter and an external SuperDrive to attach, but one at a time, since there’s but one USB 2.0 port. The remaining wired connections include mini-DVI for an external display and a headphone jack. These peripheral ports are covered via a hatch so there are no unsightly holes to fret over.

It’s clear that Apple designed the MacBook Air to be otherwise as full-featured as possible, so you don’t need to consider an external docking station. In fact, no such product is provided, although I expect some third parties will jump in with something that includes Ethernet networking and the missing optical drive.

The keyboard is standard-sized, the internal hard drive, 80GB in size, is the same tiny storage device “borrowed” from the iPod classic. The 13.3-inch display is a lot larger than you expect in a three pound note-book computer, and the only fly in the ointment, such as it is, is that there’s no discrete graphics chip. Instead, you’re limited to an Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor with 144MB of RAM that it shares with the main memory. At prices starting at $1,799, you get 2GB, and Apple offers no RAM upgrade option, so that may indeed be the maximum amount engineered for this product. Worse, the battery is not user-replaceable, and Apple claims a five business day turnaround when the time comes for you to swap it out.

But what about the Flash drive, you may ask? Well, the rumor mills have been circulating with various and sundry claims that Apple would dispense with the traditional hard drive. That ends up only be half-true, since a solid state drive is an option, and a damned expensive one at that. Despite the feelings on the part of some writers that 32GB ought to be enough, Apple chose 64GB, a far more reasonable option. But Flash memory of that density doesn’t come cheap. Apple adds $999 to your purchase price if you decide to ditch the mechanical storage. Sure, your MacBook Air might run faster, but not so fast to justify that figure.

For now, you should regard Flash drives of that sort is a harbinger of the future. In a year or two, they will come down in price sufficient to be reasonably affordable. That’s then, and this is now, so consider better ways to spend your money if you opt for one of these note-books.

So just what is Apple’s target audience? Well, it’s not the folks who want to use their note-books as desktop replacements. A basic MacBook, at $1,099, won’t have the sex appeal or the ability to pop into a manila envelope, but it’s more suited for double-duty. What’s more, it’ll probably run somewhat faster, owing to the speedier CPU and faster hard drive.

But consider the plight of the confirmed road warrior, who sees no need to ditch a desktop computer, or is rarely at home or an office to enjoy one. For them, the extra cash they pay for an MacBook Air may be a godsend. Its feather-weight form factor will save the wear and tear on one’s shoulder, and there will be little sacrifice in terms of basic convenience and usability. Other than the need for an external or networked optical drive, you’ll be able to enjoy a complete computing environment.

And this isn’t something you’d expect to consider now. But the MacBook Air is environmentally friendly, so when or if the day comes to toss it away — and that’s an event that will not happen for a number of years — you’ll be pleased to know the aluminum case is, according to Apple recyclable. What more can you ask, other than maybe a lower price?

In recent days, the tech media has been struggling to lower our expectations about what Steve Jobs might reveal during his Macworld Expo keynote. Despite getting less buzz than last year’s iPhone roll-out, there was still plenty of meat and potatoes to chew over.

Here’s a brief summary of the keynote announcements, and I’ll have more to say in later commentaries:

• Some five million copies of Leopard have been sold so far, meaning almost 20% of the Mac user base has upgraded. Despite the claims of some that Leopard has been a disappointment because of a spate of early-release bugs, the sales figures, at the very least, don’t seem to bear this out, though I bet a lot of those upgrades are simply the result of buying lots and lots of new Macs this quarter.
• Apple announces a new companion product for Time Machine, Time Capsule, a combo AirPort base station that includes a built-in “server grade” backup drive that’ll work without a wired connection. It’s priced at $299 for the 500GB version and $499 for the 1TB version and will ship in February.
• After 200 days on sale, some four million iPhones have been sold so far. This is somewhat ahead of industry analyst estimates, by the way and it means that approximately 20,000 are purchased every single day. Jobs said it gave Apple a 20% share of the smartphone market in the first 90 days. The figures for the December quarter will be announced later this month.
• Jobs confirmed that the iPhone SDK, which allows third-party developers to create software, will be out as previously announced in late February.
• Version 1.1.3 of the iPhone is, as expected, becoming available. It sports such new features as maps with location (employing technology from Google and Skyhook wireless), the ability to send text messages to different people at once, and a new “Add to home screen” feature that does what the name implies. The new Web Clips feature sort of mirrors what you can do with Safari and Leopard now. In this case the “clip” of a favored site can be put on your home screen. You should be able to download the upgrade, which will, naturally, kill any unsupported software you’re using, as of today.
• iPod touch owners can now get five new applications for their players: Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes, and Weather. For existing owners, it’s a $20 option, and it just moves the touch that much closer in feature-set to the iPhone.
• Jobs announced that sales on iTunes of “125 million TV shows and 7 million movies” simply didn’t meet Apple’s expectations, although it’s more than other services combined. As predicted, he announced new features and content alliances. Chief among them is iTunes rentals, along with support from pretty much the rest of the movie industry, including Fox, Warner Brothers, Disney, Paramount, Sony Studios and, surprisingly in light of the recent public spat, Universal. Over 1,000 movies will be available at the start. You’ll have 30 days to start watching a rented movie and 24 hours to finish before it self-destructs. Pricing is $2.99 for existing catalog and $3.99 for new releases. And, you’ll be able to transfer the movie to a different device even after you start watching, so you can begin on your Mac or PC, and finish on your iPhone or iPod. Add $1.00 if you prefer the HD version; 100 titles will ship in this format at the beginning.
• In keeping with the new product updates, there was a “Take 2” version of Apple TV announced. It will function without a computer, and will let you rent movies direct from your widescreen TV and offer not just HD quality, but Dolby Digital 5:1 surround sound. This is precisely what you can already get with the HD stations you receive over the air or via your cable or satellite TV connection. Even better, the new capabilities will be packaged in a free software update for existing Apple TV owners. The updated units will ship in two weeks and retail for $229, down from $299. Clearly Apple is pulling out all stops to get Apple TV into as many homes as possible, after it received a somewhat tepid reaction in 2007.
• Oh, and let’s not forget the MacBook Air, the long-rumored thin and light note-book that was also preordained for the keynote. Characterized by Jobs as “the world’s thinnest note-book,” it will actually fit inside a yellow manila envelope. Thickness ranges from 0.76″ at its fattest point to 0.16″ at its thinnest, and that’s no misprint. But it will be full-featured, with a standard keyboard, and 13.3-inch display, backlit courtesy of LED and a new, Multi-Touch keypad. It’ll come with either a 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Standard setup includes a regular 80GB hard drive, identical to the one you find in an iPod. There’s also a 64GB solid state drive as an option, but it won’t come cheap. How does $999 grab you? I didn’t think so. In addition, a Remote Disc feature will allow you to “borrow” an optical drive from another Mac or PC on your network, since it won’t come with one, nor will there be an Ethernet port. Full wireless connectivity is provided courtesy of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi; hence the reasoning behind the “Air” moniker. The unit weighs a mere 3 pounds, battery life is listed as five hours, and prices start at $1,799. Place your orders now, as the MacBook Air ships in two weeks.

So was this event a bummer or did Steve Jobs meet or exceed your expectations? As always on The Night Owl, your comments are welcomed.

Over the past week, you may have read a number of stories covering the latest Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. But did any single product or concept truly stand out? Think about it.

Sure, Bill Gates made his swan song appearance, but did he present any real promises about future Microsoft developments — real or imagined? At least he didn’t bore us with that combined coffee table/touchscreen PC called Surface that was touted last year. Has that dreadful thing even gone on sale yet?

And who would buy one anyway? An interior decorator? Give me a break!

One news source made an attempt to judge Gates’ predictions of the past decade against reality and found him to be a poor prophet when it comes to envisioning new technology, even from his own company. But that revelation came too little and too late to do any good. If they knew that in the 1990s, Microsoft’s shell game might have been exposed long before they did any real damage to rivals, such as Netscape and even Apple.

But what’s most telling is that it seems the larger amount of news last week was not so much about new technologies on display at CES as about what Apple might reveal this week.

Now the sponsors of CES did learn one thing last year, and that was that holding their event during the same week as Macworld Expo would make it almost invisible. Most people remember just one major product announcement from a year ago, and that’s the iPhone.

This year’s CES featured introductions of larger and cheaper flat-panel TVs, inklings that the high definition war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD might soon be over, and a lot of lesser developments. But none of that will be remembered for very long.

You know that there will be minor 2008 upgrades to 2007 consumer electronics gear, but most of that’s for show. Few compelling new features will be in evidence. Sure, you might find some fancy-sounding monikers for various and sundry features that are supposed to improve on existing technology in some fashion, but, in the end, most of that is probably just marketing talk. In the real world, the differences aren’t apt to be significant.

As I said in yesterday’s commentary, the technology industry seems to have grown more and more dependent on what Apple is developing. In the wake of the fast uptake of the iPhone, other wireless carriers are pushing their own touchscreen-powered products. No doubt, when you go into one of their stores, some sales droid will tell you, “See, it’s just like the iPhone,” but it’s not. Having a few matching features, or a few the iPhone doesn’t have, doesn’t necessarily made the imitation better than the original, or even as good.

Apple’s expertise is in integrating all these features so they work seamlessly, not piling them on in order to look good as a bullet point in a presentation or on a spec sheet. One example is the new LG Voyager, a $299.99 iPhone knock-off offered by Verizon Wireless. Is it worth $100 less than the iPhone with the requisite two-year contract? Well, consider that, to dock with a PC and share files, you still need to buy the extra cost microSD card.

So, for the sake of argument, what does an 8GB microSD Flash card cost? Well, they really aren’t easy to come by. I saw one for roughly $140, but it was out of stock. 6GB memory is approximately $90, although you might save a little if you shop around.

So the LG Voyager becomes even less of a bargain, and I haven’t even begun to talk about its actual interface and what advantages and disadvantages it might offer in real world use.

However, you can see where I’m heading. At one time, CES was the harbinger of key technologies in the consumer electronics industry. Nowadays, other than minor product improvements, or showcasing a handful of product prototypes that may never see the light of day, the entire event seems to serve as the poor handmaiden to Apple.

What to know what’ll happen next year at CES? Check Macworld Expo this week for some very significant clues.