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PowerPage notes that the new MacBook Air lacks a Kensington Security Slot which is used to secure laptops down.

One of the little issues that seems to have flown under the radar since Macworld Expo last week is that the MacBook Air doesn't ship with a security slot. That's right, the popular Kensington Security Slot (which has been present on every previous PowerBook to date) has vanished from the MacBook Air.

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After each major event, MacRumors provides a wrapup of rumors to reveal the sources of the most accurate (or inaccurate) information.

MacBook Air

As always, rumors closer to the event tend to be more accurate and more revealing than those in the months ahead. In this case, many of the details of the MacBook Air were spot on, though many of these details were revealed in the week leading up to the event.

Our own MacBook Air Whispers article confirmed some long standing details, including a 13.3" screen, external optical drive, and was the first to dub the machine the "MacBook Air". Our other hints also suggested the use of a 1.8" hard drive, an ethernet dongle due to the slim size of the upcoming laptop, and the inclusion of a multitouch trackpad -- all of which also turned out to be true.

Finally, an actual description of the MacBook Air leaked out the night before the Keynote on Wired's Gadget Blog, with a description of an "unbelievably thin" design with tapering edges.

Meanwhile, the longer standing rumors for the ultra-portable MacBook came from multiple sources which were summarized in our Ultra-portable Rumor Roundup. In the end, Appleinsider provided the most accurate description: 13", aluminum, 50% lighter, Slim, NAND Flash, LED backlit, No Optical Drive. NAND flash ended up being an optional feature, but the remainder of the report as well as long lead time made their report particularly impressive.

Of note, CNBC's rumors of the ultra-portable Mac were far less accurate, despite being a mainstream news site. CNBC's Jim Goldman had cited "a very good source" and described a 12" model with NAND Flash only at $1500 -- all of which were wrong.

Other honorable mentions include 9to5mac's "something strange about the touchpad", and MacScoop's early ultra-portable report. Also of interest is a report coming out of CrunchGear in October claiming that Apple would be releasing Multitouch trackpad MacBooks. Despite the wrong timeframe, with the release of a Multitouch trackpad, we should give credit to this early rumor.

Apple TV

Despite much speculation of a possible Apple TV update, few credible rumors of what to expect from an Apple TV upgrade came out in the weeks ahead of Macworld. Businessweek was the only one to suggest that the Apple TV would see a major upgrade but no details or timeframe was provided. CrunchGear, however, did claim in that HD content was coming to the Apple TV (though they claimed October).

iTunes Rentals

FinancialTimes, Variety and Businessweek served as the major sources of information about Apple's new movie rental service. Word first leaked out in June with reports that Apple was negotiating terms for iTunes movie rentals. Subsequent reports pinpointed the $3.99/24 hour rental window as well as the wide participation of many studios.

iPhone 1.1.3

One of the biggest Apple leaks leading into this year's Macworld was the leak of the iPhone 1.1.3 firmware which was revealed by GearLive. As always, the leaked video and screenshots generated the usual doubts, but it turned out to be quite accurate. This leak of pre-release firmware is the biggest Apple leak in recent history.

Meanwhile, MacScoop's widely publicized rumor that 1.1.3 would get Copy/Paste functionality turned out to be inaccurate. And CNET France's early claim 1.1.3 would contain Disk Mode and Voice Recording was also wrong.

Other Winners/Losers

Winners: Digitimes 13.3" LED Screens, American Tech Research Analyst: an external HDD storage/dock/streaming device
Losers: American Tech Research Analyst: Blu Ray at Macworld, All "leaked" keynote claims, All "leaked" spy shots.
Unlikely now: Goldman Sachs Analyst: Apple TV with LCD screen

Summary

Dedicated Apple rumors sites such as MacRumors and Appleinsider continue to provide the most accurate look at what's to come from Apple, though an expanding number of sites are able to fill in many additional details. Wired's Gadget Lab deservers particular credit for leaking an actual description of the Air the evening prior. Patent applications can certainly point the way to what Apple might be working on (multitouch) but should not be taken for granted (iMac docking station). Anonymously leaked transcripts and photos remain almost always fake.

What's to Come: MacBook Pros, Mini Tablet

In looking back at the sources of the most accurate rumors, we also find enticing reports of items that didn't come true at Macworld, but did come from credible sources.

The MacBook Pro updates are certainly coming -- and soon. Even without our rumor sources, the MacBook Pros are simply due for refresh. But the most interesting tidbit is that there have been reliable reports that the Pro machines will incorporate Apple's new multi-touch trackpad.

Given Appleinsider's accuracy with their ultra-portable report, it is increasingly likely that we will see a mini-tablet device coming from Apple. Apple is said to be working on a multi-touch OS X device about 1.5x the size of the iPhone with a 720x480 screen. Initial reports had suggested the possibility of a Macworld launch, but was delayed and may instead be seen later this year.

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Macworld San Francisco 2008 has come to a close. The 5 day conference and expo started on Monday, January 14th and ran until Friday January 18th. MacRumors.com was there for our traditional keynote coverage as well as extended floor coverage.

Our latest expo stories

NeatReceipts - a personal receipt scanner solution originally on Windows only.
Intuit - complete Quicken rewrite, and demo of Turbo Tax
H&R Block - demos 2008 TaxCut
Poll: Did you buy a MacBook Air?

Live Keynote Coverage

Keynote coverage on Tuesday, January 15th went remarkably well, though there were some issues behind the scenes. In particular, live keynote SMS updates were not sent due to technical problems at Twitter and Spoiler free emails were inadvertently delayed a number of hours. Despite these problems, we successfully updated our MacRumorsLive site which garnered universally positive reviews: JoshBancroft.com, ForWheelers.net, Sauria.com, ImRoot.com, MathewIngram.com, MacNoob, and Scobelizer.com:

For watching a live keynote, my son and I agree, Mac Rumors Live was -- by far -- the best place to watch the keynote. You didn’t need to refresh the page. Everything just came to you live.

Due to the overwhelming traffic, we are still processing log files to generate proper stats. We did, however, serve a record 535,000 unique visitors during the 90 minute keynote.

An archive of the keynote transcript is now available. Macworld 2009 takes place from January 5th-9th, 2009.

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NeatReceipts showed its upcoming Mac version of its scanner/software for cataloging receipts at Macworld.

NeatReceipts for Mac scans, saves, and uses optical character recognition (OCR) to save receipt data into a catalogue. It will automatically identify key terms like total, tip, and tax lines and categorize receipts appropriately. A custom-made coverflow view for browsing stored receipts is also available.



For the technically interested, the product is a Cocoa application that uses CoreData for its database and PDFKit for receipt image storage. The company is working on business card support for integration with Address Book, and version 2 will hopefully/probably integrate with Quicken, though no promises.

The company plans to release the product at the end of March. The full version which includes the receipt scanner will ring in at $180, but a software-only version compatible with any image-capture compatible scanner will go for $80. Users of the Windows product can get the Mac version at no additional charge.

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With the release of the MacBook Air, I thought we'd see how many of you actually ordered one. So, the question is....
Poll: Did you buy a MacBook Air?

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Financial software maker Intuit has been busy over the past year. Two of its major software titles for the Mac, Quicken and TurboTax, have seen or are in the process of being re-written from the ground up to make better use of modern technologies.


Quicken Financial Life for Mac
Quicken for Mac has long existed as a Carbon application due to its pre-existence on Mac OS 9. However, in recent years the Quicken for Mac designers have increasingly felt that they were not bringing the product to its fullest potential. With a Carbon code base, and varying 3rd party libraries, a universal binary version of the application became impossible without a ground-up re-write.

Therefore, Quicken 2007 for Mac will be the last in the current line of Quicken for Mac products and a brand new Quicken for Mac product, currently called "Quicken Financial Life for Mac" is being written. This product will use a slew of Mac OS X technologies. Here's a quick preliminary technical specification rundown:

- Cocoa based
- CoreData for information storage
- Universal Binary
- Mac OS 10.5 Leopard Only
- Coverflow and other Mac OS specific views

Because the application is being built from the ground-up, it will initially contain only a subset of what is currently found in Quicken 2007 for Mac. While it will fully support cash-flow accounts (cash, checking, savings, credit cards), it will start with extremely limited support for investments, though you will be able to track your balances and holdings and calculate your net worth. However, TurboTax and DirectConnect/WebConnect support are all to be expected in the 1.0 product.

Pricing hasn't been ironed out yet, but the final version is expected to ship in fall of 2008. Quicken was good enough to supply us with these exclusive high-quality screenshots of the application, but note that the application is still in pre-alpha, so the screens are subject to change.

TurboTax 2008 For Mac
TurboTax has also seen a ground-up rebuild this year. While the changes may not be quite as drastic as Quicken, Intuit says that several highly requested Mac-specific features have been added to this year's product.

Continue reading full article...

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H&R Block showed off its updated tax preparation software at Macworld this week. The software is a universal binary and compatible with Mac OS 10.3.9 through Mac OS 10.5.

Tax Cut includes standard features that you'd expect from a tax preparation program, such as the ability to import data from Quicken, TurboTax, or TaxCut in windows or mac flavors. In addition, the premium edition includes one free question to a tax advisor. Of course, all data is encrypted via 128-bit AES.

H&R block has included several mac-specific features in this year's version to sweeten the deal, including the ability to import address book information, iDisk backup or restore from another user's iDisk, and subscribing to iCal calendars with tax related dates (filing deadlines, etc).

TaxCut starts at $19.99 for the Federal version, $39.99 for the Federal+State edition, and $69.99 for the Federal+State+e-file edition.

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We've spent another long day combing the floors of Macworld San Francisco 2008 and posting some of the best of what Macworld has to offer. Here is a quick rundown of what the day brought:

- EA's Spore - a new Intel-only universe simulator
- Ecamm Network - a remote iPhone Camera proof of concept
- RAGE Software - webmaster tools
- Ntractive Elements SBM - hybrid desktop/web small business management application
- Ambrosia Software - WireTap Studio, Aquaria, and iToner
- Macworld Head Turners - products that made us look twice
- Opinion: The Other MacBook Air Market - a followup to the 'Lack of 3G a Deal Breaker' article.

Continuing coverage of Macworld San Francisco 2008 at http://www.macrumors.com/mwsf/.

See Also: Yesterday's Wrapup, including Macworld Best of Show

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There were a lot of great products that we've seen on the Macworld floor, but there are some that especially catch your eye. Sometimes it's the display, sometimes it's the product itself. I'll let you be the judge for these two that caught our eye.

Zap! Copter
A green modified Volkswagen with a propeller on top and a jet-pack on the back? At Macworld no less? Hmm...


Zap! is a company that sells electric cars, and in all reality, the purpose of the display was to demonstrate the company's new initiative to incorporate iPod integration with its cars. But everyone who was stopping by the booth just couldn't get over the fact that this thing looked like it was a hybrid car/jet helicopter.

The Zap! spokeswoman attending the booth stated that while the model on the floor was a "prototype" and not capable of flight, if enough pre-orders were received, they'd make it get off the ground. My thoughts? Using a crane, maybe. Still, if you're in the market for an electric car that works with your iPod, check out Zap's website.

iPod Stereo Dock and Toilet Tissue Dispenser
Some people take the newspaper. Some like magazines. Perhaps a good romance novel is your fancy? Whatever you do to pass the time while using the lavatory, wouldn't it be nice to have some background music?


The "iCarta", made by Atech Flash Technology, combines a toilet tissue holder with an iPod speaker system. It is compatible with all iPods with dock connectors and beyond due to its USB port for 1st generation iPod shuffles and line-in port for other devices. There are 4 speakers: 2 woofers and 2 tweeters, and in my quick listening in the noisy hall, it actually sounded pretty decent for what it was (mind you, this is no Bose system).

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Ambrosia Software hosted a booth at this year's Macworld Expo to promote some of their new and upcoming software titles for the Mac.


Their most recent utility launch was of WireTap Studio which we've previously previewed ahead of the official launch. WireTap Studio provides some unique tools for anyone who needs to record or manage audio on their Mac. LivePreview remains the most dramatic feature, allowing you to preview different audio encodings in real time to find the best balance of quality vs. size. I'd expect that podcasters in particular would have an interest in this $69 tool.

iToner is an easy-to-use $15 utility that allows you to convert existing songs (MP3, MP4, AIFF or WAV) into custom iPhone ringtones. The just-announced iPhone 1.1.3 firmware breaks iToner functionality, however, but Ambrosia tells us that version 1.0.6 of iToner is in beta testing and will address the iPhone 1.1.3 incompatibility.



Finally, Aquaria is a new game that Ambrosia will be releasing in "Q1 2008" which is a port of a PC game originally created by Bit Blot. The PC version of the game was only recently released in December of 2007 and well received. Aquaria is described as an "action-oriented, non-linear side-scrolling game that uses an innovative and intuitive mouse control system". Pricing has not yet been announced, but a downloadable demo will be available upon release.

in celebration of Macworld, Ambrosia is offering a 10% discount Macworld Special on all products which remains good until January 31, 2008.

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Startup company Ntractive gave attendees of Macworld San Francisco a glimpse at its upcoming product Elements SBM.

Elements SBM tackles an old problem (small business management) in a new and rather innovative way: by creating a hybrid desktop/web application. The result promises to be a solution that gives users the accessibility of web applications with the power, look, and feel of a desktop application. Features planned for 1.0 will include an administrative interface, home screen, calendar, email, in/out, contacts, notes, sales, service, marketing, developer, projects, internet, images, and document modules.

The first installment of Elements SBM will be for Mac OS X, and will feature integration with iChat, Address Book, iPhoto, the Dock, and will support Drag and Drop, amongst others. However, because the application is built utilizing WebKit, versions for the iPhone and Windows are also in the pipeline.

Ntractive says that it already has over 550 companies signed up for a beta coming this Spring.


Some Elements SBM Screenshots. For more, see Ntractive's online gallery

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RAGE Software, maker of a suite of tools to assist webmasters in optimizing their websites, announced updates to two of their most popular applications, SERank and Domainer, at Macworld this week.

Domainer 1.5 is an update to RAGE's domain administration application. Previously functionality included integration with iCal to alert for domain name expirations and keychain to securely store FTP login details. Domainer 1.5 is a free update to current users and adds additional popularity statistics including blog popularity, RSS feed subscribers, and popular Digg.com submissions. Domainer website

Also released was SERank 1.5, which adds over a dozen new search engines and the ability to check up to 100 search engine results to SERank. SERank already had the capability to track where their websites appear on many other search engines automatically, including Google, Yahoo, and MSN. SERank website


RAGE Software's booth

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At Macworld, one of the speciality programs was a lecture series called iPhone Supersession given by Ben Long and Christopher Breen.

The iPhone Supersession takes you way beyond the basics, exploring areas including converting the media you own to an iPhone compatible format, contact and event organization, the best of Web-based iPhone applications and accessories, and power management. Need more? We'll explore popular (and not so popular) hacks for turning your iPhone into a portable entertainment and information powerhouse.

Christopher Breen has kindly posted his slides to download in PDF format.

The presentation is a remarkably comprehensive overview of iPhone usage and the most important tips and tricks to effectively use your iPhone. Even power users might find some excellent information, and it's certainly a must-read for new iPhone users.

The presentation is broken down into the following sections:

Text and typing, Sync or swim, Smarter about playlists, The portable information manager, Email matters, Picture this, Content connection, Third-party applications, Web apps, Travel tips, Custom ringtones, Accessories, Troubleshooting

Update: Slides removed, not intended for distribution.

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Virtualization competitors Parallels and VMWare were taking opposite sides of the South Hall at Macworld to show off Mac OS X Server running in a virtualized environment on Apple hardware (made possible by changes to Mac OS 10.5's EULA for Leopard Server).

For its part, Parallels showed off a new product, currently in beta, called Parallels Server (previously announced). Parallels is targeting Parallels Server for users of server hardware, as the software contains hooks that allow more in-depth monitoring of the hardware that the desktop edition does not allow. In beta, the software currently supports up to 2-way SMP for virtual machines, although they state that the shipping version will support 4-way SMP. This SMP support will eventually find its way into their Desktop product. Parallels received a Best of Show award for Parallels Server from Macworld.


Parallels Server Display, running on a previous generation Xserve
VMWare has also been busy working to support Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Server in a virtualized environment. At Macworld, they demoed a technology preview which showed VMWare running multiple server operating systems with the usual hardware support. Sound and accelerated video were not working, however, and VMWare could not commit whether such support would be included in the final shipping version. As a technology preview, no product was announced and no ship date yet available.


VMWare booth
VMWare also pointed out that VMWare Importer Beta 2 was released late last week which includes support for VirtualPC virtual machines and improves support for importing Parallels virtual machines.

Both companies offer free trial versions of their standard virtualization software which allows Intel Mac owners to run Windows or Linux: Parallels Desktop 3.0 and VMWare Fusion 1.1

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As a follow up to the 3g Deal Breaker article, I thought I'd write some additional thoughts about the MacBook Air, and some reconsideration of my initial reaction.

Traditionally, the "sub-notebook" class of machine has tended to be marketed at the power-user, so that's how many of the media approached the MacBook Air... but that may have been the wrong way to look at it. In speaking to Xavier of Notebooks.com, he mentioned (and later wrote about) how that the MacBook Air instantly appealed to his wife, who is normally less than thrilled at the prospect of Xavier getting new hardware:

I didn’t bother to consider my wife’s point of view on the MacBook Air until I got her Facebook status update (“…secretly hopes Xavier gets the MacBook Air."). But then I started thinking about how this new Mac will appeal to women. It’s slim enough to throw in a purse, is stylish and has very few cords, which creates clutter.

There's certainly a class of users who simply don't care about 3G, don't care about hooking up more than one USB peripheral to their MacBook. So, I'll concede that the many bloggers may not be the intended audience for the MacBook Air, and it could very well see wide consumer appeal.

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The folks at Ecamm Network in the West Hall were showing off their suite of products. Many probably know them from their product iChatUSBCam, which has allowed USB webcams to work with iChat for some time.

However, what was probably the coolest software that they were demoing in their booth was a proof-of-concept that used the iPhone's camera as a remote webcam for iChat. Beyond just being a cool concept, it can be useful if you want to show the other participant of the conference something in the other room.

The technology currently works as a 3rd party application installed on the iPhone. When the iPhone is connected to your WiFi network and the application is loaded on the iPhone, your computer can use Bonjour to detect the iPhone's camera and voila.

In its current incarnation, it isn't ready for prime-time. After a few minutes, the picture would freeze, and connection would have to be manually re-established. There's also no word on availability as of yet, though a trip over to Ecamm's website would be good if not just for this product, but to check out their other software as well.

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EA announced at Macworld that they would be releasing Spore later this year simultaneously for PC and Mac.

Spore is your own personal universe in a box. In this universe you can create and evolve life, establish tribes, build civilizations and even sculpt entire worlds. In Spore you have a variety of creation tools at your disposal that allow you to customize nearly aspect of your universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even spaceships. While Spore is a single player game, your creations and other players' creations are automatically shared between your galaxy and theirs, providing a limitless number of worlds to explore and play.

Spore will use TransGaming's technology to allow EA to quickly make a Mac version of the game:

"The technology wrapper goes around (the software), and traps the (code) calls native to the Windows environment, and converts them to the correct calls for Mac," McCombe said. "It's not a complete code rewrite. It's more wrapper technology with some customer work."

The official site has more information, screenshots and movies.

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