MacWorld 2008: Movie rentals and more

The MacBook Air may have stolen the show at this year's MacWorld Expo but rest assured, there was a whole lot more to see. Here's a quick rundown of the new products announced during Steve Jobs' keynote: 

• Time Capsule: Essentially an 802.11n Airport Extreme base station combined with a 500GB or 1TB hard drive. Indented for laptop users who want wireless backups via Time Machine. $299 and $499, respectively.
• iPhone v1.1.3 firmware: As expected, here's the new iPhone firmware. Google Maps with My Location (faux GPS), a customizable home screen, multiple-recipient SMS messages, support for chapters, subtitles and languages in videos and more. Look at those home screen icons jiggle!
• iPod Touch Update: The iPod Touch will (finally) be getting some new apps--Mail, Maps, Stocks, Notes and Weather--but existing Touch owners will have to pay $20 for the update. Ouch!
• iTunes movie rentals: As expected, iTunes gets downloadable/streamable DVD-quality movie rentals from Fox, Warner Brothers, Disney, Paramount, Universal, Sony Pictures, Touchstone, Miramax, MGM, Lionsgate, and New Line Cinema--basically every major studio. You can watch the flicks on your iPod, iPhone, computer or Apple TV--you can even rent directly from your couch with the Apple TV. Once downloaded, you'll have 30 days to start watching the file and 24-hours to finish watching. $2.99 for older titles, $3.99 for new releases and an extra buck if you prefer HD quality. Over 1000 titles are currently available. What's more, the Apple TV's UI will get a complete overhaul and the unit will see a price drop to $229.

For more on the announcements:
- see this Ars Technica article