Apple’s 2008 keynote speech is over and done with, pools of drool have been mopped up and the confetti has been swept away. Now that the masses have regained some composure after succumbing to fits of techno-lust the Cult of Mac must ask its collective self, were yesterday’s revelations all that great?

Nobody can deny that Apple is on the leading edge of portable computing with their iPhone and iPod Touch, not to mention that the MacBook Air looks cool as hell, but once you get past the sheen of Air’s aluminum casing what are you really left with? My initial reactions to Air were pretty positive. My thought being that a sub-laptop with trimmed down specs and a slim design would be great for all of those people out there who pretty much use their computers as internet and word processing terminals—cropping and uploading photos wouldn’t even require a powere-house. So, sure who wouldn’t want to catch some Air.

The love affair lasted until they announced the price. At $1,799 the MacBook Air is considerably more expensive than the base model MacBook ($1,099)—after two weeks Ivy is loving hers. When you consider that the tech specs for the Air and the base model MacBook are nearly identical you have to ask yourself if a gimmicky multi-touch pad and slim design really make up for the lack the of an optical drive, fewer inputs, and slower processor, I think not. Also, consider the hype and speculation that was abound prior to the keynote. Most people were expecting some kind of trimmed down laptop with a touch responsive screen, not an extra-large touchpad. Personally, I was hoping for some kind of tablet laptop like Axiotron’s ModBook, but that doesn’t seem likely to happen anytime soon either.

The MacBook Air was the big deal at this year’s keynote, but what of the other announcements? Time Capsule, the wi-fi base station and server-grade wireless backup drive, is actually pretty cool. If I were in the market to upgrade my router setup I would seriously consider buying this. That being said, back-up and connectivity hardware aren’t exactly show stoppers.

In regards to the iPhone and iPod Touch software updates, uhm… whoopty. I am currently on the fence about upgrading my Nano to a Touch and slightly higher storage capacity would’ve done it for me. So, color me unimpressed by some additional apps. ’nuff said.

Jobs and the gang were obviously pretty stoked by the whole Apple TV movie rental service that they’d cooked up, but once again I must digress… whoopty-do.

Let’s break it down:

• 30 days to watch once you download it—sounds fair.
• 24 hours to watch once you press play—I suppose that’s okay too.
• Library titles (read older films) are $3 for SD and $4 for HD—meh.
• New Releases are $4 for SD and $5 for HD—are they really new if you have to wait a month after the DVD hits shelves before you can rent it online?

Once again, it’s the price that really gets me. I realize that everyone has to get their cut, but a couple of years ago you could rent an actual DVD for that price from Butt-Buster, and you still can at your local grocery store. If they cut those prices in half I might give it a try. Second on my list is the post-release release of new films, it’s just a little lame. By the time you can rent it online you’ll have likely forgetten that it came out at all. Add to this the fact that you need the Apple TV setup to actually get the proper enjoyment out of watching these films and the thrill of online rentals just seems to get whisked away into the night. Sure, you can watch these movies on your iPod, but the for the price the viewing size is a little small. You can also watch right on your computer, but if you are like me it’s hard to focus on a movie when you have a pile of work to sift through on your desk. I think I’ll stick with Netflix where I get all the DVDs I can watch–between 6-15 a month on average—in the mail for the price of a couple Apple rentals.

All in all what this all boils down to is that Apple’s 2008 Keynote can’t compare to 2007. My final analysis of yesterday’s keynote is over-priced and unimpressed.