Macworld Expo 2010 Review

Macworld Expo 2010 Review Bryan Tong: What's up? Brian Tong here, and welcome to the Apple Byte. We're talking about all the good and bad inside the world of Apple. Macworld 2010 is here, but before we get to that let's cover some of the latest news. It's no surprise; it has to do with the iPad. A recent report from research firm iSupply estimates component costs for the entry level Apple iPad is just under 220 dollars. Add 10 more for manufacturing, and you're talking about a 230 dollar device that's being sold for $499.00. This pricing doesn't factor into research and development, software and marketing, but Apple is making quite the pretty penny. Now Apple's been telling us the 3G flavored iPad costs 130 more dollars, when iSupply says the parts for 3G in GPS components costs about 27 bucks. The Wall Street Journal reported that Credit Suisse analyst Bill Shope was told by Apple execs that they would be nimble with pricing if the iPad doesn't gain early traction with consumers. I know there are some of you that really want one, but maybe you should all wait it out with that pricing thing; especially after a job posting on Apple's site showed they're looking to hire someone in their iPad media division with a strong technical background to test still video and audio capture playback frameworks. That would mean a camera in the next version of iPad, and that's starting to look a lot better by the week. But would one move could potentially get you back in the arms of the iPad, and once again drinking Apple's juice? Tech Crunch claims the popular video site Hulu is working on bringing an iPad friendly flash free version of its site by the time the iPad hits the market. Could it be? Halle-Hulu! Halle-Hulu! Halle-Hulu! Halle-Hulu! Halle-Hulu! This is some good Apple juice. Alright guys, I'm done with that. Really, I am. Now there's this thing called Macworld 2010 that just wrapped up. Apple's not there, but who cares? We sent our sponsor from China to cover the event. Brian Tong here at Macworld 2010. If you're a guy looking to meet a girl, you're not going to have much luck. But if you love Apple stuff, you'll love this floor. You know, Macworld is also kind of known as the flea market for iPhone cases, but here we have a whole bunch of unique ones from Trexta. We've got things like the service of sports balls, like with this case they say you can actually dribble your iPhone when you put this on. And they also have cases for the different flags, but they don't have China and I'm not really happy about that. These are made in China. Also one unique thing is this surface of this case, you can sketch on it. So I'm going to do a little masterpiece and we're going to see what we come up with, alright? Alright, there you go, the number one seller from Trexta. Now a lot of people have been wondering, when could you actually use your 27 inch iMac as display? A lot of people want to plug in their PS3, their Xboxes, or their Blu-ray player. Well Connex has a solution for this. It's a little adapter box. It's going to be 149 dollars, but it'll actually allow you to pump in your HMI signal directly into here, and look... hot tiger's been hiding out. We found him right here at Macworld. Dancing with Microsoft! Oh! Oh! Now Hard Candy's doing something different. You have the only iPad case. Male: We have a full line up, but right now at this show we have the bubble sleeve in both our pink and our black version. All of our cases are all about premium protection, deliciously styled. So you can see here we're trying to put in these rubber corners to help actually keep the iPad in place. So it's not going to go anywhere else. Brian Tong: So you guys, I know you've been in the cold, so cold, and you want to use your iPhone but you can't. I think I might have found the solution for you. These are the telefingers. You can use the gloves... while you use your iPhone. It's like magic baby. From the Macworld 2010 floor, a lot of people, great energy, and if there's anything I've learned today, is that you guys love the Mac and the Mac... loves you. I've got a plane to catch, back to you American Brian. That's some of the best Macworld coverage you guys will find all this year. Now in some quick Bytes, we've got to give AT and T some props for stepping up their game. They are now allowing voiceover IP calls, and streaming media with the sling player app over their 3G network. We tore them a new one last year for limiting these killer features, but the question now is will their network hold up? They're working on improvements and upgrades that I've been able to notice, so AT&T, we're giving you a nice warm Apple pie. But for now, we'll re-evaluate this one once the iPad comes out. And a follow-up to our desktop stories from last week, it's been reported that Apple has been offering a 15 percent refund of the price of 27 inch iMacs for customers that have been having repeated repair issues. So basically you're getting 300 dollars back while keeping the 27 inch iMac that has been more than a little headache. Now Apple still hasn't acknowledged the Mac Pro performance problems, but this leads to a bigger issue. I know, Apple's producing more and more computers and devices, but there's no doubt that the overall quality of their products has dropped below the high standards they used to set. It's across the board from laptops and desktops, and their stance of staying hush-hush about issues, hoping that they're just going to die; it just doesn't cut it. I'm throwing out the bad Apple. So tackle these issues. Don't hide in silence, and maybe you could get a piece of our warm Apple pie. Alright that's going to do it for this week's show. Send me your emails to the Apple Byte at CNET.com. I'm Brian Tong. Thanks for watching, and come back next week for another Byte of the Apple!