Sorry, Euro Apple fanboys. The main Apple event on that side of the globe has been canceled. The company has slowly been pulling out of trade shows, most notably Macworld as of yesterday, so canceling the Apple Expo Paris isn’t too much of a shock. The aftermath of yesterday’s announcement is sure to be felt deep into the Apple community for sometime as the company once again becomes a global consumer electronic force.

I’m not going to CES this year nor am I going to MacWorld. I’m not doing this in protest or in a misguided attempt to seem “above it all” – we just had a new baby and I don’t want to subject my wife to two monsters of yawp during CES/Macworld week – but I’m extremely pleased with my decision.

I’ve been covering trade shows in some form or another for eight years. I know folks who have been covering them for twenty-five years or more. And everyone agrees: as of late they have become a waste of time, effort, and attention, yet there is something in the trade show that draws us in year after year. At CES it’s the sheer volume of crap to cover. At MacWorld it’s always been Steve.

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We just learned that Steve Jobs is not going to give his annual address at Macworld where he generally announces new Apple product. So…now what? Is Apple still going to announce new products like the heavily rumored Apple netbook or new Mac Mini. How about the rest of the aluminum MacBook Pro lineup including a larger 17-inch model? Also, how about a new iPhone? What are all the Apple faithful going to do?

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This is more like it! Apple events always spur rumors, but the build-up to Macworld ‘09 has been uncharacteristically quite – except for the iPhone Nano rumor from yesterday.  So here we go with some real Apple rumors.

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Macworld is mere weeks and there really hasn’t been any substantial rumors besides this one involving a iPhone Nano. Ever since the original iPhone launched, Mac fanboys have been dreaming of a complete iPod-ish lineup that includes a small, nano version. It is widely known, and the source of many leaks, that iPhone/iPod case manufacturers receive basic specs and dimensions of upcoming Apple products so there are accessories available at the time of launch so this rumor might have some truth to it. The world has been yelling for a $99 iPhone and this small version might be Apple’s answer. Who knows.

The Steve Jobs’ Macworld Keynote is Apple Fanboy’s Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Boxing Day all rolled into an one hour event, but there isn’t one scheduled this year according to the Macworld Website. It’s kind of strange that with the event less than three weeks away that the site wouldn’t put the event’s main attraction on the schedule. Jobs isn’t listed under the speaker list, either. Hopefully we are missing it, or the site isn’t updated, ’cause Steve Jobs not preaching to his faithful is sure to send waves of speculation and doubt.

Macworld via MacDailyNews

Yesterday we wished happy birthday to the iMac, the personal computer from ten years ago that more or less saved Apple, leading the way to change the computer industry — as well as the music industry — forever.

We posted the video of Steve Jobs introducing the iMac and the nostalgia was palpable. But what were the reactions?

Reader Dan showed me this clip from a MacWorld from ten years ago, giving its first impressions of the new computer.

While the review is generally favorable, there are some parts that are humorous a decade on.

Most dramatically, this new consumer offering has no SCSI port, no standard serial ports, and no ADB ports. Apple has opted to replace these familiar connections with USB, a high-speed serial architecture that has suffered from slow adoption on the Wintel platform despite its technical advantages (see the sidebar “USB: Ready for Prime Time?”). Currently, no USB devices exist for the Mac.

I can’t wait till someone calls out the crap I write on here now ten years from now.

I swear, this is the last Macworld 2008-related thing I’ll write about. Then we can all forget it ever happened.

AppleInsider brought a camera, possibly more than one, to the show and snapped away. We had plenty of shots of the star of the show, the MacBook Air, but we didn’t strain ourselves to the point of photographing other vendors’ booths.

Think of trade shows like Macworld as an elementary school science fair: lots of people partnered up against their will talking about something that they understand maybe 95 percent of the time. Ask a question that pertains to the other 5 percent and boy are you in for a treat.

Four-page Macworld 2008 photo gallery [AppleInsider]

I’ve had the opportunity to talk with some of the top talkers in the tech world. My all time favorite has to be Patrick Norton. I like him because he talks fast and because he’s got that compelling X-factor quality that can’t be easily explained or understood. I met up with him at the xTrain.com booth to talk about what to me seems like irrational disappointment in this Macworld’s Apple announcements. You can get more Patrick at TekZilla.com, but if you buy a Drobo, you should definitely use promo code “CALI” at DroboStore.comno matter what Patrick says. :)

Click here to watch Brief #294

Granted, Apple may have dropped the price of its Apple TV while simultaneously adding much needed features (like HD support), but I have a less expensive alternative you might enjoy.

Head over to Monoprice, and buy a cable that’s compatible with your computer’s video out port. Connect that cable from your computer to your TV and you’ll be watching movies, HD or otherwise, on your big screen, all for the fraction of the cost of an Apple TV. (I have an iMac, which uses a mini-DVI port, so I needed this mini-DVI to DVI adapter before getting an cheap DVI-to-HDMI cable.)

Total cost: around $15 (I was able to buy the adapter for my iMac using a Best Buy gift card). $15 vs. $230?

Combine your setup with a little BitTorrent action and every night can be movie night, or The Office night or Lost night or…

Shocking low cable prices [Monoprice]

They were this close from getting me to stop pirating movies. Next year, maybe.

The just announced iTunes Movie Rentals isn’t a bad deal at all. For $3.99, you can download standard-def “new releases” (more on that in a moment) and watch them on your Mac, PC, iPhone, iPod, and whatever else in the iTunes family. Older releases are $1 cheaper, while high-def version add $1 to the standard-def prices. Movie rentals expire 24 hours after hitting “play.”

The problem I have, and what I see as a big “oh, so damn close” moment for movie industry, is the timing of the releases. You have to wait 30 days after the DVD release of the movie for it to hit the iTunes Store. What’s with the time delay? Who made the decision, “Yeah, let’s hold onto our DVD sales for just a little while later”?

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In his keynote at this year’s MacWorld, Steve Jobs just announced the latest iPod firmware, version 1.1.3. It adds the following features to the phone that you slide to unlock. Remember, if you’re one of those jailbreaking types, don’t upgrade just yet.

• The iPhone/iPod Touch SDK will be available in February, but there’s new software today like

• Maps with pseudo GPS that uses cellphone towers for your location.

• Webclips. Essentially bookmarked Web sites accessible on your home screen. Quick and dirty.

• You can customize your home screen, moving around icons as they wiggle.

• You can send txt messages to more than one person now. Wow, that’s long overdue.

• Smaller updates: Gmail now uses IMAP and you can view lyrics to songs.

Apple’s got a video demoing the new features here.

It looks like Wall Street isn’t too impressed with what Steve Jobs has showed off today. Apple’s stock is down some 8 percent today, trading at $170.41. What’s up, Wall Street? I mean, I have my own reasons why I’m disappointed with the announcements, but I’d like to know what The Street’s problem is.

Apple Stock Tanks During Stevenot [TechCrunch]

Here she is, the Mac laptop that had us all buzzing these past few weeks, the MacBook Air. What is it, exactly? And what’s with the Air monkier?

• She’s really, really thin. Like, 0.16 inches thin at the thinnest point. It fits inside an envelope. I’m staring at my credit card.

• It’s got a 13.3-inch widescreen, LED display.

• Yes, it uses a multi-touch trackpad.

• It uses an Intel Core 2 Duo processor at 1.66 GHz. It comes with an 80GB hard drive as standard, or you can opt for a 64GB flash drive, but that’ll cost ya. 2GB RAM is standard. Finally.

• There’s no built-in optical drive. A separate, USB drive will be available for $99 later. You can “borrow” another PC/Mac’s optical drive using supplied software.

• Built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth. It has something called a micro-DVI port for outputting video.

• She weighs three pounds, with a five-hour battery life. Three pounds? Isn’t that a little on the heavy side?

• Price: $1,799. Yeah…

• You can pre-order it today and it’ll ship in two weeks.

• Apple just put a video of it on its Web site. Right here, or thereabouts.

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The iTunes Movie Rental Store, rumored for so many weeks, is real, as Mr. Jobs just announced. Here’s what’s up.

• Every major studio, including Sony, Warner, Paramount and Universal, has signed up. So much for them hating Apple.

• New releases hit the Rental Store 30 days after their DVD release.

• Rentals last 24 hours, You have 30 days from the time of purchase to actually begin watching the movie.

• Price: New releases are $3.99, while older titles are $2.99. That’s a hell of a lot cheaper than going to the cinema and dealing with all the nonsense that entails.

• It launches today here in the U.S. International dudes will have to wait till later in the year.