2008 Apple Event

I'm at Apple HQ, listening to Steve and losing it over the new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air announcements, but I of course can't take my eyes off the fashion. Our man Steve showed up in his favorite outfit, the black mock turtleneck, blue jeans, and New Balances, which was not surprising, but what is of note is that I'm pretty sure Steve is an Apple trendsetter.

Apple COO Tim Cook, who introduced the "State of the Mac," looks like he's been taking style cues from the boss; Cook wore a black button down and blue jeans! Though he went with nice black dress shoes rather than trainers like Steve, I liked the doppelganger action Cook and Jobs had going on onstage. Also cute? They match the new black inside design of the new notebooks!

Guest speaker, Apple Designer Jony Ive, had us reverting to our middle school days when he presented us with slides that dissected a MacBook and MacBook Air. The focus was on the encasing that comes with the new MacBook Pros that will look very similar to the MacBook Air. In the past, MacBooks have been produced with layers of materials that make the MacBook Pro strong but heavy. When Apple released the Air, they started fresh and encased the Air in just one layer of aluminum — making it lighter, slimmer, and stronger.

The new MacBooks and MacBook Pros will all follow this anatomy with just one slice of aluminum, which has been molded around its parts. I got a firsthand look at the new skeleton of the MacBook Pros – trust me when I say it's light!

Steve has just announced the new MacBook Air in addition to the new Pros; the big changes here are in hard-drive size (they've gone up to 120 GB from 80 GB) and graphics — they're now four times as fast.

The size stays the same at a 13.3-inch display; the lower level price is $1,799, and the version with the faster processor and solid state drive is $2,499.

Steve Jobs introduced the new MacBook Pros today here in Cupertino, which has me very happy since mine is on its last leg as we speak! The new MacBook Pros will contain a slamming new graphics card from Nvidia (great for all you animators and gamers out there), a LED backlit display, a whole new glass trackpad that comes minus a button (click right on the track pad to select), some cool four-finger gestures, a magnetic latch, and a unibody enclosure, which means the body is made from one solid piece of aluminum and is stronger than any other MacBook produced.

Another great feature of the MacBook Pro is its eco status. Because of the solid casing, Apple can use 50 percent less materials to get this bad boy on the market, and use discarded aluminum for other products like iPods, or even other MacBooks. All the standard specs are there: WiFi enabled, Bluetooth, and all your essential connectors.

Welcome to Apple HQ with geeksugar! I'm reporting live from Cupertino to bring you today's big Apple news. Will we be hearing about the new MacBooks yet?! So far we've heard an intro from Steve Jobs himself, saying, "Today's about notebooks." Let's get started then, shall we?

COO of Apple, Tim Cook, presented us with the current "State of the Mac." What is the state then? Cook says that Macs have grown 2-3 times because of six big factors:

1) Better computers — iMac's all-in-one design, the MacBook Air
2) Better software — Leopard, which he says is far ahead of Vista (BURN), plus things like iLife and iWork
3) Compatibility — People are able to switch from PCs to Macs more easily due to Bootcamp, Fusion, and Parallels
4) Vista — Yes, Cook cited Vista as a reason for Mac's growth. Namely, the fact that its failure has pushed people toward Macs. "It's fair to say that Vista has not lived up to what Microsoft wanted."
5) Marketing — The "Get a Mac" ads
6) Retail Stores — 247 stores in 8 countries with 400,000 visitors per day. Wow!

Stay tuned for the big announcements!