There’s a bit of backstory to the video which dates back to 1984, when the video was first shown during Apple’s international sales meeting. According to a commenter on YouTube, he was there when it was first shown:

I was there in Oct. 1984. This was not an internal ad. I was a 1984 state of the art multimedia slide show with audio by Ray Parker Jr. who sang the original. There were also live dancers on the stage.

This was the opening presentation of the International Sales Meeting that introduced the Lightwriter later renamed Laserwriter. Apple always used a current movie as a them for the sales meetings. in 1985 it was Back to the Future.

The reason you haven’t been able to witness the video until now is because it’s been locked up, due to Stanford having a massive archive of Apple’s history sealed away. It appears that some of the materials have been leaked and if there are anymore of these videos out there, hopefully someone will be kind enough to share.

The “Blue” being mentioned in the video is referring to IBM, who Apple was in direct competition with during that period of time.

FaceTime has become a popular selling point of Apple’s iPhone, and the iPad 2 is expected to accommodate it as well. 

"The new MacBook Pro brings next generation dual and quad Core processors, high performance graphics, Thunderbolt technology and FaceTime HD to the great design loved by our pro customers," said Apple SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing Philip Schiller. "Thunderbolt is a revolutionary new I/O technology that delivers an amazing 10 gigabits per second and can support every important I/O standard which is ideal for the new MacBook Pro."

Apple says in its announcement, "MacBook Pro is the first computer on the market to include the groundbreaking Thunderbolt I/O technology. Developed by Intel with collaboration from Apple, Thunderbolt enables expandability never before possible on a notebook computer. Featuring two bi-directional channels with transfer speeds up to an amazing 10Gbps each, Thunderbolt delivers PCI Express directly to external high performance peripherals such as RAID arrays, and can support FireWire and USB consumer devices and Gigabit Ethernet networks via adapters. Thunderbolt also supports DisplayPort for high resolution displays and works with existing adapters for HDMI, DVI and VGA displays. Freely available for implementation on systems, cables and devices, Thunderbolt technology is expected to be widely adopted as a new standard for high performance I/O."

"With Apple’s innovative FaceTime video calling software, the new camera allows high definition video calls between all new MacBook Pro models and supports standard resolution calls with other Intel-based Macs, iPhone 4 and the current generation iPod touch," the company says. "FaceTime is included with all new MacBook Pro models and is available for other Intel-based Macs from the Mac App Store for 99 cents. The MacBook Pro lineup continues to feature its gorgeous aluminum unibody enclosure, glass Multi-Touch trackpad, LED-backlit widescreen display, illuminated full-size keyboard and 7-hour battery."

There is a 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro model, as well as a 15-inch and a 17-inch model. The 13-inch version is available in a 2.3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 and 320GB hard drive version for $1,199, as well as a 2.7 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 and 500GB hard drive version for $1,499. The 15-inch MacBook Pro is available in a 2.0 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, AMD Radeon HD 6490M and 500GB hard drive version for $1,799 and a 2.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, AMD Radeon HD 6750M and 750GB hard drive version for $2,199. The new 17-inch Apple MacBook Pro comes in just one version –  2.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, AMD Radeon HD 6750M and 750GB hard drive, and is priced at $2,499.

Apple has an event scheduled for March 2nd, where it will almost certainly unveil the iPad 2. Stay tuned for that. Meanwhile, the iPad continues to dominate tablet shipments.

First, Jobs is a compelling presenter, a true showman and storyteller. Not a showman in the negative sense but in the sense of someone who really can – and does – engage with his audience.

Second, how thin he looks. I’ve read he’s had surgery for a cancer so perhaps his bulimic appearance is a consequence of that. Let’s hope his recovery is going well.

Reading an article in The Economist this morning, I’m also clear that there’s a third thing which, as The Economist says, points to the ultimate role of the iPhone:

[...] There were personal computers before 1984, but it took the Macintosh, which Apple launched that year, to popularise the icon-based graphical interface that others copied, kicking off the PC era.

There were digital music-players before 2001, but Apple’s iPod made them both ubiquitous and user-friendly.

In the same way, says Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies, an analyst who has followed Apple throughout its history, the iPhone, with its elegant touch-screen interface, seems likely to be the gadget that sets the direction that others will follow in the era of mobility.

To bring that about, Apple is now turning the iPhone into a hand-held computer and allowing other firms to write software to run on it. Other handset-makers are doing the same, but the iPhone’s operating system and programming tools, on display this week, are better than theirs.

There is no doubt that Mr Jobs is trying to lead a third revolution in consumer technology in his lifetime.

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