Today is “Stevenote Plus One” — the day after Apple CEO Steve Jobs’s much-awaited annual keynote speech at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, during which he unveils new products from the hot consumer technology company. While reaction is not quite at the fever pitch that greeted last year’s iPhone announcement, the media response has been largely positive — with some reservations.

The two biggest announcements were movie rentals from the iTunes Store and the thin, small and new MacBook Air laptop. Although they were major announcements, Business Week noted that Apple’s shares fell 5.5 percent yesterday, which it attributed to the fact that no product as dramatic as the iPhone was shown.

No ‘Just One More Thing’

The biggest announcement of the Stevenote is usually preceded by Jobs saying “just one more thing,” but that phrase was not uttered in yesterday’s address. Rory Cellan-Jones, writing in BBC News online on Tuesday, noted the phrase’s absence and

characterized the announcements as leaving him “just ever so slightly underwhelmed. A solid range of new products — but that was not an iPhone year.”

Nevertheless, Apple is clearly hoping that its movie-rental plans have a big impact on online video, like its online music store helped redefine that industry.

“The risk for Apple,” said John Markoff in today’s New York Times, “is that consumers may not like the limits placed on their movie viewing.” Those limits include 30 days in which to view a movie, once rented, and a 24-hour-window to watch the movie as many times as you want after you visit “play.”

Apple TV is additionally being revitalized, with a new capability to easily rent films via iTunes. Peter Burrows, writing in Business Week online, noted that the new Apple TV and iTunes rentals are similar to what is now available through a cable or…

Orginal post by Top Tech News