Steve Jobs once again took the stage last Tuesday, dressed in his usual black turtleneck and blue jeans.

As a part of the 2008 Macworld Conference & Expo, Jobs led the event with his usual keynote, which in past years has introduced new products such as the iPhone and has heralded the transition to Intel processors.

This year, however, the focus was placed on two primary products — the Apple TV and a new laptop, the MacBook Air.

The Apple TV, which over the past year has been criticized for not living up to its competitors (primarily Microsoft’s Media Center), introduced something that might put them over the top — movie rentals.

Users can now rent movies from all the major movie studios directly from their television (or from iTunes), in addition to purchasing music and listening to podcasts.

The rentals, which cost $3.99 for new releases and $2.99 for other films, are transferrable to iPods as well.

Further, with the Apple TV, users can choose to view high definition versions of the films for a dollar extra.

The MacBook Air was the last of Jobs’ announcement, but it came with much fanfare.

The new laptop is under an inch in thickness, which makes it “the world’s smallest laptop.”

In addition, it still bodes a 13-inch screen and a full-size keyboard.

It does not have an optical drive to read CDs or DVDs — this is an optional accessory — but software is built into the new laptop to allow it to read another computer’s optical drive when needed.

One more thing — it can all fit inside a manilla envelope.

In addition to the two major announcements, Apple also updated its iPhone and iPod Touch software with new features and introduced a new wireless backup solution to coincide with its Leopard operating system.

Despite the two announcements, Apple stock was down at the end of the day.

Many had hoped that Apple would have updated its cinema display or MacBook Pro lines, which may be the reason for a less-than-anticipated finish to the day.