With all the media frenzy surrounding the iPhone, it’s easy to overlook other really great hardware and software announcements from last week’s Macworld Expo. Here’s a few of the highlights.

More details emerged on Apple’s set-top box designed to link computers (both Macs and PCs) with TVs. They call it “AppleTV”. AppleTV ($299, orders taken now for February shipping) will house a 40GB hard drive to store movies, and will also be able to stream movies and other media, wired and wirelessly, from up to five computers in the home. As many had speculated, the wireless protocol used by AppleTV is the new 802.11n standard, which offers five times the speed and twice the range of the current 802.11g systems.

Obviously, Apple also needed an 802.11n based wireless transmitter. Sure enough, Apple quietly announced a new Airport Extreme base station. Airport Extreme is backward compatible with the 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g standards. With its included USB 2.0 port, all users of the network can share a printer or an external hard drive. Airport Extreme is $179 and ships in February as well.

Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit also had a large presence at Macworld, showing off their Office 2008 for Macintosh suite. Shipping later this year, Office 2008 for Mac includes some Mac-only features, and a much more Mac-like interface than its predecessor. In obvious response to Apple’s “Pages” desktop publishing application, Word 2008 contains expanded templates and themes. PowerPoint appears to have been “beefed up” as well to compete head-on with Apple’s “Keynote” presentation application. No word yet on pricing or exact shipping dates.

For the first time since Apple’s ill-fated venture into licensing the Mac operating system to other hardware makers, a computer not completely manufactured by Apple appeared at Macworld. It’s called “ModBook”. It’s basically a MacBook with the screen and keyboard removed and replaced by a Wacom tablet, making it the first “Tablet PC” to run the Mac OS. You use a stylus to maneuver around the system. You can also use a wireless keyboard and mouse.

The ModBook leverages Apple’s InkBook handwriting recognition technology that lies dormant in all Macs until a Wacom (or similar) tablet is attached to the system. ModBooks retail for $2200. It remains to be seen whether there’s a market for a Mac Tablet PC. There’s not been that much demand for a any kind of Tablet PC up to now.