I just finished watching the video of the Macworld 2009 Keynote, so I am going to inform those of you who don’t have an hour to watch the full Keynote what’s new at Apple. To start off, Apple introduced a brand new iLife ‘09. To begin, they discussed iPhoto. The main new features in iPhoto ‘09 include: support for geotagging, called “Places,” “Faces,” a tool for sorting your photos by people (this feature includes face detection), full built-in support for Flickr and Facebook (including syncing of photos for changes in tagging etc.), new slideshow themes, and new themes for travel book that you can order and have professionally printed. The next item for discussion is iMovie ‘09. In Apple’s words they added the features that customers were asking for with iMovie ‘08. The first feature is the “Precision Editor” which allows you to edit the audio and video in one place. There is also an “Advanced drag & drop,” new dynamic themes, which add a theme for your movie including credits and more, animated 2-D and 3-D “Animated Travel Maps,” and video stabilization for those videographers who don’t have the steadiest hands. Overall, iMovie ‘09 is very intuitive, interactive, and user friendly. The next app discussed is Garageband ‘09. The biggest feature discussed is called “Learn To Play,” which teaches you how to play an instrument for now it is either keyboard or guitar. Included are 9 basic lessons for each instrument, and as an extra there are artist lessons, where an artist teaches you there own song. These lessons can be purchased for $4.99USD per artist lesson, but the others are free. A new version of iWeb and iDVD are also included, but these products were not discussed. A single-user version of iLife ‘09 can be purchased for $79USD and will begin shipping late January! The next order of business is a new version of iWork. In Keynote, new features include “Magic Move,” “Object Transitions,” “Text Transitions,” “Chart Animations,” “New Themes,” and “Keynote Remote” (an application for your iPhone or iPod Touch that allows you to control your slides and view speaker notes, which can already be purchased for $0.99USD in the App Store). Next is Pages, and new features include: “Full Screen View,” “Dynamic Outlines,” “Mail Merge with Numbers,” “MathType & Endnotes,” and “40 New Templates.” Third is Numbers, new features for this application include: “Table Categories,” “Easy Formula Writing with new functions,” “Function view with functions descriptions,” “New Advanced Chart Options,” “Linked Charts between the iWork application suite,” and “Beautiful New Templates.” A single-user version of iWork ‘09 can be purchased for $79USD and $49USD if you are purchasing a new Mac. iWork is not shipping today! Note: OSX Leopard is needed for iLife ‘09 and iWork ‘09, so Apple has released a new “Mac Box Set” with all three softwares for $169USD (available in late January). Also announced is a new service called iWork.com which will be in beta soon. This service allows you to share and collaborate your iWork files with other users. Users can view documents online, add comments and notes, and download a copy of the document as needed. This works on both Mac and PC, and allows you to download the file for Pages, Word, or as a PDF file. Finally, the thing we have all been waiting for and expecting, “The All New 17″ MacBook Pro,” which is similar to the other new MacBooks. It is the world’s lightest and thinnest 17″ notebook, and also can be ordered with an anti-glare screen for and extra $50USD.
The new MacBook Pro 17″ can be custom ordered with up to a 2.93GHZ Processor, up to 8GB of RAM, like other MacBooks has two graphics cards, and has a standard 320GB hard drive and an optional of up to a 250GB Solid State Drive. However, the greatest new feature of the new MacBook Pro is its new battery that lasts up to 8 Hours on a single charge, and can last up to 1,000 charges (3X the industry standard). The new 17″ MacBook Pro is starting at $2,799USD and is going to start shipping at the end of January. Finally a couple of iTunes updates: Three Pricing Tiers: $0.69, $0.99, $1.29, Now offering 8 million new songs in iTunes Plus, and by the end of this quarter there will be 10 million, and now you can download songs via iPhone from both WiFi and 3G networks starting Today. This Keynote was overall great, and Apple released a lot of new revolutionary products; however, it left me with one question: “Are these new batteries going to be implemented in the MacBook and the 15″ MacBook Pro?” And to conclude Apple’s last Keynote presentation at Macworld Tony Bennet performed.
