Hi folks,
I'm back to cover MacWorld Expo 2009!
As some of u know, I actually intended to fly over to attend this event. However, after given some thought, I picked the Italy + Switzerland + France + UK combo vs this US one. If my plans go smoothly, I'll be heading to Hong Kong again this June followed by UK in early July. Ya ya, I know, some of u have been pestering me for my entire 2008 travel fotos. I'll put them up as soon as possible k? They just keep piling up =P
Anyway, glad I didn't pick the MacWorld Expo 2009 event =P A month ago, we started hearing that Steve Jobs isn't gonna be on stage. Hmmm, I think I'll be pulling my hair if I've planned to go.
Ok, back to the cover. All credits goes to crunchgear.com, I'm just picking up the highlights and writing my thoughts as an Apple enthusiast and unofficial evangelist =P
Instead of Steve Jobs, Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing is presenting this very last MacWorld Expo keynote. From 2010 onwards, expect Apple to hold their own events.
Newly updated products: iLife and iWork.
If u're not a Mac user, u wouldn't appreciate what these are. Basically iWork is the Apple MS Office alternative. While MS Office packs more than enough features (most of us only use 20%) and is considered the giant in office productivity, iWork comes in as the slick, cool and it-just-works office solution. iWork is simple, just 3 applications: Pages for documents editing, Numbers for spreadsheets and Keynote for presentations. And it's 99.999% compatible with MS Office (well, most office apps now are... didn't u know that?).
And as for iLife, there isn't a single software suite that provides the same stuff on the PC/Windows platform. Nope PC users u just dun get it. Get urself a life, get a Mac, get iLife! LOL. iLife comes with all Macs btw, so u can start doing ur foto/music/video stuff with the Mac out of the box.
iLife provides a suite of applications that do the following: iWeb for web design/authoring (most of us don't use that but I think lots of end user folks do), iPhoto for photo organizing and uploading (Picasa and now Facebook + Flickr), iMovie for video editing without launching your heavy weight Adobe Premiere and lastly GarageBand, the music mixing software that just works. FYI, I've been using iMovie to do my demo track video editing (not pro I know, but it's easy enough for video production newbies) and GarageBand for all my multi-track music creation.
Ok, so now I'm done with the intro, here's what's new:
iLife: iPhoto
- now supports Geotagging + maps (that's what I've been asking for lately!) called Places
- Faces: face detection feature so that iPhoto knows who is in the foto the next time u add one! COOL! On top of that, if u upload it to Facebook, it'll auto tag your fotos for u. Nice.
iLife: iMovie
GarageBand now includes instruments lesson. Well, interesting, but I'm not quite sure that can be considered as the application's new feature. But I must say that there's not too much room for improvement if u wanna keep it simple yet sosphisticated. Perhaps they can add more instruments or include a new wave table set =P I guess Apple wanna encourage GarageBand users to go beyond the keyboard and pick up the guitar =) That means it'll be analog tracks but also mean better music. I'm sure the tutorials will be great for first time guitar players. They cost though, $4.99 per lesson.
UPDATE: 6 guitar and keyboard lessons come free with iLife GarageBand =)
Didn't cover much on iWeb and iDVD but they are said to be updated as well. Shipping later this month.
iWork: Keynote
Pages get updated with 40 templates! That's awesome! Apple's templates are great stuff I assure u. U'll be amazed how sleek they are.
Numbers get updated with more formulas and table categories (*yawnz*). Sorry, I'm no numbers person =)
Another new service from Apple, iWork.com. Suppose to let people share documents and all. I guess it's pretty much like Google Docs, u can upload / edit / comment / notify and share via iWork. Is said to view MS Office files with no problems. Free for now, charge later =P Hope it isn't as bad as the initial MobileMe service.
As rumored, there's a new slimmer 17 inch Macbook Pro. It's also has an Unibody chassis like the rest of the Macbook family members.
(They didn't really mention if the battery is removable, but it's definitely a new type of battery. The non-removable battery design is being rumored and I guess that's how it gets slimmer. I also suspect that this might be the same type of batteries found in the Macbook Air. Just like the Unibody chassis, Macbook Air came with all these new technology innovations when it was first launched. Btw, I'm now happily using my new 2nd Gen Macbook Air muahahaha)
UPDATE: Just checked the specs on Apple.com it is a built-in battery. And it is the lightest 17 inch notebook.
Here's the specs: 2.93GHz proc, up to 8GB DDR3 RAM (ships with 4GB), GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT, 320 GB HDD (optional up to 256 GB SSD), 17-inch anti-glare option with metal bezel. No glass screen. 0.98 inches thin. 6.6 pounds. 1900×1200 resolution. 700:1 contrast ratio. 60 percent greater color gamut.
8 hours battery life if u use the NVidia GeForce 9400M and 7 hours if u turn on GeForce 9600M GT. Philip mentioned an adaptive charging feature that reduces wear and tear of the battery. Wonder if that's a firmware thing and can be applied to other Macbooks.
UPDATE: According to Apple.com, it's a chip on the battery that facilitates this and extend the battery life to up to 5 years (1000 recharge cycles)
Last thing: iTunes Plus - DRM free songs. 8 million songs DRM free now and another 2 later on. I like the 'Plus' word! My colleagues will know why =P
Ok, I'm almost done.
Not sure if u're interested but the guy who presented (let's give him credit for his guts) is Philip Schiller. His CrunchBase profile.
- Precision Editor: Well I guess with that it's one tiny step closer to Adobe Premiere
- Stabilizer or video jittering fix: stitches 2 videos taken at different angles and create a smooth transition. It sounds like Photoshop's auto align layers except that this is for video. Accordingly to Crunchgear, it's like Hollywood effects. Wow, that's a big thing
- Slow down or speed up video segments: it's one thing that I found missing, thank god it's in now =)
- Crunchgear says iMovie is now super polished and looks professional
GarageBand now includes instruments lesson. Well, interesting, but I'm not quite sure that can be considered as the application's new feature. But I must say that there's not too much room for improvement if u wanna keep it simple yet sosphisticated. Perhaps they can add more instruments or include a new wave table set =P I guess Apple wanna encourage GarageBand users to go beyond the keyboard and pick up the guitar =) That means it'll be analog tracks but also mean better music. I'm sure the tutorials will be great for first time guitar players. They cost though, $4.99 per lesson.
UPDATE: 6 guitar and keyboard lessons come free with iLife GarageBand =)
Didn't cover much on iWeb and iDVD but they are said to be updated as well. Shipping later this month.
iWork: Keynote
- Magic move: fancy transition effects (like Obama swings, etc)
- Chart animations (hmmm)
- New themes (yes! I love their preso themes. Way better than those boring MS ones)
- Remote app for iPod Touch and iPhone over WiFi: WOW! this is cool, it means that I can now remotely control my Keynote presentation while seeing what's on screen on my iPhone? Might sound like a silly gimmick, but hey I look at my audience when I do presentations, not the projector screen and I dun like to keep turning around =P Landscape mode shows the slide+notes and portrait mode shows current and upcoming slide. Cool! It's 95 cents. But heck if u already own an iPod Touch or iPhone, u can now save that 30-40 bucks remote control.... which... I have just bought a couple of months back... =(
Pages get updated with 40 templates! That's awesome! Apple's templates are great stuff I assure u. U'll be amazed how sleek they are.
Numbers get updated with more formulas and table categories (*yawnz*). Sorry, I'm no numbers person =)
Another new service from Apple, iWork.com. Suppose to let people share documents and all. I guess it's pretty much like Google Docs, u can upload / edit / comment / notify and share via iWork. Is said to view MS Office files with no problems. Free for now, charge later =P Hope it isn't as bad as the initial MobileMe service.
As rumored, there's a new slimmer 17 inch Macbook Pro. It's also has an Unibody chassis like the rest of the Macbook family members.
(They didn't really mention if the battery is removable, but it's definitely a new type of battery. The non-removable battery design is being rumored and I guess that's how it gets slimmer. I also suspect that this might be the same type of batteries found in the Macbook Air. Just like the Unibody chassis, Macbook Air came with all these new technology innovations when it was first launched. Btw, I'm now happily using my new 2nd Gen Macbook Air muahahaha)
UPDATE: Just checked the specs on Apple.com it is a built-in battery. And it is the lightest 17 inch notebook.
Here's the specs: 2.93GHz proc, up to 8GB DDR3 RAM (ships with 4GB), GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT, 320 GB HDD (optional up to 256 GB SSD), 17-inch anti-glare option with metal bezel. No glass screen. 0.98 inches thin. 6.6 pounds. 1900×1200 resolution. 700:1 contrast ratio. 60 percent greater color gamut.
8 hours battery life if u use the NVidia GeForce 9400M and 7 hours if u turn on GeForce 9600M GT. Philip mentioned an adaptive charging feature that reduces wear and tear of the battery. Wonder if that's a firmware thing and can be applied to other Macbooks.
UPDATE: According to Apple.com, it's a chip on the battery that facilitates this and extend the battery life to up to 5 years (1000 recharge cycles)
Last thing: iTunes Plus - DRM free songs. 8 million songs DRM free now and another 2 later on. I like the 'Plus' word! My colleagues will know why =P
Ok, I'm almost done.
Not sure if u're interested but the guy who presented (let's give him credit for his guts) is Philip Schiller. His CrunchBase profile.
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