Don’t want to watch the entire 2009 Macworld Keynote? Here’s a rundown of what was announced and a little commentary.
iLife 09 iLife 09 will be released sometime in late January. iPhoto and iMovie received the largest updates. New organization features Faces (facial recognition) and Places (geotagging) allow you to more easily find the pictures you’re looking for in iPhoto. iPhoto now includes direct upload capability to Flickr and Facebook. iPhoto also includes some pretty sweet slideshow functionality. iMovie now features video stabilization (which looks ridiculously slick), more precision editing, dynamic themes, and a cool travel map feature. GarageBand and iWeb were also updated; iDVD is the same. The cool new feature in GarageBand is the new artist lessons feature. The artist lesson feature is a video where various artists teach you to play their songs. iLife 09 is $79 and $99 for a family pack. You also need OS X 10.5 Leopard to run iLife 09.
iWork 09
I’ll save you the boring details on iWork 09. Basically, increased functionality across all applications. Pages includes a new full screen mode to help remove distractions. Mail Merge is also now included with Pages. Also new is a cool $.99 iPhone/touch application to control Keynote presentations called Keynote Remote (iTunes link). Numbers got a cool linked chart feature when adding Numbers based charts in Pages. iWork 09 is available now for $79 or $99 for a family pack. You can also purchase iWork 09 with a new Mac for only $49.
Mac Box Set
The Mac Box Set is a new product that includes iWork 09, iLife 09, and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard for only $169. Considering Leopard is $129 by itself, this is a remarkably good deal.
iWork.com
iWork.com is a sharing and collaboration site for iWork documents. iWork.com will be available on a subscription basis (price not announced) at a later date. You need iWork 09 to use iWork.com. Though not officially announced, it looks like iWork.com is available for use now.
17″ MacBook Pro
The 17″ MBP looks exactly like the new unibody Macbook and 15″ MBP. The downside of the 17″ MBP is the fact that the battery is not user replaceable, but does get “up to 8 hours” of battery life. The new battery can be recharged up to 1,000 times, “3x the recharges of the standard notebook battery”. The 17″ MBP is available with a new anti-glare option for an extra $50. Video editors will be happy with the new 17″ MBP because it supports 8GB of RAM.
iTunes
Beginning April 1st, songs sold on iTunes will be available with variable pricing, $.69, $.99, and $1.29.
80% of the songs available on iTunes are now DRM free. The remaining 20% will be available DRM free by the end of this quarter.
The iTunes iPhone/touch App can now operate over the cellular network. This works over Edge and 3G.
My Analysis
The most important announcement was easily iTunes becoming DRM free. Perhaps this is truly the final nail in the DRM coffin?
Perhaps the most interesting announcement is iWork.com. Though it initially seems limited, could this come to rival Google Docs?
Since the covenants of Mac blogging include making Macworld predictions (likely for the last time ever), I’m going to join every other Mac blog and make my predictions too. The following are my own predictions of what the Phil-note will contain and the likelihood of it happening.
Very Likely
Snow Leopard Preview – There is no doubt the words “Grand Central” and “Open CL” will be mentioned a few times.
Mac Mini – I’m not sure if it’s a complete abandonment of the product or a design update, but something will happen with the Mac Mini. If it’s updated, I would expect a price drop too. $599 is still high for many computer users.
iMac Update – A design change is pretty unlikely, but expect better processors and other hardware improvements.
17″ MacBook Pro Update – The Macbook and 15″ MacBook Pro were both updated in late 2008. It’s time the 17″ MacBook Pro got the unibody treatment.
Likely
iPhone Software Update – Perhaps copy/paste will make an appearance?
iLife Update – iLife was largely ignored in 2008. The creative suite is often seen as one advantage of buying a Mac vs a PC. Apple needs to restore some of the luster to their Mac creative suite.
Not Very Likely
Apple TV – I’d love to see the product move forward somehow. SDK, third party hardware certification, something else? But please, please don’t kill it Apple!
The Detriot Lions Winning the Super Bowl Next Year Likely
Netbook – Not now, but maybe before the end of 2010. With the current economic conditions however, a Netbook would do more for Apple’s bottom line in 2009 than in 2010.
Those are my Macworld 2009 predictions. I have no inside knowledge of Apple release schedules or product development, so these are just my gut feelings combined with a little bit common sense. I’d love for there to be a whiz bang “one more thing”, but I’m not going to hold my breath.
The Macworld Keynote is in the books. Steve Jobs announced some pretty good stuff, some of which will cause my credit card to get some action in the coming weeks. Want to know what went down at the Keynote but don’t care to read a liveblog post or 10 different posts? I’ve created a cheat sheet of sorts for the 2008 Macworld Keynote. Here’s the lowdown:
OS X
-5 million copies of Leopard have been delivered. This is likely a combination of new Mac sales and Leopard boxed copies (no definitive word given).
Time Capsule
-Time Capsule is a companion product for Leopard’s Time Machine. Time Capsule is a combination Airport Extreme Base Station with a server grade hard drive. It’s a “backup appliance”.
-500GB and 1TB storage for $299 and $499 respectively.
-Backup multiple Macs to the same Time Capsule.
-No word on if this feature will be available for USB drives connected to the current Airport Extreme Base Stations.
iPhone
-4 million iPhone sold to date.
-It’s first quarter shipping it garnered 19% of the smart phone market share.
-1.1.3 iPhone software upgrade released: SMS to multiple people, current position locator in maps, customizable home screen, and more.
iPod Touch
-Mail, maps, stocks, notes, and weather coming to the Touch.
-The cost of those applications is $20 for current Touch owners and will be built in to new ones.
With the 2008 Macworld JobsNote just a few days away, speculation is nearly at an all time high. Every Apple and gadget related blog has already posted their Macworld predictions and I’m about to toss mine out too. Could this years Keynote bring something bigger than the 2007 Keynote when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to the world? I think it’s going to be pretty hard to top the iPhone, but I’m expecting great things from Apple none the less. Here are my predictions (and the percentage chance that it will happen) for the 2008 Macworld Keynote, which will be held Tuesday, January 15th live in San Francisco. Head on over to this post on Engadget for live coverage of the Keynote starting at 9:00AM Pacific.
Software
In light of the recent news that iTunes will soon bring movie rentals, I think it’s safe to say we’re going to see a new version of iTunes out (and likely Quicktime as these are often updated together). With the exception of Aperture, all other Apple software has received some kind of update recently. Will there be a new version of Aperture released at Macworld? I don’t think we’ll see a new version of Aperture at Macworld. Macworld is predominately a consumer focused event and Aperture is a professional level application. Maybe we’ll see a new Aperture at WWDC in June. Chances we see a new iTunes/Quicktime: 100%. Chances we’ll see a new Aperture: 15%.
iPods
Not much to speculate on here. The entire line was recently updated (except for the color for the Shuffle) so it’s pretty unlikely you’ll see anything new here. Chances we’ll see a new iPod: 0%.
Since Macworld is next week, I thought it would be a good time to share this blooper reel of keynote speeches gone wrong. Watch the nearly five minute long video featuring Steve Jobs, Phil Schiller, and others as hilarity ensues when they run into problems with their speech or technical demonstration. This video is the perfect tune-up for Macworld next week. Enjoy!
Update: I seem to always have problems embedding Youtube videos here. I’m really hoping this last edit will fix the layout.
If you’re a Mac user that absolutely needs Office for Mac, you’ll be happy to know that Office for Mac 2008 is nearing store shelves. As of December 12th, Office 2008 has been released to manufacturing. This means that the MacBU has signed off on a final build that has been sent to manufacturing sites.
Office 2008 will be released on January 15th at Macworld. A large number of the MacBU team will be on hand at Macworld to show off their work and talk to Office users.
I’m actually going to buy Office 2008. I nearly purchased iWork 08 as my Office replacement, but I decided to wait until Office 2008 is released. I don’t absolutely need Office 2008, but for less than $20 you can’t go wrong. In an upcoming post I’ll reveal how you too might be able to get Office 2008 for Mac for less than $20.
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