MacWorld Keynote: 17-inch MacBook Pro

I’ve just finished checking out all the coverage from Phil Schiller’s keynote and I have to say, I’m satisfied. Let’s take a look.

We all knew it was coming so here it is. The unibody 17-inch MacBook Pro.

It’s what you’d expect really, so I’m not going to bother with all the specs. Think 15-inch MacBook Pro but better.

The only ‘Wow’ feature in the new device is the amazing battery life. Apple claim that the specially designed batter will last up to 8 hours a charge and last 3 times longer than other laptops. Once again, Apple has been pushing the ‘green’ angle of the device which I couldn’t care less about (I just like the ads). All I know is that it’s hell expensive ($2799) and has no removable battery.

Bitching about the battery? Don’t, but leave a comment!

MacWorld Keynote: iWork ’09

I’ve just finished checking out all the coverage from Phil Schiller’s keynote and I have to say, I’m satisfied. Let’s take a look.

iWork

Like with iLife, iWork has received some new features but hasn’t done anything huge. It’s hard to know whether it’s worth getting, but I’m considering it strongly.

Pages. Pages has easily become my favorite word processor. It’s simple and easy to use and I make all my friends annoyed when I show up with a fantastic, professional looking assignment complete with cover sheet and all.

• Full screen mode. As an easily distracted, I can appreciate this new distraction free feature in Pages. Something tells me I will be using it a lot.
• Outline mode. Apple are called it ‘Dynamic Outline’ but it looks like their answer to what Microsoft Office:Mac has to offer in it’s Notebook mode. I liked this feature in Office:Mac and am glad that I will see it in iWork.
• More templates. Finally! I never thought that there were enough of these in iWork ’08 and there were many template types that Pages never offered which, as a student, I could have made use of. There are over 40 new templates in Pages ’09
• Support for MathType and Endnote. I’ll be honest, I’m sure this feature is useful to someone but it isn’t to me. Look it up yourself I have no idea what it is. kthx

Keynote. I got so bored of the hell boring look and feel of powerpoint presentations. When I switched to Keynote, I was over the moon with how fresh and new my presentations looked! The new Keynote just makes this even better.

• Slide transitions. Yeah sounds boring I know but just wait until you see it. Imagine dynamic slide transitions, where objects change location, scale, opacity, and rotation automatically. This gives the effect of looking as if you haven’t even changed slide. Ok, it’s hard to explain. Head over to Apple.com to have a look.
• Brand new themes, text and object transitions, 3D charts and transitions. Explain themselves don’t they?
• iPhone App. Ever wanted a keynote presenter application or one of those wireless remotes that cost $150? You don’t need one if you have an iPhone! Apple are introducing a new iPhone app that does all of this for you!

Numbers has humanized chart and graphing applications. If you are scared of Microsoft Excel (as everyone is) then Numbers is you answer. I found this so easy to use the minute I gave it a go.

• More advanced. I didn’t know how to explain it! Simply put, Apple is trying to give professionals a reason to use Numbers. With the addition of formulas, formula list view, advanced charts and table categories, Apple hope to bring Numbers to a stage where it can compete with Excel. I am happy to say that it looks like this hasn’t impacted it’s ease of use. The new features don’t get in the way of the rest of the application, allowing me to make… super interesting tables without accidentally doing algebra.
• Themes. Yep, new themes. What?

Love or loath the new iWork? Leave a comment!

MacWorld Keynote: iLife ’09

I’ve just finished checking out all the coverage from Phil Schiller’s keynote and I have to say, I’m satisfied. Let’s take a look.

iLife ’09

From what I heard on Twitter, people aren’t that excited about the new iLife, saying that “There’s not much new!” but the iLife updates are never that revolutionary on their own (ignore iMovie ’08). What you see is the evolution of an amazing suite of products, each getting that bit better with every update. What I see from the new iLife are features that are a must have for some people, and feature that some people wouldn’t pay $79, its all personal choice.

First, iPhoto.

• Face recognition in every photo. This looks very cool, iPhoto finds faces and ask you who’s they are then ads it to every photo containing that person. Something like this allows you to collate albums of just your family and the like.
• Geo Tagging. This is something you don’t normally see on low price consumer software, so I am impressed that Apple did it. Some cameras and phones (iPhone for example) have GPS built in, allows the device to know where each photo was taken. iPhote ’09 uses this information and ads it to your photos. Google maps is used to show you exactly where you took these photos.
• New slideshow themes and settings.
• Travel books can now have maps. Why the hell would I want this? I don’t want a Google map in my expensive glossy photo book. Talk about tacky!

Onto iMovie. Unlike many other people, I really like the direction Apple headed with iMovie ’08. Now, they have addressed people’s complaints and added those much demanded feature back into iMovie ’09. Side note: iMovie was introduced right as MacRumors was hacked with porn and as Gdgt started to crack under the strain, so my info on iMovie may not be complete.

• New themes and video effects. This was something I missed in iMovie ’08. Video effects such as sepia and video slow down are useful in some situations. I would have loved to have had them for a wedding movie I am making. Pity I can’t hold off on doing it for a month.
• Image stabilization. Self explanitory yet ohhhh so desired. Back to this wedding video, I didn’t have a tripod for the camera. Yeah, you know what happened. Shaky!! Hopefully, the new iMovie ’09 will fix up all my bad camerawork.
• Timeline. From what I could make out the traditional way of editing movies is making some sort of comeback. I think Apple are calling it “Precision Editing”. What ever!

GarageBand. This is truely the dark horse of the iLife suite. The power and potential on GarageBand is not to be underestimated. I mean, it is the application that got me full marks in a music composition assessment. I chose to use GarageBand over the incredibly expensive Cuebase and Sibelius because it is so much user friendly. Very true to Apple form.

• Learn To Play. If making music wasn’t enough, GarageBand can now teach you how to play an instrument. There are even lessons from famous artists like John Fogerty, Colbie Caillat, Patrick Stump, Sting, Sara McLaughlin, Ryan Tedder, Norah Jones where they teach you how to play their songs! You have to admit, this is pretty awesome. Each lesson will only cost $5, that a hell of a lot cheaper than what I pay for music tuition. I really want to try this out.

How do you like the new iLife? Leave a comment!

‘Brick’ Explained

Today the world (of those who cared) found out what the rumored ‘Brick’ referred to. 9to5Mac has revealed that the ‘Brick’ refers to a new manufacturing process. The process allows MacBook casing to be made out of a solid block of aluminum instead of different pieces. Oh yeah, this also lets onto the fact that new MacBooks are probably going to be aluminum instead of plastic.

Yes ok, this sounds really boring on paper but in the real world it would mean the slickest and most gorgeous Apple notebooks you have ever seen. If you have seen the new iMacs you might have noticed that there is seamless joining between the aluminum face and the curved sides. This means there is no need for unsightly screws and such, just aluminum joining to aluminum. Imagine this look for a newly designed MacBook (and hopefully Pro as well). At the moment the MacBook Pro looks amazing, but what I hate is that strip of plastic around the edge of the body and around the screen. This new manufacturing process would get rid of that ugly plastic strip and would extend the aluminum to the edge of the device.

This may make no sense to you what so ever. If you would like to find out what I’m talking about, go to your local Apple Store and have a look at the MacBook Pros (and at the same time, could you please leave my blog page open on the screen as you leave. Thanks). Even if you don’t care about this new manufacturing process, you have to acknowledge that it would make the Mac notebook line leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the PC market in terms of design. This is inclusive of the fact that they are already leaps and bounds ahead, but this will mean leaving PC notebooks looking like they were during the ’90s.

Steve Jobs was right, exciting times are ahead.

(Yes, this proves more then anything that I am an Apple fanboy)

Code Name: Brick

After rumors a few weeks ago that a German store had received new MacBook Pros, we now have 9to5 Mac and MacRumors reporting that they have strong evidence that a new line of MacBooks (not the Pros) that could be arriving as soon as October 14! Supposedly, the tip off comes from the same supplier in Asia who let the world know about the ‘Rainbow iPod Nanos’.

It is rumored to be code named ‘Brick’. What is interesting about this is what the name may illude to. While some are speculating it refers to the form factor (I hope not, I thought we were past the brick laptop stage) Macenstein are saying it may refer to something else. They are deciphering it as a Windows killer, literally saying this about it: “After all, how do you break “Windows”? You throw a brick through them!”

But what would break the Microsoft market share? To answer this question, we have to look at what has probably constricted Apple’s market share until now. The answer is the price point. If you compare them, a PC could cost $200 less than a similarly spec’d MacBook. If Apple dropped the price of the MacBook to around $1000, they would be in an excellent position to make an agressive push into the market.

While this would be fantastic (I want to buy a MacBook for university), it could mean massive changes to the walled garden Mac users currently live in. In my opinion, Apple products are only as good as they are because they only have a 7% market share. Apple know their market very well and know what they want. Should millions of people join the market, they might have to diversify what they do for the Mac, moving it ever closer to Windows. I don’t want a product that doesn’t work like I want it to. Windows only has a bad name because Microsoft have to deal with the fact that 1 billion computers running Windows turn on every day and not all of those will work the way they’re supposed to. Apple will have to deal with this as well should their market share grow dramatically (but logically it won’t grow enough to threaten Windows).

On a personal point, Macs are only cool because on 7% of people have one! Lets face the facts, we have Macs because we are egotistical, competitive and want to say “Look at me, I have a Mac and you don’t because you can’t afford one.” Macs are cool because it is an exclusive club and that is something that we are protective of! If Macs evolve to take over 90% of the market, I would switch to Windows (should it improve) just to stay cool and say “Look at me, I have a PC and you don’t.”

Dear Apple,

Don’t change =)

iPod Nano 4G

As you know, I originally voiced my concern over the rumored new Nano design, saying that it was hidious and against Apple’s design legacy. Well I’m retracting all of that to now say that the Nano makes perfect sense when you’re holding it in your hand.

Today I went to my local Apple store to check out the new Nanos and the new iPod touch. The Nanos look amazing, all 9 colors seeming to explode out of their display stands. Picking one up I instantly new it was a lot thinner than any other iPod (although the curved design probably help making it appear thinner). I also discovered that the new curved look made perfect sense. It’s more comfortable to hold and use, and doesn’t feel like it’s going to fall out of your hand when you use it.

The screen, although the same and the 3G Nano, looks amazing. Colors burst off the screen, everything is crisp and sharp. Browsing through music lists is much easier as you can see more of it now that the screen is in portrait. The album art looks great when a song is playing, Cover Flow is smoother, menu transitions are smoother, the accelerometer is fast and responsive, everything is fantastic! I seriously have no quams with this iPod.

Unfortunatly, you can’t please everyone, as I found out from commenter Sam:

“I would like to comment on the new iPod nano which I have recently seen. I can safely say that the price cut of the nano has clearly affected the design budget. Whilst it is all we have come to expect from Steve, it has none of the swank sexiness that makes us buy Apple products. Somewhere it just falls short. Also there have been no new feature updates apart from the accelerometer, which is really little more than a gimmic and has no real application in the nano.

The new nano falls far short of the stardnard standard (ahem, spelling Sam!) for Apple.”

Well I’m sorry to hear that Sam. I hope that you’re able to come to love the Nano over time like I have =)

I’m so glad that the Nano has returned to it’s original tall and thin design. It just makes more sense. If I didn’t already have an iPhone, and iPod touch and a 2G iPod nano, I would rush out and buy one of these babies right now!

iPod Event and iTunes 8

As most of you know, 2 days ago was the Apple iPod event that I (and many others) posted about. Well now that the event is done and dusted, what has come out of it? In short we saw iTunes 8, a new iPod Nano and a new Touch (plus some new headphones but they don’t count). Because these will require a fairly long post all together I have decided to split them. This one is about iTunes 8, the first new product I got my hands on.

Before I start I would just like to point something out: *cough, cough* (kevinrosewasright…)

Browsing

The new browsing feature in iTunes 8 is a grid view. While this is a fairly obvious feature and one that is available in other media players (such as Windows Media Player) it has taken until version 8 of the world’s most popular digital jukebox for it to arrive. Before now, I didn’t feel like I needed grid view but now that I have it, I’m not going back. I think of it best as a comfortable mix between Cover Flow and the list view with albums covers. Music is viewable in the same categories as were previously available: artists, albums, genres and composers. For those who don’t wish to flow through their music with ease, the list view is still available. Cover Flow has been drastically improved. Where as before when Cover Flow would lag if you scrolled fast, now it breezes through albums with no hiccups.

Genius

Genius! I love Genius!! Genius is a brand new feature to iTunes 8 that attempts to mix the world’s of Pandora and Last.fm with the smart playlists already available. What Genius does is analyses your entire music library to tell you what music goes great together. This is not a process that just analyses your music alone, Genius synchronizes with Apple’s database containing millions and millions of other data like yours, making the analysis more accurate. All you have to do is select a song, then hit the Genius button down the bottom right of you iTunes window to create a Genius playlist. This new playlist suggests a list of songs that sound great together. My personal experience with Genius has been great, the playlists it creates contains songs that I wouldn’t have put side by side but now I can see why. Choosing ’15 step’ by Radiohead gives me a playlist containing Bloc Party, Coldplay, Madonna, The Fray and even Bob Dylan. The oddest sounding playlist that makes perfect musical sense. You really have to try it for yourself but be warned, some haven’t had the best experience with it so far. As time goes by, Apple’s database will grow and evolve and so will the Genius’ recommendations.

Podcast Management

Something overlooked by nearly everyone is the more refined podcast management options in iTunes 8. In iTunes 7, you could tell iTunes to check for new podcasts and how often to, tell it what to do when new episodes were available and how many episodes to keep. This was great, but not if you have different podcasts which you want to download/keep at different times. iTunes 8 adds the ability to choose all of the aforementioned settings for each individual podcast. I find this useful when I get lapse at listening to daily podcasts, but when still want to keep the podcast feed, and when I still want my weekly and periodical podcasts to still always download. This new revision of podcast management give you greater control over you content and how you use it. A must for anyone who listens to podcasts!

Visualizer

The incredibly date iTunes visualizer has been given a new breath of life with a new audio visualizer! For those who didn’t know this feature even existed, play a song and hit ctrl+T (command+T for Mac) and see what you were missing. I love and hate this visualizer. I love it because it’s georgous and pretty and fantastic in every way. I hate it because it’s so pretty it distracts me too much and I have to turn it off. This is different from the visualizer that I saw but it is still amazing. While this is nothing to be over the moon about and is by no means a key feature, it’s still nice to have.

While all of these new features are an amazing improvement to what iTunes 7 offered, it all comes at a price. The RAM consumption of iTunes is phenomenal! Currently, iTunes is taking up 317.5MB of my 2GB or RAM. Talk about hulking! I have no idea if this number varies from library to library but it has definetly increased since the introduction of iTunes 8. For me this is no problem, but if you have an older computer, multitasking may become an issue.

 

See why I decided to split all of the new products up?

iPhone: My Story

After 6 weeks of trying, 2 breaches of the Trade Practices Act and 1 unanswered complaint later, I finally got my iPhone 3G. It hasn’t been an easy process and Optus haven’t exactly lived up to my expectations but now I can confidently give my unequivocal and somewhat bias review.

Feature: The phone

Obviously, the most crucial feature of a phone is the phone and the iPhone definitely delivers. The Phone application is fast, snappy and very responsive. Scrolling through contacts is intuitive and easy, making a call using the large keypad is a breeze and checking your voice mail is only a tap away. In all, the phone application is the most polished of all the phones I have had and is far superior in terms of design and ease of use to many other phones on the market.

Feature: The iPod

The other great draw of the iPhone is the built in, wide screen iPod. The layout is similar to the Phone application with a bar down the bottom of the screen which you can customize to have catagories such as artists, albums, videos, podcasts and audio books for quick and easy access. Turning the iPhone on it side brings you to Cover Flow a georgous feature that allows you flip through your music with the flick of a finger. Movies look spectacular on the 3.5 inch screen, allowing you to view them in cinematic wide screen. The iPod application is the best Apple has produced yet, which is a big statement in itself.

Feature: Mobile Internet

On of the biggest draw cards of the iPhone 3G is the mantra of ‘The Internet in your Pocket’. With applications such as a full web browser, Google Maps (with GPS), the iTunes Music Store, a Weather application and YouTube, the iPhone lives up to this and so much more. Where ever in Australia (or around the world) you are, you can to connect to the internet to do nearly anything you once were confined to your computer to do. The beauty of the iPhone is you can now do it on the go.

Feature: Your personal data, everywhere!

Contrary to what people may still think about Apple products, they CAN play nice with Windows. This is no different for the iPhone. The built in Calandar, Email and Contacts applications can fully synchronize with Outlook to bring your life from your computer to where ever you are. And forget about clicking through you events and contacts to tediously find the one you were looking for, just flick your finger to effortlessly fly though your information. The Email application works great, with integration with any email service you throw at it. If that wasn’t enough, you can view files such as PDF and Microsoft Office documents right from in the application. There is not doubt in my mind that Apple have got this personal data integration down pact.

Feature: iTunes Application Store

The newest feature to the iPhone is the ability to download applications to run on your phone. There are thousands of free and paid applications available for download from Bloomberg Stocks to a simple Koy Pond. Downloading applications from either iTunes or directly from your iPhone is easy, only needing your password and a single click.

Conclusion

In all honesty, the iPhone is the best mobile device I have used. I can now carry one device for everything from music to the Sydney traffic cameras. If you are thinking of buying a new phone, why not consider one that can cater for every aspect of your mobile life?

Got any questions? Just send me a reply below.

Introducing the iPod Ugly

 

Today Kevin Rose (founder of Digg) posted on his blog rumors of new product refreshes from Apple to be released in the next few weeks. Theyr’e bound to be true, I mean he’s Kevin Rose, what sources doesn’t he have? I’m sure most of these will be confirmed if we just wait.

Latest rumors:

-Revamp of entire iPod line.
-Small cosmetic changes to Touch, Nano to see significant redesign (see pic below).
-iPods to see fairly large price drops to distance itself from the $199 iPhone.
-iPod touch 2.1 software, iPhone to get update very soon after.
-iTunes 8.0 (“it’s a big update w/new features”).
-All of this coming in the next 2-3 weeks.

The biggest rumored change to the iPod line is a new Nano. It’s out with chunky-fat and in with tall and slim. The pictures I’ve seen of it look RELLLLYY ugly. It’s curved for some obscure reason. I can see Apple making the Nano taller but not rounded across the face.

The rumored price drop is one I am confident will happen. Apple has done it in the past and they will probably do it again. This is of course to stop the iPhone taking sales away from iPods.

Something Kevin briefly mentioned at the end of the video was Blue-Ray support in Mac OS 10.5.6. He said that in line with this, a Blue-Ray option would be included in the refreshed in the MacBook Pros. This isn’t something outrageous and was guaranteed to happen with time.

With all these rumors flying about it sound like an exciting few months at Apple. I will be watching with anticipation!

Microsoft ♥ Seinfeld!

 

Gold! Gold! Gold! Two well known brands, somewhat stagnant and somewhat desperate getting into bed for an ad. If you haven’t heard yet, Microsoft is paying $300 million to create an ad campaign starting Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. They plan to create the campaign around the slogan ‘Windows, Not Walls’. Apparently, Jerry is receiving $10 million for the job. Not bad!

It is obvious that Microsoft is responding at long last to the highly successful ‘Get a Mac’ ads, which I’m sure you know about. The ads will attempt to change people’s views about Windows Vista from the current scathing criticism of the product and to let people know that it works now (like it should have at launch. Boy did Microsoft screw that up). I admit, there is nothing wrong with Windows, but from personal experience I have found that Macs are easier to use as a personal computer. In my opinion, Windows belong in the office and Macs belong at home. It’s as easy as that.

Microsoft’s history of ad campaigns doesn’t set a very high benchmark for the new campaign to reach. The ‘Realizing Potential’ campaign (created in 2005) was so forgettable that I had to check Wikipedia to check what Microsoft’s last ad campaign was. For the record, the ad featured a series of deep and profound phrases that were so tenuously linked to anything to do with Microsoft that it took until the logo appeared for people to realize what the ad was for. Even after that appeared I still found myself wondering what they were trying to sell. I liked the tone of the ads, but they failed to sell me something. Note to Microsoft: try to sell something in this new campaign.

The huge hurdle Microsoft have to overcome is the known fact that Microsoft and Windows aren’t cool! Nobody from my generation gets excited about a Microsoft product release. Apple on the other hand have the infamous self driven free PR machine that I am a part of. Even though nobody my age (excluding me) jumped out of their chairs when the iPhone reached Australia, it was discussed and people knew about it. Microsoft just don’t have this appeal to the younger generation who are moving increasingly towards the Apple platform.

Using Bill Gates is a mistake in my opinion. Yes, he is rich, yes he is famous but does he make you want to use Windows? “Look kids! A giant security center!” Bleh! Seinfeld doesn’t really connect with the younger generation either. So when it comes down to it, Microsoft is failing to appeal to those who will be buying the PCs of Macs in the future. Apple succeeds in advertising their product so bluntly and unashamedly in the ‘Get a Mac’ campaign that everyone knows what they are selling and why they should buy it. For Microsoft to aim at countering these humorous yet effective ads, they need to do the same. They need to use the personalities of Seinfeld and Gates to create a tone of “Wow Vista is better then I heard it was” without making it looked forced.

In the end, this campaign will prove very little. At most it will prove that Microsoft feels compelled to compete with a certain company that is succeeding at swaying the personal computer buyer. What Apple fails at is what Microsoft excels at: business. So Microsoft, don’t try to sell the unsellable to those who don’t want to buy it, stick with what you’re good at and don’t feel pressured to fight Apple. Go with the flow and fix Vista, then you’ll sell computers regardless of an ad campaign. It’s worked before, right?