The Macworld Conference and Expo held last week in San Francisco, California, was an interesting event worthy of note for several reasons, not least for the very important announcements made by Apple at its last appearance at the show.
However, it was not Apple's CEO Steve Jobs who delivered the keynote speech, amid rumours on the condition of his health. Computer users were accustomed to tune in and wait for Jobs to announce important products but he did not turn up at the last participation of Apple at the event. Apple decided not take part any more in this expo that brings together Mac users to share ideas, stories and have fun together.
Apple did come up with a few interesting offerings, especially the new unibody 17-inch MacBook Pro, a new version of iLife and iWork, and the online version of iWork that words in similar fashion to Google Docs.
Apple unveiled the new 17-inch MacBook Pro featuring the aluminum unibody enclosure like the rest of the MacBook range launched last October and a new built-in battery that the company claims delivers up to eight hours of use and up to 1,000 recharges for more than three times the lifespan of conventional notebook batteries. The new 17-inch MacBook Pro has a high resolution LED-backlit widescreen glossy 1920 x 1200 display and the same large glass Multi-Touch trackpad introduced in October. In addition, this new model includes state of the art NVIDIA graphics and the latest generation Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processors.
Indeed the 17-inch MacBook Pro is the most powerful Mac notebook yet with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors available up to 2.93 GHz, up to 8GB DDR3 main memory and a graphics architecture that allows users to switch between the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor for better battery life and the powerful NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics processor for higher performance. It also includes a 320GB 5400 rpm hard drive standard, with a 320GB 7200 rpm hard drive and 128GB and 256GB solid state drives as options.
At Macworld Apple also introduced iLife '09, which features major upgrades to iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand, and includes iDVD and an updated version of iWeb.
iPhoto '09 builds on the ability to automatically organise photos into events by adding faces and places as breakthrough new ways to easily organize and manage your photos. iMovie '09 expands on the movie creation introduced in iMovie '08 by adding the depth users want through powerful easy-to-use new features such as the new Precision Editor, video stabilisation, advanced drag and drop, and animated travel maps. GarageBand '09 introduces a whole new way to help you learn to play piano and guitar with 18 basic lessons and optional lessons from top artistes such as Sara Bareilles, John Fogerty, Norah Jones and Sting.
iLife '09 is included with every new Mac purchase and available as an upgrade for existing users. Full system requirements and more information on iLife '09 can be found at http://www.apple.com/ilife.
iWork '09 is the new version of Apple's successful iWork office productivity suite, and adds powerful new features without sacrificing the ease of use.
Keynote '09, the presentation programme, introduces advanced object transitions, which automatically animate objects with a choice of effects and Magic Move, an innovative way to create sophisticated animations just by applying a simple transition.
The Keynote Remote application, sold separately, lets you view slides and presenter notes and control your presentation with your iPhone or iPod touch. Pages '09, the word processor, features a new full screen view that helps you focus on your writing and an outline mode to organise your thoughts. MathType 6 support lets engineers, mathematicians and students easily add sophisticated equations to their documents and EndNote X2 integration lets users add and edit comprehensive bibliographic references.
Numbers '09, the spreadsheet programme, introduces a quick way to group and summarise data and a dramatically simplified way to create complex formulas. Expanded chart options include mixed chart types, two-axis charts, and the ability to apply trend lines and error bars. Numbers charts pasted into Pages or Keynote are linked, and can be updated with a single click.
Apple also announced iWork.com public beta, a new service Apple is developing to share iWork '09 documents online. Using an Apple ID, users just click the iWork.com icon in the Keynote, Pages or Numbers toolbar to upload their document and invite others to view them online and collaborate on changes.
The new 17-inch MacBook Pro, iLife '09 and iWork '09 will be available in Malta soon. iTunes is not yet officially available in Malta.
http://www.macworldexpo.com
http://www.apple.com
However, it was not Apple's CEO Steve Jobs who delivered the keynote speech, amid rumours on the condition of his health. Computer users were accustomed to tune in and wait for Jobs to announce important products but he did not turn up at the last participation of Apple at the event. Apple decided not take part any more in this expo that brings together Mac users to share ideas, stories and have fun together.
Apple did come up with a few interesting offerings, especially the new unibody 17-inch MacBook Pro, a new version of iLife and iWork, and the online version of iWork that words in similar fashion to Google Docs.
Apple unveiled the new 17-inch MacBook Pro featuring the aluminum unibody enclosure like the rest of the MacBook range launched last October and a new built-in battery that the company claims delivers up to eight hours of use and up to 1,000 recharges for more than three times the lifespan of conventional notebook batteries. The new 17-inch MacBook Pro has a high resolution LED-backlit widescreen glossy 1920 x 1200 display and the same large glass Multi-Touch trackpad introduced in October. In addition, this new model includes state of the art NVIDIA graphics and the latest generation Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processors.
Indeed the 17-inch MacBook Pro is the most powerful Mac notebook yet with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors available up to 2.93 GHz, up to 8GB DDR3 main memory and a graphics architecture that allows users to switch between the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor for better battery life and the powerful NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics processor for higher performance. It also includes a 320GB 5400 rpm hard drive standard, with a 320GB 7200 rpm hard drive and 128GB and 256GB solid state drives as options.
At Macworld Apple also introduced iLife '09, which features major upgrades to iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand, and includes iDVD and an updated version of iWeb.
iPhoto '09 builds on the ability to automatically organise photos into events by adding faces and places as breakthrough new ways to easily organize and manage your photos. iMovie '09 expands on the movie creation introduced in iMovie '08 by adding the depth users want through powerful easy-to-use new features such as the new Precision Editor, video stabilisation, advanced drag and drop, and animated travel maps. GarageBand '09 introduces a whole new way to help you learn to play piano and guitar with 18 basic lessons and optional lessons from top artistes such as Sara Bareilles, John Fogerty, Norah Jones and Sting.
iLife '09 is included with every new Mac purchase and available as an upgrade for existing users. Full system requirements and more information on iLife '09 can be found at http://www.apple.com/ilife.
iWork '09 is the new version of Apple's successful iWork office productivity suite, and adds powerful new features without sacrificing the ease of use.
Keynote '09, the presentation programme, introduces advanced object transitions, which automatically animate objects with a choice of effects and Magic Move, an innovative way to create sophisticated animations just by applying a simple transition.
The Keynote Remote application, sold separately, lets you view slides and presenter notes and control your presentation with your iPhone or iPod touch. Pages '09, the word processor, features a new full screen view that helps you focus on your writing and an outline mode to organise your thoughts. MathType 6 support lets engineers, mathematicians and students easily add sophisticated equations to their documents and EndNote X2 integration lets users add and edit comprehensive bibliographic references.
Numbers '09, the spreadsheet programme, introduces a quick way to group and summarise data and a dramatically simplified way to create complex formulas. Expanded chart options include mixed chart types, two-axis charts, and the ability to apply trend lines and error bars. Numbers charts pasted into Pages or Keynote are linked, and can be updated with a single click.
Apple also announced iWork.com public beta, a new service Apple is developing to share iWork '09 documents online. Using an Apple ID, users just click the iWork.com icon in the Keynote, Pages or Numbers toolbar to upload their document and invite others to view them online and collaborate on changes.
The new 17-inch MacBook Pro, iLife '09 and iWork '09 will be available in Malta soon. iTunes is not yet officially available in Malta.
http://www.macworldexpo.com
http://www.apple.com