[canyon_Carver]

Well...at least they lived up to the non-hype.

$50 Non-Glare screen......wow, make a screen that everyone hates, then sell the solution for a premium that used to be a "standard".

[bassplayinMacFiend]

Seems like more and more, Apple is all about squeezing as much cash from their loyal customers as possible. Loyal in this case include all the professionals that kept buying Apple products during the dark days and still need things like replaceable batteries and matte screens.

It might sound stupid, but I think Apple is lucky that Windows sucks so bad compared to OS X. Apple's price:features ratio just keeps getting more skewed in the wrong direction, IMHO.

[Brad]

Why is this speculation?

Moving to General Discussion.

[Luca]

I think it's a testament to Apple's marketing department (not to mention the iPod halo effect) that they've been able to actually add customers as their computers have gotten more expensive and less competitive. The only area where they've improved since the Intel switch is processors—the G4 should have been gone by 2003.

It's one thing for long-time Mac users to put up with Apple's increasingly overpriced hardware, but for them to actually get more customers is crazy. I wonder how much the economic downturn will hurt them.

[Chinney]

I would not go so far in my criticism as canyon, bassplayinfiend, and Luca, but I do agree generally that this was a yawn-inducing keynote.

Maybe that was part of the strategy though, in leaving MacWorld behind. Overall, if you are going to emphasize that the whole format no longer fits within your plans, then you are more likely going to leave with a whimper, rather than a bang. A big, splashy, Steveified presentation with notable announcements is going to make people think “That was great….why would you be quitting this format?”. That’s not what Apple wants to convey. They want people to be looking forward to the next big thing that Apple does on its own terms.

Except…except….except….Apple generally has failed to create all that much excitement since the iPhone. It’s not that their products are flopping, or are doing poorly in the market – Apple has continued to perform very well – but there just has not been a lot of new buzz. It makes me wonder what’s next and when it will be. Maybe we have hit a bit of a plateau period for personal technology. Temporary, almost certainly.

[Gargoyle]

Just on the $50 anti-glare screen... Has anyone contemplated the fact that the old ones might have been more expensive in the first place? and that they are probably not as "green" to produce or dispose of as the glass ones?

[Miko]

Originally Posted by Gargoyle Just on the $50 anti-glare screen... Has anyone contemplated the fact that the old ones might have been more expensive in the first place? and that they are probably not as "green" to produce or dispose of as the glass ones?

I thought the LED makes the screens more green and the glass is just there for protection and to unify the product line appearance al-la iPhone? so why would the matte screen be more costly to produce when you are taking away material "glass" rather than adding it?

Then again, I could be and probably am wrong

[canyon_Carver]

Long ago, the Gloss Screen was the premium.

Then they took it to standard across the line.

I have never heard anyone say "wow, I love looking at my own reflection as I work in photoshop."

Apple received the following feedback: To Hell with the glossy screen!!! I WANT MATTE!

Unless you are working in a dimly lit room, with no windows you have such dramatic reflection on your screen surface that it becomes distracting/annoying/harmful.

Harmful reflections? Yes, Try to white balance video while wearing a bright red shirt. Red reflections mix with white light cast causing you to skew to green white balance to compensate for the harmful pink mix-reflection.

So Apple takes the PREFERRED screen of its customers, Matte: and makes this a premium addon. Its a great way to make more money, but its transparent in its marketing.

[Matsu]

the 17" model looks like a powerhouse portable, maybe the first really portable 17" laptop.

The software announced looks cool too. iLife/iWork/leopard for $169 looks like a good deal to me, and they're moving iTunes in the right direction with price variability, DRM free, and bitrate choice. For the first time I can say that I would actually consider paying for an iTunes track.

Apple has yet to turn its serious attention to the entry level, and it will be neccessary to do so in the coming economic climate, but these were not bad offerings.

And yes, boo-hiss for glossy screens. You're all right about that one.

[k squared]

Originally Posted by Miko I thought the LED makes the screens more green and the glass is just there for protection and to unify the product line appearance al-la iPhone? so why would the matte screen be more costly to produce when you are taking away material "glass" rather than adding it? Then again, I could be and probably am wrong

Someone is going to pay $2800 and then complain about $50? The additional cost is probably for the change in the standard production line.

[Miko]

Originally Posted by k squared Someone is going to pay $2800 and then complain about $50? The additional cost is probably for the change in the standard production line.

I was responding to Gargoyle's post suggestion that the matter screen could of been more costly to produce than the new LED/glass screens. $50.00 shouldn't be a surprise, It is fair to say any BTO that requires non-standard product modification (i.e. ram and HD) with replacement will cost.

[Kraetos]

Err.... this was one of my favorite Macworld keynotes yet.

iPhoto '09: Wow, what a product. I used it for about two hours today; the face recognition software works as advertised. You add tags to faces. As you add more tags, it gets more accurate. After a while it begins to guess, and the more you tag, the better it guesses.

After a while, you can toggle a view which shows all the photos in the library that iPhoto thinks are the person you are tagging. You can go through the entire list. Click once to confirm, click two times to deny. If you go through your entire library... well, by the time your done, it's correct more often than not.

But here's the best part: you don't have to actually tag anyone. Upload them to Facebook, and if your friends are anything like mine, a lot of them will go in and tag themselves. The tags get sent back to iPhoto and then iPhoto starts tagging your friends.

Geotagging also worked as advertised. Actually, I've never seen Google maps look so good. You can sort by location which is really nice. You can multitouch zoom in and out, or double click, or move the slider on the bottom. The closer you get, the more pins you see.

The slideshow themes look very nice. The new slideshow transitions are also very nice. The printed books are gorgeous. This is the first iPhoto in a very long time that I might actually use. Hopefully these enhancements get sent to Aperture sometime in the near future.

iMovie '09: Lets be honest; iMovie '08 blew. It was very easy to use but it was very much at the expense of power. A lot of power has been brought back. The precision editor and the new drag and drop work exactly as advertised. I actually like the new themes; the old ones were either too flashy or too boring. The new transitions are also very good looking. However, the image stabilization didn't work to well. I downloaded some example footage from a Zi6 from someone's blog, put it in, and got a very small amount of stabilization. Hopefully, footage imported directly from a camera will stabilize better.

GarageBand '09: Again, I am actually going to use this GarageBand. Learning to play guitar has been on my to do list for a very long time, and this looks like a very straightforward way to jump right in.

iWork '09: Okay, so Mac Office's days are are numbered, and that number is pretty small. The improvements to the entire suite are cover everything that iWork '08 didn't, and then some. Apple is going right for Office's jugular.

Pages '09: My favorite feature is the outlines. The dragging and rearranging of items is seamless. This will absolutely replace OmniOutliner for me. MathType is also a very welcome addition, even though you have to pay for it eventually. But the ability to stick equations into my Pages docs is going to be very helpful for my upcoming calculus classes. Also, the way it interacts with Numbers is pretty sweet.

Numbers '09: Bye-bye Excel. Given that most of the advanced Excel plugins are Windows only, there's really no reason to hold back. The formula options have gone from being severely limited to incredibly extensive. The rearranging of tables by any column works exactly as you think it would and is very intuitive. The charts are beautiful. This is an Excel-killer, as far as I'm concerned.

Keynote '09: So Keynote was already light-years ahead of PowerPoint, and the gap has widened. The graph animations are great, the new slide transitions are equally great. I especially like sparkle, magic move, and anagram. I love the iPhone remote app.

17" MacBook Pro: For the small amount of people who wanted one, they are very excited to see that it's arrived. I know my Dad is excited because he just preordered it. Yeah, it's a $2799 laptop but it's the top of the line mac, and the bottom line is if you don't want one, don't buy one.

Tangent on the matte vs. glossy thing.

Originally Posted by canyon_Carver $50 Non-Glare screen......wow, make a screen that everyone hates, then sell the solution for a premium that used to be a "standard".

How do you know what "everyone hates?" Oh, that's right, you don't. When the 15" still was a no cost option, what percentage of customers do you think opted for the glossy? 10%? 15%? 20%?

50%.

I know this because I've worked in multiple Apple Stores. The ratio of glossy-to-matte screens that went out the door was right around 1:1. You know why? Because they look better. There, I said it. The colors are far more vivid. Properly calibrated, the color reproduction is much better. Sure, in an environment with lots of ambient and unpredictable light, the matte will look nicer. News flash: if you're a creative pro doing serious work in anything but a controlled-light environment, consider going back to school and re-learning the basics.

If you still want a matte screen, go buy one of these, because here's the kicker: you can turn a glossy screen in to a matte screen, but you cant turn a matte screen into a glossy screen.

And to be honest, the backlight on the new MacBook Pro is so freaking bright that the glare isn't really an issue.

Finally, the death is FairPlay is huge. If you want to complain about everything else, fine, complain all you want. But nobody can deny that this is a very, very good thing.

Everyone was expecting Apple to go out with a bang, but that was unrealistic. The thing is, this was one of the most practical keynotes ever. All the improvements made are improvements that people will use and love every day. You can't say the same thing about the Air, even though the "wow" factor was much higher.

So stop your bitching and get back in line with reality. We're all a bunch of hardcore Apple nerds, but if you are going to take anything away from Apple's withdrawal from Macworld, take this: Apple's audience is no longer limited to the uber-faithful. Apple is mainstream now, and you can bitch about it, or you can consider the advantages of this newfound popularity and have fun.

[Chinney]

Good post, but I still am yawning.

[feidhlim1986]

....the best is yet to come

Could there be some meaning to Apple choosing Tony Bennet and that song....

[kieran]

I was actually very impressed with the keynote as well.

All of the improvements in iLife and iWork are very impressive. I can't wait to go and get them. I really think I'm going to use them a lot.

I'm actually very glad that this is the last keynote. Having something scheduled and planned out put expectations on the company that aren't needed. I'm glad that from this point on, Apple will be able to introduce something when it is good and ready and not have to live up to impossible expectations.

[Enki]

Originally Posted by feidhlim1986 ....the best is yet to come Could there be some meaning to Apple choosing Tony Bennet and that song....

Of course there is. Apple will try to make their next press release event the really big splash, shipping that afternoon, and say it was possible because it was on their schedule.

[hmurchison]

Glossy vs Matte is such a boorish argument

MWSF 09 was about what Apple does best. Software.

iLife and iWork get an "A" from me.

iPhoto '09 looks so good that everyone who yesterday said "I'm never going to use iPhoto again" when Mac Picasa came out may as well put a dunce cap on and sit in the corner.

iWork...solid. Bibliography support and Outlining are just a few highlights. I noticed that they didn't have videos on the live linking between the iWork apps which sucks because that's a killer feature.

If I was on Tiger right now I'd be buying the Leopard/iLife/iWork bundle. I can't wait to find out what Snow Leopard is going to cost us. If it's a free upgrade for Leopard users I'll buy the combo bundle.

[drewprops]

I did rather like the price for the multi-pack of iLife, iWork and Leopard and might jump in with that for my iMac at work.

But....

(and I get the feeling I've asked this before (recently even))

Would Leopard perform very well on 1.67Ghz PPC Powerbook?

I keep thinking that Tiger might be the best OS for this hardware, but I'm willing to listen to some anecdotes....

[psmith2.0]

I watched part of the keynote just now, and reading about the new iLife and iWork on Apple's site simply doesn't do it justice. You have to see this stuff in motion, being demoed.

I was originally only excited about iMovie '09, but now iPhoto and the other stuff looks really good to me now (that Faces and Places stuff is actually quite cool, and I just couldn't get a good handle on it earlier today, even after reading about it at Apple's site).

Seeing it talked about and demoed, in real time and with Phil talking about it all as he was doing it, suddenly made it "click" for me.

And I'm even more excited about iMovie '09, after seeing its keynote demo!

I pretty much forgive iMovie '08 at this point; this builds on it (ease-of-use, real-time feedback, no-brainer options and features, etc.) and fills them out with the sorts of features I like (and use) from iMovie '06.

I'd pay $79 for iMovie '09 alone. The fact that I'll get all the other stuff is just icing on the cake!

Yeah, a few obvious missing elements to today's keynote, but the stuff that was included - iLife and iWork mostly - is pretty damn impressive and slick.

And as someone above says, maybe we'll get these nice 4-5(?) surprises throughout the year, with Apple staging events and releasing products on their schedule (so when they do unveil a new product, most likely it's ready to ship right then and will be available immediately). That would be a nice improvement over quite a few instances of "announcing today, shipping in five weeks" that often accompanies these Macworld keynotes.

It's all good.

And when they finally update the Mac mini, they'll probably have them distributed and stockpiled and, depending on where you live, you can get one in your hands, immediately following the presentation, or, at worst, the next day...because they introduced it when they knew they were ramped up, shipped, and ready for the world. Not at an early-January, post-Christmas trade show where they have no control over the dates (and probably kill themselves - and each other - working through the holidays to try and get things ready).



If nothing else, pulling out of Macworld probably makes working at Apple a little nicer and slightly less frantic and frustrating...around the one time of year you'd kinda like to not feel that way. The holidays can be stressful enough...you don't need someone like Steve Jobs or one of his underlings in your face, screaming at you because things are running behind, even though you're working 18 hours a day, seven days a week, missing family get-togethers or travel because of last-minute snags, etc. Screw that...life's too short.

Give these folks a rest and a proper holiday at that time of year (mid-late December, and New Year's). Stand on their nuts the other 11 months if you have to, but everyone should enjoy Christmas (or whatever it is they observe).



Every year at Macworld, when Steve asks the Apple employees to stand up and be recognized, I always feel bad because you know, just days (or hours?) earlier, most of them were probably at their wit's end, preparing for this big show...not sleeping, feeling massive pressure, putting in major overtime, etc. I always wanted to see one of them yell "well, you certainly were an unreasonable a-hole this past month, Steve!"

[zippy]

Originally Posted by Miko I thought the LED makes the screens more green and the glass is just there for protection and to unify the product line appearance al-la iPhone? so why would the matte screen be more costly to produce when you are taking away material "glass" rather than adding it? Then again, I could be and probably am wrong

Well, if you take away the glass, you have to add plastic. Glass is greener than plastic.

And whichever unit is not the standard, sold on the majority of your products, is going to be more expensive simply because of the economics of scale. That and (according to the Gizmodo liveblog) they make all of them with the glass, and then hand modify those that are switching to the plastic/matte.

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by drewprops I did rather like the price for the multi-pack of iLife, iWork and Leopard and might jump in with that for my iMac at work. But.... (and I get the feeling I've asked this before (recently even)) Would Leopard perform very well on 1.67Ghz PPC Powerbook? I keep thinking that Tiger might be the best OS for this hardware, but I'm willing to listen to some anecdotes....

This might help, drew: I used Leopard, for just under a year, on my PowerBook G4 and I felt like it did just fine. It was 1.25GHz and had 1.25GB RAM. Hardly a speed-demon or hammer-swinger, looking back.



I don't know which exact model of PowerBook you have (15" or 17", etc.), but according to MacTracker even the first/earliest 1.67GHz PowerBook G4 had slightly better graphics than mine, and a 5400rpm hard drive vs. my 4200rpm. So between those two things, plus the extra 400MHz you have, I think you'd be okay. You'll want RAM, and those models topped-out at 2GB, I believe. But, again, I had "only" 1.25GB and it was fine.

I had no major, lasting complaints, and nothing seemed off or excessively slow to me. I used iPhoto, iTunes, light iMovie, Adobe CS (quite a few InDesign projects, and gobs of Illustrator and Photoshop), etc. And, of course, Safari, Mail, iChat and the rest on a daily basis, as well as syncing/charging my iPhone the entire time, with no issues or hangs. And I kept it updated, right through October with the latest version of Leopard.

I was never once tempted to go back to Tiger, if that tells you anything. I did just fine, and you've actually got a slightly faster, more robust PowerBook than I did...

Feel free to PM me for any more specifics or other opinions/insights.

I'm trying to remember other 'Novans with PowerBook G4s; there should be a few. I'm pretty sure Brad and Carol both had/have one, but I don't know if they ever installed Leopard on them. And I know scratt has owned several 17" models. Might be worth a PM to get their take?

[Miko]

Well dewdrops I'll tell you right now your iLife experience is going to be crippled. here are the system requirements from Apples iLife site.

iMovie requires an Intel-based Mac, Power Mac G5 (dual 2.0GHz or faster), or iMac G5 (1.9GHz or faster); GarageBand Learn to Play requires an Intel-based Mac with a dual-core processor or better.

But still a helluva deal I don't know why they didn't offer this before now.

[hmurchison]

Originally Posted by Miko Well dewdrops I'll tell you right now your iLife experience is going to be crippled. here are the system requirements from Apples iLife site. iMovie requires an Intel-based Mac, Power Mac G5 (dual 2.0GHz or faster), or iMac G5 (1.9GHz or faster); GarageBand Learn to Play requires an Intel-based Mac with a dual-core processor or better. But still a helluva deal I don't know why they didn't offer this before now.

Consider it a concession. Apple just made iLife Leopard only so they have to entice the Panther and Tiger owners out there
to update their OS. It's a pretty savvy decision if you ask me.

[Kraetos]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 I watched part of the keynote just now, and reading about the new iLife and iWork on Apple's site simply doesn't do it justice. You have to see this stuff in motion, being demoed.

Demoed is nice, but you really cant get a feel for how awesome this stuff is until you play with it. Like I said, I screwed around with iLife for two hours today. (Okay so it didn't hurt that the specialist helping me was cute, but I was still interested in iLife )

[psmith2.0]

Well of course. But I'm not fortunate enough to be there, so I'll take what I can get for the moment...web-based demoes and tutorials. I'm sure I'll like it even more once I can actually put my hands on it!

[Chinney]

I don't agree with all that much in this article on Slate, but is is worthwhile to pay attention to general reactions out there. The further headline for this article on Slate's main page is "I Have Seen the Future of Apple, and It Is Boring".

[drewprops]

Thanks guys, this is good information.

Fortunately, I have an Intel-based iMac that would receive all of the iLife/iWork apps. I could then install Leopard on the laptop... and maybe the iMac.... not sure of the licensing. I know, I know, Apple doesn't track that stuff...

[bassplayinMacFiend]

Originally Posted by drewprops Thanks guys, this is good information. Fortunately, I have an Intel-based iMac that would receive all of the iLife/iWork apps. I could then install Leopard on the laptop... and maybe the iMac.... not sure of the licensing. I know, I know, Apple doesn't track that stuff...

You can buy a family pack box set for $229 which allows installation of Leopard/iWork/iLife on up to 5 computers.

[Mugge]

+1 on Kraetos' comment!

Especially iPhoto got my attention. Not so hot about the 17" MBP, though. Phil did a good show. Sure he's no Steve, but I like his jovial approach.

Post keynote complaining is as unavoidable as gravity.

[Jason]

Originally Posted by drewprops I did rather like the price for the multi-pack of iLife, iWork and Leopard and might jump in with that for my iMac at work. But.... (and I get the feeling I've asked this before (recently even)) Would Leopard perform very well on 1.67Ghz PPC Powerbook? I keep thinking that Tiger might be the best OS for this hardware, but I'm willing to listen to some anecdotes....

I have the same machine as you. I bought this baby back in May 2005. I have 2 GB RAM installed. Never had any issues with using leopard whatsoever. Sure, some apps like Photoshop and Lightroom could do with more resources but it's not as though they are unusable.