MacWorld '09: Fall Out Boy shows you how to play guitar

So the rumors were true.

Last night, Philippine time, Phil Shiller made his MacWorld appearance to unveil several things that matched the rumors.

Unfortunately, the stream of the keynote isn't going as smoothly as keynotes past, but I'm just gonna outline every major announcement over here.

1) iLife '09

So the iLife suite is pretty much a big selling point since it comes built-in to every Mac. And since this is a suite, there are singular applications that run in an integrated, seamless environment, and they are:

a) iPhoto

The photo management tool gets new features- face detection, geotagging, online sharing, better editing tools and themed slideshows. 

With Faces (or face detection), you can get a photo, select the face you want to track and type the name of the person with the face. After that, iPhoto automatically detects whether the person is in a picture the next time you import photos from your camera.

With Places (geotagging), you can "tag" the location of the picture you took using a GPS-enabled cameraphone (ahem, iPhone) or a GPS-enabled camera. iPhoto will group your pictures according to the place you went to. If you live in America, you can also use this feature to print out books that also track the location of your vacation (called Travel Places).

Then there's online sharing which lets you directly upload your pictures to Facebook or Flickr in one click.

Additionally, themed slideshows are (finally) there, and all you have to do is view your pics as a slideshow and show them off on-screen with an accompanying theme.

Bottom line, amateur photographers who don't want to shell out more cash to buy Adobe Lightroom or Apple Aperture can get by with iPhoto even better, especially with better editing tools.

b) iMovie 

I've criticized iMovie '08 for being hard to use, and preferred iMovie HD. Now, even though it kind of keeps the same interface, it adds in new features that will most likely satiate the fickle ones- like me.

Precision editing, advanced drag-and-drop, more themes, video stabilization, green-screen effects, new effects, and a full screen browser make up for the lackluster '08 edition.

I can't wait to get my hands on it, because I'm still quite skeptical.

c) GarageBand

Ever wanted to learn all those crazy riffs for all those crazy songs from the crazy ones who made them popular? Well, you can now get Sting to teach you Roxanne, or Patrick Stump with I Don't Care when you purchase Artist Lessons. This is a pretty good gimmick that'll get guitarists, pianists and girls (mostly girls) screaming, and an interesting experiment. There's a huge chance of it sinking under, you see, but who knows.

Colbie's teaching me how to play "Bubbly"!

Additionally if your guitar supports it, you can wire it onto your computer and make it sound like those legendary guitars your dad keeps talking to you about. Let's get that oomph into the music.

d) iWeb

The only update that's probably meant for everyone to care about is iWeb's Facebook features which let your Facebook friends know whether an iWeb website has been updated.

 Unfortunately, one would require MobileMe for that one.

e) iDVD

Actually nothing much new here, just more themes since iDVD is excellent already in its own right.

2) iWork '09

Because of versatile export tools, excellent themes and speed, I prefer iWork '08 to the Mac version of Microsoft Office. While Microsoft Office on Windows is still better (except for PowerPoint, Keynote pwns it regardless of version), there are some welcome changes to this suite of applications.

a) Pages

This is Apple's answer to Microsoft Word. While I loved the previous version, this version adds even more options to the fray like a full-screen view, better outlining, mail merge (with Numbers), more gorgeous templates and a better way to type mathematical equations (using MathType or EndNote).

b) Numbers

Microsoft Excel's extremely young brother. While Numbers was a decent alternative to Excel, it didn't really compare. This new version, fortunately, adds some more functions that make it more user-friendly, even if it still doesn't compare to Excel.

Your charts can now be categorized and hidden so that you can work better with a more compact view of looking at things, for example.

c) Keynote

Now this is a program I enjoy tinkering with. Significantly more beautiful and better than PowerPoint, Keynote once again blazes ahead of the pack with even more stunning effects and actions.

Magic Move, for example, operates quite a bit like Flash's keyframes. In one slide, you can place an object in one side, and in the other slide, you can place the same object in another side. Once Magic Move is activated, the object will automatically animate. This is a great way to save time (and for animating a set of scattered cards).

Then there's the ability to use your iPhone or iPod touch as a remote control. I've always wanted that, and now it's available through a separate app in the App Store!

d) iWork.com

Now in public beta, iWork.com promises to be a glorified Google Docs and Spreadsheets, meaning that you can work on a presentation, document or spreadsheet on your computer, transfer that file online and work on that thing on your PC through a browser. You can invite other people so they can collaborate on comment on your work.

Additionally, iWork.com also promises to be able to send copies of the same document to friends regardless of operating system because it can convert and send the files in Microsoft Office or iWork formats.

No need for exporting and sending and waiting for the other person to respond.

I'm not sure whether you'll need MobileMe for this, though, but it would be cool if you didn't. And let's hope there aren't any severe bugs this time, OK, Apple?

3) It's all in the box.

iWork '09 and iLife '09 will strictly need Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). Fortunately, Apple is selling a box set that is of extremely high value for money (how surprising!) which includes Leopard, iWork and iLife. For 169 dollars, it's a fricking bargain.

4) iTunes without condoms.

What is DRM? It's a stupid way of stripping the rights of consumers while protecting the rights of copyright owners. iTunes has had that for years and now, it suddenly doesn't.

With 4 major labels and thousands of independents agreeing, iTunes is finally making the shift to being DRM-free, meaning that you can buy that track and burn it not 3, not 4, but infinite times. You can also put that song into your Zune, or your Creative Zen without having to actually re-encode it.

This will really grant Apple the status of biggest music retailer ever.

Still, how about existing purchased songs? Well, for 30 cents per track, you can get a DRM-free version of the same track with a 256kbps bit rate.

iPhone and iPod touch owners in America can also get on the act, now even without Wi-Fi.

5) A 17-inch MacBook Pro that sips, sips, sips juice

Not just a bigger screen.

There was a product that was noticeably ignored last year in the Notebook event. While its younger brothers were re-designed, the 17" MacBook Pro was left in the dust. Apple makes amends this time and introduces a little twist: an 8-hour unremovable battery that's environmentally-friendly, lasts 1000 charge cycles and jives with the Pro's demands. Holy sh*t.

And if your eyes are good enough, the color gamut of the screen has been increased greatly (60%) as well. Most likely for the pro video editors and graphic designers.

Other than that, the redesign introduces the 17-incher to the MiniDisplayPort, the unibody, the dual video cards and the gorgeous LED backlit screen (and yes, an optional matte finish for 50 more). And yes, it costs the same as the last-generation 17" MacBook Pro.

Here's the commercial:

And here's how the unbelievable 8-hour battery came to be:

(thanks goes to the user applejuicevideos for being such a fast uploader)

6) Tony Bennett

Ending the whole keynote was world-renowned singer Tony Bennett. But I didn't see that performance either.

I can't really muse about 'how the keynote was so underwhelming' because I couldn't really watch it properly for some reason, but I gotta say, just the promise of a more precise iMovie sells for me.

MacWorld '08: There's indeed something in the air... and I want it.

MacWorld has always been an unpredictable event that all techies regardless of operating system, anticipate. Well, it was surely worth the wait, even though the hype the iPhone got will be left unmatched maybe forever. But hey, at least the rumors are mostly true this time around, the company finally gets things right with their flops and well, you're probably gonna be shocked about what Steve Jobs' fourth thing. I was.

The First Thing

Apple's new operating system Leopard has this extraordinarily convenient and user-friendly

automatic backup program called Time Machine. Just connect your hard drive by Firewire and if you've got all the options right, then you'll be ready to ignore your Mac when you're not gonna use it. However, in a wireless world, back-up is also going there right now in the form of Time Capsule. It's an accessory for Leopard and Time Machine, and it uses Wi-Fi 802.11N, the most advanced, so you can hook up and back-up wirelessly to as many Macs possible. Kinda like a server, only significantly less expensive. It will be available in 500 gigabyte and 1 terabyte capacities at just $299 and $499 respectively. If the execution is right because there wasn't a live demo in the keynote, the product will be a hit among Mac users because it will definitely be a life-saver. And a wireless one at that.

The Second Thing

Apple has penetrated 20% of the smartphone market in its first few months after release. Well, it seems that in the 4 million iPhones they have sold in just 200 days, they're making it better for free. They're adding no, not GPS, but something really close, and it's inside a revamped Google Maps. It's called Locations. Well, because of what was an explanation about triangulation mumbo-jumbo and Wi-fi hotspots, Apple together with Google and some Wireless Networking Company, have made a faux GPS possible so you can locate yourself and locate some places near to you and teach you which direction you should go. I don't see myself using this because Google Maps doesn't have a street map of the Philippines unfortunately.

If Leopard gave you the ability to create widgets from web pages, it's here too, and you can resize, zoom in, and save any web page you like so a web page icon can be generated on the home screen. It's a bit like Bookmarks anyway, and I also don't see myself using that one as well.

You still can't put your own backgrounds, but you can drag and drop home screen icons up to 9 pages. Maybe I should add a sarcastic "Weee!" to that, but hey, if you want to have a more convenient way of sorting out apps in the home screen, it's a great feature then. Hell, you can even remove icons from the dock. What used to be 4 icons could also be three icons, or maybe you can put something else there, or something like that.

One very significant upgrade Apple finally made without waiting a new generation (of iPhones) is Multiple SMS sending. Yes, finally, it's there now. You'll know how it works. Only thing missing is 3G... and maybe MMS, too.

The new iPods have this feature and so will the iPhone. It will support video chapters, subtitles and alternate languages. For the music part, Lyrics display for both iPhone and iPod touch. I don't really have much to say about this, but I do prefer watching videos with subtitles. I don't know why...

Plus, people have been nagging about the iPod touch not having e-mail or something. Well, Apple finally delivers along with a few uninteresting widgets like Weather or Stocks. And it even costs $20 for the upgrade... though you can just a buy a Touch from a new shipment to get all these so you can save a few bucks.

The Third Thing

iTunes, Apple's trademark music program, has reached record sales of the 4 Billionth song, 20 million songs sold on Christmas Day and 125 million TV shows and 7 Million movies sold. Now, they have decided to put a largely requested feature called Movie Rentals. You know what it means, you rent a movie, you return it after a few days, you pay less than the DVD, etc. This feature... I STILL don't see myself using. One, we don't have a domestic iTunes store for crying out loud, and two... well, just that reason...

New movies will be released a month after the DVD, and they will cost a dollar more than titles already in the iTunes catalogue a long time ago and you gotta play the rented movie before 30 days and you gotta watch it before the day passes. So if you watch just 30 minutes of a movie a day, then say bye-bye to the rest of the movie because, in my understanding, once you play it, you gotta finish it before the 24 hour mark. And after the first playing, you can still play it again, and again, and again until you get sick of it before the day passes. You can sync it to your iPod to continue watching, though.

This concept then led Jobs to introduce a new Apple TV. They failed the first time, he concedes, but this time, he really wants to sell. Well, the product's actually looking solid and seems like a great companion to iTunes. You can plug it in your widescreen HDTV, you can watch YouTube, you can listen to Music, but you gotta sync your computer via iTunes to the device to actually get going, or buy a song or video in iTunes Store in your computer, then sync it.

Well, this time, those kinks are gone. You can access the whole catalogue of iTunes right in the device so you won't have to turn on the computer, you can view photostreams from Flickr and to a much, much lesser extent, Apple's .Mac service, and you also get HD movie rentals that have surround sound built-in. They cost a dollar higher than the standard rental, but if you have an HDTV, I think it's currently a great way to experience it. And if you have an Apple TV already (which I doubt), you get it all free in an upgrade. Boy does Jobs know how to extend a product's life! And good thing that he doesn't boldly proclaim about Blu-ray this and Blu-ray that just because his company's siding with the camp. It's also a much better thing that he knows that downloadable HD content will rule out in the end...

After that announcement, he invited the 20th Century Fox CEO to the stage. He talked about partnerships, philosophies, the DVD war and lastly, something more interesting- the ability to get a digital version of a movie into your computer, fast and free into iTunes. All you need of course is an original DVD copy of future Fox releases because the first one to employ that is a certain "Family Guy" DVD which spoofs Star Wars, creator Seth McFarlene's favorite saga. Hopefully, it will work on copied original DVD discs (as in yung mga exact copy ng mga orig sa pirated) so that magiging mas sulit ang mga ito :p.

The Fourth Thing: There's something in the air.

Steve's held the cliffhanger long enough, and now it's time to break it. They say that the MacBook, the innovative notebook as cited by reviewers, became the industry standard along with its older more professional brother the MacBook Pro. While they may be speed demons and have great software and hardware out of the box, a few people have actually requested that Apple restore its ultraportable Powerbook line. Well, maybe this new product is closest to that. So yes, the thing that's in the air is a laptop, and that laptop, err, notebook, is aptly named, the MacBook Air: The thinnest laptop in the world.

Apple has pushed portable to the extreme at just a featherweight 3 pounds, an ultra thin LED powered monitor and an almost equally thin system unit. It may sound as if Apple sacrificed the mousepad, the keyboard and the screen. But nope, they're all full-sized and the black keyboard, is also even backlit. The effect after that is pretty cool and hell, is it not something to love? It's also pretty jam-packed with 80GB hard drive standard (the same one used in the iPods), 2GB RAM standard (you can definitely run Vista at lightning speed), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi 802.11 N, the trademark MagSafe power adapter, a flip down hatch for 1 USB port, 1 Mini-DVI port and a headphone jack. It's quite surprising to see that there's not even a FireWire in an Apple! And if you don't have wireless Internet at home, then it's gonna cost you a peripheral (so you're better off going MacBook instead if that's the case), plus, there's not even a slot-loading drive! Where can I put my CD's? How do I watch DVD's?! HOW DO I INSTALL DAMN SOFTWARE?! Well, Apple made the case a bit less morbid with "Remote Drive". You install special software compatible for both Macs and Windows and the data is sent via Wi-Fi so that the MacBook Air can read it. If, like the Time Capsule, the process is excruciatingly simple, then it will also be a great idea and addition albeit kinda cumbersome as well. If you're more of a road warrior, then you're better off buying the $99 external SuperDrive. It's USB-powered mind you so if you're gonna install hardware and you need a software disc, patay.

Apple also introduces the technology that powers their beautiful touch screens into the trackpad so that you can control your windows, images, etc. by using one, two, or three fingers! No need for keyboard, nor external mouse. And if you're wondering about battery life, it's 5 hours with Wi-fi connected. Speed is also not compromised, because it also comes with 1.6GhZ Intel Core 2 Duo standard with the option to choose to bump up the speed up a notch to 1.8GhZ. All that in $1800. Talk about value for money.

A Greener Apple

The MacBook Air is also an eco-laptop because it doesn't have mercury, it's the first non-arsenic glass they've used for a screen, it's also made of recycled aluminum and the packaging is 50% smaller and the LED powered backlight is extremely energy-efficient as well. So if you think this isn't a milestone for Apple hardware to come, then what will?

Gizmodo and Bloggers

I don't think many of my peers know this, but in the just recently concluded CES '08 Technology Convention held in Sin City, tech blog Gizmodo went the extra mile and played with the TV's using a TV-B-Gone (remote used to turn off any intrusive TVs in any place). Well it just so happens that the CEA, producer of the convention, has just offered albeit begrudgingly, passes to bloggers who want to cover said event. Well, I don't think the types of luxury both media outlets have in their respective "rooms" matter in this case because basically, they're just rooms. However after the incident, I think the CEA has good reason to know and segregate the two instead of uniting them together in one lounge because of said incident which at least disrupted a press con by Motorola. That said, people have noted the video the site posted as funny yet juvenile. I agree with the juvenile part, and I didn't really laugh so much...

Now this is the video that has been hotly blogged about elsewhere other than here...

The issue now is how bloggers will be regarded. Well, there have been more awful stuff in the past, but this is the one that has amassed most public attention. Will they be viewed by conservatives as even more putrid people typing in their keyboards doing unwieldy things? What do you think? Is this probably enough for people to segregate the meaning of journalist from blogger and view them as an even more separate entity? What are your thoughts? And I wonder what'll happen in MacWorld (which starts right after CES) with Gizmodo still around?