World of Apple

Following the Macworld keynote on Tuesday The New York Times’ David Pogue had the chance to talk to Apple’s Phil Schiller.

Pogue naturally questioned Schiller on why the company had decided to pullout of Macworld in future years, Schiller pretty much restated Apple’s press release saying that Apple stores “introduce more people to Apple’s products in a week than 100 Macworld Expos. Trade shows just aren’t worth the effort and the money.”

Schiller also noted that Apple was under immense pressure to come up with a new revolutionary product every January. According to Schiller Apple sets itself to several key product cycles:

the holiday season (Novemberish), the educational buying season (late summer), the iPod product cycle (October), the iLife development cycle (usually March), the iPhone cycle (June). January doesn’t fit ANY of them.

Over 100 photos showcasing the two massive show floors here at Macworld 2009.

View the gallery.

On Tuesday Apple’s Phil Schiller presented the annual Keynote presentation which kicked off Macworld 2009. The Keynote is the last that Apple will deliver at Macworld.

View the gallery.

TUAW had the fantastic opportunity to interview David Pogue, author and columnist who is effectively a Mac celebrity.

In the interview TUAW’er Christina Warren touches on the Apple Keynote, the future of Macworld and the Blackberry Storm…

It’s Wednesday here at Macworld and that means the annual Best of Show awards, presented by Jim and Jason from Macworld magazine. This year nine products received the coveted award for being a fantastic product. As with last year many of the products are currently unreleased and/or in testing.

• Cisco’s WebEX iPhone app
• FileMaker 10 Pro
• HP MediaSmart Server EX485
• Daylite Touch by MarketCircle
• Things by CultureCode
• Pulse SmartPen from Live Scribe
• Slingplayer for iPhone
• iPhoto ‘09
• Ecamm BT1

Apple has posted a QuickTime stream of today’s Keynote presentation by Phil Schiller.

During the Keynote Apple announced the new unibody 17-inch MacBook Pro, variable pricing and an entire DRM-free iTunes Store as well as releasing major updates to iLife and iWork.

As was speculated prior to Macworld Apple announced the availability of the 17-inch MacBook Pro based on the unibody enclosure design revealed in October 2008.

The 17-inch MacBook Pro features a aluminium unibody enclosure, and a revolutionary new built-in battery that 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 display and the same large glass Multi-Touch trackpad introduced with the new MacBook family in October. In addition, the new 17-inch MacBook Pro includes state of the art NVIDIA graphics and the latest generation Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processors. As part of the industry’s greenest notebook family, the new 17-inch MacBook Pro is made of highly recyclable materials, meets stringent energy efficiency standards and is made without many of the harmful toxins found in other computers.

“We’ve developed new battery technology that is better for the user and better for the environment”, said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Apple’s advanced chemistry and innovative technology deliver up to eight hours of use on a full charge cycle and up to 1,000 recharges”.

Apple uses advanced chemistry, intelligent monitoring of the system and battery, and Adaptive Charging technology to create a revolutionary new notebook battery that delivers up to eight hours of wireless productivity on a single charge and up to 1,000 recharges without adding thickness, weight or cost to the MacBook Pro’s incredible design. The longer battery lifespan equals fewer depleted batteries and less waste, which is better for the environment.

The new 17-inch MacBook Pro includes an ultra-thin, widescreen glossy 1920 x 1200 display with 78 percent more pixels than the 15-inch MacBook Pro and a 60 percent greater color gamut that delivers desktop-quality colour in a notebook. The LED-backlit display has brilliant instant-on performance, uses up to 30 percent less energy and eliminates the mercury found in industry standard fluorescent tube backlights.

Measuring just 0.98-inches thin and weighing 6.6 pounds, the 17-inch MacBook Pro is the world’s thinnest and lightest 17-inch notebook. 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. The new 17-inch MacBook Pro includes a 320GB 5400 rpm hard drive standard with a 320GB 7200 rpm hard drive and 128GB and 256GB solid state drives as options. As with the rest of the new MacBook family, the 17-inch MacBook Pro includes a next generation, industry-standard Mini DisplayPort to connect with the new Apple LED Cinema Display featuring a 24-inch LED-backlit widescreen display with a built-in iSight video camera, mic and speakers.

The new 17-inch MacBook Pro joins the aluminium unibody MacBook family in setting new standards for environmentally friendly notebooks with every model achieving EPEAT Gold status. Each MacBook unibody enclosure is made of highly recyclable aluminium and comes standard with energy efficient LED-backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass. The new MacBook family meets stringent Energy Star 4.0 requirements, contains no brominated flame retardants, and uses internal cables and components that are PVC-free. The battery in the new 17-inch MacBook Pro provides additional environmental benefit because its extended lifespan means fewer depleted batteries resulting in less waste.

The 17-inch MacBook Pro is available from $2799 (£1949) by the end of January.

Launched back in 2003, Apple’s iTunes Store has grown to the become America’s most popular music retailer. With increasing competition Apple has announced today a major comeback.

Apple announced several changes to the iTunes Store. Beginning today, all four major music labels—Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI, along with thousands of independent labels, are now offering their music in iTunes Plus, Apple’s DRM-free format with higher-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings. iTunes customers can also choose to download their favorite songs from the world’s largest music catalog directly onto their iPhone 3G over their 3G network just as they do with Wi-Fi today, for the same price as downloading to their computer. And beginning in April, based on what the music labels charge Apple, songs on iTunes will be available at one of three price points: 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29, with most albums still priced at $9.99.

“We are thrilled to be able to offer our iTunes customers DRM-free iTunes Plus songs in high quality audio and our iPhone 3G customers the ability to download music from iTunes anytime, anywhere over their 3G network at the same price as downloading to your computer or via Wi-Fi”, said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “And in April, based on what the music labels charge Apple, songs on iTunes will be available at one of three price points — 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29 — with many more songs priced at 69 cents than $1.29″.

In addition to releasing iWork ‘09 Apple has also given iLife a significant update although it will not be available until later in the month.

Apple today 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 organize photos into Events by adding Faces and Places as breakthrough new ways to easily organize and manage your photos. iMovie ’09 expands on the revolutionary super fast movie creation introduced in iMovie ’08 by adding the depth users want through powerful easy-to-use new features such as the incredible new Precision Editor, video stabilization, 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 artists such as Sara Bareilles, John Fogerty, Norah Jones and Sting. iLife ’09 is included with every new Mac purchase and available as a $79 upgrade for existing users.

“iLife continues to be one of the biggest reasons our customers choose to get a Mac” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With iLife ’09, we’ve made working with photos, making movies and learning to play music a lot more fun, and iMovie users are especially going to love the advanced but easy-to-use new features.”

GarageBand ’09, the updated version of Apple’s popular software used by millions to play and record music, now gives budding musicians a fun new way to learn to play piano and guitar. Basic Lessons let you learn the fundamentals at your own pace with Apple instructors in beautiful HD video synchronized to animated instruments and notation. Artist Lessons feature original artists showing how to play their hit songs with everything from finger positions and techniques to the story behind the song. Choose from lessons by popular artists including: Sara Bareilles, Colbie Caillat, John Fogerty, Ben Folds, Norah Jones, Sarah McLachlan, Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump, OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder and Sting. Artist Lessons are sold separately at the new GarageBand Lesson Store, available inside the GarageBand ’09 application. GarageBand ’09 also includes exciting new guitar amp and stomp-box effects, and Magic GarageBand Jam that lets you play along with a virtual band that you create.

iLife ‘09 is available for $79 (£69) later in January.

During today’s Macworld 2009 Keynote Apple announced a brand new version of iWork which adds powerful new features without sacrificing Apple’s legendary ease of use. Keynote ’09 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. Pages ’09 features a new Full Screen view that helps you focus on your writing and an outline mode to organize your thoughts. Numbers ’09 introduces a quick way to group and summarize data and a dramatically simplified way to create complex formulas. Apple also announced iWork.com public beta, a new service Apple is developing to share iWork ’09 documents online.

“Millions of Mac users have fallen in love with iWork,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With iWork ‘09, Apple continues to demonstrate that innovation is possible in office productivity software, and that creating impressive presentations, documents and spreadsheets doesn’t need to be complicated.”

Apple also introduced iWork.com public beta, a new service Apple is developing to share iWork ‘09 documents online. Using your Apple ID, just click the iWork.com icon in the Keynote, Pages or Numbers toolbar to upload your document and invite others to view it online. Viewers can provide comments and notes, and download a copy of your document in iWork, Microsoft Office or PDF formats. A consolidated online list of all your shared documents indicates when your viewers have posted comments.

iWork ‘09 is available for $79 (£69) today.