FOR the first time in 11 years, the Macworld circus came without its biggest act – Steve Jobs.
The iconic Apple chief executive officer, whose keynote speech had been the highlight of the annual San Francisco event for more than a decade, was not on hand to deliver his “one more thing” product announcement this year due to illness. Jobs has gone on a leave of absence to recuperate from a hormone imbalance problem.
His place was taken over by Apple’s senior vice president, worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller, who unveiled what Apple claims to be the world’s thinnest and lightest 17-inch laptop.
The new 17-inch MacBook Pro itself is an engineering marvel. Measuring just 2.5 centimetres in thickness and weighing less than three kilograms, it now features a design similar to Apple’s two other laptops – the 13-inch MacBook and 15-inch MacBook Pro – with the body carved out of a single block of aluminium for extra durability.
Its battery, however, is non-removable. Apple says this is done to create a battery that delivers up to eight hours of use on a single charge and up to 1,000 recharges without adding thickness, weight or cost to the MacBook Pro’s design.
This translates into more than three times the lifespan of conventional laptop batteries.
“The longer battery life equals fewer depleted batteries and less waste, which is better for the environment,” said Schiller.
Advanced chemistry, intelligent monitoring of the battery and computer system, and Adaptive Charging technology help bolster the battery performance.
The display, which uses LED-backlit technology, comes in a choice of glossy or matte, the latter identifiable by the presence of a metal bezel.
Apple says the energy-efficient display is mercury-free and is made using arsenic-free glass. Together with its highly recyclable aluminium body, it has been afforded an EPEAT Gold status for environment-friendliness.
The new MacBook Pro is powered by Intel Core 2 Duo processors with clock speeds of up to 2.93 gigahertz (GHz). It sells for RM10,099.
Also announced were updates to the Apple iLife digital lifestyle suite. IPhoto, one of the five digital lifestyle software in the suite, now has new features such as Places and Faces.
Places automatically imports photo location data from a GPS-enabled camera or an iPhone. With Faces, iPhoto automatically scans photos to detect people’s faces and when names are assigned to those faces, iPhoto will find more pictures of that person.
Taking things a step further, a button in iPhoto enables quick photo sharing with Web sites such as Facebook and Flickr as well as to detect more faces on the Internet. Calling them “really powerful”, Schiller demonstrated how these features help organise thousands of photos.
IMovie 09 is now a more complete product, with holes from the last version (video effects, slow/fast motion, direct export to iDVD) plugged. A new Precision Editor lets users skim and click on a magnified filmstrip and perform advanced editing functions.
On top of that, iMovie 09 adds a new killer function: software stabilisation, which is expected to do wonders for millions of amateur moviemakers.
The updated GarageBand 09 allows budding musicians to learn playing the piano and guitar at their own pace. Basic Lessons allows newbies to learn the fundamentals while Artist Lessons has original artistes, including John Fogerty, Colbie Caillat, Norah Jones and Sting, showing how to play their hit songs.
“ILife has become one of the reasons people buy a Mac today. There’s nothing like it on any other computing platform,” said Schiller.
ILife 09 retails at RM299 for single user.
Also announced at Macworld were updates to the company’s iWork office productivity suite called iWork 09. The three software that make up the suite – Keynote, Pages and Numbers – have received new themes, sophisticated transition effects and a quick way to group and summarise data. IWork 09 is available immediately for RM299.
From MacBook to ModBook
Another product highlight at Macworld is the new ModBook, a MacBook converted into a tablet Mac.
The Modbook Pro from Axiotron uses the components of Apple’s 15-inch 2.8GHz MacBook Pro in an Axiotron-designed case.
Weighing about 3kg, the ModBook Pro has all the ports and drives found in the MacBook Pro as well as a GPS device and an assistive technology dual switch port for connecting input devices for people with disabilities.
Under the hood are Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics, 24X DVD/CD-R combo drive or 8X SuperDrive, and support for up to four gigabytes of RAM.
The ModBook retains 802.11n wireless networking capability, Bluetooth 2.0 support, the Apple Remote and all of the MacBook’s original ports.
Axiotron has also migrated the MacBook’s iSight Webcam and repositioned it to make it more suitable to the pen.
Camera enthusiasts would certainly go ga-ga over a new range of funky tripods under the brand name Gorillapod. Available in a spectrum of colours – orange, red, blue, green, yellow, pink and grey – the Gorillapod from Joby Inc features over two dozen flexible leg joints that bend and rotate to firmly secure compact digital cameras to virtually any surface.
The Gorillapods can support camera gear weighing up to 5kg.
Farewell to Macworld
Apple also announced that this would be its final participation in Macworld, an independent trade show run by IDG World Expo, citing diminishing return on investment from the expo and increasing popularity of the Apple Retail Stores as reasons.
“About 3.4 million customers visit our stores each week,” said Schiller during his keynote. “That’s equivalent to 100 Macworlds.”
A performance by singing legend Tony Bennett at the end of Schiller’s keynote suggested that Apple could be saving its bigger product announcements for a later date – there have been rumours that Apple is preparing to launch a redesigned iMac computer and a smaller version of the iPhone.
