Apple's Macworld Announcements

Steve's absence was unprecedented. He hasn't missed an event like this one since becoming interim—and later permanent—CEO more than a decade ago. Yesterday, Jan. 5, he acknowledged health problems in a letter addressed to the "Apple Community." The letter means that, as I said in December, Apple lied about the real reason for Steve missing Macworld: his health.

Today's keynote, delivered by Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, marks the beginning of transition. It foreshadows a future Apple without Steve Jobs running day-to-day operations, when there is no iconic figure representing the company. While I fault Apple for not being more forthright about why Steve wasn't giving the keynote, I commend the approach of having someone else give it. Apple can go on without its cofounder, as impossible as that might seem to some people.

Phil's keynote also accentuates just how unwell Apple's CEO is. I'm sorry, but it must be said. At recent public events, Steve uncharacteristically shared most of the stage time with others. Just two years ago, he commanded the stage for most of any keynote. Today, Phil easily gave most of the keynote—with the vitality once exhibited by his boss and CEO.

It's Your iLife
On Jan. 3, I posted a list of six things Apple must do at Macworld. The company fulfilled the first, coming clean about Steve's health, yesterday. Phil fulfilled the third thing today, by introducing iLife '09. Apple really needed to update the software, which is one of the major applications for which people choose Macs.

Phil's early presentation showed how Apple effectively out-markets Microsoft. One major new iPhoto '09 feature, "Faces," uses facial recognition search to make organizing images easier. I'm sure many bloggers and journalists will write about Apple's amazing new innovation. Microsoft added facial recognition search to the now defunct Digital Image Suite about five years ago. The feature worked really well, and Microsoft had scene recognition search, too. Damn slick. But for reasons I never understood, Microsoft didn't promote what was a truly innovative feature. Now Apple has got it, and there's a name around which to brand and identify the feature. Faces is too generic, the way I see it. But it's better than the nothing name Microsoft had.

Phil also reviewed other features, one of which should come with a product warning: "The attorney general has determined that geotagging photos can be hazardous to the safety of children and teens." New iPhoto '09 feature "Places" organizes photos based on GPS mapping or location services like Google Maps. I'm not sure what iPhoto puts in images' metadata, But I do know that cell phones and GPS-enabled cameras put location information in the metadata. How wonderful that when kids post pics to Facebook or MySpace, they are giving coordinates about where the image was taken.

On Jan. 3, I also blogged about iLife '09: "People are social networking at places like Facebook or Flickr. Apple must better support services other than its own." Well, Apple came through, with iPhoto support for both services. Users can post directly to both services from within iPhoto '09.

Apple's iMovie got a big makeover, in some ways going backward to move forward. Apple streamlined iMovie '08 to a fault. Most people I know use iMovie '06, because it's easier to manipulate clips and add text or cool effects. Apple has brought the video editing back to iMovie and extended capabilities. New themes, audio-editing capabilities and animated maps look promising. I reserve judgment until I can test the software.

Perhaps the most surprising enhancements come to Garage Band '09, which now offers music lessons given by famous musicians. You can take guitar lessons from Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump or piano playing with Norah Jones. The Artist Lessons feature alone is reason for younger teens to save their moolah or ask their parents to buy them a Mac. But I can't really say how good the feature is until testing the software, which isn't scheduled for release until the end of January.

Pricing remains the same: iLife '09 will be free on new Macs, $79 otherwise or $99 for a Family Pack. In a simply brilliant bundling move, Apple is packaging iLife, iWork and Mac OS X Leopard together for $169 as the "Mac Box Set." Leopard normally costs $129 alone. The bundle makes sense for a couple reasons:

• iLife '09 requires Leopard
• Apple can push Leopard upgrades, which also is good from a revenue perspective

The question: Will there be a "Mac Box Set" when Snow Leopard is released? It's not what I would do, not until Apple had exhausted the rush of early upgraders. This far from Leopard's release, pretty much anyone willing to pay $129 has done so. Apple gains more than it gives up.

Where iWork
Rumors about hosted iWork turned out to be partly true. New with iWork '09, available for purchase today, Jan. 6, is iWork.com. The online service launches as a beta today. As I post, Apple hasn't yet flipped on the iWork.com switch, so I can't say what are the real benefits.

Apple is vying for the same market as Google Apps and, perhaps even more appropriately, Microsoft's Office Live. The online service is more about sharing and collaborating online than creating new documents there. The service makes iWork documents available in a browser, which means even to Windows users. Slick.

The beta is free, but Apple eventually plans to charge. Ha, ha. Maybe Microsoft is right in making accusations about an Apple Tax. You'll pay a premium, just like with MobileMe, to get online services that are available elsewhere for free.

As for iWork '09, I won't run through the mill of tweaks without first trying out the software. But I will harp on one feature that already disappoints for what it's not: Keynote Remote. The feature lets iPhone and iPod Touch users run Keynote demonstrations from their devices wirelessly to the computer. Those two mobile devices are contenders to replace the PC as the next major computing platform. Apple should have made iWork available on iPhone and iPod Touch, which, I'll acknowledge, might be at least partially possible through iWork.com. Apple should have leaped over most other mobile competitors and at least matched the Google Apps utility that is available through Android-based phones.

Big MacBook's Unibody
As expected, Apple unveiled a new 17-inch MacBook Pro that utilizes the same unibody construction as its 13-inch and 15-inch siblings. However, the new MacBook isn't the thin-and-light model that I yesterday blogged would be truly trendsetting. Still, Apple's 17-incher is one of lightest, if not the lightest, laptops in its class, at 6.6 pounds.

The computer should satisfy the needs of creative professionals on the go. Apple claims that the new fixed battery delivers 8 hours of charge. Now that would be trendsetting if true for a notebook in this size class. If.

Some specs: 17-inch LED-backlit display with 1920 by 1200 resolution, 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB DDR3 (double data rate 3) 1066MHz memory, 320GB hard drive, DVD burner and all the expected ports, including FireWire 800. As with the 15-inch MacBook Pro there are dual graphics: 512MB Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT and 256MB (shared with system memory) Nvidia GeForce 9400M. Price: $2,799.

There's lots of good technology in the box, such as a chip controlling the battery. But it's a pricey laptop, even with what Apple provides. Something else: In looking over the specs, I wonder about that 8-hour battery life claim. Can users only get that much charge with the lesser graphics chip? Apple marketing sometimes gets in the way of facts. Is this one of those times, I wonder?

iTunes DRM-Free
Apple may be the largest distributor of music in the United States, but content providers are still king. Today, they demonstrated their power over Apple. Phil closed the keynote with a rumored announcement: iTunes Store conversion to all DRM-free tracks. But to get there, Apple had to agree to the variable pricing record labels have long been asking for. Songs eventually will be priced 69 cents, 99 cents or $1.29. That's quite a range. Apparently the 69-cent pricing will apply to some songs over six years old.

The DRM-free store is open now, with Apple claiming 8 million tracks available today and another 2 million by end of the quarter. Variable pricing starts April 1. Apple offers the same upgrade pricing as when there were limited DRM-free tracks. If you bought a DRM track, the DRM-free version is 30 cents. Apple discounts albums by about 30 percent, and most music videos cost 60 cents.

Yeah, yeah. Where are my DRM-free TV shows and movies, Apple? I'd pay a little more to be able to watch "Battlestar Galactica" or "House" on my Nokia N96 cell phone.

Apple also has extended, as rumored, iTunes purchasing from iPhone. Mobile users no longer need Wi-Fi hotspots. They can now purchase over the 3G network. It's anytime, anywhere music for any of three prices.

Posted by Joe Wilcox on January 6, 2009 2:01 PM