Disappointed? Not me!

I thought Apple’s farewell Macworld Expo keynote had plenty of substance, notwithstanding that Phil Schiller lacks Steve Jobs’ on-stage presence and charisma. Phil had an unenviable assignment, and I think he carried it off well. I’ve been astonished and saddened by a quite large proportion of reaction and commentary declaring the keynote “disappointing,” “boring,” “a failure,” “going out with a whimper,” and so on and so forth.

Not everyone of course. Motley Fool’s Anders Bylund called it “brilliant,” chiding the nattering nabobs of negativism to “open your eyes, guys and gals. It doesn’t get any better than this.” That may be a bit over-enthusiastically effusive, but I too would rate it one of the better Expo keynotes.

Of course, I’m a laptop devotee, so any keynote with a major portable Mac announcement is a good one in my books, but there were also substantial iWork and iLife suite upgrades, the removal of DRM from iTunes downloads is arguably revolutionary and there were significant adjustments to the iTunes song price structure. All in all not too shabby.

Widespread Negative Reception

Those declaring the Macworld Expo 2009 keynote the dullest ever seem to have forgotten that there were no Mac hardware announcements at all in Steve Jobs’ Macworld keynote two years ago (although there was a little gizmo called the iPhone that was previewed), leaving it up to indie Axiotron to hold up the computer end of things with the unveiling of their MacBook based Modbook tablet computer. Actually, Axiotron came through again this year with their new Modbook Pro announcement.

I was saddened to hear that this will be the last Macworld Expo in which Apple will participate, but the widespread negative reception this year’s keynote got is helping convince me that bailing from the show may have been the right decision.

The annual Expo hoopla has become in some ways a no-win equation for Apple. If they introduce something at the show, it’s never enough, eliciting “is that all?” reactions, while not rolling out some game-changing “one more thing” leads to accusations that Apple has lost its innovative groove.

Apple At CES In 2010?

With Macs continuing to sell reasonably briskly despite the miserable economy, the iPhone storming (er… sorry RIM) the smartphone space, and Mac OS X (including the iPhone version) cresting more than of 10 percent of the OS market and indeed approaching half of Vista’s penetration, Apple is becoming part of the computing and communications mainstream, no longer a niche player, and perhaps it has simply outgrown the MUG on steroids ambience of the annual January love-in.

Apple’s Macworld Expo pullout poses several questions going forward, including, obviously, whether the show can survive more than a year or two (and indeed begs the question of whether there will really be a Macworld Expo 2010 at all). Another line of speculation is whether Apple will be a participant in the Consumer Electronics Show at Las Vegas next year as just an ordinary exhibitor rather than having to lay on a keynote extravaganza.

Apple is More Than Steve Jobs

Apple is more than Steve Jobs, and someday Jobs will step down as CEO of the company.

I actually became a Mac-head in about the middle of Jobs’ exile from the company, while Michael Spindler headed the company. I had a vague consciousness of who Jobs was, but having been pretty much oblivious to the computer world until the early ’90s I missed Apple’s early development years and the first Jobsian epoch and I still found much to delight in the Mac computer orbit.

Now, I’m not trying to minimize Steve Jobs’ instrumental contributions to that orbit in the slightest. I’m highly doubtful that Apple would still be around in anything like its present form, and would more likely be a niche division of some other corporate entity had it not been for Steve Jobs’ return to the helm in 1997. And OS X, which has been such a monster success for Apple is based on Jobs’ NextStep operating system that he developed as founder and CEO of NeXT Computer, the purchase of which brought Jobs back into the fold in 1996.

Jobs saved Apple and OS X played a pivotal role in how he did it, but with the solid foundations he’s laid, I’m confident prospects will continue to be bright for Apple in the post-Jobs era, whenever that becomes a reality. I hope it will be a good long time yet until we fond out for sure, but in the meantime, making moves like dialing back Jobs’ prominence as figurehead, spokesman, and public persona for the company is a sensible and logical strategy, and bidding farewell to the Macworld Expo circus is probably healthy as well.

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TheAppleBlog attended the Macworld Expo keynote presentation by Phil Schiller yesterday to bring you all the news from San Francisco. For your convenience, here is an overview of everything that Apple announced yesterday in one place. If you are interested in watching the full 90 minute presentation for yourself, Josh Pigford has the info on how to watch the keynote video stream.

iLife ’09

Apple has updated the media software suite with some impressive new features. After playing around with it a bit yesterday, I really think that many home users will enjoy the new Faces and Places features. Personally, I think Faces and the Facebook integration are going to be the killer combination for the casual photographer that just wants to share their snapshots with friends. In a sense, Facebook becomes a crowd-sourced solution for identifying people in your photos. That’s cool. Read our review of iPhoto ’09 to get the full story.

I’m still not convinced that the Garageband lessons will really teach people to play (I played guitar semi-professionally for several years in cover bands), but it sure is cool to see top music artists appear inside the music product. In general, I think it’s a great direction for Apple to bring music tools to even more people. Check out the first look at Garageband for the details.

Phil Schiller admitted that iMovie ’08 took away some of the tools that people liked in iMovie ’06 and one of the goals for ’09 was to try to reach everyone with both ease of use and powerful editing tools in the same product. To a large degree, it appears that Apple has succeeded. The demonstration of video stabilization we saw at the keynote was astounding and the Precision Editor seems to be exactly what iMovie ’06 holdouts have been asking for. David Appleyard hit all the highlights in his article about iMovie ’09.

iWork ’09

The changes to iWork ’09 are great, but I am particularly encouraged that the software has managed to hold on for a third release. I think this is the year that iWork really begins to take off with Mac users, particularly with the newly offered $30 discount when you buy a new Mac. That bundling is going to help a lot of Mac users try out the software, and then the beta of iWork.com may help expose Windows users to the elegance of documents created in iWork apps through the online sharing feature. You can get a more detailed explanation in our overview of iWork ’09.

iTunes

The big news here is that Apple and the record labels have finally come to an agreement to make all music in the iTunes store DRM-free. Apple is already the #1 channel for music sales in North America, but this is a consumer-friendly strategy that I’m sure will only help the sales of music online. Get all the pricing info from Omar McFarlane’s overview of the iTunes update.

New 17″ MacBook Pro

The new MacBook Pro was widely anticipated, and the resulting announcement did not disappoint. We get a unibody design that is both thinner and lighter than the previous generation, matte and glossy displays (the glossy model on display in the Apple booth looks gorgeous), and absolutely amazing battery life (8 hours!). There’s some tradeoffs (the battery is not user-replaceable), but the upside is big enough that this should be a popular choice for those that have been waiting for the bigger screen. You can get the full details as well as a good comparison to the previous generation in a look at the new 17″ MacBook Pro from Darrell Etherington. We also have a look at the technology behind the amazing battery life.

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It was fitting that Tony Bennett, beloved for his amazing contribution to his profession but largely irrelevant to the current market, was chosen to close out Apple’s keynote address at a Mac institution that is still well loved and respected for its long history but is now becoming irrelevant to the next generation of Apple customers.

The keynote itself was a mixed bag. I’ll admit to being floored by the new features in iPhoto and iMovie. Faces, Places and the new Facebook/Flickr sharing options are just great. The new precision editor in iMovie looks to be an amazing update. Garageband lessons have a definite wow factor. iTunes Plus for all 10,000,000 songs means no more DRM. The new iWork ’09 and iWork.com have promise and add some great new features. Eight hours of battery life from a 17″ laptop still blows my mind. There was lots of cool stuff to get excited about.

A few hours later, there’s some time to reflect on what we didn’t hear. No new Mac mini. No new iMac. No new Mac Pro. There was no info on Snow Leopard, which many thought was sure to be featured at this Macworld Expo. Very little was introduced that is going to generate buzz and excitement outside of the show.

Taking the Apple Products for a Spin

After the keynote,  everyone packed it up from Moscone West and headed over to Moscone South and North. The Media Lounge served up a nice lunch while we wrote up our coverage of the morning keynote and then we got to work on the floor. The Apple booth is huge and staffed by legions of retail staff outfitted in black t-shirts. I got to pick up the new 17″ Macbook Pro and take it for a spin. The slightly more svelte 6.6 pounds and the rounded edges of the unibody casing add to the impression that this new MacBook Pro is actually a lot smaller than the previous model. I know some won’t like the glossy screen, but the viewing angle on the high-def glossy LED display surprised me. I like it a lot. I got to play with iLife ’09 and iWork ’09 for a few minutes as well. I’m definitely upgrading iLife as soon as it becomes available.

The Rest of the Show

There’s lots more to see at the show than just Apple, of course. Some other highlights for today…

• Intuit is announcing updates to Quickbooks online and a companion iPhone web app
• Marketcircle is showing off Daylite Touch
• Macspeech is giving demos of their impressive Macspeech Dictate
• Macpractice is showing off version 3.5 of their medical practice management solution
• HP is showing their new MediaSmart Server product with an integrated iTunes media server and Mac backup

After the show, many headed to the annual Macworld Blast party to unwind from a long day.

The Inside Scoop

The highlight of my week will probably be the dinner I had last night with great company all organized by the indomitable Naomi Pearce. I won’t drop names, but there were lots of Mac smarts around the table. That set up a chance to get some time with Rich Siegel, the founder and CEO of BareBones software, and Jeff Ganyard, the VP of Engineering at MacSpeech. We had a great chat about the last 15 years of Macworld, the challenges of building a Mac software company that can last, and the future of Mac development. Look for some highlights of the discussion on TheAppleBlog soon.

Coming up Today

Today we’ll spend some more time getting interviews and product upates to share with you on TheAppleBlog. Look for more articles. If there are certain things that you really want to hear more about, please let us know in the comments below.

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Apple’s last Macworld Keynote Address is now available to view online.

It was announced last month that today’s keynote would be Apple’s last at the Macworld Expo. It was also announced that Steve Jobs would not be delivering the address but that Phil Schiller, Apple’s Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, would be instead.

The keynote went off without a hitch and Phil seemed well received by the crowd.

The video taps in right around an hour and half and is a great way to check out the new iLife and iWork ’09 features.

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Today the 17 inch MacBook Pro joined its younger siblings with a unibody construction. While many of the improvements were expected — based on the existing unibody models — and there are some worthwhile performance enhancements, Apple also had a couple of nice surprises in store. Let’s take a look…

Expected Unibody Improvements

First and foremost, for the same base price of $2,799 as yesterday, the new 17 inch model provides the following:

• Solid unibody construction. We’ve learned the unibodies are indeed very solid and seem like tanks. The 17 inch takes that even a step further, as we’ll see below.
• Dual core processor at 2.66GHz (up from 2.5) on a 1066 MHz bus (up from 800MHz)
• Utilizes fast DDR3 memory at 1066MHz.
• It is actually about a tenth of an inch smaller in width and depth, and also two-tenth of an inch thinner. Yes, these are pretty small improvements, but for a device so big any relief is better than none. (Recall that the 15 inch model actually got slightly bigger in unibody trim.)
• The wonderful glass track pad with gesture support.
• The improved 9600M mobile graphics with 512 MB video memory (same as the high-end 15 inch model).
• 9400M mobile chipset and graphics for very good performance while saving an hour of battery life.

On the down side, the new model loses the separate FireWire 400 port, getting by with just the one 800 port (which supports 400).

Further, the new model uses the mini Display Port, which means to use it with your existing screen you’ll need to by a new adaptor.

Newer Improvements

Where Apple deviated from the other unibody models is in two important areas. How well these are received remain to be seen (I can already hear the complaints), but I ultimately think these are good:

• There is a matte screen option. You read that right. While the same glossy screen as the rest of the MacBook line is the default, a matte BTO option is available. That’s the good news, the bad news is it’s $50.
• New battery technology. This new technology increases battery size by 40 percent, and battery life by a whopping 60 percent! You get eight hours of life with the integrated graphics, and even seven hours with the discrete graphics. That’s the good news, the bad news is the battery is non-replaceable.

I’m sure the matte option will be greatly appreciated by those who need it, but since the option was free on the previous model there may some complaints about it costing extra. It seems in order to do it the most professional way, however, Apple isn’t just placing a matte cover on the glass screen, but rather removing the screen and applying the matte to the LCD. This does make the most sense, and it seems to me that for their flagship model Apple wanted to do it right. Besides, for all the howling over the glossy screens, matte screen aficionados shouldn’t complain about the price, right?

As for the new battery, it makes sense when you think about it. By using new technology and a battery essentially custom-made for this model to cram into all available space, they got much more battery in the slightly smaller case and increased battery life accordingly. And they did this without increasing weight! That amazes me the most. All this extra battery and the model weighs the same as before? Batteries are heavy. Clearly, the new model shed weight which they countered by adding more battery. Yet it’s still the lightest 17 inch laptop on the market.

I foresee Apple bashers having a field day with the non-replaceable battery. Heck, most of them still want a replaceable battery in the iPod! I do not have an extra battery, and prefer to avoid the expense and extra weight and clumsiness in carrying one around anyway.

I wonder if the reason the MacBook and 15 inch MacBook Pro models do not use this same battery approach is that, with their smaller case sizes, it may not have made enough improvement. In other words, there was less space to put the battery in anyway, so the improvement would not have been enough to make a big deal out of. With the 17 inch model, a 60 percent increase with no weight or size gain is a very big deal. I might also add that I like the fact that Apple is innovating with batteries, because I assume this technology can trickle down to their other mobile devices in the future.

Other Items

In terms of build quality, the unibodies are like tanks, yet the door on the bottom seemed to be almost flimsy by comparison. Without that weak spot I imagine the new 17 inch model to be even more rugged and sturdy. One issue, however, is that I’m not clear on how memory or the hard drive is upgraded.

Other available items are a maximum RAM of 8GB (nice), a 2.93 GB processor, and an option for a 256GB SSD. I’m surprised, however, that the max HDD is 320GB, when 400GB models are readily available elsewhere.

Conclusion

In short, for the same price as before you get a smaller, thinner, faster, more durable, and more expandable machine. On top of that it weights the same and yet has a battery life of up to eight hours!

To me, the best way to judge the worth of new features is if I wish I had them. Frankly, if they could have crammed more battery in my unibody MacBook for significantly more battery life, without gaining weight, even while removing the ability to swap it, I’d be thrilled. I’d also appreciate that it was even more solid. And, while I love the glossy and would not change it, the matte option is a nice touch for those who feel they need it.

I wrote about the unibody upgrades for the other MacBook here. Personally, I’d rate the unibody 17 inch model upgrade as right between the MacBook upgrade (which got the most improvement) and the 15 inch model (which got the least).

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When highlighting the new updates to iLife ’09 today, Phil Schiller probably spent the most time highlighting the new features in iPhoto. There’s lots to like in this ’09 update and the crowd was definitely “wowing” at some of the cool stuff that was demonstrated.

First up are two brand-new features to help you organize your photos. Apple has had a really positive response to the Events feature in iPhoto ’08 and now Faces and Places will allow you to further organize your pictures by who appears in the picture and where it was taken.

Faces

There are two aspects to Faces in iPhoto ’09. The first is face detection which allows iPhoto to automatically discover all the faces that appear in the photo. This allows iPhoto to present the people to you for identification, but also shows up in other features like slideshows where the photos are automatically centered and cropped so that the faces in the frame will be visible and prominent. The tech worked beautifully in the demo we saw at the Keynote.

The second part of Faces is face recognition. iPhoto ’09 will learn to identify people in your photos as you tag the faces in photos. This feature is hard to evaluate without trying on your own photos, but the demo is impressive. Schiller was quick to point out that no facial recognition system is perfect, but Apple feels that they have the best software technology available on the desktop. It was impressive to see how seamlessly it all integrated.

Once you start tracking faces, those people show up on your corkboard organizer with snapshots for each person (centered and cropped to focus on the face detected in the picture, of course).

This feature is going to be great for organizing all my pictures of the kids, but I suspect that iPhoto may get confused by pictures of the same person at different ages, say from age 3 to age 14. We’ll see how it works out in practice.

Places

iPhoto ’09 also lets you organize your pictures by where you took the photo by using geotags from a GPS-enabled camera, or an iPhone 3G. You can also add geotags to photos that do not already have them. This feature is also incredibly well-integrated into the iPhoto app. To add a geotag, you can select a spot on the map or just type in the name of a location. iPhoto will automatically georeference the location to nearby landmarks and the city and country.

You can then use a map or an iTunes-style browser to drill-down and filter photos on locations in your library. Places is integrated into photo books as well. As an example, iPhoto will automatically generate maps with pins for the location of the photos on that page in your book.

Facebook & Flickr Sharing

iPhoto also adds new sharing capabilities that integrate directly with two popular photo sites — Flickr for your good photos and Facebook for all the crappy snapshots of your friends. The Facebook integration is particularly cool. iPhoto uses the face recognition technology to automatically tag your photos with the Facebook profile of your friends. You need to enter their full name and email address so that iPhoto can link them with a Facbook profile. The cool thing is that this feature works both ways. If someone tags a picture on Facebook that you have uploaded from iPhoto, that tag will automatically get synced back down to iPhoto. You can then choose to track that person in Faces and iPhoto will use face recognition to automatically tag pictures in the future.

The Flickr integration is cool as well, and a definite blow to the well-liked FlickrExport from ConnectedFlow.

The Rest

iPhoto also adds some enhanced editing features that look like they were taken from Aperture. The color saturation sliders are particularly helpful in Aperture for bringing out highlights and making the sky look like something that actually resembles blue if you forgot your polarizing filter. I’d love to get some of that power in iPhoto.

There are also new themed slideshows that look absolutely fantastic. Shatter is going to blow your mind when you get chance to see it in action on the keynote video (up later today on apple.com). They use face detection to automatically center and crop your images so that you don’t end up with people out of the frame or other problems.

A Must Buy

I left the keynote address this morning with my wallet screaming to buy iLife ’09. Honestly, if iPhoto were the only app in the suite, I would probably still want iLife just for that. The face detection and recognition features give me some hope of organizing all my photos so that I can quickly find actual people in my library and geotagging with Places is an OCD dream. Facebook and Flickr pushes it over the top for me as I use those two sites extensively.

Check out the info on apple.com and share your impressions below.

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iMovie ’09 adds powerful, yet easy-to-use new features to let you create a movie quickly, or add refinements and special effects to your project if you have more time. There are a whole host of new features, each of which can aid in the quest to have family and friends gasping in awe at your home movie.

Advanced Drag and Drop

iMovie ’08 introduced drag and drop editing, and the latest version takes the facility to new heights. When you drag and drop one clip on top of another, you reveal new advanced editing options, including replace, insert, audio only, and even picture-in-picture or green screen. These new features allow you to make visually stunning movies, while retaining the simple drag and drop interface iMovie is renowned for.

Precision Editor

Drag and drop isn’t perfect for every scenario, and you may often require a more advanced interface to perfect the links between different video clips. With the new Precision Editor, you can skim and click on a magnified filmstrip to view clips up close and fine tune any editing or cuts to be performed.

Audio and video can be edited independently, so you can use the sound from one clip with the video from another. In addition to editing the video itself, you are able to reposition and adjust the duration of titles and transitions (an editing feature I always struggled with in previous versions).

Themes and Maps

iMovie is renowned for the visually stunning themes it comes bundled with — themes which have improved with every release. iMovie ’09 is no exception, introducing new dynamic themes. New themes include Bulletin Board, Filmstrip, or Comic Book, and it would appear that editing themes has been made easier.

Themes have a new friend in the latest version, with the ability to add eye-catching, animated travel maps. You can choose from four different 3D globe or flat map styles and select your location (or locations) — from country to city to points of interest. The software will automatically build an animated map that flies from one country to another, really adding an interactive element to your holiday video.

Video Stabilization

Even the steadiest camera operator has a wobble from time to time and, for owners of cameras without any stabilization built-in (read: almost all consumer video cameras), iMovie now provides the ability to remedy your shaky hand. The software analyzes how much your camera was moving while you were recording, then automatically reduces camera shake. You can stabilize on a clip-by-clip basis or analyze all your video for stabilization (the latter may take a while, but it’s worth it). The demonstration in the Keynote would appear to show that this feature works surprisingly well.

Of course, some shaky footage is so bad that even Apple’s best engineers can’t figure out how to correct it. Such clips are marked by iMovie with a squiggly red line, so you can choose to hide them.

Titles, Transitions & Effects

The icing on the cake of any home movie is adding the titles, transitions between clips and the comedy effects. iMovie ’09 introduces 18 new animated titles, and the simple browser makes previewing each a simple task. Animated backgrounds can also be added to titles, and examples of adding and manipulating titles are available in video form.

The new release features eight new transitions, and 19 new one-click video effects, including Aged Film, Dream, Sci-Fi, and Cartoon. Whether you’re going for sexy or spooky, there’ll be something to fit the bill.

Pricing & Availability

iLife ’09 will be available by the end of this month for a suggested retail price of $79, and will require OS X Leopard. Discounts are available when purchasing the software with a new Mac, or if you have only recently upgraded your hardware.

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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

Basic Lessons let you learn the fundamentals at your own pace with Apple instructors in beautiful HD video synchronized to animated instruments and notation. You’re able to practice either the piano or guitar, playing through nine different lessons which prepare you for playing an entire song. Speed and repetition can be controlled until you’ve perfected the stage.

When ready to play the entire song, GarageBand allows you to do so with the full backing band. The video shown in the Keynote presentation looked to be of excellent quality, though it was noted that the piano lessons appear somewhat easier to follow than the guitar counterparts.

Artist Lessons

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. Each artist explains in the video how the song was written and what inspired it. You’re able to 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
• Sting

I’m surprised that John Mayer wasn’t present in the list of artists taking part — he does usually seem to pop up wherever Apple has room for him. Artist Lessons will be sold separately at the new GarageBand Lesson Store for $4.99 a pop, available inside the GarageBand ’09 application.

You are able to fully control the mix and instrumentation, so it’s simple to break down a professional track into the various constituents and hear each part in isolation. As with Basic Lessons, speed can be controlled to make picking up the song easier. Previews of each artist can be found at the GarageBand site, and Apple noted that new artists will be added to the list shortly.

It will be interesting to see how this feature takes off; I think it’s a good concept, and if budding musicians don’t find the price to be a barrier I’d expect it to become very popular.

Other Features

Two other new features also grace GarageBand ’09. The first is a new guitar amp with stomp-box effects, allowing you to re-create classic guitar rigs. Sounds include Brit Pop, Honky Tonk, Lowdown Blues, Seattle Sound, Stadium Solo, and Woodstock Fuzz. Different pedals can also be added and, in classic Apple style, a 3D recreation of your custom rig can be shown on screen.

The second additional feature is “Magic GarageBand Jam,” letting you play along with a virtual band that you create. You can change the sound of each instrument in the band, arrange each part individually and then, when you’re happy with how the band sounds, jam along with your own instrument. This would appear to be an excellent way of moving away from simply recording a track through GarageBand, toward using it as a recreational and ‘jamming’ tool.

Of course, all the original functionality of GarageBand remains intact. It still provides the renowned functionality for layering tracks, recording, and providing a simple ‘plug and play’ setup process.

Pricing & Availability

iLife ’09 will be available this month for a suggested retail price of $79, and Artist Lessons will be available through the GarageBand Lesson Store for $4.99 each.

iLife ’09 will require Leopard and the GarageBand Artist Lessons will only be available in select countries.

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We’ve made it in to the keynote, have decent seats, and currently really solid W-Fi. Crossing our fingers that the Wi-Fi (and our batteries) will stick around.

The vibe here is update and people are handing out “Bring Steve Jobs Back” apple-shaped flyers.

We’re not planning on doing any live blogging of the event, but I will be live twittering assuming my connection sticks around.

Immediately following the keynote we’ll be getting posting our initial thoughts and reviews of the tech-gold that Schiller is set to announce.

Stay tuned.

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Day 1 of Macworld is nearing an end (although some of the parties may continue well into the night) and activity at the Moscone center in San Francisco is winding down. Last minute additions to the booths were being made all day today and there was a steady stream of exhibitors carrying in various and sundry gear. Apple’s booth was finished early. They actually come in a couple of days ahead so they can put everything up and cover up the banners before anyone else comes into the hall.

Across the way, conference sessions on a wide range of subjects were being conducted for paying attendees. The real focus of course, is on the keynote tomorrow morning, and details on what Phil Schiller will be showing to the assembled throng. In fact, one dedicated fellow has been waiting in line since this morning.

News for Today

• Steve Jobs says his health is fine and, more importantly, his own business
• Filemaker Pro 10 was released today. You can read my own reactions to the new version and the most significant UI changes to Filemaker in a decade.
• Toast 10 was announced by Roxio.
• Daylite Touch info was released by Marketcircle. Matthew Bookspan wrote a preview of what to expect from Daylite Touch.
• Elgato‘s updated EyeTV Hybrid w/ FM tuner (North America only)
• LaCie’s new speed-demon optical drive
• Intelliscanner Mini offers a smaller (but still expensive) barcode scanner for the Mac
• Picasa for Mac offers an alternative to iPhoto and MobileMe web galleries.

What’s Coming Tomorrow?

The expo floor opens tomorrow and all the exhibitors will be going full throttle to pitch their wares to everyone walking by. The sessions continue and there’s a couple of supersessions, but the real focus is on Apple’s keynote. You can plan out your day on TheAppleBlog schedule for Macworld.

What’s Apple Up To?

Tom Reestman put together a list of the swirling rumors of what might be announced tomorrow. Most people here are certain of a Mac mini update, but MacBook Pro and Mac Pro details are scarce. New chips suitable for the Mac Pro are being released this quarter, so I’m hoping for an announcement that these chips have been made available to Apple early. Snow Leopard details will be welcome, particularly how the new Exchange features will be integrated into Apple apps.

Actually, the rumor I’m most excited about is that iWork may be moving to the cloud. I probably like this one because the negative reaction has been so strong. Personally, I think that if you think of iWork in the cloud as something like Google Apps for MobileMe, it makes perfect sense. You can create your documents on the desktop, then share them out on MobileMe. Other people could see your shared documents but then edit them online using a web interface. This would make MobileMe tons more useful for business folks that need to share documents with PC users and don’t want to convert to Excel or Word, etc. Plus, it would be another introduction to Apple software for PC users that are thinking about switching to the Mac.

We’ll be covering all the news here, so stay tuned to TheAppleBlog all week.

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The good news is that with the keynote almost upon us, the Mac community has switched primarily from crying about Jobs not giving the keynote to instead focusing on the usual rumors and speculation. This is as it should be.

I’ve written about what I think of the change from Jobs to Schiller for Apple’s last Macworld keynote, so let’s talk about what we may see tomorrow. So many rumors, so little time…

Software

It seems there are three likely announcements on the software front:

• An update to iLife appears likely. I haven’t seen much rumor or discussion on this, but it’s been over a year and it’s due. Unlike many who hated iMovie ’08, I rather like it, but would very much like to see enhancements in the area of titles and transitions. I’d also like to see the rather anemic sound controls updated.
• I also see an update to iWork likely. Like iLife, it has not been updated in over a year. To me, it’s a testament to how solid Numbers was as a “1.0” product that it didn’t need a major “update” (as iMovie ’08 did) in order to make it more acceptable. Still, it needs some beefing up to help sell serious number crunchers, if that’s what Apple is after. As for me, I’d simply like to see more polish and more templates. When iWork ’08 came out, there was much discussion about how Microsoft’s Office had features 90 percent of users don’t use, so iWork was a better substitute. However, if Office is more than 90 percent need, then surely iWork is more than 85 percent need? In short, I’d rather iWork continue to focus on usability, and making its power more accessible, than getting more Office-like. There is some speculation that Apple will take iWork online with web apps. I think this is a great idea, but I sure hope that they can have performance about 20 times better than MobileMe. I’m hopeful MMe performance suffers because the service was so “broken” upon launch that tuning it was last on the priority list.
• The third software announcement likely is news about Snow Leopard. Maybe a demo and some discussion of a release date, though I suspect that will be a very general release date.

Other software announcements we could see or hear about are for Apple TV or even the iPhone. The former seems more likely than the latter to me. It’s been a while since we’ve heard about Apple TV, so it’s due. My thinking is that ATV is going to get more and more like a merger between itself and Front Row. In fact, the rumor that Apple TV software may be able to run on a regular Mac seems like a worthwhile goal for Apple to shoot for. I’m especially interested in ATV because sometime this quarter I’ll be entering the HD TV world and am wondering if ATV or perhaps a Mac mini would be a good addition to my video system.

Hardware

Probably at least two announcements on the hardware front:

• Many rumors focus on the Mac mini. It seems pretty certain there will be a revision, and it seems likely to me it will have the NVIDIA chipset of the MacBooks. We’ll also see mini Display Port because Jobs mentioned about 67 times during the MacBook introduction that Apple was moving to this for all their hardware now. Rumors that there will be Display Port and mini DVI don’t make much sense to me. Personally, I’d rather see the mini use the MagSafe power adaptor so it can plug into the new LCD displays than saddle it with two different display ports. Heck, if they feel they must add another display port I’d rather it be HDMI.
• It seems a 17” MacBook is a pretty solid certainty. It’s time for the unibody 17 inch to make its debut. Latest rumors have it with a sealed battery. Not sure why Apple would go that route but it may become obvious once we find out what the laptop actually consists of. I’m one of the majority (yes, we are definitely and without question the majority) of users who never get a second battery so it doesn’t make any difference to me.

I could also see an update to Apple TV. Along with a software update maybe there’s a hardware update as well. Not sure this thing gets much more for now than speed bumps and larger hard drives. In that case they may just press release this one. In short, I do not expect a DVD or Blu-Ray drive in it (yet). If I’m building a new system I think I’d appreciate the former, but as to the latter I’m just not sure I want to go there. The idea of building a new library of physical media in a new format seems so 20th century to me. I want the new HD content I acquire to be downloadable media.

I don’t see much hardware talk on the iPhone front. I suppose a 32GB model is always a possibility, but then that could easily be press released as well. The iPhone I want needs more than just 32GB, it must also have a processor boost. It’s clear the processor is a weak spot in this device. I’m not updating my first generation model until that happens, and I don’t see that being tomorrow. As for the iPhone nano, I’ve written about that already. The iPhone is a platform, and if a mini can’t maintain the platform (and I don’t see how it can) then I don’t see Apple going there.

As always, I expect Apple to slip in a thing or two not considered above. Also as always, some of it may seem obvious and a great idea, and some may seem less impressive and turn out to be a bog thing later. In any case, bring it on, Phil, I’m ready…

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I was walking ’round the Moscone Center this morning after I snagged my media badge and noticed a guy sitting at the entrance to the Moscone Center. I inquired.

Nick Lensander (of The MacTips Podcast) was, and currently still is, the first and only guy in line. He’s been manning his post since 6:30AM, meaning he’ll have sat in that spot for nearly 26 hours by the time they start letting folks in for the keynote.

It’s a fairly nasty morning here in SF with temperatures in the upper 40′s and rain, so he’s got some dedication. His MacBook, iPhone, and camera in hand, he’s set to keep himself occupied for quite sometime. Not sure how he’s keeping all his gear charged, though.

At any rate, if you’re wanting a seat in the keynote, you’ve been warned. The line has already started forming.

Macworld Attendees: Don’t forget to checkout our Macworld SCHED to plan your week!

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What can we expect from this new iPhone application? A bunch of new features, to say the least:

1. Daylite touch users can simultaneously book meetings, view other users’ calendars, delegate tasks, manage contacts, projects and opportunities and look at their short term history -– all offline.
2. Daylite touch syncs over the air with 3G, Wi-Fi, or 2G EDGE, allowing Daylite users to coordinate with other mobile colleagues or with workgroups back at the office.
3. Daylite touch offers a more distinctive set of collaborative productivity features than Microsoft Exchange or Apple MobileMe.

Sounds reasonably impressive. What does it look like? Here is an advanced screenshot.

From this screenshot, we can see a pretty rich Calendaring application. I like the fact that Daylite touch is utilizing the iPhone’s screen real estate to best benefit readability. This screenshot alone makes me salivate at what the rest of the application will look like.

At the Expo, I will be meeting with Martketcircle’s CEO, Alykhan Jetha to receive a full demonstration of the new product. I will follow-up with my impressions of the app after I receive this hands-on demo.

Marketcircle expects that Daylite touch will be available in the first quarter of 2009. They will announce pricing at that time as well. Given the cost of Daylite itself ($149 retail), I expect that Daylite touch will not be inexpensive.

Regardless, the ability to have a full-featured CRM/GTD application on the iPhone or iPod touch is noteworthy, as to-date there are not too many quality choices available.

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Today, Apple’s biggest conference Macworld, opened for registration. The dates for Macworld 2009 will be January 5-9.

Apple has traditionally used Macworld as a time to make some fairly big product announcements and updates.

In 2008, Apple announced the MacBook Air, Time Capsule, iPod touch software update, Apple TV 2, and the iPhone/iPod touch SDK.

In 2007, they announced the iPhone, the final name for Apple TV, and the change of name from Apple Computer Inc. to Apple Inc.

The Macworld Expo Wikipedia page has a great rundown of all the announcements made at each Expo dating back to 1998.

The cost to attend Macworld varies greatly from as low as around $200 to as much as $1,900 so be sure to check out the Macworld Expo site for all the info.

Have you been to previous Macworld Expos? What was your overall experience like? Will you be going to Macworld 2009?

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