There were no big announcements at MacWorld in San Francisco yesterday, reports ComputerWorld. Philip Schiller, Apple’s top marketing executive, introduced software upgrades, a revamped top-end 17″ MacBook Pro and several important changes to the iTunes music store, but no new Mac minis or iMacs.
The new laptop, set to ship at the end of this month, will list for the same $2,799 the current model costs, but it will be configured with a 2.66-GHz processor, 4GB of memory, a 320GB hard drive and the same dual graphics capabilities of the smaller 15-in. MacBook Pro.
For some users, the nonremovable battery will be a problem, especially for users who stray away from outlets for long stretches. Schiller said the lithium-polymer battery will power the MacBook Pro up to eight hours on a single charge — seven hours if a more power-hungry graphics mode is selected — and will take up to 1,000 recharges before it needs to be replaced.
Schiller also spent considerable time touting new versions of Apple’s iLife, the consumer suite that comes with all new Macs, and iWork, its more business-oriented bundle.
ILife ’09 features a revamped iPhoto system that can organize photographs by faces and places. The former capability uses facial recognition technology to locate other images of a portrait a user is categorizing, while the latter relies on GPS location data added to the photo by some cameras and cell phones. Apple’s own iPhone 3G, for instance, geotags images using GPS technology.
iMovie ’09, more usable and complete than iMovie ’08, may be reason enough to get a Mac. iMovie ’09 features software stabilization, transforming jerky handheld camcorder shots into a smooth SteadiCam look.
iWork ’09 includes Pages (a word processor), Keynote (a presentation app), and Numbers (the graphics-centric spreadsheet program. It is available now for $79, or $49 with any new Mac, and requires Leopard (OS X 10.5) in order to run.
Apple’s online music store, starting today, will have approximately 8 million tracks available in versions not locked by DRM (digital rights management) copy protection technologies. Once downloaded, they can be copied freely to any media at any time. Also beginning today, users of Apple’s iPhone 3G can download tracks directly to their phones via their mobile carrier’s data network.
The price for DRM-free tracks — which are available from all four major recording labels, Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI — remains at 99 cents each.
Schiller also announced a future change in iTunes’ once-flat-fee pricing structure. Beginning in April, iTunes will use a three-tier system of 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29. Each track will be priced, said Jobs in an accompanying statement this morning, “based on what the music labels charge Apple.” iTunes customers can upgrade already-purchased tracks to versions free of copy protection for 30 cents each.
