Well, Apple finished their last keynote at MacWorld expo. They have decided they will spend their marketing dollars elsewhere from now on. Whatever the reason Apple gives for no longer attending MacWorld (an even hosted by IDG World Expo), I believe the real reason is the unrealistic expectations placed upon them by the rumor-mongers on the Internet. Every time they have a keynote at this event, everyone is disappointed because the unrealistic, impossible and crazy rumors about what Apple will be announcing don't come true. I say good-riddance to MacWorld Expo and hello to Apple releasing things on its own schedule. I can imagine the relief the engineers feel now that they won't spend all their time trying to prepare for a January event that will disappoint no matter what they do.
What was announced today? Here we go, in no particular order:
1. iTunes DRM (Digital Rights Management aka Copy Protection) Free music: No more copy protection on music downloaded from the iTunes store which only hurt the honest customers as the dishonest knew how to disable it anyway or just downloaded from (and will continue to download from) pirate sites. The removal of DRM from songs is a great thing because it will make it easier for my family to share music without dealing with 'authorizing' our five computers in the house.
2. New iLife: Admittedly I was more excited about the new iLife but alas, it won't be ready for purchasing until the end of this month. You can pre-order now, but that's it. I am excited about the changes to iWeb (ability to publish via FTP as well as the ability to publish one site at a time instead of all sites at once). The only reason I have suffered through iWeb is because of its excellent page layout abilities and compliant html markup.
3. New iWork: I like iWork and I use it, but admittedly the new templates are probably all I'll be excited about. That's okay, bring it on. I use Pages every year to do our family newsletter. Quick, easy and I love the layout abilities of it as well.
4. New 17" MacBook Pro: This is cool now that it is updated, but I don't have a need for -- well, I guess I do have a need for the 17" MacBook Pro, I just don't want to lug around a 17" laptop. I like the smaller portability of the 13" MacBook - even the 15" MBP is more than I want to carry around. The innovation in the 17" is that the battery is built-in, non-removable. But, the life is supposed to be 8 hours on a single charge, 1,000 charges. I think this laptop is truly for professionals as they gave the nod to them by providing a $50 optional matt screen instead of the standard glossy screen. And then there is the price too. Starting at $2,799. Not too high for what you get, just not for me.
Check out all the latest at Apple.com.
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