iLife '09, iWork '09, the unibody 17" MacBook Pro, iTunes Plus, and Tony Bennett? It's no wonder Steve skipped Apple's final Macworld keynote. It's the end of Macworld as we know it, and I feel fine.
Might actually start using iPhoto '09 to take advantage of Faces and Places organization. Canon booth reps were bitter when asked if they had any cameras with built-in GPS. They don't. One Canon rep wondered why they should make cameras with GPS built-in just because of iPhoto '09 given that geo-tagging has been available from Google and Yahoo! for "years" now. He also claimed that nobody wants to wait for their camera to acquire a GPS lock before they can take a picture. The more positive (and cuter) Nikon booth rep was more than happy to show off the Nikon COOLPIX P6000 featured in the Philnote. She said Nikon will probably add geo-tagging to the rest of their product line over the next two years.
iMovie '09 looks to feature the Precision Editor missing from last year's version. It also features animated Travel Maps, which they should have named after Indiana Jones. GarageBand '09 users can now take guitar or piano lessons from the likes of Norah Jones. $4.99 for a music lesson from a famous artist is a pretty sweet deal. An Apple booth rep admitted that iWeb, and iDVD didn't really receive any major new features. iWeb '09 can send notifications to Facebook. It's cool that Apple is adding additional web services to their desktop apps where it makes sense. It'll be interesting to watch iWork.com develop. The beta definitely looks like it's a beta. iDVD needs to develop into an app that works better with iMovie to eliminate all of the rendering that is currently required to burn a DVD.
The new 17" MBP is pretty awesome! Totally envy 8 hours of battery life, and 8 gigs of RAM. Its 6.6 pounds still feels hefty compared to 5.5 pounds for the 15-incher. Apple offers a $50 BTO option for an anti-glare display, but it omits the cool black bezel. A tired-looking TechRestore booth rep said they'll replace the glossy screen of a 15" MBP with a matted display for (IIRC) a Macworld show special of $149. In other laptop news, picked up a HeatShift Technology ThermaPAK for the MBP. The unibody runs cooler than its predecessor, but still creates lap sweat on a warm day. The $25 show special was inexpensive enough to try the TermaPAK plus their booth rep was cool. Canon could learn a thing or two about training Macworld event staff from HST, and Nikon. Granted, this year's Macworld marks the end of an era.
