Here we go. The last Apple Macworld keynote ever.
7:42 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: It's cold, it's almost raining. It's San Francisco. We're here outside Moscone, waiting to go in and see Phil Schiller do his best Steve Jobs imperso ation.
7:57 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: All the old familar media faces are here (or are on their way). The line isn't any shorter than usual, despite the non-Jobsness of the event. Maybe that spectacle plus the fact that this is the last year is bringin out the lookeeloos?
7:59 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: In other news, MFing danishes!
8:00 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: To give you an idea of what it's like to wait in line at one of these things, picture Best Buy. Then add in Black Friday. Then, imagine it's these people's JOBS to get in as early as possible. Mix in some fear, sweat, jetlag and desperation. Stir.
8:04 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Fifty five minutos left. That means fifty five minutes left for a pee break.
8:19 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
8:20 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen:
I see a 15 year old looking kid with a gigantic camera weighing him down. Watch out kid, sculiosis is a bitch.
8:25 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Some of you are just getting to work now. You lucky bastards.
8:30 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: I wonder if Phil has different musical taste than Steve. No more Coldplay? Jack Johnson? JOHN MAYER???
8:31 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: If this is your first Macworld with us, here's the deal. Post your three guesses of what you think will be announced over on the main Giz page.
8:47 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Don't forget the Keynote Bingo. Play now and you can win a free pizza! FREE. PIZZA. Plus, it's fun.
8:49 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
8:49 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: We're in and we're seated. The last minute stragglers are grabbing their seats while The Killers is playing. Guess the music isn't going to be too different
8:52 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Remember that photo? Macworld 1999!
8:53 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: I think I see three bald guys. Not quite four.
8:53 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
8:55 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: The music is actually extra good this time. Good job, whoever picks these things. Heard some MGMT earlier too, which Adrian approves of.
8:56 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
8:56 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Staring at these damn pizzas in our keynote bingo is making me hungry.
8:57 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam: Man, NYTimes reporter Brad Stone gets to sit in the VIP area…lucky duck.
8:58 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: What do we think is coming? New iMacs, updated MacBook Pro, and Apple renaming their phones coms.
8:58 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
8:59 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Have you checked out our Choose Your Own Apple CEO Adventure? You should!
8:59 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
8:59 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Coldplay is being played and Phil Schiller is putting his pants on, getting ready to take the stage.
9:00 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:02 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Everyone's expecting Phil to come out on stage, but what if he comes out from the back and runs up? Like a Vegas magician.
9:03 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
CNBC's Jim Goldman, dapper as always.
9:03 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Weird, this Coldplay song doesn't sound like the one from the album. Are they BEHIND THE STAGE, playing live??
9:03 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: It's starting. Phil Schiller takes the stage. He's NOT wearing a black turtleneck, but a shirt and pants. Jeans, to be exact.
9:04 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: No weight loss problems here.
9:04 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:04 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Phil thanks the crowd from the "bottom of [his] heart". "It's an incredibly exciting time at Apple."
9:05 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Phil shows off the store they opened last year in Beijing, a store in Germany, and a store in Australia. People applaud politely.
9:05 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:05 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Phil: "I can't think of one company in the world with a store that beautiful…"
9:06 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: 3.4 Million visitors go to Apple stores every week, apparently. "They do it, because it's such a great place to shop. They also want to try out and touch the iPhone, the iPod touch, and the Mac." The consummate salesman, Phil.
9:07 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:07 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Last year the had the biggest fiscal year, selling 9.7 million Macs. "The hardware, the Leopard, all the amazing applications."
9:07 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:07 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Today they are focusing on the Mac, and Phil's announcing three new things.
9:08 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:08 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: First, iLife ‘09. iPhoto, iMovie. "Some people up north may think they have something good, but it's nowhere as good as iLife."
9:08 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:09 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Last year Apple introduced the "Events" concept, which organizes your photos into events like birthday parties, or office parties. With iPhoto ‘09, they're adding two things. *Sparse applause*.
9:09 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:10 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: First is Faces. You can organize photos by people, and when you click on the Faces on the left, it's a thumbnailed board of people in your photos. It uses "face detection", and automatically detects faces, which you can name later.
9:11 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:11 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Once you typed in a name, iPhoto will create a snapshot of the person ("Liz"), and then uses face recognition to find other instances of Liz in other photos you've taken. You can confirm that yes, this is Liz, in your other photos iPhoto think are of Liz.
9:11 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:11 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: One great use for this? Your "naked" photos. What easier way to organize your collection than by stars?
9:12 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: The other way to organize your photos is "Places", which sorts by where snaps are taken. When you click the Places icon, iPhoto gives you a map with pins of where photos are taken.
9:13 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: It uses GPS geotagging, found in some cameras now and cellphones "like the most advanced phone, the iPhone". Shameless, Phil.
9:13 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:13 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: When you take a photo, the camera attaches a longitude/latitude coordinate to your photos, then the iPhone attaches a place, a state and a country to them.
9:14 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:14 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:14 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: "What about all those photos I took that didn't have a geotag in it?" When you click on an event, you can update the field under the event to enter the event location. iPhoto already has a database of what you're typing in, such as Yosemite, and can assign a geotag to all photos in an event once you've chosen one.
9:14 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: So far Phil's actually doing a decent job.
9:15 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: In addition to street maps from Google Maps, there's satellite maps that you can see where you've taken photos-even across different events.
9:15 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: There's also now built-in support for Facebook & Flickr.
9:16 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:16 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: If you upload a photo to Facebook, people can tag people (like Facebook allows) and that gets synced back to your iPhoto, so you can identify people who you don't know. Why you took a photo of that person in the first place is not my problem.
9:17 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: For Flickr, the geotags from iPhoto also propagate, so Flickr users can see where you've taken your pics.
9:17 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam: Flickr and Facebook support
9:18 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Then there's Themes, which Phil is demonstrating as a slideshow of photos moving in and out, in sync to the Charlie Brown song.
9:18 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Themes also actually use face detection to properly orient the photos so that faces are in the middle.
9:18 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam: Face detection center's slideshow photos
9:19 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam: 3d effects from photos in slideshows
9:19 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Another cool theme is the "shattered" theme, which has transitions between photos that break up a photo into individual pieces and recomposes it. Then there's iPhone syncing, which also supports themed slideshows.
9:20 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Another new feature inside Books, which you can use to print out, is maps. It shows maps of where you took photos and can be printed out just like you printed out books before.
9:20 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:21 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Phil's now demoing iPhoto live on an iMac. First, he shows Faces. If you scrub across each person's face inside the group of faces (the thumbnails), you can see each individual photo in the collection. It's also cropped to the actual face, using face detection. If you hold option, you can see the entire photo.
9:22 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Whenever iPhoto sees an unnamed face, all you have to do is name them and the next time iPhoto shows the same person, it'll ask you to confirm whether or not that's the person you just named.
9:24 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Another cool thing is selecting a group of people, dragging it onto the left column, and iPhoto will create a smart album of those people. Whenever you've confirmed that yes, a photo is one of this group of people, it'll be added to the smart album. Useful for your family or your friends.
9:25 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Then there's browsing by maps. View a map and you can click a particular pin to show all the photos from that location.
9:26 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: No boom yet from Phil. Maybe later, when he announces hardware? If there is hardware?
9:26 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:27 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Phil's now demoing zooming into maps, down to the level of satellite imagery showing a couple pins. Usually Steve doesn't go THIS in depth of software, which makes us think Phil is kind of buying time with this amount of detail.
9:27 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:28 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Some lady with a purse is standing up right in front of me.
9:28 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Phil: Now, new iMovie ‘09. *Polite applause*
9:28 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:29 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Last year, Apple transitioned into the new version of iMovie with iMovie ‘08.
9:29 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Since it was new, iMovie ‘08 didn't have all the features that older customers wanted. This year, Phil says they've added in a bunch of features that should please everyone.
9:29 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:30 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Among the features are Precision editor, advanced drag and drop (context sensitive menus), and themes.
9:30 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Also, animated travel maps. (INDIANA JONES??) There's 2D and 3D maps of where you've traveled in your videos. Sweet.
Plus, there's automatic image stabilization in your videos in case you have shaky fingers.
9:31 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:31 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Phil is inviting up Randy Ubillos, Chief Architect of Video Applications, on stage to do the demo. He is the guy who "made" the new iMovie ‘08 last year.
9:32 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:32 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Randy is showing in dragging and dropping movies onto the timeline, inserting (with context sensitive menus).
9:33 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: You can grab "audio only" from a clip and overlay it onto other clips. The demo he's using is a 10 year old kid overacting.
9:34 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam: Inserting audio only
9:34 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam: Zoomed in editing focused on the transition; lower bar is after the transition/edit point, upper bar is before
9:35 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Now, demoing other editing features like skimming, seeing edits (before and after cuts), and other features like overlaying audio. A bit more advanced than iMovie ‘08.
9:35 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:36 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Now Randy is demoing video stabilization using footage shot in a jeep.
9:36 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam: The project library has thumbs now
9:36 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Once iMovie has scanned the entire clip of what you want, and when you add it, image stabilization is automatically applied. It's actually quite good, at least with this jeep example and this gazelle example.
9:38 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Another clip he's showing is of a Leopard climbing down from a tree. Choosing "clip adjustment" will bring up a speed slider in order to slow down the clip so you can see your video immediately slower.
9:38 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam: Video motion stabilization! takes time but looks *amazing*:
Slow motion:
Video effects:
9:38 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Other effects you can do are X-Ray and aged film, which gives your video the gimmicky look you were wanting, but otherwise couldn't get.
9:39 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Now, Indiana Jones-like map rendering, showing starting and ending locations for your different clips. If you went through multiple cities, you can transition through all of them (both 3D globe and 2D map).
9:40 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam: Map styles:
9:40 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam: Themes
9:41 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: A sample clip plays that looks quite like Meercat Manor. This is only a subset of new features in iMovie ‘09, but there's no time to show more. Randy leaves the stage, Phil comes back on.
9:41 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Phil: "Isn't that incredible. Amazing software."
9:42 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:42 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: The last app he's going to talk about in iLife ‘09 is Garageband. It's the most "exciting" feature, and a "true breakthrough", which will help people to play a musical instrument. It's called "Learn to play."
9:42 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam: Learn to play.
9:42 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: When you fire it up, there's an instructor and a representation of the instrument facing you. Essentially, an instrument tutor. Phil's going to play a clip of one of the lessons.
9:44 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:44 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Some guy named Tim is showing you how to play the guitar, and now the piano. Multi-talented, this Tim. There's notations as well as just plain virtual instruments. You have 9 basic guitar and 9 basic piano lessons built in.
9:44 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: NEW FEATURE. Artist lessons!
9:45 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Who are some of the artists? JOHN…Fogerty. And Cobie. Patrick Stump from Fall Out Boy. STING, who will not only teach you to play the guitar, but have sex for 10 continuous years.
9:46 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: On the Piano, Sarah McLachlan, Ryan from OneRepublic, Norah Jones, but no Chris Martin from Coldplay, whom I will never admit having intercourse with
9:47 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: A sample lesson from John Fogerty sounds like a grandpa rambling, instead of actually getting down to teaching you the lesson. Hurry the F up, gramps!
9:48 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam: Artist Lessons:
9:48 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Man, Fogerty is really just going off the edge here. This is less of a lesson than an unplugged version of his song.
9:49 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: There's also new versions of iWeb and iDVD, and iLife ‘09 still ships free on all Macs. $79 for upgrades, or a family pack for $99 that's usable on five computers. Ships "late January."
9:49 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Now, iWork ‘09.
9:50 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: "I made this presentation in iWork ‘09, so you know it's really solid."
9:50 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: In Keynote, you can set up objects in slides, and the software will do the work in moving objects between slides. With magic move, it'll transition whichever object you want automatically, like rotating and resizing.
9:51 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: The sample Phil's showing is with playing cards: they're messed up in the first slide, and then they're neat and arranged in the second with the proper transition inbetween.
9:51 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:52 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: More transitions like perspective move and object pushup add flair to your slides. There's also text transitions, which he's using to show the transition between Bush to Obama.
9:52 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:53 AM ON JAN 6 2009
9:53 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Next, chart animations, such as the "crane move", like a crane camera flying in to show bar graphs move up while the perspective changes. Rotate and grow for bar graphs and zoom for charts. USA Today, pay attention!
9:54 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Themes, again, are present in Keynote. You can pick a theme and it'll make all your slides match in the same theme (borders and fonts and other small things).
9:54 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Phil's announcing Keynote remote, an app on the iPhone/iPod Touch, which can show you your slide plus notes, and can control your Keynote presentation right on the device.
9:54 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:55 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Keynote Remote is $0.99 in the app store, and "we've already given it five star reviews."
9:55 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam: Keynote remote
9:56 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam: Pages fullscreen
9:56 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Next, Pages (Apple's Microsoft word). There's a fullscreen view to make everything else disappear, focus in on what you're doing and tune out everything else.
9:57 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Second, dynamic outlines. In Pages ‘09, you can start in outline view before you actually start writing, letting you reorganize thoughts and seconds.
9:57 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:57 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen:
Then there's Mail merge with Numbers, which can connect with tables and lists in Numbers.
9:57 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
9:58 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Other connectivity features hook up with MathType and EndNote, two mathy apps.
9:58 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: And of course, 40 new themes. Themes seem to be really present in every app Phil is introducing today.
9:59 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: In Numbers ‘09, "we've focused on adding features that customers have told us they wanted."
9:59 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam: Templates for pages:
10:00 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Numbers, the equivalent of Excel, has new Table categories and 250 functions (with function view), which has the appropriate mouseovers and color coding to make things easier to understand. Advanced chart options, like mixed chart types, multiple axis charts, trend lines, and error bars. Pay attention, accountants!
10:01 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: When you paste a graph or chart into Pages (Word), you can also "link" the graph together to the actual Numbers doc, so it updates whenever you change your formatting in Numbers.
10:02 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: And with that, iWork ‘09 is finished. $79 for one license, $99 for a family pack for 5 people. If you purchase iWork with a new Mac, it's $49. Ships today.
10:02 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam: Numbers
10:03 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
10:03 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: The new iLife NEEDS Mac OS X Leopard, and if you want to upgrade to iLife, iWork and Leopard together, you can get a Mac Box Set for $169. It ships in late January when iLife ships.
10:03 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: There's one other thing with iWork that Apple is doing that's called iWork.com. The beta will be announced soon.
10:04 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: "iWork.com is a service for you to share with other people. You can notify other people that you've shared documents, and collaborate on them. They can review and edit documents online."
10:04 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: You can download a copy and your collaborators can download a copy, and each person can add notes and comments which are seen by everybody.
10:04 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Here's the demo of how it works.
10:05 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
10:05 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: First, Phil launches a Pages document. He'd like someone to give him new comments. He clicks the iWork.com button and can directly share with people from the iWork application.
10:06 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
10:06 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Pages then creates the differently formatted versions of the document and uploads it to iWork.com. The person who's viewing now sees an invite in his or her email.
10:07 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: The invite links her, through her browser, to iWork.com, and opens up the Pages document online. The pages doc actually looks like pages, where she can leave a note for Phil online.
10:07 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
10:07 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: There can be multiple people viewing the document, all leaving notes to each other on the right hand side about the whole document. You can then download the doc directly from the website. What you can't do is edit documents online–it looks like you have to download it and edit it offline.
10:08 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: To see other people's comments that they've created online, you can click "show shared documents" in Pages, and view the documents you've uploaded. A blue dot shows a new note that you need to read.
10:09 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: By going back to the shared pages list, you can see the Keynote/Pages/Numbers docs you've shared, including all the notes people gave.
10:09 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Customers can sign up free for the beta, but it will be a fee-based service once iWork.com launches.
10:10 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Another use besides sharing documents with others is sharing documents with yourself, seeing your docs anywhere. It ships today.
10:10 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
10:10 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: The third thing, one more thing, is the new 17-inch MacBook Pro.
10:11 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: "Last year was a big year in MacBooks." All the Macbooks have a version with the precision unibody enclosure, including the MacBook Air, the MacBook and the MacBook Pro.
10:12 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: "For the last 8 months running, if you look at all consumer laptops sold on that list, the MacBook has been #1."
10:12 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
10:12 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
10:12 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: The 17-inch MacBook Pro, is the .98 inches thin, 6.6 pounds, and is the world's lightest and thinnest 17-inch notebook. There's a 17-inch LED backlit display, 1920×1200. "This is the best display we've ever shipped in a notebook." 700:1 contrast ratio, 60% greater color gamut than the previous 17-inch display.
10:13 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: There's a $50 anti-glare option on the glossy screens for higher-end customers. They have to remove the bezel from the front, and build it in, which explains the $50 surcharge.
10:14 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: The left side has three USB ports, Mini DisplayPOort, Firewire 800 (no 400), digital audio in/out and Expresscard. In addition to Gigabit Ethernet and the Magsafe.
10:14 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
10:14 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Of course, there's the glass trackpad, four-finger gestures and multi-button support.
10:14 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.93 GHz Dual Core, 6MB L2 Cache, 8GB memory at 1066 MHz DDR3.
10:14 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
10:15 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Like the 15-inch, there's both integrated 9400M and 9600M graphics cards. 320GB HDD standard, or 256GB SSD upgradable drives.
10:15 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
10:15 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: It works with the 24-inch Cinema Display using the three ports (power, USB and Mini Displayport).
10:15 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
10:15 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: "We challenged our engineers to create the longest battery life ever, but keep the laptop just as thin and just as lite."
10:16 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: An engineer video follows. Bob Mansfield of Mac development explains the new battery. The new battery lasts up to EIGHT hours on a single charge, and can be charged 1000 times.
10:17 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: The key to a new battery is making it bigger, but the challenge is where to find the space to put it. If you design a removable battery, you have "a lot of wasted space". But if you make a non-removable battery, Apple was able to create a 40% larger battery in the same space.
10:18 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Instead of using batteries that look like cylindrical cells, which has wasted space, Apple's made an entire block of batteries that take up all the space possible.
10:18 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
10:18 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: The lifespan of the cells are three times the industry standard.
10:19 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: There's a new concept of "adaptive charging", which reduces wear and tear on the battery while charging. That's "more than three times the notebook batteries in the industr today." Now, there's a chip in the battery that talks to each individual cell and adjust the current individually in order to maximize lifespan.
10:19 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam: Battery making process:
10:20 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: The new battery is recyclable and can run up to five years, meaning less batteries wind up in landfills. But, it also means you can't replace your battery at home without taking the entire thing apart.
10:21 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen:
Again, Apple claims up to eight hours on one charge.
10:21 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
10:21 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: On the 9600GT, it's down to 7 hours, but using the 9400M integrated graphics, 8 hours. That's three hours longer than the previous 17-inch MacBook Pro, giving it a 60% increase in battery life.
10:22 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Apple has a take-back and recycling program if you ever do need to exchange the battery.
10:22 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
10:22 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: The 17-inch MacBook Pro comes in one configuration for $2799, the same price as before.
10:22 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: It starts shipping late January.
10:23 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
10:23 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: On the environmental side, it's EPEAT Gold, and arsenic, BFR, mercury, PVC free, plus has 34% smaller packaging and is "highly recyclable."
10:23 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
10:24 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: And now, a TV ad for the 17-inch. It looks like the previous "green" ad, and says you can recharge it up to a thousand times, over five years, three times as long as batteries in other notebooks.
10:24 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: One last thing…
10:24 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
10:25 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: It's iTunes. iTunes, the music store, was started in 2003. And now, in less than six years, they've sold 6 billion songs.
10:25 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: There's 10 million songs available, and there's 75 million accounts with credit cards.
10:26 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Now, iTunes is the number one channel with music in the United States. What's new? Three things.
10:27 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: First, the price. In the last six years, they've had one pricing model for the entire market. There's now three pricing tiers. $0.99 cents, $0.69 cents, and $1.29. Depending on how the music labels offer music, Apple will price accordingly. This comes in April.
10:27 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Second, iTunes Plus. It's the way that Apple offers music DRM-free. You can play it on as many computers as you own, and has 256 kbps AAC encoding (better encoded). You can upgrade your entire purchased library to iTunes plus.
10:28 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Starting today, 8 million (of 10 million) songs are now DRM free. By the end of Q1 2009, all 10 million songs in iTunes will be DRM free.
10:28 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: The third new thing is with the iPhone.
10:28 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
10:29 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Now, the iTunes Wi-Fi music store is compatible with 3G, meaning it's just called the iTunes music store. It's the same price as on the Wi-Fi, the same selection, downloadable anywhere you are. (Same quality as well.)
10:29 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
10:30 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: You can purchase or preview music anywhere, and sync the music back to your computer when you get home, same as you did before. This starts today.
10:30 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Since Apple's ending on music, "we want to come back to remember why we do this. We love great music."
10:31 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Today, they're going to show off an artist that's gotten 15 Grammy awards, 2 Emmy awards, and has sold over 100 albums.
10:32 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: It's Tony Bennett, sliding onto stage with a floating platform, singing "The Best is Yet To Come."
10:32 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
10:33 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Woooo, Tony Bennett.
10:35 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Now, a second song about San Francisco.
10:36 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Anyone get Bingo yet?
10:37 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: A standing ovation for Mr. Tony.
10:37 AM ON JAN 6 2009
B. Lam:
10:38 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Phil's back, and is thanking his family and his friends at Apple. "Enjoy the rest of the show and check out iLife, iWork and the 17-inch MacBook Pro." Stay tuned for our hands on of these!
10:38 AM ON JAN 6 2009
Jason Chen: Thanks again for reading, and head over to the main Gizmodo page soon for our hands on impressions! Thanks!