Phil Schiller - didn't do too bad

Being Apple’s last Macworld, you’d expect something great to be announced right? Well, it’s not the case for Macworld 20’09. Nevertheless, these announcements were huge in its own magnitude. Anyway, let’s see what His Phil-ness (still doesn’t sound as cool as His Steve-ness!) announced a few hours ago.

iLife ‘09

First up was iLife ‘09. The iPhoto ‘09 has this super cool feature called Face Detection. What this does is that it automatically finds faces and lets you tag them. Besides this, it also recognizes the same person in different photos so you don’t have to retag them anymore! I’d really like to test this out!

There is also a Places feature, which is basically some sort of geotagging function. It gets information from your camera (that is equipped with a GPS receiver), or even your iPhone 3G and map it in Google Maps, so you’ll know where you took the picture, anywhere in the world.

iPhoto ‘09 can also be integrated automatically with Flickr and Facebook, so you don’t have to upload them manually anymore. This is a really sweet feature, seeing that it eliminates duplicate work.

iMovie ‘09 has also been revamped and the feature that caught my attention was the image stabilizing function. Most camcorder users are too lazy to carry a tripod with them everywhere they go, resulting in blurry footage’s. This is where image stabilizing kicks in, giving you a clearer, less blurry video clip.

GarageBand also got an update and it now teaches you how to play music instruments! I’ll need that if I want to make use of that guitar lying at the corner of my room collecting dust!

iWork ‘09

Next up was iWork’09 where all three applications got a slight upgrade. There are a few new transition effects for Keynote but the best thing is that you can now use your iPhone or iPod Touch to go to the next or previous slide. All you need to do is to slide on your iPhone and keynote automatically follows. No more cluncky remote controls!

Numbers ‘09 and Pages ‘09 were a updated slightly. Numbers got some slick new charts and formulas (watch out Excel!) and Pages got some new themes. Also, you can embed charts from Numbers in Pages, with new changes reflected when you edit the source in either app.

Talking about iWork, Apple is now taking cloud computing seriously with www.iwork.com. Think Google Docs, but made by Apple. It’s still in beta and looks like it’s free during the beta period, but the fine print at the bottom of the page says “The iWork.com Public Beta is not included with the purchase of iWork ’09. Account setup and activation are required. Fees may apply.”

Unibody 17 inch MacBook Pro

One more thing…We’re expecting this to come and it did. A new aluminum unibody MacBook Pro 17 inch. Built in the same chassis as the new MacBooks, with a slight bump in the hardware department, the new MacBook Pro can now be purchased with an anti-glare display option. So no more complains on the screen guys.

It is also built in with (yes, built in) Apple’s longest lasting battery, which they claim to be able to go up to 8 hours before running out of juice. That’s 3 times the capacity and lifespan of the industry standard.

One Last Thing…

Songs sold in iTunes are now cheaper (or more expensive, depending on the music companies). Instead of the one-price-only $0.99, it is now either $0.69, $0.99 or $1.29.

There is also a new DRM free iTunes Plus, which offers higher quality music. This means that you’ll be able to play your music in an unlimited number of computers instead of the 5 licenses thing previously. By the end of the first quarter, all songs will be DRM free. We’re not too sure if iTunes Plus is a free upgrade or a paid one but we’ll find out soon.

The new iTunes is also compatible with purchases over 3G from the iPhone. If getting a particular song you want anytime, anywhere is so important to you, this is a big deal. Plus it helps Apple make more money off impulse buys.

Phil wrapped the keynote up by inviting Tony Bennett on stage and the first song was “The Best Is Yet To Come”. We surely hope that’s the case for Apple.

Malaysians sit tight!

Now that we have our very own online Apple Store, iWork ’09, iLife ’09 is already available for purchase. However the new 17 inch MacBook Pro will probably only arrive in stores sometime later this month.

Based on previous experience, the Malaysian press will be getting an invite for the Malaysian launch in two weeks or so. So stay tuned for the coverage and I’ll be sure to delve in more details on each of the product announced. You may want to sign up for our free mailing list to stay updated.

Update: A video of the Keynote is available on Apple’s website. Expect it to appear in iTunes soon too.