Today’s Apple Event.. Back to the Mac.
Here are the highlights folks:
Mac Store
We now have an app store for Mac, it looks very similar to the iPad store and it launches right from the dock on the Mac. Apple is offering devs the same 70/30 split deal and will be accepting applications from devs as of Nov 2010 — get coding. Macs running Snow Leopard will get a peek in 90 days from today. I think this is seriously exciting news. The update tool ( like in the iOS app store ) will make it a lot easier for users to ensure their collection of apps are all up to date.
FaceTime Comes to Mac!!
Mac users + iPhone 4 users can now FaceTime! I’ve already downloaded it for Mac, it works great. When you tilt your device (iPhone) the mac screen will adjust, centering you back up. This is awesome news.
iLife 11
The same apps with new tools, new full screen modes, FB enhancements, new slideshows & big leaps in making books.. The cost for the upgrade will be $49.99, it’s available today and it will come free with all new Macs.
iPhoto
So iPhoto now allows you to view your FB and flickr photos within album view, publish and share directly to services like Facebook and additionally allows you to see the comments from FB within the app. The new slideshows are pretty fancy, the mapping slideshow feature will parade your photos in full while overlaid on the map that nicely moves in the background as the photos change geographical location.
GarageBand
” 11.5 million people using garage band” -Jobs
Flex Time
Groove matching
More guitar amps and effects
New piano and lessons feature: How do I play?
Xander Soren demonstrated some of the new tools showing us how to fix up an example of a song that was struggling to match up with the drums. In one click he created a groove track on the drums and GarageBand instantly analysed the drums and applied the rythym to every track in the song. Xander also mentioned that ” it’s a human rythym” meaning it doesn’t spit out a cold robot sound after matching the tracks.
In a demo of Flex time, Xander double clicked on an audio track to smoothly stretch it out to match the length of the rest of the track.
How did I play – the new lessons feature
Wannabe musicians can now play along with a running score ( % ) of the entire lesson and how you’re playing, it sort of reminded me of the progress bar you get in Guitar Hero. The overview of the timeline shows you exactly how you did and where you’ll need improvements. The complete performances are saved in a history of past lessons so that you can see if you’re getting any better. Lessons have both exercises for guitar and piano but they only showed a demo of the piano, I’m not sure how this works for the guitar.
iMovie 11
Jobs mentioned there’s been a call for better audio editing within iMovie, so they created more sophisticated audio tools to colour-code audio files, people find, drag audio levels in real-time to fade and now users can apply the new audio effects to voices like spooky sounding robot translators.
iMovie now assists users to create slick looking movie trailers. There are now templates that hold a variety of information to quickly publish an impressive looking trailer; cast information, studio logo ( 5 themes ), and edits that seriously look like real movie trailers. Each one of the templates include original scores, in fact Apple went to Abbey road studio and had the London Symphony Orchestra compose the music just for iMovie. The storyboard included in the templates acts as a director and points out where you should add specific elements that match the score to the masterpiece.
The process looks very simple and a great deal less baby-gravy than the current iMovie features, I’m actually a little surprised at how sleek the trailers actually look– get out that iPhone 4 and start shooting.
Mac OS X LION
The new Mac OS will be named Lion. Steve calls the new OS.. iOs meets Mac, sadly though it won’t be released until the summer of 2011. As mentioned, we’re getting a Mac app store, and FaceTime which I’m sure most Mac geeks will agree — are both really sweet additions to the Mac.
There’s a brand new way to look at apps in full screen, apparently users don’t have to leave full screen to do something else, it’s all about flick gestures and sliding homescreens, just like on iDevices. Using Apple Magic Trackpad and the Magic Mouse, users will now be able to use the same type gestures used on the iPad or iPhone, this is all done within Mission Control.
Mission control: unifying everything
Windows, Dashboard and open apps all in one space with an Exposé view of everything. Neat!
Launch Pad gives users an overview of apps and allows you to flick the screens (homepages) and (like the iOS) apps can be reorganized by position and thrown into folders.
ONE MORE THING
… MacBook Air
Steve asks the question “ what would happen if the MacBook hooked up with the iPad?” The Answer: A complete unibody MacBook 13.3”with LED backlit display (1440x 900 pixels) with no optical drive and no hard drive. Apple is all about flash storage (solid state) with the new MacBook Airs , this supports instant-on, is more reliable in a mobile environment and has completely silent operations. The 13″ supports 7 hours of web play and 30 days of stand-by time.
The smaller model has all the stuff the 13” has but with a 11.6 “ LED backlit display ( 1366x 768), 5 hours of battery life and 30 days stand-by time. And, they will be available as of today $999 – $1599. It appears that Apple will continue to use multi-touch on accessories (trackpads, etc) not the screen, as Steve put it “it just doesn’t work on a vertical screen”.
Specs
.68 inches thin at its thickest point.
29 pounds
Complete unibody construction
Core 2 duo processor
NVIDIA GeForce 320 MM
Full size keyboard
Muti touch trackpad
FaceTime camera
802..11n wifi
What did you find most exciting about the announcements ?
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