Apple Unveils Changes for ‘09

Unlike previous years, nothing groundbreaking was revealed at this year’s Macworld convention but aspiring filmmakers, musicians, and writers will be pleased. That “I’m A PC” dude won’t be.

17-Inch MacBook Pro:

• At 6.6 pounds and less than an inch thick, it’s the world’s lightest and thinnest 17-inch notebook.
• $50 anti-glare option on the screens
• longest battery ever

iTunes:

• By the end of the first quarter, every one of iTunes’ 10 million will be DRM-free, with improved quality of 256 kbps AAC encoding
• You can upgrade your entire purchased library to iTunes Plus.
• Three different pricing levels of $0.99, $0.69, and $1.29, depending on pricing from record labels

iLife:

iPhoto

• Faces: Tag someone’s picture with a name and iPhoto creates a snapshot of the person.  Then, using face detection, iPhoto will find other instances of that person in the rest of your photos.

• Places: Another way to organize your photos, this time according to where the photos were taken. Using GPS geotagging, iPhoto will produce a map with pins of where you snapped your pics.

• built-in support for Facebook & Flickr.

iMovie

• Animated travel maps: 3-D globe and 2-D map renderings showing where you’ve traveled in your videos

• Image stabilization to remedy shaky hands
• X-ray and aged film effects if you want to toy around with the look of your videos

Garageband

• Learn To Play a musical instrument with both a tutor and the instrument facing you on-screen.  It also features artist lessons from the likes of Sting, Norah Jones and Patrick Stump.

iLife ‘09 comes free with all Macs. Upgrades are $79, family pack is $99.  Available later this month.

iWork:

Pages:

• Offers a full-screen view in which the page is completely isolated so you can focus solely on what you’re doing.

iWork ‘09 is $49 with a new Mac.  Upgrades are $79, family pack is $99.  Available today.

Pics courtesy of Gizmodo (obviously).

-Devin Chanda