ProVideoCoalition Liveblogging the MacWorld 2009 Keynote by Mike Curtis

Mike Curtis

January 6, 2009

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ProVideoCoalition Liveblogging the MacWorld 2009 Keynote 3

This is the placeholder for liveblogging the keynote. It is 8:53am, I’m seated (decently) and ready to go…i

I’ll keep updating this best I can, and I’ll start update again once…anything happens.

8:54 – just sittin’ here…

8:56 – Irony is realizing best seat ever at a keynote, but no Steve…

9:00 am – asked to silence phones, and upbeat music begins…as does a likely long stream of elipses…

Continues after the jump…

9:02 – testing…

– BTW – I’ve tried to put my editorial comments in italics
9:04 – lights dimming, music ends..

9:05 – Phil comes out, thanks us for coming, talks about new stores in Beijing, Munich, Sydney, effusing about how great Apple is in the stores

Apple Stores

mikenote – maybe this is a reference to why they are pulling out of MWSF? Because purpose served?

3.4M customers visit Apple Stores each week

that is 100 MacWorlds each and every week…(maybe a sign they are pulling out of MWSF…)

a great place to shop, a place to touch and try out iPod, iPhone, and yes, macs

resurgence of customers and Mac Sales

today is all about the Mac

last fiscal year, biggest year ever – 9.7M macs

best product line ever

hardware, Leopard, the apps, etc.

new things today – 3 new things to tell us about

1.) New version of iLife – iLife 09

9:08

iPhoto 09

last year was Events – adding two new things – Faces

so many of the pics are friends and family

iPhoto lets you organize by people – have that in ’09 –

Faces

get a corkboard with snapshots of favorite people

(is it smart?)

uses face detection

draw a a box around the face, then type in the name of who it is, then after that, that name has a face in the snapshot of faces

face recognition – finds the same person across multiple photos

-get a list of people to confirm that the new ones are in fact who it thinks it is

-double click to say it is or isn’t Person X

-there is no perfect face detection, but this is the best they found, is easy to use – click to confirm is Person X, then double click to say is not – both pieces of info help it guess better

next up is Places

works with GPS for geotagging AND THE IPHONE! (presumably the 3G – I noticed the geotag in the first gen iPhoto pics already the other week – maybe why takes so darn long for camera to come up?)

it reverse encodes the GPS coordinates – like the coordinates are translated to Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

for all the pics that you didn’t have GPS in it – for trips w/no GPS – there is a field in Event stuff, can type in the event – if you type in Yosemite, it’ll reverse figure and then assign a geotag to all photos in that event – SWEET

the maps – getting them from the Google Map service – gets down to street level (YES – I MUST GET A GPS FOR MY D90! Interesting how I was lamenting how tough geotagging is to implement before Christmas – a good example of Apple leading the market – I wanted this feature, got it in short order…I’m sure others have wanted it longer, but that is where I am in the curve)

-can surf by location – click on a pin to see photos taken at that location

-because is location driven, will see all pics from that location, even if from different times

NICE!

a few other things in iPhoto – if you use Facebook or Flickr, can post directly from iPhoto

face recognition can see multiple faces from a single pic

pics in facebook – if somebody names a face in Facebook for someone you don’t know, it’ll update in iPhoto to say who that is (HUGE applause on that one)

share photos up onto Flickr – and Flickr supports geotagging – so others can see the locations where you shot stuff

slideshow themes – pick an event, assign a theme – face detection can be used to properly position the photos centered up

Shatter theme auto pulls the pic apart into reassmble in 3D and…you’ll have to see it – BAD ASS!!

themes can be synced onto iPhone

9:20 – maps in books are automatically made in books made from geotagging stuff – maps in books show where you were – can print on hardcovers of books now

Demo time…took video – will post ASAP after keynote (compressing now, 11:52am)

iMovie up next..

9:30 – iPhoto rewritten last time, this year, “added so much depth and power, is the video editing product will be blown away and loves”

-new precision editor – can see edits up close

-when you drag videos into the timeline, drag one video on top of another, get replace/insert/etc –

-can lay out a movie with dynamic themes, and iMovie makes titles, effects, credits, etc. with a single click

animated travel maps – travel Indiana Jones red line style

-can create 2D and 3D maps showing where you travelled, which presumably hooks into places

–Automatic video stabilization (sounds like FCP features migrating down)

-demo time, gonna take notes on this one . Randy Ubillos, the guy who wrote it, giving this demo interviewed him last year for MacWorld review of iPhoto, SHARP guy who gets it about what it takes to make complex tasks consumer viable)

can skim, just as before

wanna insert a clip in the middle – get a contextual pop-up – get LOTS of choices – cutaway, greenscren, PIP, insert, etc.

-do an insert, gets inserted where dropped in,

-go to another clip with good audio – can skim to find the audio you want, can drop Audio Only to drop audio in underneath picture elsewhere

-can click-drag-skim to select a portion of a shot

-new Action pop-up – get a precision editor – get a magnified view of the edit – upper line is the before, and under is the after, and can see to click/drag around to SEE where the edit happens – THIS IS GOOD

-when you click on a point in the in or out clip, it’ll set the clip to edit at that point – SUPER EASY EDITING

-if audio is cutting where the video is, can select the audio button, and can see audio separately, and can do split audio/video editing – to extend the audio from the first shot to lay under the video after the edit

-a very complex edit, was done in a few steps visually

-footage from back of a bouncy jeep – video stabilization – two step process – analysis mode – looks at all the frames, but can be done on an entire event all at once (presumably waaaaay slowly) – with stabilization applied, works REALLY well – he shows a demo.

-cahsing a gzelle in a jeep since bouncing around so much – take clip, select it, drag into timeline after stabilized – again, works quite well.

-can do Clip Adjustments with an Inspector, including a Speed adjustment to go faster/slower – for half speed, immediate playback no rendering

Effects – can skim over thumbnail to see effects- x-ray, aged film, sepia, etc. – stabilized, aged film, slowed down – no rendering required (except for the pre-edit stabilization pass)

-in Maps and Backgrounds – have 4 different styles of maps – flat educational style map, set start and end locations – can type in locations and it knows from a list

-get travelling map, Indiana Jones style…can have multi-location trips shown…

-new transitions, a whole bunch of animated titles

–Themes – 5 themes – which you can skim across to see what they look like

-selects Photo album, can add some titles and transitions

-puts in some titles, transitions, cross dissolves, put an ending slide in, it picks up User Name for director credits….

-cuts video into a book title, pan and scans across stuff….basically Discovery Channel in a box.

9:40

GarageBand 09

Learn to Play feature – to teach you how to play an instrument – with guitar or keyboards

-have an instructor up above, is in HD resolution

-at the bottom of the window, you can control the rate of learning – faster, slower, skip ahead, etc.

9 basic lessons for guitar, 9 for keyboards

have enlisted some artists to play their songs – Artist Lessons

-who are the artists?

-John Fogerty on guitar – Proud Mary
-Colibe Caillat – Bubbly
Patirck Stump – Fall Out Boy’s I don’t Care
-Sting – (!) – missed the song

-Sarah Mclachlan – Angel
-Ryan Tedder – One Republic – Apologize
Norah Jones – Thinking About You

will add more along the way

this is nice – feels good

new section called Learn To Play – can go back whenever you want, download more lessons as you go – built in store to purchase the artist lessons for $4.99 – artists talk about the story behind the songs, see the lyrics, hear their versions, take it into Garage Band based on purchased lessons

slow down any section as you want it

John Fogerty “It was early 1968, as best I can remember it” (big laughs) – was into Beethoven’s Fifth, he couldn’t play it with chords on guitar, so instead he (he plays, and you see the guitar light up on the bottom) –

new iWeb and iDVD as well

$79 to upgrade, can upgrade family pack for $99

will ship for late January

9:50 – new version of iWork

he’s demoing on Keynote 09 now

new animation tools

Magic Move – transition between slides – you set’em up, Keynote moves objects between slides

-set up slide A, set up second, and it does animation between for you – messed up to organized, etc.basic keyframing with ease in/out

-object transitions – objects slide off in a 3D fashion – before all parts of slide 1 are off, pieces of slide 2 are already coming in

Text transitions – little 3D moves on text – has shimmer (particles), does anagram transitions

(if we are spending this much time on iLife, I’d say NO NEW BIG PRODUCTS!)

-charting- chart animations

-crane move on a 3D graph, 3D moves, etc.

-Themes in Keyote – stups for Kyoto and all slides have that look – showroom, Brushed Canvas, Venician, etc.

can use iPhone as a remote for keynote (!!!!!!!!)

can see notes vertically, see next slide horizontally, flick to go next, you have to buy – $0.99

MUST. HAVE.

PAGES –

full screen view (we’re spending time on this!?!?!?!????)

–Dynamic Outlining – can work in outline view, have control of detail view, graphics inline, can reorganize drag ‘n drop

Mail Merge with Numbers (tables and lists)

MathType and Endnote support/integration –

40 new templates

(man, they are reallllly trying to fill space here….)

NUMBERS 09

this year focused on filling out the feature set

to make more powerful and usable all the time

table categories have been added

pulldown to Categorize by Column, will subtotal – this is actually handy – can dynamically switch around

most requested feature for advanced users – more functions for formulas – over 250 functions – easy to find and understand with a Function View, has a typable search, etc.

(I’m getting bored…dude…PHIL! Now I know for SURE why Steve passed…the shaaaaaaaaaame………..)

-new chart options

(I’m debating whether to refuse to blog this and instead just import my pics so far….)

charty McChart stuff…

Linked Charts to keep Pages and Numbers have a live relationship – can keep’em linked – update Numbers spreadsheet, Pages updates – OK, that is dynamic and cool

beatiful templates for home finance, education, home inventory with pictures (hello, Red accessories Inventory!)

$79 standalone, $99

get it for $49 when buying a new Mac (nice deal!)

iWork 09 ships today (OK, I’ll get it)

Leopard required –

Mac Box Set – iiLife 09, iWork 09, Leopard, for $169 – shipping late January when iLife ready

10:00 or so

iwork.com

in beta – new service to share your iwork docs with other people – upload them, invite others to collaborate, those shared with can view them online, add comments and notes online, or download a copy

-don’t have to email them to folks, can just do iwork.com for them to download (obviously must have some security)

Phil demoing –

(mikenote – interesting to see them pushing fairly hard to get into office-y stuff – a push into Microsoft’s turf – a lot of focus on making iWork valid for Real Work)

can upload to iWork and notify a list of folks from your address book, can be done from one dialog in iWork

-for the client side, Tia gets an email, has a message from Phil with a link to vew the doc, clicks View Document, launches her browser Mac or PC, Safari, Firefox, IE, whatever – can go through the doc, leave a comment – can be multiple people viewing the doc, leave generic notes for others looking at this. Can download to open it herself as Word, Pages, or PDF doc – those are all published at same time when sent to iWork.com from

(mikenote – future integration for Final Cut Server?)

under the Share menu, can see Show Shared Documents – goes in a browser to see a shared doc – can see list of shared docs, the top doc is newest one, a blue dot next to it means a new note for him to read, an orange tab on the view shows the note, lets you collaborate (how live/shared is this??) – Pages, Numbers, Keynote docs – can be shared online, get a static view of all the screens – have multiple folks working with it

cost? free for the beta, in the end it’ll be a for-pay service, but free for now in beta

easier way to send a document than through email

if you want to get to docs from anywhere in the world – can see those from anywhere in the world

live today, works with iWork

-(mikenote – iPhone?)

10:10 am17″ MacBook Pro

precision unibody enclosure

a Macbook has been number one in sales over last 8 months in sales overall

0.98 inches thick

6.9 (or 6.8) pounds, lightest 17″ out there

1920×1200
140 degree H, 120 degree V viewing angle
700:1 contrast
60% greater color gamut

$50 anti-glare option

same anti-glare as the last 17:

integrated battery (crap! – can’t change it)

FW800, 3 USB 2.0, NO FW400

39 PERCENT larger tracking area
multi-touch
glass for smooth travel
other stuff I couldn’t type

up to 2.93 GHz

up to 8GB RAM 1066 GHz DDR3

nVidia 9400M and 9600GT BOTH – yes, you have onboard and dedicated chipset – and you can pick which you want to be using, because they mention battery life is up to 7 hrs for the stronger one, 8 hours for the built in. GT is the discrete

320GB HDD, up to 256GB SSD ($900 bump up from 320GB)

backlit keyboard
isight
magnetic latch
motion drop detection yadda yadda
802.11n, Bluetooth latest

they wanted longest lasting battery every, with light and thin

video of how/why done w/battery

new battery lasts up to 8 hours on a single charge, recharge up to 1000 times

not heavier, bigger, or costlier – is environmentally sensitive

bigger battery to last longer

every 1/10th of a millimeter is precious – when designing for removable battery, a lot of space and volume for removable battery

-40% larger battery possible at same size and weight

-(mikenote – biggest issues with this model for pro use – fixed battery means can’t go extended periods – I personally have 4 batteries – even though only two are “valid” – the two older ones won’t hold charge long. But I never leave for a trip without 2 batteries – one going, one charging, or swappability for a long day. 1000 recharges is about 3x the industry standard. Of course, with an up to 8 hour battery life, that reduces the need swap out). With fixed battery, can last up to 5 years they say. Hmm. Considering how long I’ve had this laptop, and how many batteries I’ve gone through, with 3x that life, how well would that have done for me? For pro users, no replaceable battery, no native FW400, only a single FW800 is a BIG concern up front)

I think this going to depend on your usage scenario as to

one config, BTO, $2799 gets 17″ LED LCD, 2.66, 4GB, 320 GB, Superdrive, ships late January

$2799

new ad (got video)

joins the 13″ MacBook, 15″ MacBook, 17″ MacBook,

One Last Thing –

(!!!!)

iTunes, drat –

iTunes store in April 2003 –

sold over 6B songs since then

iTunes largest music media libraby, 10M songs, 75M accounts with credit cards

iTunes is number one channel for music in US – more than Walmart, Target, etc.