Mac Musings

Macworld Expo 2005 Keynote

Daniel Knight - 2005.01.11

Point by point coverage of the Expo updated on an irregular basis. We are not live; we're following several different feeds to compile this report. For more current coverage, MacNN seems to have the best news feed.

Apple now has over 100 retail stores, and they have 1 million visitors per week.

The iMac G5 has been Apple's most popular model over the last quarter.

Tiger (OS X 10.4) still on track to ship "first half" of 2005 with over 200 new features and a new logo.

Panther (OS X 10.3.x) has been an incredible success with 14 million active users.

SchwartzTech mentions an iTunes screen saver. Based on comment on The Mac Mind, it appears to use album art.

Apple's Mail app is being overhauled for speed and better reliability.

QuickTime 7 announced. 30 million QT 6 downloads, and 98% of people downloading QT use Windows. (Most Mac users get it with the OS.)

Steve shows off Widgets and Dashboard, explains how they will replace or supplement programs such as calculator, stickies, address book, iTunes, etc. Demos a stock tracker and weather widget.

iChat is being improved to support 10 conference users in audio, 4 in video.

Jobs says 2005 will be the year of HD (high definition) video. Will be interesting to see what Apple does. QuickTime 7 is designed to scale to any size from video phones to HD television.

Final Cut Express HD introduced. Looks like Apple will be leading the way into HD editing just like iMovie did with DV editing.

iLife '05

All apps see "major update" except for iTunes. iPhoto will have better searches, more powerful editing, add MPEG-4 video support. Will also work with RAW photo files. Mac Observer notes very easy-to-use "straighten image" feature - they must know how many of us can't hold a camera level.

iMovie '05 supports HD video plus better (nondestructive) editing, even direct from camcorder. Adds MPEG-4 video, new effect, "Magic iMovie."

Lots MacNN feed. :-(

President of Sony demos "consumer" HD camcorder - $3,500.

MacMerc mentions a "small metallic box with an Apple logo" at 1:05 p.m. (EST).

iDVD '05 has new animated themes and OneStep DVD creation, supports all DVD formats.

John Mayer is showing off GarageBand '05. Now supports 8 tracks, real time multitrack recording (up to 4 tracks at once), real time music notation. Musicians should go nuts over this.

We're having connection problems with MacNN (cannot connect), Mac Observer (won't update), and Mac Mind (very slow). Too bad Apple isn't streaming life this year - this is putting a real burden on the Mac Web.

MacNN feed it back, but only shows last two updates.

iLife '05 retails at US$79 and will be available Jan. 22.

iWork

Yes, iWork is the successor to AppleWorks. Built from the ground up for OS X. Includes Keynote 2.

I've already heard rumblings that Keynote 2 is enough to get PowerPoint mavens very interested in the Mac.

Word processing portion of iWork is called Pages. Sounds like iWork may be more of a suite of compatible programs than a single integrated package, which was one of AppleWorks' greatest features.

From what I'm seeing on the various feeds, it sounds like Pages may be more page-oriented than document-oriented. Integrates with iPhoto library.

iWork retails at US$79 and will also be available Jan. 22.

Mac Mini

Mac miniYes, Virginia, there is a headless consumer Mac. The Mac mini is very compact. MacMerc says it looks like a 3" tall CD drive or a shortened Cube.

Mac mini has a slot-loading Combo drive, is very quiet. Has both DVI and VGA output. Does not include monitor, keyboard, or mouse. Base mini sells for US$499 - the rumor sites were right - and it comes with iWork and iLife '05.

Specs: 1.25 GHz G4, 40 GB hard drive. $599 unit is faster, had 80 GB drive.

Mac users considering buying iLife and iWork, you can get a mini for just $351 more.

You'll be able to see it in stores on Jan. 22.

iTunes, the iTunes Music Store & iPods

Apple has sold 230 million tracks through iTMS and accounts for 70% of online music sales. Apple sold 4.5 million iPods during the holiday quarter!

Mercedes, Nissan, Volvo, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, and Scion will be offering iPod connections.

Motorola demonstrates a cell phone that works with iTunes. It should be available this spring.

iPod shuffleiPod shuffle

The iPod mini is already eroding the market for flash-based MP3 players - now Apple wants that market, too. The iPod shuffle is tiny, has no screen, weighs just an ounce. Mac Mind mentions USB 2.0, but no mention made of FireWire support. 12 hour battery life.

iPod shuffle can also be used as a USB Flash Drive. iTunes will include a feature to make playlists sized for the shuffle. Available today, a 512 MB (120 song) shuffle sells for US$99. The 1 GB (240 song) model retails at US$149.

At this price, it should be a huge hit. You can orders yours from Apple's iPod Store right now.

Expect commentary on new product introductions once we've had a chance to digest everything.