A lot of the so-called technorati have pronounced that Apple’s final Macworld appearance was worth only a big yawn, but I beg to differ. Expectations at Macworld are always artificially high, set there by a variety of rumor-mongering sites and their “reliable sources.” If the iPundits had taken the time to actually pay attention during Phil Shiller’s keynote, they would have seen some amazingly useful software, and though the surprise was spoiled by the same sites, some incredible hardware, too.
Apple’s refreshed iLife ’09 is simply amazing. The new iPhoto is something I want now. I’ve never really wanted to do anything with iPhoto other than dump all my pictures there. I hated the idea of trying to organize it myself. Last year’s update added automatic Events categorizing, and now iPhoto does the same for Places and Faces using some heavy duty technology to automate it all. Face recognition allows iPhoto to find faces in your photo library and group all the pictures together in an incredibly easy and intuitive way. Geotagging built in to many new cameras (and available as an add-on for many more) does the same for the places where you take your pictures. You really have to watch the demo to see just how amazing the new features are.
The folks at Apple also revamped iMovie ’09 to address the limitations in it’s last incarnation, especially the functionality that power users lost from iWork ’06. The new themes with built in transitions are simply stunning. Again, check out the keynote demo.
Garage Band wasn’t left out either, with amazing Learn to Play videos that will teach you how to play guitar and keyboards. The killer, though, are the artist lessons from the likes of Sting and Sarah McLachlan (yay!). All this has me counting the days until the end of January when iLife ’09 goes on sale. I was so impressed by the iLife update that some features, especially the ease of applying awesomely professional iMovie themes, that I had tears just thinking of the cool and beautiful videos I could make. No tears about the program itself, but what I can do with it.
There was also an upgrade to iWork as well, and as spiffy as they changes are, they just aren’t as glamorous as those in iLife. Don’ get me wrong, I can see a lot of usefulness in the changes in Pages and Numbers especially, since I use them every day. But I suppose the perceived banality of an iWork update is what had lead to a lot of snoozing by the professional tech writers.
There were no surprises about the new 17-inch MacBook Pro, save for the non-replacable battery. If the battery works as well as Apple says it will, it’s a non-issue for me. Give my experience with the similarly non-replacable battery in my iPhone, the people gnashing their teeth about it are doing so needlessly. Plus, I like that when you do need a replacement, Apple will do it for you and properly recycle the old battery cells.
Apple’s finally gotten the big labels on board to drop digital rights management, and most of iTunes is now DRM-free, with the remainder to be so by the end of March. This is not much of an issue for me, since I’m using all Apple hardware for my music-listening pleasure, but as a matter of principle I’m pleased.
The title of this post alludes to the way Apple concluded it’s last keynote. The incomparable Tony Bennett sang “The Best Is Yet to Come,” which seemed an obvious forward look to a bright future for Apple, even without it’s participation in Macworld. But to me, when Tony Bennett sang “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” it seemed that it was a more subtle message that Apple is not without regret at ending its participation in Macworld. I have no doubt that there is indeed more than a little regret among the Apple employees that worked so hard every year on Apple’s Macworld presence.
Though some people wanted to be childish about the last keynote by Apple, it was awesome to see the audience give Tony Bennett a completely deserved standing ovation. With his help, Apple completely ended its Macworld participation with class.
