Yesterday was Apple's "Back to the Mac" event. Without a doubt, there would be some interesting releases from Cupertino, with Apple fresh off of a highly successful 4th quarter earnings. This release showed three huge new items that Apple hopes to use to grow their market share: a new iLife 2011 suite, Mac OSx Lion, and the new MacBook Air.
iLife 2011
This update of products, consists of new features in iPhoto, iGarageband, and iMovie. In iPhoto, the big new thing is the fact that the program is looking more like an iPad app (full screen and the layout). In addition, iPhoto now allows a book editor to make photo books and collages and display them on a nice wooden bookshelf, which looks oddly enough like the bookshelf in iBooks for the iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch. Another nice feature in iPhoto is the inclusion of auto-emailing photos straight from the program, which is a nice time saver feature than having to drag and drop or upload photos from the hard drive. In iMovie, the biggest new features are some easier video editing tools and the ability to make instant video trailers. These trailers were demoed to be incredibly easy to use, as they just have the creator fill in titles and ask for specific video clips based on the trailer template that was selected. In addition, the ability to directly export the videos and trailers directly to Facebook and Vimeo is a nice touch. The final piece in the iLife 11 package is the Garageband program. Besides new tutorials for Garageband instruments, the Flextime tool helps tighten up the sound of a song recorded in the program.
These new features are interesting and come preloaded on all new Macs and will run you $49 for an upgrade disk on your old and completely outdated Mac. Also, subtly folded in the iLife discussion by Steve Jobs is the creation of Facetime for the Mac. Right now its in a beta version, and early reviews say it needs some work, but it looks like a nice way to help increase the usage of Facetime on the iPhone/iPod Touch. It seems counterproductive to have Facetime to run standalone from the all ready pre-installed iChat on the computer, but I believe that as it moves from Beta, it will be folded into a separate section of iChat.
Mac OSx: Lion
The big feature of the "Back to the Mac" exhibition, was the implied release of a new operating system for the Macintosh computer and laptop lines. Slated to come out in the Summer of 2011, not much was revealed in this early look of Lion, but there are several new features that should be of note. One piece of the new set is the inclusion of multitouch gestures. However, Steve Jobs put the kibosh on the ideas of a iMactouch, by saying that "Touch surfaces want to be horizontal". Furthermore, the creation of a Mac App Store much like that of the iOS App Store will be released within 90 days. Right now the only apps that were shown in the screen shot were from iLife 11 (separately mind you), and the Keynote, Pages, and Numbers that are available for download on the iPad. Today, the guidelines for the Mac App Store came out, and they seem as restrictive as that on the iOS. However, these restrictive guidelines for apps are not as endgame as on the iOS, as programs that were denied in the App Store can still be downloaded from the internet like usual. Also previewed was the new Launchpad, which functions as an iOS like page, with all of the apps previewed and able to be used. The final piece to the Lion preview was Mission Control, which shows all of the open windows, apps, and pages open; kind of like a combination of Expose and Spaces.
Mac Book Air
Now even leaner and a 100% source of your daily amount of Vitamin I!
Can't say that was unexpected. Called what happens when an iPad and Mac Book Pro hooked up, the new thinner Mac Book Air is at its leanest 0.11 inches thick and at its thickest 0.68 inches, weighing in at a mammoth 2.9 pounds. In 13.3 inch and 11.6 inch variants, Steve Jobs called it the future of notebooks. The one big issue of the Air is the fact that there is no CD drive to load programs from a disk. This is where the new Mac App Store comes in, allowing this computer to have a chance. As the owner of a small netbook, one of my biggest complaints is the fact that there is no way to play DVDs on it, nor is it able to display pictures off of a CD. Taking some of the features from the iPad, including instant power on and no optical or hard drive. These Airs boast 7 hours on Apples newer, more stringent battery life test and a total of 30 days on standby mode. With prices ranging from $999 for the 11.6 inch 64GB to $1599 for the 13.3 inch 256 GB, Apple does not seem inclined to offer a low cost option for a laptop. Realistically, I see no real market for these Mac Books as the regular Mac Book Pro runs about the same cost and gives you more memory and processor for your buck. But, if you're into the thinnest and smallest things, more power to you.
In Conclusion
Perhaps some of the most interesting revelations from the "Back to Mac" event was the financial data that came out of it. The most impressive statistic was that if Mac was to split from Apple and be a stand alone company, they would rank 110 on the Fortune 500 list , with 22 billion dollars in revenue! Also, the Mac line of computers only makes up 33% of Apples revenue, which shows how well diversified Apple as a company has become. These three major previews and releases are just scratching the surface of the new features on Lion, Facetime and the Mac App Store. I foresee that this is just the first step in Apple slowly consolidating their iOS and their OSx into one unitary operating system. I know Steve Jobs has said that there is no demand for vertical touchscreen computers, but Apple can dictate the market in whatever way they want. I fearlessly predict that within the next 5 years, Apple will release a touchscreen Mac, spurring on every other company to play catch up with Apple. Apple can dictate the market, as is seen with the release of the iPad and the countless other tablets that sprung up after it and are rumored to be coming to market this year.
Mac Book Air
Now even leaner and a 100% source of your daily amount of Vitamin I!
In Conclusion
Perhaps some of the most interesting revelations from the "Back to Mac" event was the financial data that came out of it. The most impressive statistic was that if Mac was to split from Apple and be a stand alone company, they would rank 110 on the Fortune 500 list , with 22 billion dollars in revenue! Also, the Mac line of computers only makes up 33% of Apples revenue, which shows how well diversified Apple as a company has become. These three major previews and releases are just scratching the surface of the new features on Lion, Facetime and the Mac App Store. I foresee that this is just the first step in Apple slowly consolidating their iOS and their OSx into one unitary operating system. I know Steve Jobs has said that there is no demand for vertical touchscreen computers, but Apple can dictate the market in whatever way they want. I fearlessly predict that within the next 5 years, Apple will release a touchscreen Mac, spurring on every other company to play catch up with Apple. Apple can dictate the market, as is seen with the release of the iPad and the countless other tablets that sprung up after it and are rumored to be coming to market this year.
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