Here we go! LIVE from MACWORLD...here are the announcements (1 Viewer)

[Craig S]

Wow again. Apple caved on pricing to the music companies. Fine with me. .69 for catalog stuff is great.

January 6, 2009 - The Day DRM Died. Woo hoo!!!

 

[Citizen87645]

Yeah, it's impressive how wrong all the pundits were.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

That's It!

Fairly disappointing Keynote considering all the rumors out there about nano
iPhones, larger glass cinema displays, new iMacs, minis and other hardware.

This could have been far better than it actually was, but there it is!

 

[DavidJ]

I like the software upgrades and the new battery in the 17" MBP is interesting, but for the last keynote that was rather anti-climactic.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Thanks to Engadget and CNET. Sympathies to
MacRumors that got slammed with hackers during their
coverage. The hackers claimed to be from ebaumsworld.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

David,

Wanted a 30" glass display.

Was hoping for another revision in the 15" Macbook Pro, but expect
that will come this Spring.

Also hoped for a turbo-charged iMac, as had rumored.

Perhaps news on Snow Leopard or fixes for the disastrous MobileMe
which still does not properly function across several platforms.

Yeah, it was anti-climatic for sure!

 

[Craig S]

Yeah, makes even more sense now why The Steve skipped it.

 

[Bob_L]

Well, looks like I might be editing another iWork book in '09. Good news for my income.

Thanks so much for this eyewitness update, Ron!

 

[DaveF]

I'm behind things here. Just read the iLife 09 bit. Jazzed about iPhoto and iMovie. But where's iDVD? No updates? Completely removed from the package? Is Apple continuing the push to online media by removing the ability of normal-folks to create DVDs?

Gah! I need a new site for MacWorld info. Are the product pages updated at Apple.com?

 

[DavidJ]

I was hoping they would at least talk about and possibly show bits of Snow Leopard. Maybe they don't want to talk about it if it is further off in hitting the market than the pundits think.

The display would've been nice, but I sure didn't expect anything about the 15" MBP. I'm a bit surprised that the "experts" were so wrong about the mini. It seems to me the mini is something that a core group of fans likes more than Apple does. The profit margin is probably pretty thin on the mini and doesn't demand attention like the devotees would like.

 

[ErichH]

Zzzzz....

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

Looks like it's still included, but probably hasn't been updated.

 

[DaveF]

15" MBP was refreshed just 3 months ago, Oct 14. You've got crazy expectations for this keynote

It's unfair to judge the keynote for not delivering on others' fantasy rumors of an iPhone nano. And the 30" LCD is obviously coming at some point, and what's to keynote about that? It's just a bigger version of the 24" they've already shown. And a new mini, while nice, is still a low-end, low-profit device. But an 8-hr 17" laptop? Isn't this a game-changer? Is there anything on the market with this kind of battery life? I can fly to LA and use my computer the whole time, airport to airport including layovers, without worrying about battery life. I could fly to Europe and watch almost six movies the whole time without worrying about airplane power-points. More practically, I can sit on my couch all day on a Saturday staring at my computer and not worry about the battery. I've watched how my dad uses his 17" Vostro laptop and this is exactly what he needs: all day battery with no cord to keep plugged in. If this battery life is real, I think it's huge.

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

Good luck trying to keep open a 17-inch MBP on an airliner in anything but first class.

 

[Craig S]

iDVD is still in the package, but it looks like it was unchanged. iWeb got only minor updates.

Deets on both iLife 09 and iWork 09 are up at apple.com.

 

[DaveF]

Which is why I like my 15" so much, but with this kind of batter life, I think a 17" could be made to work

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

While I think Apple's battery life estimates are accurate for the iPods, it seems to me their estimates from the last few laptop models have been wildly exaggerated. There's just too many variables...screen brightness levels, whether the optical drive is being used, whether the machine has a hard drive or SSD, etc. I won't believe 8 hours until I see some real world tests being performed.

 

[Craig S]

Dave, you're right. An 8 hour battery is a game changer. I think the lack of excitement is because many of us just aren't interested in hauling around a 17" notebook. My 15" MBP is about as big as I want to go.

I'm guessing the reason they introduced this tech on the 17" only is because the extra room in that big enclosure was need to get to the 8 hour mark. I'll bet the same battery tech in the smaller 15" chassis would not result in as impressive a life.

 

[Craig S]

As far as the "missing" announcements go:

If you guys remember, last year, for the first 4-5 Tuesdays after MacWorld, Apple had some kind of product announcement. I'm guessing we'll see something similar this year. We KNOW those new Minis are coming (they've been confirmed by a co-hosting vendor). I suspect it's just a matter of when they are ready to go. Same thing with the iMac upgrade. I really believe we'll see quad-core iMacs soon; they just might not have the supply chain ready with the new processors to push them out right now.

Expect at least one of the above to be announced in the next few weeks for late January shipment (about the time the new iLife is ready to go).

 

[Craig S]

Whoa! From TUAW:
So .69 songs will NOT be DRM-free?? Those restrictions are a non-starter for me.

Although I'm not sure where they got that info. Here's Apple's press release:

Changes Coming to the iTunes Store

Update: TUAW has retracted the quoted statement. It was "idle speculation from one of our colleagues". Sheesh.