MacWorld - Live Coverage info and comment thread

[Thresher]

I don't believe Apple will be streaming this MacWorld live, but there are several blogs and sites that will be carrying live commentary:

Ars Technica
MacNN
MacRumors
Engadget

If you know of other live feeds, please put them in this thread.

Post your comments here!

[derFunkenstein]

The iPhoto stuff is really cool - looking for pictures with certain people is a great way to find all the photos of Grandpa for his funeral.

Well, there are other uses for it, I know, but that's the first one I could think of.

Geotag isn't as useful; seems like it needs a GPS-enabled camera like a cell phone. Manually tagging places will take forever on my library but keeping up with it as I go will be nice. iPhoto alone will be worth the $80 upgrade. Hoping for an expanded software instrument library and Apple Loops library for Garage Band.

[ssidbroadcast]

Oh another iLife suite? Thank god I didn't upgrade to '08 when '09 looks so much better! I feel bad for people who paid retail for '08 though.

[derFunkenstein]

I'm a **** guitar player. Can Garage Band really teach me?

download included lessons...and sell additional lessons at $4.99 a pop? WTF??

oh, late Januar, boo. I want it now.

[Thresher]

Geotag isn't as useful; seems like it needs a GPS-enabled camera like a cell phone. Manually tagging places will take forever on my library but keeping up with it as I go will be nice. iPhoto alone will be worth the $80 upgrade. Hoping for an expanded software instrument library and Apple Loops library for Garage Band.

Actually, there are several mainstream cameras on the market now that include GPS units.

[derFunkenstein]

Actually, there are several mainstream cameras on the market now that include GPS units.

Ok, that may be, but not mine.

[Thresher]

Gotta say, this is the lamest MacWorld ever, at least so far.

[PRIME1]

Gotta say, this is the lamest MacWorld ever, at least so far.

Well with Jobs and Apple abandoning MacWorld, Apple announcements will probably just come throughout the year with a cluster at the WWDC or even CES.

Maybe MacWorld will turn back into more of a fan convention and less of a marketing launch.

[Thresher]

Non-removeable battery. This is gonna cause a world of hurt for Apple.

Last thing they want is people opening up those things to replace a battery. Additionally, if it doesn't last as long as it's supposed to and people have no ability to replace it with aftermarket, I think there could be problems.

[adisor19]

Where's the new Mini ?!?!?! :'(

Adi

[derFunkenstein]

No, the iPhone Macworld was the lamest Macworld ever. The software stuff is stuff I could actually use.

17" MacBook Pro, basically the specs that we could guess based on the 15", that's kind of meh. I wanted to see new Minis (not that I'd be buying one), a new NAS, and Nehalem Mac Pros. Oh well.

I'm just disappointed I"m not there to hear Mr. Tony Bennett.

[Thresher]

I'm sure he'll be on the video when Apple posts it.

I am also disappointed that there is no mini, but it may show up in the store anyway. I think they only announced updates to it in one MacWorld, the rest have been store only announcements.

[derFunkenstein]

Looking at the pictures on Ars, Phil to donate some of that backfat to The Steve.

I also wonder if Mr. Bennett's piano player learned to play via Garage Band.

Too many jokes, not enough time!

Thresher, I think you're thinking of the Mac Mini/MacBook special event in Feb 2006 for the Mini update announcement.

iLife 09 and iWork 09 are on the store, as is the 17" Mac Book Pro. Mini is not new, and neither is the iMac. Probably another "special event" coming soon.

edit: hey, here's something new. "Mac Box Set" = Leopard + iWork + iLife. If you're on a slightly older Mac running Tiger, this is a STEAL at $170.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB997?mco=MzA3MDgxNQ

[Flying Fox]

Jobs have been seen to be a strong believer in the .99 for all songs model. Maybe that's why he's not delivering the keynote since they are now moving to 2 tier pricing? I wonder what the proportion would be for the "cheaper songs".

[derFunkenstein]

three-tier. 0.99 isn't going away, and they're adding .69 and 1.29.

I doubt much ends up at .69. But it's an effective price drop for every song that's not $1.29, as originally all the DRM-free downloads were $1.29 on iTunes. Amazon's MP3 purchase service must be kicking their collective ass.

I wonder if there'll be a way to convert my purchases to DRM-free that doesn't involve burning to CD and re-ripping and losing additional audio quality?

The iLife system requirements are retarded:

http://www.apple.com/ilife/systemrequirements.html

single 1.9GHz G5 iMac or Power Mac dual 2.0? Why not the original 2003-era dual 1.8? Why not just any G5? Not that people with PPC Macs matter to Apple anymore...they're lucky they get this at all and that Apple didn't start selling Intel-only iLife/iWork today.

[themattman]

The new 17inch macbook is incredible with its battery life. I wonder how much boost the current line of 13 and 15 inch macbooks will get if this technology is put into each.

Even though I can't afford a $2,700 laptop, I'm glad to see continual innovation.

[steelcity_ballin]

A $2700 laptop with a non-removable battery is not innovation.

[derFunkenstein]

A 17" laptop with 8-hour battery life, however, is innovation.

Since the battery is non-removable, I think Apple has no choice but to consider it under the 3-year AppleCare warranty whereas removable batteries aren't covered.

Also, iTunes prompted me to bust out the old debit card and update my DRM-encased iTunes purchases to DRM-free iTunes Plus tunes. For the sum of 30% of what I originally spent. Meh. It's only a handful of dollars so I might, but I think it's a lame money grab all the same.

edit: more on the battery: http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/17inch-battery/

The lifespan of a battery is measured in recharges. One recharge is a complete charge and discharge of a battery’s energy. A recharge doesn’t necessarily occur every time you plug in your notebook; many partial charges can add up to a single full recharge. The typical battery delivers about 200 to 300 recharges before its capacity declines to approximately 80 percent. At that point the battery still works, but its performance is diminished. Thanks to the breakthroughs of advanced chemistry and Adaptive Charging, the battery in the 17-inch MacBook Pro can go through up to 1000 recharges before it reaches 80 percent of its original capacity

[Skrying]

I'm really interested to see a break down of the 17" unit and see how the battery is shaped and if they took advantage of it not being removable. So I'll host my thoughts on that for now. I'll also be curious to see real world life testing. I can get 8-hours of life too on my unit... with WiFi off and idle at desktop.

The iTunes changes... knifing customers in the back is all I can say. Their prices are worse than Amazon and they're going to charge for a "upgrade" to DRM versions of your tracks... that's ****.

[derFunkenstein]

Since the battery is non-removable, I think Apple has no choice but to consider it under the 3-year AppleCare warranty whereas removable batteries aren't covered.

Nevermind, they do not warrant the battery beyond one year. How lame.

[adisor19]

Since the battery is non-removable, I think Apple has no choice but to consider it under the 3-year AppleCare warranty whereas removable batteries aren't covered.

Nevermind, they do not warrant the battery beyond one year. How lame.

Yep, they know Li-Polimer is not what it's touted to be no matter how sophisticated their charging is.. It's still a damn Li-Poli bat that's bound to have problems just like the first iPods did..

Adi

[Skrying]

So even more reason to avoid it, nice...

[riviera74]

about those new non-user replaceable Li-Polymer batteries......

Eight hours battery time and 100 recharge cycles . If those are cut in half (in the real word), that by itself would be a major advance in portable battery technology. The only place I have seen larger capacity batteries than the standard ones are on the PC/Windows side. that does impress me, even though I am (sort of) waiting for new iMacs to come out.

What really impresses me is the new software releases Apple has done for Macworld. iWork 09 is actually better than MS Office for Mac now..... finally. I am also please that iLife 09 has improved several features as well. GarageBand is now more than just a SW for writing tunes and music by numbers.

One question I do have to ask: Do you buy Macs for the OS or the bundled software, or what you can get at a decent price compared to Windows given a feature set? More importantly, what killer features would convince a new user to pay the Apple premium and get a Mac?

[derFunkenstein]

I think I'm the only one who looks at it from a purely software POV. The hardware doesn't limit me in any way (more USB ports on my iMac would have been nice so as to avoid a hub, but a cheap, self-powered 4-port hub and the high-power-capable self-powered hub in the keyboard are sufficient for my needs). Macs are PC's that can run the fancy software. To me, the fancy software IS the computer. The interface IS the computer. I'm a less techy person as each day goes by. I just want to get stuff done. The interface in OS X works, for the most part, and generally speaking works better than Windows, plus a handful of totally killer Apple-only software products (iLife, *leaning* towards iWork - I like the '09 trial for my needs - Logic Express, and the three Jam Packs that I found worth spending money on) make the Mac the only platform I need.

I know, I know, App X in Windows works "just as well" or you can't use your fancy microscope in OS X or whatever, I don't give a ****; you're not me. You don't have my work habits or needs. Take that **** elsewhere - at least I keep my evangelism in this Apple forum and the Apple-related news posts. We start getting many more Windows trolls in the Apple sanctuary and I'm going to start **** up the Windows forums. Just wait. I'm tired of the **** that gets put up with in here - the Apple forum has to exist as a hybrid "Mac user"/"iPod and iPhone user"/"OS Warz" forum. You want to bring that **** here, that's fine, just get prepared for the invasion.

[adisor19]

Jeez derFunk.. don't let the trolls get to you..

Adi

[derFunkenstein]

I've slept now.

Want to make it clear most of that rambling wasn't in response to rivera. I think most of it was directed at people that haven't even postd in this thread.

[tfp]

It's nice to know you care.

[derFunkenstein]

sooooo...anybody hear of iLife actually shipping yet? I'm anxious to get my grubby little mitts on iPhoto and iWeb. I've been putting off updating the family site and uploading stuff to Facebook to try them out.