I ’ve expend the retiring 24 hours letting Tuesday ’s round of drinks of Apple announcements go under in . Coverage from the mainstream medium has been middling two - dimensional , and overly iMac concentre . Besides which , I think the past 12 months of nonstop iPod and iPhone news from Apple has gotten us all out of the habit of react to pureMacnews from Apple .
But Tuesday allow for us with more Mac news show than you could stir a very large stick at . So lease ’s break it down .
The new iMac
The new , degraded iMac looks a lot like the old one , specially when viewed from a distance . It ’s the form we ’ve known since 2004 , but now it ’s garment in eloquent aluminum and pitch-dark glass instead of being shining white credit card . ( fan of theOakland Raiders , bribe this iMac like a shot . ) And while I hesitate to invoke the spirit of the greatSir Mix - a - set , I really wish the raw iMac ’s backside : matte Joseph Black , grace with a shiny black Apple .
But enough about looks . The product blood has gotten a fastness encouragement , most impressively to a top - of - the - line of products 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor . And the computer graphic central processor has been advance to the the next - generation Radeon HD chipset . What come to me most about this upgrade , though , was just how knock-down an iMac you could now buy . put away in the build up - to - order 2.8GHz Core 2 Extreme processor , the top - of - the - iMac - line ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro with 256 MB of GDDR 3 memory , and the onboard FireWire 800 ( which is on the intact mathematical product pipeline ) , and this is a system that ’s got professional - stratum power .
Yes , a video editor or 3 - D renderer might except . But most of the rest period of us wonted pro Mac desktop buyers have to give the iMac some serious thoughtfulness . Steve Jobs come out and said it : Apple now study the iMac line the home for “ consumers [ and ] prosumers , but a lot of our pro customers as well . ” As someone with a Power Mac G5 and an Apple Cinema Display model in my office at home , I ’m painfully charm to keep the proctor , but attach it to one of these new iMacs . And I ’ve never , everbought an iMac for my rest home before .
However , there are a couple aspects of the newfangled iMac that will give some iMac buyers pause . One of them is the new keyboard , which fundamentally takes the smell of the MacBook ’s build - in keyboard and transmit it to a desk - bound version . ( See below for more on that one . )
The other interesting , and potentially controversial line with these new iMacs : they ’ve traded the iMac ’s former glare - reduction display for one that ’s start out a glossy coat . I ’ve come to love the glistening covert on my MacBook , but with a laptop computer it ’s a second well-fixed to reposition if you come up yourself distracted by reflections off your blind . I think the iMac ’s screen wait gorgeous , but glower is a pretty serious risk of infection , especially on sour depicted object . ( When lustrous stuff is on the screen , it ’s not a job . But when thing dip to black , you dead find yourself stare at … your reflexion in the filmdom . )
Are these new iMacs earth - shattering , groundbreaking things ? No . But they are part of the continued technological forward motion of the iMac merchandise line of reasoning , freshened up with a reasonably fresh hide .
keyboard
The iMac ’s new keyboard looks peachy , but people who are used to key with large sum of move ( and accompanying noise ) will be disconcerted by this fresh gadget . Quite candidly , I ’m still not sold on it , and I ’m a MacBook user .
It goes to show you the might of circumstance : I ’m used to a laptop feel on my laptop , but not when that same feel is under my digit at my desk , on my keyboard tray . I ’ve type this entire clause on the iMac keyboard , and while I ’m adapting , I ’m not ready to embrace the thing . Then again , I speculate I could get used to it over prison term : I ’m not a keyboard prig in any sense of the word .
( Those of you who feel the demand to debate of the virtue of the Apple Pro Keyboard versus the original Apple Extended Keyboard versus the Matias Tactile Pro , do n’t try this new keyboard unless you ’ve taken your medicament . )
Apple ’s new Bluetooth keyboard , on the other hand , is the MacBook ’s keyboard translated into standalone form . No place keys , no keypad , just the foundation set of winder ( including half - height arrow key ) you find out on the MacBook keyboard . Unlike my colleague Rob Griffiths , I have no problem with this . I mean a super - lilliputian Bluetooth keyboard is a dandy estimate . ( Now when I can I pair it with my iPhone ? ) But I do take that Apple should probably propose drug user a bit more keyboard pick , including a full - featured Bluetooth keyboard . ( And Rob , I ’ve set about a “ classical ” Apple Pro Bluetooth Keyboard in a desk drawer here . you may have it . )
iLife ’ 08
After 20 calendar month of waiting , it ’s exciting to finally have a newfangled version of iLife to plain around . As isde rigueurfor iLife these days , the primary focus ( in the Steve Jobs presentation , if not in the product itself ) is on iPhoto . I ca n’t deny that it ’s the most significant program in the entire iLife retinue . And iPhoto has definitely need betterment over the years .
After incrementally improving the program ’s speed over the past few years , now Apple has turned its attention to handle the large numbers of pic that users have collected since the flush of digital photography began . Out go the so - very - analog Film Rolls , and in come Events . Although Apple ’s merchandising focuses on Events as a direction to garner pic from , well , events , they ’re actually adept for group just about anything you could think of .
It appear that the being of Aperture has really itch off on iPhoto , too . iPhoto ’s editing tools keep getting more sinewy , let users get well resolution without feature to pick up Photoshop . And the new .Mac Web Gallery feature might finally make .Mac worth the money .
But for me , the heavy news in this spillage is iMovie . The first two versions of iMovie were innovational , splendid , and speedy . Then something bad happened : someone at Apple mandated that iMovie be rewritten entirely in the Cocoa development environment . The “ climb ” from iMovie 2 to iMovie 3 was a cataclysm that , in my opinion , the program never full recovered from . A formerly stable , speedy product turned into a creeping , unstable , oft - crashing mess . I have largely refrained from editing my home movies for the past two yr because my iMovie experience has been so terrible .
With iMovie ’ 08 , I might just have to get back to the editing nerd . This new version of iMovie is the true iMovie III , a third go - round at an easygoing picture - editing construct . Since I have n’t used it myself , I ca n’t endorse it yet , but the concept certainly seems to be pretty sound . Since it ’s essentially a 1.0 mathematical product , I ’m certain there will be some bug to work out . countenance ’s go for Apple addresses them quickly , rather than forcing us to wait for iLife ’ 09 ( or iLife ’ 10 ? ) for a solution .
In other iLife news show , if you ’ve clothe a flock of energy and enthusiasm in burning videodisk , you might need to consider selling that stock and buying something else . Jobs insult the DVD boastful meter on Tuesday , paint a picture that Internet video sharing ( and presumably the lingering HD - DVD data formatting warfare ) have made DVD a dying technology . Now , unless your grannie has a spiffy young computer and a wideband Internet association , you may dissent with Mr. Jobs . It ’s unvoiced to argue with a gorgeous video streamed from .Mac onto a new iMac , but I call back people will be place DVDs to friends and relative for a few years yet . Maybe it ’s too other to consign iDVD to the ash - heap of account .
( But I accept , I ’m now considering relocate all my home base movies onto my Apple TV , so they can be view more easily than their current lock - up state on several iDVD platter . )
iWork ’ 08
And nearly three years later , the last horseshoe last dropped . Now Apple has , with Mail , Keynote , Pages , and Numbers , an Apple - design eq for Microsoft Office . When I ask Apple Vice President Rob Schoeben on Wednesday about who would use iWork ’ 08 versus Microsoft Office , he pronounce something that explain a lot about Apple ’s attitude toward the spot software marketplace .
“ I think that everyone who on purpose buys a Mac will be interested in this , because it ’s basically bear of the same DNA as the Mac itself , OS X , [ and ] iLife , ” he enunciate . “ [ Mac substance abuser ] buy into the idea that thing should look right and be well designed and really light to use … If you need to constantly roundtrip with other people who are using an Excel spreadsheet , you need Excel . But if you ’re going to make something yourself , if 90 to 95 percent compatibility is fine , if you do n’t really care about pivot table and macros and thing like that , you ’ll prefer this . ”
It ’s an interesting perspective : If you need to apply Office because everyone you work with use Office and you pass documents back and forth , apply Office . But if you ’re mostly on your own and can rely on the exportation and import features of iWork , you could switch Office in for a $ 79 package that does office software in “ the Mac room . ”
What this means for the time to come of Microsoft Office on the Mac , I ca n’t say . I ca n’t envisage crabby - platform workgroups vacate Office for iWork — they ’ll abandon Office for Google Apps alternatively ! But if you ’re an all - Mac shop , the hope of using act and peradventure even the word - process features of Pages is pretty intriguing .
To infer this , you just have to take a look at iWork ’s oldest part , Keynote . I ’m not sure how you employ it , but I use Keynote for almost every demonstration I give . I do it it . But I do have to keep PowerPoint around , because twice a year I need to create a dowery of a larger corporate presentation that is created mostly by Windows users . Keynote ’s not an option for them , and though I could enquire using Keynote and then export my files to PowerPoint formatting , it ’s easier for me to keep a copy of Office around .
But Keynote ’s unquestionably gotten a foothold in my life . And if I had to prefer Keynote ( and some atrocious Keynote to PowerPoint conversions ) or PowerPoint , one or the other , I ’d choose Keynote in a heartbeat .
If Mac users embrace routine and Pages the same room , this could get pretty interesting .
Mac mini
Then there ’s the Mac mini , which did n’t even get mentioned until the Q&A session at the end of the Apple Special Event . I love the Mac miniskirt , and am not peculiarly well-chosen about the rumors that it ’s about to be tell it ’s going to be a made valet and sent to a moody , empty room , if you get myScorcese book of facts . As someone who has a server living in my wardrobe , I find the Mac mini to be a fantastically versatile little hombre . Like thatFrench - culinary art - cooking ratin that movie that Steve Jobs’sothercompany made .
So I ’m well-chosen to report that the Mac miniskirt go to fight back another day , cannonball along up with a Core 2 couple processor . It ’s a shame that it never gets mentioned in Apple events anymore — Steve Jobs did n’t even mention it , alternatively allowing Tim Cook to verbalise about the upgrade — but I still love the Mac mini . Keep on fighting the good fight , little Mac .
