The MacWorld SF Keynote
So, my experience with the MWSF Keynote began at the end of third period when Dr.Smith held us back a little. 12:00. And I wanted to get out of there to run to Dahlgren's room, to the computer, and read one of the many live text coverages of the event. 12:03. I was reading it as people came in and out, made fun of me for my beliefs. I don't care what they say, everyone has their hobbies, or things they do. So, I was reading it, and West comes in with his talk of Record Xchange (hip) and he "needs" to use the computer. 12:15. So, being the nice person that I am, I let him have, even longer than he said he would need it. 12:20. The first major update I read was the stuff on the Server Solutions from Apple: The Xserve and the Xraid. The Xserve got a G5 upgrade (among other things) and the Xraid got some more space. So, I was happily reading what was going on, the beginning of class began (Dahlgren). 12:52. I was fine, and the Mr.Dahlgren realizes that I am looking at the computer and has me go to a seat. 12:58. Class is over, and I rush over to the computer to see what has happened: new iLife Apps, iPodmini,Final Cut Express 2.
The new iLife "'04" includes iDVD 4, iMovie 4, iTunes 4, iPhoto 4, and Garage Band. iPhoto 4 has some nifty updated features: Photo sharing over the network and faster app response. Garage Band is a music recording/authoring/mixing program. You can record music or MIDI inputs into the program, and if you don't have a drummer, use one of the included loops of drums! (GAH, they had that John Mayer fellow (hip cute sentimental fuck) come up and demo it with Steve Jobs, I am so conflicted!) You can also plug-in your guitar and use the Mac as an amp with different presets:
If you’re a guitar player, you’re going to be particularly pleased with GarageBand’s built-in guitar amplifier modeling. Recording engineers have already defined effect presets that will allow you to achieve a vintage British Invasion sound, the heavy distortion of Arena Rock, a Clean Jazz sound or still others.
Final Cut Express 2 is really just Final Cut Pro with the ability to only work with DV and not Batch processing. So, it is a good program. It is $299, $99 upgrade (there is also educational pricing, Sam). It works just like Final Cut Pro, but has some features exempted that one would not miss unless they used it to edit Cold Mountain.
iPodmini's are out! First of all, they are the size of a business card and 1/2 of an inch thick, and that is tiny. It is 4GB (which translates to about 1,000 songs). It comes in 5 different "trend-setting" colors: "silver, gold, green, pink or blue. (All shiny.)" It is just the same, but smaller. The price is $250, which is a bad bad thing. Spend $50 more, and you can get a normal sized 15GB iPod. I mean, come on, you don't want your product lines to overlap!
This is some exciting stuff, but there is still stuff in store for this 20th Anniversary Year of the Macintosh! Hopefully: upgraded PowerMac G5's and PowerBook G5's to say the least. Exciting year ahead, I hope.
