Reaction to the Apple Keynote
Even though I knew about everything that was released, last night I decided to watch the Apple Keynote from Macworld 2006. This post is dedicated to my reaction to the keynote and the new products released.
First, let’s talk about iLife ’06. The suite is comprised of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iDVD, iTunes (free) and iWeb. I rarely use iMovie and I haven’t even opened iDVD (since I don’t have a DVD burner). But, apparently iMovie can handle HD now and iDVD can make widescreen DVDs. iPhoto now can handle 250,000 photos, and has a feature called photocasting, to essentially share photos easily with RSS feeds. The only reason I might purchase iLife though is because of GarageBand’s new podcast studio, designed to make podcasting a lot easier. iWeb is the new program in iLife and is designed to easily create websites. The thing I don’t like about iLife is that it is growing to be dependent on the user having a .mac account. Personally, I don’t want to spend another $100/year on top of the $79/year for the latest version of iLife.
iWork ’06 was also released, but not detailed in the keynote. I have yet to buy it, so I am thinking about making the investment. iWork is comprised of Pages–for word processing and Keynote–for presentations. Currently, I just use NeoOffice for all of my office needs.
Finally, Steve Jobs talked about the new Intel iMac and the MacBook Pro. I love the Intel iMac. At only $1300, it is a great deal and probably the best desktop money can buy. It would be ideal for families looking to invest in a new computer.
I have grown to be a little dissapointed in the MacBook Pro, however. I love all of the new features: MagSafe, the built-in iSight, the brighter screen, and the dual-link DVI. However, it only has three or four hours of battery life! My PowerPC 12″ iBook has more battery life than that! At $2000, the price for the MacBook Pro is also a little steep.
Oh, an FM tuner/remote was also released for the iPod, but who listens to the radio anymore?
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