The Year of Automated Apple

Wow. First impressions of the Keynote at my first SF MacWorld? Steve Jobs is an amazing presenter but then again who wouldn’t be with such an amazing line of new products to brag about. Every single announcement is significant. I will write more in detail my thoughts later on but here are a few first impressions that have already sent chills down my spine and a tingle in my wallet. I encourage everyone to check out the greater detail on these products at Apple’s site.

� OSX Tiger-The feature that stands out for me the most is Spotlight. The ability to search something within documents will change your productivity level. I mean Steve Jobs typed in the search word “soccer” and it located a PDF with the word “soccer” in the PDF text. There were also enhancements for Mail. To make a slideshow from attached email images is brilliant. And to then automatically add them to your iPhoto library cuts down 3 steps in your day to day process. Dashboard was not a big surprise. We have talked extensively on the technology at play here especially with the popularity of Konfabulator Widgets. But the cream of the crop of new features has got to be Video conferencing in iChat. The 3-dimensionalization of the 3 other chat participants creates a surreal feel that they are actually sitting in a room with you. Subtle reflections and shadows make it a truly amazing experience.

� iLife- I use every single one of the iLife applications so naturally i was pretty excited about some of these new enhancements. Editing High Def video in iMovie is another example of Apple offering something well ahead of the popularity curve. The ability to create your own loops in Garage Band and the music notation feature is simply unbelievable. But the additions to iPhoto blew me away. The ability to import and edit images in RAW format is huge for photographers. For me, the ability to file my video clips among my images straight from my camera will convert me completely to the iPhoto import feature.

� iWork- Ok. New enhancements for Keynote. That’s fine. But the addition of Pages will change the way people design on the Mac. It won’t replace Quark or InDesign any time soon. But it will allow hack designers to make a decent living relatively quickly. The ability to utilize all your multimedia assets when creating these documents makes it even easier. But still no HTML editor. Here’s hoping for iWork 2.

� Mac Mini- Well, the rumors were correct. But no one knew it would be this small. The picture of it sitting next to an iPod Mini was well, very big. Never mind the crossover appeal, the price point, and the entrance into the low-priced “affordable” desktop market- this is another case of mind-boggling engineering and industrial design. Although it is only a G4 processor, to squeeze all of that in a casing that small, is unbelievable. it literally took my breath away.

� iPod Shuffle- To be honest, I am not quite sure yet whether Apple is on strategy with the whole “Shuffle” concept, but what they are on track with is the filling of the void in the market. Apple is systematically obliterating portable audio market. This release will be the last nail in the coffin. Up close, it is incredibly simple. It almost reminds me of a remote control that came with my window fan. I need to hear it for myself. But with the combination of price, space, and the lanyard feature, we will be seeing this around people’s necks as soon as tomorrow.

They are calling this year, the Year of High Definition. Yes, many features in iMovie, IDVD, Quicktime, and Final Cut, utilize this technology. But the single common thread that stuck out for me today is the ability to have Apple’s applications do everything for you. You can have iMovie perform “iMovie Magic” and edit the entire movie for you. You can have iDVD code your entire DVD before burning. You can have iPhoto design a photo book for you. You can have Pages design a newsletter for you. And finally, you can have iTunes automatically fill your iPod Shuffle with tracks.