Today was the last Apple Keynote at Macworld, and they went out with a bang. We all knew what was going to happen with the rumors floating around, but they are welcome updates. ILife '09 brings a much needed update to IMovie, Iwork.com is Google Docs for Apple (and it's free for now!) and of course, Itunes is now DRM-free. Thank you for that, my friends at Apple. Now I can download my music in peace, even though you could get rid of DRM by burning the songs to a CD and ripping them back as MP3s, that step has now been eliminated. Good by start-up Bopaboo, you are no longer needed, and all songs will be transferring over to DRM free music in the second quarter of 2009. You can transfer most of your protected sond to unprotected songs for $.30 per song and $.60 of a music video. Movies and TV shows are still protected, but that's OK for now. 17" Macbook Pro Unibody, with a matte screen option, although it costs $50. It also has 8 hours (!) of battery life, but the battery is not user replaceable. Some Give and Take there. No new Mac Mini, and I am thinking that is a dying product if we see no new update in the next moths until June. If no updates, it is as good as dead. My opinion. What's yours? comment below!
The company that everyone loves to hate, or just plain loves is Apple. But this isn't about their perception. This is about their product. They make really good products. No doubt about it. But they have made some critical mistakes. 1: They only put Mac OS X on Apple products. If they let it go on another PC, like Windows can be put on a mac, they would be so much bigger then they are now. Their defense? Everything is made by the same company so it works perfectly. Hey Apple! If the OS is so good, it would work well on any machine. If it's a hardware problem, we won't blame you, but if anything goes wrong on an Apple computer, it's Apple's fault. 2: Too proprietary. Itunes DRM, Mini Display Port, Firewire, Iphone App store rules.... the list goes on and on. Itunes is starting to allow DRM free downloads, and that is good, but Amazon has been completely DRM free for a while now, and they don't get nearly as much credit. The Mini Display port on the new notebooks? Really? A guy couldn't play a movie on his VGA projector because the projector couldn't accept the copyright protection on the Mini Display Port and Itunes movies. Firewire on the MacBook. Need I say more. You pushed it and pushed it until it was in the mainstream for editing and everything, and then you go, oh, well you don't need it now, just go USB. What if you have a firewire camera? What then. Spend $700 more for the Pro? Um.....no thanks. I'll just go get an HP with firewire and Adobe or Pinnacle and still save money. The Iphone App Store. This is why Android is so revolutionary. They don't care what is there as long as it isn't a virus. You on the other hand, care a whole lot. Anything worth while is not there because it goes against your rules for applications. OK, now that that's out of the way, Apple still makes really great products that change the landscape of the technology world. I own a MacBook, and it is the best computer I have ever used, The OS has really great features that you can't find anywhere else, and if they would license the OS to other companies like HP and Dell, we woudl have a very different world.