Macworld 2006 Keynote Highlights--MacBook Pro and iMac get Intel CPUs
Steve Jobs took the stage at 8 minutes after 9 am PST and, as usual, he began with a summary of where things stand:
He first covers finances:
- The Apple Stores are doing great: $1 billion in sales from 135 stores in the past quarter.
- Total Apple revenue was $5.7 billion for last quarter, a record.
Next he covers music:
- iPod sales exceeded 14 million in the past quarter.
- iTunes also doing well with 850 million songs sold and some 8 million videos since they were added last October. Top video is the Rose Bowl Game. Added "Saturday Night Live."
- Apple now has a new $49 Remote Controller that has a built in FM tuner to play songs on any current iPod (video, nano, shuffle?). It shows the station in the iPod's window.
- Chrysler has added an integrated iPod option to its vehicles. 40% of cars made have iPod option now.
Now he moves to Macs:
- Aperture, Apple's new digital photography application was demoed.
- Mac OS X 10.4.4 will be released today. It has lots of new widgets, including a new Google widget.
- iLife '06, a no-brainer new software release, is better and adds "photocasting" podcasting for pictures. Works with .Mac and when you update an album, those subscribed get the update automatically.
- iPhoto's limit increased to 250,000 images and now has a greeting card function. Eight one-click editing effects added.
- iMovie HD now has animated themes. Can open more than one project at once and export to the video iPod.
- iDVD added widescreen and Magic iDVD, now supporting third-party burners--not shown to us.
- GarageBand gets new tools to support podcasting more effectively. iChat can be used for podcast interviews.
- iWeb is the new addition to the iLife '06 suite. It adds one-click broadcasting of iLife content through .Mac.
- iLife '06 available today for $79 and ships with new iMacs. Hmmm...not iBooks? If there was an upgrade discount, we missed it, but there usually isn't. There is a $99 family pack for 5 Macs. Over 1 million .Mac subscribers today.
- iWork '06 is out but with no new applications but with enhancements like 3D charts.
- Intel's CEO Paul Ottelini came on stage in a clean room suit and announced that Intel is ready and Jobs said that Apple is ready too despite forecasting last July that it would be mid-2006 before Macs had Intel CPUs inside.
- Well, blow me down. The first MacInTel is the iMac!!! Same as the iMac G5, including design, features and prices, but with a dual-core Intel CPU (Yonah?) it's 2-3 times faster--amazing. The iMac will approach the dual-core Power Macs in speed.
- Mac OS X 10.4.4, iLife '06, iWork '06 all run natively on the iMac's Intel CPU. The Apple pro applications, up to and including Aperture, will be updated in March for $49 with universal binaries to run natively on the Intel CPU.
- Third party applications are well on their way to supporting the Intel CPU on the Mac. Microsoft Office runs well on Rosetta tranlation software but will be getting its universal binaries soon. Roz Ho of Microsoft's Mac unit said they are still here and plan to stay with the Mac for at least the next 5 years. Quark will release a beta of Quark Express today.
- The demo of the iMac with Intel looked great, mostly. Adobe has to get going because Photoshop will not perform fast enough for a pro under Rostetta.
His trademark "one more thing":
- Oh, man! No more PowerBook. Now there is the MacBook Pro. We were right, at least partly, in guessing Apple wouldn't miss the opportunity to get in the dual-core laptop parade and lead it.
- MacBook Pro is slimmer than a 17" PowerBook G4 with a 15.4" screen but looks very similar and is 4-5 times faster than the previous PowerBook G4s now with the same dual-core Intel CPU as the iMac gets.
- It has new features: an infrared sensor that works with the Apple Remote with the Front Room application built in, just like the iMac; the power cord is connected magnetically so it pulls out easily and doesn't pull you MacBook Pro to the floor if someone trips over the cord.
- It is 1-inch thin and weighs 5.6 pounds and comes with a 1.67MHz or 1.83MHz dual-core Intel CPU. The 1.67MHz is $1999 with 667Mhz frontside bus, 512MB 667Mhz DDR2 RAM, 4x SuperDrive, ATI Radeon X1600 graphics with dual-link DVI for 30" display and 128MB GDDR3 VRAM, 80GB SATA 5400 RPM hard drive, AirPort Extreme, Bluetooth and an ExpressCard slot, backlit keyboard, scrolling trackpad, sudden motion sensor and a built-in "iSight" camera like the iMac. The $2499 model additionally has the 1.83GHz CPU, 1GB RAM, 256MB VRAM and 100 GB SATA 5400 RPM hard drive.
- The MacBook Pro ships in February. Jobs suggested you order now because Apple expects a huge demand--I'll say!
Now off to see them all! [Bill Fox]
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