New iMacs top Apple’s media event, and more…
August 7, 2007
It was a great media event, with most of its focus around the Mac. Good, since Steve owed us this kind of attention around the Mac since January’s MacWorld! Probably the biggest thing were the new iMacs, but there was more. Keep on reading to see what was announced.
New iMacs. Slimmer, more powerful, glass screen, aluminized computer and keyboard… those words describe the new retro-looking iMacs that topped Apple’s media event, which took place earlier today. Even though they’ve been described as retro-looking, you can see a hint of iPhone-inspired design in these new iMacs. Two 20, and one 24-inch models are available, and cost $1199, $1499, and $1799 respectively.
iLife ‘08 (skipping ‘07). All apps were in iLife were updated. In iPhoto it’s now possible for all photos and albums are organized together into events. So instead of browsing through thousands of photos, you’re browsing only about one hundred events. iMovie was also redesigned so that you can browse and edit videos from many sources, not to mention a lot of ways to share your videos — from DVDs and YouTube, up to iPhones and AppleTVs. iWeb was also given a lot of much-requested features, such as personal domain support, AdSense support, media index page, and more. GarageBand and iDVD have also been given some nifty new features, but nothing ground-breaking. iLife ‘08 starts shipping today for $79.
iWork ‘08 (also skipping ‘07). Keynote was also given a refresh with new animations, transitions, effects, and what-not. Pages has finally been given a new word-processing mode besides the page-layout mode, and proper Word support for its files. But the long-rumored Numbers app — the spreadsheet app — has made a debut. Numbers is compatible with Excel and seems to boast all the necessary features in a similar iWork UI. iWork ‘08 also starts shipping today for $79.
.Mac. It’s finally been given a long-awaited update. Topping its new features include the ability of creating web galleries, where even photos from your iPhone can be uploaded via email. And starting today, its online storage has been upped from 1GB to 10GB. Although it still maintains its much debated $99 price tag.
New Mac minis. Even though Steve didn’t show the new Mac minis in his keynote, there are new models now available in the Apple Store. It’s nothing dramatic — they’re just slightly faster.
Conclusions. There will be a lot of orders placed today at the Apple Store with so many great products announced. I already want to buy one of those new iMacs, but have no money at the moment. Maybe I’ll compensate by buying the new iLife and iWork suites, like so many others, next week. But .Mac keeps the price tag that many think is too high for what it is, and the updates done to it were not what everyone was waiting for. Which of these products are you looking forward to buying?
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[tags]Apple,Mac,Hardware,Software,iMac,Events,News[/tags]
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August 7th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
I was pretty darn happy with the announcements today. I have already downloaded the iWorks 08 trial and loved the new Pages layout. If it exports to .doc reasonably well, I may finally be able to wash my hands with Office.
Also, as a .mac user, gallery and the new storage limits were a god-send. I was just about to call it quits with the whole service, but the new features made me decide on giving it another year.
I’m not sure I love the new keyboard, but all in all, this was a really great day for me as a mac user.
August 7th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
I’ll have to keep everyone updated. I was holding off for new hardware (or closer to Oct for Leopard) but the new iMacs got my intrest. The windows box is on the fritz and near death, so I’m not sure it can wait till Oct…. so I ordered the new iMac (x 2 - one for my hubby and I)…. Since there are three other macs in the house I can justify the family pack for the new OS when it comes out… I just couldn’t WAIT anymore…
Note - the 2.8gHz - online orders only!
August 7th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
Travis: When Steve goes on stage, it’s a sure bet that day is good for all of us that are Mac users.
And congrats on your purchases, Donna! Be sure to let us know how are they, since some of us can’t afford one right now… *sobs*
August 8th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Numbers appears to be everything I could have wanted in a spreadsheet
app. I (formerly) used Excel at work to create business forms. I ordered both iWork ‘08 and iLife ‘08 from Apple.com.
August 9th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
My initial thoughts (got both iLife and iWork today).
iLife
iPhoto - not many changes on the initial launch. Love the events sorting. It automagically grabbed every roll that I had catalogued/named previously and turned it into an event. My big fear is how this will be handled on imports going forward. Tried out the Gallery to .mac publishing feature. Love the functionality of it, but not overly impressed as being I’ve been tinkering with Gallery2 for awhile. - Gallery can be seen here: http://gallery.mac.com/vulpine#100010
iDVD - didn’t have anything compiled up to actually burn to DVD, but launched it enough to look at some of the new themes… VERY slick
iMovie - my personal thoughts are still out on this one. I have always been a fan of the timeline editing capability that was provided, sadly one of my favorite features is completely missing. I’m not quite sure how to feel about the drag and drop capabilities of not only full clips but also portions of clips. I did pull an old poject over from the previous version of iMovie but haven’t gotten the chance to do anything with it. Another gripe I have is the limitation that data can only be saved on internal drive OR external firewire, which just disabled my 250GB USB 2.0 drive from usage for video work. Publishing rendered media (movies) has become a little less intuitive personally. You can no longer publish directly to iDVD, but have to render out using a “Share with…” option and then access it with the media browser. I have yet to figure out how to do chapters. For someone who is heavily dependent on the export to iDVD option (I’ve got two family members who dont own computers and one who can only use dial up), I’m finding that the lack of features being easily acceptable an annoyance.
Garageband - No comment, it’s one portion of iLife that I dont use
On iWork
Keynote - no comment yet - don’t use heavily
Pages - Launched it to tinker with it a bit. I didn’t have any readily avaiable Microsoft Word files to import, but one of the nice new features is that there are word processing templates (resumes, letters, etc). Need to try these out.
Numbers - Imported a few financial/budgeting xls files without any issue. If that holds up with the rest I have to import, I can see Numbers finally being the excel replacement I have always searched for.
August 9th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
Thanks for your initial thoughts, Donna!
I’m also looking forward to using Numbers and iPhoto, when I grab both new versions of iLife and iWork next week.
The one thing that’s making many users grab their pitchforks and march against Apple is the new iMovie — but I’m neutral in this part, since apparently Apple still lets you use iMovie ‘06 next to the new one (and the ‘06 version is nearly perfect for the regular user, in my opinion).
August 10th, 2007 at 7:38 am
More on iMovie… I tinkered with it a little more last night and found the following:
within iMovie you can’t do chapters…. but
If you render out the movie and save it in the media browser it becomes accessible within Garageband. Now you dont only have a powerful “soundtrack” editor, you also have the ability to add chapter markers AND export directlry to iDVD. Why this functionality got completely pulled from iMove ‘08, I’m still tying to comprehend… but then when you think about it the video -> audio -> export work flow is the way “the pros do it”
August 10th, 2007 at 10:28 am
Something to ponder for those who got iLife 08 and hate iMovie
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imovieHD6.html
About iMovie HD 6
iMovie HD 6, previously distributed with iLife ’06, is available for download for those who have purchased and installed iLife ’08.
August 10th, 2007 at 11:33 am
That’s great news, Donna!
August 17th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Well I’ve had the new iMac since Monday… I am now a 100% dedicated Mac addicted person here. I can’t begin to understand even why anyone would want the hassle of having a Windows PC … considering the programs out there like Parallels and VMWare Fusion, its like truly having your cake and eating it to!
Synching up to my Mac Book Pro was a dream and I have the dual monitor support set up with a 20″ wide-screan Viewsonic…
I’ve started a somewhat limited so far (I dont post much) blog that has some pics of the setup
Overall - super impressed
August 17th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Congrats on your recent additions to your Mac life, Donna!
I’ve already gone down to my local Apple Store and tried out the new iMacs, which are amazing. But for now just buying the new iSuites will have to suffice, and have been trying every aspect you’ve described. Overall they’re great except the new iMovie, so I’ll be sticking with the old one instead.