The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

10:39AM [stretching fingers and knuckles. Ow!]

10:38AM That's it! We're out. Stay with us for continuing Macworld coverage at http://tuaw.com/macworld09 or on Twitter at @tuaw_mwsf09.

10:37AM Phil thanking the crowd, we're wrapping up... thanking Apple employees.

10:37AM Well now we know something about the demographic here.

10:36AM Standing ovation for Tony Bennett.

10:36AM "And I come home to you... San Francisco... The golden sun will shine for me...." Delightful.

10:35AM "My love waits there... In San Francisco..." The room is hushed, except for the incessant clicking of keys.

10:34AM "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." OK, now everyone's getting a little verklempft.

10:34AM Biggest applause of the day: Video stabilization, and Tony Bennett.

10:33AM Tony sounds good, but consensus from the team here is "that was certainly going out with a whimper, not a 'boom.'"

10:31AM Tony and the band are sliding out on a platform, singing "The Best Is Yet To Come."

10:31AM "Why we create all these products around music..." Bringing out the musical guest -- Mr. Tony Bennett.

10:29AM Purchase now on WiFi or 3G starting today.

10:28AM 3rd new thing: the iPhone.

10:28AM By the end of Q1, all 10M songs will be DRM free. Much applause.

10:27AM 2nd thing: iTunes Plus. Starting today: 8M songs DRM free.

10:27AM $0.69, 99 and 1.29.



10:26AM Over last 6 years, one price for all songs. Music companies want flexibility -- so starting in April, 3 pricing tiers.

10:26AM What's new in '09? Price.

10:25AM iTunes is now the #1 music retailer in USA

10:25AM Over 10M songs, 75M accounts

10:24AM iTunes music store announcement of some kind...

10:24AM itunes

10:24AM One more thing!

10:24AM Ad claims "New MacBooks are world's greenest family of notebooks." Paging Greenpeace's lawyers!

10:23AM TV ad time

10:23AM Environmental report card: EPEAT Gold status, arsenic-free glass, BFR free, no mercury or PVC, smaller packaging.

10:22AM Same pricing -- $2799 for the base model, 2.66Ghz/4GB RAM

10:21AM 60% better battery life, 3 more hours. Gets you across the country or across the Atlantic.

10:21AM Well, if you had "nonremovable battery" on your rumor card, congratulations!

10:20AM 17" MBP runs on less than 1/2 the energy of a single lightbulb. Because the battery can recharge 1K times -- longer lifespan -- fewer batteries in the waste stream.

10:18AM Adaptive charging. Reduces wear-and-tear on the battery.

10:18AM Music is eerily like the soundtrack to "How It's Made" while they show factory clips.

10:18AM Custom-designed and shaped cells to fill the available volume. Lithium polymer technology.

10:17AM Battery is 40% larger by making it non-removable.

10:16AM More environmentally friendly. Dan Riccio :"The key to making a better battery is making it bigger."

10:16AM Up to 8 hours of work time, 1000 recharges.

10:16AM Bob Mansfield is explaining battery design advancements.

10:15AM Longest lasting battery life ever... keeping the notebook just as thin. Video!

10:15AM "Most innovative new feature... the battery."

10:15AM Same dual-GPU setup as the 15". 320GB drive, up to 256GB SSD as an option.

10:14AM Up to 8GB of RAM, new NVidia chips.

10:14AM Integrated battery display on the side. Includes new glass trackpad, 40% larger.

10:13AM Adding a $50 anti-glare option. Cheers.

10:12AM LED backlight, 1920x1200

10:12AM 0.98 inches thick, 6.6 lbs for 17"

10:11AM MacBook is #1 on list of US notebooks sold.

10:11AM Unibody enclosure for the 17". Sturdier, thinner, lighter.

10:10AM 17" MBP announce.

10:10AM "Beginning of a new service." In the end, it will be a fee-based service. Beta signup will launch today.

10:09AM Once the remote user comments, owner can download and see.

10:06AM Viewing interface looks quite a bit like MobileMe... built with SproutCore no doubt.

10:06AM Recipient gets an email with a "view document" button.

10:05AM Upload sends a bundle of document versions to the site.

10:05AM Demo of sharing iwork.com -- button at the top of the apps to invite others to view the document.



10:04AM Comments and notes on documents online; download copies directly. No editing in the cloud?

10:04AM Shame on us for not checking to see if Apple owned that domain.

10:03AM Sharing service online for iWork documents.

10:03AM iwork.com -- service beta coming soon

10:03AM Mac Box Set (Leopard, iWork, iLife) ships end of month.

10:02AM iLife requires Leopard. Bundle with all three "Mac Box Set" for $169.

10:02AM $79/99 family pack, or $49 with a new Mac. iWork 09 ships today.

10:01AM Numbers templates for finance, education, home inventory.

10:01AM We're an hour into this keynote and nothing on Snow Leopard, nothing on hardware.

10:01AM Charts now link from Numbers to Pages.

10:00AM New charting options... mixed chart types, multi-axis, scatter plots, trend lines and error bars.

9:59AM "Most requested feature was more powerful formulas, more functions." Over 250 functions now.

9:59AM Added table categories to Numbers. Similar to Excel's pivot tables.

9:58AM Numbers. 2nd version now. First one was "a fun, easy spreadsheet done the Apple way."

9:58AM Phil is showing the new Pages templates.

9:58AM Seriously, if Keynote Remote works as advertised it will sell a lot of iPod touches.

9:57AM MathType and EndNote integrated within Pages, great for academic publishing.



9:57AM Mail merge from Numbers to Pages



9:56AM Dynamic outlining in Pages. Graphics in-line, drag and drop sections.

9:56AM Similar to WriteRoom. Except, you know, not just text.

9:55AM Pages09 -- Full Screen view. One page, no distractions.

9:55AM Keynote remote uses Wifi. Very slick in theory, need to see it working for real.

9:55AM $0.99 in the App Store. "Already given it a 5-star review."

9:54AM Shows you your notes. Shows slide preview. Dang. Flick to advance. DANG.

9:54AM Keynote remote -- iPhone app to run your presentations!!! Yes.

9:53AM More themes for Keynote.

9:53AM [thanks again to engadget for pictures]



9:53AM New Chart animations; bring in your graphs with a transition, 3D textures.

9:52AM Text transitions. Just swung in "Obama" for big laughs.

9:51AM On GarageBand, Victor: "Norah Jones' haircut makes her look like a librarian."

9:51AM Object transitions -- zoom objects from one slide to the next, dissolve individual objects.

9:50AM Keynote has "Magic Move" transitions. You set up your slides, Keynote animates your objects for you. Demo shows playing cards.

9:49AM Keynote '09 -- "I'm using it right now, so you know it's rock-solid."

9:49AM iWork '09.

9:49AM Shipping late January.

9:49AM iLife, still free on new machines. Upgrade is $79, family pack is $99 to upgrade.

9:48AM For $5, you get John Fogerty on video. For $20 more he will come to your house. :)

9:47AM John Fogerty clip is very laid back and enjoyable.

9:47AM Yes, that's Sting.



9:47AM My prediction: This feature alone is going to sell hundreds of thousands of Macintoshes.

9:46AM Built-in garage band store lets you purchase artist lessons for $4.99. This is how money will be made in the music industry of the future. :)



9:45AM Mike S: ""I'm using the suzuki method, you?" "Garageband.""


9:45AM Sting and Sarah McLachlan. Because your Mac can't get any cooler.

9:45AM Sting!

9:44AM John Fogerty and Colbie Callat teach you to play!

9:44AM "Hold your applause because this is freaking cool"

9:44AM "9 basic lessons for guitar or piano... but once you want to learn to play a song, we've enlisted artists to teach you."

9:44AM I had a Miracle keyboard back in the day, but I never learned... maybe this will work. :-)

9:43AM Victor Agreda: "unfortunately it only shows you how to play Rock Band"

9:43AM The guy who appears in these videos is never going to have to buy his own beer ever again.

9:42AM Learn to play guitar, keyboards... you see the frets on the screen, video instruction.

9:42AM Just one feature he wants to talk about... create a piece of software that will teach you to play an instrument.

9:41AM "I'd like to show you one more... the new GarageBand '09."

9:41AM Phil: "I'm so impressed I edited that myself." :)




9:40AM Great demo. Big cheers.

9:40AM iMovie themeing is just like an iPhoto book -- applies title page, transitions, credit slides. Wow.

9:39AM I predict a surge in John Williams soundtrack sales to accompany these animated travel maps.

9:39AM The "Indy" animated maps are WICKED cool.

9:38AM This may actually be the PageMaker of video editing... finally.

9:37AM Instant slo-mo or speedup. Can apply video effects directly in the timeline, no rendering time.

9:37AM Y'know, it seems like iMovie and iPhoto are now designed to repair human failings.

9:36AM Looks very good. Worth coming back later to see the video version, the effect is pretty impressive.

9:36AM Demoing the video stabilization. Two-step process, first pass takes some time.

9:35AM Project library now includes filmstrips of the iMovie projects. Much easier to figure out what you have.

9:34AM A lot of the aggravation with iMovie '08 is going to go away with this version.



9:34AM Now doing a synthetic "multicamera" edit. New 'Action' popup to zoom in on the edit. Can see both clips simultaneously and adjust in/out points by sliding the clips.

9:32AM Steve S: "Automatic video stabilization in iMovie '09 + image stabilization in camcorders = still photos."

9:32AM Applause for audio only insert feature.

9:32AM Kid saying "Sure gonna miss this place." Very cute.

9:32AM Same skimming to grab clips. Can drag and drop clips onto other clips for contexual menu for all kinds of inserts, audio only... slick.

9:31AM Introduced chief architect of iMovie 09.

9:30AM Demo time!

9:30AM Automatic video stabilization.

9:30AM Animated travel maps. The "Indiana Jones" feature.

9:30AM Drag and drop insert editing. Dynamic theming -- instant movies.

9:29AM Adding back depth of features to the new version. New in iMovie 09: Precision editing.

9:29AM "Not every feature was there in iMovie '08 -- nothing was the same except the name from the earlier version."

9:28AM iMovie is new! (Again)

9:28AM [Thanks to Engadget for letting us use their photography.]

9:28AM Steve Sande: "Does somebody want to pick up a copy of iLife '09 for me? Need to rewrite a book... :-)"


9:27AM Column view in iPhoto looks like iTunes browser, can sort by country city or state.

9:27AM GPS tagging is quite precise if your camera is doing the tagging. Demo shows pins that locate multiple photos.



9:25AM Places will auto-complete based on a list of places, you don't need to know zip code or lat/lon. Very fast.

9:25AM [Phil didn't say that, I did. :-]

9:24AM Hmm, if you could do smart albums with "These three people but NOT Joey..." Handy for ex-spouses you want to leave out of the holiday card.

9:24AM Can group a batch of Faces to make a smart album of the whole family, colleagues, etc.

9:23AM Mike Schramm: "Say a quick prayer for the flickr export plugin. It served us well."

9:23AM Drag over a batch of photos to confirm.

9:23AM Adding the faces is very straightforward. iPhoto gives you "certain" and "likely" matches to identify whether the match is right. Single-click to confirm, double-click to deny.

9:21AM Very easy to see all the photos of a particular person in your library. This is going to be a very helpful feature for parents with hundreds of pictures of their kids!

9:20AM Demo time for iPhoto '09. Phil is giving us the runthrough.

9:20AM More themes for books from iPhoto. Travel theme includes maps with geocoded photos.

9:19AM Can export slideshows to iTunes and sync to iPhone or touch. Very handy.

9:18AM Oohs and Ahhs for "Shattered" theme.

9:18AM They use face detection to auto-position faces in the center of the slideshow.

9:18AM Sorry, not Things -- Themes. :)

9:18AM Slideshow feature: Things. Pick a theme for slideshows. Think a light version of Fotomagico or Animoto. Quite slick.

9:16AM Previous product that did face recognition I was trying to remember: Riya.com, visual search.

9:16AM Facebook face tagging is retroactive to iPhoto, synced back. That's quite awesome.



9:15AM Lots of depth and power added to iPhoto, including Facebook and Flickr!

9:14AM Licensing maps from Google Maps.

9:14AM You can retroactively tag events with a location so that you can geotag photos that don't have GPS info.

9:13AM Phil took a photo at the Eiffel Tower, very nice.

9:12AM "Cameras with GPS include Canon, Nikon, and the most advanced cellphone on the market..." :-)

9:12AM Map with pins of geocoded locations. Also very cute.

9:11AM 2nd method of organizing -- Places.

9:11AM You can train iPhoto 09 to learn who's who. "We think it works really well."

9:10AM There was another technology that did this, trying to remember the name... once you ID the person, it will find them in other photos. Sweet.

9:10AM [Sorry the liveblog wasn't on the front page, fixed now!]

9:10AM Face detection tech embedded in iPhoto. Applause.

9:09AM Corkboard with snapshots of favorite people. How does it work?

9:09AM "Wouldn't it be great if iPhoto could organize your photos by favorite people!"

9:09AM iPhoto 09 -- new ways to manage photos -- "Faces"

9:07AM (As we found out a couple of hours ago.)

9:07AM #1 is iLife 09!

9:07AM "If you want to hear some new things..." 3 new things to tell us.

9:07AM Last fiscal year was 9.7M Macs, biggest year ever, by growing 2x the rest of the PC industry.

9:06AM Today, going to talk about the Mac.

9:06AM 5th Ave store pic now on the screen. "They come to shop, but also to get hands on with iPhone, iPod... and the Mac."

9:06AM 100 Macworlds every week. Mild applause.

9:05AM 3.4M customers per week in the stores.

9:05AM "When I look at the Sydney store, and that big glowing logo... what other company's logo could be there?" It's an impressive shot, thousands of people in the store.

9:05AM Pictures of Munich, China stores, Sydney.

9:04AM Incredibly exciting time at Apple -- you can feel it, but nowhere more than the stores.

9:04AM "I am very excited to be the one bringing the keynote to you."


9:04AM Blue shirt and jeans... No black turtleneck!

9:03AM Phil is here. Cheers. So much for silent keynote.

9:03AM Lights going down!

9:01AM We'll be (hopefully) featuring some pictures from Engadget's coverage, if technical limitations permit.

9:00AM Just asked us to turn off our cell ringers.

8:59AM The room is a-buzzing...

8:56AM From my seat I can throw a spitball at Scott McNulty... should I? Nah. Our updates will be here and also on Twitter at @tuaw_mwsf098:53 We're seated and the crowd is filing in. Jason Mraz and Jack Johnson on the PA.