So some think this year’s Macworld keynote was lack-luster, that Apple disappointed with their announcements and that iWork 09 is nothing to get excited about.
Don’t count me in that group.
The releases in this keynote — save the announcement about updating the 17″ MacBook Pro — were aimed at everyday consumer users. And even power-users or professionals who live on their Macs, as I do, are also consumer users who love their iLife 09 offerings. (OK, at least like iTunes.)
Here’s a quick breakdown of what I like the most:
iWork upgrades. The new offerings for Numbers and Pages excite me the most, as I use them in my business work. Two key features — mail merge and table categories — have me excited.
iWork.com Yep. I said it. I know it’s no Google Docs, but I have my reasons. I’ll explain in my next post.
DRM-free music. Finally. This has been a long-time coming, and I’m glad that it is now here. Apple is also offering “an easy, one-touch” method of upgrading your existing music to DRM-free. Of course, it costs 30 cents per song, so I’ll be discriminatory in doing so.
iPhoto online sharing. I’ve been using a plug-in for flickr, so it’s nice to have native support now. And I like having Facebook uploading capability as well. Now people will stop harassing me about uploading photos.
iMovie travel maps. Now I can take my childhood dream of being Indiana Jones one step further with these cool new maps.
iMovie precision editing. This looks to be a nice step up from the current editor in iMovie. I use this a lot in campaigns for web videos, so I’m jazzed.
I’m expounding my thoughts in longer posts on iWork and iLife. They’ll be posted later.
You can also head on over to MacWorld and read their articles on iLife 09, iWork 09, DRM-free iTunes and the 17″ MacBook Pro.
