Apple Introduces A Slew of New Products!
- January 07, 2003
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Apple has just released Final Cut Express. It looks like Final Cut Pro, but is missing a few features that Apple expects only Pros would use. Phil Schiller demoed it and it looks pretty cool. It costs $299, versus Final Cut Pro’s $999.
All the rumors about Apple charging for its iApps were correct. iTunes 3, iPhoto 2, iMovie 3 and iDVD 3 are bundled now. Apple is calling it iLife, and it will be available Saturday, January 25th. If you want to use the newest versions, you need to fork over $49. Or you can download iTunes, iPhoto or iMovie free.
iPhoto has been updated to version 2. It’s integrated with iTunes and has a features like one-click enhance, a retouch brush and a built-in function to archive your photos on CD or DVD.
iMovie has also been updated to version 3. It’s integrated with iPhoto, iTunes and iDVD. Features include chapters, precise audio editing within clips and something called the “Ken Burns effect” (which is basically pan and zoom over still clips). Also included are some sound effects from Skywalker Sound, George Lucas’ sound company. And now because iMovie and iDVD are integrated, you no longer need to export your movie in order to import it into iDVD. You just open iDVD from within iMovie, and a new file is created which already has a selection menu prebuilt based on your chapters in iMovie.
iDVD is up to version 3 and is also integrated with iTunes, iPhoto and iMovie. It includes many more themes to customize the look of your DVD screen, some of which are very cool. Blank DVDs now only cost $3 a piece now. Jobs predicts that within 12 months, it will be about $1 a disc.
Apple also has introduced a new app called Safari which is a “turbo browser” for OS X. It has a minimalist interface, which is nice. In all benchmark tests, Safari was faster than even Chimera (which is what I use). It is standards compliant. Google is integrated within the toolbar. A feature called Snapback can keep your Google results in an easy to access window, but also works with any Web site. Quicktime and Flash are integrated within the browser. Your bookmarks window looks a LOT like iTunes and iPhoto, which Apple says works very well with bookmarks. Address Book is also integrated with Safari. I know I’ll be checking it out.
Safari is based on the open-source renderer called KHTML. Apple has dramatically improved the code and will post what it’s done for free on the Internet! Both Safari and its rendering engine will be free! Cool!
Yet another new app called Keynote is a presentation app which will compete directly with Microshaft Powerpoint. Jobs says Keynote was built for him in mind. It has a slide navigator for easy access to any slide in your presentation. It has amazing graphics and text handling features as well. It can handle many different file formats including Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash files. It also has built-in tables and charts which are very easy to alter or modify. Themes also make an appearance in Keynote. These allow you to easily make nice looking presentations. “Pro-quality” transitions are including as well. Keynote supports Powerpoint, PDF and Quicktime file formats and stores its files in an
The Powerbook now has a friggin’ 17 inch landscape screen!! It’s the same display on my iMac, but somehow stuffed into a Powerbook frame. It’s even a little thinner than the existing Powerbook, at 1 inch thin! Another cool feature is a backlit keyboard. FINALLY! It has ambient light sensors which automatically brighten the keyboard when the lights go down. It weighs 6.8 lbs. It’s now built out of an aircraft-quality, hard-anodized aluminum. 1 GHz G4, 512 MB RAM, GeForce4 440 Go, 60 GB hard drive, Superdrive, Firewire 800(!), USB, Gigabit Ethernet, built-in Bluetooth(!) and Airport wireless technology. Even with the HUGE 17” inch screen, you get 4.5 hour battery life. It costs $3299 (good grief, that’s high!), and they ship next month.
The Airport base-station has been bumped to the Airport Extreme basestation for $199. This is the new 802.11g standard that people expected Apple to announce.
There’s also a 12 inch Powerbook, which is the smallest full-featured laptop in the world! 867 MHz G4, GeForce4 420 Go, slot-load combo drive, built-in Bluetooth, Airport Extreme ready, 5 hour battery life, 256 MB RAM, 40 GB hard drive… all for $1799. It will ship in a few weeks. You can even get a Superdrive version for $1999.
So now there are three models to choose from… 12”, 15.2” or 17”. Very nice!
Apple has a new TV ad called Big and Small which features Yao Ming and the short guy from Austin Powers showing off their new 12” inch and 17” inch Powerbooks. It’s hilarious.