As you know I am a Mac User. I switched from Windows about 3 years ago now and I consider myself to be a Mac person now and have got a bit like many Mac Users a bit of a zealot. I can’t stand using Windows and when I have to to for work or to help out my wife when she is having problems it really irks me. You really do get used to the ease of use and the Mac way of doing things. I was having to try and search for some files on Windows yesterday and missing terribly the Spotlight function I have in OSX.

So today of course I was very interested to see what would be coming out of Macworld over in San Fransisco. I followed the live (ish) feed from Gizmodo and it seems mostly it was about updated iLife and iWork applications with a new MacBook Pro of 17 inch proportions thrown in the mix for good measure. I will be pleased if they have done something with iMovie which despite being a Mac fan boy, I can’t stand in iLife 08. The previous version iMovie HD was great to use and then Apple really messed it up with designing something totally new and left out what I consider important features, the time line for one.

iPhoto now  has face recognition which is kinda funny as I have had that for nearly 50 years. iPhoto also has GPS functions so that you can Geo Tag your photos easily now. You do need a camera that does GPS though. The camera in the iPhone doesn’t really qualify as a camera in my book. There is no focusing and well no controls at all, give me a good point and shoot like the Canon G9 or G10 or better still a SLR. But iPhoto gives you a map with pins stuck in it to tell you whare you took your photos, it has Facebok and Flickr support built in. I suppose it will not be necessary to use plug ins for that now. In the area of making slides you have more themes with transitions etc. This sort of thing makes it easy for the novice with no idea or skill to make something that will look great.

iPhoto ’09 makes it even easier to browse and search photos, not only by when they were shot (Events), but by who appears in them (Faces) and where they were taken (Places). iPhoto automatically scans photos to detect people’s faces and when you assign a name to any face iPhoto will automatically find more pictures of that person. The library can be searched by name or browsed using the new Faces View. Places automatically imports photo location data from a GPS-enabled camera or any iPhone(TM) or you can manually assign a location to any photo, group of photos or event. Once iPhoto knows where photos were taken, you can easily explore them with a simple search or an interactive map. iPhoto ’09 lets you easily publish photos to Facebook or Flickr. Photos published to Facebook include assigned names, and name tags added on Facebook sync back to iPhoto. You can also share photos by creating a themed slideshow to play on your Mac, iPhone or iPod(R), or create a beautiful travel book, complete with customized maps of your journey.

iMovie is getting a precision editor, more themes and advanced drag and drop. It has to be better than the last version which was just rubbish and not finished. Better not forget to mention the Advanced travel maps and video stabilisation. I reckon though that the best video stabilisation is a good tripod when you are shooting. And then there is Other editing features: Skimming, seeing edits (before and after cuts), overlaying audio. I will reserve judgment on the iMovie updates until I see them in action with some of my video. I still think I might prefer to use Final Cut Express.

GarageBand can now teach you to play an instrument as well as record your music. Sting is one of the artists in there to help you learn to play guitar. Could be prophetic seeing as I am getting a new guitar arrive tomorrow. I first got a gitar when I was fifteen or sixteen and tried to learn, I had othert guitars along the way but never really got to where I wanted with the guitar. I have decided to give it one final shot and this time to finish the job. I went on this new path of the guitar after seeing videos on You Tube which teach basic riffs and licks and thought blimey I could do that. I even downloaded some video podcasts which have increased my guitar musical knowledge, so seeing that Garageband now will have lessons to teach people to play an instrument included might be a good thing. It is so easy to learn when you have someone showing you how, even with a video. I have just read that the lessons are $5 a lesson, not sure about that, but it is true and available in the the GarageBand Lesson Store.

GarageBand ’09, the updated version of Apple’s popular software used by millions to play and record music, now gives budding musicians a fun new way to learn to play piano and guitar. Basic Lessons let you learn the fundamentals at your own pace with Apple instructors in beautiful HD video synchronized to animated instruments and notation. Artist Lessons feature original artists showing how to play their hit songs with everything from finger positions and techniques to the story behind the song. Choose from lessons by popular artists including: Sara Bareilles, Colbie Caillat, John Fogerty, Ben Folds, Norah Jones, Sarah McLachlan, Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump, OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder and Sting. Artist Lessons are sold separately at the new GarageBand Lesson Store, available inside the GarageBand ’09 application. GarageBand ’09 also includes exciting new guitar amp and stomp-box effects, and Magic GarageBand Jam that lets you play along with a virtual band that you create.

iWork has been updated too, also there will be iWork in the cloud coming soon. All of the office software vendor will have to go this route with it being possible to use something like Google Docs for example. Who need a Word processor actually loaded on you computer.

I like that there will be more DRM free tracks available in iTunes Store although I rarely by tracks, still it is a good thing. The DRM free tracks possibly cost more though?

The New MacBook Pro
Finally providing a noticeable difference between the MacBook and MacBook Pro, Apple has pushed the Pro’s screen to 17 inches, its price to $2799, and thrown in a high-capacity (non-replaceable!) battery.

It looks great but well out of my price range. What I need is probably one of the Macbooks so that I can use it to record podcasts out in the field, direct to GarageBand or Amadeus Pro.

Well lets see what happens with all of this once everyone has had time to assess the last Keynote speech of MacWorld San Fransisco.