17-inch Macbook Pro, Istuff, DRM-free tunes

WE DO hate to say we told you so, believe it or not, but Macworld Expo 2009 is going on without so much as a big product launch or a major celebrity showing up at a keynote to greet the Mac crowd.

Even the new 17-inch Macbook Pro isn't a surprise, as that had already been promised way back when the Macbook unibody was launched November last.

In the runup to this (last, or next to last?) Macworld show, the Dark Satanic Rumourmill^TM had been running on overtime as Mac sites churned out non-stop speculations about new announcements, from an Iphone Nano through an Apple netbook to a Mac Mini with a TB of storage. It turns out that none of those made it to the show, at least not on Day One.

Breaking down the day's top announcements into three parts, first up was Apple's Phil Schiller introducing some new elements to Fruitella's software products, namely the 2009 editions of Ilife and Iwork.

Ilife now has a Faces & Places feature, which, come to think of it, is pretty damn cool. By using your Iphone or a GPS-enabled camera, you can automatically assign your photos to locations on Google Maps by accessing the geo-location data in the device. These will pop up as pins on the map on-line for anyone to see. You can also create travel books of your voyages around the world and have your friends take a peek online. Imovie adds some new editing features and a Precision Editor function that'll zoom in on a bit of film and let you snip bits and pieces and juggle around the audio.

Garageband also introduces a new concept: music lesson videos - guitar and keyboards - that you can buy at the new Lesson Store. But these aren't just any lessons, no sirree, these are acclaimed musicians captured on film teaching us how to fumble around with an instrument. How Apple's too-cute branding gnomes managed to avoid calling this 'Ilesson', or Garageband 'Igarageband' for that matter, escapes us.

Lastly, you get Iweb and its array of fairly plain features such as an FTP client and widgets for RSS, Youtube video and Isight integration.

Iwork, on the other hand, is still in Beta, but adds a levy of features to Keynote (Magic Move, transitions, 3D effects) and a nifty wireless app called Keynote Remote, sold separately, that will allow you to use your Iphone or Ipod Touch to control presentations. Pages and Numbers also bring a bunch of new features plus a new on-line collaboration tool called Iwork.com.

Part Duh of the presentation related to the Macbook Pro's bigger brother. The new 17-inch Macbook Pro takes on the same Nvidia-based architecture coupled with a 2.66GHz or 2.93GHz Core 2 Duo processor and a larger screen (duh). The 17-incher now sports a HD-compliant 1920x1200 LED-backlit panel which should please everyone with a sweet tooth for HD video editing and viewing, as well as anyone with a real need for lots of screen real-estate. Storage is held in a standard 320GB unit, but you can opt for a second SSD or HDD drive. Apart from that, it shares the same genetic heritage of its 15.4-inch sibling - 9400M graphics with the option to turn on the 9600M.

On the 17-inch version, Apple has opted to integrate the battery into the casing, gaining some room for additional cells for a 95W.h lithium battery. With the additional juice, Apple says the Macbook Pro will last through eight hours of work. The new battery, says Apple, is capable of 1,000 recharges. But the integrated battery also means if something bad happens, then something *very bad* happens. Not to mention that you won't be able to carry a spare battery around with you, or pull it out to save the battery from another recharge cycle.

The 17-inch Macbook should start shipping by early February, just in time for Valentine's Day because it's rumoured that some Apple fanbois even have girlfriends.

Finally, the last morsel of interesting news out of Apple's Macworld announcements is that Itunes will now become DRM infection-free. A series of handshakes and crooked smiles between Apple and music industry execs have now allowed Apple to sell the songs on Itunes DRM-free but at variable price points. Apple will charge $1.29 per tune for the latest and biggest hits, while most of the Itunes catalogue will remain in the $0.99 category. However, tracks in the Itunes back catalogue as well as promotions will now sport a much lower $0.69 price tag.

Apple didn't explain who is driving the pricing on this, although we believe that might be an important part of the game down the line as the music industry could attempt to re-establish control over product pricing. At $1.29 per song, it could be worth the walk to the nearest store to buy the CD/DVD.

That said, we're a bit dry in the mouth now. Come Jan 7^th, Macworld will start emptying as hacks in particular and industry attendees start packing-up and driving or flying over to Las Vegas to attend CES... or the porn show next door. µ