What's New - Jan 21, 2009

By: Benjamin Martin - Revised: 2009-03-04 topher

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Introduction

What's new for the Mac in the previous month:
  • General issues, workarounds and fixes
  • New Software and hardware
  • Software and hardware updates/patches
  • Apple Inc. related news

Agenda

  • What's New
    • Benjamin Martin ~ U of U
  • Mac Anti-Virus & Security Products
    • Mike Romo ~ Symantec Mac Product Manager

Apple News Bites

  • iWork '09
    • No more serial numbers
  • App Store
    • 15,000 Apps, 500 Million downloads!
      • Avg 33,000 downloads an app!
  • Steve Jobs on medical leave till June
    • Tim Cook tapped as interim CEO
  • iTunes to go 100% DRM free
  • Baseline MacBook gets small hardware bump (making it more like the alum models)
    • NVIDIA 9400M, 2GHz Processor, 2GB baseline RAM, 1GHz system bus
  • iPhone 3G unlocked by "The Dev-Team"
    • Unlock is supposedly "very" beta
  • QuickTime 7.6
    • H.264 encoding, Motion JPEG playback, AAC encoding

17" MacBook Pro

Ref: http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/features-17inch.html

  • Suped-up LED-Backlit Screen
    • 133 pixels per inch (12% increase over previous version) => more pressure for resolution independence
  • 60% greater color gamut (over previous version)
  • Up to 8GB RAM


iLife '09

Ref: http://www.apple.com/ilife/

  • iPhoto '09
    • Facial recognition software tags photos by person! (not sure how well this works yet)
  • iMovie '09
    • Video stabilization, new themes, editing tools, titles, transitions and effects.
  • GarageBand '09
    • Piano/Guitar Basic Lessons
    • Artist Lessons (sold via GarageBand Lesson Store)

iWork '09

Ref: http://www.apple.com/iwork/

  • KeyNote Remote iPhone/Touch App
    • Control, view notes, etc via Wi-Fi
  • Can open .docx files but only saves .doc
  • iWork.com
    • Works with all current browsers
    • Viewers can leave notes/feedback
    • Viewers can download iWork, Office or PDF versions for offline use


Mini Display Port

  • Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA)
    • Says the DisplayPort 1.2 specification should include Apple’s Mini DisplayPort
  • DisplayPorts Muscle
    • Run two 2560x1600 displays from one connection or Four 1920x1200 displays
    • Refresh rates at 120Hz (possible stereoscopic 3D effects)