`...and I want one! Actually I'm quite happy with my Powerbook but the new MacBook Pro does look rather nice! Mac Geeks around the world have been on the edge of their seats today waiting for the latest announcements from Apple as Steve Jobs took to the stage at 5pm UK time. There have been some exciting new announcements from the Apple CEO this evening at the MacWorld Keynote speech in San Francisco.
In addition to the new MacBook Pro there's also a new iMac. The most recent update to the iMac came only a few months ago, but there's something a bit different about the new hardware announced today: they have Intel chips inside them. Steve asked the question: "What's an Intel chip doing in a Mac?" The answer? "A lot more than it's ever done in a PC!" The spec of the new machines is impressive, but the Apple website is pretty slow at the moment so there's not a huge amount of detail available as yet.
Other announcements centre around software and new releases of Apple's consumer apps, the iLife and iWork suites. iWork has been upgraded with Keynote 3 and Pages 2, both of which offer a number of interesting additions including enhanced graphics capabilities and beautiful 3d charts.
Perhaps the most interesting announcements for creative educationalists out there involve the iLife '06 suite. With new version of iMovie HD (including new themes, transitions and titling), iPhoto (new books, calendar and greetings card output, RAW compatibility, and full-screen editing) and iDVD ("Magic DVD" creation, new themes and support for widescreen movies and menus) there is already much to offer the creative teacher and student.
However, what excites me most about iLife is the upgraded GarageBand which includes a brand new podcasting studio, and a completely new app, iWeb, which brings together your "www life" and lets you share it with the world. iWeb offers blogging, photocasting, podcasting and video blogging features and looks set to make a huge difference to bloggers and podcasters everywhere. I really like the new GarageBand podcasting features, especially the "Podcast Engineer" which will hopefully improve the quality of many of the podcasts out there!
One disappointment re iWeb is that much of it appears to be limited to .Mac subscribers, costing about £79 per year. I've yet to see any details of exporting your productions to your own FTP server or even a local server. No doubt in the coming hours and days we'll find out more about exactly what you can do with these apps.
Some disappointment of course for the many Mac Geeks expecting announcements based on the hundreds of rumours circling around the web over the past few weeks. No Mac Mini media centre, no new 13" iBook, no tiny iPod shuffle. And no new tablet or PDA (my own personal wish!)
And what does all of this mean for learning and teaching?
Well, as with pretty much everything that comes from Apple it's all geared towards creativity, and creativity in the classroom makes for motivated students and teachers. We'll certainly be very interested in the new features of iMovie, and the GarageBand enhancements will make podcasting much more accessible. It's all dependent, of course, on Macs being in schools.
It's good to see that the new iLife apps don't require the latest machines - they'll run on G4 and G5 latpops and desktops, not just the new Intel machines.
Over the next few days there will be much comment about the announcements, and I'm curious to hear what Apple Education people have to say about everything tomorrow at BETT. More soon.
Update, Wednesday morning
Having watched the keynote last night and caught up with the various Mac sites, it now seems that iWeb will output to a folder, so it may not be necessary to have a .Mac account. However, there are some things which are .Mac only. We'll see...
The "ducking" feature and the other podcast enhancements on Garageband look really good. I look forward to seeing what this means in real terms. Maybe I'll get a chance to play with the new apps today at BETT.
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