SAN FRANCISCO: Apple Inc on Tuesday (Jan 6) introduced what it claims
to be the world's thinnest and lightest 17-inch laptop with a new
unibody aluminium enclosure and a built-in battery said to deliver up
to eight hours of use and a lifespan three times longer than
conventional laptop batteries.
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| The MacBook Pro retail in Malaysia for RM10,099. |
It also announced a revamp of its iLife suite of digital lifestyle
software at the Macworld Expo trade show here, in particular the
iPhoto photo management software which now comes with face detection
technology and built-in support for Facebook. Consumers can also teach
themselves to play musical instruments with the new version of
GarageBand music creation software.
Conspicuously missing from this year's expo is the company's iconic
CEO Steve Jobs, who is recuperating from a health problem. His place
as keynote presenter was taken over by vice-president of worldwide
product marketing Phil Schiller.
In a two hour-long keynote, Schiller showcased the star attraction of
the expo, the top-of-the-line 17-inch Apple MacBook Pro that now
features a design similar to Apple's two other laptops, the 13-inch
MacBook and the 15-inch MacBook Pro. Its body, carved out of a single
block of aluminium, measures just 2.5cm thick. The laptop weighs less
than 2.99kg. A high resolution, low power consumption LED-backlit
display and a large button-less trackpad made of glass has now made
its way into the laptop as well.
A new built-in battery powers the laptop for eight hours on a single
charge. Touted as the greenest notebook family, the new MacBook Pro's
battery allows up to 1,000 recharges for more than three times the
lifespan of conventional laptop batteries. The typical lifespan for
laptop batteries is about three years.
The new 17-inch MacBook Pro will retail in Malaysia for RM10,099.
iPhoto, one of five digital lifestyle software in the iLife 09 suite
now, has new features called Places and Faces. Places automatically
imports photo location data from a GPS-enabled camera or an Apple
iPhone, while with Faces, iPhoto automatically scans photos to detect
people's faces and when names are assigned to those faces, iPhoto will
find more pictures of that person.
Taking things a step further, a button in iPhoto enables not just
convenient publishing of photos on photo sharing websites such as
Facebook and Flickr, but also to detect even more faces on the
Internet. Calling them "really powerful", Schiller demonstrated how
these features help organise thousands of photos.
The updated GarageBand 09 allows budding musicians to learn to play
the piano and guitar at their own pace. Basic Lessons allow newbies to
learn the fundamentals while a feature called Artist Lessons has
original artists including John Fogerty, Colbie Caillat, Norah Jones
and Sting showing how to play their hit songs.
"iLife has become one of the reasons people buy a Mac today. There's
nothing like it on any other computing platform," said Schiller.
Priced at RM299 for single user, iLife 09 will ship end of January.
Also announced at Macworld were updates to the company's iWork office
productivity suite. Called iWork 09, the three software that makes up
the suite, namely Keynote, Pages and Numbers have received new themes,
sophisticated transition effects and a quick way to group and
summarise data. iWork 09 is available immediately for RM299.
The "one more thing" announcement -- Jobs' trademark way of announcing
something unexpected -- was reserved for a new three-tier pricing for
Apple's iTunes online music store which is not available in Malaysia.
Jobs, who survived a pancreatic cancer in 2004 and appeared to be
losing weight throughout 2008, on Monday (Jan 5) wrote a personal
letter addressed to the Apple community, saying doctors have
pinpointed hormone imbalance as the reason for his illness. "The
remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and
straightforward, and I've already begun treatment," he wrote, adding
that he would remain as Apple's CEO and expects to be back in shape by
Spring this year.
Source - Tech & U NST
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