14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has just ended the Back to the Mac event hosted in the Town Hall of its Cupertino, California campus, where several of the company's executives, including Steve Jobs himself, have announced a new iLife suite, FaceTime for Macs, a sneak preview of Mac OS X Lion, and new MacBook Airs.
iLife 11
iLife ’11 is touted by Apple as a major upgrade that gives Mac users even more great ways to create and share photos, movies and music.
The suite offers:
iPhoto ’11, which has has a whole new look, with stunning full screen modes for Faces, Places and Events
iMovie ’11 which makes it easier to edit videos and quickly transform them into fun theatrical trailers for easy posting online
and...
GarageBand ’11, which introduces new ways to improve your playing and create great sounding songs with Flex Time and Groove Matching.
The suite is free with every new Mac, and is available as a $49 upgrade for existing users.
FaceTime for Mac
Among the many exciting announcements today, Apple introduced the public beta of FaceTime for Mac.
FaceTime for mac is a new application that allows Mac users to video call iPhone 4 and iPod touch users as well as other Macs.
The solution features an easy to use interface, and automatically uses your Address Book contacts so there’s no need to create special buddy lists.
It works seamlessly with the built-in camera and mic on Mac notebooks, iMac and Apple LED Cinema Displays.
Mac OS X Lion
During today's press event, Apple gave a sneak peek of Mac OS X Lion, the eighth major release of its desktop operating system.
Apple claims Lion is inspired by many of iPad’s software innovations, and plans to ship it next summer.
Today’s sneak peek highlighted just a few of Lion’s features.
These include:
- the Mac App Store: a new way to download, install and automatically update desktop apps - the Launchpad: a new home for all of your Mac apps; - system-wide support for full screen apps; and... - Mission Control, which unifies Exposé, Dashboard, Spaces, and full screen apps into a new view of everything running on your Mac
New MacBook Air computers
Apple's "one more thing" today were actually two more things - two new MacBook Air notebooks, the first of a next generation of notebooks which will replace mechanical hard disks and optical drives with Internet services and solid state flash storage, the company said.
According to their makers, these next generation notebooks are:
faster—solid state flash storage is up to twice as fast as hard drive storage more reliable—hard drive crashes are eliminated lighter and smaller—solid state flash storage is up to 90 percent smaller and lighter than hard drives
The computers are available in 11-inch and 13-inch models starting at $999 and going all the way up to $1,599.
Join us soon for an in depth look at Apple's latest updates.