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Apple Announces iLife '11, FaceTime Mac, Lion, Mac App Store, MacBook Air

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the get-an-ilife dept.

Apple once again streamed their latest keynote where they unveiled iLife '11 (more fullscreen and Facebook in iPhoto, Audio editing and automatic trailers in iMovie, Rhythm correction and lessons in Garage Band). FaceTime for the Mac will connect video chat to phones with a Beta starting today. Next we get a preview of OS X Lion which will have an App Store and new UI bits shipping this summer. The Mac App Store will launch on Snow Leopard in 90 days. The New MacBook Air is under 3lbs, 13.3" screen, Core 2 Duo, solid state only storage. There's also an 11.6" version starting at $999 with 64gb of storage shipping today.

11 of 827 comments (clear)

  1. Will the app store have the same lock down? by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Will the app store have the same lock down?

    With no apps that can use plug ins?

    No games with user maps or mods?

    No sex apps?

    No fat app?

    $99 year fee even for free apps?

    fixed price points?

    will you be able to buy app and use it on all systems you own? will app dev be able to have app that you need to buy per system?

    can apple pull a app at any time?

    Will there be a max app size?

  2. Re:App Store looks interesting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    One step closer to macos lockdown just like the iOS platform

  3. Ron Gilbert by hansamurai · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As Ron Gilbert just put it
    "For you Apple apologists claiming Apple will never lock down the Mac, step one is in place and you all let it happen."

    --
    Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
    1. Re:Ron Gilbert by mewsenews · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ubuntu also has an [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Software_Center]app store[/url], that doesn't mean anything is locked down

    2. Re:Ron Gilbert by arose · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because they aren't.

      In the comments of this article? Really? Because Apple stated so? Apple denies things that are announced the next month on a regular basis, why is their statement on the future of OS X to be believed?

      --
      Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
    3. Re:Ron Gilbert by bledri · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I never thought I'd see the day when there'd be a major desktop OS that's even more closed than Windows. But, here it is.

      Here it is? Where? Did they add DRM to OS X? Did they take away Xcode? Did they remove the ability to download tarballs, zip files, and disk images? Did they take away the Finder and the Terminal application? Did they remove Java? Did they remove bash, Perl and Python? Did they prevent Flash from running in the browser? Did they disable sudo? Did they make it so you can't install Fink, Mac Ports, and Homebrew? Did they disable Applescript? Did they remove the Automator? Did they take away anything? Did they remove one, single, solitary capability or piece of functionality?

      Maybe Spaces, it's unclear to me if Spaces is part of the mix in Mission Control or if it went away. I hope they didn't remove it as I like multiple desktops...

      I have the nagging suspicion that Apple is indeed going to turn anything but the MacPro into a larger version of an iPhone, or the equivalent of an XBox.

      Xbox is locked down, Windows is not. Could it be that iOS is locked down, but not OS X?

      Goodbye Mac, hello Linux.

      I have a sneaking suspiscion you don't have a Mac to get rid of...

      --
      Some privacy policy Slashdot.
  4. Re:I am not suppressing my laughter. by jjohnson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And for a huge number of consumers, they'll be quite happy with the locked down device with Apple as gatekeeper. They'll have everything they need or want, will pay a bit extra for that, and won't even notice the /. crowd wailing and gnashing its collective teeth over Jobs' "war on openness".

    When will /. readers acknowledge that they're not the entire fucking market for computing devices?

    --
    Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
  5. Re:it's different by Guy+Harris · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Linux repositories are a general purpose mechanism; you can point at any "app store" you like with them. Furthermore, they do extensive dependency management and checking.

    Apple's App Store gives you one source of applications

    To be precise, it gives you one source of applications for whatever mechanism the App Store uses; nothing requires that you get all your apps from there, but you might have to go through the hideously burdensome process of clicking a few links in your browser, maybe typing in your credit card number, and answering a few questions from the installer or dragging an app bundle to /Applications to buy and install an app from the vendor.

    and it doesn't seem to do much in the way of dependency management.

    How many dependencies between downloadable components do OS X apps have? Linux repositories (and BSD ports/packages collections) have lots of libraries in them, and apps (and other libraries) might depend on them, so dependency checking is useful there. OS X apps, for better or worse, tend to be self-contained - either they only use libraries and frameworks that come with the OS, or they bring along the other libraries and frameworks for the ride.

  6. Getting 70% is a developer fantasy ... by perpenso · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apple gets a 30% chunk, but IMHO, it is a good thing to have long term.

    Wow, and people talk about the "Microsoft tax".

    Getting 70% is a developer fantasy. By the time you find a publisher, and they sell to a distributor, who then sells it to a retail store ... a developer is lucky to get 15% to 20%. Digital distribution is a game changer. For a small developer implementing an online store with support and returns, paying for international payment processing, bandwidth, etc is non-trivial. If that adds up to less than 30% then the difference may easily be justified by the increased traffic and exposure of a high profile site like one provided by Apple. Unless you are a large corporation Apple's deal is not bad at all.

  7. Re:App Store looks interesting... by bonch · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Linux users yesterday: "We have centralized software repositories with quality control testing and easy installation, and it rocks."

    Linux users today: "Apple is locking down the Mac!"

  8. Re:App Store looks interesting... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There was never a Linux distro that blocked all software installation other than from its official repositories.

    In Apple's case, we've all seen iOS.